Rest assured that we’re referencing third-party cookies being tossed aside and not the popular baked treat. After Google officially announced in 2020 that it was banning website cookies from its web browser Chrome—a platform that the digital advertising industry has used to monetize content—the future of data and analytics has become less clear. To help you ease the transition, listed below are some ways your business can strategically work to conquer a cookieless future.
What are cookies?
Known as website cookies, these snippets of code are unique IDs that is assigned to website visitors. Remembering each user, the first-party website cookies collect information to deliver a more personalized experience, whereas the third-party website cookies allow brands to re-engage targeted audiences across domains for digital advertising.
Why is Google killing website cookies?
Following suit with competitors Firefox, Safari, and Apple, Google’s browser has been pressured to step back from the use of website cookies with ongoing concerns surrounding data privacy and regulations.
How do businesses and digital advertising companies manage a cookieless future?
While website cookies helped to underpin audience-based digital ad campaigns to allow businesses to retarget and reach lookalike audiences in the hopes of completing a sale, there are other ways in which brands can contextualize and build their audience segments.
Listed below are some cookie-free techniques:
Use site lists for alternative targeting: Discover which referral sources account for the top sectors of your incoming traffic and build a whitelist to reach your target audience. Conversely, building a blacklist so your ads don’t appear on the wrong domains.
Leverage the intelligence of your competitors: Cross-browsing behaviours can help to identify the top competitor audiences to convert to your own.
Monitor pay flows: Pinpoint channels that drive subscriptions to your competitors by monitoring pay flows. This will help you to allocate the budget between paid channels and search engine optimization (SEO).
Power your pitch: Boost customer acquisition by optimizing your ad sales. You can harness granular traffic information and pitch to clients through ad sellers.
Do you have any other tips for business owners and digital marketers when Google gets rid of website cookies? Drop a comment below to share.
Although many tools facilitate how to plan, track, and optimize digital marketing campaigns, measurable actions are best handled by those who know how to understand the data. Not only does this further the insight on how, when, and where to allocate a business’s spend but it allows businesses to be vigilant on what’s most important. Listed below is our summary of performance marketing and why you should care.
What is performance marketing?
Performance marketing is an umbrella term that’s used to describe any online marketing activity that can be tracked and attributed to a specific action and/or result.
There are three main types of performance marketing payment models:
Percent of sale: The advertiser pays a commission on each sale generated
Leads: The advertiser pays a commission on each sale generated
New customers: The advertiser pays a fixed amount for each new customer acquired
There are also situations where performance marketing models become hybrid and encompass many payment types.
Performance-based marketing tactics such as paid—where advertisers only pay when a user clicks on an ad—are not performance marketing. While pay-per-click advertising, also known as PPC, campaigns focus on action—the ad click—they don’t always lead to performance-based outcomes such as sales or sign-ups.
Why do businesses care about performance marketing?
Since performance marketing opens up opportunities beyond traditional marketing, it’s important to focus on web destinations and creators across various digital landscapes. With platforms that help to bridge these relationships by offering means of measuring goals and compensation, businesses can achieve desired results through the assistance of performance marketing.
Who uses or works with performance marketing tools?
Since performance marketing is data-driven, it’s best handled by digital marketing professionals. However, many people can utilize its strategy.
Marketers plan and execute performance-based campaigns
Publishers track performance and get paid for results
Influencers find opportunities, set goals, and measure performance
Advertisers find publishers and influencers to work with
How reliable is performance marketing?
While performance marketing is a critical strategy that offers advertisers the insight they need to run campaigns successfully, digital fraud is something that shoppers,
business owners, and advertisers need to be aware of this.
Why does ad fraud happen?
Bots simulate real user traffic on the website to generate ad impressions
Invalid traffic is generated by humans who click on ads to deplete a competitor’s budget
Fake websites are created to inflate impressions
Domain spoofing imitates a premium website to sell fake inventory
Since performance marketing campaigns look at actions rather than metrics, the best way to ensure validity in the actions you pay for is to hire a professional agency to manage your digital marketing services. This ensures that the leads you pay for are real people who have been contacted and are interested in what you’re selling.
What did you find most interesting about the above blog? Please leave a comment below to start a conversation.
Regardless of whether you run a small, medium, or large-scale business, you will face competition in an ever-growing market. While your company may be unique in your eyes, there are others that cater to similar wants and needs, which means you’re forced to find ways to stand out. There are many digital marketing services that act as pillars to granting success for online businesses by building brand awareness, leads, sales, and boosts in revenue. Here are three digital marketing tools that you should leverage to boost website conversion within your sector.
Email marketing
While some people might argue that email communication is outdated, rest assured that it’s very alive and well in the world of e-commerce. As the oldest form of electric communication, it remains the most effective way to reach customers, both past and prospective. However, the trick to successful email marketing is to build a list of contacts who are interested in engaging with your brand.
Since many entrepreneurs need time to focus on other needs within their businesses, agencies like Trek Marketing offer an email marketing service that is created and managed by a team member. This service includes:
Email strategy and audit
Email campaign management
Email marketing automation
Email template production
Subscriber management and maintenance
Creative design and copywriting
Deliverability optimization
Analysis and reporting of campaign performance
If you think email marketing is right for you, click here to email a team member and get started.
Social media marketing
With so many channels available to effectively market to your customers, investing in social media marketing is a no-brainer for business owners these days. Also known as SMS, social media marketing utilizes a variety of platforms to interact with customers, including popular options like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. While communication is key to building your brand, SMS also helps to increase sales and drive website conversions and traffic.
While posting on social media is easy to do, it’s the strategic posts that successfully reach your growing audience. If you need help expanding your social reach between platforms or figuring out the preferences of your customers, allow Trek Marketing to extend its social media marketing service to you and your business. This package includes:
Proactive customer engagement
Targeted follower/like growth
Improved search engine rankings
Custom curated content
Regular posts and management
If you think social media marketing is right for you, click here to email a team member and get started.
Content creation
Not only does content allow you to tell web visitors about what your business does but it also allows you to gain a place among other popular search engine rankings. Content marketing can include posting an industry-related topic on your blog or simply updating product and service information to provide quality copy that helps web traffic roll in.
Since writing is a skill that requires a lot of time and effort, it’s often the first task that is outsourced to a digital marketing agency. Get the right content in front of your audience by relying on Trek Marketing to do it for you! This service includes:
Taking professional product or service photos
Researching and writing blogs
Creating landing pages
Updating product and service descriptions
Researching search engine keywords and incorporating them successfully into popular landing pages
If you think content marketing is right for you, click here to email a team member and get started.
Which of the above three services would you prefer to outsource? Drop a comment below to share with other readers.
How often businesses post or share on Instagram is entirely dependent on what their company goals are. While a good rule of thumb is to schedule a post to publish at least once a day on average—with some added time needed to respond or like the comments—there are many other elements that should be considered when you’re in charge of managing this trendy social channel. For example: Is your business hoping to increase its following? Is having a high engagement rate the most important to your brand? How about meaningful content over sales-based content? The blog below offers businesses an opportunity to better understand Instagram’s influential platform by sharing in-depth insights that will better assist entrepreneurs that manage their social media.
What’s Instagram and why do businesses need it?
Arguably the most popular form of social media, Instagram is a photo and video-sharing social networking platform that’s designed to only be used as a smartphone app. Founded in 2010 and recently acquired by Facebook Inc., the app allows its users to upload media, add filters and edits, and then organize them via hashtags and geographical tagging.
If you don’t already have an Instagram account for your business, continue reading to learn about the benefits below:
Instagram has a huge audience: With so many eyeballs on the platform each day, it’s important for businesses to strategize their online presence.
Businesses of all sizes thrive on Instagram: While well-known brands have a thriving presence, small businesses can also reach their target audience by keeping an active presence and maintaining a practical posting schedule.
Businesses can make money directly from Instagram: Having evolved from on-platform e-commerce sales, Instagram allows users to shop and purchase directly from brands through Instagram.
Businesses can relate to the consumer via the Instagram stories feature: Photos and videos are a fantastic opportunity to show potential customers that your products and services deserve a lasting impression. Be sure to include behind-the-scenes insights like employees’ packaging orders.
Businesses can effectively engage with customers: The Instagram platform allows users to like, comment on, and share their favourite posts—it’s safe to say that the more interactions that are happening on your post, the more visible your company becomes. Be sure to engage with your growing audience by answering their comment and story questions.
If there’s anything that ties the above benefits together, it’s that more people are paying attention to Instagram than ever before, and you’re ignoring millions of potential customers by being a business that does not effectively manage social media on Instagram. We employ you to take the tips you learned here and use them to build your online presence or hire an agency that can help your business grow via Instagram—start with just one post a day and see where things go!
Are you a huge fan of Instagram? If so, what’s your favourite feature?
Since the very popular phrase “content is king” was first coined in 1996 it has continued to connect online customers with their preferred businesses. While it may seem like visual aids have quickly overtaken the written word, if you wish to be successful in marketing your products and services to the masses, a content marketing strategy that works to develop ongoing copy throughout your website is what will help attract consumers, keep them involved, and coming back.
What is content marketing and how is it strategic?
Put simply, content marketing is a type of digital marketing strategy that focuses on creating and sharing consistent and relevant content. With a well-planned content marketing strategy—page creations, long-form text, and researched keywords—businesses can ensure that customers remain engaged while targeting a new audience of prospective shoppers. Not only does this approach drive profitability but it allows you to assert your knowledge in your industry among your competition.
What are the benefits of having a content marketing strategy?
Good quality content isn’t simply about slapping copy to the page to racking up your word count, it’s about consistency and making a lasting impression on your audience.
It allows you to establish a style, feel, and tone that speaks to your audience
Knowledge of your industry earns trust and respect for your business
The higher your rank via search engines, the easier it will be for shoppers to find you—targeting a wider, new audience
Customers are entertained and more fulfilled, building a relationship with your brand
It’s a cheap way to boost brand loyalty and create awareness
Since creating content from scratch takes time and requires a degree of experience to ensure that it’s search engine optimized, you should consider hiring an agency to perform the following content-related tasks:
Write step-by-step and how-to guides that can be used on your product and service pages
Update product descriptions and other important landing pages
Upload visual and promotional content that’s engaging and informative
Offer brand comparison to instill trust with the consumer
Write entertaining blogs that possess educational value
Is your website’s content king? Drop a comment below to ask about getting on board with Trek Marketing’s content creation service.
While many digital marketing services aim to increase business brand awareness, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is a unique technique that stares consumers in the eye. Since awareness is about getting your brand in front of the right people, PPC is kind of like the billboard of the digital world, and the best part is that unless the right shopper sees it and clicks, you don’t pay for that campaign. Plus, you can set a daily budget, so there are no hidden costs to run your next PPC advertising service. Continue reading to learn more about PPC and its connection to brand visibility.
What is brand awareness and why is it important?
Brand awareness is a phrase that’s used to describe how recognizable your business is in the noisy online world. It’s the extent to which customers can recall or reconize your brand under a variety of conditions. As a crucial step in the marketing funnel that will help your business acquire and maintain customers, brand awareness is a huge part of what drives consumer decision. Familiarization differentiates your brand, establishes trust with the customer, and creates a positive association which in turn, will increase your sales and conversions.
How does our PPC advertising service work to boost your brand’s visibility?
PPC works to increase brand awareness by introducing your business within ads that your target market sees. This is the space where you can present an introduction of your brand to your customer base and hopefully creating a lasting impression. Whether it’s click-through rates that are important or physical sales, you can analyze your PPC campaign over time and modify your goals as needed. The best part is you only pay for the people that click on your ad and a daily budget can be set.
Tips for growing brand visibility using our PPC advertising service
There are many creative opportunities that come with growing brand awareness, but the ultimate goal is to build a reputation with your target audience that eventually leads to driven sales. This means that strategic decisions need to be made to keep things moving forward.
Here are some examples:
Know who your target market is
Understand the habits of your target market
Diversify your ads
Research and use the right keywords and phrases
Add a flair of creativity
Include the right information
Boosting your brand’s visibility is right at your fingertips with our PPC advertising service!
Do you have any other questions about how PPC advertising works? Please drop a comment below for a prompt reply.
You can invest ample time and money into building your e-commerce site, but if customers are unable to find it in the maze that’s online shopping, it will just be another platform lost in a sea of neverending content. Search engine marketing helps businesses to optimize their content for better-searching power on websites like Google, Bing, and Yahoo so that customers find the sites that best meet their needs. While this can be done by using trending keywords, there are other ways to generate traffic and sales. Here are some tips that will help you to rank higher in online searches.
Find and use the right keywords
While it’s always best to use a keyword tool to appropriately calculate which keywords your potential clients are using, you can start the process by putting yourself in their shoes—What would you search for? By creating a list of phrases and words that you think shoppers would use to find your products and services on the web, you’re eliminating the guesswork involved. After building your list, you can then validate your suggestions to ensure they’re the best options. You can then use the keywords that you’ve narrowed down to create pages that rank higher when prospective customers search using said keywords.
Be unique over your competitors
Business and competition go hand-in-hand, so if you want to rise above your industry, you will need to use words that make your company stand out. For example, phrases like “near me” or that utilize geographic location harness a lot of power within local communities. It’s also great to use phrases such as “on a budget”, “savings”, and “best” alongside popular keywords to differentiate your low prices and quality products.
Don’t abuse keywords
Although utilizing keywords is a great way to attract online attention, you should consider making landing pages that best appeal to search engines rather than having keywords sprinkled everywhere throughout your content. This is because overuse of keywords risks distorting the meaning and can irritate select shoppers who read lots of content. While traffic is important, it’s equally as important to ensure that your text is clear and easy to read.
Build lots of links
The more websites that carry links to your website, the higher you will rank on searches. This is a great opportunity to develop partnerships with businesses that are similar but not in direct competition with yours. Keep in mind that quality is far better than quantity so it’s important that the links directing back to your website come from credible sources.
User-friendly websites are best for search engine marketing
Functional and easy-to-navigate websites are more desirable to the shoppers who manage to find your business via an online search. That said, there are loads of ways to improve your website’s readability through web development and search engine marketing—add headings that feature top keywords, ensure mobile-friendliness, and upgrade site speed
Measure results and make changes as needed
There are a variety of free and low-cost tools (ex. Google Analytics) that help to provide you will details about the SEO performance of your website as well as data about your visitors—how they found your site, their gender, geographic location, and even how long their session time was on each page. Then, your team is able to use these measured results to make changes to future search engine marketing strategies.
Can you think of other ways you’ve used SEO to rank higher in various search engines? Drop a comment below to share with our readers.
Every shopper knows how convenient it must be to buy items today and split the payment for biteable sizes for later. Having the opportunity to purchase expensive items that are out of reach before suddenly became an easy pick-up using payment solutions. This is the need that Sezzle and other companies are trying to solve, and it has been effective for both merchants and consumers ever since.
Like Sezzle, here are some of the best payment solutions that offer buy now pay later services to help you smoothly manage your finances.
Klarna
Talk about convenience and amazing discounts? Klarna is a payment solution partnered with retailers over the world. You’ll be enjoying their flexible payments anywhere online, whether you want to shop locally or internationally. Another awesome thing about Klarna is its transparent approach to your purchases. Conveniently access the full summary or overview of your payments online using their app. They also offer free rewards instantly for every purchase you make and save them up for future use. With 400K merchants and over 147 million active customers, Klarna is truly a force to be reckoned with in the buy now pay later industry and is perfect for both businesses and consumers.
Splitit
Splitit empowers consumers to use the hard-earned credit on their existing credit cards to spread payments over time with no applications, no additional fees and no hassle.
Since we’re talking about convenience and smooth transactions, we cannot simply forget to mention Splitit. Unlike any other Buy Now Pay Later Services, Splitit is always free from fees and credit checks and offers flexible payment options that go even as far as 24 installments. If you’re used to using their credit card, you’d undoubtedly love Splitit and how it works. You no longer have to have a separate account as what Splitit only does is to open the feature of Buy Now Pay Later and let you use it using your existing credit card. Meaning you can keep the rewards points coming as you make larger purchases using the installment options provided by Splitit!
Afterpay
Founded in 2014 in Australia, Afterpay has consistently made strides in the Buy Now Pay Later industry over the years. Their business model is totally free without interest, fees, or extended debt as long as you pay in time. For someone who’s confident about paying in time, Afterpay is a good payment solution as it would allow you to keep your financial wellness in check and stable by offering payments installments in 4. They aim to empower consumers worldwide and give them access to items out of reach while keeping things simple and effective. You can easily browse and shop from your favorite brands, online or in-store.
Affirm
Want to pay at your own pace? That’s precisely what Affirm tries to provide for its customers. Offering flexible options, users may decide whether they wish to pay in 4 interest-free payments every two weeks, which is excellent for everyday shopping, or choose monthly payments for expensive purchases. Affirm gives you the freedom to choose without hidden fees and smoothly fast payments. This is why so many people choose Affirm over another buy now pay later apps as they over a more comprehensive array of payments which ranges from 12 to 18 months.
Zip
Another leading Buy Now Pay Later service worldwide is the company called Zip. They aim to make payments a little more simplified by providing seamless solutions for their users. Whether you are shopping, booking flights, or just casually hopping at the grocery, you can conveniently use the features of Zip whenever and wherever you are. Working with thousands of retail partners is also an excellent payment solution to integrate for those running their own businesses. Shop your favorite brands with confidence using the Zip payment solution!
Perpay
The standard payment for buy now pay later service providers is 4. On the other hand, you could extend your installment payment solutions for over 12 months using Perpay, which is excellent for large purchases like gadgets and other expensive items. It is also a great way to build your credit, as the average user increases their credit score by 39 points using this payment solution. Perpay is among the fasters growing private companies and is undoubtedly a good option for buy now pay later similar to sezzle.
Laybuy
Looking for a breeze account set up, zero hidden fees, and pay over six weeks? Laybuy is indeed an excellent choice for you! Laybuy allows you to make stress-free installment purchases within seconds and shop among your favorite brands worldwide. Their company’s journey started with just two problems, first is consumers not being able to afford high-priced items, and the second is merchants trying to improve their services through integrated payment solutions. Fortunately, the bedrock of their company has led them to become one of the best buy now pay later solutions available for the market to use. If you’re looking for a smart way to pay that won’t cost you headaches, shop with Laybuy now!
Pay in 4
Splitting payments six-folds and paying once every week is the standard buy now pay later solution for a reason. It’s simple, straightforwards, and less risky than other alternatives. Pay in 4 is the buy now pay later solution provided by PayPal for its users. An excellent thing about PayPal is that you’ll make sure that you’re in the right hands as they’ve been leading in the online finance industry for years now. You’ll also have transparency when it comes to the purchases that you make, keeps you updated, and conveniently control your finance with ease.
Venue
Since we’re talking about payment solutions like Sezzle, Venue certainly should be on top of your list. It is a premium marketplace for shoppers that loves to browse costly items that are difficult to pay upfront. With over a million merchants available, you won’t run out of options with this buy now pay later service. They also offer flexible payments across the board, so you’ll have freedom in choosing what timeline and mode of purchase are suitable for you. Enjoy the most amazing deals from gadgets, furniture, clothing, and more at Venue today!
Shop Pay by Shopify
Speaking of convenience and smooth transactions, Shop Pay by Shopify is doing all the right things for its users’ satisfaction. Merchants love this because of its excellent accelerated checkout on online stores helping both users and businesses get what they want instantly and with ease. Shop Pay also recognizes your information and would automatically fill out the information whenever you pay, so all you have to do is click! If you’re looking to make purchases but don’t want to pay upfront, instead use the installment method, Shop Pay by Shopify is an excellent alternative for Sezzle.
Bottomline.
With the help of these reliable payment solutions mentioned above, you no longer have to worry about huge expensive items and other inconveniences that may ruin your shopping experience. Gradually pay in small biteable sizes by taking advantage of the services provided by these payment solutions.
We hope that you’ve got a lot from this blog that you can apply to your personal or business finances. If you’re looking to find more topics similar to this, kindly browse through our blog section here at Trek Marketing today!
Those who own an online business are no strangers to writing content, especially if they have yet to collaborate with a professional digital marketing team. Whether writing copy for pages on the website, updating product information, or delving deep into industry news using a creative blogging platform, content marketing is a crucial part of building brand awareness. That said, your brand’s impression heavily depends on increasing conversion rates to your website, and to do that, you must first understand how conversion rates work to improve visibility, traffic, and sales.
What is a conversion rate?
A conversion rate is a general term that refers to the recorded percentage of users who have completed a desired action or site goal. The rate is calculated by taking the total number of users who convert—actions and goals come in many shapes and sizes (examples, clicking on an ad or completing a purchase)—dividing it by the overall size of the audience, and converting that figure into a percentage.
What is conversion rate optimization?
Known as CRO in its short form, conversion rate optimization is the systematic process of increasing the percentage of website visitors who take your desired action or complete your site goal—be that subscribing to a newsletter. CRO also involves understanding how users utilize your website, what actions they take, and what work needs to be done before their complete your actions and goals.
Search engine optimization and how it works to improve conversion rates
You could write as much content as you want, but if your copy isn’t following the right search engine optimization (SEO) techniques, potential customers won’t find it on the web. You will simply possess a low-traffic website that has tons of copy. This is because the CRO is closely related to SEO. By writing SEO-friendly content through the use of industry-researched keywords, pages can increase their visibility on popular search engines where customers have the chance to find them and click. There is also an opportunity to improve and generate lead growth by writing bulkier content and answering questions to improve click-through rates, which also assists in improved conversion rates
What are some ways that you can improve your content to help with conversion rates?
While content should be written with a clear vision of what needs to be conveyed to the consumer, it can also be crafted to build an emotional connection with the reader.
Listed below are actions your business should take to improve your content:
Include a call-to-action: Weak or nonexistent call-to-actions (CTAs) give customers zero incentive to engage with your content. Be sure to utilize this part of your copy to offer something truly valuable so that your copy doesn’t become buried over time.
User-friendly development and design: Aside from having a website that functions well and transitions quickly, you should also ensure that it’s mobile-friendly and your information forms are short and sweet. Signups or checkouts that required too many fields or pages often lead to users abandoning before the desired action is complete.
Clear contact page: Customers shouldn’t have to scour your website to find a phone number or email address.
Use high-quality images: Stock images are great when you’re first starting out, but if you want to further establish your brand, we recommend adding photos of the staff, facilities, products, and services to better connect with your customers.
What methods have you used in the past to increase your website’s conversion rate? Please share them with our audience in the comments section below.
Many online businesses struggle to come up with innovative ways to increase traffic to a website. Since it can be challenging to know which methods work well to achieve positive results and which are tired strategies, listed below are some organic and paid options that yield great results when it comes to increasing traffic to a website.
Perform keyword research
Keyword research is a practice that search engine professionals use to find terms that are often entered by users into popular search engines when on the hunt for products, services, or general information. The words related to these queries can then be harnessed and used within web content to target consumers and crawl search engines organically. Aside from using keywords in copy, they can always be used in meta descriptions, the page title, the URL, and headers.
Those needing help with keyword strategy should consider hiring an SEO expert to offer valuable insights by performing audits and identifying issues where your website can improve.
Create content that’s memorable
While the posting of regular content is a great habit to get into, you need to make sure that your copy is memorable to cut through the expansive options available already on the internet. Not only does this type of noise help to increase traffic, but it also assists in establishing a better bond with your audience.
Keep active on your social feeds
The use of varied social media platforms is a great way to attract visitors. However, website traffic relies on elements such as:
The sharing of posted content via social media platforms
The interaction of business to followers through replies and/or reposting of content via tagging
The use of relevant hashtags
The promotion of new content via links
Advertise digitally
Whether you endorse a new product through paid search, social media, or display ads, pay-per-click advertising is an efficient way to increase traffic to your website. While some users may block ads, since you only pay when your ad is clicked on, you can easily stay within a budget and attract the right audience to click and buy.
Send out newsletters
Email marketing is one of the most effective means of increasing web traffic…especially if your company is hosting a sale or launching a new product. Here are a few practices that work well for those sending regular emails:
Be sure to include enticing information in the subject line and body of your emails
Insert links and buttons to allow shoppers to click easily
Mobile-friendliness is essential
Add touches of personalization
Take the time to ensure that your email is visually appealing and well-designed
Test each email before it’s sent
Which of the above methods do you plan to use to increase traffic to a website? Drop a comment below to let us know.
855.686.4649 ext.707
