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    Tag: blogging and content creation

    5 essential tips for increasing email conversion rates

    Posted on by Alex Wilks

    Email marketing remains the reigning digital marketing champion when it comes to return on investment (ROI). Since professional businesses everywhere rely heavily on email to announce events, promotions, new product launches, and more, it’s a great resource for generating leads, traffic, and sales. That said, if you currently don’t send emails or your email conversion rate is low, this could be because your list needs more prospects and the delivery needs work. Keep reading for five tips on how to improve your email conversion rate. 

    Be personable

    Most consumers don’t have the time or the desire to read long emails. Even if they happen to open yours, if the design is bland and the information is impersonal, chances are they will delete it. This certainly doesn’t help your email conversion rates. An easy remedy for this is to make your emails sound more personable and not like a robot created them. Encourage replies, start a discussion, and allow them to reach back to you. Also, keep in mind that an email is not a brochure. It was designed for interpersonal communication, which is why you should do just that!

    Tell a story

    Those email conversion rates will see an uptick when you make further efforts to engage with your readers. This means that when they open the email, you could tell them a story. Storytelling is a powerful marketing technique because well-written narratives resonate with readers. If the first couple of sentences can grab your audience, they may likely stay to read the entire thing. Then, this offers an opportunity for you to add a call-to-action right at the end to strategically entice them to take advantage of what you’re offering. 

    Make it mobile-friendly

    With a vast amount of consumers using their smartphones as their primary devices, your emails must be compatible with these screens to ensure a high email conversion rate. Since no one likes to get an email that is hard to read, investing in mobile optimization will allow your potential customers to scroll through easily and read the details of your email without the need to zoom in.  

    Add links to all images

    While elements like buttons always possess links back to business websites, sometimes entrepreneurs forgot the power of images in their email conversion rates. Whether the consumer meant to click the image or not is irrelevant, the part to focus on here is that you want to make it easy for them to take action. 

    Get creative with your subject lines

    If no one opens your emails, how are you supposed to increase your email conversion rate? In our professional opinion, your subject line is the gateway to higher conversions through emails. So, be sure to take added time in crafting an interesting subject line to entice subscribers browsing through to take a shot at what you’re offering.

    Whether you’ve tried email marketing in the past with little to no results or you’re new to it entirely, it’s a digital strategy that’s worth investing in. Try out some of our tips from above and if you need added assistance, Trek Marketing is happy to help get you started with our monthly email marketing service!

    What elements are on your email checklist? Drop a comment below to share.

    How to write social media content that engages with your target audience

    Posted on by Alex Wilks

    There is a misconception that creating content is easy, and while that may be true for crafting a single post, generating continuous posts is a challenge for any brand. If your business is on the hunt for tips to create compelling social media engagement posts, you’ve come to the right place. As part of our many digital marketing services, we analyze the ongoing trends with various social media platforms to look for new ways to interact with customers and prioritize strategic methods of connecting with partnering brands. Are you ready to learn how to better engage with your target audience? 

    Use fewer words and more visuals

    As people who endlessly scroll through social media ourselves, we know how exhausting it can be to be hit with a wall of text. Not only do consumers lose interest but this may even extend further and discourage them from finding your content in the future. Our best suggestion to avoid this roadblock is by delivering a healthy dose of visual content s well. Videos are a fantastic and quick way to deliver your on-brand messages through social media engagement posts, plus they offer a way to get creative and speak with your audience.

    Stock photos are good but not great

    If video isn’t something you can commit to, start with some personalized photos and watch comments and likes rise. While stock images can be effective for social posting, the don’t perform quite as well as authentic images, and as a result, they’re bad for search engine optimization (SEO).

    Do you need help creating custom, unique social media images? Here are some tips we’ve crafted for readers like you: 

    Repurpose your site’s evergreen content

    Evergreen content is search-optimized content that is continually relevant. Since this content is already sustainable, it’s a great resource for repurposing. Take your best pieces and transform them into infographics, charts, graphs, and social media images. Not only is it great for showcasing but you have a high chance of it being shared on assorted social channels.

    Host some competitions 

    Whether you want to host seasonal sales or promotions based on increased following, social media competitions are a surefire way to grow your audience and gain tons of engagement. 

    Those who aren’t interested in re-inventing the wheel can try one of the following to get things moving:

    • Like, comment, and share campaigns: This allows you to gain as much attention as possible in the given time frame.
    • Tag a friend: This allows you to extend your reach to new audiences.
    • User-generated content: User create posts according to the parameters that you set and tag your business—allowing you to get awesome content that can be used promotionally later on.

    With creativity and effort, you can create engaging content that will drive traffic to your website and increase brand awareness.

    Which tip are you most keen on trying to increase the following for your social media engagement posts? Drop a comment below to let us know.

    4 free tools that you can utilize as part of your content strategy

    Posted on by Alex Wilks

    A digital content strategy is a huge part of an effective game plan for e-commerce businesses. Whether you’re a new company on a limited budget or an established brand that’s looking for a fresh avenue to allocate your funds, there are plenty of awesome tools out there that help you to amplify your content marketing efforts—many of which are free to use!  

    #1: Canva

    While Adobe Photoshop is a great platform for professional photo editing, Canva is an amazing free tool that allows business owners to easily touch-up graphics, while also enabling them to create custom images through modifiable templates, graphics, and fun, animated elements. This is a game-changer regardless of the industry you’re in, as it allows your team to get creative, but also gives them the safety net of having graphical elements pre-made and ready-to-use. Although there’s no need to pay for the software, there’s an option to upgrade to Canva Pro for additional access to a bunch of editing features and templates!

    #2: Trello

    For this one, we’re taking it right out of our personal digital content strategy. Here at Trek Marketing, we swear by Trello. This virtual project board allows you to keep track of your content projects by creating lists—writing, editing, launch days, etc. Not only can you better manage your deadlines and tasks but other team members who have access to your Trello board can as well, streamlining your digital content strategy with a better workflow. 

    #3: HubSpot

    Captivating headlines and titles are essential to content marketing success. However, many entrepreneurs are expert copywriters, which can make it challenging to come up with catchy titles. That said, HubSpot’s Blog Topic Generator is a great resource for e-commerce captions. All you need to do is write three important nouns that are relevant to your topic and niche industry and HubSpot will generate something on the spot. It’s that easy!

    #4: Thinglink

    We’re living in a time where you need to catch your audience’s attention by sticking out from your competition, which means that you need to generate buzz to become popular and powerful. Since most consumers today are drawn in by interactivity over words, Thinglink is a great digital content strategy tool for creating interactive images, videos, and 360 content. It’s so important to have a strong collection of visual content, especially when further explanation is needed to explain complex ideas or topics about a product or service. 

    Are there any other free platforms that we missed on our list? Drop a comment below to share with our readers. 

    Important digital marketing tips for promoting Boxing Day sales

    Posted on by Alex Wilks

    Since Boxing Day is just a few nights of sleep away, we recommend bookmarking this blog and reviewing it next summer so that you can sort through its contents, pull some ideas, and prepare your holiday digital marketing strategy a few months in advance. After all, the holiday season really starts at the beginning of November, which means that you need to find ways to attract shoppers early for Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, Boxing Day, and beyond. 

    Competition is high during the holiday season, making it challenging to promote your brand to stand out from the rest. However, with a well-developed digital marketing strategy, you’ll be well on your way to boosting traffic, conversions, and revenue using the following various channels and techniques. 

    Launch some shopping ads

    If your e-commerce business sells physical products it’s important to launch a shopping campaign as part of your digital strategy. Shopping ad campaigns help give customers a presentation of your products along with prices and offered discounts. These types of ads are also visible on search engine result pages, making it easier to attract targeted traffic to your website. That said, we recommend that you start your ad campaigns at least a few weeks before the holiday you’re targeting (for example, December 1 would be a good deadline to set if you want to launch a Boxing Day ad campaign). 

    Create engaging copy

    While there are a variety of ways to bring traffic to your website during the holiday season, festive copywriting is a great way to stand out when competition is high. Whether you choose to put new content right on your homepage, under the description of your products and/or services, or through your social accounts, it’s important to write copy that ties in with the holiday season, and if you can, include sales and discount information as well. 

    If you want to go the extra mile you can also take the time to design a landing page to match. Not only will this boost Boxing Day sales, but it will offer page users a place to click that leads them directly to the holiday hype. Plus, there are many ways to make the landing page appealing by opting to have promotional rewards and offers, a beautifully designed banner, and even a countdown clock to show urgency and prompt visitors to take advantage of a time-sensitive discount. 

    Set up remarketing campaigns

    It can be challenging to boost your sales during the holiday season when many other businesses are doing are attempting to do the same. That’s why you need to recapture the people who have shown interest in your products or services before. Remarketing campaigns allow you to easily advertise interested consumers while also retargeting existing customers who are likely to convert. Emails are also an effective channel to do this. Simply make a list segmentation filled with customers who have recently purchased and let them know about your Boxing Day offers! 

    *Before you run or schedule a campaign to promote holiday offers, be aware of the right time to achieve the best results from your target audience. If you need help using Google Analytics or social media insights and/or other tracking tools to promote your digital marketing strategy, Trek Marketing is here to help with your holiday planning!

    Are there any other ways that you prepare for the approaching holidays? Please drop them below to share with our readers. 

    Everything you need to know about keywords and digital marketing

    Posted on by Alex Wilks

    Online visibility is one of the most important ways to achieve high sales and conversions and the measurability requires a strong online presence so that consumers can find, learn, and purchase from your e-commerce business. While there are many ways to get noticed on the wide web, SEO keywords research should be a huge part of your digital marketing strategy. 

    How do keywords relate to digital marketing?

    When consumers enter a query into a search engine like Google or Bing, they type in words or phrases to guide their search. These are referred to as “keywords” and in terms of organic content, whichever websites can best encompass what the user is looking for will pop up as an option for them to click. 

    *Keep in mind that sponsored ads purchase their placement and will always appear at the top, regardless of how well they match your query.

    While this may sound simple enough, search engines use complicated algorithms to assist users with their search results, and there are a wide variety of factors (ex. website credibility, publishing activity, and keywords used) that determine where a website is placed. 

    How do you know which keywords to use:

    • Top keywords are terms that users will search for
    • Relevant keywords should have a connection to your brand
    • It’s important to sprinkle keywords seamlessly by integrating them into all types of content

    We recommend working alongside a Search Engine Optimization expert to assist in your SEO keywords research that you know which terms to focus on and so that you can begin using them strategically throughout your digital marketing content. 

    Are there different types of keywords?

    Yes! There are three types of keywords.

    • Short-tail keywords usually consist of one or two words. These terms are broad and have a high search volume.
    • Middle-tail keywords consist of three to four words and are more specific but might have a lower search volume. 
    • Long-tail keywords consist of four or more words and due to their specificity, the search volume is so low it might only target niche consumers. 

    While it may seem more strategic to opt for keywords that have the highest volume of searches, the best digital marketing strategies use a mixture of types of keywords to ensure they have the highest chance of converting visitors.

    Tips to researching the best keywords for your content strategy

    While there are many SEO keywords research tools available, here are some tips to get you started:

    • Brainstorm ideas: What words do you think that your target audience are searching for to find a company like yours? Write down what comes to mind. 
    • Organize your list: Separate your keywords into categories to keep everything organized.
    • Research trending terms: Enter one of your brainstormed ideas into a search engine and then scroll down to look for related searches. These terms might be relevant queries for your target customer and possibly some phrases that are advertised by your competition. 

    How to add keywords to your digital marketing content

    A successful digital marketing strategy requires finding keywords and effectively using them. Since keywords are one of the main resources bringing consumers to your website, it’s important that your content be well-written and easy to read. 

    Aside from content pages and product descriptions, blog posts are another great way to strategically place keywords throughout your website. Just be sure that you add new blog submissions regularly and use the words naturally throughout the posts to achieve a higher organic search ranking.

    That said, here are some other ways to slip keywords into your content: 

    • The titled
    • Subheadings
    • Photo captions
    • Image file names
    • The URL of the post
    • Meta-description
    • Within the first sentence
    • Within the final paragraph

    Do you have any further questions about SEO keywords research and how to implement the terms? Drop a comment below to share with our readers. 

    4 digital marketing ideas for Halloween

    Posted on by Alex Wilks

    The spooky season is upon us! Whether you handle your business’ digital marketing or you work for an agency, there are so many creative and frightening ways to orchestrate Halloween marketing campaigns in 2021. So, if you were looking for the perfect way to break out of your traditional digital marketing mold, take a leap this year and start brewing up some creative Halloween-inspired marketing ideas.

    Curated videos that celebrate the chilling season

    We’re living in a digital age where many people are learning to engage with brands and businesses through video content. Since this type of digital marketing gets the most organic engagement, it’s important that your business learns to utilize video regularly—the same goes for Halloween marketing campaigns. Consider taking a stab at creating a product, service, or even staff-related video but be sure to include a spooky twist. Even if this strategy doesn’t offer scary-good conversion right away, it shows that you’re an edgy, up-and-coming company that’s committed to catering to societal trends. 

    Display ads that target a more devilish theme

    When creating a pay-per-click ad, it’s important to create personalized displays that meeting the browsing habits of your target audience. That said, building an ad that does all of the above is easy, but breaking the mold of a typical advertisement to get the attention of viewers can be challenging. It’s ingenious to give your PPC campaigns a little revamp by adding a creepy message, using a frightful font, or even changing the colours to orange and black to reflect the theme of traditional Halloween marketing campaigns. Your next data-driven campaign could use a little hocus pocus. 

    Social posts that are eerie-sistably boo-tiful 

    While sending a shoutout to Halloween day-of is the easiest way to get into the spirit of the season, giving your campaigns some added spooky energy leading up to the special day is far more exciting and memorable. That said, as soon as October rolls around, you’re in the clear to formulate some devilishly dark social media posts. Whether you do a quick disguise of your product with some enchanting props, snap a photo of it out in a pumpkin field, or simply advertise your service with a ghostly touch, there are so many opportunities to jump onto the bandwagon with a social media Halloween marketing campaign. 

    Blog posts that brew spooktacular ideas

    Since content can take a bit of time to create traction and spur engagement, it’s best to get on this opportunity as soon as possible, especially if you’re hoping to boost your SEO with a Halloween marketing campaign. The spooky season is a time of year for trendy searches since lots of people are on the hunt for the perfect costumes, decor, and party ideas. So, if you can find a way to create some spooky blog posts while using keywords that are trending, you can find a way to stay relevant during Halloween Google searches. 

    What is your favourite option from our suggestions above? Drop a comment below to share. 

    How to create a click-worthy email

    Posted on by Alex Wilks

    While generating sales is an important component of any digital marketing campaign, it’s equally important to connect with your audience and create an engaging atmosphere that formulates a step beyond a simple business relationship. Email marketing is a great way for companies to generate a loyal following, which is why today’s submission will focus on the best ways to create a click-worthy email. 

    Step #1: Define your purpose

    Every email that’s sent from your company should have a specific purpose in mind before it’s created. While that purpose may vary from company to company, its effectiveness will depend on the newsletter’s ability to educate, entertain, convince, or persuade the receiver to take action, whatever that action may be.

    Not only does your purpose help you to create cohesive newsletter content, but it also helps to define which metrics will determine success for your email campaign. This is why the best email marketing service involves a team member taking the time to analyze the data and deciding what other purposes will keep the business moving forward. 

    Step #2: Determine your content

    We’re living in an era where people don’t take too much time out of their days to sift through lengthy content, which is why emails need to be quick at covering their topics before the reader loses interest. In looking for topics, a good place to start is your blog. Hunt for articles that have received lots of traffic and then design an email featuring content around that. Next, look to the comments sections of your website and/or social media channels to see what questions and themes arise. These areas will be filled with topics of interest that will make a great subject for your upcoming email. 

    Step #3: Select a tone

    Now that you know what to write about, it’s time to decide how to write it. It isn’t interesting to read a monotone article, so be sure to determine your voice before you put your fingers to work. For example, if your brand’s tone is energized and lively, the newsletter should not be written in a factual tone with large words or statistics. The best thing you can do is put yourself into the shoes of your audience and try writing in a way that makes a connection. 

    Step #4: Have a custom newsletter template created

    While there are many pre-made email templates out there, none will offer the same level of professionalism as something that’s customized to your branding. Our partner company Numinix designs emails from scratch and once you have the template on your email marketing account of choice, you can reuse it for all your future campaigns, or if it’s within the budget, opt to spend it on the best email marketing service there is! 

    Also, keep in mind that what looks great on your desktop computer may not look the best on a smaller smartphone screen or across multiple browsers, so be sure to check screen size and resolution before clicking send or schedule. 

    Step #5: Choose your subject line

    The first line of communication from your company to your customer is the subject line that pops up in their inbox, and since most people receive multiple emails per day, it’s important that yours stand out above the rest. The best way to compete for someone’s time and get your email opened is to make a solid impression with an eye-catching subject line that entices users to click through. Ensure that it’s catchy, clear, and advertises exactly what the receiver can expect rather than using a click-bait technique that will jeopardize your trust with your potential customer. 

    Step #6: Utilize segmentation

    All of the best email marketing services strategize their emails but segmenting audiences to ensure that the right content reaches the right people. That being said, even the smallest list can reap the rewards of segmentation, increasing your response rate and in turn, increasing your sales and conversion rates. Segmentation not only allows you to create audiences based on their unique tastes but also enables you to slightly alter the email’s appearance by changing small elements such as the content or subject lines. 

    Our email marketing service caters to the niche of each client by strategically developing a monthly plan geared to update our clients’ successes and climb the ladder in their industry. 

    Do you have any other questions about creating a click-worthy email? Drop them in the comments section below for a prompt response. 

    3 SEO insights that Google Analytics offers

    Posted on by Alex Wilks

    Are you new to the game and looking to learn a few simple, yet useful insights you can take from Google Analytics to help identify opportunities within your organic search engine optimization (SEO) strategy? There’s a wealth of information right at your fingertips to help identify performance and optimization issues.  Check out these three high-level actionable insights that may help you to improve your organic strategy.

    Utilize/create custom segments

    Using segments helps you to learn more about the users who are visiting your website and how they’re engaging with it. These features allow you to see traffic by channel, visitors who have completed goals, and vast demographic data, including further customized segments created from many facets of user data, such as time spent on site, visits to specific web pages, location of visitors, etc. 

    Another insightful segment to explore when utilizing Google Analytics for SEO purposes is to create an audience tab. To do this, navigate to Audience > Interests > Overview to find a display that examines the following three interest reports: Affinity categories, in-market segments, and other categories. This will allow you to look at a graph showing what percentage of users are shoppers and of these shoppers, what percentage have an interest in certain products or services. To dive even deeper, you can navigate from there to the Demographics tab under the Audience tab to view the age and gender of your website’s users. 

    Monitor mobile traffic

    Anyone in e-commerce knows the importance of mobile traffic is huge, however, rather than simply monitor mobile traffic to your site, Google Analytics allows users to monitor the engagement of these mobile visitors. 

    Here are some features that you can assess: 

    • Add a mobile segment and you can view the number of mobile conversions at the individual page level. 
    • Monitor your mobile bounce rate so that you can hone in on potential issues on a certain page. This is an incredible benefit SEO opportunity offered through Google Analytics. 
    • Compare both mobile and desktop bounce rate metrics to differentiate between the two types of experiences. 
    • Compare new and returning mobile users to see if there’s any value in the content that translates to a one-time customer or recurring client. 

    Focus on site search

    If there is a search bar on your website there’s an enormous SEO opportunity that Google Analytics can offer you! Aside from learning about what visitors are looking for once they reach your website, you can also gain insight into how many people are searching for the same items. Also, if a large percentage of your search traffic is relying on the search bar, this is a strong indication that your main navigation features on the website are lacking and not providing visitors with a clear idea of the location of what they’re searching for. 

    Another opportunity, especially on the SEO side of things, is to take the terms that are frequently searched for and generate a page with a good amount of information to make sense of that term. If the term is a product or service, use this as an opportunity to create insightful content that will benefit your shoppers and also consider highlighting the product or service prominently on your website to generate more clicks and create easier accessibility.

    What did you find most interesting about SEO and how it works alongside Google Analytics to reveal incredible insights about your business? Drop a comment below to start a conversation.

    3 ways to write engaging website copy

    Posted on by Alex Wilks

    You could possess the best product(s) and service(s) on the market but if your copy doesn’t lure your visitors into wanting more, it lacks the engagement needed to make sales. Since the following three tips aren’t specific to any one type of website, it’s time to immerse yourself and learn some content writing techniques that can be used regardless of your industry. 

    Write benefit-driven rather than feature-driven copy

    While it’s good to possess some copy on your website explaining your company’s accomplishments and distinctions, some businesses have far too much content boasting their brand, which distracts visitors from purchasing. Although it might sound harsh, people don’t care about your company, they only care about how it can solve their problems, and while there are fiercely loyal consumers out there, it takes time for your company to build up this type of following. 

    To distinguish what we mean, benefits are the outcomes or results that users can expect from your product’s experience, whereas, the features are some sort of functionality that your product has. It’s important to know the difference and ensure that your website content writer does too!

    Write using the customer’s voice

    The tone and style of your web copy defines the voice of your brand across all of its channels which is why it’s crucial to establish and maintain this editorial consistency. Not only does powerfully persuasive writing reach prospective shoppers, but it also resonates with their wants and needs creating a hierarchical structure of relative importance and satisfaction. Simply put, if the voice on your website is in line with the experience or expectations of your customers, they will want to purchase your products or services. 

    Be sure to A/B test copy on high-value pages

    While nobody knows your business better than you, that doesn’t mean that you should gamble with big decisions based on how you think that visitors to your site will behave. This is why website content writers often work alongside a search engine optimization team to test elements of campaigns, such as landing pages. Not all copy is created equal and the pages with killer conversion rates are the first that need to be addressed.

    Here are some web copy elements that you might want to test:

    • Questions versus statements in headlines
    • Headline length
    • Short-form versus long-form copy
    • Language and/or word choice
    • Points of view

    If conducting an A/B on your web copy seems like a daunting task, consider hiring a website content writer to handle the development of your new website content.

    Are there any other methods that you use to formulate engaging content? Drop a comment below to add a tip!

    These marketing tactics will help you to build your law business

    Posted on by Alex Wilks

    In a world where we are constantly finding new ways of doing things, like providing legal assistance, you must adapt your strategy to find new clients and meet the needs of those returning for your services. Digital marketing has continued to be useful for businesses in the modern age, which is why we’ve listed four marketing tactics that your law firm needs below.  

    Put effort into branding 

    While there are many ways to improve your digital marketing efforts, all avenues lead back to building a brand that clients know and trust. Without strong branding, people will be reluctant to consider your company in their search for legal guidance. That being said, when we refer to branding, we aren’t just referencing your company logo. Branding is a collective impact or lasting impression that’s seen, heard, or experienced by the consumer who has come into contact with your business and its products or services. In managing your branding, you have the power to create the effect passed onto your current and future customers. 

    Since most people don’t have experience searching for lawyers, and there are likely many firms in your area, it’s important to use digital branding as your way to set yourself apart from the competition.

    Optimize your practice’s pages

    Since law firms can specialize in a different area of law, all of your companies’ services must be covered on the website with seamless accessibility for all users. 

    Whether you need help creating content or are hoping to find out more about local SEO services and how they optimize your website for faster viewing, we recommend that you start by making a budget, setting some business goals, and researching how SEO-friendly copy will help you to bring in the traffic you need. 

    *Keep in mind that if your law firm services more areas than your immediate location, you will need to use location keywords to offer you the best chance of ranking high for more terms. 

    Keep up with the content

    No matter what type of legal advice prospecting clients are searching for, aside from relying on the word-of-mouth of their peers, most people will first research before they settle on a firm. Since creeping your Google search ranking and expanding your company reviews are both ways to help people land on your brand, you need to be prepared to show them what you’re made of. 

    Producing professional, informative content is a great way to advertise to potential clients that you’re knowledgeable about your field and willing to answer any questions they may have before committing to work with you. To ensure that you answer all of the right questions, consider local SEO services to be sure your content offers the best resources.

    Harness the power of email marketing

    When you’re looking to expand your law business, it’s important to keep in touch with your current clients and potential customers as much as you can. By getting started with email marketing, you can be sure that you’re staying in their minds and continue to offer support through the distribution of free e-content.

    Once you become comfortable with your email strategy, whether you’re doing it on your own or seeking assistance from a professional digital marketing company, you can segment your email list into groups to cater to customers at different stages (ex. Returning clients, new customers, or those needing more information on your services). This will ensure that your emails are more likely to reach the right people with relevant, important updates about your law firm. 

    Which of the above marketing tactics is the most promising option for your law firm? Drop a comment below to share with our readers.