The 4 Pillars of SEO

The 4 Pillars of SEO

Most brands and businesses today embark on search engine optimization (SEO). It is because statistics have proven that SEO is the magic of digital marketing. According to social media agency Hong Kong, the number one spot on Google garnered the highest CTR at 32%. Today, 76% of modern consumers will be looking for business using search engines.

SEO is no longer applicable to articles and website pages only. Even videos need to use SEO strategies as a video marketing agency Hong Kong noted. Video titles and meta descriptions play a significant role in gaining video views. As such, it is important for brands and businesses to have a basic knowledge about the 4 pillars of SEO.

A GLIMPSE OF SEO

A brand or business literally does not exist if people do not know about them, their products, and services. A digital marketing speaker Hong Kong defines SEO (Search Engine Optimization) as the process of improving your site to increase its visibility on Google, Bing, and other search engines. It makes people discover brands and businesses. 

The better visibility a brand or business has, the better it gets traffic into their websites, and the more chances they have to influence people in buying their products and services. Search engines work like an index to all pages on the Internet. They use crawlers to categorize each page and rank them according to the experience and values they give among searchers. This is where SEO evolves. Brands and businesses try to rank on their own niche and provide solutions to the pain points and problems of their target customers.

WHY DOES SEO MATTER?

SEO matters because it makes sure that your target audience discovers your business. They drive traffic to your social media pages and websites. As they drive traffic, brands and businesses get a better chance of a conversion. They can influence people to follow social media channels and subscribe to newsletters. They can boost sales through limited offers and one-time promo codes. 

Digital marketing today is not just a one-time process. Rather it aims to sustain brands and businesses. With SEO, you get to consistently connect with your customers and prospects. As better buying and customer experience matter in SEO, brands and businesses can build a loyal following that can help them last longer. Brands and businesses that are commonly ranking on Google have a better brand reputation and more followers.

THE 4 PILLARS OF SEO

The 4 pillars of SEO are content, off-site, on-site, and technical elements of a website. 

Content

Content is king for every website. It tells prospects what a brand or business does. It shows how, when, and where they do it. Much more, it relays the message of why does it influence prospects to patronize a brand or business.

SEO dictates that you need to create content that educates and gives value to the audience. To make your brand or business stand out, focus on creating these three types of content:

  • Credibility Content to give prospects a reason to engage in a brand or business.
  • Marketing Content to position a brand or business as an industry expert.
  • Service Content to appeal to the emotion of prospects and customers by showing what you do.

Off-site SEO

Off-site SEO includes external backlinks that can help build the domain authority of a brand or business website. Through content, you can create backlinks from other websites where you have obtained data from research. Below are 4 types of content that can boost off-site SEO:

  • Comprehensive Guides about a certain topic.
  • List Posts on myths, reasons, techniques, tips, or just about anything.
  • Original Research statistics, studies, and surveys. 
  • Visual assets such as diagrams, graphs, images, infographics, etc.

On-site SEO 

On-site SEO means establishing the keywords where a brand or business wants to rank. This is extremely important to build the industry or niche where a brand or business belongs. A website should be optimized according to individual pages and as a whole. To enhance on-site SEO, it is best to focus on the following areas:

  • Craft meta descriptions as if they were ad copies. 
  • Tap into the latest features of SERP to improve CTR.
  • Understand the language of your target audience through keyword research. 
  • Use descriptive and simple URLs.
  • Use keywords naturally within the page title and copy.
  • Use strong CTAs to make it easy for users on what to do next.

Technical SEO 

Technical SEO simply means making a website a joy to navigate among online searchers. It is essential for a brand or business website to crawl and rank on Google and other search engines. To do so:

  • Index pages for a better content hierarchy and search engine return.
  • Optimize your website for mobile use.
  • Speed up page loading.
  • Use CMS and other technology that are search-engine friendly.

Reference: https://blog.red-website-design.co.uk/2021/11/18/seo-4-pillars-2022/

Common SEO Mistakes That Weaken Google Ranking

Common SEO Mistakes That Weaken Google Ranking

Google is the largest global search engine. It accounts for 70% of desktop traffic. A digital marketing speaker Hong Kong highlights the importance of SEO among brands and businesses. With 360 billion searches on Google every year, SEO results to 67.60% of all the clicks. As such, SEO is more effective than PPC. 

There are millions of websites competing to rank on Google. If you are one of them, have you ever wondered why you don’t rank on the first page? Below are some common SEO mistakes that weaken Google’s ranking.

Domain Does Not Include Keywords

Including target keywords in the website domain of a brand or business gives an edge on Google’s ranking. They act as a match and relevancy signal for Google’s patent. The easiest way to optimize your website using target keywords is by adding them as meta tags on HTML pages. Don’t include irrelevant keywords, as Google may penalize you for doing so. It is also important not to do too much keyword repetition as it will result in keyword stuffing. 

Duplicated Content 

social media agency Hong Kong notes that duplicate content can significantly weaken Google ranking. It is a big red flag to the search engine. All your website content should be accurate and first-hand. Brands and businesses can achieve this by doing thorough research and supporting their content with reputable references. They also need to check the content using plagiarism tools before uploading the content.

High Bounce Rate 

Google’s primary goal is to provide the best results among searchers’ queries. If your website’s bounce rate is too high, it may weaken your Google ranking. It is because Google views your page as not valuable to most users. A video marketing agency Hong Kong sites an example that if an audience clicks a video and leaves it after 1 to 2 seconds, it affects the video ranking. So, the key is to catch the audience’s attention in the first 3 seconds of a digital copy.

Keyword Stuffing

Keywords are vital for Google to know that your content is relevant to a web search. Brands and businesses should include as many relevant keywords to boost ranking. But keyword stuffing weakens Google’s ranking. It means including too many irrelevant keywords to trick the site. The best practice to use keywords and boost ranking is to start with your headline tag and then on the first 100 words of the page.

Non-Optimized Page Image 

Visuals make a page stand out. They can also boost SEO if optimized for a better user experience. As much as possible, brands and businesses should keep images properly sized and simple. A heavy photo with a large file size tends to load slow. It may also result in audiences not grasping the message of the image as well.

Page Loads Too Slow

One factor that prompts users to abandon a site is if the page load too slow. It weakens Google’s ranking as it does not provide a better user experience. Brands and businesses should aim for an average load speed for pages of 3 seconds or less. It is even if the suggested average load speed should be 8.66 seconds. It is because modern consumers have a much shorter attention span. A great way to speed up loading speed is to avoid too many plugins.

Poor Quality Content

Content is king. That is true even on Google ranking. Quality content gives the best solution for the audiences’ pain points and problems. It provides accurate information and valuable insights that can keep online users coming back to your site. Modern consumers are very smart. Within a glance at the content, they will leave the page if it has poor quality. It makes the page invaluable to Google users.

Unsecured Website 

Google always reminds brands and businesses that it favors HTTPS over HTTP. HTTPS websites are HTTP with encryption. Such a site is safer and more secure against hackers. It is because they have an SSL firewall that protects data while in transit. HTTP is a request and response protocol. Although it is most commonly used in data transfer, it does not provide any security features online.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Ranking on Google starts with doing the right thing. Tag your website based on your niche keyword. Publish well-organized and researched content. Make sure that they are valuable to your target audience. It is also important to keep your content, images, and page simple. This is to have a faster loading speed. If you do all of these, you’ll pretty rank on the first page of the largest global search engine – Google!

Reference: https://blog.red-website-design.co.uk/2021/11/04/2022-seo-mistakes/

The Power of UGC

The Power of UGC in Digital Marketing

Throughout the years, user-generated content (UGC) has proven to be a powerful tool in the marketing arsenal. As social media goes mainstream, every people become a marketing advocate. From customers, employees, influencers, and partners, UGC has become more effective than ever. That is why it is vital to explore the power of UGC in digital marketing.

A social media agency Hong Kong highlights that UGC continuously engages modern consumers. They serve as the word of mouth in the digital world. Gone are the days of professional photographers and videographers. With pocket-sized smartphones equipped with high-quality cameras and innovative editing tools, anyone can take a snap on a brand, product, or service they want to explore.

WHAT IS UGC?

A digital marketing speaker Hong Kong defines UGC as any form of content created by people and not brands. They are images, posts, reviews, testimonials, text, or videos published on a social media network or website. They have been around side by side with customer reviews and social networking. It was in 2005 when brands realized the potentials of visual UGC. They were then used as a brand’s earned content and social proof

Here is a great example of UGC from a video marketing agency Hong Kong. You and your family go on a weekend trip and stay at a nice hotel. Enjoying the comfort of the trip, you post multiple pictures and videos of this precious adventure. You tag your Facebook and Instagram friends to show how cool the hotel is. The hotel then finds your content on Facebook and reaches out to you. They ask your permission to share the photos and videos in their corporate channels. Once the hotel uses them for branding, it is called user-generated content.

SOME STATISTICS ABOUT HOW EFFECTIVE UGC IS IN MARKETING

At first, brands and businesses are very cautious in using UGC for digital marketing. It is because the impact of these unpolished content is hard to justify when compared to perfect-looking professional creatives. But as mobile devices evolve, phone cameras get better. These made UGC easily accessible among social media networks. 

Every single day, there are 350 million photos uploaded on Facebook, 95 million photos and videos shared on Instagram, and 500 million tweets posted on Twitter. With billions of posts shared on social media daily, marketers find UGCs as the most authentic and relevant form of content. They present an unprecedented opportunity to usher a new approach of marketing WITH people, instead of marketing TO people. As such consumers now become the world’s greatest content creators. Data shows that UGC is the most influential, memorable, and most trusted type of content. 

UGCs are seen as 3 times more authentic than branded content. Around 60 percent of modern consumers find UGCs authentic, and only 20% favored branded content. Modern consumers trust the recommendations of colleagues, family members, and friends. They trust the endorsement of a real person over what a brand tells about itself. As such, 56% of modern consumers wanted to see more UGCs. 

UGC promotes brand loyalty. When brands published UGCs, the person who created the content felt a sense of importance. Other customers and followers also connect to these types of content deeply. It is because they feel the same emotion as the author or creator of the UGC does. No wonder 92% of consumers trust this media content boosting loyalty among brands. Among millennials, UGC is 35% more memorable among other media types.

UGC also influences buying decisions and improves the conversion rate among brands and businesses. UGC as a social proof turns 79% of modern consumers to buyers of a brand, product, or service. It makes them 9.8 times more effective than influencer marketing. They are also more effective because they cut the campaign budget by 65%

WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR UGC STRATEGY

Consumers trust other consumers. This principle makes UGC more effective and influential. Here are ways to improve your UGC strategy.

Ask What You Need. The easiest way to get UGCs is to ask your online community about them. You can launch a contest featuring a unique hashtag for the campaign. You can ask questions relevant to your brand. Or you can entice your audience to share their content in exchange for a freebie or reward. These strategies can help stir your customers’ creativity to post UGCs.  

Be Strategic. There are 6 major social media networks where brands and businesses can post UGCs. But they have to be strategic in knowing what to post for each platform.

  • Curated UGC content and images are perfect Facebook posts.
  • High-resolution photos, quotes, and Stories can work well on Instagram. 
  • Job postings, news, and professional content can boost your LinkedIn presence.
  • Step-by-step guides can inspire Pinterest users.
  • UGCs about trends are good conversation starters on Twitter. 

Set Goals and Measure Results. The best way to improve your UGC strategy is to set goals and measure results. The most common goals UGCs typically achieve are awareness and conversions. Define your benchmarks when boosting engagement. Do you aim to increase the number of comments, followers, likes, and shares of the UGC post? Or would you like to boost sales upon using them? Analyze each result after every campaign. Then, learn the lessons to level up your UGC strategy!

Reference: https://stackla.com/resources/blog/what-is-user-generated-content-the-ultimate-guide-to-ugc-marketing/

Must-Have Digital Marketing Tools

List of Must-Have Digital Marketing Tools

The world of digital marketing is a lot different in the past than today. The very first marketing tool is word-of-mouth. A tradesman in history became known through referrals from their clients and the community. Today’s marketing is a blend of strategy and technology. A digital marketing speaker Hong Kong notes that digital marketing has evolved from trade to tech. As such, brands and businesses should have a list of must-have digital marketing tools. 

IMPORTANCE OF DIGITAL MARKETING TOOLS

The marketing strategy of brands and businesses today focuses on online visibility. According to a social media agency Hong Kong, the Internet has significantly changed consumer behaviors. Instead of hopping from one physical store to another, modern consumers would rather search for products and services online. It is the main reason why brands and businesses need digital marketing tools. They need to increase online visibility. They also need to effectively deliver their message to searchers online.

Digital marketing tools are important in promoting products and services among search engines, social media pages, and other online channels. They help connect brands to their target audiences to convert them into customers and loyal followers. They help businesses build a sustainable community of patrons who are continuously making a purchase.

Marketing tools are also important for brands and businesses to know their real-time inventories. As they sync product catalogs across multiple platforms, it will be easier for them to know which commodities are in demand or not. They provide insights on how ads and campaigns help in boosting conversion, especially sales.

Last, marketing tools can help brands and businesses provide continuous support to their existing customer base. Through artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning, they make it possible to provide 24/7 support.

A LIST OF MUST-HAVE DIGITAL MARKETING TOOLS

If you are looking to improve your online marketing strategy, here is a list of must-have digital marketing tools. 

  • Ahrefs Webmaster Tools. If you want to get more traffic from searches and improve your SEO performance, then Ahrefs Webmaster Tools can help. It is a free yet comprehensive SEO tool. Ahrefs can help you check how your competitors generate backlinks and high-traffic pages. As such you can replicate such a campaign to outcompete them. 
  • Awesome Screenshot and Screen Recorder. It is a free chrome extension used to save screen recordings and screenshots. Using unique shareable links via awesomescreenshot.com, brands and businesses can share images and videos instantly. 
  • Buzzstream. Buzzstream is designed to make email outreach easy.  If you engage in influencer marketing, this digital marketing tool can help you find the biggest influencers in your niche. It is also an effective tool to build communities by getting more coverage, links, and traffic.
  • BuzzSumo. It is a content research tool and, at the same time, an influencer identifier. With BuzzSumo, you can generate new content ideas and high-performing posts. When you are stuck with specific content creation, try its content analyzer and topic explorer to keep your thoughts moving creatively.
  • ConvertKit. When professional bloggers and content marketers create something, make it known with ConvertKit. Run ultra-targeted email campaigns using such a tool. Here, you can easily set up auto-responders and segment subscribers based on categories and interests.
  • CoSchedule. Every marketing team needs to collaborate. CoSchedule makes it easy to do so. This must-have digital marketing tool organizes all marketing activities in one platform. CoSchedule has a simple and uncluttered interface. It makes all your content marketing organized in one place. All team members can sync and view a content calendar to make everything perfect.
  • Feedly. Keep up with topics and trends you care about. Feedly is an app where you can check blogs, news, and trends. It allows feed personalization to keep up with what’s going on without being overwhelmed.
  • Google Analytics. If you need to analyze marketing data to make smarter decisions, Google Analytics can give you complete information. It analyzes and tracks web traffic. By analyzing the who, what, and where of data, it is the most comprehensive free analytics tool.
  • Google Trends. Explore what the world is searching for via Google Trends. It is a free trend search tool that ranks the popularity of terms according to traffic. This must-have digital marketing tool can help brands and businesses know what the online audiences are interested in.
  • HubSpot’s Blog Topic Generator. If you are challenged in coming up with new content ideas, HubSpot’s Blog Topic Generator can think of ideas for you. All you need to do is plug in the keywords and the tool will list shiny content ideas and topics for a year’s worth.
  • KeySearch. KeySearch is keyword research made easy. It helps you find low competition relevant keywords for your blog, niche, or website. It also ranks them based on how many searches each keyword receives monthly.
  • MailChimp. Do you want to build a brand and sell online on one platform? MailChimp integrates marketing and eCommerce tools to help you run your business. It is an all-in-one email marketing platform. It allows brands and businesses to create email templates and manage email lists. With a free-forever option, you can automate your marketing campaign.
  • PiktoChart. Do you love to post social media visuals? With PiktoChart, you don’t need any graphic design skills to create and share engaging visuals for brands and businesses. You can turn any data or text into visual stories using the free library of designs, graphics, infographics, and other templates.
  • Pocket. Save articles, videos, and stories from any app, page, or publication instantly. Pocket is a content discovery tool that functions as a bookmark folder for ideas, inspirations, and reading lists. Save things for later by putting knowledge in your Pocket. 
  • Tailwind. Are you solely responsible for advertising and marketing? With Tailwind, you can instantly have a new team. It is a digital marketing toolkit for Instagram and Pinterest. This must-have digital marketing tool serves as a smart assistant to schedule IG posts and Pinterest pins. It publishes them during the time when it will most likely maximize engagement.
  • Wave Video. A video marketing agency Hong Kong uses Wave Video, the best video hosting, and video maker platform. It is an easy-to-use video creation, editing, and repurposing tool. With Wave’s stock of audio clips, captions, and images, brands and businesses can enhance their videos for promotional ads and social media posting.
  • Yoast SEO Plugin. If you are using WordPress to power your blog site, Yoast SEO Plugin can help you attract more website visitors and increase social media engagement. By entering keywords or key phrases, Yoast SEO Plugin can run a check if your content has enough keywords positioned in the right spots. 

Reference: https://blog.red-website-design.co.uk/2021/08/04/must-have-marketing-tools/

Improve Instagram Reach

How to Improve Instagram Reach

Like a Silicon Valley fairy tale, the photo-sharing app, Instagram, rose with momentum in its first few months. It was launched in October 2010 by Kevin Systrom as an iOS mobile app. Immediately, it racked up 25,000 users a day. In less than 2 years, the king of social media, Facebook bought it for $1 billion cash and stocks. Yet, like old good tales, Instagram has witnessed many conflicts and synergies, failures and successes, twists and turns. Now, it has gone a long way and become the second best social media platform where you can market your business.

INSTAGRAM MARKETING

A social media agency Hong Kong defines Instagram marketing as the way brands connect to their target audience within the platform. It does not involve direct promotions of products and services. Instead, it focuses on publishing engaging photos and videos to inspire Instagrammers to make a purchase. With a number of original filters, marketers can create photo and video ads using their Instagram cameras. The very first Instagram ad was published in 2013 by Michael Kors. It’s a photo of a golden MK watch surrounded by some French macaroons and a white coffee cup. The ad never looks invasive even though it was pushed on the IG feeds of people who don’t follow the Michael Kors IG Page. 

Today, there are around 1.074 billion monthly active users (MAUs) on Instagram. It houses over 200 million business profiles globally. The average time an Instagrammer spends on the platform is 30 minutes per day. A digital marketing speaker Hong Kong has noted that 60% of Instagram users discover new products on the platform with 90% of the following at least one brand. With 130 million of them tapping shopping posts monthly, the revenue on Instagram ads is expected to reach $18.16 billion this year. With these powerful marketing statistics, it is, therefore, important for brands to know how to improve Instagram reach. We’ve got you covered here!

HOW TO IMPROVE INSTAGRAM REACH

Instagram has a complex algorithm in determining the best post to show its users. They are ranked based on the popularity of the content and what kind of post a user interacts with. The relationship between accounts is also a factor that affects the ranking of Instagram posts on a certain feed. This algorithm changes from time to time to provide a better user experience on Instagram. To improve Instagram’s reach, here are some tactics and tips.

Add Location Tags on Your Posts. Geotags or location tags on Instagram are latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates showing a physical location. These areas are identified by the GPS on a mobile device. They can be a geographical point like a city or town. They can also be a location category like a business or landmark. Adding location tags on your Instagram posts is a great wait to put your business location and physical stores on the map. People will see them as they search for local posts or accounts near them. It is the easiest way to expand your organic reach on Instagram.

Experiment with Different Posts and Formats on Instagram. People go to Instagram, not mainly to shop, but to look for ideas and inspirations. As such, it will be best to experiment with different posts and formats for brands to improve Instagram reach. More than 50 billion photos were already uploaded on Instagram since its inception. Instagram Stories are huge. There are 500 million Instagrammers who use Stories daily. A video marketing agency Hong Kong suggests that they are perfect to use for AR lenses, fundraising, links, polls, questions, and shopping. Reels are a new addition to Instagram. They are short video content that clones TikTok clips. IGTV is a great way to educate customers and showcase products and services. While Instagram Live is the perfect way to connect with your audiences in real-time. Around 80% of them prefer watching a live video over reading a brand’s blog. Using different posts and formats on Instagram can maximize your impact as they allow you to engage with the different preferences of your target audience. It also avoids making your Instagram business account boring to your followers.

Optimize the Accessibility of Your IG Posts. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are around 1 billion people with disabilities all over the world. These include people with hearing impairment, physical disabilities, intellectual disabilities, and visual problems. If a brand or business will not optimize the accessibility of their social media posts to this group of people, they will be missing out on 25% of their target audiences. To optimize the accessibility of IG content, here are automatic features you can use on Instagram.

  • Alt text to describe images and photos.
  • Auto captions for IGTV with instant subtitles in 16 different languages.
  • Manual captions on Stories and video posts.
  • Videos that can be lip-read and with minimum background noise.

Test Different Posting Frequencies and Time on Instagram. In general, it is recommended to post 1 to 3 times per day on Instagram. The best time to post is between 10 AM to 3 PM on Wednesdays and Fridays. Yet, testing different posting frequencies and times within the platform can help you know when most of your followers are online and receptive enough to engage in your content. Start by using Instagram Insights. It will give you an idea of when your followers are active. It also gives feedback on what post format excels best. It takes a couple of weeks to discover the right rhythm. But it will be worth it if you want to improve your Instagram reach.

Reference: https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-improve-instagram-reach-9-ways/

LinkedIn Followers

Tips & Tricks to Increase LinkedIn Followers

A unique social media network stands as a de facto platform for most professionals. With its live launch in May 2003, LinkedIn is one of the oldest mainstream platforms. It was founded by Reid Hoffman, an entrepreneur and strategist who has been a board member of eBay, Google, and Paypal. Hoffman earned his bachelor’s degree at Stanford University and his master’s degree at Oxford University. From Oxford, he landed a job as an editor of a gaming company. From there, he founded one of the first social media networks in Silicon Valley called SocialNet in 1997. Such a startup soon failed, but as Hoffman pitched his ideas to network investors, he eventually founded LinkedIn. 

LinkedIn founders were all seasoned executives of reputable companies. This may be the reason why such a social network was designed as a platform for professionals. By 2006, LinkedIn had over 5 million members. This can be accounted for by its shift to paid job ads and subscription options. Today, LinkedIn has 756 million members including 57 million businesses. It has become a very powerful platform in B2B marketing. That is why most LinkedIn Pages aim to increase their LinkedIn followers. Here are some tips and tricks!

Activate Your People

LinkedIn is a platform among professionals. This means that a LinkedIn Page certainly has followers who work for the brand or business. Employees on LinkedIn are the biggest assets of brands and businesses. If they share the same passion as the management, they can invite more followers to a LinkedIn Page. Encourage your employees to keep an up-to-date LinkedIn profile. Invite them to share any new products, developments, or updates. By fostering internal engagement, you can turn your employees on LinkedIn as brand advocates. 

Get the Basics Right

A social media agency Hong Kong notes that the most essential step to having a LinkedIn Page worth following is to update your company page information. Fill in all the elements to complete your page including addresses, contact details, logo, and other organizational info. These pieces of information clearly and quickly convey what your business is all about. It is also important to include pertinent keywords relevant to your business. This is because LinkedIn Pages crawled among search engines and rank higher. Never forget to add a CTA on your LinkedIn Page, newsletters, company websites, and other social media pages. An “Invite to Follow” button can jump many followers aboard your LinkedIn Page. 

Know and Grow Your Audience

There are lots of insights that brands and businesses can look at on LinkedIn Pages. These insights can be accessed through Page Analytics. They are aggregated data about the demographics and traits of your LinkedIn followers. Through Linked Page Analytics, brands and businesses will be able to know their audiences better. As such, they could grow their community of followers through content that interests them. Aligning your content according to the audiences’ interests will result in shares and re-shares. More people will discover your Page and become your followers. For brands and marketers, LinkedIn ads also offer 200 targeting characteristics.

Join Conversations that Matter to Your Brand

The best way to increase LinkedIn followers, according to a digital marketing speaker Hong Kong, is to continuously engage in the platform. Strong communities are not built by one-way dialogs. Instead, they are built by two-way communications. You may want to join existing conversations relevant to your industry. In this way, you can learn and share new ideas that might help you and other LinkedIn users. A simple way to nurture communication in the platform is to use community hashtags. This makes your followers feel valued. Finding popular conversations, events, and trends can also help a Page’s visibility on LinkedIn. By joining them, you can create real-time interactions and engagement.

Publish Thought Leadership Content

The best platform to publish educational content is LinkedIn. It is a thriving community of entrepreneurs, marketers, and leaders who long for knowledge. Around 88% of LinkedIn users who are decision-makers in a business agreed that content plays a crucial role in LinkedIn’s presence. Thought leadership content is relevant and well-researched posts. They display an author’s expertise and experience in a certain industry or niche. A video marketing agency Hong Kong notes that LinkedIn users are more likely to share video posts 20x than other content formats. On the other hand, live streams get 24x more comments and 7x more reactions. To gain insights on resonating topics, LinkedIn users can check its content suggestion features.

The Bottom Line

LinkedIn may not have as many followers as other social media platforms. But by being a unique platform for professionals, it has proven to boost conversion and engagement among brands and businesses. This is why it is important to grow your followers and impact on LinkedIn. Your LinkedIn Page serves as your social homepage that gets discovered by online communities. By investing a little energy and time to update it and interact with your followers, you are sure to grow your Linked community. 

Reference: https://business.linkedin.com/marketing-solutions/blog/linkedin-company-pages/2021/increasing-followers-on-your-linkedin-page–tips-and-tricks-from

SEO-Friendly Content

Tips to Create More SEO-Friendly Content

The Internet allows access to any information that people need. Yet not all data online are accurate and equal. That is why search engine platforms put algorithms in place to provide the most helpful and relevant search results. A digital marketing speaker Hong Kong quotes that SEO is not about getting traffic. It is more about getting relevant and targeted traffic. This means that brands and businesses need to create more SEO-friendly content to succeed. Here are some amazing tips!

The search algorithms of Google are continuously evolving. The reason behind this is to avoid manipulations and tricks to improve search ranking. So, the safest way for brands to rank on top searches is to follow Google’s SEO guidelines. It may be challenging and tricky. Google aims to give searchers the best online experience. The key is making your content, pages, and websites user-friendly. Below are some tips to create more SEO-friendly content.

Tip No. 1 Start with Keyword Research

Keywords are the direction of content. So, before you start writing, it is important to do keyword research. This is time-consuming as it is the process of creating a list of the most searched and valuable keywords relevant to your industry or niche. To do keyword research, start by creating a list of keywords that are important to your brand. Enter each topic one by one at Google’s Keyword Tool to choose the seed keywords. Choose keywords with a high volume of searches and a low keyword difficulty with a score of lower than 80. A piece of content should target a primary keyword and 5 to 10 supplementary keywords. To identify the primary keyword, brands have to ask what their audience is looking for and what questions they commonly ask online. 

Tip No. 2 Optimize Your Content’s Headline

The title of content shows as the clickable headline among search results. A good title can make or break content. If they are unique but most likely recognizable, people will be curious to click the link of your content. According to a social media agency Hong Kong, most social media platforms use the title tag to determine how to display a shared page. All these reasons make it very important for brands to optimize their content headline. A good title should be relevant to the search intent and contain the target keyword. Keep the title short but sweet. As much as possible, the headline should at least be up to 60 characters. Most brands also find it effective to include the brand’s name within the title.

Tip No. 3 – Optimized Meta Descriptions

A meta description describes what content is all about in 155 to 160 characters. They are shown below the headline or title of content on the search results. Brands should optimize the meta description of the content to show its value among searchers. By successfully doing so, it will increase the content’s click-through rates. To optimize the meta description, use only 1 to 2 sentences and include a target keyword. Evoke the searchers’ emotions by uniquely describing the content. Think of a meta description as a mini ad for your content. State your value proposition to the searcher in an active voice. Another reason why meta description is important as a video marketing agency Hong Kong notes is that a meta description makes a video content readable and understandable in Google’s algorithms. The text description boosts the indexing of the video for people to find them easily.

Tip No. 4 – Organize the Structure of Your Content to Make Them Readable

Why is it important to make content readable? When your content is easy to read, there’s a better chance that the audience will continue reading it. But if the content isn’t organized and causes eye strain, the audience will likely abandon it. Great content is easy to consume, skim, and understand. To create one, break each topic into subtopics. This makes it easy for readers to digest information in bits. As much as possible, use simple words that the reader can understand. If there is a need to use a complex or unique word, try to explain the concept of those words in simple language. The content should answer the searcher’s intent or query. Do this by extracting each point per topic. A summary at the end of the content also makes it easy for readers to remember the information much longer.

Tip No. 5 – Add Visuals

Visuals are illustrations, images, or videos added to enrich content. Around 87.5% of marketers used visuals on their content. This is because content with visuals is more engaging and interesting. Why? Because the human brain can process visuals 60,000 times faster than text. To optimize adding visuals in content, focus on reducing your image size to load faster. But the quality of the image should also not suffer. Put a name on your images using plain language to make them readable by Google. Describe exactly what the image shows on the Alt tags. 

Reference: https://digitalmarketing.grazitti.com/resource/infographic/9-amazing-tips-how-to-create-seo-friendly-content-for-2021/

6 Ways Artificial Intelligence Helps Digital Marketing

6 Ways Artificial Intelligence Helps Digital Marketing

Can a machine think? Can they do digital marketing? These are the common questions marketers are facing. Modern technology makes it possible for artificial intelligence to automate everything. Artificial intelligence (AI) is imitating human intelligence over machines. Machines are programmed to mimic their actions to aid in the execution of tasks and problem-solving. There are two kinds of AI – weak and strong. A weak AI is very simple and only performs a single task. A strong AI performs complex and many tasks. They are very human-like. A subset of AI is machine learning. It means the capacity of computer programs to absorb a huge amount of information. From these data, they can adapt and learn without human intervention.

A social media agency Hong Kong says that artificial intelligence boosts the fourth industrial revolution, which seems true. Today, effective social media rely on audience insights and machine algorithms. Search results in search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo were ranked by machine learning. Even 24/7 customer service on eCommerce websites and messaging apps are powered by chatbots. Indeed, artificial intelligence greatly helps digital marketing. Here are 6 ways on how it does so.

Boost Awareness and Conversion 

Modern people commonly search for products and services online. For products to be discovered, marketers should use the proper search engine optimization (SEO). They can do this by using relevant keywords commonly typed by an online searcher on the search box. The keywords should be about the brand or product, plus its features and benefits. 

Through artificial intelligence, search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo determine organic search results when a user types a query. Search engines’ AI rank them through the keywords, quality of the content, quality of a site, and location of the searcher. For example, a Chicago searcher typing “top restaurants” will see the most popular restaurant within the city and in Illinois. A searcher in Los Angeles typing the same keyword will see the most popular restaurant within the city and in California.

A digital marketing speaker Hong Kong reports that 70% of high-performing marketing teams have a fully designed AI strategy. They use machine learning as a competitive advantage. These teams have a growth mindset and invest in training to enhance their knowledge about AI. As such, they have greater knowledge of marketing analytics. 

Drive Better Customer Service Experience

The behavior of modern consumers has greatly evolved. They shop online anytime, anywhere. They demand immediate results. When they have a question, they want answers fast. When they are prepared to buy a product, they will do it even in the middle of the night. AI has made it possible for brands to connect with their customers 24/7. Through chatbots, they can seamlessly handle all customer concerns anytime, anywhere.

A chatbot is a software application that simulates a human conversation. As an AI, it is one of the most advanced and promising ways to mimic human interaction. Chatbots are integrated on messaging platforms, mobile apps, social media accounts, and websites. They are used to handle customer queries, sales, and other service concerns. They can also be used to conduct a survey or trigger a sale via promotions in messaging and mobile apps. Today, 80% of businesses are using chatbots. There are also around 300,000 chatbots in Facebook Messenger. 

Enhance Content Customization

A video marketing agency Hong Kong noted that artificial intelligence has greatly improved video marketing. This is by helping them customize their video strategies through the insights they have collected from video viewers. AI collects data on videos that a viewer commonly and previously watched. These include the duration and engagement of a specific video which can be a beneficial guide. Each viewer has unique preferences. But with AI, marketers can see what videos stand out most and what elements they have in common. 

The same scenario goes for social media marketing. Most social media platforms house a library of collected user insights. These insights can guide marketers in finding the ideal persona of their target customers. Based on AI demographics, they can easily segment their target group. Based on AI analytics, they can very well create custom content that appeals to these groups. Let’s take Starbucks as an example. Such a global coffee chain has created a real-time personalization engine that integrates customer data and preferences using their mobile apps. From these pieces of information, they have conceptualized the reusable cups promotion in the UK in 2018.  The promotion resulted in a 150% increase in customer engagement and a 3x increase in incremental revenues. 

Help Better Predict the Buying Pattern

Marketers harness the power of AI to study the online behaviors of consumers. As AI collected data such as browsing patterns, searches, and website views, marketers better understand their interests, needs, and preferences. These help them segment their audience better and easier. AI also makes it easier for brands to predict the buying pattern among consumers. These greatly improved the accuracy of demand forecasting and demand sensing. As proof, AI saved the retail industry a $50 billion obsolete inventory for the year 2018. 

Improve Social Media Marketing Performance

As mentioned, social media platforms house a library of algorithms, analytics, and insights from machine learning. These libraries of information provide actionable tips on how to achieve specific social media goals. The goals may include brand awareness, conversion, customer retention, discovery, engagement, or uplifting a brand reputation. Around 77% of marketers have intelligently automated their goal setting and marketing tasks among social media networks. Likewise, 41% say that AI and machine learning have improved their social media marketing performances. 

Optimize Media Mix Strategies

A media mix strategy is a process of determining how much budget can be allocated in different marketing channels and platforms. This is to get the highest return of investment (ROI) for every ad spend. The big data collected by AI on the Internet provides insights on which ads performed best and which channel have they earned the most revenue. Using AI, marketers can make better decisions on media mix strategies. AI has always been on track to solving marketing and sales problems ever since they emerge. As an example, Disney has been using AI to fine-tune their media mix strategy. Via the Tableau software, the company aggregated data from partner organizations to create new media mix models for budget optimization. From such aggregated data, Disney came up with the idea of marathon weekends. This campaign doesn’t only result in a higher ROI but at the same time revived Disney’s reputation as the happiest place on earth.

Reference: https://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2021/02/21/10-ways-ai-and-machine-learning-are-improving-marketing-in-2021/?sh=56f085ff14c8

How to Engage Customers Through Mobile Marketing

How to Engage Customers Through Mobile Marketing?

We are in the era of mobile devices. Around 5.22 billion people use smartphones globally. They are overwhelmingly popular for messaging and social media activities. This makes a social media agency Hong Kong very important in mobile marketing. People also use mobile devices to find gossips, news, and trends. Significantly for businesses, it is also where they commonly engage in online shopping. The conversion rates of smartphone shoppers have dramatically increased during the COVID-19 outbreak. With an average time spent of 3 hours and 15 minutes daily, such a conversion rate increased by 22%. Today, a digital marketing speaker Hong Kong always recommends mobile-friendly strategies. Thus, marketers need to know the fundamentals of mobile marketing. All the more, they should also learn how to engage customers through mobile marketing.

WHAT IS MOBILE MARKETING?

Mobile marketing is a digital marketing strategy that focuses on reaching target audiences using smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices through different channels. These channels include apps, eCommerce, emails, SMS, social media, and websites. Mobile marketing is the key to reach more people as they are spending more time on mobile devices. 

The concept of mobile marketing should revolve around:

  • Analytics to examine and track how much traffic it generates
  • Automation to shift your messages from one channel to another
  • Conveniences of choosing the right audience where to send a brand’s message
  • Cost-effectiveness to significantly reduce advertising cost in exchange for a higher ROI
  • Location-based and multilingual to encourage conversion among local customers
  • Responsiveness for content to display well in any mobile device
  • Simplicity to make it fairly easy to use among the audiences
  • Speed to provide a better mobile experience among users

MOBILE MARKETING STRATEGIES

There are so many strategies you can use for mobile marketing today. Yet, the key is to optimize and use each strategy wisely. Brands must also be practical to know which channels their target audiences spend most of their time. Among the common types of mobile marketing strategies are:

  • App-based marketing
  • In-game mobile marketing
  • Location-based marketing
  • Mobile ads
  • Mobile coupons
  • Mobile payment
  • Mobile search
  • Mobile website
  • QR codes
  • Text promotion (SMS, push notification)
  • Virtual and augmented reality

HOW TO ENGAGE CUSTOMERS THROUGH MOBILE MARKETING

The basic principles of a successful mobile marketing strategy are:

  • The creation of mobile-friendly content
  • Effective engagement strategies for customers using mobile devices
  • Using mobile apps and platforms

To further engage a brand’s customers through mobile marketing, here are some essential steps every marketer needs to do

Audience Segmentation and Personalized Targeting

There are thousands of mobile ads that people see daily. So, brands need to segment their target audiences and create personalized mobile ads to increase efficiency by up to 30%. It is important to find time to collect customer feedback through customer support chatbots, ratings, reviews, and surveys. A better way to test the effectiveness of personalized targeting is to do A/B testing experiments. The smartest way is to do these based on what device the target audience is using smartphones, tablets, etc. Audience segmentation and personalized targeting can engage customers through a deeper kind of connection.

Mobile-Optimized Websites

Mobile marketing means considering the mobile users first. So, a mobile-optimized website is important for a brand to offer the best experience to engage customers. The most common strategy to optimize a website for mobile devices is increasing the website loading speed. This can be done by enhancing search functions and removing unnecessary widgets. Another common strategy to increase customer engagement through mobile marketing is the right choice of keywords for each content. Users of mobile devices prefer searching short-form keywords. As such, brands should be familiar with these short keywords commonly used among smartphones, tablets, etc. They should then incorporate this on any advert, email, or message that they create for mobile marketing.

Multi-channel Campaigns

Consumers no longer stay in the same place today. Mobile marketing allows brands to target audiences in different channels, locations, and platforms. Brands should be aware of the differences in time zones among them and their target markets. They should also enhance location-based strategies as it is one unique highlight of mobile marketing. Needless to say, content should be made according to the browsers used by mobile devices. The largest browser categories today are Android and iOS. Plus, each mobile marketing ad should be posted on top social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to increase visibility. 

Video Content on Mobile Marketing

A video marketing agency Hong Kong noted the importance of using video content in mobile marketing. It is expected to cover around 76% of all mobile traffic by 2025. Even 92% of marketers focus on video as an important part of their marketing strategies. Mobile marketers should aim to create video content designed to target viewers based on demographics. They can likely boost conversion on campaigns streamlined according to age, location, and sex. 

The Bottom Line

With more than 50% of people in the world using mobile devices, mobile marketing is one effective way to reach customers. To further engage them, the personalization of campaigns in mobile marketing is very important. Multi-channel marketing and mobile-friendly experiences can also significantly boost brand conversion and engagement.

References: https://www.evinex.com/mobile-marketing/

How to Use Google Eat to Increase Your Online Revenue

How to Use Google EAT to Increase Your Online Revenue

Today, brick-and-mortar stores have transformed into digital shops. The COVID-19 outbreak in 2020 accelerated the shift to online shopping. With such a shift among businesses comes the importance of ranking among Google searches. The more visible one’s business is on a Google search, the more chances it can generate sales. For a brand or business to rank in Google searches, it needs to adopt the Google EAT guidelines

What is Google EAT?

Google EAT is a search quality guideline published in 2014. EAT stands for expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. It is not an algorithm or a scoring factor on Google ranking. It is, however, an important factor in making a content land on the first page of a Google search result. Google EAT is the number one criteria for YMYL pages. YMYL means “Your Life, Your Money.” For Google, these are searches that affect people’s lives and finances. These are content that impacts a searcher’s decision on health, happiness, livelihood, and safety. Google has thousands of humans that manually review the quality of web pages based on YMYL. These quality analyses help improve Google’s algorithm. 

How Does Google EAT Work?

Google search is a big piece of software that takes the words users type on Google to look for information on the world wide web. To determine the legitimacy and ranking power of a site, Google search measures the expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness of its online content.

  • Expertise focuses on competency and in-depth knowledge of the content. When people search on Google, they either look for an answer to a question or a solution to their problem. So, content or website should address these queries by providing more accurate and useful information on target keywords.  The data should be based on one experience and knowledge. Be like a doctor prescribing the right cure or medication for a patient’s sickness.
  • Authoritativeness has to do with the content or website’s credentials. Such ranking comes from external signals like quality links from relevant forums, social channels, and websites. Referencing your content from leaders or experts of a certain field or topic can mean providing information that has authority and credibility.
  • Trustworthiness focuses on the reliability and transparency of content. To rank well, content should earn the trust of Google and its users. To do so, content must be updated, relevant, and truthful. The website should not contain broken links, coding errors, incorrect information, or poor grammar. Make the website safe and secure website. An SSL certification puts a searcher’s mind at ease.

Google Eat is a continuous process. It means building the strongest content possible across the pages of a website. It doesn’t stop with mere linking to reputable websites and using target keywords. It means continuously educating the audience in making their lives as easy and meaningful as possible.

How to Use Google EAT to Increase Online Revenue

By following Google EAT guidelines, content or website has a higher chance of ranking in Google’s search results. Here are the most basic highlights of such guidelines:

Expertise

  • The content must be free from factual errors. Most business websites contain different types of content. These include about pages, academic writings, advertising copies, emails, homepages, marketing copies, etc. It is important to proofread everything before publishing. A fine piece of content must be free from grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors. The word choice should match the theme of a site. Factual errors on a piece of content can be a reflection of poor expertise and knowledge. Factual errors don’t only cover a piece of content. They also include broken links and slow-loading pages that affect the users’ experience.  A digital marketing agency Hong Kong improves a business website earnings by fixing technical errors and improving the content of its website.
  • The content must be original and relevant. An original and relevant content delights, engages, and supports the target audience. It is best to create unique content answering the audience’s queries. These should contain complete information for the audience not to seek information elsewhere.  Today, video marketing Hong Kong is now one of the most important strategies to rank in Google. Video content delights and engages the audience with media-rich information. They get 80% more conversions than images and text. Try using Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn Stories, or Twitter Fleets to share a brand’s message, and add product tags to support the audience with a better buying experience.
  • The content must be written by someone who knows or researches the topic well. Expertise is gained through formal and informal education. Formal expertise means gaining knowledge through certifications, training, or years of studies. While informal expertise can be obtained through hands-on experience. The easiest way to create an expert’s content is to have an industry leader, influencer, or subject matter expert write the content. While a challenging option is to write about topics where you excel. To build an expert’s reputation, you must do research and relay information objectively on your content. After providing expert tips, it will now be easy o pitch how a product or service can solve the needs of the consumers.

Authoritativeness

  • The content must still give substantial information even if pulled from other sources. Backlinking is an important process in gaining authority from Google. Backlinks are links that connect one website to another. The most common way to have backlinks is to use them as a reference for content. Yet, it doesn’t mean purely copy-pasting what is written. The key is to digest the information on a site and write it in simpler statements that can be understood by the target audience. Another 
  • The content should be optimized for mobile devices. Around 60% of people search for information using mobile devices. This makes it important to produce mobile-friendly content or content that readers can digest on the go. Short titles containing 5 words have higher click-through rates on mobile. Chunk your content into smaller sections by using bullets, images, lists, short paragraphs, subheads, or white spaces. Stick to simple layouts to stand out on small screens.

Trustworthiness

  • The content should be well-presented and well-organized. A well-presented and well-organized content makes it easier for readers to absorb information. They are more likely to continue reading the content if they find the information relevant. It is best to narrate a story in chronological order. To avoid confusion among readers, start by explaining simple ideas before going onto the complex ones. Or the problem should come first before giving a solution. The end result of trustworthy content is sales conversion. As Andrew Davis quoted: “Content builds relationships. Relationships are built on trust. Trust drives revenue.” 
  • The content should provide more substantial value than the other search results. A trustworthy content uses data, facts, and statistics to support the veracity of information it presents. To rank in Google search results, content must stay ahead by providing the latest information and trends. A key to adding a substantial value in content is listing accurate contact information about the brand, marketing speaker Hong Kong, website, or writer. It is the biggest proof of existence that can build the reader’s trust. By providing contact details, Google knows that the site can give comfort to customers to easily get support in their buying experience.

Reference: https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2021/01/25/navigating-google-e-a-t-for-seo-success-in-2021/?sh=38cb6cb53df3