Wix and Google: GMB Integration Coming Soon

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Google’s partnership with Wix is raising to a new level. The companies have recently announced an expanded partnership that will integrate Google My Business (GMB) directly within Wix. GMB data can now be accessed by businesses, customer interactions and manage their profile directly from Wix.

Why Wix?

The reason Google partnered with Wix in the beginning was because of the business model. Wix’s value proposition is that they take handle the technical side of an online presence. “Back-end” type of work like search engine optimization (SEO) and structured data are taken care of by Wix. Wix also provides marketing tools that are helpful to small businesses succeeding. This allows businesses to focus on doing what they do best.

After knowing the Wix business model, the integration of Google My Business fits in with the philosophy of making it easy to do business online. The expanded partnership with Google simplifies managing a Google My Business (GMB) profile. This gives them a very strong position in the local search industry.

The Value Of GMB Integration

The goal is to simplify the platforms removing unnecessary steps for users. The goal is that anything a business owner can do in the GMB interface, including managing their Google Search and Maps profile, can be done directly from the platform through a familiar user interface.

An update from Wix’s team says:

“Business owners can manage their Business Profiles, update their business information and hours, add photos, update their website, create posts, add attributes, respond to reviews, share Q&As, message with customers and accept bookings.

An up-to-date Business Profile is considered 2.7 times more reputable, 70% more likely to attract location visits and are 50% more likely to lead to a purchase.”

Integration With Wix

Wix already has experience integrating Google services directly into the Wix platform.

Here are some of the Google integrations already built-in:

  • Google Search Console
  • Google Workspaces
  • Google Analytics
  • Google Tag Manager
  • Reserve with Google

Local Search Win

Other platforms out there can definitely help small businesses build an online presence. But there aren’t any with the full suite of marketing and business features included with a Wix account.

Wix has been making great strides with what they bring to the table for their users, including in the area of SEO. Integrating GMB into the Wix platform solidifies as a strong consideration for any business wanting to go online but without having to make significant investments hiking the steep technical learning curve. This makes them a strong contender.

More from Onimod Global

Onimod Global releases the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday! To catch up on all Google updates and other top digital marketing news and trends, click here. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here.

Onimod Global is looking forward to the future and helping your business reach your full digital potential. Interested in growing your digital presence for your company? Reach out to us here!

3 Live Streaming Tips Every Content Marketer Needs To Know

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Live streaming in 2021 is a game changer in terms of brand awareness and growing a following. This feature now offered on multiple platforms is a fun, rewarding, and incredibly valuable tool for growing your brand in an online space. The number of B2C content marketers using live streaming in their content mix almost tripled between 2019 and 2020 (13% vs. 35%). When it comes to creating a professional live stream, it’s difficult to keep viewers engaged. Often times there needs to be many moving part, but the payoff is huge and worth it to put in the effort. There is heavy competition among content creators, so in this post we will share some streaming tips and tricks to help you achieve success.

Promote on multiple platforms

Are you doing an IG Live to promote a new line coming out for your brand? Promote that on every channel possible. Don’t limit yourself to an audience that’s only on one platform. This also includes promotion while the live is starting during any platform. Make sure you’re sending out tweets that your live is happening now for anyone that wants to view the products in action. Also, don’t be afraid to let your live run for a bit with only a logo for some time as it’s proven longer live streams perform better than short ones. Just make sure that you’re available to answer any questions for your audience while they wait. However, this pre-roll method isn’t ideal for Facebook Live in particular. The live video is featured in newsfeeds, so it is unfortunately easy to scroll past and miss.

Is your live over? Now time to share on all platforms you can. Edit snippets and upload an IGTV or reel, add video to Twitter, upload to LinkedIn and Facebook, the list is endless. The point is to make sure that your quality content is able to be revisited by your customers that are still interested in your product but missed the live stream.

Respond to comments live

This is the perfect set up for a live Q&A on your brand, your product, your service, anything you want to discuss with your audience! This is where authenticity is key for your audience, it can be very off script and conversational as you discuss any topic with your customer directly. Having an extra set of eyes on your live stream is very important in this case. The extra person helps provide support and can read you questions from your viewers. They also are helpful to inform you of any problems you can’t see, such as audio sync issues or products out of frame.

This is also perfect to set up a Q&A with a guest, multiple leaders in your company, or brand ambassadors. Not only is live streaming more fun and engaging more people, but the additional company offers fresh insights and perspectives to make your live show more interesting.

Do it, but don’t overdo it

It is clear that there is tremendous that value live streaming can bring to a brand – as long as brands focus on creating content that makes their community want to come back for more. This doesn’t need to be expensive production for your team either, because it doesn’t have to be overly produced. Everything to get started – a good camera, microphone, lighting, and a streaming service – can be purchased online.

To increase engagement, go live at a regular time to build up an audience. Inconsistent and irregular frequency of live streams will only frustrate your audience. Consistency in your schedule also makes it easier to market and promote the show. For example, hosting a new influencer on your channel every Tuesday at 6 PM to try on the new collection of jewelry.

More from Onimod Global

Onimod Global releases the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday! To catch up on all Google updates and other top digital marketing news and trends, click here. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here.

Onimod Global is looking forward to the future and helping your business reach your full digital potential. Interested in growing your digital presence for your company? Reach out to us here!

Google Will End Behavioral Targeting – What’s The Impact

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We’re officially in full swing of 2021, and that has come with tighter privacy and data regulations across the board. Google, who is up against high pressure from regulators around antitrust and data privacy, announced that they will cease the permission of cross-site tracking and targeting of individuals outside its own properties. This would include properties such as in inventory they sell through video ad exchange and Google Ad display.

 David Temkin, director of product management and ads privacy wrote in a blog post, “Today, we’re making explicit that once third-party cookies are phased out, we will not build alternate identifiers to track individuals as they browse across the web, nor will we use them in our products.”

Google’s move comes directly after the recent decision of Apple to give users the choice to block the IDFA identifier at the app level, which means apps will be required to ask users for permission to collect and share data.

“This is yet another confirmation the web is shifting to a consent-oriented framework,” said Nii Ahene, Chief Strategy Officer at Tinuiti. “It’s going to be all about opt-in, not opt-out initiatives.”

It is very evident that many of the behavioral targeting capabilities marketers have heavily depended on will fade out or disappear completely, however it is not yet confirmed the exact implications of how this will affect each of Google’s Ad products. The changes are slated to take place at the end of the year and only impact the open web, not mobile app ads purchased and sold using Google’s ad tech.

Important highlights from Google

At this exact stage, here is what we know for sure:

  • Google will be completely stopping to build user-level profiles within its ad systems. They will also not use such data to enable targeting on non-Google sites. That means Google’s AdX ad exchange and other services that target ads to web inventory outside Google properties will no longer support any cookie replacement identifiers.
  • Google’s ad targeting changes are focused solely on the open web. At this time, the changes will not apply to the mobile app ads bought and sold using Google’s ad tech.
  • Google’s targeting changes only will go into effect after the company officially stops recognizing third-party cookies in its Chrome browser. In January 2020, the company said it would do that within two years.
  • Advertisers will still be allowed to target their own databases of consumers through their own first-party data on Google properties, such as Google’s search results pages and YouTube.

More from Onimod Global

Onimod Global releases the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday! To catch up on all Google updates and other top digital marketing news and trends, click here. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here.

Onimod Global is looking forward to the future and helping your business reach your full digital potential. Interested in growing your digital presence for your company? Reach out to us here!

 

5 Types of High-Performing Video Content to Enhance Your Marketing Strategy

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Video continues to be the king of content types as we work our way into 2021. All brands should be utilizing video, but certain types of videos appeal to some marketing objectives better than others. So, how can you know what type of video is right for your company? 

Here are 5 top performing types of marketing videos that almost any brand can take and customize to fit into their strategy. 

1. Explainer Videos 

This type of video is extremely simple. As the name suggests, they’re short and concise videos explaining a brand, product or service. These are best used at the awareness stage in the sales funnel and perform best on websites, social media, YouTube and in ads. 

They often involve animations to make the explanation easily digestible with voice overs to increase message retention. Some things to watch out for are making these videos too long, braggy, too salesy or get too technical. Be sure to tell a compelling story, have a simple message and include a clear CTA. 

2. Product Demo Videos 

Product demo videos aim to show the value of a product and how it can solve pain points. These videos are most beneficial at the decision stage of the sales funnel and perform best through email and on websites. The ideal length is generally around 2-3 minutes. You want to give clear insight into product usage, but you don’t want to make it so long that viewers lose interest. 

3. Testimonial Videos 

Testimonial or customer review videos show a real user of the product or service telling how it helped them solve a problem. These are also most beneficial at the decision stage of the sales funnel and perform best on websites and social media. 

A positive review from customers gives potential customers more confidence in trusting a business, making it easier to make an informed decision. In fact, customer reviews create a 74% increase in product conversion and 90% of consumers look at online reviews prior to trusting and visiting a business. 

When creating this type of video you want to make sure it’s authentic. You don’t want to ask customers to memorize a script, it should look as natural as possible. 

4. Behind-the-Scene Videos 

Behind-the-scene videos show potential customers how a brand produces its products and adds a more personal touch to its image. These can be good to use at both the awareness and decision stage of the sales funnel. They also perform best on websites, YouTube and when shared on social media. 

Behind-the-scene videos are important because they let potential customers understand what all goes into your business. It gives a “peak behind the curtain” and can make them feel more connected to your brand. You want to keep these videos casual, let your brand personality shine through and seem authentic as possible. 

5. Company Culture Videos 

The last type is company culture video. These are a short highlight reel from the perspective of an employee and show what it’s like to work at your company. These are most beneficial at the interest or action stages of the sales funnel and perform best on websites, social media, YouTube and through email. 

Company culture videos communicate brand purpose, values and insights from current employees. This can help customers get excited about doing business and starting a relationship with you. 

With these videos you want to make sure to show passionate employees, find ways to project your values and show off a good day at the office. Avoid relying heavily on a script, coming off too braggy or focusing too much on employee opinion. Again, these videos are best when they’re completely authentic and organic as possible. 

Final Thoughts 

If possible, it’s best to mix and match different styles and types of videos to find something that’s unique to your brand and helps you stand out among the competition. You should also utilize the videos you create on all relevant platforms. Even if they perform better on one than another, you still want to reach the biggest audience possible. 

More from Onimod Global 

Onimod Global is looking forward to the future and helping your business reach your full digital potential. Interested in growing your digital presence for your company? Reach out to us here!

Onimod Global releases the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday! To catch up on the top digital marketing news and trends, click here. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here.

How To Advertise On Clubhouse

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Have you heard of Clubhouse yet? It’s the newest social media app to take the world by storm. The invite-only drop-in audio platform currently has over 2 million people users interacting with the platform each week. The new platform is currently valued at over $1 billion US dollars.

After a tweet recently sent out by Elon Musk, the platform received a huge push after he tweeted that he would be hosting an event on Clubhouse. It just so happened that he was joined by the Robinhood CEO, Vlad Tenev, gaining even more traction.

To sum up the platform in a few words, Clubhouse offers people a loose collection of drop-in clubs and events, where you can not only listen to people discuss topics ranging from startups and technology through to philosophy and comedy, but also contribute your own questions and thoughts. It’s kind of like a spontaneous podcast that anyone can listen to live, and several hundred to several thousand attendees dropping in from all over the world.

The platform has completely exploded in popularity and is growing rapidly by the day (the app had just 600,000 weekly users in December of 2020). The caliber of users is increasing since the Elon Musk tweet, and all are at least experimenting with the new platform. The obvious question for creators, brands, and contributors, however, becomes ‘how do we monetize this?’.

Currently, Clubhouse does not offer any in-app advertising functionality, as the company doubles down on the growth and user experience of its platform. However, that doesn’t mean that you can’t advertise on Clubhouse. Let’s take a look at both podcasts and meetups (during normal non-COVID times) to discover how marketers can jump ahead of the curve and make money advertising on Clubhouse.

1. Branded Events and Clubs

It can be as simple as a branded event. Brand events and clubs always have an extra flare by adding something to the effect of ‘Presented by Company X’ in the title of an event. This is no different to many a local tech or startup meetup that might be presented either online or an in-person type of event. Not only that, but larger more traditional organizations — think IBM, Microsoft, and financial services organizations — are always more than delighted to align themselves with the latest trends and up-and-coming segments.

2. Guest/Celebrity Appearances

Both brands and personalities might want to access the spotlight at high-quality events that draw a large crowd and place them alongside influential figures.

As such, you might be able to offer pay-to-play for speakers/moderators at your events. This gives them an opportunity to get in front of their audience, build their own Clubhouse following, and develop or further solidify their brand and association with a particular demographic.

3. Product Placement

If you’re running an event on, say, beauty, and you have a club that regularly draws thousands of people to its events, then you will no doubt find brands that will want to get in front of your audience. Common in podcasts and events alike, product placement can be huge for an app such as Clubhouse. For example, it could be a conversation centered entirely around reviewing a certain product live, or discussing the features with a trusted influencer.

It might be as simple as name-dropping products, and if you have any reservations about this, limit product placements to products that you’re personally using and give out affiliate links for certain products and/or services that you would personally vouch for.

More from Onimod Global

Onimod Global is looking forward to the future and helping your business reach your full digital potential. Interested in growing your digital presence for your company? Reach out to us here!

Onimod Global releases the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday! To catch up on the top digital marketing news and trends, click here. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here.

Simple Link Building Techniques to Follow in 2021

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When it comes to SEO, both on-page and off-page efforts are equally important and need to be done appropriately. Link building is an off-page SEO technique that has become essential in enhancing a website’s rankings and its overall growth. 

Over the past few years, marketers have had to change the way they go about link building due to changes in Google’s algorithm. Google now ranks the quality of links above the total number of links a website has. With that, here are four effortless link building techniques you can utilize in 2021. 

1. Guest Posting 

A guest post is one of the most impactful link building techniques. This not only allows you to generate more backlinks, but helps you build relations with others in your industry as well. It’s fairly easy to identify blog sites that will allow others to write guests posts for them. Look for a medium that is appropriately related to your niche, but not a direct competitor. Doing this will not only allow you to build more backlinks, but can help you build good relations as well. 

When guest posting, you want to make sure your content is high quality and published in a good presentation. If the delivery is not good, your reputation could suffer and defeat the purpose. Make sure you generate informative content so you’re building links in the most effective way. 

2. Broadening Your Relations 

No matter the industry, relationships matter. The same goes for link building. Identify blogs, forums and pages that are related to your niche. Follow them on social media and try to get into contact with them. Connecting with more businesses similar to yours can help in a variety of ways. Not only are you building links but you’re also putting yourself more in the loop of what’s going on in your industry. This also helps you create more awareness for your brand, ultimately helping you and your site grow. 

3. Testimonials 

Writing testimonials is another simple and effective link building method. There are many companies that ask and enable people to write testimonials on the products or services they offer. When you leave a testimonial, you can get a backlink if the company publishes it. Ultimately this will engage more visitors and traffic to your website. 

4. Keep an Eye on Competitors  

Lastly, you should keep an eye on the links your competitors are building. Monitor the strong links they have and see the strategies they implement in going about building them. This can help you improve your own strategies and identify how you can go about getting the highest quality links. 

Final Thoughts 

Link building is an essential factor in an overall SEO strategy. While these are fairly simple tactics, there are many more. Sometimes it’s easier to seek help from the experts. At Onimod Global, SEO is our core attribute and a pillar of our marketing strategy. We develop organic search engine optimization campaigns that deliver increases in organic traffic through an increase in natural rankings across all major search engines. If you’re interested in digital marketing assistance or want to learn more about what we do, contact us today. 

Onimod Global releases the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday! To catch up on the top digital marketing news and trends, click here

3 SEA Tips To Win Business With Local Search

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The behavior of customers has completely changed making local search relevant and on the map. More and more consumers realize the ease and opportunity of online search and purchase due to restrictions on movement in the pandemic times. Individuals want a tailored search view with results that are relevant to where they are at that very moment. This is where search engine advertising, or SEA, comes into play.

To win over those customers and create conversion opportunities, your location-specific ads must be at the top of the search engine results page; it’s a competitive imperative.

Here are three SEA tips every marketer needs to win local marketing with paid search.

1) Don’t rely on just one search engine

Location targeting — through Google Ads, for example — marks a huge revolution for advertisers and marketers. It enables them to maximize their PPC by targeting ads to specific areas.

Despite this being a very helpful tool, there are still significant blindspots. The data provided by Google Ads and others isn’t as detailed as necessary when it comes to things such as monitor competitor strategies or uncover opportunities that may crop up. Advertisers and marketers need to keep this in mind when gathering data on all different kinds of search engines in order to make their strategies effective and dynamic. For advertisers to juggle national, state, and local demand is almost impossible to accomplish manually or without the right data. Which is why AI is crucial to success when it comes to succeeding in the local search market.

2) Customize your local SEA ads

Ad customization by location is becoming increasingly more popular, and makes you that much more relevant to the customer. For example, 72% of desktop or tablet users and 67% of smartphone users want ads customized to their location. Additionally, 82% of smartphone users search for businesses near them; 90% click on the first set of results they see.

One of the main parts to local search marketing is customizing the ad to each location with messaging and strategy. Follow these five steps from Search Engine Land to creating click-winning location-based ads:

  1. Be there: Know where your products and services are most needed.
  2. Be relevant: Is your ad creative relevant and specific? Are you appearing at the right time?
  3. Be useful: Don’t be generic in your copy and CTAs. Each work must express your services and answer your questions.
  4. Be quick: Any delay in response to market and competitor shifts will set you back, no matter your size.
  5. Be top: Target the most relevant search terms in location. The closer you are to number one the greater the likelihood of a click.

3) Stay relevant with the Google updates

Keeping track of the multitude of updates Google is no easy feat. Google makes every month across its Shopping, PPC and SEO offerings. Difficulty is not the only complication, there is also a real necessity to remain ‘in the know’ about these updates. This is because, as search engine markets continuously show, even one missed update can dramatically and quickly send you spiraling down from position one.

More from Onimod Global

Onimod Global is looking forward to the future and helping your business reach your full digital potential. Interested in growing your digital presence for your company? Reach out to us here!

Onimod Global releases the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday! To catch up on the top digital marketing news and trends, click here. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here.

7 Ways to Improve Your Online Presence in 2021

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All businesses are looking to attract more customers in their local area. Obviously, increasing local SEO efforts is going to be one of the best ways to accomplish this. 

Here are 7 local SEO ranking signals to concentrate on to improve your online presence in 2021. 

1. Google My Business 

Claiming your Google My Business page is one of the simplest and most effective ways to start improving your local SEO. Not to mention, it only takes a few minutes and is free. Once you’ve claimed your listing, you can optimize it further by choosing the most accurate categories for your business. You should also add photos of your location, products, staff etc. This helps add credibility to your business and serves as an additional local ranking signal. 

2. Increasing Reviews 

According to Google, high-quality reviews can improve your businesses’ visibility, especially positive ones. And similar to Google My Business, you should claim all listings on any review sites. Though it’s important to note that Google reviews carry the most weight when it comes to SEO. Location keywords being used in reviews are also valuable, as it sends signals to Google that you’re a trusted local business. 

3. Create Social Business Pages 

While Google still remains top for search engines, Facebook is also highly utilized. Which is why it’s essential to have a business page and keep it updated with accurate information and link back to your website. It’s also helpful to claim listings on other social platforms, like Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram, as well. Even if you’re not frequently active on those sites, it’s still beneficial. 

4. Consistent NAP 

Make sure your name, address and phone number are consistent across all online listings including review sites, maps, social media, etc. Google wants to make sure they’re providing accurate information to users, and this can help ensure that. 

5. Mobile Responsiveness

Since Google’s mobile-first indexing has rolled out, they look at the responsiveness of your mobile site first, not desktop. Make sure your site is optimized as much as it possibly can be for mobile. If you haven’t done this already, Google has a mobile-friendly test that can help you get started.  

6. Local Keyword Optimization 

Be sure you’re consistently sharing content that organically includes localized keywords. This could be about local events, news, weather or whatever makes sense for your brand. Includes location keywords wherever possible but still make it natural. For example, you wouldn’t want to just say “air conditioning repair.” To optimize for local SEO you would add “air conditioning repair in Chicago.” Also be sure to also optimize your titles and meta descriptions.

7. High-Quality and Diverse Inbound Links 

Links from trusted Google sites are important for SEO and especially for local SEO. You want a range of inbound links that are relevant, authoritative and gained organically. Links from news sites, community blogs, etc prove that your site is trusted by others in your community. But the most effective inbound link is from a high authority site using both your city and a main key term. 

Final Thoughts

SEO is absolutely vital to achieve long term search engine visibility for your website.There are a number of ways to enhance your local SEO efforts but these 7 tips are a great place to get started. For additional and more advanced practices, it’s best to consult SEO experts. 

At Onimod Global, SEO is our core attribute and a pillar of our marketing strategy. We develop organic search engine optimization campaigns that deliver increases in organic traffic through an increase in natural rankings across all major search engines. If you’re interested in digital marketing assistance or want to learn more about what we do, contact us today. 

The Clubhouse App: What Marketers Need to Know

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Clubhouse has been steadily gaining traction since it first launched in 2020. This app has an entirely different concept than any other social media platform, creating a brand new opportunity for marketers. Here’s what businesses need to know about Clubhouse and some ways it may be relevant for you and your customers. 

What is Clubhouse? 

Clubhouse is a free, voice-based social media app. Users can listen in to conversations, interviews and discussion between people on various topics. It has been described as listening to a live podcast with an added layer of exclusivity. Currently, Clubhouse is invite-only. Meaning not everyone can download it off the app store. 

For those that have been invited to join, you first select topics off of interest, like tech, books, business, health, etc. The more information you give the app about your interests, the more conversation rooms and individuals the app will recommend you to follow or join. The rooms resemble a conference room where some are talking and others are just listening in. Once the conversation is over, the room closes and disappears. 

How can you use Clubhouse for your business? 

The biggest benefit from Clubhouse is the ability to connect with prominent business leaders, entrepreneurs, others in your industry and potential customers. You can also position yourself as a thought leader in your industry. As more people join the app, it can have a large payoff to have spent time positioning yourself as an expert and start gaining followers early. 

The voice-note aspect of Clubhouse also allows a new way to humanize your business to others. It can help make interactions feel more personal, allowing you to convey more emotion and have real conversations with other users. 

There is also a new development of an influencer program. This program will only be open to 40 top users on Clubhouse and will allow business to tap into those with a large number of followers. 

How can you get an invite? 

To join, an existing Clubhouse user has to send an entire from their app, giving you access to set up the account. When you’re invited you’ll get a link through a text message. Users can’t invite anyone, though. They only get two available invitations at first. 

Final Thoughts 

As Clubhouse continues to scale, the number of audio creators is growing. Their impact on the broader influencer economy is just beginning. Some members of the pilot program have begun contemplating brand deals and cross-platform promotion. Others have begun to form creator collectives, like those started by prominent users on TikTok. Overall, this could be a good future opportunity for many businesses.

More from Onimod Global

Onimod Global releases the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday! To catch up on the top digital marketing news and trends, click here. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here.