Tag Archive for: Digital Marketing

Tips on How to Be Productive While Working from Home

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As a result of the Coronavirus outbreak, many companies are transitioning to working remote. While working from home is a dream for many, there are many challenges that can come with it. We don’t know how long this situation will last, so it’s important to learn how to be as productive as possible while working from home. 

If you’re new to the WFH life, here are some tips on how to do it successfully. 

Create a schedule. 

Working from home presents a different set of challenges than working in an office. It’s much easier to get distracted and feel restless with having nowhere to go. Establishing a routine that replicates a normal work day, and sticking to it, can be very beneficial. Set goals for the day. What tasks do you need to complete? What needs to get started? It’s also helpful to set aside specific hours for answering emails, making calls, taking lunch, coffee breaks etc. When you have a full to-do list and stay productive, it will make the day go by much faster. The next thing you know it’s 5pm and the work day is over. 

Have a designated workspace. 

If you don’t have a home office already, try as much as possible to create a separated and designated workspace. When it comes to working at home, you want to create a boundary between work and leisure. You don’t want to turn your bed or couch into the office. It could be as simple as moving a nightstand and upright chair to the corner of a room. This can also help to create boundaries with others in your home. Whether it be roommates, partners, or children, having a designated workspace signals to others you’re ‘at work.’ This all helps you to stay concentrated and productive. 

Communicate, communicate, communicate. 

Whether temporary or permanent, the keys to successfully working from home is clear communication with your boss and colleagues, and being aware of what’s expected from you. When you’re used to being in close proximity with your manager, communication is effortless. If you’re new to working remotely, this is now very different. Your boss might not be used to managing people virtually, so you need to find ways to break down that new communication barrier. Suggest starting the day with a phone call just so everyone is on the same page and knows what their expectations are. This doesn’t just have to be with your supervisor, either. If you’re working closely with another colleague on something make sure you both consistently communicate with one another. Whether this be done via email, phone call, or video chat, it’s important to stay in contact. 

Beware of feeling isolated. 

Loneliness can be a huge and serious issue, especially when you’re so used to talking face-to-face with a number of people a day. With the current situation, we don’t know how long companies will have to stay remote, which presents many additional problems. Usually remote workers still have the opportunity to go to public places or attend social events. Restaurants, cafes, bars etc. are open, which allows those remote workers to still have face-to-face interactions. With the COVID-19 outbreak, these opportunities aren’t there. Prolonged isolation could potentially start to impact morale and productivity. Those remote worker experts suggest trying to sustain a semblance of normalcy in unconventional ways. Consider having a virtual happy hour or dinner party. It can help everyone feel that they’re in this together and lift spirits during this difficult time. 

Take breaks. 

When you live where you work, it’s important to get out of your workspace at times during the day. You might feel pressured to overextend yourself to prove to your team you’re actually working, it’s critical to carve out break time. You’re going to get quickly burnt out if all you do is pace back and forth from the kitchen to the living room. 

Final Thoughts 

Initially, working from home can be challenging, but during this time, it’s in everyone’s best interest. Until the outbreak is under control, the benefits of working from home, outweigh the inconveniences. Remember to cut yourself some slack during this time. It’s inevitable to get distracted and off-task every once in a while. There is a lot going on and new information to take in everyday. While it is difficult, try to stay positive. We’re all in this together. 

More from Onimod Global

To catch up on the latest digital marketing news and trends, click here. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here.

Brand Communication Tips in Times of Crisis

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Every company is dealing with the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak, and with the status of countries ever-changing, finding the right response is difficult. This is not a “marketing opportunity” for brands to capitalize on. It’s a serious situation affecting the well-being of people across the globe. However, communication is essential during difficult times. It’s important to provide clear, beneficial information to your audiences, while also working to navigate the rising disruption caused by the outbreak. 

Here are some tips on deciding what’s appropriate and how to clearly communicate your brand in times of crisis. 

Be honest, thoughtful, and open. 

Now is not the time to be silent. You should start by immediately communicating how you’re handling the situation. Even if you don’t have all the answers, rapid and regular communication can help alleviate some concern and confusion. When it comes to public health and safety, customers like to know that’s a priority to you. 

It’s also important to be thoughtful of your tone of voice. Brands need to adjust their tone to fit the situation and context. Now may not be the best time to use humor or sarcasm. Empathy, understanding, and being supportive goes a long way. The best way to decide the appropriate tone is by listening to what your audience is saying and how they’re saying it, and reflecting that in your own message. 

Utilize accurate and reliable information. 

There is always tremendous amounts of inaccurate and misinformation that circulate around the internet. People always want accurate information, but during times of crisis it’s even more critical. For brands, it’s important to only share information that you know is reliable and factual. 

If you do have information that might help people navigate uncertainty, or help keep people calm, you should share it. If you have information that affects your company, employees, customers, etc. you may want to share that as well. When fact-checking yourself, it’s best to turn to the CDC and the World Health Organization, who provide the most accurate and timeliest information.

Use a variety of communication vehicles. 

Some brands have a tendency to over-rely on email when sharing information with customers. While email is an inexpensive and effective form of communication, it shouldn’t be the only vehicle used. Consumers’ inboxes can get bombarded with spam and marketing messages. To ensure you reach your entire audience with important information, utilize a variety of media channels. Post updates across all social media platforms, your website, and even through paid mediums. 

Anticipate change and act accordingly. 

With the situation ever-changing, it’s important to stay updated and informed. It’s also important to anticipate change in your customers and respond appropriately. As people are shifting to working from home, self-isolating, among other behavioral shifts, elements of all businesses will be impacted. Whether that be needing to change policies or cancel events, brands should make responsible and timely decisions. 

Final Thoughts 

During this time, consideration is most important. Everyone needs to keep in mind the ways in which people are being impacted by the coronavirus outbreak. All people are affected by this and there are varying levels of anxiety and concerns in different areas. Provide help in any way possible, whether that be sharing positive stories, helpful initiatives, or educational information. As a brand it’s important to create a communication strategy during a crisis that informs, supports, and provides reassurance to your audiences. 

More from Onimod Global 

To catch up on the latest digital marketing news and trends, click here. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here.

Marketing and Coronavirus: 5 Tips for Travel and Hospitality Brands

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Coronavirus is something that can no longer be ignored by marketers, as much as they might want to. Industries around the globe are starting to feel the effects, but none are getting hit as hard as one in particular: the travel and hospitality industry. 

With coronavirus recently reaching a pandemic status, travel and hospitality brands have no ability to control or avoid the situation. But they do have the ability to control how they respond, which can strongly impact their losses and how well they recover after the crisis is over. 

Here are 5 marketing tips for travel and hospitality brands during the coronavirus. 

Moderately Adjust Ad Budgets 

The crisis is forcing companies to reevaluate many aspects of their financial plans, especially those operating in B2C spaces. After all, does it make sense to buy traffic if consumers aren’t going to travel? Actually, Craig Paddock, director of search and travel at MMGY Global, a travel and hospitality marketing firm, says data indicates that consumers are still buying travel. He says their clients are only moderately reducing paid search budgets, with the exception of international paid search efforts for United States-based clients. With the recent European travel ban, it only makes sense to pause international ad campaigns all together. In terms of national travel Paddock says, “If you were to read the front page of the newspaper today you would think absolutely nobody is booking hotel rooms. We are not seeing that yet.” 

It’s also important to continue to keep brand safety in mind. While marketers don’t need to pause ads completely, they should monitor ad placement. You don’t want to be spending money on ads placed on sites dealing with the outbreak. 

Implement “Staycation” Promotions 

One audience that could continue to be business opportunities for hotel marketers are those within driving distance. Flying may no longer be appealing to those looking to take a vacation, but a trip in driving range may be. Consider creating appealing offers targeting those searching for travel opportunities locally. Paddock at MMGY Global says they have been creating “staycation” landing pages for clients that didn’t already have them.  

That being said, you don’t want to go overboard with promotional marketing. Brands must be careful that they don’t push their fantastic deals too aggressively to consumers who are not interested in traveling at the current time. 

Be Proactive and Communicate Clearly About Efforts 

As we said, it has become impossible to travel without being aware of the coronavirus. Companies should communicate proactively about the situation and precautions they’re taking to protect customers and employees. Brands obviously cannot market peoples’ concerns away, but they can market on a foundation that they’re taking meaningful action. Examples include: 

  • Creating and publishing policies related to coronavirus. 
  • Implementing new cleaning and hygienic protocol. 
  • Supplying customers with supplies and information that can help them protect themselves. 
  • Suspending any flights, services, activities, etc. that may increase customer and employee health risks. 

Be Flexible and Generous 

All companies want to minimize losses, but with this being a crisis that threatens the health of customers, brands should put people before profit. This is a factor that can strongly impact how well you recover following the outbreak. If a customer had a bad experience during this time of crisis and felt that the company only cared about maintaining revenue, the likelihood of them returning is slim. On the other hand, if they had a good experience, and felt that the company genuinely cared about their wellbeing, they could become a long-term loyal customer. 

Even if not legally required, it’s in a company’s long-term best interest to be flexible and generous. Airlines, hotels, and tour operators, when reasonable, should consider allowing customers to cancel bookings and receive full refunds, even if originally they were not refundable. If issuing a full refund isn’t possible or appropriate, customers should be given the opportunity to cancel for a full service credit when the crisis is over.  

Actively Monitor the Situation and Manage Campaigns 

The status of coronavirus and the world is constantly changing, which means campaigns need to be managed accordingly. For example, if a city or country emerges as an epicenter of an outbreak or becomes subject of new travel restrictions, brands have to react immediately. If there are paid search efforts being targeted there, marketers have to appropriately modify or deactivate them. Because ultimately, there is nothing to be gained from marketing travel to areas that aren’t safe, or to audiences that no longer have the opportunity to travel. These efforts can help travel and hospitality brands minimize waste, while protecting customers and employees. 

Final Thoughts 

What’s best for your brand is ultimately up to you and your company. We have no way of controlling what happens globally, only how we respond. Not everyone sees budget-cutting as the answer, but it’s in any companies’ best interest to reconsider marketing strategies, especially those in the travel and hospitality industry. 

More From Onimod Global 

To catch up on the latest digital marketing news and trends, click here. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here.

The Keys to Successfully Marketing on Amazon

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Today’s consumers no longer use Amazon just to purchase products. 90% of consumers use Amazon to price check a product, 72% of consumers visit Amazon for product ideas, and 56% of consumers visit Amazon before any other site to start their product search. In 25 years, Amazon has grown exponentially. It sees over 2,000 new sellers every day. If that’s not enough, here are some other remarkable statistics:

Amazon can be very intimidating, but it’s no secret there’s immense revenue opportunity there. To be successful, sellers must create a marketing strategy that attracts users to their product pages, then converting them into customers.

If you’re struggling with, or new to Amazon here are 4 tips to better market and sell your products. 

1. Drive Ratings and Reviews 

Amazon was one of the first companies to put a review system on their site back in 1995. Rating and review sections are now a part of almost all e-commerce sites, and many business/service sites, and are an important factor for online consumers. Good reviews can fuel sales for a few days, but a bad review can impact sales for months. When it comes to selling products on Amazon, reviews are vital. Getting reviews can be tricky, especially authentic and positive ones. On average 90% of negative reviews are unsolicited, while 90% of positive reviews are. You have to find ways to invite people to participate in the discussion, without influencing exactly what they say. There are plenty of “black hat” strategies to acquire a massive amount of reviews and fast, but that can get you into trouble in the long run. There are plenty of other strategies that work and are within internet law guidelines, such as:

 

  • Send follow up emails. After a customer receives a product, send a follow up email to inquire if they would be willing to review the product on the Amazon listing page.
  • Include a note in the package you send your products in. Today, a handwritten note can mean a lot. Including one in your package that thanks the customer for their business and asks for a review is an effective way to get positive responses.
  • Remind people on social media. Remind your followers to review your products on Amazon. You only want to do this every so often because you don’t want to be overbearing or annoying. You don’t need to offer any incentives, just explain why reviews matter and why you’re asking for their help.

 

2. Optimize for Search

To ensure your products are seen by people, your listings need to be optimized for search. When your listings are optimized, your products show up higher in search results. Your goal is to show up as close to the top as possible when your target customer is searching for keywords that relate to your products. Here are some tips to help you optimize your products for search and increase your discoverability. 

  1. Create product titles that read naturally and reflect a handful of relevant keywords. 
  2. Use special characters (like | or — or ,) to make your title more readable.
  3. Place the most relevant, searched-for terms first, in an order that makes sense. 
  4. Take a look at what works for competitors. 

3. Utilize Videos

Videos engage users and can help increase rankings more than any other type of content. Creating videos that promote or educate users about you or your products can help boost Amazon sales. While you can’t post your videos directly to Amazon, you can share them across your social channels and on your site and then link viewers to the product listing. 

4. Be a Reliable Resource 

With hundreds of thousands of competitors on Amazon, you need to find ways to differentiate yourself from them. For this to be accomplished you have to leverage your brand as a reliable resource. There are a variety of ways to do this, but here are 4 steps to get started: 

 

  • Determine the value you can offer to others and start sharing it. Users are always searching for answers. If you have those answers, or any beneficial information, find ways to put that into forms of content that educates people and aligns with the passions or hobbies that they care about. Once you’ve found ways to create that content, set up a blog or news page on your website to share it. If you’re struggling with coming up with topics, start with answering frequently asked questions about your products, services, or industry.
  • Send traffic to your original content. Now that you have this valuable content, you have to work to send traffic to read it. You can do this by running paid ads on social platforms and search engines, targeting keyword opportunities to get the content to rank organically, and just sharing it on social directly. 
  • Capture email addresses and nurture leads. Every user that makes it as far as to read your content is a sales opportunity. Put the tools and automation in place to capture email addresses, and build content-focused email drips that continue educating leads and nurturing them down your funnel. 
  • Always include compelling CTA’s in all content. Make sure all of your content and ads have strong and clear call-to-actions. You never want users to be confused about what you ultimately want them to do. Include buttons, use bright and bold colors, and send those people directly to your product listing and brand page on Amazon. 

 

Conclusion

Amazon can seem like a beast, but with so much revenue potential, it’s not a platform you want to ignore. With the right strategy and supporting tactics, it doesn’t take much to be successful and start capturing consumers. If you find yourself struggling with marketing on Amazon, or any digital platform, you may want to consider outsourcing for your digital marketing needs. At Onimod Global we are experts in everything from SEM, social media marketing, Google shopping advertising, and more. 

Learn more about what we do, take a look at how we’ve helped other brands, and become a client today!

Tips to Reduce Your Bounce Rate

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If you’ve been struggling with increasing traffic to your site, acquire downloads, leads, clients, etc. it’s possible that it’s due to a high bounce rate. A high bounce rate is one of the most common conversion killers. If the majority of your users are abandoning your website on the first page, you have no chance to convert them to a subscriber or customer. 

There are many things that can cause a site to have a high bounce rate. If this is something you’re concerned about, learn more about bounce rate and the top 5 ways to reduce it. 

What is Bounce Rate?

A “bounce” is a single-page session on your site. In Google Analytics, bounce rate is a metric that measures the percentage of users that land on your site but do nothing on the page before leaving. It’s calculated by dividing all sessions, or the percentage of all sessions on your site in which users viewed only a single page and triggered only a single request to the Analytics server. In other words, it collects all sessions where a visitor only visited one page and divides it by all sessions. 

What is a “good” or “bad” bounce rate really depends on site and business goals. For example, if your home page is the gateway to the rest of your site and a high percentage of users are viewing only your home page, then you do not want your bounce rate to be high. On the other hand, if you have a single-page site like a blog, or offer other types of content for which single-page sessions are expected, then a high bounce rate is fine. There is a general rule of thumb that: 

  • 80%+ is very poor 
  • 70-80% is poor 
  • 50-70% is average 
  • 30-50% is excellent 
  • 20% or below is likely a tracking error that should be further looked into 

While these metrics are a good start, bounce rates do vary across industry and content, so it’s beneficial to do deeper research depending on your niche. If your bounce rate is higher than average it could be caused by many different factors, such as slow page load time, bad design, lacking clear-call-to-action, etc. 

5 Ways to Reduce Your Bounce Rate: 

1. Optimize Page Load Time, Especially for Mobile 

The most common cause of a high bounce rate is slow page load time. 47% of users expect a web page to load in two seconds or less. It doesn’t matter the quality of the page’s content if the user can’t read it, or even see it. This is even more true on mobile. According to Radware, a connection speed delay of just 500 milliseconds can result in an increase in “peak frustration” of more than 26%, and a decrease in engagement of 8%. Not only does slow page load time increase bounce rate, it can also cause you to slip in Google search rankings. There are endless amounts of free tools to test page load time. If you have problems with page load time you can reduce it by: 

  • Optimizing Caches: This ensures that your mobile browser uses local memory to cache resources in order to avoid unnecessary server requests. 
  • Minimize JavaScript and Style Sheets: This helps to reduce the overall bandwidth consumption and improve mobile caching.
  • Minimize Image Sizes: High resolution images are heavy and usually absorb more bandwidth and take longer to process. Keeping images under 100kb can help achieve the ideal page load time for your site.
  • Apply CSS3 and HTML5: This framework is lightweight and makes it easier for mobile web pages to load quickly.

2. Use Pop-Ups, Sidebar Widgets, and Promotions Sparingly 

It’s no secret that pretty much all users are annoyed by pop-ups. Most marketing experts advise against using pop-ups just because they usually lead to a higher bounce rate. Sometimes, well designed pop-ups can be beneficial for growing email lists quickly. If that’s the main goal of your site, then pop-ups can be valuable, but if you want to build a long-term site that generates a good amount of organic visitors, it’s best to limit pop-ups or avoid them all together. 

Some webpages are ideal vehicles for offering relevant content, offers, and other material. However, cramming the digital margins of your content with ads, offers, award emblems, etc. is a surefire way to overwhelm visitors, tempting them to bounce. If you want to highlight additional content from your sidebar, it should be done so in a way that offers value to the reader. For example, related article recommendations that expand upon the topic covered in a blog post is a great way to make your site “stickier” as well as provide genuinely valuable and useful content to your readers. Also, be sure to give users enough time to immerse themselves in the content before pouncing on them with promotions.

3. A/B Test Multiple Landing Pages 

It’s possible that your headline, call-to-action, or page design is just not working. This is why it’s so important to run A/B split tests to see how different factors perform. To run an A/B test, you need to create two different versions of one piece of content, with changes to a single variable. Then, you’ll show these two versions to two similarly sized audiences and analyze which one performed better over a specific period of time. It’s important to make sure you run the test long enough to gain accurate results. Once the test is complete you can see what performance best among your audience. You should never stop A/B testing, though. It’s best to continue to tweak different factors and create new pages to ensure your site is the best it can be. 

4. Improve Site Readability 

Another reason users may want to quickly leave your site is lack of readability. Readability is an essential part of user experience. You need to make sure that your content is easily readable on all devices. This isn’t just limited to font size and color, this also includes line spacing, margins, language style, tone, etc. Some ways to improve your site’s readability are by: 

  • Making headlines and subheadings big and bold
  • Using bullet points for lists or anything worth noting 
  • Including charts, images, screenshots, etc
  • Bolding keywords 

5. Utilize Images and Videos to Engage Users 

High quality images and videos are two of the most effective ways to engage users. Today, many websites use high-quality images as fullscreen backgrounds because they’ve proven to be effective. You can purchase professional photographs from various stock websites, but there are several sites that offer royalty-free images as well. You can use these images as fullscreen backgrounds, parallax backgrounds, background slides, or as inline images next to your call to actions. Videos are even more effective in grabbing users’ attention and engaging them. You can use animations, music, audio, narration, colors, and so many different forms of persuasion tools. You can create a very effective video presentation with a small budget by hiring a freelancer.

Contact Onimod Global 

Struggling to make your landing page convert or just need some digital marketing advice? Contact us! We are experts in all things digital marketing including SEM, Web Dev, Automation, Analytics, and much more. Learn more about what we do here, or keep up to date with all things digital marketing on our news page.

Tips for Creating Effective Display Ads

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According to Google, Display Network sites reach over 90% of internet users worldwide. This presents a great opportunity to gain significant visibility for brands. Display ads have considerable potential, but to be effective they must be created correctly. When a display campaign is executed in the wrong way, marketers put themselves at risk of wasting large amounts of ad dollars. If you’re new to display ads or looking to improve performance, here are 5 tips for creating effective display ads. 

1. Use Rich Media 

Rich media helps engage consumers. This can be done with video, audio, or any element that encourages users to interact with the ad. One of the easiest ways to accomplish this is with HTML5 ads. HTML5 ads enable animation, and interactive content, but are also responsive/adaptive, meaning that your design will look good across any browser, OS, or device. These ads can be created easily inside of Google Web Designer. Rich media allows for your ads to stand out and has been proved to grab users’ attention.  EMarketer research shows that brands experience higher levels of engagement (16.2%) using rich media ads compared to static banners.

2. Use Responsive Ads 

Using responsive ads ensures you’re making it as easy as possible for your ads to be shown across the Display Network. Using responsive ads saves you time creating different versions of your ads for different devices. Responsive ads will automatically adjust the size of your ad for different types of devices, such as mobile, tablet and desktops, and can fit in almost any available ad space. They can also be used with dynamic remarketing. This is done by attaching a feed to your campaigns. Responsive ads then show personalized content to users from the feed you control. 

3. Use Clear and Compelling Headlines, Ad Copy, and CTA’s

For best results, your headline should be clear, simple, and describe your offering or brand. Avoid generic or click-bait messaging and using all caps. Your description should be easy to understand and make it clear why it’s worth clicking on. Creating a strong call-to-action is always essential when creating an effective ad. Marketers have to tell users what they should do following clicking on the ad. This can be extremely simple, such as “sign up now” or “request a quote today.” Google gives examples of best and worst practices when it comes to headlines and text. 

Source: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/1722134?hl=en 

4. Provide a Relevant Landing Page 

One of the biggest mistakes a marketer can make when creating any type of campaign is sending users to their homepage or an irrelevant landing page. If a user goes as far as to click on your ad, you don’t want to send them to a page where they then have to further search for the information they expect to find. Your CTA should take users straight to a page associated with what you ultimately want them to do. For example, if your ad text says “Call us,” be sure to include your business phone number on the landing page. If your ad text says “Limited time offer,” be sure to point people to that promotion on the landing page.

5. Create Multiple Ads per Ad Group

Best practice involves testing out multiple ad variations. Google suggests creating 3 to 4 ads per ad group, trying out different messages and different images to see which perform best with your target audience. With Google Ads it will immediately show which ads are better performing for which group, but it’s best to run the tests long enough to get the most accurate data. 

Conclusion 

Rates per click are generally lower on the Display Network. Which is why to produce high performing display ads, you need to incorporate all of the features above, and then some. Creating successful display campaigns may take some extra work, but the results are worth it. If you need assistance with creating display ads, or in any area of Google Ads, allow Onimod Global to help! We are a trusted Google Partner and specialize in search, mobile, video, display, and shopping advertising. 

Take a look at how we’ve helped other companies, learn more about what we can do for you, and become a client today. 

LinkedIn Sales Navigator’s New Features to Reduce Time Spent on Non-Selling Activities

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LinkedIn rolled out new updates to its Sales Navigator platform that attempt to cut down on the day-to-day administrative tasks to build stronger relationships with customers and prospects, and close more deals. 

The update includes an easier way to tie in CRMS, a better way to package and share content within the platform, and enhancements to search and usage reporting metrics. These features could prove to be extremely valuable to marketers, as they are designed to streamline sales tasks and create more efficient workflow processes for sales teams using LinkedIn for identifying and prospecting new customers. 

New Process for Adding Leads to Salesforce 

The first update eliminates the need to switch back and forth between two platforms when adding contacts to Salesforce accounts. 

“With the click-of-a-button in your Sales Navigator lead page or lead list, you can now write-back publicly available information about your lead into your Salesforce CRM (and soon-to-come for Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales) quickly and easily without leaving Sales Navigator.” LinkedIn explained in their update announcement. 

Salesforce also ensures there are no duplicate leads by checking the contacts in your database and flagging any issues, ensuring CRM cleanliness. 

Features to Increase Workflow 

  • Smart Links: Allow you to quickly and easily package and share content within your Sales Navigator workflow, track viewing behavior, and gain insights on who is engaging with your content. 
  • Company Growth Alerts: An alert in Sales Navigator that notifies you if a company on your saved accounts list has added multiple job postings: “Indicating that the company is growing — a signal that there may be new opportunities that the sales organization could pursue.”

Features to Reduce Search Time 

  • Save Account Searches: Once you find an account search that works, you can easily save it and avoid having to repopulate the account queries every time you log into Sales Navigator.  You will be automatically updated any time a new Account meets your search criteria. 
  • Share Lead Searches: Once you identify the perfect lead search query, you can now share that search with other teammates with a Sales Navigator contract.

Greater Customization Capabilities

LinkedIn goes on to say “no one knows what you need more than you.” Because of that they have updated Usage Reporting and Mobile Experience to have more customizable properties. Users can now opt-out of LinkedIn.com activity in their personal Sales Navigator settings — removing any of their own LinkedIn.com activities from metrics like days active, searches performed and profile views in Usage Reporting. Along with these latest updates, Sales Navigator “Team” customers are getting the refreshed usage reporting features announced last quarter that include new navigation, metrics and data filters. Lastly, in addition to making the mobile app available to all product supported languages, users are now able to customize their mobile experience by filtering the alerts they want to receive. 

Final Thoughts 

LinkedIn has been rolling out a number of updates over the past year that have continued to increase its marketing capabilities. It has become a strong contender in the paid social space, and is an extremely valuable tool for many brands. These new features to Sales Navigator help to streamline sales tasks and create more efficient workflow processes for sales teams. 

If you’re new to LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator platform or having difficulties with any paid social, Onimod Global can help. At Onimod Global we’re experts in SEM and social media marketing. We’ve recently been rolling out brand new LinkedIn campaigns for a few of our clients, and have started producing a few results. We understand that LinkedIn is not an appropriate advertising platform for all brands or all campaigns. Having the correct brand positioning is essential, and with our expertise we know exactly where you and your ads need to be. Learn more about what we do, or become a client today! 

Infographic Tips Every Marketer Should Know

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Infographics are a great marketing tool, as they allow for easy communication of complex ideas in a visual way. Over the past few years, they’ve been forgotten due to the mass production of extremely low quality infographics strictly for link building. But infographics are not dead. When properly crafted, infographics, like other forms of visual content, are still highly effective at cutting through clutter and engaging online audiences. It was actually found that high-quality infographics are liked and shared three times more than any other type of content. As your goal is to provide value to your audience rather than generate link-bait, infographics are still highly effective as a content marketing tool.

Here are 5 important tips to keep in mind when creating and marketing a successful infographic. 

Determine Your Target Audience and Goal 

For an infographic to succeed, it needs to meet the needs of an audience. The first, and one of the most important, steps is identifying the audience you want to reach. Then determining their pain points, desires, etc. A common mistake made when creating an infographic is choosing a topic that’s popular in general, rather than specific to their audience. Infographics that gain the most attention and traffic are specific, relevant, targeted, and meet audiences where they want it most.

Next, determine what you’re trying to achieve with this piece of content. Where and how does it fit into your ultimate marketing goal? It’s important to be sure that an infographic is the best format to communicate your message. You don’t want to waste time on something that doesn’t fit into your larger strategy or miss out on a better solution.  

Chose a Compelling Title 

The headline of the infographic is extremely important. It needs to be compelling enough to grab readers’ attention, while priming them for the data they are about to digest. Clearly defining what the infographic will be communicating right at the beginning makes it easier to understand the rest of the graphic. You also want it to be simple. Titles that get too wordy may not keep someone’s attention long enough for them to make it through the rest of the content. It’s also very beneficial to try optimizing your title for SEO. Although infographics are technically images, they still contribute to the search relevance if part of a blog piece. If optimizing for search is part of your content strategy, we recommend including keywords in your title.

Stay Focused 

It’s best to keep infographics simple and focused on one main idea. It can be tempting to try to cram as much information as possible into the story. You don’t want your infographic to look like an attempt to randomly assemble as much data as possible. An infographic is most effective when it tells a strong and straightforward story that brings more clarity to a topic. 

It’s also important to establish a flow for your design. The reader’s eye should naturally go from one block of information to the next, moving them through a thought process. Once all of your information is in the right sequence and you begin to work on the first draft of your infographic, you can also use images and symbols to help reinforce the flow of your infographic, such as arrows.

Make Viewing Easy 

This tip is applicable in more ways than one. You want the infographic to be physically easy to view. Often times infographics are designed very large and must be downsized when published. This can cause readability to easily get lost. Make sure the smallest fonts can still be read without too much difficulty, whether the viewer decides to enlarge the infographic or not. This can also be done through using contrasting colors.

You also want to make viewing easy by making the infographic easy to find. Just as any other piece of content, it doesn’t just magically go viral. To help your team distribute the infographic effectively, there are a few extra steps to be taken. First, you should optimize your infographic for SEO, as we mentioned previously. Make sure you have the best file names and keywords to get the most traffic. Next, make sure your infographic is easily shareable. Make sure you have the right resolution, file formats, and sizes, whether it’s going out via email, blog, or social. You can even break up the infographic into different assets to get more mileage from one piece of content. Lastly, create a compelling pitch that explains why the content is interesting and relevant. You can do this through highlighting key takeaways, making the pitch personal and brief, etc. 

Double Check Facts and Cite Resources 

Infographics usually include a lot of specific data. It’s important to make sure the pieces of data used are accurate. This can be done by making sure the statistics themselves are true and the sources you’re using are reliable. When using outside sources, it’s also important to make sure you’re citing them. Try to use sources that are as up-to-date as possible. Using old stats, especially in an industry where information is always changing, makes you seem out of touch. It’s easiest to include those citations at the bottom of the piece, but you can include them in the body if it’s not distracting. 

Conclusion 

Infographics are alive, well, and very valuable when it comes to content marketing tools. They require a delicate balance between telling a story and providing hard-hitting points to drive your message. Creating a successful infographic doesn’t have to be difficult. It just takes a strong understanding of your audience, your goals, and willingness to put in high quality effort. 

More from Onimod Global 

To catch up on the latest digital marketing news and trends, click here. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here!

 

Is Marketing on Pinterest Right for My Business?

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Most businesses understand the importance of marketing on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, ect. Pinterest is a social platform that’s often overlooked due to the assumption it’s just a place moms go to find recipes and DIY inspiration. Actually, Shopify found it was the second highest source for referral traffic and that 93% of pinners use the platform for research or making purchases. Not only are users extremely active, but Pinterest has rolled out a number of new features over the past year increasing the platform’s marketing abilities. 

Pinterest is becoming a great tool for digital marketing, but just as all social platforms, it’s not ideal for all businesses. Discover more about Pinterest, its marketing capabilities, and whether or not it’s right for your business. 

The Benefits of Using Pinterest for Business 

Driving Traffic to Your Website 

Pinterest has the ability to drive mass amounts of traffic directly to your company website. Research has found that Pinterest actually drives more referral traffic than LinkedIn, Google+, and YouTube combined. This is due to its unique design. Every image placed on a board is automatically hyperlinked to its original source. To be directed to your website, all users have to do is click directly on the image of the pin. 

Using Pinterest regularly can also help drive more organic traffic by increasing SEO rankings. This is partially due to contents’ ability to last longer on the platform. Generally, the most popular posts on other social sites are whatever is most recent. Pins gain popularity over time as they’re actively searched for, found, and re-pinned. This can help to be a powerful tool in driving you up Google’s rankings and making you more discoverable. 

Engage with High-Intent Customers 

Since last year, users increased 28%, to 322 million active monthly users. Not only are there more people using Pinterest than ever, the majority of them are high-intent, ready to purchase audience members. 98% of users report trying new things they discover on the platform, 93% have used it to research, plan for, or make purchases, and 39% of users are active shoppers. Users are more likely to purchase products they come across organically on Pinterest than any other social platform due to users proactively searching, rather than just scrolling through a feed. 

Build Brand Image and Authority 

Visual content is more important than ever, as 62% of Gen Zers and millennials say they like searching by images. Pinterest is the perfect platform to tell customers who you are and what you’re about, visually. You have the opportunity to reinforce your brand image by regularly appearing on users’ home pages, creating a variety of boards that reflect your identity, or sharing outside relevant content. These practices can help to build credibility and brand authority in your niche industry. 

What Types of Businesses Should Use Pinterest?  

Whether Pinterest is a good fit for your business is ultimately up to you, but there seem to be some that perform better than others. In general, it’s easier for B2C companies to market on Pinterest, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible for B2B. Clothing, cosmetic, food, home decor, and DIY’s are the types of content that seems to perform best. While the majority of Pinterest users are women ages 25-54, 50% of all new sign-ups are men. 

Another statistic that’s important to keep in mind is that 40% of Pinterest users have a household income of $100K per year or more. This shows that the platform attracts those with large amounts of disposable income with the ability to spend on luxury products. 

That being said, any business has the potential to be successful on Pinterest. Just as with any other marketing tool, success is highly dependent on your strategy. The key is having the ability to consistently create captivating, high-quality, visual content that’s valuable to users. A good pin has: 

  • Vertical imagery. Majority of pinners are on mobile. Shoot for a 2:3 aspect ratio so your image doesn’t get truncated, while making it as high-quality as possible. 
  • Descriptive copy. Explain what users are looking at and entice them to learn more.
  • Text overlay. Including a headline that reinforces your message.
  • Tasteful branding. Include your logo so your brand doesn’t get lost in feeds.

How to Get Started 

When getting started, make sure you set up a business account, rather than a personal. This will give you access to analytics and other exclusive marketing tools. If you already have a personal account, Pinterest allows you to convert it to a business profile here. It’s important to keep branding consistent with your site and other social media accounts. If it’s available, try to use the same username. If you have them, you should also connect your Instagram, YouTube, and/or Etsy accounts. Doing so ensures pins from these sites will be attributed to your business. Plus, you’ll also be able to track related analytics. Once your account is set up, you can start creating boards and adding pins. If you plan on running paid ads, you can then set up your ads manager account as well. 

How We Can Help 

At Onimod Global we are experts in social media marketing. We know which platforms are best for brands, and create visibility for brands where customers are searching, interacting, and ultimately converting. Find out more about we do, or contact us today!

Utilizing Google’s Lead Form Extensions

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In late October of 2019 Google confirmed they were rolling out a new lead generation form extension. The goal of the extension is to help more mobile users convert and easily provide their contact information without ever leaving the SERP. “A fast, mobile-optimized experience makes form submission easy and eliminates the extra step of navigating to your mobile site lead form,” as explained by Google. The feature has been slowly rolled out to marketers in BETA over the last few months. 

What Are Google Lead Form Extensions? 

Before making a purchase, customers often want to contact your business to receive more information, but filling out forms can be difficult on mobile. Lead form extensions simplify the form fill process to generate quality leads for your business. They’re designed to attract customers with a strong call-to-action, which can be accessed after filling out the short form without leaving Search. The extension shows beneath your search ad on mobile and tablet devices. Marketers can customize the forms with their own titles, description, and which pieces of information they require from users. This could include:

  • Name 
  • Email 
  • Phone number 
  • Postal code 

If the user is signed into a Google account they’ll reach a form with already pre-populated contact details and can convert immediately. Additionally, marketers can design and upload their own background image for the lead form and customize the message shown after submission. Marketers then have the option to deliver their call-to-action in the form of a website link or direct download. Like all extensions, it may not always show and is more likely to show in top positions. Lastly, you only pay when a user clicks on the extension. 

How to Create a Lead Form Extension:

Once you’re inside a search campaign, visit the “Ads and Extensions” tab located on the left handrail. If your account has access to this beta, clicking on the blue “+” will give you this drop down, with a noted “Lead form extension” offer. When creating your lead form you first design how it will appear beneath your ad. Some of the choices you will be given include: 

 

  • Call-to-action: Google gives the options of Get Quote, Apply Now, Sign Up, Contact Us, Subscribe, Download, Book Now, or Get Offer.
  • Extension text: Here you can provide a 30 character message supplementing your call-to-action. It will appear right below the CTA on the SERP.

Next, you create the form users are directed to after clicking on the extension. Here you chose and provide:

  • The information you want to collect from users 
  • Your business name (30 characters): Shown at the top of the form.
  • A headline (30 characters): Shown immediately below the headline, serving as your primary CTA in the form. 
  • A description (200 characters): The main body of the form, allowing you to provide additional details about your offer. 
  • A link to your company’s privacy policy. 

Following the form you create a submission message. This includes a 200 character description and an optional additional call-to-action. You can then either store the leads in your ad account, or feed them directly to your CRM. It’s important to note that Google only stores your leads for 30 days, so you would have to download them frequently. 

Are Lead Form Extensions Right for Your Campaign?  

Lead form extensions are a great option, but may not be right for every campaign. They do have some limitations and aren’t available for all ad types. If your ad is for adult-oriented content, alcohol-related content, gambling-related content, politics, healthcare, or medicine it is not eligible for lead form extensions. Additionally, lead form extensions will only appear on mobile or tablet devices. If the majority of your traffic and conversions come through desktop, going through the trouble to set up lead form extensions may not be worth it. They also can only be controlled at the campaign level, not the account or ad group level. Only first-party advertisers or third-party agencies with a well-established, direct relationship with the products or services being offered, can use lead form ads. Affiliate networks or lead generation businesses will not be allowed to use the feature. Lastly, usage of the personal information you collect with lead form extensions must comply with Google’s data collection policies and local legal requirements. 

Final Thoughts 

If none of the policies or requirements present an issue with your company or campaign, then there’s no reason to not take advantage of this new feature. Capturing mobile conversions can be difficult, the lead form extension works to make that as easy as possible. At Onimod Global we are experts in SEM and as a Google Partner, we’re trusted by Google to excel with their products. If you need assistance in any area of Google Ads, we’re your team. 

Take a look at how we’ve helped other companies, and learn more about what we can do for you!