The Beginning of My Digital Marketing Journey

At the age of 22, I have decided to embark on the journey towards Digital Agency ownership. This blog will document that journey. Beginning with my first social media marketing course and hopefully progressing into a career in digital marketing, my aim is to bring you with me on every step.

Why do this?

·         To summarize and document the lessons I learn on my journey.

·         To help others who may be in the same position.

·    To increase accountability, by having to broadcast my successes (and failures!).

·    To hopefully build a community of like-minded people, who can help each other along the road to success.

I am a recent college graduate who studied engineering. I am now working in the tech sector in a graduate role. I have no experience of running a business and very little experience in digital marketing. I will clarify that I understand a lot of the theory behind various digital marketing services and I am not completely alien to the concepts they work on.

To begin I aim to post pretty much daily updates of what I learn. The lessons I learn and post here will summarize what I have taken from the course which I am about to begin. I would like to point out that I will only be documenting my understanding of each lesson, and what I have taken away from it.

Following From this, it is my goal to have the course finished within 21 days, and begin my quest for clients at this point. I imagine that as I continue on this journey my updates may become less frequent; moving from daily to maybe weekly. MY updates will still concern the lessons I have learned each week, what has gone well and what I can improve on.

I hope that Two Comma Thinking can become a valuable resource for all entrepreneurs; young and old, as they start on their journey or progress on their path.

I am going to set a small measure of success here, at the start of it all. As my experience evolves, I am sure I will set new and loftier targets, but for now I would like to think that I could reach €3000 profit per month in retainers within 100 days.

This would allow me to do this full time, instead of alongside my job. If you like what you read here I would ask two things:

·     First, to keep up to date with the journey, follow us on Instagram through the link in our footer.

·      Second, if you know of any business owners out there who could avail of the services I blog about, please reach out to me or send them my contact info. This would be a huge help in meeting my goals both short and long term and allowing me to provide more high-quality content!

Thank you for sticking with me this far! I look forward to welcoming you back here with better and better content over the coming days, months and hopefully years!

10 TIPS FOR DIGITAL MARKETING SUCCESS IN 2019

• DIGITAL MARKETING
 
• MARKETING STRATEGY

Getting to know and understand these ten tips for digital marketing success in 2019 will drastically increase the chances of your business succeeding online. At FirstPage Marketing, we understand how important it is to stay up to date with the latest digital marketing strategies and techniques. That is why all of our digital marketing services are backed by our team of highly trained experts, who are always looking to improve their skills.

Some simple tips for succeeding in digital marketing in 2019 include:

1. UPDATE YOUR WEBSITE CONTENT

Writing new website content for your business will not only help your business remain relevant in its industry but it will also help to increase brand recognition and the overall appeal of your business. Consider creating new pages that show off the business’ capabilities or updating old pages with more recent information. Consistently updating content on your website so that it is fresh and relevant is an SEO best practice known as “evergreening”. By incorporating evergreening into your content strategy, you will be equipping your content for long-term success online.(Digital Marketing Agency in India)

For example, if your website published a blog article last year on the 2018 top 20 tourist attractions in Abbotsford, BC, you would want to update and republish this article for 2019. This creates a better experience for users on your website, while letting search engines know that you are an expert in your industry, as your website is consistently being updated with fresh and relevant content.

If your website does not already have a blog or news section, consider incorporating one and updating it with new articles regularly. Doing so can help boost the website’s search engine rankings and allow it to rank for a broader range of web searches.

2. PROVIDE A GREAT CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Since it is important to ensure that customers relate to your business with positive emotions and experiences, make sure to respond to customer queries quickly with honest and helpful information. Taking this simple step will ensure that current customers are happy, while also increasing their trust in your brand.

It is also important to ensure that your website is fast and easy to navigate, as this will elicit a better emotional response from visitors. Websites with faster loading speeds, intuitive navigation, and strong cross-platform functionality often produce the best user experiences.

Providing a great user experience will not go unnoticed by search engines. In fact, two of the most important search engine ranking factors in 2019 are website speed and responsive design (mobile-friendly design). Making sure that your website is fast and responsive is imperative for online success in 2019.

3. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF LOCAL SEO

In today’s market, most people tend to look for service providers close to home. By targeting specific areas through the use of region-specific keywords and website content, your website will begin to rank higher in search engine results for those areas, allowing your business to grow in new cities and communities.

To succeed with this, ensure that you are using regional-specific keywords throughout your site and that your business NAP (name, address, phone number) is consistent across the web. Regional landing pages, schema markup, and local link building strategies are super important for success in local markets.

4. BUILD A GOOGLE MY BUSINESS PROFILE

If you are a local business with a physical address, a Google My Business listing is absolutely critical for local success online.

Building a Google My Business listing can help you build a better online presence by allowing customers to easily find, call, and review your company. All Google My Business profiles can be set up to link directly back to your website, which means that potential customers will have immediate access to all of your important company information.

A Google My Business listing will allow your business to take up more valuable real estate on search engine results pages and make it easier for customers to find your business on Google Maps. A business listing on Google will also allow you to obtain reviews and ratings from customers, which is becoming increasingly important to consumers searching for local businesses online.

5. CREATE AN ONLINE REPUTATION MANAGEMENT STRATEGY

Asking customers to review your business online is not enough these days. In 2019, it will be important for all businesses, especially local businesses, to have an online reputation management strategy in place. Your customers are likely already reviewing you online. It is key to find out where they are reviewing you (Google, Yelp, Facebook, TripAdvisor, etc.) and having a strategy in place for responding to these reviews.

At the bare minimum, an online reputation management strategy should include a set of review guidelines that outlines who will be responsible for replying to reviews (both good and bad) and the type of language used to respond.

Asking customers to write reviews for your business on Google can help lead to potential leads from new customers. Good reviews from past customers will increase your overall brand image and can convince potential customers to try your products or services.

If a customer chooses to leave a bad review, make sure to respond to their complaints as soon as possible. Reaching out to disgruntled customers, promptly and positively, will show potential customers that you care about their concerns.

6. UTILIZE SEO AND SEM TOGETHER

Utilizing both search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) together is the best recipe for search engine success. It will help increase your online presence and can mean the difference between a customer choosing you or a competitor. Having your website appear both on paid and organic search results allows you to dominate search engine results pages by taking up more real estate.

SEM tactics like pay-per-click campaigns can be a great way to bring in fast results and bring more attention to your company. Even though SEM does not offer much in the way of increasing organic search rankings, it is still an important factor in ensuring digital marketing success in 2019.

While SEO takes time to generate new leads, it can help ensure that your business ranks and continues to rank on the first page of search engine results. By featuring good content and regularly updating your website, SEO can work to generate solid rankings and organic search traffic.

7. PROVIDE A STRONG CALL-TO-ACTION

Try to grab the attention of potential customers by providing a strong call-to-action or by offering free quotes, assessments, or newsletters. Having a strong call-to-action can help funnel customers through the website, generating stronger, better leads.

8. TRACK YOUR PERFORMANCE ONLINE

Using online analytics can help you better focus your digital marketing resources and budget, allowing you to invest wisely. Through the use of an online analytics program, you will be able to gain valuable insights into the sources that generate traffic to the website, as well as the demographics and regions of people visiting the website. This will allow you to assess which pages work the best on the website and which pages need improvement.

9. BUILD AUDIENCE-SPECIFIC LANDING PAGES

Consider building landing pages that are designed to target specific industries and audiences. These landing pages should rely heavily on keywords and content that that specific audience would search for online, while also providing informative and helpful information. Make sure to include a strong call-to-action, as well as a link to the full website in case potential customers want to learn more about who you are and what you can do for them.

10. CREATE A STRONG SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE

As one of the most inexpensive and effective ways of building brand loyalty and keeping customers informed, social media marketing using different platforms, such as Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube can be an effective way to boost a company’s brand and culture.

When using social media marketing, make sure to use a couple of platforms effectively rather than spreading yourself thin across several different platforms. Make sure to share news articles, as well as pictures and videos, that will help build brand awareness and to connect with followers in a meaningful way.

In our experience, the biggest key to a successful social media strategy is implementing a mixture of both paid and organic content on social media. Ensure that your website has a Facebook Pixel installed on it so that you are able to retarget visitors and implement custom lookalike audiences for advertising on Facebook and Instagram.

Properly incorporating these ten tips for digital marketing success in 2019 into your overall marketing strategy can help increase brand awareness and boost traffic on your website. If you would like to learn more digital marketing tips for 2019.

30 Tips for Great Digital Marketing- Digital Marketing Agency in India

t’s guest post day here at VGGroups and today’s guest post is from Tara Banda – Enjoy!

A man walks into a bar/restaurant/hotel/car repair shop. Chances are, he found it online. That’s because today’s consumers, 80% according to Google, rely more on the Web to find and choose local businesses.(Digital Marketing Agency in India)

So how do you make sure that these consumers find and choose your local business? By using a mix of these four strategies for great digital marketing: search advertising, websites, search engine optimization, and social media. Here are 30 tips to get you going.

Search for Advertising Tips

1. Identify and follow the rules of Bing, Yahoo!, and Google search ads before running your campaign as all have slightly different formats.

2. Optimize the URL displayed in your search ad so that it’s relevant to the product or service you are promoting.

3. Include target keywords in your headlines and copy that either match or closely match the keywords you bid on in order to boost the chance that your ad appears for those terms.

4. Write strong calls to action for your search ads that directly state what you want consumers to do. For example “Contact for a Free Estimate” or “Get a 50% Coupon.”

5. When using a click-to-call extension, consider using a tracking number so that you can identify and measure which ads perform the best.

6. Don’t spend precious text ad character count on your business name. It should already be in your optimized URL.

7. Do capitalize the first letter of major words in your ad. Don’t (read “NEVER”) go crazy with all caps.

8. Should you use correct punctuation in-text ads? Yes! It just makes good sense.

9. Using trademarks in-text ad copy is a no-no unless, of course, you own them. You can, however, bid on terms relevant to your business.

10. DUUA (don’t use unknown abbreviations). While it could pique the interest of a few searchers, why take that chance?

Website Tips

11. If you haven’t updated your website since 2010, do it now. A clean, modern design is key in digital marketing, plus it ensures that you meet today’s best practices and Web standards.

12. Make your website mobile-friendly! The 2014 Local Search Study results indicate that nearly 80% of local mobile searches end in a purchase. This is a big audience you shouldn’t ignore.

13. Accurately complete your site’s metadata (title tags, descriptions, alt text, etc.). Not doing so can negatively impact your visibility on SERPs.

14. A business blog is a winning addition to your website. It can help boost your site’s SEO, set you apart from the competition, and demonstrate your knowledge and expertise. It’s a win-win situation.

15. In order to get found by local consumers, you need to optimize your site with local information like your address and geo-targeted keywords.

Search Engine Optimization

16. Having a business blog is useless if you don’t regularly create and promote original and sharable content to help prove relevance and therefore rank in search engines.

17. Enable share buttons on your blog so that readers can easily post your content to their social media pages and drive visitors back to your website.

18. Optimize your Google+ Local page to help your business name, phone number, location, and even opening hours show up in Google Maps and Google’s local search results.

19. Much like Google+ Local, Yelp is a platform to complete and post information about your business. More importantly, it helps feed Apple Maps with local business results.

20. Include geo-specific keywords, such as your city, neighborhood, and zip codes, in your website, blog, and even social media copy to appear in search results for these terms.

19. Don’t only promote blog posts once. Repurpose them as engaging images, quotes, or questions in order to generate additional views, shares, and subject relativity.

21. Getting backlinks from influencers and other industry-related websites that have already established credibility are great for building your own authority and driving more visits back to your site.

23. Enable Google Authorship to help build your personal brand. By establishing yourself as a subject matter expert, you can share your own content, generate more shares, and drive more website visits.

22. Since positive reviews rank in search engine results, generate positive reviews with high rankings to help persuade consumers to choose your business.

26. Once you receive positive reviews, promote them on your website and social media sites so that consumers who search for your business on social sites or local directories see the great things others say about your business.

25. Images can help sell your business, and they also rank in search engines. Don’t name your images “photo.jpg,” and instead name them more descriptively, add alt text or captions on your website to help images show up in search results.

Social Media

27. Think, review, and review again before you make a social media post or comment. The ability to easily take screenshots makes it difficult to take back a social media mistake.

28. Since your employees also represent your brand, both in-person and online, implement a social media policy that at the least permits them from sharing internal information.

29. Before you jump on a trending hashtag, make sure you know the origin of it. Not doing so can potentially cause social media regrets.

30. Like it or not, you “share” your brand on social media. And since consumers can start good and bad conversations about you, make sure to set up alerts that notify you of new mentions, comments, or messages.