Maximize Customer Engagement With the Right Data Insights from the Right Data

Sales Renewal’s insight:

Many of us understand that analytics are key to gaining a competitive advantage but fewer of us really understand which data is important and how to put that data to use. Whether it’s Big Data or little data, technology can help all businesses gain valuable intelligence about their customers. This article outlines 3 steps to gaining actionable insights from your data. Important aspects of making the most of your data includes providing context, looking at trends instead of individual data points, and gaining insights that are aligned with your overall strategy.

Best of Growth Spurts – Focus on Metrics

Actionable Marketing Advice
From Our Growth Spurts Blog

We regularly update our Growth Spurts blog with actionable marketing & technology advice, news and information. These articles are often hand-picked to address issues and projects we’re working on with our clients, but they are relevant to most business owners involved with any aspect of marketing their business.

In this month’s content roundup, we’re focusing on goals, measurement and metrics. Any integrated marketing plan will define strategic goals that boil down to:

• Awareness: Build an audience for your product or service.
• Engagement: Drive engagement with your product or service.
• Conversion: Drive sales and leads.

No matter which channels your use as part of an integrated marketing program, measurement and metrics are key to making sure you’re meeting your goals. Here are 5 timely and relevant posts that look at measurement and analytics.

On Content Marketing

Why It’s Essential to Track Your Content
Online marketing is about serving messages and media to your audience at the right times in the right places with one single goal: to move them through the customer journey and drive conversion.

What makes social different from other channels is the personal referrals by sharing, liking, and commenting. Learning what types of content resonate most with your audience at each point in the customer journey will help you use content to increase conversions. Read the article here.

Content Marketing Metrics: How to Transform Data into Action
It’s the age of big data, so marketers need to make data-driven decisions about when, how, and why you produce content. Content marketing metrics tend to fall into one of two distinct categories: engagement metrics and growth. Chances are, you’ll need to track both. Continue reading…

On SEO

KPIs for SEO: Measuring SEO Success
There are many variables at play in an SEO campaign, and key performance indicators (KPIs) allow you to identify what is working – and often, more importantly, provide an early warning system if something is not moving the needle as expected. Learn some of the most useful KPIs in terms of connecting SEO outcomes to business objectives here.

On Social Media

How to Draw Meaningful Conclusions from Social Media Metrics – Put Fans and Followers in Context
Don’t be fooled – a high number of followers does not equal social media success. Although “likes” and follows are where prospective customers begin their journey, these numbers aren’t meaningful as standalone snapshots. Companies typically track “likes” and retweets, but they can also track qualified leads coming from social, a company’s share of a conversation, and even the amount of revenue generated from an individual social marketing initiative. Continue reading…

On Customer Rentention

How to Measure and Improve Retention Marketing Metrics
The key to retention marketing – the efforts your store takes to get customers who have bought from you in the past to buy more from you more often – is understanding the metrics. Metrics give you a deeper understanding of your customers and their behaviors, allowing you to build experiences that turn one purchase into multiple purchases. This article looks at three of the most impactful retention metrics and how other companies have used them to build thriving brand loyalty: repeat customer rate, purchase frequency, and average order value. Continue reading…

Best of Growth Spurts – Our Favorite Posts from March

We regularly update our Growth Spurts blog with actionable marketing & technology advice, news and information. These articles are often hand-picked to address issues and projects we’re working on with our clients, but they are relevant to most business owners involved with any aspect of marketing their business. Here are our 4 favorite posts this month:

On Analytics

What Google Analytics Can’t Tell You, and How to Get the Info You Need

We’re firm believers in using Google Analytics, but years ago we identified the problem with relying only on Google Analytics to inform our marketing decisions. (Read about our Call Tracking case study here.) Continue reading…

On Web Marketing

Online Reviews: 20 Ways to Handle Bad Reviews, Boost Your Reputation & Win New Customers

Online reviews – love ’em, and hate ’em.

According to BrightLocal’s 2016 Local Consumer Review Survey, most people (91%) regularly or occasionally read online reviews. What’s even more striking is that 84% of people said they trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation. Online reviews have become the new word-of-mouth marketing.

An established Reviews program is critical for any business. From requesting reviews to addressing negative comments, having a clear strategy will help you get the most out of this powerful marketing tool. Read this article for some good advice, then contact Sales Renewal to help.

On Website Design

The 7 Elements of Graphic Design, and How to Apply Them

Sure, you can “design” a Facebook cover or social media image using one of the many tools available (Canva, PicMonkey, inDesign, Adobe…). And these tools all make “good design” seem easy.

But don’t be deceived. Be sure you consider “professional” design services where it really counts. Website, branding materials, and other places where you need to make a long-lasting impression. Read the article here.

On Email Marketing

B2B Marketers Say Email Delivers the Highest ROI Leads

Study after study confirm that email marketing continues to be a top lead generation channel. This holds especially true if you are a B2B company. See the results of recent research showing that email is the top lead- and revenue-producing vehicle for B2B marketers.

Best of Growth Spurts – Our Favorite Posts from January

We regularly update our Growth Spurts blog with actionable marketing & technology advice, news and information. These articles are often hand-picked to address issues and projects we’re working on with our clients, but they are relevant to most business owners involved with any aspect of marketing their business. Here are our 5 favorite posts this month:

On Content Marketing

10 Content Marketing Goals Worth Pursuing – Content marketing – your blog, downloads, white papers – is quite often one of the biggest marketing expenses, and one of the most difficult to measure.

Adwords and email gives the satisfaction of seeing immediate, measurable results. But your investment in “content”? It’s often a big unknown.

The goals in this article help put that investment in context: Invest in content, and you invest in your business. Consider: building trust and rapport with your audience; attracting new prospects; deepening loyalty with existing customers; helping with SEO; and even attracting strategic partners.

And to help you develop your 2017 Content Marketing plan, this article – B2B Content Marketing 2017: Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends – gathers 25 content marketing stats all in one place … dive in, explore and learn.

On Email Marketing

13 Things to Start, Stop & Keep Doing With Your Email Marketing in 2017 – Email marketing is a powerful tool to encourage your audience to engage with content and to nurture leads in your database along the buyer’s journey. Understanding the points made in this article will ensure that your email marketing is 2017-ready.

On Exit Planning

First Impressions are Critical in the Sale of a Business. What Impression Does Your Website Give? – For business owners contemplating selling their business, one of the many factors that can help them achieve their exit revenue goals is better and more cost-effective marketing. This includes their online presence, which starts with the company website. Not sure if your website will help or hurt your ability to sell your business? Our alliance partner at Business Transition Academy outlines five factors to take into account.

On SEO

8 SEO Trends You Need to Pay Attention to in 2017 – SEO is a constantly changing landscape. This article highlights eight trends to be aware of as we start 2017, including:

• HTTPS is no longer just an option. Security issues aside, Google has confirmed it’s a ranking signal.
• Social media will be an even larger referral traffic goldmine.
• Mobile-first strategies have become a necessity.
• Links will continue to be important, but they should be a by-product of excellent content.

Continue reading for details on these and 4 more SEO trends for 2017.

The Most Effective SEO Tactics – According to recent research from Ascend2, marketers say creating relevant content is the most effective search engine optimization (SEO) tactic. Results also show that it’s the most difficult to execute. Read the article.

On Analytics

How Google Analytics Ruined Marketing – Strategy => Content => Channel. This article reinforces the need for all marketers to understand the difference between a marketing strategy (what message are you trying to convey) and a marketing channel (what’s the best method for conveying that message).

It also reinforces one of Sales Renewal’s key beliefs that “there is no ‘digital marketing’ and ‘traditional marketing.'” Sure, there are digital channels and traditional channels, but they all should be used to support the marketing strategy. Read the article.

How to Grow Your Blog Audience: Here Are 5 Tips

So you have a great blog. You write great content with lots of important information worth sharing. You publish frequently and promote your own content. But still, you aren’t getting many hits. Does it mean your content needs reworking? Not necessarily.

Breathe new life into your existing posts by following these 5 steps, and you can transform your low-traffic blog with a high bounce rate into a blog many new people will actually read and come back to.

The SEO and Analytics Steps to Follow to Grow Your Blog Visitors

1. Make sure your blog posts are visually appealing – and contribute to SEO

Looks aren’t everything. But are people more likely to take your blog seriously if it is professional looking? You bet! You put a lot of time into your blog posts, and it should look like you do. Be sure your layout is organized with defined sections. Add aesthetically-pleasing, yet relevant images. Furthermore, use relevant keywords in the alt text field (the text that will show if an image doesn’t render correctly) to maximize SEO. Put the effort into making your blog look like it is worth reading, and your bounce rate will drop, and average time on page will improve.

2. Increase readability, improve SEO and lower your bounce rate by using headers to create clear, concise subtitles and bullets

If your blog post is a list-type post in a bulleted or numbered format, think “SEO” when writing the headers of these lists. Each header you include should be a clear summary of what is to follow in the paragraph(s) below. And by including popular (and relevant, of course!) keywords, you’re reinforcing for Google what the post is about. This, in turn, increases your chances of showing up in search results.

3. Optimize your Meta Page Titles

Your meta title, the text in the top left corner of your web browser, should clearly depict what the post is about. This text can be picked up by directories/webmasters, too, if they decide to link to your post. Be sure to include the “focus” keyword of the post. Keep it relevant. Keep it specific. Keep it simple. (60-70 characters, max!)

4. Create/Update your post’s Meta Descriptions

The meta description neither plays a major role in SEO nor improves your rankings in a Google search, but it is still very important. Because, while there’s no guarantee that this description will be used by Google, if a search query matches it closely enough, Google may choose to display it in the search results. This gives you some control over what is displayed, and could mean that the searcher may be more likely to click on your post, as it will appear to be a good fit.

If you have not put much effort into your meta descriptions, they are easy updates to make. Start with your top-viewed posts and add focused, keyword-rich descriptions. Again, while it should be concise, the meta description give you more space to expand upon your page title. Think of it as a short summary to hook your readers. This will make it more likely for readers to find your post. (150-180 characters)

5. Re-promote your older, evergreen posts on all of your social media accounts – with appropriate hashtags

Sharing your posts with your followers is a great way to gain new views, but Twitter especially gives a potentially large opportunity for new readers. You can tweet out your posts, even if they are older posts, a few times a day with different text. Fool around with hashtags and find out what works best.

Don’t be hesitant to periodically – even aggressively – re-promote your “evergreen” posts (posts that stay relevant over time). Each time you tweet, a new person may find your post. Chances are, someone is looking for exactly what you are posting about, so let them find you through relevant hashtags. Even just one retweet can have a dramatic impact if it comes from a user with a lot of followers. (Read about evergreen posts for local businesses here.)

Click to tweet this post to share with your followers

So how do you know any of this actually works? Well, we tested it ourselves, and we think the results speak for themselves.

Our Blog SEO/Analytics Test Explained

We took four older blog posts and tracked their performance over the course of six months (a period we will refer to as Period 1). We then implemented the five changes listed above, tracked the posts for the following six months (Period 2), and compared the results of Period 2 to Period 1.

To start, we updated each post to be more visually appealing and up-to-date. This included the addition of new graphics (as the old ones looked dated), changes in font, and the switch to a more simplified format.

Once we were satisfied with the overall layout, we went to work on updating our SEO. This involved some keyword research to see if any new keywords had become popular since the original post date, as well as reworking headers and bullets to include these keywords.

Following the steps listed above, we then changed meta page titles and meta descriptions as recommended in steps 3 and 4, and we repromoted the posts on social media. We promoted each post once a week on Facebook, and up to six times a week on Twitter.

So what do the results of our test reveal?

After implementing the 5 tips provided above, we saw noticeable improvements in three areas that are good indicators of page performance:

• Page Views (how many times the post was viewed)
• Unique Page Views (the number of individual visitors to your page)
• Bounce Rate (the number of visitors that leave your site after viewing only one page – the lower the bounce rate the better)

Analysis of the page performance of these posts indicated an increase in page views/unique page views, as well as a decrease in bounce rate from Period 1 to Period 2. In fact, unique page views saw an increase of 24% following the implementation of these steps, which means more people were able to find our posts thanks to the SEO benefits provided by these changes.

The bounce rate decreased by about 5%, meaning that these changes brought visitors who actually stayed on the website rather than immediately bouncing off the page. In short, this means the viewers of the updated posts were quality visitors that were actually interested in the topic, rather than visitors that navigated to the page by accident.

All in all, the results of our test allow us to conclude that implementing these 5 tips can breathe new life into your older posts. Optimizing the posts for on-page SEO and regularly re-promoting them can have a positive impact on the number of individual visitors who can find and read your posts. And, of course, by incorporating these tips into any new posts, you’ll be one step ahead of the game from the start.