Friday Five Roundup: Digital Marketing Tips - Facebook, SEO Optimization, & AI
1
Hootsuite
How to Optimize Your Facebook Page for Business
With 1.13 billion daily active users on Facebook, you’re missing out on reaching a huge community if your business doesn’t have a Facebook Page. Get your Facebook Business Page right with these tips and tricks.
Read the article on hootsuite.com >
2
HubSpot
The Essential Artificial Intelligence Glossary for Marketers
When it comes to marketing, AI is positioned to change nearly every part of marketing -- from our personal productivity to our business’s operations -- over the next few years. Here's why Artificial Intelligence matters for marketers.
Read the article on hubspot.com >
Click here to read the rest of the top 5 marketing articles for this week, including SEO and website image optimization and Super Bowl ad strategies.
Friday Five Roundup: From Digital Marketing Trends to Cures for Marketing Needs
1
TheNextWeb
5 Digital Marketing Trends That Will Disrupt Your Business
Businesses must have advanced, nuanced marketing efforts or the game is lost to others who do use these tactics.
Marketing strategies such as social media outreach, search engine marketing, and web site pop-ups are yesterday's trends. Every business does those now. Here's the next frontier:
Read the article on thenextweb.com >
2
Marketing Land
Cloverleaf's New Grocery Shelf Displays Watch Shoppers, Track Their Emotions
The vision of responsive groceries got closer to reality this week, when retail tech company Cloverleaf announced what it describes as the first digital shelf display with built-in detection of customers' emotional states and demographics. The system will be presented for the first time at the big National Retail Federation show, starting this weekend in New York City.
Read the article on marketingland.com >
Click here to read the rest of the top 5 marketing articles for this week, including how to generate more traffic and make your content marketing impossible to copy.
A Call to Action (CTA) is a button or other link, usually found on a website landing page, or shown prominently in an e-blast. It is responsible for goal conversions. Goal conversion is a measurement of some action, an individual has done interacting with your site or e-blast. Some examples of goal conversions include:
Subscribing to your newsletter
Downloading something you have to offer through your website
Making a purchase
Clicking to social accounts
Watching a video
Your web visitors have to click the CTA button for the goal conversion. Common examples of CTA buttons include:
Download
Subscribe
Add to cart
Take the free trial
If your website doesn’t have Call to Action buttons, or you feel they you are not achieving your goal conversions, here are a few tips for an effective CTA button.
The Look
The shape and the colors of a CTA button are very important. They have to attract your visitors to click on them. They should be different than the rest of your landing page, and have to stand out. Make sure their shape signifies a button, usually a rectangle, oval, or an arrow works well. You could also have a 3D effect to make them look different and stand out from the rest of the page. They should be big and visible on a landing page or e-blast, so visitors’ eyes are first directed to them.
The colors should be in contrast with your landing page for the button to be distinctive. Common colors used are oranges, greens, or blues because they don’t look too jarring on the page, and yet attract attention. Try avoiding a grey color for your CTA's because that makes them look disabled. If you do use grey on the website, consider having a different ‘hover’ color to confirm the visitor that these buttons are clickable when they pass over it with their mouse.
Click here for more tips on crafting an effective CTA for your landing page and/or e-blasts.
Friday Five Roundup: From Customer Experience, to Digital Marketing Stats & Super Bowl
1
HubSpot
The Year of Customer Experience: How Ecommerce Brands Can Prepare
According to Gartner data, 42% of CEOs say that better CX was “the key change that has driven more wins.” Here are a few ways your company can improve your online experience for customers.
Read the article on hubspot.com >
2
Marketing Profs.
The Content Marketer's Approach to Successful Social Selling and Sales Enablement
Push marketing. Pull marketing. Content marketing. Social selling. Sales enablement. All are in the playbook that Marketing and Sales use to grow the business via digital channels. Here's what content marketers need to know about their role.
Read the article on marketingprofs.com >
Click here to read the rest of the top 5 marketing articles for this week, including digital marketing stats and trends.
Brand Ambassadors can be celebrities, social media influencers, or brand enthusiasts, who are hired to represent a brand in a positive light in public.
However, quite often, brand ambassadors are customers from your target demographic, who voluntarily promote your brand by publicly speaking, blogging, tweeting, and/or instagramming about how much they love your product or service. These customers are an expression of the character of your brand, as they embody the same beliefs and values as your brand. Their job is to stay in regular contact with your customers, promoting the brand to them, and providing you with invaluable feedback on what your customers think about your brand.
If you’ve been thinking about starting up a brand ambassador program for your company, here are some tips that might help you.
Define your goals
Before choosing a brand ambassador, it is important to define the goals of your brand ambassador program.
What is it that you are looking forward to achieve with this program?
How could a brand ambassador affect not only your brand, but also be a positive influence for/on your customers?
Are these goals in terms of increase in awareness of your brand and/or an increase in an overall revenue for your company?
How much are you willing to spend on this program in terms of marketing it and/or giving out rewards, which is discussed later in this article.
Outlining some of these goals and others will often help you determine the strategies for your program.
When defining your goals, have reasonable expectations. Your revenue or engagement on social media platforms will not go up overnight.
Click here for more tips on creating a brand ambassador program.
Friday Five Roundup: From YouTube, Instagram & Facebook to Tesla's Customer Service & Lily Drone's Cancellation
1
Quick Sprout
8 Advanced Tips for YouTube Search Optimization
YouTube is one of the most visited websites on the planet, with over 6 billion hours of video streamed monthly from the service. So, how do you make sure your video gets across? Here are 8 ways to optimize your YouTube videos.
Read the article on quicksprout.com >
2
Inc.
Elon Musk Takes Customer Complaint on Twitter From Idea to Execution in 6 Days
When a Tesla customer complained to Elon Musk via Twitter about SuperCharger access, a resolution was in place within a week.
Read the article on inc.com >
Click here to read the rest of the top 5 marketing articles for this week, including Facebook videos and the much awaited drone named Lily and why it got canceled.
How important are your customers? Well, without any, you wouldn’t be in business. But specifically, if your business involves repeat customers then we ask a different question:“how important are loyal customers to a business?” Bob Konsewisz, a strategist consultant for Maritz Loyalty, states that loyal customers are worth five or six times more than regular customers. Therefore retaining customers is crucial for a business. A customer loyalty program can be designed to say thank you, and to encourage future business from your customers as well as referrals.
A customer loyalty program is an incentive program that lets your frequent customers get discounts, VIP sales coupons, advanced purchase access to upcoming products, or gain points which can later be redeemed for prizes. If you don’t have one in place, here is how you can get started on a customer loyalty program.
Creating a Customer Loyalty Program
When designing a customer loyalty program, start by asking these two questions:
What are the incentives that customers will receive?
What type of a loyalty program do you want to create? You will need to decide if you want to provide your customers a discount with purchases, a points program that can later be redeemed for free products and prizes, free shipping, or products and services that are exclusive for them. Loyalty programs are not limited to these, once you know what type of a program you want, you can get creative. It is typically a good idea to look at your competitors for loyalty program ideas. You can make one that is similar to theirs, or make one that is unique to further differentiate yourself from competitors.
Click here for more tips on creating a customer loyalty program.
Friday Five Roundup: From Video Marketing to Influencer Marketing, Personal Data, Snapchat, and Creative Tools
1
HubSpot
Why You Need to Focus on Video Marketing in 2017
Video is growing to dominate your audience's online activity. If you don't already have a video marketing strategy in place for your website and social media, you're missing a tremendous opportunity to reach and engage with your audience.
Read the article on hubspot.com >
2
Entrepreneur
How to Identify the Perfect Influencer for Your Business
The landscape and tools used in marketing are constantly changing and so are the jobs that go along with them. Learn about the work possibilities in marketing that are just around the corner.
Read the article on entrepreneur.com >
Click here to read the rest of the top 5 marketing articles for this week, including personal data collection transparency, snapchat, and creative tools used everyday by top firms.
Friday Five Roundup: From 2016 Marketing Lessons to Twitter live video and Building Brand Signals
1
Quicksprout
How to Rapidly Build Brand Signals for SEO
"Google wanted to separate the ‘brands’ that produce happy searchers and customers from the ‘generics’ – sites they’ve often classified as ‘thin affiliate’ or poor user experiences," Rand Fishkin.
Read the article on quicksprout.com >
2
Forbes
What Are The Marketing Jobs Of The Future?
The landscape and tools used in marketing are constantly changing and so are the jobs that go along with them. Learn about the work possibilities in marketing that are just around the corner.
Read the article on forbes.com >
Click here to read the rest of the top 5 marketing articles for this week, including marketing lessons from 2016, NHL with virtual ads, and Twitter live videos.
Reviews are important for your business because, quite often, potential customers rely on them when making a purchase or using a service. One less 'star' compared to your competitor on a review site, or one horrible review left by a customer, is sometimes enough for a potential customer to consider not using your service.
What about those companies without any reviews? Are they reliable? Many customers could be as suspect of businesses with no reviews as they are with all positive ones.
Similarly, referrals are as important to any business. When a customer refers to one of their friends, it adds to the credibility and trustworthiness of your business.
Having online reviews about your company or asking your customers for referrals are two of the important components of online marketing today. You should not be afraid to ask your customers for reviews and referrals for your business. After all, customers are the ones who know you the best. They will be able to provide honest reviews and refer your company to the best people.
If you don’t know where to get started with asking for reviews and referrals, here are 5 ways you can ask your customers.
Be Direct
The first step you can take is to be direct and ask your customers for a review/referral. This could either be done in person/in-office or by sending an e-mail, or even prompting from your website and social media. Either way you communicate, be specific about what you want and make sure your tone is polite and not demanding.
An in-person example:
I’m really glad you are satisfied with our work. It would be great if you could refer us to one or two people that would need our services/if you could leave a review for us. Would you like some business cards?
An e-mail example:
Mr. John,
Our business is always looking for referrals and this upcoming year, with our expansions, I wanted to ask if you knew anyone that would need our services, to please forward them this email or a link to our website.
Thank you for your time.
A similar template can be used for reviews. After this has been communicated to your client, make sure to follow up after you receive a response from them. It is important not to make the requests sound demanding, while keeping it short and precise.
Click here to read on more ways you can ask for reviews and referrals.
Posted by Uponline on December 16th, 2016
Friday Five Roundup: From Awards to Effective CTA's and Planning Seasonal Marketing Campaigns
1
The Drum
Samsung, Channel 4, Mozilla & more: Creative directors from 18 Feet & Rising, Now, JWT London and more choose their Creative Work of the Year
How to Write Effective CTAs on Social Media: A Guide for Marketers
An effective call to action can increase conversions and revenue. Learn how to write a great one with these tips.
Read the article on hootsuite.com >
Click here to read the rest of the top 5 marketing articles for this week, including Google analytics referral spam and using Instagram for local businesses.
Snapchat. If you are not familiar with this word, then you are missing out on one of the greatest ways to promote your business. Snapchat is a social media application that allows you to send live pictures and videos that last up to 10 seconds and disappear from the viewer’s account after. Unless, of course you do ‘stories’. Stories in Snapchat allow you to send live videos or pictures through the app, which are visible to everyone in your contact list for 24 hours. All the features, including capturing videos and pictures, and the use of filters are available within the app and anything from external sources can’t be uploaded.
As mentioned on the Snapchat website, “Over 100 million people use Snapchat every day to Snap with family, watch Stories from friends, see events from around the world, and explore expertly-curated content from top publishers. Snapchatters watch over 10 billion videos per day, which is more than a 350% increase in the last year alone. In short, Snapchat is about great storytelling - our stories, and yours.”
Why Use Snapchat?
In a recent Edison Research paper, Snapchat has grown more in 1 year than Twitter has in 4 years. Snapchat has a higher usage than Twitter and LinkedIn. While Twitter and LinkedIn have been around for awhile now, these statistics say a lot about the success of Snapchat.
Familiarizing yourself with Snapchat, one of the most used social media platforms today, could give you an upperhand in the modernized marketing world. Snapchat works well for businesses that want to launch new products, are holding live events, or have constant promotions.
Here are some tips that will help you get started with Snapchat.
Storytelling
Storytelling is a creative way you can grab and hold someone’s attention. Like other social media, many Snapchat users tend to check their Snapchat at the most random times. This could be while they are waiting for a bus, while having their lunch, or maybe even while sitting through a boring lecture.
Click hereto read more about how you can use Snapchat to promote your business.
Friday Five Roundup: From the State of Social Media in 2016 to the Dominance of Digital Ad Money
1
Globe and Mail
Follow the ad money: Digital shift gathers steam
The dominance of digital media over marketers’ advertising budgets is continuing its relentless march, mostly at the expense of print. Read the article on theglobeandmail.com >
2
Guardian
Kickstarter darling Pebble shut down after being bought for $40m
Honouring your commitments in times of change.
As unfortunate as it is to hear that one of the unique players in the smartwatch business is closing shop, it's comforting to learn that Pebble will be refunding all pledges for products not yet delivered. The money has surely been spent on R&D but the gesture to fund will be appreciated by thousands. Read the article on guardian.com >
3
SearchEngingeLand
More content, less traffic: part I
It's important to have high-quality content on your website, but columnist Conrad Saam believes that SEOs might be overdoing it. Read the article on searchengineland.com >
Click here to read the rest of the top 5 marketing articles for this week, including how to manage your Facebook with customers in mind and increasing traffic with less content.
How often have you received emails that you immediately deleted? The subject line is your reader’s first impression and has the ability to persuade them to open the email. Consider the following tips to help you write a great subject line.
When deciding on a subject line, it is important to know your audience and the tone you want to convey. This will aid you in coming up with a great subject line that is as specific as possible, which in turn will increase both open and click through rates.
Having a great title for your content is crucial. However, when the content is being sent via email, a great subject line might be even more important than the title.
Click hereto read more about ways you can increase open rates with a great subject line.
Friday Five Roundup: From Facebook ads to new trends, podcasts, and creating a social media calendar
1
HubSpot
11 Examples of Facebook Ads That Actually Work (And Why)
Have you been posting Facebook ads in an effort to drive people to your website but failing? Here are a few examples to get your Facebook ad just right.
Read the article on hubspot.com >
2
Entrepreneur
Capitalize on Trends but Stand Firm on Your Identity
Trends come and go and sometimes they're impossible to escape but learning how to use trends to build your brand is an essential skill for the success of any business
Read the article on entrepreneur.com >
Click here to read the rest of the top 5 marketing articles for this week, including digital marketing podcasts amd how to create a social media calendar.
Friday Five Roundup: From holiday marketing tips to marketing on dating platforms and Instagram's live stories
1
Business 2 Community
10 Inspiring Holiday Marketing Tips
The holidays are here! If you're serious about your marketing, this time of year presents the perfect opportunity to adjust your strategy. Here are some things to consider...
Read the article on business2community.com >
2
Quick Sprout
6 Neuromarketing Hacks for Maximum Content Impact
Have you heard of Neuromarketing? It's a combination of neuroscience (a branch of psychology that deals with nervous system/brain) and marketing. See how you can use it to produce engaging content for your audience.
Read the article on quicksprout.com >
Click here to read the rest of the top 5 marketing articles for this week, including using dating apps for marketing purposes and Instagram's announcement to introduce live, yet disappearing stories.
How to Infiltrate LinkedIn Groups for Maximum Marketing ROI
LinkedIn has over 450 million registered users and yet is often an overlooked platform for marketing and/or networking. Here's how you can use it to your advantage.
Read the article on quicksprout.com >
Click here to read the rest of the top 5 marketing articles for this week, including how you can use Artificial Intelligence for better customer service.
What You Need to Know About Google's Penguin 4.0 Update
On September 23, 2016, Google announced Penguin’s 7th and final update, calling it Penguin 4.0. Penguin is a filter that captures websites who use black hat webspam practices to boost their ranking on Google’s Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). Black hat webspam practices are aggressive SEO tactics that include techniques like keyword stuffing, invisible text, and paid links, among others. Once the Penguin filter catches it, Google then penalizes those sites by lowering their rankings.
With this new update, Penguin is now part of Google’s core algorithm, along with 200 other unique signals or clues it relies on to rank websites on SERPs.
Penguin 4.0’s two major changes:
Real-time Changes
Previously, if sites were blacklisted by Penguin, they remained penalized even if site owners corrected issues and the sites were recrawled and reindexed, until Google resynchronized its Penguin data with the other algorithms, at intervals.
With this update, now as soon as the robots crawl, they will see if a web page is using link schemes or keyword stuffing, or if they have good quality content and good user experience, and ranking results will be updated in realtime.
This is also why Google no longer feels the need to announce Penguin updates.
Click here to continue reading about the Google's Penguin 4.0 updates.
Posted by Uponline on November 11th, 2016
Friday Five Roundup: Canadian Ad Agency Cheers Up Americans, to Social Media Cheat Sheet
1
Globe And Mail
Consumers Control the Message with ‘Tell America It’s Great’ Ad Campaign
It seemed inconceivable that it had to be said.
Now, a Canadian advertising and marketing consulting agency wants to lend a hand.
Toronto-based The Garden has created a bit of a sensation with its campaign, “Tell America It’s Great.” Launched last week, the initiative encouraged people to use the hashtag #tellamericaitsgreat to send messages of encouragement to our neighbours to the south.
Read the article on theglobeandmail.com >
2
Inc
6 Direct Response Marketing Secrets Every Marketer Must Know
The more things change, the more things stay the same, especially with these six timeless marketing principles, from 'house lists' to LTVs, get to the basics with these tips.
Read the article on inc.com >
Click here to read the rest of the top 5 marketing articles for this week, including 5 digital marketing strategies for a higher ROI.
Friday Five Roundup: Benefits of Marketing Automation to Creating Scannable Content
1
Marketing Profs
It's Time to Take Content Marketing Automation Seriously
It’s time to take content marketing automation seriously. Here are some common misconceptions and surprising benefits about automating your content. Read the article on marketingprofs.com >
2
Quartz
More websites were viewed on mobile devices and tablets than desktops for the first time ever this month
It’s official. Websites are now viewed more often on mobile than on desktop. What does that mean for your online presence?
Read the article on qz.com >
Click here to read the rest of the top 5 marketing articles for this week, including 5 rules of digital marketing for 2017.
Friday Five Roundup: How Google's Penguin Update Affects Your SEO to Using Humor in Content Marketing
1
Marketing Profs
Brand Admiration is Earned, Not Given: Here’s How to Make It Last Forever
With the competitive landscape always changing and changes in consumer behavior, how do you ensure that your brand grows with the times? Branding experts offer their take on what 3 questions companies should ask themselves to create a brand that has lasting value. Read the article on marketingprofs.com >
2
Forbes
Penguin is now Real-Time, What Does That Mean for Your SEO?
Google has rolled out changes to its SEO Algorithm Penguin. Any SEO changes made on web property will now be considered and ranked in real-time. What does that mean for your website?
Read the article on forbes.com >
Click here to read the rest of the top 5 marketing articles for this week, including how to create a landing page that reaps high conversions.
Posted by UpOnline on October 27th, 2016
The way you respond to a bad review will directly affect your business’ reputation. So, it’s important that your message is informative rather than reactionary.
Do you remember Amy’s Baking Company who appeared on Kitchen Nightmares? Instead of responding to bad reviews with a level head, they ended up arguing and threatening customers online.
Well, don’t worry, they’re closed now! Just so you don’t end up like them, we have put together a few guiding points for you to consider before you respond to your customers’ negative comments.
Don’t be Defensive
If you read a bad review for your company, naturally you will be upset or even angry. Your first response could possibly be to justify the situation and state all the reasons why the upset customer is wrong. This may lead to an online argument, and could eventually turn ugly, in turn making your company look bad for potential customers.
So, the very first thing you can do is to cool down and be calm, instead of responding immediately with the first thing that comes to your head. (Especially with the way the Twitter community doesn’t waste a minute to call a company out for their bad behavior, it is really important to stay calm and collected.)
Don’t be defensive, but tackle the situation with a level-headed attitude and an open mind because this could be an opportunity for your company to better itself. This leads to our next point.
Take Negative Comments Seriously
Another important thing that you shouldn’t be doing is ignoring a bad review. It is already unfortunate enough that someone had a bad experience with your company. Most of the customers are not out there to ruin the reputation of your company. They genuinely want to express their concerns or opinions about their experience.
Investigate the situation the customer is talking about. Give merit to your customer’s experience. This could actually be an opportunity for the company to treat it as a learning experience. The negative comment could actually shed light to a particular problem in an area of your company that you may not be aware of, and because of that comment, now you can make some changes.
Click here to read more about ways you can respond to a bad online review.
Posted by Uponline on October 21st, 2016
Friday Five Roundup: Changes in Google Search to How to Create the Ultimate PowerPoint Presentation
1
Marketing Profs
How Google Search Has Changed in 2016
Did you know that the number of organic searches results on the first page of Google has decreased? Keep reading to find out what has changed with of the most popular search engine in the world. Read the article on marketingprofs.com >
2
Quartz
Finally, Linkedin's endorsement feature is going to get fixed – we hope.
Most endorsements are bogus, but some are not. The problem is, you don't know. Well that's about to change, and the result will hopefully make something useful out of what has essentially been a gimmick.
Read the article on qz.com >
Click here to read the rest of the top 5 marketing articles for this week, including how to create the ultimate Powerpoint presentation.
Friday Five Roundup: Abusing AI in Marketing to Reaching Generation Z
1
QuickSprout
Millennial Marketing Is So Last Year – How to Reach Generation Z
Did you know that in four years almost half of the consumers will be Generation-Zers? Starting to market to this generation could give your business an upper hand against competitors. Here are some tips that will help you reach the Generation Z.. Read the article on quicksprout.com >
2
Forbes
50 Reasons Your Website Traffic Isn’t Growing
So you’ve launched your website… now what?
Here are 50 tips to ensure you’re doing all you can to attract and grow your audience. Read the article on forbes.com >
Click here to read the rest of the top 5 marketing articles for this week, including how Moosejaw are using VR in their marketing.
Friday Five Roundup: When Your Marketing Plan Goes Awry to Shomi Surrenders to Netflix
1
Huffington Post
Shomi shuts down, unable to compete with Netflix
Netflix’s competition has been so strong that Rogers and Shaw’s jointly owned Shomi couldn’t keep up, and is shutting down end of November. Read the article on huffingtonpost.com >
Aside from making changes to your site, adding keywords and fresh content, email marketing is another great way to improve your SEO.
Read the article on forbes.com >
Click here to read the rest of the top 5 marketing articles for this week, including how to capture more leads aside from referrals.
We have all been asked to participate in a survey at one time or another, whether it was when you went to a restaurant, visited a website, or bought a product. When asked to participate in a survey, initial reactions vary depending on a number of factors, we’re often always in a rush, someone had a rough day, or you’re just enjoying some free time with your friends and don’t want to be disturbed. But when asked properly and weigh the balances of time and feedback, successfully completing a survey gives useful insight into the mind of the customer. White it usually only takes a couple of minutes to fill out a survey, hours of thought have gone into perfecting the questions included in it.
Most information collected through a survey is extremely important to a business as surveys are used to collect data on customer wants and needs.
Surveys help answer the questions businesses have by encouraging discussion and feedback with customers. This in turn allows businesses stay competitive by adapting to the ever changing customer tastes and lifestyles. (SnapSurvey)
Surveys are usually not composed of just one type of question. Usually, a survey will have multiple types of questions and answers. Whether you’re planning your own survey or just want to understand the thinking behind most survey questions, the 4 types of questions that are most effective and commonly used in surveys are explained below.
1. Open-Ended Questions
If you have ever filled out a survey after dining at a restaurant, you are probably familiar with questions like "What did you enjoy the most about our restaurant?". You have likely come across questions such as “What products would you like to see on our website?” when you are shopping online. Then there are the general question we ask each other like “Why did you decide to buy X?” that would lead to a more in-depth conversation that offers to pull more information from the respondent.
These types of questions are open-ended questions and allow the participant to elaborate on their answer. They are typically used when a fixed set of answers can not commonly include all the acceptable alternatives. Open ended questions are best when used at the beginning, as surveys are most effective starting from general questions that would lead up to more specific ones.
Asking open-ended questions will increase the time it takes to complete the survey, so keep in mind that while you may be able to capture more detail, you are creating a more taxing experience for the respondent and might reduce the number of surveys completed. Likewise, it can be extremely difficult to analyze the data collected from open-ended questions since the answers will vary immensely.
Click here to learn more about 3 other survey question types.
Friday Five Roundup: What You Need to Know About Facebook Live to Snapchat Spectacles
1
Top Rank Blog
What Social Media Marketers Need to Know About Facebook Live
Facebook Live is a live video streaming service embedded in Facebook that is growing in popularity. Here’s what you need to know about Facebook Live to incorporate in your social media marketing strategies. Read the article on toprankblog.com >
16 Social Media Podcasts to Take Your Marketing Skills to the Next Level Today
Looking to stay up to date on the latest marketing trends during your down time? Here’s a list of popular podcasts from your favorite experts. Look no further!
Read the article on buffer.com >
Click here to read the rest of the top 5 marketing articles for this week, including Facebook's Ad Preferences feature.
Friday Five Roundup: The Most Trusted Brands in Canada to Epic Fails on Social Media
1
Top Rank Blog
Avoid Content Ennui: 10 Creative Blog Types to Serve Your Audience
Are you having trouble engaging with readers on your blog? Offer your audience a variety of posts to keep them interested. Here’s 10 popular blog formats that are worth trying. Read the article on toprankblog.com >
How to Engage Your Audience Using Digital Advertising
A lot of people find digital advertising annoying and disruptive. Inbound marketing helps your business engage with your audience without driving them away.
Read the article on hubspot.com >
Click here to read the rest of the top 5 marketing articles for this week, including Canada's ad industry's crackdown on influencer marketing.
Uber has quickly become one of the most recognizable and controversial brands in the world. Originating in 2009, the San Francisco ride sharing service connects riders and drivers with its easy to use app, making it simple to grab a ride without the indignity of trying to find a cab in the middle of the night. Catering to the tech savvy crowd, it quickly gained early adopters who spread the word of a new and better way to travel through online blogs and publications. News outlets soon caught wind. Gone was the era of overpriced cabs, replaced by it was a sleek black sedan, discreetly greeting the designated traveler at the side of the curb.
Uber is impressive not because it hasn’t experienced any missteps during its nearly seven year reign as the go to ride sharing service (it has been accused of surge prices during crisis situations, and drivers have been charged for sexually attacking female passengers, cities have banned the service, criticizing it for being “illegal” not to mention its many contentious battles with the taxi industry.) Uber is impressive because of the way it managed to challenge the status quo and still come out on top despite an increasingly crowded and competitive space. Don’t want to grab an Uber? How about a Lyft instead? BTW Google wants in on the whole ride-sharing thing too. A huge amount of Uber’s capital goes directly to setting up a local presence in many cities and arming a fleet (mind the pun) of lawyers to do battle with one municipality at a time. They have managed to set themselves apart from the pack, cultivating a brand that is deemed cool, giving its drivers decent cash flow so they can ‘pursue their dreams’ and providing riders with a superior ride sharing experience.
Click here to learn how Uber has been successful in growing and expanding its business.
Find the Bright Side: 6 Things Brands Should Do in Light of New Facebook Page Layout
It has been challenging to keep up with all the Facebook changes lately. As frustrating as it may be, taking advantages of the new changes will reflect positively on your brand. These 6 tips will help you embrace these changes: Read the article on toprankblog.com >
5 powerful ways social media has forever altered the way we do business
Even though social media was originally used for connecting people, in the past decade, it has become one of the most powerful marketing tools for a business. Here are 5 ways social media has affected the way we do business.
Read the article on mashable.com >
Click here to read the rest of the top 5 marketing articles for this week, including the Apple air pod controversy.
8 Necessities of a High-Converting Blog Design You Should Be Looking For
With blogging becoming so ubiquitous, it is getting difficult to get customers’ attention and to increase the number of subscribers. Here are 8 tricks you can use for generating leads. Read the article on hubspot.com >
Whether you've been in the business 15 minutes or 15 years, staying current with terminology and best practices are all part of being at your best. Test your knowledge.
Read the article on thefinancialbrand.com >
Click here to read the rest of the top 5 marketing articles for this week, including how to keep your social media content fresh!
How To Use Neuroscience To Improve Your Content Marketing Strategy
Find out what neuromarketing is and how you can put the latest scientific research to use for your business.
Read the article on forbes.com >
Click here to read the rest of the top 5 marketing articles for this week, including the importance of including visual content.
Posted by Frances on August 31st, 2016
Interning at Uponline
It's hard to believe that summer went by so quickly! It has been a great few months for us in the office since we also had the pleasure of having interns on board. Aside from getting them to fetch our coffee and take care of all our dry cleaning, (just kidding), they did a great job of helping out around the office while learning the ins and outs of what happens on a day to day basis in an agency environment.
We sat down with one of our interns, Kuruparan, to get his take on his experience interning at Uponline.
Q: What was your experience like working at UpOnline? Be honest.
A: I really enjoyed my experience at UpOnline! I definitely felt like I've developed a good understanding of digital marketing, especially as it related to the healthcare sector. I also learned about the difference between good and bad website design when it comes to creating a site that engages with visitors, how SEO works, to learning about the fundamentals of email marketing so it worked on every browser and email client under the sun. And the importance of testing emails!
Q: That's great! We definitely threw a lot of projects your way. What was your favourite thing to work on this summer?
A: Probably working on developing mobile and responsive sites. I really enjoyed doing that. There were a lot of tips I've learned, coding wise, in understanding how sites would render on different screen sizes which was really interesting.
Click here to read more about Kuruparan's internship experience.
Posted by UpOnline on August 24th, 2016
How Airbnb Became Successful?
By: Mahnoor Awan
AirBnb is an online platform that allows you to rent, or rent out, unique accommodations from around the world. Whether you’re looking for a spare room or an entire home, cottage, mansion, villa, castle, island (I know right?) to get away, you can find truly extraordinary accommodations.
The concept of such a service originated in 2007, when founders Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia couldn’t afford to meet rent for their San Francisco loft, and decided to rent the extra space. Their first three guests were attendees of a sold out design trade show, and their first attempt at turning their extra space into a bed and breakfast involved air mattresses and Pop Tarts for breakfast.
In 2008, their friend Nathan Blecharczyk, a Harvard graduate, joined the team and they launched their initial website as airbedandbreakfast.com and since then, a simple idea they had in their apartment one day, began to take root and grow into the business it is today.
So, in an industry dominated by big hotel chains, how did three guys from San Francisco made it to the top?
Here are 5 reasons why AirBnb became so successful:
A Disruptive Business Model
In a market dominated by big hotel chains, AirBnb came up with a concept that was different and ground breaking. Just when customers were so used to going on to multiple sites like Expedia - to compare hotel rates and find the best one that suits their requirements - AirBnb came out with a model, which was user-focused, cost-efficient as compared to other travel booking sites, plus offering a cultural experience.
And not just that, AirBnb also had another type of customer - those who had spare spaces to share and enlist themselves. These customers then have the choice to choose who they want to stay at their place.
This approach is definitely different from what people are used to and creates a sub-market within the larger hospitality market.
Easy to use platform
AirBnb is not just creating a platform, but one that is super easy to use. It connects hosts and renters, where they both have the power to choose what they want, through a sophisticated filtering system.
Renters are able to filter by location, price, amenities, etc. while hosts have the ability to deny access to their homes. Users also have the ability to leave reviews for hosts or renters whom they’ve come across, adding another layer of transparency when it comes to selecting accommodations and/or guests.
Considering the age we are in of limited time and budgets, a platform that is less time consuming and more user friendly - it’s a no brainer, people will easily switch to it.
Click here to read more about how Airbnb became successful.
Posted by Uponline on August 19th, 2016
Friday Five Roundup: Leveraging Free Marketing Opportunities to The Advantages of SEO vs PPC
4 Free Digital Marketing Opportunities Most Marketers Are Missing
Does digital marketing sound like an expensive endeavor? Well, it doesn’t have to be with these 4 opportunities that you might be missing out on.
Read the article on quicksprout.com >
Click here to read the rest of the top 5 marketing articles for this week, including major takeaways from the email design conference in London.
E-Newsletters are a great way to keep in touch with your client base. They can be used to provide updates about your company, promote services, offer discounts, and run contests, and of course to send out invitations to events and seminars. Your contact list is invaluable when it comes to online marketing and you want to make sure those contacts are engaged with your content and that you are able to track when leads are being converted. As a primer or a review, we wanted to list some common mistakes and how to fix them.
Mistake #1: Using a generic subject line
The subject line is the first thing someone sees when they spot your email in their inbox so you want to make a good first impression in order to maximize your open rate. In the age of spam and information overload, you need to differentiate yourself and show that opening your email is worth it. And you want to do it in 50 characters or less (you don’t want your call-to-action to be cut off.)
The most obvious mistake people make with subject lines is they keep them obvious and staid. Tailor your subject line to the content and make it interesting.
Fix: Write short, attention grabbing subject lines that are tailored to the biggest draw in your newsletter that will get your viewer to open it. If someone has subscribed to your newsletter and hasn't opened last month's newsletter with a subject like: "Your Store - July Newsletter", what are the chances that a similarly worded August newsletter is going to convince them otherwise? Use your subject to highlight a specific event or deal that's happening, example "20% off select phones all July @ Walmart". Scarcity tactics that reference end dates can increase click rates, as in “Last four days to take advantage of....”, as well as subject lines with lists and numbers.
12 of the Best Facebook Post Ideas for Lead Generation
You can use your Facebook page to do more than promote your business - Generate Leads. Here are 12 ways that might help you. Read the article on hubspot.com >
When a new product makes waves in the market, it’s really hard to miss its impact. Pokémon Go, an augmented reality or ‘Real World Gaming’ app released in July 2016, is definitely one of them. Offered in more than 30 countries within the first month, the game is definitely making its mark.
If you don’t already know, the main focus of the game involves players having to get out and roam the streets, landmarks, and specialized locales, to find and capture Pokémon.
With players in multiple age ranges, many reliving nostalgia from playing Pokémon when they themselves were kids, alongside a new, younger crowd, a lot of businesses are looking to tap into this market to grow their business.
What you need to know about Pokémon Go
Pokémon was first launched on Game Boy in the 1990’s, followed by a cartoon TV show and trading card game, along with numerous other tie-ins. Capitalizing on the nostalgic essence of this popular franchise of the 90’s, Niantic Inc. took it a step further and turned into an augmented reality game, which can now be downloaded as an app on most smartphones. To play this game, players have to walk around their neighborhood, or the entire city, especially to popular areas like malls, parks, and monuments, to search and catch Pokémon, train them, and battle with other teams.
If you want to know what all these terms mean, you can check Niantic’s Pokémon Glossary. And if you still have no idea what I’m talking about and have more questions about the game, you can find answers here.
Click here for tips on how you can use Pokémon Go to your advantage.
Posted by Uponline on August 5th, 2016
Friday Five Roundup: Busting Google AdWords Myths to Brands That Came Back From the Dead
Oren Baum, Founder: I watched a recent Core one course with one of our great Continuing Education association, covering the topics of patient engagement, social media, and interaction. I spoke with some clients who were attendees and realized that they were taking different things from the seminar than each other and different than what the speakers may have intended.
We thought to put together some top-down information on what forms of interaction could most benefit the a dental office, and how they work together to increase referrals, decrease recall times, and increase business.
As a dental practitioner, it’s important that your patients feel that they are in a comfortable and safe environment, free to discuss whatever is on their mind. Not only does that provide richer details about their medical (and relevant patient) history but it also allows you and your staff to foster close relationships. By keeping the lines of communication open, you build trust and earn lifelong patients. When you think about the current workflow of your office, from scheduling patients to after care follow up, is there any part of the patient experience that is missing or can be improved?
If you haven’t had the time to sit down and think about how to connect better with patients, here are five methods to get you started:
Develop strong rapport
No matter how busy your day is don’t forgo pleasantries. Calling your patient’s by name and demonstrating that you remember their likes/dislikes, and past conversations is key to developing a strong rapport. Instead of asking yes or no questions, ask open ended questions that will encourage patients to provide you with more detailed information. Make sure to listen and to not interrupt.
Set Expectations
Setting expectations is key to providing a great patient experience. Realistically, it is highly unlikely that your staff will be able to answer every phone call or email right away but they should be able to confidently convey to the patient when the next point of contact will be. The same holds true for available payment options, duration of procedures, and after-care /recovery time. If patients know ahead of time how long something is going to take, they are less likely to feel impatient or stressed, thus more able to enjoy the experience at your office, and more likely to carry that good association with them longer, and talk about it with others.
Click here for more tips on how to improve patient communication.
Posted by Uponline on July 29th, 2016
Friday Five Roundup: Marketing for Startups to The Importance of Your Company Logo
If you’re a startup it’s possible to devote money to your marketing efforts without breaking the bank. Here’s how you can take advantage of the tools available today Read the article on knowtechie.com >
Whether or not your website is getting a high level of traffic through Organic SEO, Google AdWords is a quick way to further increase brand awareness, target new locations and expand your marketing reach. Setting up an effective ad campaign can be tricky and can cost you a lot if done improperly. let’s go over the basics and learn how to define your goals, build landing pages, select good keywords and more.
Click here to read for our tips on how to run your best Adwords campaign.
The Role of Emotions in Shareable Content: An Analysis of 100 Viral Reddit Images
These days, we are constantly swamped with digital noise that we somehow manage to by pass. Based on an analysis of viral images by team at Fractl, there are still some posts – a combination of arousal and dominance – that evoke some sort of emotion and hence go viral. Read the article on hubspot.com >
A brand is not only related to the product or service you’re selling, neither is it your website, nor the name or the logo of your company. A brand is so much more than that. It’s (almost) intangible – it’s the feeling or experience generated when people hear your company’s name.
Why is it important to create a brand?
Creating a brand instills a confidence in users that your company is recognized and reliable. Especially if your company is online based, it is important because you can no longer do that on a one-to-one level, as you’re not personally there to convince your customers.
Pokemon GO could be the next big marketing tool for retailers
Pokemon GO is happening whether or not you know what a Pokemon is. Learn about how retailers have used it to "lure" customers in and how Pokemon GO has the potential of disrupting the geolocation social platform field
Read the article on finance.yahoo.com >
Mr. Robot Drops First Hour of Season 2 Premiere via Social Media
Mr. Robot excites devoted viewers by using social media to bolster fan support with a special preview of the season 2 premiere on various channels
Read the article on variety.com >
Click hereto read the rest of the top 5 marketing articles for this week, including how Linkedin could be a better social platform for job seekers and recruiters.
Posted by UpOnline on July 14th, 2016
5 Tips on How to Create a Great e-Newsletter
By: Mahnoor Awan
You’re sitting in a boardroom meeting and your boss tells you to come up with another marketing channel to promote your brand. An email newsletter! That’s what you all agree upon, in order to stay in close contact with your customers, to offer contests and promotions, and of course, to serve as a reminder of your brand. Without a doubt, an e-Newsletter does have many benefits:
Cost-efficient to share and distribute
A less costly way to promote events and special offers
Easy to distribute educational content
Helps to maintain relationships with your customers
Provides results that can be tracked straightaway
It all sounds easy and simple. But, creating an email newsletter is a great marketing tool ONLY if done right.
For optimal results, here are 5 basic things you should be doing before you send out your e-Newsletter.
1. Create content your customers want
So, we all know you’re creating a newsletter to promote your brand and all that you have to offer. But if all you do is talk about your brand, not many people will want to open your newsletter on a regular basis. And chances are, your unsubscribers will start growing quickly.
Your newsletters should be more about what your customers would like to read, rather than what you’re trying to sell.
In this case, the 80-20 rule comes in handy. Your content should be 80% educational and 20% promotional. Put your reader first. Create customer-focused content that will interest your readers. You could include topics like:
Problems in your industry and their solutions
Tips and quick facts
Technology developments within your industry
Industry trends
Upcoming events
Advice from industry experts
Click herefor more tips on how to create a great e-newsletter.
Posted by Uponline on July 8th, 2016
Friday Five Roundup: Snapchat Introduces Memories to The Rise of Ad Blocking
Snapchat's newest feature is a complete departure form its original premise
With the release of its new feature Memories, Snapchat is beginning to resemble it's social media predecessors, allowing users to store and post saved data at a later date, breaking free from it's ephemeral nature.
Read the article on qz.com >
Could Facebook become video-only 5 years from now?
As Facebook begins to devote more of it's energies towards getting users to use live video streaming, what will happen now to good old fashion written content?
Read the article on thenextweb.com >
Click hereto read the rest of the top 5 marketing articles for this week.
How To Increase Survey Response Rates Through Incentives
By: Kuruparan Subrananiam
So you are planning to conduct a survey, the one you need to gain valuable market data and insight into your customers. You’ve structured it so it’s easy to complete, crafted the subject line to increase the email’s open rate, tested your copy out to anyone who would read it…but you are still unsure if anyone will respond.
Consumers are solicited every day to participate in surveys so how do you ensure that you set yourself apart from your competitors? Try adding an incentive.
Evidently, your incentive is going to be determined and limited by your budget but you should also keep your survey demographic in mind when thinking about what kind of incentive to use in order to appeal to the largest amount of respondents possible. Universities often offer gift cards for their textbook stores because that appeals to students on a budget. However, try not to be too specific, which might not appeal to a wide enough audience (e.g. a coupon for garden hoses isn't going to appeal to everyone. Unless you happen to be surveying gardeners!)
Click hereto learn when you should use an incentive.
Posted by Uponline on June 30th, 2016
Friday Five Roundup: The Power of UGC to Brilliant Twitter Marketing by England's Iceland Foods
The Selfie Strategy: Build Brand Loyalty Like a Kardashian
Taking a selfie is no longer just a Kardashian craze. Engage with UGC to monetize from the selfie trend Kim Kardashian helped elevate, and promote your brand.
Read the article on Marketingprofs.com >
How To Grow Your Instagram Followers with User Generated Content
Are you having trouble gaining a following on social media? Using user generated content (UGC) will help your business not only cultivate a strong following but allow your customers to tell real stories.
Read the article on Entrepreneur.com >
Click hereto read the rest of the top 5 marketing articles for this week.
11 Methods That Will Make Your Content Marketing Campaign Go Viral
Have you been writing content that never goes viral? The key is to write simple, yet noteworthy content and market it as much as possible.
Read the article on quicksprout.com >
Click hereto read the rest of the top 5 marketing articles for this week.
Posted by UpOnline on June 23rd, 2016
How Long Should A Survey Be?
By: Mahnoor Awan
Thinking about launching a survey and wondering how long it should be?
If it’s too long there is the fear that people might not be interested in finishing it. If it’s too short then it might compromise the data you’re trying to collect. The question about the perfect survey length has been debatable for a long time. While gathering data that serves the purpose of research and improvement is great, it’s only valuable if:
Your sample represents the entire population
The responses are legitimate
The responders are able to fully understand the questions
When creating a survey there are a number of factors that will determine it’s length such as:
Your audience base
Goals of your survey
The resources you have to act on the data collected
First off, the length of your survey differs with the audience base. Is it a general audience, a panel (a group of people hired by a company to fill surveys in return for some monetary value), or an internal group like employees? For example, the general public, without any incentive wouldn’t want to spend more than 10 minutes of their time on answering questions. The panel on the other hand is getting paid to fill the surveys. And for internal groups like employees, it is often made mandatory.
Click hereto learn more about the perfect survey length.
Instagram’s popularity as a social media platform is continuously increasing and therefore a great outlet to promote your brand. Have you thought of running an Instagram contest? If done right, a contest can definitely be useful for your business.
Read the article on hubspot.com >
Struggling to think of how to boost energy and creativity? Employ these unconventional tactics to motivate your team.
Read the article on Entrepreneur.com >
Click hereto read the rest of the top 5 marketing articles for this week.
What it looks like when Google pledges to train one million Africans
Google's plan to "digify" Africa will allow 1 million Africans access to digital courses on web design, SEO, Social media, digital marketing and more.
Read the article on qz.com >
Google & Canadian Media Outlets Launch AMP Websites
News pages optimized with AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) now receive higher mobile search priority in Canada.
Read the article on cbc.ca >
Click hereto read the rest of the top 5 marketing articles for this week.
Posted by Frances on June 2nd, 2016
Most Valuable Keywords
Keywords help customers find your product whether they are part of your website's natural SEO or if they are being used within a paid ad. But all keywords are not created equal. And if your strategy is to use keywords to contribute to your bottom line, you want your keywords to be able to target the right audience and, more importantly, to separate the Browsers from the Buyers.
How to separate Browsers from Buyers
When we look at a typical buying cycle, a customer usually goes through a series of steps, or a journey if you will, of becoming aware of a product before making a purchase.
Typical Customer Journey:
Customer becomes aware of product
Seeks information
Compares to other products
Makes purchasing decision
Completes transaction
Evaluates product after buying and determines its value by keeping or discarding/returning product.
Let’s say that you own a clothing store and someone enters your shop, slowly sifts through all the products displayed on the racks but walks out without making a purchase. Right after you have another customer who walks in with a specific request for something pink and pleated or asks about a particular item in the store. Which customer would you say is further along in the buying cycle?
Customers who are closer to making a purchase will usually have more specific requests and these are the customers you want to target.
Click hereto to uncover what keywords can increase your company's revenue.
Posted by Frances on May 27th, 2016
Friday Five Roundup: Covering New Twitter Features to Calming Your Content Anxiety
Click hereto read the rest of the top 5 marketing articles for this week.
Posted by Frances on May 24th, 2016
How To Increase Social Media Engagement
A lot of businesses often misunderstand what it means to be a social business. Rather than just registering for a Twitter or a Facebook account, being social requires you to actively interact with your online audience on a regular basis (rather than relying on a Twitterbot to do your handy work).
And it’s not just about posting regular content, but making sure that your followers feel heard and creating a thriving community that identifies closely with your brand.
Social media is a great tool to gain more exposure for your business while at the same time interacting with your customers in a more conversational manner.
Click herefor tips on how to be a social media engager.
Posted by Frances on May 9th, 2016
ODA Spring Meeting 2016 #ASM16
What a crazy two weeks it has been! We had such a fun time attending the AACD at the end of April and meeting all of you there. Since there was such a positive response to getting your caricatures done, Kyle offered his services once again for the ODA show! We had a lot of fun connecting with our clients (shout outs to Susie!) and meeting a lot of new faces as well.
Staffan Sjöö, President of SACD - Swedish Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry and UpOnline's Client Manager and Caricature Artist, Kyle Weber
It was great being able to see all of you at the AACD Conference in Toronto last week! We had an amazing time at the Exhibitor's Hall and glad you all enjoyed getting your caricatures done at our booth. Those who stopped by to get their drawing also became automatically eligible to win six months of FREE enewsletters (click here to learn more about the benefits of sending out enewsletters to patients) for their dental practice simply by tweeting their photo using the hashtag #AACD2016 and #UponlineSmiles.
Thanks to everyone who stopped by to chat and learn more about our services. See you next year in Vegas!
Dr. Bill Dorfman, Celebrity Dentist and Inventor of ZOOM Teeth Whitening, and long time Uponline client and former AACD President, Ron Goodlin having some fun with their caricature drawings!
To see more photos from the AACD 2016 Conference in Toronto click here.
Posted by Frances on April 25th, 2016
Should I Use SEO or PPC?
We often have clients asking us what the difference is between Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay Per Click (PPC). If you’re not very familiar with these services, one involves improving your ranking for search engines while the other focuses on creating targeted ads, but both require you to understand how keywords play a part in increasing your online visibility and how to set yourself apart from competitors.
Why are keywords important?
Promoting an online business is not that different from promoting a brick and mortar store. While you’ve paid for a space to conduct business and offer quality products or services, you won’t be able to draw in customers if they can’t find you!
With online marketing it’s worth investing time to make sure search engines are able to find your site.
What keywords should I be using?
Get in the head of the consumer and think of what they look for. A keyword could simply be describing what your product is or identifying what problem it could solve (e.g. whitening tooth paste or tooth discolouration). Also take time to think about where your customers are located and which geographical areas you are catering to. (e.g. midtown, near public transit, students)
Begin compiling a keyword list that will be the basis of a successful SEO strategy to increase your online visibility.