The Daily Carnage

The savvy marketer's hub for industry news, insights, resources, and culture.

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How to Increase Sales on Your Website

APRIL 23, 2019

If we took a poll on how to increase sales on your website, responses would likely vary.

Do you really wanna know what it’s all about though?

Conversion Rate Optimization aka CRO.

What the heck is CRO?

CRO is the process of increasing the number of websites visitors who take a desired action. It could be a sale, an email submission, etc. It really depends on how you define a conversion.

Alright, now you know what CRO is, let’s talk about calculating your conversion rate.

Divide the number of conversions on your webpage by the number of people who visited that page.

Example: If a user visited your site 3 times and converted once, your conversion rate would be 33.3%.

So, how do you optimize for conversion rates?

It’s all about the who, what and where.

The analytical approach will have you tracking your conversions (we like Google Analytics). You’ll be looking at data such as, where people are entering your site from, what devices they’re using, demographics, funnel abandonment and more.

The flip side would be a qualitative approach (aka the human method). You can do data-backed research all day, but sometimes you just gotta talk with your actual audience. Do this through surveys, user-testing, and cold outreach. Ask the tough questions about your product or service and prepare for some constructive criticism.

Whatever you do, don’t play the guessing game with CRO.

Get SMART

APRIL 22, 2019

We know you’re already smart because you’re reading The Daily Carnage. We’re talking about a different kind of smart today.

As marketers, we all know the importance of goal setting. If you’re not setting trackable goals, it’s really hard to go the distance and get buy-in from your team.

Enter SMART goals. SMART is an acronym that’ll help you achieve concrete targets over a certain period of time. SMART goals are accompanied by 5 characteristics.

Specific. Measurable. Attainable. Relevant. Time-Bound.

Now let’s see it in action.

Let’s say we’re running a sweet email marketing newsletter 😉 and we want to increase our subscribers by 50%, here’s how we’d set up our SMART goal.

Specific: We want to increase our email subscribers by 50% through Facebook advertising.

Measurable: Our goal is a 50% increase.

Attainable: On our first Facebook ad campaign, we saw a 20% increase in subscribers.

Relevant: By increasing the number of our email blog subscribers, our site will drive more traffic, our Facebook community will grow and we’ll create more brand awareness.

Time-Bound: In 4 months.

Alright, now go set up your own SMART goals and remember…

“A goal without a plan is just a wish.”

How to Use Headings on Your Site

APRIL 21, 2019

It’s the Monday after a holiday. We’re keeping this SEO Monday section short and sweet folks.

Why use headings?

They Serve as a Guide: Headings guide your reader through what’s important. Think of them like the Google Maps (Waze, etc.) of your article. They should ultimately make your article easier to read and understand.
Improve SEO: Most folks will agree that headings won’t directly impact your SEO. It’s all about the indirect benefits. For example…headings (when done right) will create easily readable text, which Google likes. Also, headings create an opportunity to feature your focus keywords.

How to use headings:

H1: Use only one H1 per page. This heading should be your article title. Think of it like the name of a book.
H2: These headings will introduce new sections. Think of H2’s like the chapters of a book.
H3: Use these to introduce subsections of your H2 headings.
H4: Rarely used unless you’re writing very technical posts or long-form posts.

How to Become a More Authentic Brand

APRIL 17, 2019

“Or you’ll sink like a stone…For the times they are a-changin.” – Bob Dylan

The times are certainly changing, especially for us marketers.

Brands are finally coming around to the reality that ‘authenticity’ must be at the forefront of their strategy. Today’s customer is way too savvy for anything less.

So, how do you rethink traditional marketing practices and build a more authentic brand?

1. Define Your Core Values: Some folks call it their ‘true north.’ Your core values are all about what you stand for. Don’t confuse these with your logo or how your website looks. These values will guide your brand purpose, personality, and proposition. Without defining them, you’ll flounder.

A brand that’s killing it in the authenticity game: Levi’s

“Levi’s recognizes that trend-following may be the simplest way to attract attention and raise short-term revenue, but following someone else’s lead usually causes a company to stray from its own brand identity,” says brand-building expert Denise Lee Yohn.

2. Engage With Your Customers: Customers want to feel good about buying from you. There has to be a connection. It all starts with understanding what they need and want on a deeper level. One way to do this is to take a high-level view of your current customer experience. Simple things like your response rate, your website, hours of availability, etc.

3. Be Real: We see you Jenny and Ja Rule. But seriously, if you wanna be authentic, you have to humanize your brand. We know this is easier said than done. For example; the marketing team at Red Bull versus your local bank. Who’s able to push the envelope more? Regardless of your industry, don’t let your communication style create a barrier with your customers. Avoid the contrived persona that many brands feel they need to squeeze into.

Avoid These Common eCommerce Ad Mistakes

APRIL 16, 2019

Have you ever fired up an ad thinking you absolutely nailed it? We’re talking the right audience, killer ad creative, and stellar copy.

You wait a couple days and the results are mediocre at best.

We see this all too often with clients.

These mediocre results can typically be narrowed down to one or more of the three ‘cardinal sins’ of eCommerce advertising.

Here are three common mistakes and how to avoid them:

Your Website is Too Dang Slow: This is more common than you’d think. Even with a stellar ad, you’re leaving money on the table by sending potential customers to a snail-like website. Check out these stats from AdEspresso.
-47% of customers expect a webpage to load within 2 seconds.
–64% of mobile users expect a webpage to load within 4 seconds.
-Just one second of delay in page load time can reduce conversions by 7%.
-79% of customers who had a bad experience with website performance are less likely to become repeat buyers.

Solution: Check your site speed and where your bounce rates are happening. Channel your inner Ricky Bobby and make it go fast.
Avoiding Google Shopping: There are over 3.5 billion searches every day on Google. Wrap your head around that for a second. When it comes to running ads for your products, make sure you include Google Shopping in your strategy. You’ll save a ton of money as folks are close to converting and your products will be featured prominently in search results.
Repeatedly Serving the Same Ads: Ad fatigue is a real thing. If you’re repeatedly serving the same ads and bumping up your ad frequency, here’s what’ll happen:Your campaign CTR will decrease and your CPC will increase. Solution: Decrease your ad frequency. Exclude folks who have already interacted with your ad. Rotate your ads every few days.

Can Your Content Handle Your Buyers?

APRIL 15, 2019

If marketing funnels functioned like real-life funnels, our jobs would be a lot easier.

Think about it.

We draft our sales funnels anticipating that customers will follow them from discovery to purchase. Unfortunately, the buyer’s journey isn’t always that linear. Research shows that 70% of buyers conduct over half their research online before making an offline purchase.

It’s important to recognize that your customers are going to follow a messy journey to your product or service.

Your content marketing efforts have to account for that ‘messy journey.’

So, how do you do it?

Produce more content that is relevant to your buyer’s journey. That might sound like a no-brainer, but there’s been a noticeable shift in brands producing content just to produce content. In turn, buyer’s continue to find less relevancy in the content itself and move on.

The folks at CMI did a bang-up job laying out the buyer’s journey and the thought process behind it.

Loosening of the status quo > Committing to change > Exploring possible solutions > Committing to a solution > Justifying the decision > Making the selection.

Takeaway: It’s easy to get caught up in sheer volume when it comes to content. Don’t do that. Focus on mapping out a content strategy that speaks to your buyer’s journey and is relevant enough to facilitate a purchase decision.

Stop the SEO Hype

APRIL 14, 2019

It’s SEO Monday!

Regardless of what space you’re in, something is always trending.

When it comes to SEO, it seems like there’s a new tactic or strategy every other day. We’re gonna address some of those trends and a few reasons you should avoid the hype.

Let’s do it.

Voice Search: It’s important to know the difference between voice search and voice assistance. Voice assistance will tell you the time, weather (etc.), while voice search will find you a late night diner after a few adult beverages. Why it’s overrated? Voice search is down in 2019 compared to the last 2 years. If you have a voice strategy in place that is bringing in revenue, good on ya, but the reality is that voice search is still in its infancy. We’re not suggesting to abandon voice search altogether, but do your research and follow the revenue.
Obsessive Rank Tracking: It’s not necessary to track every single keyword you find during your research phase. Why? The search intent behind every keyword is different. What to do differently: Focus on fewer keywords. It’ll vary based on your client, but 30 keywords are a heck of a lot easier to manage than 100.
Guest Posting: Does guest posting still work? Sure. But, if you’re not being featured on high-quality sites, there’s a chance that Google will detect link spam. Solution: Stay away from guest posting networks and focus your energy on publications in your industry.

Click the button below to see 2 more overhyped trends.

How to Optimize Your Company LinkedIn Page

APRIL 10, 2019

We talk a lot about SEO for your website, but you know who else needs some love?

LinkedIn.

With over 500 million members, LinkedIn continues to be the premier B2B social network. If you don’t already have a company LinkedIn page, here’s why you should:

More Traffic: Duh, right? Google ranks LinkedIn company pages and posts highly in the search engine results page.
Stand Out From the Competiton: Folks are savvier these days. They’re researching all your channels. You’ll look a lot more legit with a LinkedIn page.

Alright, now that you have your company page fired up, let’s talk about optimizing it.

Incorporate Keywords in Your Tagline: Look at your tagline as your ‘elevator pitch.’ Get right to the point by telling folks what you do and who you serve.
Write a Strong About Section: Groundbreaking stuff, huh? Hear us out though. This comes directly from LinkedIn. With your relevant keywords in mind, follow this framework:
- Vision. What future do we want to help create?
- Mission. How do we create that future?
- Values. Who are we? How do we work?
- Positioning. What makes our brand different?
- Tagline. Our brand summed up in one line.
- Products/Services. Here’s what we provide.
Link to Your Website: Think of your website as home base or your primary resource. Make sure you include a website link in your about section.
Complete Your Profile: LinkedIn likes company pages that are completed in their entirety. Finish it!
Update Frequently: It’s all about staying relevant and maintaining visibility to your followers. Make sure you’re consistently posting.

Got Questions?

APRIL 9, 2019

Show of internet hands, how many of you use Quora for marketing?

We couldn’t actually see your internet hands, so we’re gonna talk about Quora.

What is Quora?

The premise is simple. Folks ask and answer questions on just about any topic. The platform has been around for 10 years and drives around 300 million monthly users.

Quora has a similar feel to Reddit in that it relies on ‘upvoting’. Basically, the public gets to decide if your answer is worthy. #Pressure

If you aren’t using Quora in your marketing strategy, here are a few reasons to consider it.

Reach: The beauty of Quora is that it relies on user-generated content (UGC) and just so happens to be one of the most respected platforms in that regard. The ability to share questions and answers with 300 million monthly users is nothing to write off.
SEO: There’s a good chance that a Google search will yield a Quora result. Why? Because Quora questions are searchable through Google. Your content also remains evergreen.
Higher Quality Traffic: Potential customers want and need to feel like your product or service can solve their problem. If you’re successful at answering folks questions, you’re likely to drive some traffic to your website.
Insights: Don’t overlook using Quora for audience insights. The platform is built off of real human beings asking real questions. It has an “if you scratch my back” feel to it.