What a small business can do right during COVID-19:

We don’t live in an enormous city. Between the internet and a vibrant business community before COVID hit, there are limitless choices about where and what I want to eat or buy. Standing out in an already crowded field like the restaurant business is not always easy in the best of times. Limited by the need to practice social distancing, stay inside, not travel, and avoid crowds, I can no longer drop in to say hi or can a delicious aroma beckon me in the door. One small restaurant keeps me coming back for more. Here’s what they do.

How we stay in touch

The owners use a wide variety of digital strategies: social media, website, and email marketing. They designed their website to feel as if you just walked in the restaurant. The photos and color capture the look and ambiance of the actual space so it feels familiar. I do ordering through the restaurant website and not a third party. This allows me to customize my order as if I were talking to my server (hold the onion). Instagram is also visually exciting and customer posts get reposted in Instagram Stories reminding us they know who their customers are. Email marketing and social media are timed well so you don’t feel bombarded by too much communication but reminds me they are an option, timed almost exactly the times I recognize I’m hungry. Email confirms your order and lets you know when it’s ready.

What gets communicated is important

Every communication starts with expressions of concern and care for the customer. The owners themselves are doing the communicating and provide an update on how they are doing as well.  There is complete transparency about what they have done about safety concerns, which makes me believe when things open up full throttle they will take the issue seriously. You’re clear there are multiple ways to communicate, and there’s an immediate response when you do. I personally love seeing the way the owners have been creative and nimble in how they’re approaching their challenging situation. Because they’re sharing it with me, it makes me want to get behind them and cheer them on.

Mixing it up and giving choices 

Just when you feel like something different, a new time-limited dish appears in your inbox, or it’s looking delicious on Instagram with a swipe up to the site. There’s the option for doing pickup or delivery depending on your comfort level. Sometimes I just like to pop in and wave hello across the dining room. What started as being able to order a bottle of wine with dinner has now become a wine and craft beer shop as you walk in the door. When you least expect it, a free appetizer or dessert will find its way into your bag. Offering the opportunity to get a gift card suggests there will be a future. Everything they do as a business conveys a sense of optimism and grit.

Giving back to our community

Seamlessly incorporated into the website and social media is a way to donate and give back to our community. The owners have provided hundreds of meals to healthcare workers in our local community. Showing the deliveries and the reactions of the workers on social media let us see how our money was being used and made us feel very much a part of a community.

Even more than before, these strategies have made me feel a bond and loyalty with the owners that means I will be a customer for life.

Not a restaurant owner? Take out references to food and insert references to your product. The point here was their communication was flawless and that communication inspires loyalty and encourages people to get back to life, even with this paradigm shift to a cleaner, safer, healthier lifestyle.

You can do it too, but if you need help call Branding Iron and we’ll walk you through the steps.

You’ve hit a wall. After going through your list of potential buyers (& friends & family), you don’t have anyone else to sell to. But you believe in your product so much. You don’t want to just give up. So, you research online and find that advertising might solve your problem. You run some ads on Facebook. But after a couple of days, you still haven’t made much progress. Doubts creep in. You start thinking that maybe your product isn’t that good. Maybe you’re not meant to sell. You’re just not good at it.

You’re not alone.

Majority of small and medium businesses are in the same situation as you. While there are revenues coming in, they aren’t enough to warrant hiring new people or investing in other activities. A lot of big brands also started out like that. Apple started selling to their family and friends. HP, which also started in their garage, sold to their inner circle first. But they found a way to get more customers to grow their revenues. To scale. To become who they are today.

What they did differently:

What the successful brands did differently is that they applied a holistic strategy — one that allowed them to continuously sell and grow their business. They became successful because, in one form or another, they used a holistic strategy and not just string together a couple of activities. When it comes to digital marketing, that holistic strategy means having a way to fill your marketing & sales funnel automatically.

Let me explain.

The Marketing and Sales Funnel

Your marketing and sales funnel, or simply funnel, is a visual framework that allows you to see how every activity ties in together, and what metrics you should keep an eye out for.

The funnel is composed of 3 parts: Taking prospects & turning them into leads. Then leads into customers. The key indicator for leads (vs prospects) is that these groups of people gave their contact information to you. You have the ability (and hopefully, permission) to reach out to them. Finally, people who were willing to trade in their hard-earned money for your product (or service). To be successful in business today, you don’t end a relationship when someone pays you. You continue this relationship, get to know them more, ask for feedback. You can ask your best customers for referrals, give them exclusive perks for being loyal, and many more.

How does a Holistic Strategy fit in with the funnel?

As you noticed, the typical journey of an entrepreneur moves from talking to the prospects, to leads, then to customers. This is the same for other big, successful businesses as well. The only difference is that they don’t stop doing one activity in exchange for the next. A holistic strategy allows you to create a sustainable business.

The Problem: Non-scalable Activities

While this approach goes through the funnel (prospecting, lead nurturing, closing), whenever you switch to the next activity, you stop doing the previous one. And that’s what’s hurting you and your business. You didn’t spend time on activities that are sustainable. Those activities that do the hard work for you, even if you’re taking a vacation.

The Solution: Scalable Activities

Scalable activities in digital marketing are things you do that yield results now, tomorrow, and years into the future.

Compare this with non-scalable things, where once you stop doing them, results stop coming in. Typically, advertising is a non-scalable activity. The moment you stop pouring in money, results will stop coming in. Below are steps you can take to make sure that you invest in scalable activities, while at the same time, bring you quick wins as well.

1. Start blogging and create content

This activity supports the entire funnel — from prospects, to leads, to customers. You can create content to attract people who don’t know you, provide more information about your product, answer FAQs, and provide user guides. Use a Content Pillar approach when creating content. It’s an efficient and effective way to repurpose your content. And don’t forget to share them on social media and in your email list.

If you don’t have any content to attract new people, engage with your audience, and help existing customers, where would this leave you? You’ll plateau quickly, just like in our story. Why?

Without content targeted to the different stages of the funnel, the only thing you have left is your product. And when you’re left with something you can’t change, you start discounting just to be able to sell. Lower and lower. Until you don’t make a profit anymore.

In addition, when you lower your prices, the only people who will see it and/or take notice of it are already the people who know you. Remember the funnel? If you don’t fill the top of the funnel with new prospects, you won’t get new leads and customers. What will end up happening is your existing customers will see the discounts. They will switch over to the lower price and, eventually, you will lose all your margins.

Finally, look at your business from a larger perspective. There are a lot of people who don’t know you, care about you or your product. If the only thing you post on your social media accounts is how awesome your product is, eventually, no one’s going to listen to you anymore.

As a sidetone, this is one of the reasons one organic posts by Pages on Facebook keeps declining. Marketers keep abusing the platform. Users get irritated. This leads to a bad experience for them. And Facebook doesn’t want that.

The funnel has stood the test of time for a reason — you keep filling the top with new prospects. This will give you the chance to test your messaging, get more feedback, and more importantly, grow your business.

Your strategy has to consist of addressing the 3 parts — how to get more prospects/visitors, how to get more leads, and how to get more customers. Jumping from one stage to another or simply focusing on one is ineffective.

2. Create landing pages

Landing pages allow you to capture contact information. It’s composed of two parts: (1) a copy that explains what you’re offering and (2) a form that people fill-in. You can use this across the entire funnel as well. You just change the contents of it depending on your goal.

Most businesses only have a contact us page as their sole landing page. This is also the reason why they aren’t growing. Landing pages typically have a 1% conversion rate. For every 100 visits you get to your contact us page, you only convert 1 of them. How often do you think people visit your contact us page? Now imagine the amount of traffic you need to reach your goals. You literally need hundreds of clicks to capture a few leads… and they aren’t even customers yet!

So, what do you need to do? Create more marketing offers and put them on landing pages. Distribute them on social media, add calls to action all over your website.

3. Setup lead nurturing campaigns

Lead Nurturing is a marketing activity that moves a lead from one stage to another. It does this by sending (mostly) automated content usually through email that educates the lead about the company, its products/services, and how it can benefit them.

Lead nurturing campaigns always add value. The only way to add value is to be helpful.  Being helpful is not about talking about your products and your promos. It’s all about the customers and how you can help make their lives better.

Do not discount or devalue your product in these tools. Remember not to default to a downward spiral that ends in customers only using your business when they get a discount.

So, what are you going to do next?

Whether you are new in digital marketing, or an expert, it’s essential that you apply a holistic digital marketing strategy. While you may choose to “focus” on one aspect of the funnel, the fact that you know that there’s a next part in the strategy will help you develop better campaigns. By using a holistic digital marketing strategy, you can avoid problems most organizations are facing today — declining sales despite tons of promotions. If you have a way to continually fill the top of your funnel, convert them into leads, and nurture them into customers, results will come in.

And as a bonus, you’ll know which parts of your funnel are not working, and have an idea how to fix it! If it all seems overwhelming, give us a call and we’ll do the heavy lifting for you. 

Branding Iron is a full service advertising agency that can help you grow your business. While you focus on running the day to day, we’ll help you generate a sales funnel that generates new business for you.

It’s no secret that to be impactful in the game of marketing, you have to stay on top of the trends like mobile marketing. Still, it might surprise you to learn that, according to Forrester Research, there are more than 30 billion mobile moments happening each day in the United States alone. A study by SessionM tells us that people often use their smartphones for calls and texts (70%), reading and sending email (61%), and browsing social media (52%). Additionally, it’s estimated that consumers spend roughly 4.7 hours a day on their phones according to the experts, but that is a Pre-COVID19 number. It has increased dramatically since then.

Are you starting to see a pattern emerge? If your marketing plan hasn’t already mobilized, it is time to make some changes. Proper mobile marketing will have a huge impact on your business–and it’s an impact you can’t afford to miss in today’s crowded market. That’s why we’re sharing some benefits and best practices of mobile marketing that you should implement A.S.A.P.

Be more responsive

We don’t mean replying faster to inquiries (though that certainly goes a long way in good business practices). In the world of mobile marketing, having responsive websites, email templates, and landing pages means they provide an optimal viewing and interactive experience. They’re easy to read, simple to navigate, require minimal resizing, and don’t require much in the way of panning or scrolling. When the content you wish your customers to read is easy to view on their smartphone, they’re much more likely to view and respond to your message.

Make communication easier

Customers want easy–really easy interactions. Don’t make them type your phone number into their phone. Don’t ask them to copy and paste your email into a message. Instead, use the click method. By simply clicking the phone number that pops up on their smartphone, customers dial you automatically without having to input the number themselves. By tapping your email address, an email form with your address populated in the “To” section will appear. While such a move is helpful to customers, it also benefits you by removing the risk that customers will mistype or misdial.

The power of prefill

Don’t make customers fill out an entire form from their mobile device. There are two ways you can tackle forms, making them more smartphone user friendly. First, allow a prefill option. This gives users the option of having the form fill itself in automatically based on personal information they’ve stored in their phone. It’s much easier than tapping in information letter by letter on a tiny keypad. Secondly, you can prefill some information for your customers if there are some things that will always remain the same for your business. For instance, if you only offer your service to a specific area, you can prefill the form with that area’s state and ZIP Code™.

Make your message center stage

When users read your web copy, email, or newsletter from their smartphone, chances are they won’t read through everything you’ve written for the desktop versions. Revise your content according to the device. A shorter message should pack a big punch–and the call to action should be clear, concise, and actionable. For instance, if the ultimate message is to view the new blog you posted, share only a snippet of your blog for the mobile version of your email. Next, create a button like “Read More” that will take interested smartphone readers directly to the full blog.

Be inviting

Most mobile users are on the go. This means that when they’re looking something up, it needs to be easily accessible. If you make customers (or potential customers) search for important information like your business hours, phone number, address, or email from their phone, they may choose to go an easier route (ie: your competition). Ensure that important information is easy to find and use to give the best experience to smartphone users.

Test everything

Don’t forget to test your changes across multiple devices (iPhones™, Androids™, etc.) in order to make sure everything renders as you desire, giving users a great experience. In addition to the layout, remember to test phone numbers, click-to-emails, links, and all visual elements.

Smartphones are here to stay. People use them to shop, to play games, to travel, to find useful information and much more. In order to give customers (and prospects) the best user experience possible in today’s market, implement the helpful mobile marketing best practices outlined above.

Branding Iron Management is here to help you how to better navigate your smartphone marketing. Keeping your business in mind, we’ll work with you to build an effective marketing plan.

In today’s digital age consumers can pretty much buy anything, at any time, from anywhere. So what makes someone choose one brand over another? Furthemore, what keeps them coming back? We believe the answer to these questions lies in the amount of humanity in brands. Let’s take Southwest Airlines (a personal favorite of mine) and the amazing brand they have built over the years.

Everything from the colors they use, to their fun ads showcasing their employees, to their philosophy of not nickel-and-diming passengers has built one of the best examples of a human brand.

Why are human brands more successful?

The answer seems very simple when you think about it, but human brands (brands built upon a human persona) are able to better connect with people. They take thousands of years of human interaction and distill it down into a relatable and familiar personality that people are able to identify with and build a relationship with. People know what drives the brand, the values of the brand, the goal of the brand, and ultimately how they as consumers should engage with the brand. Human brands make it easy for people to open their hearts—and ultimately, their wallets.

How do you create a human brand?

Over the past five years we have branded more companies than we can count. The method we utilize gives birth to very strong brand personalities that can continue to grow as the company and culture evolves. Our method has three steps:

·        Understand your brand personality.

·        Understand the brand personality of your competitors.

·        Build your brand around that personality.

We’ll briefly take you through each of these parts and explain how our team successfully creates some of the best human brands possible.

Understand your brand personality. 

If we don’t know who we are, how can we expect others to get to know us? Understanding ourselves starts with clear and honest self-evaluation.  Not only does this give us insight into the values and true mission of our purpose, but many times our clients have never gathered in a room together to discuss these topics. So in a way, this acts as a therapy session/team-building opportunity for you and your staff. At the conclusion, we can narrow down to two or three areas of focus.

Understand the brand personality of your competitors. 

Since we are rarely the only option for our consumers, we also have to look at our competitors. What are their brand personalities? What space are they occupying in our consumers’ minds? Humans like variety. Think about the show “Friends.” Now think about which of the characters you best identify with. It’s a good thing the writers decided to give them all different personalities. It’s that broad coverage and acceptance that attracted huge numbers of people to watch the show.  The same theory goes for brands. You and your competitors may offer similar products, but it’s your personality with which people will connect. That’s why we go through a thorough analysis of your top competitors to help identify their position in the market. At this point we can ensure the creative path we assign to a brand both encapsulates the essence of the brand, as well as occupies a unique space not currently occupied by your competitors.

Build your brand around that personality. 

This is the last step in creating a truly powerful human brand. Once we know our creative path we can begin building an identity that communicates the mission, values, and motivations both visually and verbally. The colors, the fonts, the textures, the photography style, and the words we use should all strengthen and convey your brand personality. Both consciously and subconsciously, it should provide our consumers with a clear understanding of who we are as a brand. This is what truly great branding experts are capable of doing. They don’t just create cool logos and identity systems, they build a communication bridge between your brand and your consumers across which human connections can be made.

Using our methodology to branding not only lays the foundation for a strong brand but arms companies with a cohesive identity from which all business decisions and processes can rely upon. A Hero can’t just wear a cape. She has to embody the morals and values of a hero. We must be constantly learning and sharing that knowledge with others. No matter what your business goals might be—retention, market share, or some other objective—make sure your brand is human. Because it’s human brands that will continue to thrive and connect with people in 2020 and beyond.

Need help navigating in the new reality? We are here for you. Call us today with questions.

Multi-channel marketing, sometimes called integrated marketing, continues to set foot as the top industry strategy to maximize engagement with your key target demographic. Brands use this popular method to interact with their audience using a combination of marketing channels.

The various mediums to reach customers can include email, telemarketing, newspapers, television, social media, digital marketing, and native online advertising. So, how do marketers pick the right channel?

1) Identify your audience: Does your audience read the newspaper, or are they more suited to click a display ad on websites they already visit? Know your audience to determine the right platform.

2) Don’t get carried away: Two to three channels are usually enough to test the waters in a new marketing campaign. Stick to known strategies to generate the best results.

3) Consistency matters: Regardless of the strategies you choose, it’s imperative to treat them as a single plan. Make sure your message and voice are the same throughout your campaigns.

4) Measure everything: Some marketers will test a single channel against a multi-channel approach to measure results. This is called A/B testing and it allows revisions to either plan, improving overall quality.

Are you ready to create a multi-channel marketing campaign? Stick with these four tips, and you’ll be prepared to tackle any project. If it seems more than you want to handle or if you don’t have time to do the research, call Branding Iron Management. We can help.

How your business acts during times of uncertainty can shape your customers’, current and potential, perception of your brand and business. Marketing is an essential way to not only keep your customers loyal to your brand, but also support them during a time of crisis. 

Keep your customers informed

Maintaining open communication about the status of your business keeps your customers in the loop and lets them know how they can continue to support your business. 

Example: Proactively communicating changes in service such as drive thru, pick up, or delivery options.

Show how your company is helping

When your brand is helping the community, show your customers how they can help as well. This is a good alternative when it is not appropriate to display your own offerings. 

Example: Using social media to show how your employees are staying connected to each other by supporting the local community and recovery efforts.

Strategically reposition your brand

Make sure that your brand avoids looking tone deaf in light of the current crisis.

Example:  Listen to what your customers are reporting online and develop a response that shares what your business can realistically do, while also addressing their needs.

Prepare now for your future customers

Crises like COVID-19 don’t last forever. Use this opportunity to lay out the groundwork for how your company will function in the future.

Example: If your business is slowing right now, use the down time to develop new marketing strategies for attracting new and returning customers. 

Marketing your business during the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic can be challenging. Regardless, it’s important to come up with solutions that allow you to generate sales and revenue.

How can you effectively market to consumers who may have limited access to regularly frequented businesses? How do you market to businesses when everyone is working from home? Companies have started to adapt and overcome these obstacles. Here are four ways you can get started:

1. Remain Customer-focused

A customer-focused marketing strategy is a winning marketing strategy. Your marketing efforts should be less focused on what makes your company great and more focused on how your company is helping your customers. What about your product or service can directly benefit them at this very moment? Instead of focusing on the features of your products, focus on the benefits to them.

2. Stay Front and Center

Continue to stay in front of consumers, because when they’re ready to buy, you want it to be from you. Ride out the waves. Focus on the future possibilities and partnerships. There are still consumers and businesses who need your services. Don’t make them find you. Lead them to you. As more continue to open back up for business, they will need you. You don’t have to spend a giant ad budget to remind your customer you are the expert in your field. There are affordable options.

3. Give and Tell

Storytelling is a compelling way to connect with your audience and gain exposure. Tell relevant, authentic stories about how your company is contributing to ease the pain of the pandemic. Do something that stands out. Is your company supporting those who need it most right now? Tell the world and remain humble in your messaging.

4. Be Authentic

When is the last time you reviewed value propositions? What about your customer experience? This crisis has reminded us how important a brand’s authenticity is. Use good taste in your message and approach, and people will be more receptive to hearing what you have to say. You need to speak less about yourself and more about your customers.

Creating a customer experience that builds trust, loyalty, and confidence in your brand is crucial. While this isn’t new, we’re forced to rethink our current strategies. These tips can help make your marketing strategy during this pandemic a time of growing rather than a time of shrinking. It won’t be easy, but it can and will be done if you stay positive, stay calm and be tenacious in your efforts.

Branding Iron can help you build a strategy to grow when everyone else is contracting. Call us today.

Write this down: People aren’t going to wait for the answer. They’ll simply leave your page and go look for what they want somewhere else.

Today’s marketing world is all about providing customers with what they want, right when they want it. It’s no longer enough that you’ve selected a niche or a product that’s popular. Or that you’ve done your keyword research, picked feature images that convert, or built a high-quality links. To get real leads that convert, you have to offer exactly what your target audience is looking for. That’s why before you get into actually creating content — whether it’s a pay per click, blog, email, or social media post — it’s important that you know and understand the user intent of your chosen topic.

Let’s talk about what user intent is, how you can research it, and where you can find help that’s already winning to give you some serious inspiration.

What is user intent?

The term may sound self-explanatory and simple. Since it’s an important strategy that can make or break your performance online and is often missed by marketers, it’s worth learning more about it.

User intent tells you what people are looking for or want to find when they type a query into a search engine. It considers the keywords used in those queries and goes deeper to understand the context or intention behind the words.

There are three different types of user intent:

• Informational – Users want to learn something and are looking for resources that cover their query.
• Navigational – People are searching for specific websites that can and will satisfy their search.
• Transactional – Users want to make a purchase and are looking for specific products and services or sites that offer these.

Why does user intent matter?

When we create content, we tend to create what we want other people to learn about. However, this isn’t about us. Not at all. It’s about them.

User intent helps you create content that clearly answers what your audience is looking for so you can meet their specific needs – whether it’s through blogging or even on social media (more on this in a moment). It enables you to achieve higher SEO rankings and conversion rates and maximizes your click-through rates.

Similarly, user intent determines if your page visitors read your content or they go elsewhere to find better answers for their queries.

Essentially, the goal here is to provide users exactly what they’re looking for immediately. Otherwise, they’ll leave your page right away and find solutions somewhere else. That’s why understanding and implementing user intent is important for marketers and content creators.

For example, let’s say that you want to write about at-home high-intensity interval training (HIIT) exercises. You then craft an in-depth blog post that’s well-researched and highly optimized with the outline:

• What is HIIT? Where and when did it start?
• Benefits of HIIT exercises
• Testimonials and proven results of HIIT
• Home HIIT exercises

After you publish this, you soon realize that your post is not getting good results. Maybe you’re not even in the search rankings. Most likely it’s because you’re not immediately satisfying the needs of people who search for “at-home HIIT exercises.”

Yes, you’ve provided relevant information and value, but no one is going to read through an entire post just to find the answers they need. “Well, if the information is good enough, they’ll keep reading,” you’re saying. Wrong. It’s not about how good the information is. It’s about how easy you make it for the reader to get the answers that they came for.

This means, to satisfy user intent, you must give them what they’re looking for – right away. Playing hard to get might work in dating, but that’s not the case here.

Now, this doesn’t mean you can’t write about the other details. Of course, you can. And maybe you should. But do so only after you’ve fulfilled the user intent and highlighted the answers they’re searching for.

Wait — Isn’t user intent only important for blogs?

Great question! The answer is a resounding no.

Yes, knowing the user intent for a search query is incredibly helpful when crafting a blog post, because this is going to help you rank. But blogs aren’t the only content you create.

You can take this information and insight you gather and apply it so that you’re also satisfying your audience via social media and email marketing. For example, if people are coming to your Facebook page or subscribing to your email list to learn about new HIIT workouts, then this is exactly what they want! Give it to them.

Therefore, user intent is your BFF through any and all content creation — blogging, social media, email marketing, and beyond.

How can we determine user intent?

Fortunately, discovering and satisfying user intent is not as complicated as it sounds. Here are simple tips you can implement today.

First, determine specific search metrics like the volume of a keyword, CPC (cost per click), competition, related keyword suggestions, seasonal trends, and even content ideas. All of these things will give you a better understanding of what your competitors are doing and what the consumers are searching for on Google. If you need help, Branding Iron research teams are experts in helping define these metrics.

Here’s some sample data using researching “home HIIT.” This shows that the average monthly search volume is 1,300 and it recently saw a huge spike. (This aligns with when the pandemic arrived and quarantine was starting.)

When you scroll further down in the data, you see keyword (read: topic) ideas. This tells you what people online care about when it comes to this topic.

See how this can guide you when you’re creating content for the internet?

Note that this is barely scratching the surface!

Another strategy you can implement is to head on to Google and see what autocompletes your keywords. This will help you find what related searches people are conducting so you can narrow down your general topic into what meets user intent.

Remember, what you see here is not random and it’s not a coincidence. Google is telling you what people are searching for that has to do with “home HIIT.”

Then, you can really narrow down what your audience wants to learn about online.

Great, but what does this all mean?

Let’s keep rolling with our example of at-home HIIT exercises. Take a look at the keyword ideas in one of the previous screenshots. Notice a pattern?

The ideas mostly revolve around exercises and workouts. In other words, this is what people want. They don’t want to know about the history of HIIT or its benefits. They don’t want testimonials or reviews. They want workouts that they can follow, period.

In the sample blog we referenced, this was the last point we covered, which is why a blog that centers on that keyword but uses the outline we provided would likely fail.

Again, this isn’t to say that the other information isn’t quality or insightful. But it’s not what people want to read about when they search that query.

Satisfying user intent is your primary goal. Do that first and foremost, and then if you want to include additional information later on in the piece of content, do so.

Write this down: People aren’t going to wait for the answer. They’ll simply leave your page and go look for what they want somewhere else.

Look at what is already succeeding

This is one of the last points that we want to leave you with, and it’s another game-changer.

Pay very close attention to what ranks on the first page of the search results. Google wants to provide the best user experience and makes sure people find what they’re looking for immediately, so they prioritize content and sites that accomplish that.

So, it helps to study what these top-ranking pages are doing for the search query that you want to rank for – how they answer the query, what information they include, how they format their posts, and so on.

If you want to compete with them, then you need to satisfy user intent at least as well as they do.

However, keep in mind that these should only serve as inspiration. Never (ever!) copy what high-ranking pages are doing. Rather, strive to outrank them by creating even better content. This isn’t about stopping at their level. It’s about surpassing them. That’s how you’ll outrank them.

The point is this: You don’t need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to answering user intent. Google already flat-out tells you what people like: It’s the content ranking on page one of the search results. Follow their lead and then go the extra mile with your own content.

The key takeaway

People do online searches to find answers to their problems. With user intent, you can understand what they need and provide solutions to what they’re looking for immediately.

Similarly, we’re not telling you to disregard your SEO best practices of optimizing your blog, adding graphics and social media embeds, or using keywords effectively. These things still matter, and you should still incorporate SEO best practices.

However, Google is getting savvier by the day. What used to be enough to rank well isn’t enough anymore. You can perfectly optimize a piece of content in the traditional sense. If it doesn’t satisfy user intent, then it’s 100% a moot point. Google’s #1 priority is “customer service” — meaning user experience. They want people using the search engine to find what they need as quickly as possible.

Make the user happy and you make Google happy. Subsequently, you’ll be rewarded with better rankings and greater traffic.

Keep following traditional SEO best practices . And in addition, you should take it a step further by offering satisfaction through user intent.

Too much to tackle on your own. Call Branding Iron and we’ll do the heavy lifting for you. It’s that simple. We can help you grow your business while you work on doing what you do best!

The time that Americans have spent streaming has gone through the roof since the start of COVID-19, according to new research conducted by OnePoll on behalf of AVoD service Tubi.

A study of 2,000 Americans with access to a streaming service found the average person is now streaming eight hours of content per day, and binge-watched three shows in the past week.

Time in front of the TV has become a parenting technique for many with children as 65 percent of parents polled admitted they’ve been allowing kids to watch more movies and TV shows.

The survey found the average person has access to four streaming services with 38 percent logging into five or more. Forty-seven percent of those surveyed have turned to free streaming services to watch movies and TV shows to complement their existing subscription services or help cut costs.

Since the start of Coronavirus in the United States, three in four admit to using streaming services more.

The surveys also revealed it takes the average person 21 minutes to decide what they’re going to watch, but even after all that time, 56 percent frequently re-watch a show instead of starting something new.

All that re-watching can lead to people feeling out of the loop since three in five have felt pressure to watch the latest show taking the zeitgeist by storm. A third even admitted to lying about seeing a show.

However, once people press ‘Play’ on a new show, a binge frequently takes over. One in two have completed their shortest binge in 48 hours or less.

Viewers will get crafty in order to try new streaming services. Half of the respondents confessed to starting a free trial of a platform and then cancelling it once they finished the show they wanted to see.

“The findings of the survey illuminate just how much people are turning to streaming as a way to stay entertained and cope with social isolation,” notes Tubi. “Americans are bingeing more content than ever before, seeking free streaming options alongside subscription services, and turning to password sharing as a way to find more content.”

Forty-two percent have shared or received a streaming service password from another person since the spread of COVID-19 in the US.

Two in five confessed to still using their ex’s passwords to streaming services even before coronavirus.

Men were most likely to log into a former partner’s account to watch their favourite movies and TV shows with 47 percent, while only 41 percent of women have done the same.

The average person employs this tactic three times a year, which is not surprising since 55 percent named price as a reason to cancel a streaming service.

“As more people are staying home to practice social distancing, streaming and entertainment has never been more important. Whether you’re looking for new TV shows and movies to round out your streaming library, or you want to save a bit of money, checking out free, ad-supported streaming services is a great option,”.

With all the increase in streaming services is it any wonder there are opportunities to increase your business exposure without increasing your budget. Call Branding Iron today to learn how your local business can take advantage of streaming video and music for your advertising.

Still spending money on ads in the yellow pages? Really?  It’s not 1982 any more.

It’s time, Y2K didn’t end the world and you need to let go of the phone book ads. Every year, I still have a select few that ask the question: should I re-up with the Yellow Pages (or Superpages, or Yellow Book, etc.)?

We can say with certainty that it’s not a wise investment to purchase display ads in phone directories.

This is especially true when online usage continues to expand, including in huge leaps among the demographic most likely to use phone directories: older Americans. With increased usage by the phone book’s core audience (43% of senior citizens and increasing daily, according to Pew Internet Research), online searches will become more important, and, conversely, yellow pages will be used less and less.

Most importantly, determining your return on investment, or ROI, for your yellow pages ads can be difficult, whereas it is easy to calculate your exact costs and earnings from online marketing. Forbes discusses the reasons why it suggests that only select local businesses should expect good ROI from yellow pages, and why it’s likely that your business would benefit more from investing in online marketing and pay-per-click advertising.

So, here are the top three reasons why you should invest in inbound marketing, not the yellow pages:

1. Yellow pages ads and more expensive

Indeed, we are regularly pitched by the various yellow page providers to advertise. Our businesses find their customers are almost solely sourced through Google search, word-of-mouth, or both, and we hear similar facts from other businesses. So, if your potential customers are online, and you are online, why not take the shortest path from A to B? True, most providers will bundle “clicks” with their ads, but you still must decide if the investment is really worth it.

The general measurement for marketing is cost per thousand. This means how much it cost you to reach 1000 people. Some digital tools start at $5 cost per thousand. They may print thousands of phone books but how many of them actually get used. That’s all that really matters. Our advice this year is to divert that investment to online marketing. Potentially, invest that money in a new website that is SEO-friendly, mobile responsive (so it works on mobile devices & tablets) and up-to-date with respect to design, and invest time in your Google My Business listings. These are the “new phone books” and if you’re not there, you don’t exist to online shoppers.

2. Never pay to be listed in a phone book or online directory

Nearly every directory offers a free listing. In our experience, the only clicks worth paying for online are through search engines like Google or Bing. It would be difficult to even justify the effort to get you manually listed in all the relevant directories, when pay-per-click is typically inexpensive and completely trackable.

3. Be found for what you, not who you are

When someone knows who they want to do business with, they look for that company’s name. More importantly when they don’t know, they search for the service they need. It’s more important that your business is found when the potential client DOESN’T already know with whom they want to do business. You have an opportunity to take market share from your competitor. Today, that means they search on their smartphones for the service or ask a friend on social media.

What about SEO? Don’t phone directories boost search engine traffic? Certainly listings in online directories can increase clicks, but they can also hurt the performance of your own website, ranking directories for critical results above your own site. In other words, your listings in online phone directories can hurt your overall search engine performance. You probably receive numerous emails and phone calls from “online marketers” saying you need to build backlinks to increase traffic — and that was true for years, but not really relevant in the new Google milieu.

You want your site to be the authority on your industry, product, or service in your geographic area, and earning that position is no longer a product of the number of times your site is listed on other websites. Rather, solid online marketing techniques mixed with authoritative, expert content updated regularly is what will boost your rankings and increase your traffic.

In short, your “SEO” company or your web agency should help you make your site as effective from a marketing standpoints as possible, and should also help create an inbound marketing strategy that relies on best practices for solid ROI, not to prop up a business model that is struggling to survive in the 21st century.

You may be thinking, what if I don’t understand digital marketing, where do I start?

The first thing you need to do is accept that all forms of traditional marketing that made you successful in the past are not obsolete. If you do not want to take my word for it, that’s understandable. Do your research and you will see the statistics.

Digital marketing has so many more options and it leaves most people overwhelmed. Here are your options:

• Contact digital marketing companies to give presentations on their services – (You learn a lot)
• Research options yourself (Time consuming)
• Hire a marketing team to do the heavy lifting for you

Branding Iron can save you time in research and finding the most efficient means for helping your clients find your business. We can do a full analysis of your online presence and give free advice and options for services with no commitment. Call us today.