LOCALiQ | Columbus Marketing Blog

1. Email is Permission-Based

Unlike with social media and PPC marketing where you’re displaying your ad to broad sections of your target audience in hopes that they click, email marketing is permission based. Whether they opt into a newsletter or sign up for some promo codes, your consumers are willingly giving you their email as a way to say “Hey, I’d like some more information”. A study done by Marketing Sherpa found that 91% of consumers like to receive promotional emails from brands they support (Source: Marketing Sherpa).

2. People Love to Stay Informed

From the time the alarm goes off in the morning till the sun goes down, people are attached to platforms and services that provide them with the information they deem valuable.

While social media handles the entertainment and current events side of things, email is reserved for more important, time-sensitive information like special offers and dreaded bills. In fact, the average person checks their personal email 3 times per day!

Whether you’re using your landing page to make direct sales or gather emails from leads, it is one of the most crucial steps in the conversion process. After all the outreach and advertising, it comes down to this final act. Will your prospects turn into customers? They will if your offer is solid and your landing page is optimized for conversion.

Landing Page Optimization Tips

As with other steps in the process, you want to ensure that your landing page is compelling visitors to take whatever action you want them to take. Here are a few ideas on how to increase your conversion rates.

Believe it or not, stock photos first came about in the 1920’s. Since their conception, stock photos can now be found in every corner of the web and on just about every site in existence. Even though they present a great opportunity for photographers across the globe, it gets a little tricky for business. Depending on your content strategy and the way you plan on using them, stock photos can either hurt your brand or help it. In this article, we’re going to discuss the pros and cons of stock photos, as well as when to use them and when to avoid them.

Graphic designer. Warehouse worker. Dental assistant. Social worker. Brand ambassador.

Do you know what each of these people has in common? Communication skills are listed as a top qualification on ZipRecruiter job postings for all of these job titles.

Effective communication is essential to nearly every industry. After all, communication is universal. Everyone has to communicate, and people who communicate well are more likely to perform well in professional arenas. In fact, a proven ability to communicate clearly is more important to 91 percent of employers than a job candidate’s undergraduate major.

Whether you are looking to land your dream job or score that big promotion in your current career, practicing these key workplace communication skills could help you achieve your goal.

Mastering these vital workplace communication skills will serve you well in your career—regardless of your line of work. And these skills are not limited to the workplace. Being a confident communicator can be beneficial for your personal life, too. Practice your new speaking, writing, listening, and body language skills everywhere you go and see first-hand the difference that strong communication skills can make.

According to BrightLocal, 88% of online shoppers trust reviews posted to consumer websites over word of mouth. Who knew that the opinions of strangers would make such a difference in consumer behaviors? So, where do you want your reviews posted? How do you encourage customers to take the time to review your business? Let’s take a look at how you can amp up your online credit (and business reputation) by jockeying for five stars across the board.

Where Can You Get Five Star Reviews?

Many of the websites you want your company’s listing to show up on (with said 5-star reviews) are the sites you use personally when perusing the internet. These include:

Yelp

Yelp is one of the most popular company directory websites with an easy-to-use platform for consumers who want to leave their opinion regarding products and services.

Facebook

Once you set up your Facebook business page and designate yourself as a ‘local business’ there will be on option on your homepage for users to write a review.

Google

When your business is Googled, a business summary will populate on the right-hand side of the page which also displays your rating. You can set yourself up to get 5-star reviews via Google through a Google My Business listing.

Angie’s List

If you’ve got a service related business this is a terrific review site where five stars can go a long way.

BBB

Any and all businesses should have their info with the Better Business Bureau. Audiences who are less tech-savvy or social media-oriented are still likely to know about the BBB.

10 Tips for Getting Five-Star Reviews

A company’s reputation is as important as their products and services. Often times it takes one disheartened customer to voice their disappointment and suddenly, you’re seeing a drop in business. With the channels by which people may learn about your organization growing by the day, it’s vital to stay ahead of the chatter and in control of how the public at large views your business. Here are some best practices you can implement to be sure you’re reputation remains in good standing.

Why Practice Reputation Mangement?

Your business reputation isn’t just your rating on a review site. It is the general feel of the public toward your business, based on your actions, that gets expressed by the public across online and offline channels; and those same channels by which others express their feelings toward your business are the ones you use to generate those feelings.

Is your head spinning yet? Your business reputation is an entity in an of itself, neither fully in the public’s control nor fully in your control. This is why it’s so important to monitor your business reputation and be proactive in managing it.

We get it. Online advertising is complex and for most, it’s a foreign world that you don’t really even want to think about trying to understand. The truth is, online advertising isn’t as bad as it seems. Well, it’s not bad at all. What we mean is, getting a grasp on it isn’t as hard or as far away as you might think. If you’re wondering whether you should advertise your business online, the answer is most likely yes. Read on to understand the features, the facts, and the benefits of online advertising that make it a worthwhile investment for your business.

Why Advertise Online?

In order to have an effective marketing strategy, you must diversify the ways in which you reach your target audience. While you may be an expert on traditional marketing mediums like print ads, billboards or broadcasts, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity if you haven’t made the foray into advertising online. The reasons why you should advertise online are vast. To name just a few:

Word-of-mouth marketing is not something that happens by chance. Different than naturally-occurring word-of-mouth, this form of marketing is prompted, guided and encouraged by businesses. How can you encourage word-of-mouth recommendations that will help you to reach your marketing objectives?

What is Word-of-Mouth Marketing?

You’re already familiar with word-of-mouth—it’s a means by which information travels among individuals, groups of people, and larger social circles. The word-of-mouth communication you want happening around your business is that of happy customers, emphatic social media followers, and avid blog readers recommending your business to others.

Word-of-mouth is up to your target audience and customers. Word-of-mouth marketing is up to you and your business. This type of marketing focuses on publishing content, providing services, and creating experiences that your target audience will naturally want to share with others.

Examples of Word-of-Mouth Marketing

Word-of-mouth marketing happens more than you may realize. It can take many forms, such as:

• Online customer reviews (here’s how to get them)
• User-generated content
• Social media shares
• New customers referred by current customers (here are some referral program ideas)