The term Inbound Marketing was introduced by HubSpot for the first time in 2006 as “an approach focused on attracting customers through content and interactions that are helpful and relevant.” This is a multi-component strategy that includes search engine optimization (SEO), blogging, creating text, visual and video content, email marketing, social network marketing (SMM).

 

Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing is not an invasive way to attract consumers to a brand. It is not intended to interrupt users constantly without their permission as we know Outbound marketing does (billboards, ads, press releases, etc.). Inbound messages are not intrusive at all. On the contrary, they attract those who are looking for answers. By using Inbound Marketing tools, you help your potential customers find you more easily online. Provide them with enough information about your product or services and they will be able to make an informative decision about purchasing what you are offering.

 

 

Nowadays, it would be very unusual if a company does not use Inbound Marketing as part of their overall marketing strategy. To find out where you should put your efforts in 2018, do not stop reading. Here are four Inbound marketing trends that will help your business become even more successful in 2018.

 

Chatbot

We hope that you are still not tired of listening about artificial intelligence (AI) and the benefits it has on business. Chatbots are a type of AI technology that is becoming a powerful tool for Inbound Marketing. Why?

Over the last few years, people have begun using messaging applications more than social networks to keep in touch with one another.  What is interesting is that they use them more and more as a way to communicate with brands too. A chatbot is a computer program that makes it possible for brands to provide 24/7 customer service on the biggest messaging platforms like Facebook Messenger, Viber, Skype, and more. These virtual assistants answer user questions via automated messages. At the same time, they collect valuable information and statistics about their preferences. Companies can then use the gathered data to improve and update their marketing strategies.

 

Guest blogging

Everybody knows that having a blog where you publish articles regularly is an extremely successful method for generating organic traffic to your site. Millions of articles are published online every day. Blogging has grown into an actual industry. It evolves continuously and competition is becoming fierce. A good way to spice things up while attracting new customers is through guest blogging. This means that your article will be published on another website or blog. Although this is not a new practice at all, 2018 has set big expectations about it.

NOTA BENNE! Publishing an informative and quality article on a website that has less than 1000 visits per month and users who do not share its content would be totally meaningless. When you blog on popular websites with good rating and of relevance to your business, you will bring quality traffic and adequate potential customers back to your page. And this is directly related to the number of sales if the page offers some kind of product or service, such as “eCommerce website development” for example.

 

Podcast

A podcast is an audio show that is broadcasted over the Internet. More and more companies are incorporating such type of content creation in their brand awareness strategies. Consumers can listen to podcasts anywhere, even in the shower! Although this is a relatively new tool for Inbound Marketing, 11% of marketers are planning to include it in their marketing strategy in 2018.

Podcasts provide informative content in a very convenient way. They are extremely user-friendly. It’s nice to listen to something interesting without the need to constantly stare at the computer screen, phone or tablet. Podcasts are the favorite blogs of people with limited spare time.

Creating a podcast does not require any investment. The best part is that after broadcasting it, you can transcribe the dialogue and publish it as a blog post with a link to further increase the traffic to your website. Eric Siu, co-host of Marketing School along with Neil Patel, says that once they began making podcasts, their website traffic increased by up to 25-30%!

 

Live video

When we talk about trends in Inbound Marketing, we cannot miss mentioning live videos which will still keep a top position in 2018. People like live streaming and statistics show it clearly:

• 82% of users prefer watching a live video to reading a blog post;
• Live videos are viewed three times more than regular videos on Facebook;
• The most viewed live videos are about breaking news and conferences (56%) followed by concerts (43%);
• 67% are more likely to buy a ticket for a concert or conference after watching a live video about.

That’s why your brand should start live streaming interesting brand happenings. Share about an event you are attending or an interview with an expert someone, show people behind the scenes stories, anything that matters to you and your target audience.

 

What other Inbound marketing trends you think will rule in 2018? Share with us in the comment section below.

According to a recent survey by Statista shopping cart abandonment in the Retail industry for the second quarter of 2017 has reached 77.3%. This means that a very large number of users add desirable products to their virtual shopping cart but shortly afterward they leave the website without making a purchase.

 

Looking at the graph above, it seems pretty clear that this is the case across multiple industries. The matter of the fact is that the majority of your website visitors are simply looking around and are not going to make an order. However, obviously, your products and services have triggered their initial interest. So, why lose those potential customers? There is a way to attract them back and increase your successful conversions. It’s called remarketing.

 

What is Google Remarketing?

First of all, let’s make a distinction between the terms “Remarketing” and “Retargeting“.

Historically speaking, when talking about remarketing, we mean collecting information about certain people and reaching to them later via mail or email, offering them a specific product or service.

Retargeting is used to display paid ads to people who have already visited your website. This is done by using information about the visitors’ actions that have been stored in their browser as “cookies”. The ad reaches targeted people using 3rd parties such as the Google Display Network.

Over time these two concepts have become interchangeable and marketers often put them on a par. Google even “borrowed” the concept of Remarketing and used it to name its retargeting campaigns.

So…

Google remarketing is an important part of digital marketing, also known among marketers as a retargeting. This method allows you to advertise your products and services to those visitors who have already viewed your website or have used your mobile app but have not purchased or ordered anything from it.

 

How does it work?

Once the user leaves your site, they will continue seeing your ads in different places all over the web – in their Google search results, in other websites or apps*, and the Display Network. Remarketing lets you run ad campaigns that meet your prospects’ needs. It encourages them to visit your web page again, and again, and again… Therefore, increasing their chances of successful conversions, such as purchasing a product from an online shop.

*Only if they have been registered in AdSense, they will have the permission to display ads.

 

Remarketing is a very successful and effective advertising method. Why? Because it is directly targeted at those users who have already shown some interest in your products and services. By reminding them of your online presence through a specifically targeted advertising campaign, you will earn a place on top of their mind.

Google AdWords allows you to run a wide range of remarketing campaigns and target visitors based on what they’ve done on your website. Therefore, the platform offers you several different types of remarketing – standard, dynamic, mobile applications, video, email, and search ads. For example, video remarketing allows you to show products or services to people who have watched your videos or browsed through your YouTube channel.

The benefits of Google Remarketing

Google remarketing will help your business. This is how:

• Successful Targeting – Google Remarketing allows you to eliminate target groups that are unlikely to convert. In addition, you can target specific audiences depending on their history of website activity. Implement this information in your next ad creative. For example, if a user has looked at a specific shoe model, you can show him/her a banner with the exact same shoes, while he/she is visiting another website.
• Higher CTR – Remarketing ads have a higher click-through-rate (CTR) compared to standard display ads.
• More successful conversions – As we have already explained, the purpose of remarketing is to remind users about your products and services. This will make them finish an otherwise unfinished action on your website. When do users need extra stimulation? When they hesitate, overthink a difficult decision and find it hard to make a choice. If you are operating in the field of consulting, software development and digital solutions, you most likely have noticed this indecisiveness in your customers. However, by running strictly targeted advertising campaigns you will catch their attention and make them convert.
• Less Cost – Remarketing campaigns are known for their cost-effectiveness. Just like PPC advertising on Google AdWords, you only pay when a user actually clicks on your ad.
• Higher return on investment (ROI) – a Higher return on investment in remarketing happens because of the narrow and concrete targeting it is based upon. First, you have collected additional information about your target audience. Second, you can send individually tailored ads to specific target groups.
• Brand recognition – When your potential customers come across your ad multiple times online, this greatly increases their chances of recognizing your brand more quickly. It will sink into their mind more easily.

 

Have you ever done a remarketing campaign? If so, we will be happy to hear about the results you got from it in the comment section below. If not, contact us to help you with a successful start.

Are you a newbie in digital marketing? Or you are simply looking for ways to promote your brand online? Anyways, you must have heard about CPC and PPC advertising campaigns. What do these two abbreviations mean? Should you implement them in your next digital marketing campaign? We’ll give you the answers to these questions right now.

What does PPC mean?

 

You have probably noticed that when you search something in Google, ads relevant to your search appear along with organic search results in the SERP (search engine results page). That is PPC.

 

PPC literally means pay-per-click. It is an online advertising method that allows you to advertise your products and services in popular search engines like Google when users search for something specific in these search engines. The example above shows how your website about telecommunications and software services will look like a PPC ad if a person was to search “buy Softswitch” in Google.

You will only pay for a PPC ad if the user actually clicks on it. Hence it’s name – pay per click. Quite useful, right? Just imagine: 15 000 people see your ad, but only 80 of them click on it. You will get to pay only for those 80 clicks. The metric that indicates the amount you will pay for a single click is called CPC (cost-per-click). This amount is very unstable and spontaneous. It can change by the minute, over and over again. Why? Because it depends on both: the search volume of specific keywords at the given moment and on your competitors. CPC may be fixed per click, but you may also choose a fixed daily budget for your PPC campaign.

*Note: Sometimes CPC is used instead of PPC, although CPC is only part of PPC.

How do I create a PPC advertising campaign?

Every business wants to have their websites on the first page of Google. Unfortunately, you can not just pay a certain amount of money and have a top position guaranteed. Google’s mission is to ensure its users’ free access to quality information. All the time. Therefore, the only way to run a PPC campaign is through platforms like Google Ads and. You can use Google Ads for text and display ads, banners, video ads, mobile app ads, and more. Your PPC ads may appear in Google or be posted on websites (Google as the intermediary). The sites get a percentage of each CPC.

Keywords are the most important element in your PPC advertising campaign. These are words or phrases that are relevant to your business or that are of importance to your customers. You and your competitors must bid for these keywords. The one that has bid the highest price is the “auction winner” and earns a place in the organic search results in Google. The algorithm used by Google Ads to determine who will receive an ad space is very complex. Google takes into consideration not only the bid price itself but factors such as:

 

• the relevance of your website to the keywords you have bid on
• the content of the ad
• the history of your other Google Ads campaigns
• and more

Why use PPC campaigns to promote your business?

 

Conversions
PPC advertising is a very useful marketing method especially when your goal is to get conversions like sales, email and newsletter subscriptions, filling in a contact form and more.

Traffic
One of the key benefits of PPC is that it increases your website traffic. The more people view your ad, the more people will follow the link, and therefore actually visit your site.

Targeted Ads
Google Ads allows you to reach your target audience much more easily – choose location, date and time, keywords, websites, and more.

Brand awareness
Even if you do not generate enough sales, it’s important to note that many people will still see your brand name on the top of the SERP in Google.

On a budget
How much you are going to spend on your PPC campaign depends only on you. You may even run several campaigns simultaneously.

Research analysis
You can use the accumulated data for your business purposes. You will receive systematic results – cost, profit, views, clicks, visits, and more. Implement this in your next PPC campaign.

 

PPC advertising campaigns are a tested and proven method for higher conversion rates. Respectively more sales, and “more sales” is “The thing” that every business aims for, especially the eCommerce business. Therefore, it must be included in your overall digital marketing campaign.

Do you have any experience in running PPC and CPC campaigns? If so, share in the comments below which of its functionalities you find the most useful and practical!

Just stop for a second and look around. What do you see? Your office space maybe? Are you traveling on the bus or simply lying on the couch at home? Whatever the case, you are constantly being surrounded by content and the information overload urges you to make one choice after another. Online content acts the same. Where you click next depends on your personal decision and the information you are exposed to.

 

Online content creates relations; it is a conversation that takes different paths:

 

• It can start spontaneously
• It can also end spontaneously
• It may not even start
• It can benefit both sides – you and your users

 

As a business owner, which one of these scenarios do you prefer? I think we both know the answer…

 

Good content? You already have that!

But how? Whether you want to create your corporate website, start a personal blog, or develop an online store, you have already accumulated some good content in the form of experiences, ideas, knowledge, goals, work papers, brochures, and other materials without even knowing it. Take all the information you are passionate about and share it online. You are the one that best knows your products and services. Use that to your advantage. If you have an excellent product, good content practically writes itself.

 

The face of your business

Your website is your business card no matter if it’s a company website, online shop or just a blog. So, be very careful with the selection of words, images, and articles. They must represent your values and interests, be directly related to the offered products and services. Keep in mind that people visit your website for a reason. Whatever the case, they should leave your page feeling informed and satisfied, and, most importantly – have the desire to come back. If you’re not exactly sure how to do all that you can always count on the Speedflow Team for helpful advice.

 

The fateful choice

You basically have two options:

 

1. Quality content for profit and traffic
2. Filler content for loss and unpopularity

 

Do not do anything just because everyone else is doing it. The Internet is an infinite virtual universe filled with temptations that are just one click away. Do not forget – online competition is fierce and is everywhere!  So, your web content must be flawless. Not only will it be accessible to absolutely everyone, but more importantly – they will know who the author is. And it’s you! Your reputation is at stake! Stand out from the crowd for your originality, dedication and hard work. That’s a rule of life, isn’t it?

 

Web content checklist

Text – Words are a powerful and vital tool for creating web content. You have lots of options here depending on the nature and needs of your business.  These are but not limited to product descriptions, web page titles, tags, ads, blog articles, news, brochures, online magazines, guides, how-to and more.

 

Images – When talking about web content, we do not imply text only. As the renowned American editor Arthur Brisbane once said, “Use a picture. It’s worth a thousand words.” Images are an extremely effective way of expressing both qualitative and quantitative information – graphics, charts, photos, etc. Numerous studies have shown that in some situations people react better to images than to text. Images are perceived better and faster and are much more easily stored in our long-term memory.

 

Video – This is a very powerful but often underestimated web instrument. It’s true that not all websites and businesses can make use of it in the best possible way. But still, you can consider trying out some of these ideas – a virtual tour, a promo, slideshow, interview, product reviews, product testing, and more. It’s much easier to show how something works in a short video than to write a five-page manual about it.

 

Design – Web design is the tool that combines all the elements of your web content and presents them in a visually appealing and comprehensive form. It is the framework for all your hard work that will help you distinguish yourself and your products from the competition in an original and individual way. Web design is the first thing that catches your visitor’s attention, so make sure it is captivating enough. You can also take a look at our article about the latest design trends in 2017 for more clarity and new ideas.

 

Well, after reading all of this, do you think your website has all the elements of good content? If the answer is YES, your work does not end here. Regularly update your content (actually this is a positive SEO signal for the search engines and a factor for better ranking), maintain a never-ending dialogue with your visitors, and they will reward your time and effort with trust in your products and services.

 

If you need help or consultation regarding your project, contact us or send us an e-mail at info@speedflow.bg

The ways people interact with each other have changed dramatically over the last few years since online media became a big part of our daily lives. That brought a need for fresh business strategies and customer relations. Meet the solution for those needs – Digital Marketing!

 

What is digital marketing?

 

The emergence and development of the Internet forced the business to evolve, digitize, and adapt to the new conditions. This phenomenon also affected marketing and advertising, as standard advertising channels. Strategies and tactics were no longer efficient enough to promote a particular type of business brand.

 

But what exactly does digital marketing mean?

 

This is a specific set of techniques that use digital channels for advertising or in other words – the Internet. It reaches the widest possible audience online, using different advertising methods and channels for this purpose.

 

At the beginning of the millennium, WEB 2.0 appeared, with concepts such as search engines, bots, artificial intelligence, process automation, virtual reality, and many others. Now the Internet continues to evolve in a clear direction – a collaboration with users. The digital marketing fundamentals also went through several metamorphoses, which continue rolling to this day.

 

Then came the uprising of Social Media. And the online audience formed a contingent of potential clients. Business was quick to navigate this situation and adopt new ways of advertising – paid and organic. When a digital marketing specialist hears the words “Advertising Campaign“, he immediately thinks of a few things: Product, target audience, budget/cost, result, and optimization.

 

Optimization and design

 

Attracting targeted traffic to a particular website, whether it’s an online store, an information site or a personal blog, must be accompanied by well-optimized content and intriguing design. This applies to both landing pages and all other product and info pages. After all, who would like to be caught in the following situation:

 

You are running a successful ad campaign. The incoming traffic is increasing, but your site is slow and difficult to navigate. Users do not spend time on it. As a result, the advertising campaign becomes completely ineffective. Your costs are not justified, and you miss the possibility of new sales.

 

No one likes to stumble right at the finish line, right?

 

Targeting and Retargeting

 

As technology evolves, various tools are made available for gathering comprehensive information from consumers, helping us to segment them more appropriately through their tastes and interests.

 

Through the so-called “Cookies” we can understand more about the behavior of our visitors. This online information consists of extensive data such as viewed sites, searches, follow-up ads, and more.

 

In retargeting we use the information about the users’ tastes and needs to remind our potential clients about our services.

 

When you target and advertise, your goal is clear – to satisfy the needs of a particular group of people for a particular product or service. So let the message be individual and personal. This way your offer has a greater chance of being seen and considered.

 

Think big!

 

Nowadays it’s almost unthinkable not to be online! How else would someone from another city understand that you have a business? That you are providing a particular type of product or service? “Mouth-to-mouth” advertising is really useful, but it’s often not enough.

So think big! Plan your online marketing strategy and prepare a long-term action plan. Start with building a corporate website and optimizing it. Start collecting and create an email list for email campaigns. Participate in social networks. Positive results will certainly come faster than you think after knowing what is digital marketing!

Positive results will certainly come faster than you think, after knowing what is digital marketing and how to do it!

When you engage with your prospects, leads and existing customers via an email marketing campaign, you are exercising a privilege, not a right.

If we forget that we are bound to commit other errors that will deem our marketing efforts useless.

Using email as a communication channel is a little tricky because:

• You cannot take the direct contact for granted
• You don’t always know who is on the other side
• It is tough to change strategies during the course of the conversation

So, here are six things that you definitely want to avoid in your email marketing campaigns.

1. Non-Segmented Lists

Keeping an eye on all your mailing lists, rearranging them and reclassifying them might be a tedious task but undoubtedly necessary.

If I am a loyal customer of your brand, I wouldn’t feel okay if I constantly receive your offers and promotions for new signups. And if I am a money saver, I wouldn’t be very impressed with your expensive new product, even if it is proven to be of the highest quality.

You get the idea – think before you send!

2. Unclean Lists

The same logic as above applies here, but with added importance. Unclean lists not only diminish the efficacy of your email marketing campaign, but you are just begging to be labeled as a spammer by the spam filters.

Instead of continuously sending messages and newsletters to your hard bounces and full email inboxes, just remove them from your list and be done with it. Failing to do so will damage your sender reputation, sometimes irreversibly. Failing to do so will damage your sender reputation, sometimes irreversibly.

3. Ignoring CAN-SPAM

CAN-SPAM was the first official set of rules that became a standard for sending commercial email messages. It was first enacted in 2003 and gives you an exact definition of the Can Do’s and Can’t Do’s when you engage in email marketing. For a rundown of its most important requirements, you can check the regulations from the Federal Trade Commission.

4. Wrong Send Times

Send times matter, especially if your list is large. You need diversification. While your EU users are happy, your US users on the other end of the world might not appreciate that and simply ignore the message.

For example, one of our first email campaigns was rolling for some time when we realized that most of the emails were opened at around 5 pm. Meanwhile, we were distributing the messages at 6 pm. Changing this by only an hour showed a tremendous increase in open rates.

5. No Clear Value

This is a trap most often encountered with newsletters. When you have to produce content frequently, there is a chance that sooner or later you will exhaust your ideas or start repeating yourself.

Do not send email content just for the sake of sending it!

Make sure that the people you are reaching will receive something beneficial to them, something engaging – such as content that is relevant to their business, occupation, or lifestyle.

Only send emails to your list that offer clear value.

Remember that the hardest part is to get people to even open your email – don’t lose them just before the finish line!

6. No Attention to Detail

If you are a perfectionist by nature, you may have a head start at email marketing and properly using it for a campaign. The attention to every little detail will ensure that your efforts go the right way.

Starting from the subject line, you are already in the battle of drawing attention. Be too familiar or too pushy and you are just asking the user on the other side to ignore you or mark your messages as spam.

The content itself has to be adapted to your target group. The best option is to present it in both text and HTML formats, and let your recipient decide which is most suitable.

Finish it off with some awesome design to achieve the desired Wow! effect. Keep in mind that responsive design is more important than ever as mobile users already represent a huge share of the market and you don’t want to put them off.

I hope you avoid making mistakes others have already tested for you. Be patient, be logical and always think like you are on the other side of the email you are about to send.

…or simply trust the professionals and check our Marketing Services, delivered by a trained in-house team. Making sure your messages always arrive at their destination!