5 Ways to Further Optimize your Google My Business Listing

By: Patricia Poblete

When was the last time you optimized your Google My Business (GMB) listing? According to LSA Insider, 56% of local business haven’t claimed their GMB listing, while those that have, haven’t fully optimized it or forgot about it. In spite of the fact that 82% of people use search engine to find local information, many GMB listings remain unclaimed and unoptimized.

Why?

A study from Brandmuscle found that 57% of the listings are self-managed by local businesses due to reasons such as lack of resources and guidance. Fortunately, it’s never too late to start optimizing your GMB listing. Since new features are ever-so-often introduced, there are always new ways to optimize your GMB listing further. In doing so, Google is effectively pressing all local businesses (whether their digital marketing is agency-managed or self-managed) to regularly monitor, change, and update their GMB listings.

In recent months, Google My Business has been undergoing pivotal tests and changes, transforming the nitty-gritty parts of GMB. Think of this as Google trying to take the best parts of the soon-to-be shuttered Google+ service and integrating them across their platform. GMB is not just a place to poke around for basic information, proper management of a listing has become an integral part of any local SEO strategy. In 2018, Google introduced dozens of new features to help refine data clutter and enhance user-experience, changing the way users search and browse content online. Google is showing information more than ever before, giving users less reasons to click through websites and different accounts. Hence, the announcement of Google+ shutting its doors wasn’t exactly a complete loss for the company as it doesn’t hinder the accessibility and function of other Google platforms, such as GMB. In fact, the exit of Google+ doesn’t affect your local business’ SEO. Instead, the exit of Google+ allowed for bigger opportunities to come about, allocating some features of Google+ into different areas of other Google platforms, such as GMB’s Google Post (which we will discuss later).

Digital Marketing Terms Decoded - Year in Review Glossary

2018 has come to an end and we would like to take this chance to thank all the supporters of our Digital Marketing Terms Decoded series. Let’s have a recap of all of the terms we talked about!

5 Digital Marketing Trends to Watch in 2019

By: Joyce Ho

2018 is coming to an end and we likely can all attest to an increase in technology use in our homes and on our bodies (wearables). We have been thrown into the age of personal assistants and many technologies have evolved to increase automation further with the goal of improving our quality of life. Many digital tools and trends have increased in popularity in 2018 and we are excited to see how they can further compliment our demanding lifestyles in 2019.

Smart Speakers

Google home, Amazon Alexa, Microsoft Cortana, Apple Siri, you name the rest. Smart speakers were a big hit when they first came out and you can only imagine better and more coming in the new year. 31% of smart speaker owners say they spent more money on Amazon/Google since getting their smart speaker and more people are buying straight from smart speakers. Businesses are all excited about integrating their marketing strategies into voice search because smart speaker optimization (SSO) is now becoming a thing! Search ‘intent’ has become much more personal with the use of voice search and people are using questions more than statements. “Where is the nearest fast food restaurant?” More and more people are relying on voice search, so marketers need to focus on understanding the customer behaviour and applying the right tactics into their SSO. We’re excited to see what extensions will be added to increase the functionality of these products in 2019.

6 Tips to Create an Effective Landing Page

By: Patricia Poblete

In today’s highly competitive world, online presence is unquestionably an important marketing leverage for every business. And as you dive deeper into the territory of digital marketing, you will soon realize that marketing your business and reaching your goals require more than just a website and social media accounts. Whether your objective is to increase traffic, capture interest, or increase sales, there are several marketing tools that can be used when building effective marketing campaigns. A landing page is one of the many marketing tools.

What’s a landing page?

If you search the term “Landing page” online, you will receive numerous results with general definitions; such as HubSpot’s landing page definition: “a web page that allows you to capture a visitor’s information through a lead-capture form” or Web Ascender definition: “a part of a first impression...your handshake or greeting, or smile.” Simply put, a landing page is a web page that a consumer “lands” on after clicking a hyperlink from a different page, search result, or most often, a search advertisement. Landing pages are often “stand-alone” pages - in other words, these pages have no links to any other sources or navigations (such as, your business’ website). The purpose of a landing page is to essentially move visitors down the sales funnel and eventually make them a lead. An effective landing page should be transactional; determined by its engagement or conversion rate. As a result, making a purchase, giving a call, or subscribing to the business are some examples of a “transaction.” In that case, a landing page should have a clear and direct intent with specific information of what the business is offering to “push” potential customers to convert.

Top 4 tips for Doing Live Stream Marketing on Facebook

By: Joyce Ho

Facebook livestream has been popularly used to broadcast live moments and connect with other users instantly. Thanks to its convenient interface, anyone with a smartphone and a Facebook account can stream live video. Marketers are all excited about this trending marketing technique because 80% of people would rather watch a live video from a brand than read a blog. Facebook live is changing the way people communicate and if you are thinking of doing live stream marketing for your business, be sure not to miss these top 4 tips!