Google is turning 21 years old this September. That’s right—sound the alarm, the tech giant is finally old enough to drink! However, it feels like Google and its comrades have been around forever. Let’s take a peek into history and see how things have changed in the last two decades.

Happy Birthday to Digital Marketing

Digital marketing, as a coined phrase, and as a tactic, was born in the 1990s. In terms of the quickly shifting Digital Age, the early 1990s feel like ancient history! Advertising web banners appeared in 1993, but with the birth of Yahoo, search engine optimization (SEO) began running full steam. By the late ’90s, Google introduced AdWords and AdSense, and the sprint for digital marketing became an all-out marathon.

While the “internet bubble” burst in 2000, it looks like we have a digital marketing bubble also about to pop. Because of the variety of marketing efforts that must be taken to advertise to customers, companies have had to adjust by creating and constantly updating several departments and teams. But what if all those groups combined forces and took marketing head-on, Avengers-style?

Taming the Marketing Monster

Consider all the avenues of marketing one company must tackle: digital (SEO, remarketing, etc), print (magazines, newspapers, etc), physical (billboards, bus stop shelters, etc), and social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc). Marketing has become a new-age Hydra, one giant mythical lead generation creature with too many heads that seems to be constantly sprouting additional noggins. Each marketing avenue must inform the other, especially when it comes to data and measuring results. If they’re not working in unison and communicating effectively, gaps will occur.

So how do we become Hercules to slay the beast?

Back to Basics

If we tried to neatly list out all the components of digital marketing, it wouldn’t be, well… neat. Consider all the avenues mentioned above—and multiply that by at least 10. The industry uses buzz words like “holistic marketing” to suggest that we have the marketing monster’s many heads all on leashes and walking like a well-trained pup. When the leashes get tangled, you have gaps in marketing efforts appear.

One of the biggest gaps in marketing data is the measurement of consumer relevance. A tough question that Marie Gulin-Merle, Calvin Klein’s chief marketing officer and PVH’s chief digital officer poses is “How do we prove that we provided the right content to the right consumer at the right time?” Positive consumer experience drives positive consumer impact on a company’s marketing bottom line. One way to ensure this happens is to make sure your overall marketing efforts are effortlessly connected visually and with content.

Here at Decantery, we believe in the idea of holistic marketing, but we put focus on effective and time-tested tactics. From creating smooth, extremely user-friendly websites to A/B testing ads for your business’ Google listing, we view digital marketing as marketing. We position ourselves as an external team that always has your best interests in mind, and look for ways to close gaps in the marketing map.

Here at Decantery, we strive to provide our clients with a holistic approach to their digital marketing strategies. One of (if not the most) important elements of your digital strategy is your website. But websites aren’t just for having an online presence—you can optimize them for easy, no-hassle lead generation! Let’s talk about the “why” and “how” of implementing landing pages that drive inbound marketing strategies.

The Why

Once your SEO or PPC strategies get consumers to your website, you must ensure that they’ll take an action. Frankly, unless someone is only visiting to see what your company’s hours are, you should consider that all consumers are prospective customers! The more engaging and informative your website is, the more likely a prospective customer will convert. Landing pages accomplish this a variety of ways. They can utilize several interactive options that can gather information, provide value to prospective customers, and “increase the likelihood of converting traffic into leads,” says HubSpot.

We would divide conversion-driving landing pages into two categories: Information Grabbers, or Value Providers. Information grabbers include: event registrations, email list sign-ups, etc. Value providers include: white paper downloads, free trials of your product, etc.

Landing pages that drive conversions are also free! You don’t have to sink more of your marketing dollars into this strategy, and we think that’s a major win.

The How

Let’s cover how you can implement and take advantage of landing pages. First, identify where on your site you’re driving customers to. Then, ask yourself why. If you’re sending customers to your website because you have an event coming up, create a short and sweet landing page about that event. It doesn’t have to be fancy! Include the basic necessities, but also use one of the above tactics. Add in an option to download an information packet to review prior to the event, or add in an email list sign-up section so that your customers can stay connect with you about that event in particular OR future events.

We also suggest testing a variety of landing page styles. If you see that your email list subscription landing page isn’t as active as the landing page you created that offers a free trial of your product, take a look at what you did differently. We also love this HubSpot article that shares some great “hows” regarding making your landing pages even more effective. We especially suggest using #6: “Keep your form high on the page.” The faster a visitor can take care of business, the happier they’ll be.

In high school and college, I worked retail at a large department store—specifically, the shoe department. While some may wince at the thought of encountering the public’s feet, I chose this department for a good reason. The shoe department was the only department where associates could make commission on their sales. Luckily, the store carried a premium selection of designers which made it easy to make a solid paycheck. I could’ve traveled the easy route—work my shift and hope we were busy enough to sell a decent amount shoes. Instead, I learned I valuable lesson: You can make a lot more by providing excellent customer service. I took time to get to know my customers and develop a genuine rapport. I worked hard to dazzle them, providing numerous options so they walked away sincerely happy. And if they were unhappy? I made it right. It paid off! I had repeat customers that sought after me (I also always let the sale dates slip ahead of time), my clientele rarely walked away with a single pair, and my parents were beyond thrilled. Who wouldn’t love when their 16-year-old buys their own car and takes care of the insurance and gas?

Here I am, many years later and still in the service industry. A lot of what I learned in that department store holds true at an agency. Clients want to trust who they work with and know the recommendations being delivered to them are what’s best for their business, not the agency’s. And even thought they may not know exactly what they want, when educated on their options, they feel better about the strategy and tactics put in place. Providing service like this is what it takes to elevate a relationship from client to partner.  Here’s how we’ve been able to make this transition with ours:

Get to know your clients

There’s in an undeniable human element in this business, as the great Maya Angelo put it, “People will forget what you said. They will forget what you did. But they will never forget how you made them feel.” So, it’s important that you make the time you spend with clients valuable and enjoyable. Start small by asking your clients how their weekend was, and conversely, tell them what your Super Bowl plans are or if you got a new puppy. It makes work feel less like work and it’s a good way to ease into stale status meetings, not to mention, you’re getting to know/like one another! It’s monumentally essential that this develops from an authentic place. Don’t rush things, be genuine, and a mutual respect will organically develop with time.

Give your clients options

Much like my experience working at a department store, it’s important to provide you clients with multiple options so they can be delighted in the final product or decision. This applies in all agency areas—pricing, design, creative, targeting, vendors, etc. This is not to be mistaken for making the client take responsibility. It is our job to provide recommendations that are right for their business. Don’t give options for the sake of doing so. Provide choices that would make a good fit and uncover with your client which of them would be best. Maybe it’s the more affordable or maybe it’s the long-term play. You don’t know every aspect of your client’s business, so truly partner with them in the decision-making process.

Making it right when things go wrong

Being that advertising is a human-driven service, human mistakes can and will happen, unfortunately. Bear Bryant hit the nail on the head when he said, “When you make a mistake, there are only three things you should ever do about it: admit it, learn from it, and don’t repeat it. ” The worst move and agency could make is lie about a mistake. Will your client be upset that a mistake was made? Probably. Will they appreciate forthcoming and a plan to move forward? Yes. And lastly: always have a solution paired with your apology.

Provide value

Simply put, do more than just the job. Uncover insight that helps clients understand their customers better and identify opportunities for future campaigns renditions. Help them understand, learn, and feel comfortable with aspects of the industry. Even if they don’t have the time to learn right now, continually offer, because a knowledgeable client will see more value in the performance you deliver when they understand the hoops you had to jump to get there.

Following these tips alone won’t yield a great client relationship. It takes teamwork between the agency and the client to make it happen. We, the agency, must establish a solid foundation from good work with an authentic-positive attitude. Conversely, clients must reciprocate with open communication and a desire to collaborate.  When these worlds combine, a limitless partnership emerges.

Attribution – Don’t Worry if You Don’t Know What It Is

It’s a common faux pas for professionals to use industry-specific vernacular when explaining things to their clients. Doctors are notorious culprits. You’re going to have to explain to me what neutrophils is and why an Idiopathic condition requires a CBC. Huh?  For the love of all that’s good, speak real words, please.

Digital Marketing, unfortunately, also falls in the same bucket of industry-speak. There’s a plethora of acronyms, buzz words, and tech nomenclature that are easy to confuse. However, “attribution” is one of the easiest offenses because it gives the illusion that everyone knows what that means.

So, if you have no idea what “attribution” is or have heard it explained in conflicting ways and are now confused, we’re here to help. Consider this your Google Analytics Attribution 101!

Multiple Pathways to Conversion

Whether the goal of your website is to drive sales, leads or some other valuable action, for the sake of simplicity, we will refer to that act as your “conversion”.  Conversions occur through digital channel pathways: Direct, Organic, Paid Search, Social, Email, Display, Affiliates, and Referral. Sometimes the conversion will occur from exposure to a single digital channel, but often, the conversion occurs through multiple channels.

The Conversion Visualizer

For a bird’s eye visual of how your pathways cooperate with one another in Google Analytics, go to Conversions -> Overview.

Here you will see how many conversions you’ve driven for a particular time period and of those conversions, how many of them were assisted conversions. Assisted conversions are conversions that occurred because another channel played a role in driving the visitor to convert.

The Multi-Channel Conversion Visualizer displays how much overlap the channels have with one another. When you see a lot of assisted conversions and overlap in the visualizer, consider it a signal that “attribution” is worth exploring into further detail.

So, Your Channels are Working Together! Now What?

Since your digital channels are clearly interacting with one another, the next step is to look at the different attribution models to understand their corresponding roles to your success. To compare and contrast the different attribution models in Google Analytics, go to: Conversions -> Attribution ->Model Comparison Tool

Here’s a rundown of the different attribution models you’ll see listed and how they work:

• Last Non-Direct Click: The default model in Google Analytics reporting, gives 100% conversion credit to the last channel in the conversion path, except direct. Often, direct traffic is a visitor you’ve already “won”- because of a previous channel’s success. This model is good to use when comparing/contrasting other attribution models.
• Last AdWords Click: 100% conversion credit is applied to the last AdWords click. Use this to analyze your AdWords campaign’s effectiveness.
• First Interaction: 100% conversion credit is applied to the first channel of the conversion paths. This will help you identify what channel is achieving visitor’s discovery and interest in your brand.
• Last Interaction: 100% conversion credit goes to the last channel of the conversion path. This model is useful is your business has no consideration phase in the sale cycle (we’re not sure this type of business vertical exists in this day and age of comparison shopping and consumer segmentation).
• Linear: Equal credit is given to all channels in a conversion path. So, if the pathway was Social-Direct-Organic-Paid Search-Direct, each path would be rewarded with 20% of the conversion value.
• Time Decay: Applies heavier conversion credit to channels used closest to the time of conversion. Google support specifies that, “the Time Decay model has a default half-life of 7 days, meaning that a touch-point occurring 7 days prior to a conversion will receive 1/2 the credit of a touch-point that occurs on the day of conversion. Similarly, a touch-point occurring 14 days prior will receive 1/4 the credit of a day-of-conversion touch-point. The exponential decay continues within your look-back window (default of 30 days). “ .
• Position Based: Gives more conversion credit to the first and last channels and applies equal credit to the channel touchpoints in-between.

Keep in mind, there’s no “right” model to use. Rather, there are applicable and non-applicable models. Each model has its own benefit and will help you understand the value each digital channel drives. Think of it from a purchase funnel perspective, you can’t drive to a sale without being present in the awareness of consideration stage. These attribution models help you see your digital channels’ impact on those stages.

When we bring up why blogging is good for business, our clients’ most common reaction tends to be, “No, I don’t want that,” or “I know it’s something I should do but I don’t have time for it.” Both are perfectly reasonable responses because it is time consuming and does require a level of commitment! However, there is substantial payoff in blogging and here are  our top reasons why a blog for business is important.

Blogging Drives More Traffic to Your Website

If you’re not familiar with SEO, you can target themes or keywords per page. Creating relevant, hyper-focused content around these themes is the main way to notify search engines to serve one of your pages for a particular search query.

For example, say you’re a local doctor and your website’s Flu page targets keywords like: flu, flu treatment, flu vaccine. However, if you want to target similar searches such as:  kids flu prevention, Tamiflu, seniors flu, but your existing flu page’s content is too general to qualify appearing for them. A great workaround to increase your keyword reach is with blog posts. You could write a blog for each of those specific topics to increase your relevancy and rankings, thereby exposing your website to a wider spectrum audience.

Now you may be thinking, why can’t I just make more webpages? You could. However, doing so requires more time and if you’re not the one doing it, more money. Blog post are merely simplified pages that give you the creative freedom to address a variety of topics related to your organization.

The traffic you drive from your blog posts will increase overtime as your rankings improve.  According to HubSpot, “about 70% of the traffic each month…comes from posts that weren’t published in the current month. They come from old posts. Same goes for the leads generated in a current month — about 90% of the leads we generate every month come from blog posts that were published in previous months. Sometimes years ago.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row padding_top=”5″ padding_bottom=”5″][vc_column width=”1/4″ css=”.vc_custom_1501791237281{padding-top: 30px !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”920″ img_size=”medium” style=”vc_box_rounded”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”3/4″][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1552058714327{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]

Blogging is an Optimization Tactic

Another way blogging helps you get more website visitors is because it helps your SEO. Engines like to see websites continually produce new content. New content on your site tells search engines that you are a quality site- one that’s always providing new information that your visitors will find useful.  Search engines also like to see that the content contains link juice, links to other online sources, which is also easy to implement in a blog. You’re also giving them more content to explore on your website. This increases visitor time duration and pages per visit. High behavior metrics like indicate to the search engines that you’re a quality website.

Blogging is Good PR

When you blog you’re providing your visitors with more relevant and useful information. This can be in the form of expanding upon topics on your website, covering related niche areas, communicating your business’s news/ updates, or just giving your opinion on what’s going on in your industry. Doing this establishes your expertise in the space. Back to the local doctor example, your opinion on the scenarios for prescribing Tamiflu conveys your medication style to potential patients. Blogging is also a place to imprint your personality to visitors, The subjects you cover and the tone you interject helps readers connect and get to know you.

Blogging Facilitates Loyalty

You can also reward your blog readers with special offers to incentivize repeat visits to your website. Take a note from the pros; professional bloggers do this all the time. They announce giveaways, share promo codes, launch contests, share downloadable content, etc. Business websites can do the same thing! And side note, a lot of the reward-type content can feature email submission forms which you can later use for your outbound marketing efforts… high quality contact info score! Make your blog something visitors want to come back to. In doing so, you’ll transform a visitor into a subscriber.

Welcome to our first installment in our Think. Do. Share. series! Mark Sawyier is Co-Founder and CEO of Bonfyre.

Bonfyre is a workplace culture platform—an enterprise social network designed to support the human connections at the heart of a strong culture by fostering employee recognition, feedback, communications and more.

Its success is based on this equation: happy employees + improved communication =successful company. This has been met with incredible reception. Bonfyre has been adopted by companies such as Southwest Airlines, Marriot, Commerce Bank, and Maritz Travel Company, just to name a few. It’s also earned a number of accolades, including being named one of the top 10 St. Louis tech startups and reaching over $9.7 in venture capital investment.

We sat down with Mark to learn more about his experiences at Bonfyre and what he’s learned along the way.

When you came up with Bonfyre as a business concept, what was it that made you decide an app was instrumental to achieve your vision?

Mark: We began with the basic idea of building some kind of a mobile app. We first started talking about it shortly after the iPhone came out – we knew the platform was going to change everything. We started out as a private social networking platform for friends and family and, over time, evolved into the workplace culture platform Bonfyre is today.

What did the drawing board look like?

Mark: We had lots of ideas about what it would mean to build a better private social networking platform. But with limited time and resources, throughout our journey we’ve always tried to focus on the most essential and what we needed to achieve to prove we had a viable idea and business opportunity. In the very beginning, as a private social networking application for families, we were concerned about app virality and stickiness (something that is still very important to us today).

Would you agree that companies often make the mistake of investing in an app, when a mobile-responsive website is more suited to attain their goal?

Mark: Sometimes. It really depends on what the goal is. Mobile-friendly websites are limited in user experience, features, and functionality- like push notifications. It really depends on what you want to do.

What parameters do you recommend when deciding if you should invest in creating an app?

Mark: Ask yourself, “Does achieving the goal require or benefit from using a smartphone?”.  If it’s important for you to be able to reach out and “touch” the user (ex: send them a push notification), then a native mobile application is important.

The app biz is tough. The statistics for app success are intimidating, to say the least- 77% of users never use an app again 72 hours after installing. What is it that made your early adopters not only try, but continue using Bonfyre?

Mark: It was important to meet the high expectations of the quality for user experience: polished, simple, and delightful. The application must be robust enough to meet needs, but not overly complex to where it gets in the way. Make sure to thoughtfully map out the user experience from A-Z and establish clear goals for each step (and screen). 

When you were starting out, how did you get people to try Bonfyre? How did you cultivate and grow your early adopters/installs?

Mark: General marketing tactics, PR and beta email invites. We built features into the product that allowed existing users to invite others to join. App marketing, which you [Decantery] helped us with; things like app store optimization and pay per account signup. Working with a good partner that takes the time to not just throw ads up, but to get the end goal, which in our case in the beginning was account signup. Now of course, we see this occurring as part of driving new customer relationships.

For those interested in launching their own app, what were some of the surprises you encountered along the way?

Mark: How different the app store ecosystems are and how different the submission process is for iOS and Android. Also, “you get what you pay for” stands true in the app space. There’s a lot of low cost developers and out of the box options and it’s important to find good middle ground. Building a mobile app that will meet the desired goals almost always will not be a very small investment. In my experience, going for the “least expensive” option has a higher probability of not getting you where you want. Particularly for lower cost options, it’s important to spend the time understanding exactly what you’re getting for your money.

What do you believe is an essential design element for user experience?

Mark: Less is more. Always ask yourself what is the action you want the user to take on the screen. Map out the user experience and test it, get user feedback.

Anything you’d caution against?

Mark: Trying to do too much at first or lead users to do actions that aren’t part of your most important objectives.

What do you foresee as the major market trends or changes in the app industry over the next 2-3 years?

Mark: Trends are easy to get caught up in and distract from the most important part of the user experience (polished, simple, delightful.). They can add additional complexity and cost. Unless it’s foundational to the end goal, don’t worry about the “bells and whistles” until you have that foundation reasonably well developed.

We’ve seen a number of security attacks and threats strike the mobile app industry during its growth. How does a fledgling app prepare to defend and protect their users?

Mark: For most applications, make sure users names, email, and password (anything personally identifiable) information is encrypted. If you’re not an engineer, it’s worth doing a bit of research to find some “security best practices for mobile applications” to help educate yourself and have a more informed conversation with someone who is actually building the application.

What’s your closing advice for app entrepreneurs?

Mark: There’s a lot of value in bringing in people who have experience, experience can’t be underestimated. Do not underestimate the value of investing the time in your goals for the application as well as the experience for the end user. Brainstorm big, but take small steps that are highly quantifiable. And lastly, be persistent. The longer you work at something, the more likely you are to succeed at it.

RAPID FIRE FUN

What haircut did you have in high school?

• Basically, what I have now. Before that it was kind of like James Van Der Beek circa Dawson’s Creek.

Super power – fly or read minds?

• Fly

If you were guaranteed to be successful in a different profession, what would you do?

• Astrophysicist

Last movie you saw? Recommend it?

• Ken Burns Civil War documentary. Learned a lot!

Do you believe in aliens?

• Yes

The end of Titanic – Did Rose have room for Jack on that door she floated on?

• Yes

Starbucks go-to?

• Cold brew, black

Name the most famous person you’ve met

• Barack Obama

Best underrated travel destination?

• Captiva island, FL

Thank you, Mark!

Many thanks, Mark Sawyier for taking the time! Your insight and advice is greatly appreciated. Bonfyre’s growth is incredible and an inspiration to technology entrepreneurs and beyond. We look forward to seeing what’s to come for Bonfyre and wish you continued success!

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1552498941193{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]I cannot start my day without a cup of coffee.  I’ve tried numerous times to break the habit. Not because I think it’s unhealthy, there’s plenty of research that enables me to carry on my addiction consequence-free. But, because the compulsion it has over me can be inconvenient at times. If I’m not at home, my morning must set off like an explorer, hunting out the nearest, decent coffeehouse. And if it’s cold or raining, that journey can be pure treachery, no one wants to start their day that way.

I’m aware there’s no such thing as a perfect relationship, so despite my intermittent inconveniences, I recognize the good coffee brings to my life unquestionably outweighs the cons – therefore, cementing a lifetime commitment to my coffee relationship.

Think of all the career benefits that come from a good ‘ol cup of joe: endurance to finish yearly planning, coming up with creative solutions, and laser-focus on rows and rows of data, just to name a few. Let’s explore these benefits in detail so that we can give our liquid joy the educated appreciation it deserves.

Endurance

Studies show that caffeine, the very caffeine that’s floating in our mug, can increases alertness, wakefulness, and feelings of “energy,”, while also decreasing the sense of effort associated with physical activity. Basically, fueling us to do more while making it feel like it’s easy…AKA super powers. In fact, coffee’s caffeine has ergogenic benefits – in that it actually improves endurance performance.

Creativity

The coffee bean itself isn’t going to make you think of the next Snapchat or Uber. But what it can do is promote actions that lead you down that road. In an article from Redbooth, research from MIT found that coffee can help people be more creative both individually and in a group setting. Sitting together over coffee at work can break down normal social and professional barriers, leading to more casual or freewheeling conversations. For some, drinking coffee stimulates their brains, blowing out the cobwebs and making room for innovative thinking or a bolt of inspiration. Others thrive when they work in a coffee shop because the ambient noise that improves their creativity.

Focus

It’s hard to focus when you’re tired and have a never-ending to-do list. So whenever I have to bunker down and complete out a lengthy project, you best believe it’s been fueled by some java.  The EFSA evaluated a significant number of studies and concluded that caffeine increases both selective and sustained attention. Meaning that when you drinking your brew, your able focus on the task at hand and can do so for a longer period than you would sans-coffee. However, the caveat is, you need to figure out your tipping point because increasing your intakes do not necessarily result in an increase in alertness. Too much and you’ll just jitter your way through the rest of the day.

In addition to improving focus, drinking coffee can also make you smarter. A study from PLOS found that the caffeine value of 2 cups of coffee prompted the brain to identify words and phrases more quickly. The study also found that coffee consumption leads to improved short-term memory and an increased ability to solve reason-based problems.

I think it’s important to hug your handle with an extra appreciative intention as you start each day. It’s what’s going to get you through it, get the job done,  and its time here is limited, after all… coffee is apparently going extinct.

So let’s lift our mugs to productive days and higher focus![/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row]