Let’s be honest — there is plenty we would like to leave behind from the last few years, and that includes outdated digital marketing strategies. We have compiled a list of the top strategies you should consider ditching in 2022 and what to focus on instead to stay growth-oriented and reach your goals. Here are five outdated digital marketing strategies you should be pivoting away from:

Stop Using Traffic as a Metric for Success

It’s easy to say your goal is to get more traffic to your website. If you get more traffic, you should see an increase in leads and sales, right? Unfortunately, that’s not how things usually pan out. Especially online, where getting traffic is cheap and easy, getting more traffic won’t help you unless you are focusing on getting the right kind of traffic. 

You need traffic that’s in your target audience and engaged in order to drive online leads. Instead of focusing on growing your audience, pay attention to how potential customers are interacting with your brand. Look for opportunities to boost engagement and the quality of your traffic. A small amount of really high-quality traffic is going to be much more helpful than a large amount of traffic that will never convert. 

Don’t Buy Likes, Reviews, or Email Lists

In the same vein, buying followers, reviews, and likes is a poor strategy for growing your online presence. While it may be tempting — especially for businesses that are just beginning to build their online presence — buying these kinds of interactions is obvious and can even turn away genuine potential customers.

Instead, focus on growing your brand organically. Natural growth is much more genuine and leads to higher quality online traffic that’s sustainable in the long run. Make sure you continue to interact with the following you do have, no matter how small, to foster trust in your brand and nurture potential customers toward a sale.

Quit Ignoring Your Online Reputation

With more people than ever before turning to the Internet to conduct shopping, online reviews are more important than ever. You may think that you can’t control what people say about your business online, but that’s far from the truth. When you ignore online reviews, you leave the fate of your online reputation up to your most impassioned customers, positive or negative.

Instead, make sure to ask satisfied customers to leave reviews. Good reviews cultivate a positive reputation online and can help persuade potential customers to buy your product or service. It is also important to respond tactfully to negative reviews. Check out our blog post on how to respond to negative reviews for more tips.

Don’t Give Up on Potential Customers Who Don’t Convert Right Away

Consumers today don’t make purchases after viewing a single advertisement. With so much available at a consumer’s fingertips, most people browse a variety of related products or services before making a purchase. If you’re relying on a single marketing channel, like Google Ads or Facebook Ads, to fulfill all of your marketing needs, you’re missing out on leads.

Consider remarketing as a way to supplement a strong marketing campaign. Remarketing ads are display ads shown to people who have already interacted with your brand online. For example, if someone has visited an important page of your website or placed a product in their shopping cart yet failed to convert, we can target them with remarketing ads to keep them interested and encourage them to convert later. Remarketing ads are a great strategy for boosting conversions. Learn more about how effective they can be here.

Stop Focusing Only on Gaining New Leads to Grow Your Business

It is far cheaper to keep a current customer than to gain a new customer. If your digital marketing strategy is laser-focused on gaining new leads, then you’re not taking advantage of all the opportunities to boost your ROI. Instead, focus some of your marketing efforts on the leads you already have.

Email marketing can be an excellent way to re-engage customers who have already done business with you. We are fans of marketing automation, or creating workflows that deploy emails based on certain signals of your choosing. A particular benefit of marketing automation is that you can segment your audience into groups based on their stage in your sales funnel. It helps keep your product or service top of mind for far longer than a social post or Google Ad. And, once it’s set up, it automatically runs; you don’t have to do anything.

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Going into 2023, it’s important to take a holistic approach to marketing. In order to compete in the highly competitive online space, you need to create an authentic and trustworthy online presence. You can no longer rely on a single strategy to be the magic bullet for sustainable growth and success. Nowadays people have an enormous quantity of information and businesses available to them at the tap of a button. To be heard against the noise and get on a path toward sustainable online growth, you need to provide quality and authenticity.

Ditch your outdated digital marketing strategies ASAP. Contact us to find out how you can keep your online presence fresh and growth-oriented in 2022 and beyond.

The post 5 Outdated Digital Marketing Strategies to Ditch in 2022 appeared first on Beanstalk Web Solutions.

Data-driven digital marketing services rely on reporting to track progress. However, it can be difficult to find important information in reports, especially if you aren’t actively tracking marketing progress every day.

Any data-driven digital marketing report should answer the following questions:

• Are my digital marketing efforts working?
• How well are they working?
• What can or should be improved to increase my ROI?

Elements of a Data-Driven Digital Marketing Report

Let’s take a look at one of our digital marketing reports to understand the components of a good report. Learn what to look for and how to read digital marketing reports your top questions.

Here are the elements data-driven digital marketing reports should include:

The Summary

Before diving into the nitty-gritty metrics, a good digital marketing report will include a summary that provides a snapshot of the business and current digital marketing efforts.

Some important things to include in the summary section are

• The dates that the report covers
• A list of the main marketing channels (Paid Advertising, Organic Posting, SEO, etc.)
• A description of the current scope of the project and what was completed in the given time period
• Information on the target audience, target demographic information, location, hobbies, interests, etc.
• A space to discuss future growth opportunities, ideas for projects, or strategy changes

A good summary should clearly break down what is being done to provide a clear picture of the digital marketing efforts for the given time period. The summary sets the stage to make it easier to digest the metrics to come.

The Analytics

Nearly every data-driven digital marketing report will start with looking at analytics data to evaluate the performance of the website and marketing efforts. Our reports seek to provide information about the website’s users to try and piece together the performance of the website itself.

Google Analytics data can help answer a few main questions:

Where are users coming from and how do users find your website?

If you are investing money into marketing your website, it’s important to know what channels users are coming from. This information allows us to confirm which digital marketing efforts are working best at driving traffic to your website. The traffic channels and traffic breakdown section of our reports answer these questions.

What devices do users use?

Knowing the devices from which your website’s users visit can help you determine where to spend time optimizing in order to get the best results. For B2C companies, most of your energy should be spent optimizing your website for mobile users; for B2B companies, most of your website’s visitors will probably be on desktop.

What is their on-site behavior?

Once you’ve figured out where your website’s visitors are coming from, it’s important to take a look at their on-site behavior. The following metrics can reveal a lot about how users interact with your website:

• Bounce Rate

The bounce rate represents the number of people who leave after visiting a single page of your website, without making any sort of meaningful interaction. Ideally, this number will be as low as possible. A high bounce rate can indicate poor quality traffic that is not engaged with your content. It is a good idea to evaluate pages with higher bounce rates to see if there are any areas that can be optimized for engagement.

• Pages Per Session

Pages per session is the average number of pages a user visits on your website in a single visit. Certain types of websites, like e-commerce websites, can expect a higher average number of pages per session. The average website should shoot for around 1.8 to 4.4 pages per session.

• Sessions Per User

Sessions per user is the average number of times a user visits your website. While it is unusual for this number to be much higher than 1, a higher number of sessions per user indicates that users are engaged with your content and visit your website more than once.

• Average Session Duration

Average session duration is how long the average user spends on your website per session. Engaged users tend to spend longer amounts of time on your website. A good average session duration to shoot for is 2-3 minutes.

What pages do users visit?

It’s important to take a look at which pages users visit most often as well as those users initially use to find your website. Your top landing pages and most visited landing pages can give you a sense of what content on your site resonates with users and how users move through your site toward the desired action.

Sometimes, unexpected pages can end up being the most visited pages of your site. Be sure to optimize these pages, keep their information up to date, and make sure they guide users toward a conversion if possible. Optimize any paid ads landing pages for conversions. Learn how to optimize your landing page with our helpful guide.

Where in the world are your website’s visitors?

Especially if you offer a product or service that’s specific to a certain area, it’s important to make sure your traffic is coming from the right people. If you find that most of your website’s traffic is coming from somewhere other than your desired location, you may need to consider changing up your paid advertising targeting. You may also want to consider local SEO tactics to capture qualified leads in your area.

What conclusions can we draw from the actions users take on the website?

This is where the real analysis begins. Once you have gathered as much information as possible about your website’s users, it’s time to think about what their behavior might mean. Taking the time to draw conclusions from data-driven digital marketing reporting can help your business gain insight and take strategic actions in the future. While you may want to rely on the experts to help you draw conclusions from your data, try to pick out a few questions or insights yourself. 

Marketing Efforts

Finally, every data-driven digital marketing report should take a deep dive into the performance of all marketing efforts. Determining the performance of each marketing medium will help determine which marketing efforts are performing best, driving the most leads, and landing the most qualified conversions.

While Google Analytics alone can give us some insight as to where marketing efforts are paying off, ultimately more information is necessary to make data-driven marketing decisions.

There are several important things to analyze when determining the performance of various marketing efforts. For each digital marketing channel in your report, consider the following:

How Much is This Costing My Business?

It is important to calculate the cost as not only “how much is my ad spend” but also how much time is spent setting up and optimizing each marketing channel. Even if a channel like organic social posting is technically “free,” you will need to spend a significant amount of time creating, scheduling, promoting, and interacting with posts. 

Determine a budget and goals for each marketing channel. In the first 90-180 days a new campaign goes live, you should establish a baseline of data to expect from each marketing channel. With paid advertising channels, this baseline can tell you if you should be spending more or less, or changing targeting. With organic digital marketing channels, this baseline will give you a better idea of how long it might take to achieve the results you expect. Becoming familiar with your baseline performance is important so that you can recognize shifts in marketing performance easily and quickly.

Conversion Tracking

Any good data-driven marketing reporting strategy will include as much information about conversions as possible. While other marketing metrics may fluctuate from month to month, none is as important as the conversions your business receives. For each marketing source, you should be able to see

• How many Conversions you received each month
• How much is the average conversion cost in terms of ad spend (ie. 6 Conversions / $300 Ad Spend = $50 Per Conversion)
• What were the specific Conversions Actions Users made? Did they call you, fill out a form, download a piece of content, purchase something on your website, etc?
• If possible, what information do we have about the people who completed conversions? Even tracking names or email addresses is an important part of determining the quality of each lead you receive from each marketing channel.

Conversion Quality

The best data-driven marketing strategies understand that quantity is not the most important thing. Quality is far more important.

If you’re getting 20 phone calls a month from your Google Ads, that’s an awesome start. But don’t stop there. Take a look at who those 20 phone calls came from. Which calls led to sales? Which calls led to the most valuable sales? When you take the time to understand the value of each conversion, you can make data-driven digital marketing decisions with confidence.

The value of each marketing conversion is the metric that can help you most easily answer the following questions:

• Are my digital marketing efforts working?

• • • Do you consistently get the number of conversions you expected? 
    • Are the conversions and cost per conversion generating a positive ROI?

• How well are they working?

• • • Are the conversions you receive leading to tangible sales?
    • What is the value of your sales from digital marketing effort vs. the cost per sale?

• What can or should be improved to increase my ROI?

• • Which digital marketing channels are bringing in the most leads and most valuable sales?
  • Are you using the right data-driven digital marketing strategy for your business? 

Some of these questions may be harder to answer than others. We are always available at Beanstalk to take a deep dive into your digital marketing report and provide valuable insights. Even with the extensive data that each of our reports provides, we add additional strategic insights that are essential components of data-driven digital marketing services.

Additional Questions to Consider

How Often Should You Be Looking At Your Digital Marketing Reports?

How often you need to evaluate progress depends on your industry, methods, and goals. One month is a good sweet spot for most projects. However, for long-term SEO strategies, month-to-month reporting can be too often to provide any meaningful data, while PPC campaigns might require more frequent checks. 

What tools are available for reporting?

At Beanstalk, we are big fans of Google Data Studio, which allows us to combine metrics from tons of different data sources into one comprehensive report. For most websites, Google Analytics is a great place to start analyzing your website’s main data. Your CRM software can help you match names with the metrics and figure out the value of each marketing channel. Beyond that, there are endless tools for reporting and measuring marketing success. These should provide a sufficient basis for most companies to get started. 

Is It Time to Consider a Marketing Pivot?

Again, the answer depends on your strategy and marketing channels. When it comes to data-driven digital marketing services, you should expect to see results from paid efforts a lot sooner than organic efforts. While organic efforts may only begin to generate results after several weeks or months, with paid efforts, you should see results more quickly. But before you go changing up your strategy completely, look for obvious areas for improvement. Sometimes even a simple change can be a game-changer, so make sure you’ve exhausted all options before throwing in the towel.

How Do I Make Data-Driven Decisions from My Reports?

The best way to make data-driven digital marketing decisions is to view your report as both a summary of what has been done and a jumping-off point for future marketing efforts. Making data-driven decisions is a systematic process. Professional digital marketers use reports to make observations. From those observations, we make a hypothesis, which we test with an actionable change. From there, results follow, which we analyze and report on, and the process begins again.

Ever felt overwhelmed by your digital marketing reporting or struggled to understand what the metrics really imply? We get it. It’s why we focus on data-driven digital marketing services that deliver tangible results. If you have any questions about your digital marketing reports, talk to us! We’ll help you find a solution that allows you to get the actionable insights you need without getting overwhelmed.

The post Digital Marketing Reports: How to Read Reports Like a Professional appeared first on Beanstalk Web Solutions.

When it comes to creating websites that drive conversions, the call to action is quite literally the most important component to get right. Even the best, most conversion-optimized website can fall flat when paired with a weak call to action. Creating a compelling CTA can result in a massive improvement in conversion rates and ROI for your marketing efforts. Yet, so many websites still rely on uninspiring, stale calls to action to drive leads.

At Beanstalk, we understand that creating an engaging call to action can be intimidating. You might think that your business isn’t creative enough to pull off a bold call to action. Or maybe the classic “Submit” button is just the way you’ve always done things. We encourage creative thinking when it comes to writing calls to action because it is a move that can pay off hugely in leads and conversions.

Writing a compelling call to action doesn’t have to feel like reinventing the wheel. Take a look at the following six common calls to action. We’ll explore what makes them less-than-ideal, why you might want to consider changing up your calls to action, and some best practices for conversion-optimized calls to action.

Classic Call to Action Mistakes

1. The “Send” or “Submit” Button

Send and Submit are generic calls to action that don’t inspire anyone. If people are filling out your form, they know that they are submitting or sending their information. The only time you should be using these calls to action is to submit a test or send an email. Otherwise, you’re missing out on an opportunity to connect to the people that view your form.

A call to action should inspire action. A send or submit button doesn’t. Try swapping the send or submit button at the bottom of your contact form for something more interesting. Even if your conversion is just a simple contact form, you can frame that form in an interesting way that shows viewers the value they can expect to receive from filling out the form. Check out these contact form examples for inspiration.

2. The Single Word Call to Action

Buy. Sell. Join. Shop. Subscribe. Download. While none of these are inherently terrible, they can come across as forceful and impersonal. Single-word calls to action fall flat when they fail to highlight the benefits of your offer. Why should a potential customer buy, sell, join, etc? Furthermore, these single-word calls to action are vague enough to miss some valuable conversions despite being clear action verbs.

In most cases adding another supporting word can give the necessary context to win more conversions. CTAs with the highest conversion rates are clear, specific, and interesting.
Opt for calls to action like “Buy Now,” “Join Our Team,” “Shop Shoe Styles,” or “Subscribe Today” to give context to these types of calls to action.

3. The Learn More/Get Started Button

Again, these calls to action aren’t inherently bad – in the right context they can even be decent. But they aren’t going to inspire people who don’t already have an interest or familiarity with your product. Without the right context, these calls to action can seem ambiguous. It can be unclear what to expect by clicking buttons that say learn more or get started.

Try testing out a call to action that offers something specific to your audience. Let them know what they can expect to learn more about. In place of “Get Started” use a more specific call to action, like “Schedule My Free Consultation” or something to let a user know what the first step of “getting started” entails.

4. The Guilt Trip

Offering something like a discount, free trial, or exclusive access can be a great way to inspire people to convert. Making them feel guilty for not taking you up on your offer is annoying. We’ve all been in a situation where a CTA pops up on the screen and the only options available are a “Get 10% Off Your Order” button or a “No Thanks, I Don’t Want to Save Money” button. At best, these types of last-ditch attempts to get someone to convert are annoying; at worst, they come across as offensive.

A successful call to action allows potential customers the opportunity to convert, not the obligation. People should convert because they want what you’re offering, not just because they feel guilty. You may get more conversions with this approach, but they won’t be the most qualified. Stick with calls to action that are polite and offer something intriguing instead.

5. The Buried Call to Action

If your only call to action on a page is at the bottom of the page, most of the people who visit your website are never going to see it. Make sure to convey the importance of a call to action by including it somewhere “above the fold,” in a place where people don’t have to scroll to get to it. If there’s a sitewide call to action you’d like to encourage, include it in the header so people can reach it from anywhere on any page.

For example, our CRM partner SharpSpring makes it clear from their homepage that their main goal is to get visitors to schedule a demo. “Schedule My Demo Now” is the first thing your eye is drawn to when you reach their homepage, and the similar “Get A Demo” CTA is clearly displayed in the header menu. No matter where you go on the site, the schedule a demo button is always clear and accessible, so if you want to schedule your demo at any point, you can easily do so.

6. The Super Long Form

The best calls to action give potential customers a simple, clear, and easy way to convert. Hiding your call to action at the bottom of a lengthy form can cause potential customers to pause, get frustrated, and leave without converting. Your form shouldn’t feel like a college application.Long forms can be useful for getting super qualified, relevant leads, but they’ll also turn a significant number of people away. If you’re looking to boost your conversion rate, take a look at your form and see what fields are really necessary and where you should simplify to create a better user experience.

Some Best Practices for Writing a Call to Action that Converts

• Make Your Call to Action Clear and Obvious

Your call to action button or form should be the loudest thing on the page. It should be what a potential customer’s eye is drawn to, and it should be clear to them that your call to action is, in fact, the action you want them to take. Use colors that contrast with the rest of your website, and make sure your call to action can’t be missed. Don’t miss out on potential conversions just because people scroll past your call to action.

• Consider Context

Your call to action isn’t simply a button people click at the bottom of a page. The surrounding images and text influence whether or not people click it. If your call to action is a stray form or button floating at the bottom of your website, people aren’t going to feel compelled to take action. Make sure the context surrounding your call to action is all oriented toward convincing potential customers to take action.

• Offer Customers Value

People will not convert if they feel like they have to give up something. Make it clear that your calls to action are a mutually beneficial exchange by offering an incentive for people to give up their information. Instead of making a call to action just a sign up for a newsletter, add context to show how someone will benefit. Calls to action that convey exclusivity, time sensitivity, or value often perform better than those that do not.

• Avoid 2nd and 3rd Person CTAs

It seems obvious that calls to action should inspire action. Writing calls to action in first person can feel more dynamic and compelling than CTAs written in second or third person. Something like “Find My Local Rep” is going to catch more people than “Find Your Local Rep.” Swap “View Our Plans” for “Pick My Plan.” While it may seem a little weird or unnatural at first, first-person CTAs have been shown to have a 90% better conversion rate than those written in second or third person, so it’s worth a shot.

• Optimize for Mobile

This one should be a no-brainer, but all of your calls to action should be optimized for mobile devices. If people have to wait until they get to a desktop computer to fill out a form, they’ll abandon it. Calls to action that work seamlessly on mobile devices lead to higher conversion rates and capture more people at the moment they are searching, no matter where they are.

• Make CTAs Accessible, Not Overwhelming

Ever visit a website and get bombarded with popups asking you to do different things? Sign up for the newsletter and schedule a demo and download a helpful ebook and follow them on social media? It quickly becomes overwhelming, and it’s a huge turn-off for people who are looking to take a quick and simple action. Giving people more opportunities to convert isn’t necessarily better. Make sure that any calls to action you include are easy to find and obvious on your website, but don’t overwhelm visitors with too many options.

• Plan Your Follow Up

Make sure you plan a follow-up for when people complete your call to action. If people fill out a form with contact information, be sure to contact them as soon as possible. Even if your call to action is something simple like downloading an ebook, you can schedule a follow-up email to make sure you

• A/B Test Different Options

What works for your business and industry may not work for every business. The only way to know for sure that your call to action is performing its best is hard data. Try out a few calls to action to see which gets the highest conversion rate.

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Writing quality calls to action can have a huge impact on the performance of your marketing campaigns. The right call to action will inspire people and get you more leads. If you are struggling with creating the perfect calls to action for your landing pages, talk to an expert at Beanstalk.

The post Don’t Make These 6 Mistakes When Writing Your Call to Action appeared first on Beanstalk Web Solutions.

With this in mind, it becomes clear that aesthetics matter. What is more, we know that design choices and website color schemes will have an overt influence on a website’s success.

If you’re developing an online presence for your brand or doing a redesign, it might not be a bad idea to pay a bit more attention to the choice of hues you use on your site. The following are some of the top tips for choosing the right color scheme for your website.

Do Colors Have Meaning?

The first step in picking the right color scheme for your site will definitely come in the form of determining the right hues for your brand.

When approaching this task, you must have a clear vision of what you want your business to stand for. What is your industry, your mission, your values? How are you different from your competition, and what impression do you want to leave on your clients? Are you approachable and user-oriented, or do you want to exude a sense of luxury?

Throughout history, brands have used a variety of colors for their logos and visual assets, usually based on color psychology. In fact, the effect that color has on how humans feel has long been studied, going back to Goethe and his book Theory of Colors published in 1810. In this book, the writer described the psychological effect and meaning of colors. Most of these effects are still widely accepted today. But while the book is a printed work, it is far from a scientific document. And color theory, as such, relies more on the assignation of meaning than on scientific evidence.

This means that, when choosing the color scheme for your logo or website, you might want to stay away from the standard cliches that seem to be ruling today’s color trends.

Source: Canva.com

Instead, it’s not a bad idea to start from your brand’s core identity and try to create a visual representation of it. Once you’ve got the basics down, you can go on to choose the most appropriate color combinations and determine which hue you will use for which purpose.

You can go in a minimalistic direction and use color only to draw attention to valuable elements. Or, you can attempt to create a cohesive impression that web visitors will experience by interacting with your site.

Connect Colors with Intent

When choosing a color scheme for your website, you will want to make sure that every hue found on your website is connected to some form of meaning.

For example, you can use colors to categorize different elements. Look at the Sleep Junkie homepage. You will notice that each of their articles is placed within a broad category. As each of these resource groups covers a different topic area, they’re assigned different colors: green for buying guides, purple for scientific data, and blue for personalized tips.

Source: SleepJunkie.com

On Transcend’s website, however, the design team chose to go a very similar direction, all the while achieving a completely different visual effect. On their homepage, which is monochromatic gray, only a single shade of red is used. Assigned to the highest-value elements on the website: the company logo, the copyright banner, and collection pages in the navigation menu, it’s used exclusively for highlight.

Source: transcend-info.com

Or, you can even go with a combination of the two methods. Amazon repricing software Aura has a well-designed homepage in which a minimalistic basis combines with contrasting color choices to call attention to high-value elements. So, all CTA buttons use a shade of green, while software benefits are represented in blue. It’s a simple design strategy, yet it’s one that works. It directs the website visitor’s attention precisely where it needs to be.

Source: goaura.com

Use the Available Tools

Color psychology doesn’t need to influence your choice of color scheme for your website. However, it’s still crucial that you don’t make the wrong decision.

When it comes to combining two or more hues, it’s surprisingly easy to make a mistake. Yes, everyone knows that red and green do not mix, especially for text. But what about the more subtle nuances of good design?

The one thing you can do to ensure you’re making the best possible choice of color scheme for your website is to always refer to a color wheel. You can use a variety of tools that are found online. Nonetheless, one of the best ones comes from Adobe.

By consulting a color wheel, you can pick analogous, complementary, or shades of monochromatic hues that will be in harmony and won’t clash. Still, they will provide the necessary contrast to allow you to emphasize high-value elements.

Furthermore, don’t forget that color schemes alone don’t make for a well-designed website. For a complete aesthetic experience, you will also need to pay attention to negative space, layout, typography, and images. All of these make for a cohesive visual impression that will result in a pleasing user experience and, consequently, a satisfying number of conversions.

Final Words

Source: depositphotos.com

As you can see, color schemes can be difficult to get right. That’s why the key element in choosing the best one is going to be time. Whether you’re designing your website on your own, or have hired a professional service, give yourself sufficient time to think your choices through. In the end, the perfect website color schemes don’t have to adhere to your industry’s rules. However, it does have to be complementary to your branding and part of a positive UX, contributing to the overall success of your business.

Interested in custom web design and revamping your site? Give Beanstalk a call! Let’s grow your business together.

The post Aesthetics Matter: Choosing the Right Website Color Scheme appeared first on Beanstalk Web Solutions.

Learn more about what remarketing is and how it can amplify your online presence, get customers you thought were lost, and gain new customers you never even knew about.

So What is Remarketing and How Does It Even Work?

Remarketing is a strategy for targeting ads towards customers who are already aware of your site. Whether they visited a key page of your website or put a product in their shopping cart and didn’t purchase it, we can collect information about them using cookies and serve new ads to them to encourage them to convert.

Here is how the remarketing process unfolds:

1. A Potential Customer Visits Your Website & Makes a Meaningful Interaction
2. The Potential Customer is Tracked & Added to Your Remarketing Audience
3. The Potential Customer Leaves Your Website
4. You Serve Ads to Your Remarketing Audience
5. The Potential Customer Clicks on Those Ads, Visits Your Website Again, & the Process Repeats

The average customer takes a patchwork path toward making a purchase. If you think you can run a single ad campaign and people will automatically convert after a single purchase, you’re missing out on a ton of conversions you could be getting. Most people leave a website without taking any action. Remarketing is an opportunity to convince them to come back and, hopefully, convert.

Remarketing is a cost-effective way to secure more leads for your business. There are many other benefits, too. Here are some of the top benefits of a remarketing campaign:

• Improved Conversion Rates
• Better ROI
• Increased Brand Recognition
• Highly Relevant Ads
• More Effective Than Traditional Display Ads

How Can Retargeting Help My Business?

In short, people notice remarketing ads. Think about when you last searched for something online and saw ads for the same or similar products shortly after. Those kinds of ads stand out, whereas other types of display ads tend to blend in. Remarketing ads keep your product or service top of mind even when people aren’t actively searching for it. On average, people interact with a single website up to 6 times before converting. Remarketing opens the door to provide even more opportunities for customers to convert. At Beanstalk, we offer remarketing across 5 platforms: Google Display, Mobile, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. 

It also creates better ad experiences for consumers. Contrary to popular belief, most people don’t mind seeing ads, as long as they are personalized to their preferences. Remarketing promotes that more personal experience, increasing the chances a customer will convert. Since people who are served these ads are already familiar with your brand, people feel more connected to your ads. 

Remarketing Best Practices

Even though remarketing ads can offer enormous benefits to businesses who utilize them,  it is important to implement them correctly to see the best results. Here are 5 best practices for remarketing advertising:

• Make sure to set Frequency Capping.

  Remarketing ads sometimes walk a thin line between keeping your business top of mind and shoving your brand down people’s throats. Frequency capping ensures that potential customers won’t see your ads too often and get annoyed.

• Update your Privacy Policy.

  While remarketing tags don’t collect personal information from users, it is best to disclose your use of them in your Privacy Policy. It’s also a good idea to review your Privacy Policy and make sure it is up to standard for any advertising that you do.

• Specify the quality of your remarketing audience.

  It is a waste of your time and money to chase people around the Internet who have no real interest in your business. Luckily, you can choose to exclude people from your lists who have bounced or spent an insignificant amount of time on the site.

• Include all the different ad types in your creatives.

  Some websites don’t allow for moving display ads, and some websites only allow text. Don’t miss out on potential clicks because your ad never showed. Also, make sure your ads reflect your brand visually, as a reminder to your audience that they have already visited your website before.

• Stop your ads from showing on certain websites.

  You can specify if you’d like to exclude your ads from showing on websites with sensitive content, videos with certain ratings, or even different types of websites. Depending on your product or service, this kind of targeting can be absolutely necessary.

Remarketing boasts many benefits for businesses, but perhaps the most compelling is that you’re creating a better overall experience for your audience. Instead of hitting people at a random time with a random ad and hoping they’ll be interested, you are taking control and sharing your message with the right people at the right time.

In an online space where people are becoming increasingly likely to tune out display advertisements, remarketing can help you stand out and be seen online. Contact us today to talk to an expert about incorporating remarketing into your digital marketing strategy.

The post Remarketing: Get Back Customers You Thought Were Lost & Increase Conversions appeared first on Beanstalk Web Solutions.

In this post, we’re going to cover an aspect of landing pages that can turn the tide in your favor: visuals. Let’s take a look at some best practices that can help take you to the top.

Choose the Right Colors 

One of the first things to consider when it comes to your landing page visuals is their color. 

Colors can heavily influence how we feel about something. Hence, you’ll want to utilize the colors on your landing page to evoke specific emotions, and ultimately, to inspire conversions. If you are looking to evoke excitement and a sense of adventure, you’ll want to go for more vibrant colors. If you want your page to inspire calm and serenity, more muted tones will work better.

Let’s illustrate that point with an example. Ultimate Meal Plans bases their visuals around the color green, which is in line with their brand and product: healthy meal plans. This is the kind of smart choice we have in mind – although they are not an eco brand, green still helps their visitors think of healthy veggies and a healthier diet.

Illustrate More Challenging Points 

If your landing page features facts and figures that take a lot of explaining, you might want to help your visitors out a bit and offer some visual aids that can make them easier to grasp.

This is especially true if the actual figures are an important sales point. If they are there to serve as a mere addition to your point, you might want a different visual to complement them, and go for something that is more in line with your sales pitch. But if the numbers are important – make them visual!

Ahrefs’s data page does this exceptionally well. We could argue that the dark background is a bit disruptive, but the way they tackle the facts and figures is spot on. Charts and tables both usually work well, but make sure you don’t just add a simple chart – make it as personal to your brand as possible.

Flash the Elements You Want to Pop 

Flash being the opportune word here.

If you are advertising a sale or a discount, you want that element to pop as much as possible without taking over the entire screen. Tasteful and not garish, but still being the first thing a visitor sees when they land on your page. 

Most brands will choose to use the color red for the purpose –and with good reason, as it works best in most cases (unless your entire website is also red-toned).

Each Night advertises their mattress sales page with the clever use of similar images throughout – and they do pop rather well. 

They instantly tell you what the page is about, and you won’t even have to read the title to get the gist of it, as all the sales and discounts are listed here. 

Show the Product 

We won’t even go into a discussion about showing the product on product pages. That should be a given, and certainly a tactic you have been employing since you created an online presence.

However, if you don’t have a physical product, but a digital one instead, you should still aim to show it in action on your landing pages. The otherwise confusing world of SaaS can easily be enhanced with the aid of some clever screenshots. Use them to show the product, illustrate important points, or even just as teasers of the software in action.

Instapage does this with great success. 

Their landing page is complemented by several screenshots of their solution in action, and the screenshots are more than just a boring screengrab. They are colorful and draw the eye in, but still allow the copy to speak for itself. 

Consider Video Carefully 

Even though video is hailed as the next great thing in marketing, you want to think it through carefully before committing. 

It doesn’t always make sense to ask visitors to watch a video. Perhaps they are not able to play the sound, or maybe they don’t have the time to watch something and would prefer to skim some copy?

When using video, ensure it serves a clear purpose and that you have considered your audience and their preferences. Ideally, you also want to complement it with something a person can read.

Leadpages does this with an optional video on their homepage – you can choose to watch it and see their solutions in action, or you can skip it and just focus on the rest of the page. 

Providing the option has certainly helped some visitors convert, while others may have chosen to skip it and have been none the worse off for it.

Final Words 

By carefully considering your landing page visuals, you can hope to inspire more conversions and effectively boost your bottom line. Take our advice into account, and enjoy working on your website’s appearance.

Looking for a landing page design that converts? Chat with Beanstalk today and let’s create something awesome.

The post Landing Page Design That Converts appeared first on Beanstalk Web Solutions.

With a landing page, there is a lot of room for creativity and experimentation. But, good web design companies know how to elevate the basic elements of a simple landing page to reach their goals. The following four components are essential for creating a successful landing page. Perfecting these elements can set your landing page apart and win you more conversions.

Top 4 Elements of Good Landing Pages

1. Captivating Headlines

The headline is the first text a visitor will read on your landing page. Its purpose is to clearly illuminate what the page is about and show that the page is relevant to what the visitor is seeking. The most effective headlines will go beyond just naming a product or service. They capture a visitor’s attention with something intriguing that compels them to read more.

Take a look at our SEO landing page, for example. The headlines clearly do two things. First, they make it clear that the page is about SEO solutions. Second, they give an interesting offer that speaks to visitors’ needs and interests them in reading the rest of the page. “Claim Your Space on Google’s Front Page” is not only a huge benefit offered on this landing page but also something a visitor was seeking when searching for SEO services.

2. Unique Benefits

If you want a visitor to take action on the page, you’re going to have to go beyond just stating your services. Chances are there are many businesses that can offer similar things. You need to explain why they should choose you over other companies. What makes you unique? Is your product or service more affordable, better quality, quicker, more valuable than the competition? These are all aspects that help convince visitors to commit to your business over the competition.

Our landing page for SEO illuminates the unique aspects of working with Beanstalk in each section. We included a section to show the different services we offer, why they are important for building SEO, our competitive advantage, and what a potential customer can gain from working with us.

3. Inspiring & Interesting Images

Interesting images are one way to quickly convey a lot of information, without taking up a visitor’s time. The purpose of a landing page is to get your message across as quickly and effectively as possible and to inspire action from a visitor. Images visually supplement text on your landing page and help visitors read and synthesize information. Relying on basic stock images can even send the wrong message, and make your landing page look cheap and unprofessional.

To elevate images on your landing page, look for ways to incorporate them flawlessly with the text on the page. On our SEO landing page, we have a picture of our office incorporated into the background of the page. This makes the landing page look professional and interesting. We also supplemented the text with custom graphics that illustrate some of our selling points. Images help present an abstract concept like SEO in a more digestible and interesting way.

4. Convincing Call to Action

Whether the goal of your landing page is a form fill, phone call, or something else, the call to action on a landing page is probably the last thing a visitor will look at and the last opportunity you have to make an impact. A basic call to action can be effective, but an interesting call to action can inspire people to take an action they might not otherwise.

Don’t rely on a basic “Submit,” “Call Now,” “Contact Us,” or “Learn More” button. The most effective landing pages include interesting calls to action that inspire visitors. Our SEO landing page includes several calls to action. For people who are on the fence, who have made it to the bottom of the landing page, we included the clear call to action of “Get Traffic”.  This call to action is interesting. It highlights the end goal of an SEO plan and what a potential customer can gain from choosing Beanstalk.

If you are struggling with marketing tactics that aren’t converting, try incorporating some of these elements into your landing pages, or talk to us. We can help you create landing pages that captivate your target audience and convert visitors into leads.

The post How to Create Effective Landing Pages appeared first on Beanstalk Web Solutions.

It isn’t hard to understand why businesses seek 5-star reviews. Humans always want to see, hear, and read what others believe about someone or something. That’s why negative reviews can be so discouraging for a business. 

What is the first thing that you do whenever you want to try coffee from a new café, hairdo from a new salon, or products from an online store?

Yes, you check out the online reviews and base your decision on what other people have said. Bad reviews might convince you to pass on a business. But if the reviews are good, then you might give it a try!

However, if you are focused on only getting positive reviews and preventing any and all negative comments, you should rethink your strategy when it comes to online reviews.

According to research, negative reviews can result in an 85% increase in conversion rate. Communicating with negative reviewers is an effective marketing strategy that can boost customer retention. Read on to find out why and how you can interact with negative reviews in a positive way to connect to potential customers.

Hiding Bad Reviews Isn’t a Good Practice

Many businesses believe that negative reviews ruin their reputation. That may be true if reviews are primarily negative, but best practices are not to hide them. Instead, a mixture of both positive and negative reviews can still benefit your business, if you handle them properly.

Hiding and deleting reviews is the worst way to deal with negative reviews If you are censoring the comments, then you’re losing 62% of the consumers who check for reviews before purchasing, according to research.  

Another study from Baymard states that 53% of users seek out negative comments before making any decisions. Instead of hiding or removing them, you must know how to respond appropriately to negative comments. Even if they are sometimes cruel.

Your positive approach to negative reviews can highlight your commitment to your customers. 53% of reviewers expect that a business will respond to their queries. Many businesses lack this crucial step and don’t get back to unsatisfied customers, which is more damaging in the long run.

How Could Negative Reviews be a Game-Changer For You? 

Social media has changed the paradigms of how businesses operate. Social platforms are playing a crucial part in helping companies develop brand identities and interact with the audience in real-time. 

Let’s see how negative comments can be a real game-changer for your business:

• Negative Reviews Can Generate Leads 

On average, a customer spends around 13-14 minutes reading reviews on different platforms before purchasing. Some negative or lower-star reviews will decrease the average star rating. But, negative reviews can result in higher conversion rate because they breed a sense of authenticity and trust. Negative reviews can influence purchase behavior.

• They Build Trust

One thing is for sure that nothing is perfect in the world. If your website is filled with 5-stars ratings and positive reviews, it can look suspicious. Moreover, negative reviews can be fruitful in some ways. They give you the chance to rebuild the broken trust and show a strong connection with your customers. 

The best practice to build trust with the customers is to communicate with them. Try to address their issues by offering them some incentives, such as a discount voucher or gift. 

This shows the new readers that your brand values its customers. You might retain lost customers and throw the impression out to the 67% consumers who value trusted brands for shopping. 

• Mixed Reviews Are What Customers Look For

Mixed reviews show authenticity. The average customer reads 10 reviews before finalizing a brand for making a purchase. If you have faked the positive reviews or deleted reviews, your business could look too good to be true.

Negative reviews show customers’ real reactions to your products or services. It’s natural for people to have a range of reactions to a product or service, so you shouldn’t try to hide it when people respond unfavorably. Obviously, you should try to promote as many good reviews as possible, but a few negative ones in the mix won’t damage your reputation.  

• They Bring Greater Transparency

Businesses must realize the importance of mixed reviews before deleting or censoring negative ones. Your review strategy has to be transparent. You must show your online audience that you are open, believe in improvement, and respond well to criticism. This practice improves your brand loyalty.

If you reach out to reviewers to resolve issues they bring up, it shows that you are transparent and committed to their satisfaction.

• They Push You To Improve Quality & Service 

Both positive and negative reviews enhance quality and service. Positive reviews boost your passion and motivate you to deliver exceptional products and services. 

But, bad reviews help you know where your business lacks and what areas need immediate attention. Connecting with an unsatisfied consumer is a great chance to improve your company’s online reputation.

How Should You Respond to Negative Reviews?

Read on to know some tips that can surely help you deal with bad reviews in a positive way. 

• Respond Quickly To Build A Positive Brand Image 

53% of customers expect businesses to respond to their negative reviews within a week. What you should do is address the person nicely and try to track down what happened.

• Apologize Generously   

Try using the reviewer’s first name instead of ‘Dear guest’ or ‘Dear customer.’ Make sure to start with simple greetings and show that you’re sorry for the inconvenience caused and willing to work with them to find a solution.

• Take Responsibility

The best gesture is to take responsibility when things go wrong instead of making excuses. A defensive approach will incite a never-ending chain of arguments.

For instance, if you offer assignment assistance but fail to fulfill the request of a student, then it would be best to accept your mistake for the bad experience. 

In this case, you can compensate for the damages with a free revision or discount on the next purchase. 

• Ask for Another Chance 

Communicate with reviewers, extend a hand, and invite them to shop again. Show reviewers that you care and are striving to do better.

Wrapping Up!

Negative reviews can lead to increased sales if you respond to them appropriately. I have presented several ideas about what could be done to leverage negative reviews for a positive outcome. Don’t hide and delete bad reviews; address them effectively to maximize leads.

Author Bio: Stella Lincoln is a Digital Marketing Analyst at Dissertation Assistance, a platform for cheap dissertation writing services. She has been in the digital field for almost a decade. She loves writing knowledgeable content on digitalism and marketing. In this blog, she presents her views on important lead generation tactics.

The post The Positive Psychology Behind Negative Reviews appeared first on Beanstalk Web Solutions.

If you aim to drive more traffic towards your website, google shopping ads are what you need! Just like every other search engine optimization strategy, you need to exert lots of effort to get Google Shopping Ads working.

However, the moment it becomes fully functional, you are bound to see a prominent return on investment. Many times, traditional marketers feel that Google Shopping Ads doesn’t give them the authority and control they are craving for. If you are amidst this crowd, there are few things you need to be aware of this platform.

First things first, Google Shopping Ads is more or less a shopping engine. It gives retailers a platform where they can advertise their products and services in a more appealing manner. As a result, the chances of them bagging more business increases.

On the other hand, Google Shopping Ads helps customers identify the right mix of products and services for their needs. The moment a user searches for products that fall within your spectrum, Google will display your options! Yet, to enjoy this benefit, you need to make use of Google Shopping Ads properly.

Moving on, when the user chooses to click on the product links, they will be redirected to your landing page. Doesn’t this sound simple?

Why should you use Google Shopping Ads?

A lot of people wonder why they need to make use of Google Shopping Ads. Indeed, this is a very valid question.

By default, this technology is all about presenting your business to customers who’d be interested in you. Unlike many other optimization methods, this is capable of driving more traffic to your website. This is how relevant Google Shopping Ads are in the e-commerce industry. To make things a lot simpler, you have the freedom to choose your keywords manually. The ad descriptions and keywords have to be drafted by your team.

Another reason to use Google Shopping Ads would be for it’s flexible and simple nature. Much of the crucial pieces of work are accomplished by The search engine. Google has all the algorithms required to pull your products from the actual e-commerce website. Whenever a relevant query is executed, the “required” results will be generated by Google.

When compared to traditional shopping ads that take lots of time to load – Google Shopping Ads are extremely fast. The effort you need to make for generating faster, and more accurate ads are less.

Doesn’t this sound fair enough for using Google Shopping Ads?

Basically you need to use Google Shopping Ads for the following reasons:

1. This is how you can improve your rank in the search results.
2. This is the best way to show and tell more about your products.
3. Google Shopping Ads are more intent-based. The scope for interruptions is very less!

How does Google Shopping Ads Work?

When compared to traditional advertisements, Google Shopping Ads are extremely different.

To begin with, the search engine has algorithms to process the Product Feed. This is a special file with loads of product information. Details like the product name, type, prices, and benefits are recorded for each product in this file.

When a user executes a search, Google uses this product file to match against the actual query. Any product that meets with the customer’s query will be identified.

Moving on, the storied product data is displayed in the form of advertisements to the user. As mentioned previously, Google is responsible for executing most of the works. Businesses need to ensure that their e-commerce products and the website is designed with all necessary pieces of information. This is where the actual challenge lies.

If a customer is interested in the products displayed as a part of the Google Shopping Ads search results, they can go ahead and click on it! On clicking, you will be redirected to the actual landing page of the business.

For every successful click made by the client, you will be charged. This is where concepts like Pay per click become relevant. Fortunately, the pricing model doesn’t depend on the placement of your shopping advertisement. It only depends on how successful the ad has been. Hence, you don’t need to worry about overpaying for an advertisement.

Top 10 Google Shopping Campaign Strategies

1. Optimize Your Product Titles

The heart and soul of Google Shopping Ads would be the product feed. If you choose to provide more relevant and useful information to Google, your chances of driving traffic to your website increases. Indeed, the positive impact will be seen directly on your campaign’s overall performance.

Even though there are numerous techniques for optimization, the most effective ones focus on the product title and descriptions. If the product titles are highly relevant, the overall click-through rate will increase. According to experts, top advertisements with the best keyword collection will increase your traffic by a thousand percent. Even though building relevant titles is easy, many SEO specialists fail.

The key takeaway here is to pay close attention to your product titles. It is important to build titles that are concise and meaningful relevant.

2. Your Product Feed Categories & Descriptions should be Optimized

Have you ever tested the effectiveness of your advertisement with irrelevant descriptions and categories? This could be a great way to prove the need for accurate, optimized product feed descriptions and categories.

Many times, e-commerce stores tend to have shoes in the place of athletic gears. And, women clothing in the place of occasional wear. You might find each of these classifications irrelevant.

But, testing proves that they don’t have a major impact on performance. The actual issue lies in how confused your customers can get. This is why you must not think twice to spend some time and organize the product feed.

3. Optimizing Your Product Images

When you want to enjoy an edge in the industry, product images play a critical role. There are so many different types of images to choose from.

A recent survey revealed that buyers from e-commerce websites need access to a variety of images. Almost all of them are keen on sites that have quality images with price details. In fact, more than 80 percent of the crowd is interested in clicking images that have actual people using the product. Yes, the images you capture can become major game-changers.

Always remember to make use of images that replicate your product perfectly!

4. Use Google Shopping Ad Extensions

Over the years, Ad Extensions have proved what can be done to Text-based advertisements. However, the moment you venture into Google Shopping Ads, the game enters into a whole new level.

Two essential extensions for Google Shopping Ads would be the “Automated Extension” and the “Google Merchant Program”. Both of these extensions are strongly interrelated. For instance, your automated extension depends on the details entered in your merchant center.

Making use of extensions is not rocket science. In fact, you have access to many default templates. These are tested templates that can drive plenty of traffic to your website.

5. Use Products Rating & Reviews

Product reviews and ratings have become an integral part of any e-commerce website. This is mainly because the online crowd strongly depends on these reviews. More than 80 percent of online shoppers read reviews and ratings before finalizing a product.

Google Customer Reviews and ratings are given by real consumers. This means they can be compared against the personal recommendation. To benefit from this feature, you need to have plenty of reviews and ratings. These reviews should be accumulated over a longer period of time.

Above all, the reviews should be genuine! No one wants to read automated, or purchased reviews.

6. Implement a Negative Keywords strategy

Does your advertisement show up for all searches? Will it appear for negative keywords searches too? Alas, this can turn into a big disaster. The best way to handle this is by implementing a valid negative keyword strategy.

The amount of manual effort involved in finding the right products and services is less in Google Shopping Ads. The search engine executes most of this work. And, it’s algorithms depend on what you offer.

Negative keywords ensure that your ad doesn’t show up for irrelevant searches. Google has algorithms to ensure that your ad doesn’t appear when people search certain keywords.

7. Adjust the Bids based on Device Performance

As you kick start an e-commerce business, you need to invest in strategies that can boost your ROAS. Anything that changes this value for the good has to be stressed on. And, wouldn’t it be awesome to adjust device bids based on how well the advertisement performs? A few years ago, this was difficult. But, with the help of Google Shopping Ads and it’s supportive tools, handling advertisements that appear on different devices is no longer a challenge.

Advertisements that appear on mobile devices and desktops can be customized easily.

8. Optimize by Geo Location

Your conversion rate will differ from one location to another. Today, you can use Google Shopping Ads to modify bids based on the actual location of the customer. The primary goal of this optimization strategy is to display your shopping ad only in places where there is a significant amount of conversion. And, the chances of displaying your advertisement in locations that wouldn’t translate to revenue (or clicks) is reduced.

There are special tools to help you understand the performance of your ad in different locations. Location performance can be granulated for levels like airports, neighborhoods, districts, countries, and more!

9. Increase bids For High-Performance Products

Not all your shopping campaigns will be successful. There will be products that outperform the rest. It is vital to learn more about these high performing products and services.

Your campaign priority settings have to be altered to support these products. Ensure that these products receive your maximum attention. For starters, you can introduce priorities like low, medium, and high. With time, you will be able to identify products that have secured the “highest” priority. Based on this report, you can improve the bids. These methods ensure that you see results in the long run.

10. Create a Remarketing Strategy

a. Dynamic remarketing

Dynamic Remarketing is all about displaying your advertisement to customers who have already visited your website. These customers are more likely to engage in business with you. Just like every other Google Shopping ad, dynamic remarketing relies on the information from your Google Merchant Center.

b. Remarketing lists for search/shopping ads

Remarketing ads are the most recommended form of advertising for Google Shopping Ads. This strategy is not very difficult. In fact, it doesn’t resemble an actual campaign. Instead of using advertisers or the Merchant Center, you work by assigning audiences to your shopping ads. The advertisements are carefully delivered, based on the customers’ previous searches.

For example, if the customer had the habit of searching for specific products from your Shopify store, the future ads will be based on these searches.

Conclusion

On the whole, Google Shopping Ads are here to lend you a hand of support. This is the most sophisticated and reliable way of flaunting your e-commerce business. Regardless of your products and services, anyone who wants to advertise their brand can make use of this platform. In the beginning, you will have to plan your content wisely. But, the results seen will be worth every minute you spend on Google Shopping Ads. The above points will certainly help you build a stronger ad campaign for 2020.

Additional resources

1. Beginners Guide to Google Shopping Ads
2. How to Troubleshoot your google merchant center data feed?
3. What are the Requirements to Google Merchant Center Data Feed?
4. Tips to Optimize Your Google Merchant Center Data Feed
5. Google Feed Software Related Articles Collection

The post Top 10 Google Shopping Ads Strategies for 2020 appeared first on Beanstalk Web Solutions.

All companies benefit from keeping the customers they have, but client retention in the digital marketing realm is particularly challenging. Unless you differentiate yourself from the hundreds of other digital marketing firms in your state, people have no reason to remain loyal to you. They’ll go where the costs are lowest and follow the carrot to the next new offer.

Mixpanels’ Product Benchmarks Report took a look at 1.2 billion users’ data and came up with some facts about customer retention. A look at 30-day retention rates across different industries, found a mere 4% of people stick with media-based companies. However, that figure also includes companies only offering information, so the retention rates of digital marketers may be much higher. Still, any loss of a customer to a competitor stings. 

It’s best to do everything in your power to keep the clients you have. Here are eight ways to improve your digital marketing company’s client retention rate. 

1. Create Landing Pages for Current Clients

There are many ways to improve landing page conversion rates, but targeting individual buyer personas is vital. The person who ordered from you last month doesn’t want to go through the entire onboarding process again just to get to a re-order page. Create pages aimed at keeping the customers you have. Simplify the process for those already subscribed to your mailing list. Let users save information for future visits.

2. Streamline Billing

Never frustrate your customers by sending them a bill they’ve already paid or forgetting to send an invoice one month and then hitting them with a hefty one the next. Utilize enterprise resource planning (ERP) software to ensure you meet customers’ needs on every level, including financial and need-based. 

3. Understand Their Business Goals

It’s easy to get caught up in the patterns of promoting clients. Much of the work is similar. Plan a campaign, create assets, share assets, repeat. However, in the hustle and bustle of daily promotions, it’s easy to lose sight of the unique goals each business owner has. Spend time every few months talking to your clients. Pick up the telephone or reach out via email and find out what their current goals are. 

4. Spend Your Time on the Right Clients

You have a limited number of hours in the day. Each client you take on eats into those hours. Some clients are high-risk from the beginning. Perhaps they come out of the gate demanding unachievable results. Maybe they are in a high-risk industry likely to fail. Assess each client and make sure they are a good fit for your agency. Pass on the ones who seem like they jump from agency to agency. You should also cull your list every year. If you have clients taking up the majority of your time and impacting your focus on others, it might be time to cut them loose. 

5. Ask for Feedback

You won’t know a client is unhappy unless you ask them. You never want your first clue of dissatisfaction to be losing a client. After each campaign, ask your clients for feedback on how they thought it went. Keep the lines of communication open and strive to improve with each new task. No one is perfect 100% of the time, but by talking to your customers, you improve the chances of meeting their needs and the chances of client retention.

6. Reconsider Price Increases

There are times when a price increase isn’t a great idea. It will almost always make you lose clients, which might be fine if you have more clients than you can handle. However, during difficult financial times, you might lose more work than you’d like. In recent months, many businesses experienced economic setbacks, disruptions in supply chain management, and forced store closures for weeks at a time. Before raising the costs for your customers, think about whether they can weather such a storm. Marketing is often the first budget cut for smaller organizations. 

7. Show You Care

One of the main reasons clients leave a digital marketing agency is because they feel overlooked. Every digital marketer has big-name clients with huge budgets and small mom and pop startups. Your goal should be to make the mom and pop shop feel as crucial as the multi-national corporation. Track campaign results and let clients know immediately when you see big successes or even failures. If things aren’t going well, reach out and suggest some changes mid-campaign to turn things around. 

When you show you care enough to track results in the middle of a campaign, your clients know you’re doing the best work you can for them. The mom and pop shop may turn into the next huge client in the future, so practice attention to detail now. 

8. Encourage Loyalty

What factor makes a customer loyal to your brand over all the others out there? Some ways of encouraging loyalty include creating open communication lines and offering a great customer experience (CX). You should also help clients to refer you to other people they know and reward them for doing so. Most people think through carefully what they recommend to their friends. They’ll have to consider why they love the work you do. 

Once they’ve recommended you, they’re less likely to jump ship over something minor. It is a subtle psychological push to get them on your side and keep them there. No one wants to admit to their friends they recommended you, but now they are going with another company.

Differentiate Your Digital Marketing Agency

As you implement different tactics for client retention, consider what makes you different than your competitors. You should offer equal service but then take it a step beyond. Digital marketing repeats similar services, but you can stand out by creating propriety software tracking your customer’s results or through your level of excellence and results. 

Lexie is a digital nomad and web designer. You can normally find her at the local flea markets or hiking with her goldendoodle. Check out her design blog, Design Roast, and connect with her on Twitter @lexieludesigner.

The post How to Improve Your Digital Marketing Company’s Client Retention appeared first on Beanstalk Web Solutions.