Current Article Analysis Blog #3

Starting a business requires capital to get started and to maintain stability. When a company has capital, it has assets, both tangible and intangible, that signifies its financial strength. Tangible assets include that of money, equipment, real estate; physical existence. Intangible assets are those of nonphysical existence such as patents, trademarks, copyrights, goodwill and brand recognition.

Financial capital is important to businesses for growth, development, and sustainability. However, there is a type of capital that is just as important as financial capital, if not more important, and that is reputation capital.

What exactly is reputation capital? In the April 9^th edition of Business 2 Community, author Brianne Schaer states in her article “What is Reputation Capital?” that a company’s reputation capital is just as important as is financial capital and is one of the most important aspects of any business and the most difficult to quantify. “Reputation capital is the value of the intangible assets of a business. Anything from reviews to brand identity can build reputation capital, and it can essentially be summarized in one word: trust. How much do people trust your business? The more trust there is in your business, the greater its reputation capital. Your reputation allows you to gain the trust of your peers (Schaer, 2019).

Businesses must recognize that its online reputation is much like capital. The opinions that consumers post about your brand or product, and your company, whether good or bad, is your online reputation. That’s why it so important to manage your online reputation to control what shows up when someone looks up your business online.

When someone search for your company, their first port of call will be to do a Google search on them. Whether it’s searching for your company or your brand, the information that comes online creates a picture, informing how potential customers, clients, and connections see you. You want to make sure that what they find is positive. Managing your online reputation will not only help you acquire new customers but will also help you keep your existing ones (Digital School of Marketing, 2019).

Online reputation management (ORM) involves listening and monitoring. It’s being both reactionary and proactive to create balance, counteract misleading trends, and putting your best foot forward. ORM also shows consumers that their opinions matter and that you are actively making sure you that you tailor make your service to respond to their needs. (Digital School of Marketing, 2019). ORM can also help in similar negative things not repeating itself in the future. Your online reputation is one of the most important things to protect. It’s your reputation capital.

Building a positive image is key to building reputation capital. Maintaining a positive brand image can reap many benefits that can allow a company to increase prices, dissociate from certain other brands, or capitalize on a certain market.

There are number of software tools available to help companies with online reputation management. These tools have been created to enable it to monitor what is being said about a company in real time, no matter where these opinions are published (publicly) online – whether it be social media sites only, or the entire internet (Larson & Draper, 2019, chapter 11).

Remember, your reputation is fragile, and can change quickly. The experience you provide customers online will heavily influence their opinion of you. “Corporations need to do more to gain people’s trust. It’s not enough to simply put out a product or service and invest in traditional marketing and advertising. A company needs to convey that they care about their clientele, exercise good ethical and transparent principles, and can convey their personal story in a way that is memorable and relatable. These factors contribute to building reputation capital in today’s fast-paced world” (Schaer, 2019).

References

Digital School of Marketing. (2019, April 3). How online reputation management can increase customer retention. In Biz Community. Retrieved from https://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/669/189307.html

Larson, J., & Draper, S. (2018). Digital Marketing Essentials (Fall ed.). Idaho Falls, ID: Edify Publishing.

Schaer, B. (2019, April 9). What is Reputation Capital?. In B2C: Business 2 Community. Retrieved from https://www.business2community.com/branding/what-is-reputation-capital-02187936

Current Article Analysis Blog #2

“What is Good Web Design?”

We’ve all heard the statement “Less is more”? Have you ever heard the statement in reference to web design? Many consider good web design to be colorful vibrant images, animation, cool fonts, and other. What exactly is a good web design?

Good web design is not design is not determined by the look, or how cool it is. Good web design can answer with clarity the following questions: (1) What are you offering? (2) Why should the user pick you? (3) What do you want the user to do next?

Quality web designs is about creating and optimizing websites for conversion. “A good, high-performing website should be designed for usability so the average user (even the below-average user) can find what they’re looking for or accomplish what they want without too much thought or work, and without making too many wrong clicks” (Larson & Draper, 2018).

In the March 26, 2019 monthly issue of Customer Think, an online business community newsletter, marketing guru Helen Armour in her article “How Minimalist Web Design Can Improve the Customer Experience” conveys to us that “less is more” when it comes to web design. However, not ‘less’ in the sense that a web design is stripped down to nothing and looks incomplete. “When we talk about minimalism in web design, we’re referring to a design approach that seeks to simplify the user interface and website navigation. This is done by using only the elements, whether aesthetic or functional. The primary goal of minimalist web design is to improve usability and make navigation effortless.” (Armour, 2019).

A minimalist web design can greatly enhance the user experience. In a HubSpot survey, 76% of consumers stated that the most important factor in a website’s design is easy navigation and clarity; how easy it was for them to find what they want.

Key elements in achieving the concept of the minimalist web design, according to Armour (2019), involves:

Clarity: The most important thing a webpage can do is be crystal clear about exactly what you can do on that webpage (McGovern, 2010). Clarity, above all, is one of the crucial factors for an effortless user experience. That’s mean getting rid of visual clutter and avoiding things excess details, distractions, and excess buttons. The goal is to guide the visitor’s focus to help them find what they need within a matter of seconds.
Making a good impression: The online presence and content marketing strategy of a business begins with its site, the digital face of the brand. Conveying a sense of professionalism using the minimalist web design, as well as focusing on quality rather than quantity, can help convey a sense of trust. Carefully chosen color palettes, can help build an audience’s trust.
Fast, responsive websites: Minimalism is not about the look of clean, organized websites. It entails design choices that are optimal for improving site speed and accessibility; the practicality and functionality.

I agree that “less can be more” when there is clarity and not clutter. It doesn’t mean that the web design should have bare nothing, or to the point where the designer is “getting rid of elements for the sake of clean-cut aesthetics and a sleek-looking website” (Armour, 2019). Web design should be carefully and strategically planned. The whole ideal of minimalist web design is allowing each element to have its distinct and justified purpose. Basic elements can be powerful. Although functionality is the priority, design choices are also directed at how certain elements impact the consumer and influence their perspective.

People are impatient, especially when visiting a website for the first time. Finding what you’re looking for with ease and clarity is very important. That does involve minimalist web design where each element of the site, from the layout to the font choices and color scheme, is carefully contemplated. Designers must convey the brand’s voice by focusing on the fundamentals and eliminating the excess. You must discover the essence and uncover it in order to convey the message of the brand loud and clear.

Your website is the digital face of your brand. Customers need to feel the buying decisions they are making are informed decisions. “Understanding, relating to and developing empathy for your customer is one of the greatest drivers of clarity in communication and design. A lack of understanding of customers and a focus on the internal needs of the organization is at the root of most confusing, complex and verbose websites” (McGovern, 2010).

References

Armour, H. (2019, March 26). How Minimalist Web Design Can Improve the Customer Experience. In Customer Think. Retrieved from http://customerthink.com/how-minimalist-web-design-can-improve-the-customer-experience/

Larson, J., & Draper, S. (2018). Digital Marketing Essentials (Fall ed.). Idaho Falls, ID: Edify Publishing.

McGovern, G. (2010, March 29). Web Design: Clarity is More Important than Persuasion. In CMS Wire. Retrieved from https://www.cmswire.com/cms/web-engagement/web-design-clarity-is-more-important-than-persuasion-007101.php

Current Article Analysis Blog #1

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a topic that brings about a terror or fear to many marketers because of its complexity and great involvement. In addition, there are so many changes being made to algorithms used in search engines that marketers are having the feeling of being lost in the dark. For example, Google changes its search algorithms around 500-600 times per year. That’s a lot of shifting to keep up with leaving marketers with an overwhelming feeling.

Product Manager Steph Ferrel compares algorithms to that of a horror movie scene. “Sound like the opening scene of a horror movie? While it very well could be, fear not: we’re talking about SEO strategy here. Yet for most marketers, SEO generates the same kind of unease and suspense as your typical tale of terror” (Ferrel, 2019).

Summary

In the March 4, 2019 newsletter by Skyword, a marketing firm, Product Marketing Manager Steph Ferrel in her article “Why You Need Keyword Benchmarking in Your SEO Strategy” advises marketers on how to deal with the overwhelming fear of changing algorithms and fuel your strategic SEO strategy by leveraging competitive keyword.

Ferrel says, studying every algorithm update will drive you mad, so don’t focus on the number. Here’s a few tips she advises marketers to do to break ahead (Ferrel, 2019).

Keyword Benchmarking. Keyword research and competitive intelligence are critical in this effort. You need to build a smart, competitive keyword strategy that can answer these questions: In relation to your competitors, how do you know where to focus and where not to? In the overcrowded world of search, which keywords are worth targeting to beat your competitors and which should you avoid entirely?
Track and improve upon your SEO strategy based on performance and insights. You must be continually tracking and improving upon the performance of your strategy. Tracking your keyword performance can be difficult if you don’t have the right tools to keep tabs on how Google is—or is not—ranking your individual pieces of content.
Engage in SEO best practices by staying on top of trends, not the updates themselves. This is a continual practice. While the algorithms are constantly—and frustratingly—being updated, keep in mind that they’re rehauled in support of a now very constant pillar of SEO: positive user experience. Google prides itself on creating great user experiences, and that means finding and serving content that picks up right where Google leaves off.

Ferrel states “At the end of the day, your content needs to put the consumer first: with friendly layouts, useful topics, and high-quality content (Ferrel, 2019).

Reflections and Analysis

I connected with this article. SEO is one of those topics that can be frustrating and sometimes overwhelming without the changes in algorithms, at least for me. Deciding whether to use On-Site SEO, Off-Site SEO or both to optimize your website and keyword research is already enough to drive you crazy. Tasking search engines to perform searches based only on a very small clue given by the users is very difficult. The truth is, algorithm changes in a search engine, whether Google or some other search engine, leaves a website vulnerable to losing some of its rankings. Sites are sometimes affected negatively by these changes.

Search engines have undergone constant evolution since its beginning. There are two main factors contribute to the continual algorithm changes. First, search engines must continually combat against black-hat SEO tactics. Spam websites that don’t provide any valuable content and wishing to rank well are a constant threat to search engines. Creators of spam websites are constantly discovering new ways to manipulate search engine results, so search engines must continually update their algorithms to fight against these manipulators. Second, a search engine can never achieve perfection, so there is always room for improvement and innovation (Larsen & Draper, 2018).

So how can digital marketers overcome the overwhelming feeling of fear and dread to stay ahead of these changes? The first step is to keep yourself informed. Check sites, like Moz.com, that report on Google’s algorithm updates, or Search Engine Land articles. Second, study the history of Google’s major algorithm changes so you can better understand the trend of the changes and why.

In conclusion, SEO doesn’t have to be like that of a horror film or leaving a feeling of overwhelm and dread. Using the tools advised by Ferrel, can help you feel confident about your SEO strategy and execution. The goal is to be found, and for your site to be more discoverable than that of the competition. Not doing the SEO right, because of fear or dread, jeopardizes the success of effort and web content.

References

Bentz, J. (2018, December 4). Competitor Benchmarking: How To Stop Competitors From Eating Your Lunch Read more at https://www.business2community.com/online-marketing/competitor-benchmarking-how-to-stop-competitors-from-eating-you. In Business 2 Community. Retrieved from https://www.business2community.com/online-marketing/competitor-benchmarking-how-to-stop-competitors-from-eating-your-lunch-02146136

Ferrel, S. (2019, March 4). Why You Need Keyword Benchmarking in Your SEO Strategy. In Skyword. Retrieved from https://www.skyword.com/contentstandard/marketing/why-you-need-keyword-benchmarking-in-your-seo-strategy/

Larson, J., & Draper, S. (2018). Digital Marketing Essentials (Fall ed.). Idaho Falls, ID: Edify Publishing.

Expert Session Analysis Blog #2

We all know that the overall goal is for the search engines to provide good result to search queries. However, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is incredibly important for websites because being found is a priority. The goal of search engine optimization (SEO) is to be a result of many different search queries – and even better, to be the top result on many different searches. The most reliable way to accomplish this goal is to help the search engine accomplish its own goal. That is, to be a top search result, a website should be a good search result – provide high-quality content so the searcher will be happy he or she clicked on that website (Larsen & Draper, 2018).

From the user perspective, searching on an internet engine is one of the easiest things to do. “You tell the search engine what you’re looking for, then click the most promising link from the search engine results page. If that link doesn’t give you what you want, you click the ‘back’ button and try a different link (Larsen & Draper, 2018). However, users have no clue of the complexity and work involved to get good search results. Tasking search engines to perform searches based only on a very small clue given by the users is very difficult and users don’t realize this. They expect precise results from using two or three words for the search, which is not a thorough description of the information desired to begin with. Users have no concept of the reality of how search engines operate.

When it comes to SEO strategies, On-site and Off-site SEO strategies are key to ranking your website higher on Google’s searches. And still, webmasters are continuously looking for new ways to rank their websites higher in search rankings.

In the Expert Session “How to Use Search Intent to Get Results from SEO” speaker Mitch Causey, Director of Marketing at Lessonly, teaches how to use search intent to focus on SEO strategies that lead to actual revenue, not just website views. What is search intent? “Search intent refers to the results a user hopes to see when they enter a keyword into a search engine (Hughes, 2019). It is the ultimate goal of the person using a search engine.

Causey suggests boosting SEO through search intent and understanding the searcher intent funnel. There is a specific emphasis on Google search and the way Google looks at a website. Causey has organized this into three buckets: (1) architecture, (2) content, and (3) endorsements.

Architecture: Architecture includes things like an HTML sitemap or how quickly your page loads on mobile. Although these are considered to be nerdy things, they are important.

Content: Content is King! Content is key! It includes blog posts, any written word or copy that’s on your site (i.e. e-books, white papers, …). Search intent is crucial to content marketing success. So how do you come up with content that you should write and publish on your website? Marketing teams must be creative. Sometime content is locked into a media gram. Searchers don’t care about a lot of creative energy being put into content. They want to find what they are looking for. No one goes to the last page of Google unless you are desperate.

Endorsements: Third party website that link back to your websites.

The focus of search intent must be on all three buckets, and all three must be good to have success in SEO.

Understanding searcher intent is the key to everything. Anne Leuman, blogger at TopRank Marketing tells us “When we marketers understand search intent, we can create new content and/or optimize existing content to be more tailored to their audience’s specific needs, problems, and questions—helping gain SERP visibility in the increasingly crowded content landscape, and attract more qualified traffic and build trust with those visitors (who will hopefully feel like you ‘get’ them and their needs)” (Leuman, 2018).

People are making decisions at every step of the journey: beginning, middle, and end. The key is predicting that intent although it can be challenging. The search intent funnel has everything to do with the marketing funnel and is one of the most critical part. (See Figure 1 below.)

Fig. 1: Intent Funnel Basics:

By understanding what customers will be searching and looking for, understanding their desires, it’s possible to tailor content according. Determine how you content can deliver. Anticipating the customers intent is the secret to satisfying customers at all stages of the journey.

In conclusion, optimizing your site for search intent can lead to increased page views, as well as increased sales for e-commerce sites. It also helps establish a wider audience by increasing your brand’s visibility on Search Engine Results (Hughes, 2019).

References

Causey, M. Causey, M. (Lecturer). (2018). Expert Session: How to Use Search Intent [Online video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iuaq9qWi6Oo

Hughes, J. (2019, February 15). What Is Search Intent and How Should It Factor Into Your SEO Efforts?. In Elegant Themes. Retrieved from https://www.elegantthemes.com/blog/marketing/search-intent

Larson, J., & Draper, S. (2018). Digital Marketing Essentials (Fall ed.). Idaho Falls, ID: Edify Publishing.

Leuman, A. (2018, December 17). The Key to SEO & Content Marketing Success: Understanding Search Intent. In TopRank Marketing. Retrieved from https://www.toprankblog.com/2018/12/content-marketing-seo-search-intent/

Expert Session Analysis Blog #1

Digital marketers should always be working to improve their website. A successful website should do the following: (1) generate traffic, (2) drive conversions, and (3) maximize revenue per conversion (Gregory, 2019).

Affiliate marketing is a way to broaden the awareness of a website to a larger audience, increase the percentage of visitors that act, and increase the value of each action. It’s an excellent way to take gain thousands of new customers; and it’s an inexpensive way to take.

In the Stukent expert session “Affiliate Marketing 101”, Victoria Galperina teaches the basics of affiliate marketing and how to make it work for different types of businesses. She provides information on the best types of affiliates to use in your campaign, how to entice affiliates to selling your product and not the competitions, keeping affiliates happy, commission models to use, and deciding whether to use an affiliate software or affiliate network. However, from all this good information shared one statement made stands out above all: “Help affiliates help you”. Although she talked about this briefly, it’s a big statement.

Affiliate managers must recognize that affiliates are the folks who have chosen your company as one they will invest their time and effort promoting in return for monetary compensation. Your affiliates depend on you — and you depend on your affiliates to dramatically improve your marketing efforts. “As an affiliate manager, the more successful your affiliates are, the more successful that you are. Keeping that in mind, the more you help your affiliates, the more you are helping yourself” (Stocker, 2018).

The truth is you’re paying affiliates to help sell and promote your product. You must discover ways to help them do their job better. If they earn more money, you are making more money too.

There are many ways to get affiliates excited, produce more content, send traffic, and help them be successful in representing you. etc. Chris Stocker, an Affiliate Program Management Expert, in his blog How to Help Your Affiliates Be Successful suggests a few ways to ˈhelp your affiliates help youˈ (Stocker, 2018):

Provide them Resources

Providing your affiliates resources to help them become more successful is an integral part of being a successful affiliate manager. It doesn’t matter if you are an outsourced affiliate management company or an internal affiliate manager. You want to provide as many resources as possible to your affiliates.

Updated Banners / Links

There are many forms of resources. But one the primary resources used in affiliate marketing is that of banners/links. Not having updated affiliate banners can kill an affiliate program very quickly. It is important to upload new banners / links for every new sale or promotion that is being ran on the website.

Educational Materials

Another primary resource of affiliate marketing is providing your affiliates more information about your company and your products. These educational materials can help affiliates create content about your products. Content is key!

Be Responsive and Proactive

Lack of communication is very common. It is crucial to be responsive to any affiliate requests and to be proactive by answering questions before they are even asked. Provide as much information as an affiliate may need before they even need to ask you for the information. Respond to all affiliate communications as soon as possible.

Being an affiliate manager is not only about the number of affiliates have or the number of new affiliates you recruit. It’s much more than that. “It is also about building great relationships with your current affiliates and ensuring that you are doing everything in your power to help them succeed” (Stocker, 2018).

Remember, by helping your affiliates be successful you are also helping yourself to be successful. The more successful your affiliates are, the more successful that you are.

References

Gregory, C. (2019, March). Marketing 2.0: Merging Traditional and Digital Marketing. In Davenport University – MKTG705. Retrieved from https://marketing2.ca/digital-marketing-foundations/?utm_source=Blackboard&utm_medium=Blog&utm_campaign=Announcement&utm_content=Week_1

Larson, J., & Draper, S. (2018). Digital Marketing Essentials (Fall ed.). Idaho Falls, ID: Edify Publishing.

Oldmann, R. (2018, October 2). How affiliate marketing can help grow your business. In Baltimore Post Examiner. Retrieved from http://baltimorepostexaminer.com/how-affiliate-marketing-can-help-grow-your-business/2018/10/02

Stocker, C. (2018, March 27). How to Help Your Affiliates Be Successful. In AM Navigator. Retrieved from https://www.amnavigator.com/blog/2018/03/27/how-to-help-affiliates-be-successful/