Proliferation

Mar 24
0

How Instagram’s New Algorithm Affects Mobile Marketing

By | advertising, Instagram, marketing agencies, Social Media | No Comments

If you do have an Instagram, then you already know the the Instagram traditionally posts from newest to oldest. Recently, however, Instagram has decided to change its digital marketing strategy. The new strategy involves having an image on top that Instagram thinks you will want to see the most, even if it was posted hours ago. So in relation to content marketing, the content a company advertises will now have to be an ad that an Instagram user will want to see.

So even though your friend posts another picture of her feet five minutes ago, that won’t be the first picture you’ll see which could be a good thing. Instead, Instagram will post a picture first based on the interaction you’ve had with another friend.

So What Does This Mean for Digital and Content Marketing?
Companies will definitely be put to the challenge of content marketing, making sure that the new 30 percent of photos that the viewer is seeing, is something that they’ll want on their feed. Digital marketers will need to revamp their looks and images to make them appealing at a glance. According to Instagram, people are only seeing 70 percent of their photos, and the new change will on average let them see about 30 percent, that 30 percent though is based on what the viewer wants to see.
Digital marketing companies who pay to have their ads on Instagram may likely have their post within those posts being seen by users. Users then have the option of following the business on Instagram and if they do want a follow, your company will be showing up on their feed more often. Of course the content marketing they see will be based off what the person is interested in.

Digital marketing companies, however, are seeing pros and cons to the change. Many have said that their posts may be missed due to not having much relevance to the viewer, while others feel that this new change is going to challenge them and they’ll have to bring a new strategy to the table.

Mar 23
0

Dodging the Dreaded SEO Slump

By | SEO, Utah SEO | No Comments

It happens to the best of us — one minute you’re riding high in the search rankings, bringing in more views and webpage clicks, and in the next moment everything seems to be tapering off.

Search engine optimization, known colloquially as SEO, by nature is more a long siege than a quick battle, but that doesn’t make SEO practices immune to stagnation. On the contrary — Google is always subtly changing its algorithm. So why shouldn’t search engine gurus also update their strategies once in a while?

For businesses from the East Coast to Utah, stagnant or slowly slipping rankings are bad news. If your SEO efforts aren’t delivering at the same rate as before, it may be time to broaden your perspective. If your usual niche market is approaching the saturation point, it may be time to expand your strategy to incorporate other keywords — even bigger and better ones.

Work to broaden your catalog of backlinks by giving links away. While this may initially seem like an unwise decision, promoting other industry influencers around your level will both boost your industry cred and encourage other authority figures to link back to you. Just don’t overdo it — you want your references to feel authentic.

If your SEO campaign is tied to content marketing, try mixing up the kinds of content you produce. If your website deals with current events in Utah, move beyond short blog posts and incorporate more long-form pieces. Integrate photos, graphics, videos, lists — you name it. Look to competitors or industry role models for inspiration, and give their techniques a try.

Give pay-per-click a try. SEO professionals like to look down on PPC, but PPC can be a good way to bring in instant traffic and get more potential customers interested in your brand. When your search rankings need a little pick-me-up, PPC can be the shot in the dark.

For companies in Utah and across the U.S., SEO is a long-term process. SEO stagnation can be frustrating, but don’t throw in the towel yet — with a little hard work and innovation, you too can stave off that SEO slump.

Mar 23
0

Content Marketing in the Pre-Internet Era

By | advertising, content marketing | No Comments

Content marketing is the new big thing in online marketing — from billboards to in-your-face pop-up advertising, content marketing is like a breath of fresh air that brings consumers to your business the natural way.

Yet while content marketing is a buzzword currently trendy among businesses from the East Coast to Utah, content marketing has been around longer than you’d think. Let’s take a look at some examples.

John Deere

Back in 1895, agricultural manufacturer John Deere launched its own consumer magazine, known as “The Furrow.” Originally published quarterly in Clarinda, Iowa, “The Furrow” is now available in 12 different languages and 40 different countries around the world, with a consumer reach of 1.5 million people.

Michelin

A mere five years after John Deere’s “The Furrow,” in 1900 tire manufacturer Michelin came out with it’s “The Michelin Guides,” a series of comprehensive guides to automobile maintenance, travel and local restaurants and hotels. Originally distributed for free in France, “The Michelin Guides” expanded into annual releases that covered various different countries.

Jell-O

The next big foray into content marketing in the 20th century came from American gelatin company Jell-O in 1904. Facing low sales, the Jell-O company began door-to-door distribution of free copies of its Jell-O recipe book, featuring creative uses for the gelatin dessert. The recipe book was a smash hit throughout the Midwest and Utah, reaching $1 million in sales by 1906.

Procter & Gamble Co.

Without the Procter & Gamble Co. (P&G) approach to content marketing in the 1930s, we wouldn’t have today’s classic soap operas such as “Days of Our Lives” and “The Young and the Restless.” The P & G company, purveyor of all things household goods, needed a new way to appeal to stay-at-home housewives in Utah and elsewhere. Through the creation of dramatic storylines full of mystery and intrigue, the classic soap opera was born.

Hasbro & Marvel

In 1982, comic book legend Marvel and toy company Hasbro teamed up to create the iconic G.I. Joe comic book. Through cross-channel promotion via both comic books and a television series, G.I. Joe became a household name — and sold an unprecedented amount of merchandise.

While content marketing has come a long way since the turn of the century, the core concepts remain the same. Tailor your branded content in a way that is both relevant for consumers and beneficial for your brand, and people from the East Coast to Utah will be clamoring for your products. For a strategy that has stood the test of time, content marketing is it.

Mar 23
0

Caught on Snapchat: The Newest Trend in Advertising

By | advertising, Snapchat, Social Media | No Comments

Snapchat is the fun quick way to send videos and pictures to friends without having the worry of people looking at your craziness for too long. Now many companies like McDonalds and Taco Bell, along with other successful marketing and advertising agencies, are moving some of their advertising over to the popular app.

Finding What People Are Looking For
Snapchat is easy, it’s fun, it’s quick and that’s what people are looking for. Snapchat allows marketing agencies in Utah as well as around the world to put a short fun video up, showing just how diverse their company is. The user, if they don’t want to watch the whole thing, can see the name quickly and move on to their next photo. The image may have been quick, but it was memorable.

Snapchat Discover
Snapchat recently added a new way of seeing news and other ads with Snapchat Discover. Different from regular Snapchat, Discover lets the marketing companies be front and center, instead of fighting for space — like on Facebook or Twitter. Discover allows for graphics, text overlays, animation and sound. Discover uses unique channels for different publishers. Advertisers can have their own place where they can market to those using the Discover feature.

Know Your Audience
Snapchat is a social media platform for people who want a quick idea of what their friends are doing, and Snapchat makes that possible with videos and images that last for a short time. One thing you will want to look at is how are you going to get your message across quickly and with flare. Doing ads with flare, color and humor will help make your company feel more approachable. Remember, the people who use Snapchat are in a younger generation and want something fun — not long and drawn out.

Overall, to make sure your advertising is effective, especially to the Snapchat users here in Utah, make an advertisement that can represent your company at a glance in a fun and effective way.

Mar 22
0

So You’ve Been Hit with a Google Penalty — Now What?

By | Google, SEO, Utah SEO | No Comments

Any search engine marketer from the East Coast to Utah knows the feeling of dread that sets in when traffic to your website suddenly takes an unexpected nosedive.

Lower traffic numbers aren’t necessarily a sign of a stiff penalty from the search engine giant, however if you’re experiencing significant drops in traffic on individual pages, for certain keywords or a number of your pages suddenly get de-indexed, it’s probably a good sign the SEO gods have come down to Utah to smite your website. In the world of search engine optimization, Zeus has got nothing on Google.

If you suspect you’ve been hit with a Google penalty, don’t panic. The first thing to do is to figure out if you have actually been hit with such a penalty, and if so, what kind. There are two types of SEO penalties — manual penalties and algorithmic penalties.

Manual Penalties

Manual penalties are pretty easy to figure out. Take a look at your Webmaster Tools — If Google’s Webspam team has assigned you a penalty, it will appear as a warning under Search Traffic/Manual Actions. Manual penalties are typically accompanied by lower search engine rankings or site de-indexation.

Manual penalties can be difficult to recover from, but the good news is Google rarely doles out manual penalties for your overage site for some small company in Utah; they’re really only reserved for truly sketchy websites.

Algorithmic Penalties

Algorithmic penalties are less straightforward to identify; however, they can actually be easier to fix. The penalty could be related to offsite factors (most likely due to Penguin) or onsite factors (Panda).

Determining exactly which update caused the penalty can be tough though, so dive into Google Analytics to figure out what went wrong. Fruition Google Penalty Checker offers a good visual representation of penalties across time, and how each update affected your website traffic.

Now What?

Nobody likes getting hit with a Google penalty, but it’s really not the end of the world unless you make it out to be. Review both your current and past SEO strategy, do some serious backlink analysis, get rid of useless or duplicate content and perform a full SEO audit.

With the proper time and dedication, anyone from the East Coast to Utah can recover from a Google search penalty.

Mar 22
0

Make the Most of Obscure Holidays With Content Marketing

By | content marketing, digital marketing | No Comments

From National Pancake Day to Froot Loop Day and Arbor Day, the world is full of random and obscure holidays. While some holidays are more reputable than others — Pi Day, for instance, is totally a real holiday — even the craziest of self-proclaimed holidays can be a great resource for content marketers.

In content marketing, even the best campaigns can sometimes get a little stale. Capitalizing on random holidays throughout the year can add a little spice to your everyday content marketing strategy and increase engagement.

Just make sure to pick holidays that are relevant to your business; a company that sells Jell-O in Utah, for instance, would certainly benefit from National Jell-O Week, which takes place the second week of February — and has been officially recognized by the Utah state legislature since 2001.

Obscure holidays are great for times of the year that fall though the cracks between more-established holidays such as Independence Day or Labor Day. Research obscure holidays in advance, and plan your content marketing campaigns accordingly.

Run a local bakery? Consider running a sale for Cupcake Lover’s Day, or simply write a blog post or social media shout-out to get people interested. And don’t forget about National Donut Day. Work for a diner? Maybe Tater Tot Day is more your thing. The point is to get consumers thinking about your brand, in a more fun and genuinely interesting way. Plus, strange holidays are great for social.

No matter how strange the holiday, there’s almost always a way to work it in to your content marketing strategy. Whether you’re running a small business in Utah or a larger corporation based in the Big Apple, one thing’s for sure: People really, really love random holidays. Take the opportunity to celebrate, and connect with your audience in a way they’ll surely remember come next year.

Mar 22
0

Facebook’s New Lift API Will Be a Welcome Help to Marketers

By | advertising, Facebook, Social Media | No Comments

In an effort to help get more marketing companies on Facebook and to help promote their companies, Facebook debuted the Lift API, a way that will help advertising agencies find out who is looking at their client’s advertisements and create studies to help boost sales and awareness.

The program was announced in January of 2015, and since then has had over 1,000 businesses using the program. Facebook is also testing new ways that will help advertising agencies understand which ads people saw or clicked on the most or least. This helps businesses know which products are going to be a better sell, and help marketing companies know which products to push.

What Does It Do?
Lift API helps companies keep track of who is looking at the companies and what demographic is interested in the product. It will let marketing companies, advertising agencies, the Facebook partners and other third party partners create their own life studies for conversion rates. Kind of a creepy way of letting people that you don’t know know what you want, but this will help companies know what you want to see.

Social Media Benefits
Other social media platforms besides Facebook have helped marketing companies and advertising agencies reach out to the consumer directly. Facebook helps focus on engagement with the consumer, by studying “likes” and views. Social media creates a loyalty to the business directly with likes and follows. Advertising agencies can also post direct content and updated content on social media, helping the consumer be up to date on what is happening within the company.

Advertising on social media is very inexpensive, and has become a popular way to share information. Facebook makes things easier for marketing companies and advertising agencies, and with Lift API, they’re making it easier to help businesses grow.

Mar 22
0

Fit in With Your Web Development Friends: The Acronyms to Know

By | web development, website design | No Comments

There are so many words, codes and acronyms when it comes to Web development and design. When a web developer looks at you and says something in computer language, it really doesn’t make sense to an average person. So here’s some basics to help you have an almost human conversation next time you’re talking to a web designer.

AJAX
Yes, this is a big word, and an acronym for asynchronous (timing control), Javascript, and XML. AJAX is a cleaning product, but in the Web development world it’s a way to create dynamic web applications and allows for asynchronous data retrieval without having to reload a page.

Bandwidth
This basically is going to tell you how fast your data is going to transfer or the amount of data you’re going to be given. This is where you’ll usually hear kilobits per second or bits per second. So if you have a lower bandwidth you’re going to have a slower internet connection, while high bandwidth will give you faster connections like cable or fiber.

CSS
This is a web designers dream. CSS is what really controls the look of your website in accordance with HTML. CSS stands for cascading style sheets, and this will really help in designing your website. You can change colors and fonts with CSS as well as background images and other content.

Domain
This is your website — or, the way that your website is going to be identified. Web developers use this to associate with an IP address.

Elastic Layout
This also effects the way your website looks. Elastic layout helps Web designers use percentages and ems for widths pairs. Basically it uses this to change the layout of your website, the size, the layout and the ability to accommodate the browser width and font.
Web development and design doesn’t have to be complicated, but it can be a whole new language. The real way to look smart is to know the terms and to look like you know what you’re talking about.

Mar 21
0

The Worst Websites for Mobile

By | Mobile marketing, SEO | No Comments

In 2016, mobile is continuing on its path to take over the Internet, from mobile holiday shopping to checking the latest Utah-area news. In an effort to boost search engine optimization — also known as SEO — and stay in the good graces of Google, most reputable websites work hard to make their websites mobile-friendly.

That said, not every website does a good job of optimizing for mobile. While some websites just don’t really seem to grasp the concept of mobile, others appear to be actively working to intrude upon consumers’ mobile experience as much as humanly possible.

Some of the worst offenders are the websites of local news stations in Utah and throughout the country. Local news websites are often littered with photos, advertisements and clickbait news stories. Some small-town news websites in Utah will inundate the viewer with pop-up information, or even highjack the viewer’s ability to scroll—resulting in a cluttered, jumpy mess of a mobile site. Not exactly great for SEO.

Other websites that offer a mobile app — such as YouTube — will upon entering the mobile version of the website present the viewer with an obnoxiously large plug for the app version. Such pop-up ads often have a very small ‘x’ in the corner that is rather difficult to hit just right on a tiny phone screen.

In these cases, the viewer is often unable to exit out of the advertisement on the first try, and instead gets redirected to an app he or she had no intention of downloading in the first place. Luckily, Google has recently released SEO penalties for sites that do this; however many mobile sites are still guilty of this infuriating practice.

Other mobile sites are simply not optimized for mobile. High school and university websites are notorious for this; it’s nearly impossible to use a university’s website on mobile, even the more reputable ones. In 2016, that’s simply unacceptable; if mobile is the next big thing, webmasters need to get with the program — just say no to unoptimized mobile websites.

Mar 21
0

4 Obsolete Content Marketing Strategies You Should Probably Stop Using

By | content marketing, Mobile marketing | No Comments

Much like the rest of the Internet, content marketing is an ever-changing field. As Google search guidelines and consumer online behaviors evolve, content marketers from the Midwest to Utah need to stay on their toes in order to keep consumers engaged.

You’d think any content marketer worth her salt would understand this. Nonetheless, we’re always surprised by how many marketers are still holding on to old strategies — strategies that have long been obsolete.

Focusing Only on Short-Form Content

While short-form content makes it easy to crank out a large quantity of pieces, Google search criteria no longer value short-form pieces as well as longer ones. Long-form pieces tend to rank higher than short-form ones — and there’s simply no substitute for comprehensive, detailed content that both informs and educates your users.

Keyword Stuffing

Back in the day, content marketing was all about the keywords. Companies from the East Coast to Utah could stuff their content full of keywords and expect it to rank highly — no matter the quality of the content.

Nowadays, Google and most other search engines actively penalize websites for this; instead of just focusing on the keywords, put more effort into crafting a quality piece, and use keywords where it makes sense to do so.

Using Meta Descriptions

Meta descriptions used to be a great place to stuff in some more keywords and boost your search rankings. Now, however, meta descriptions have no impact whatsoever on SEO. It doesn’t matter if you use keywords or not; just don’t bother with meta descriptions.

Writing for Anyone & Everyone

We understand that companies generally want their content to resonate with as many viewers as possible, however that approach may actually be hurting your content marketing strategy instead of helping. Determine who your target audience is, then write your content explicitly for that audience. No matter how good you think your content is, it will be of little use if your target audience does not agree.

Bonus: Don’t Forget About Video!

While you can’t go wrong with written content, video is truly the next big thing. For content marketers in Utah and around the world, video brings in unprecedented levels of engagement — so get behind that camera and start filming.