Category Archives: Blog

Digital Marketing Analytics for Small to Medium Sized Business

 

 

Before digital marketing analytics tools, many people made business decisions without the right kind of metrics in hand. The extensive implementation of digital marketing analytics has proved to be a perfect solution for business decision-making and lead generation. Digital marketing analytics have spread their wings across all online marketing channels and help in the holistic development of a business. The precise website audience insights one gains from the analytics tools is mind-blowing!

Let digital marketing tools do their magic for your business!.

Why Your Business Needs Digital Marketing Analytics?

Some people still question the relevance and need of Digital Marketing Analytics for their business. The answer to this would be – How will you know whether you are improving or working towards your objectives if you are not even tracking any type of data?

The business world is rapidly changing with owners of both small and medium-sized businesses having the need to evaluate campaign effectiveness. Website visitors also demand a personalized web experience that meets their needs. For every organization, customization will be possible when you study your website data, track and analyze the metrics and KPI’s. Whether you are running a marketing campaign or expecting higher traffic to your webpage, the analytical data will help your online presence game.

Digital Marketing and Web Analytics will help retrieve a great deal of rich information that can tell you precisely how and where you can improve your website optimization strategy.

Ultimately, it will determine the true ROI of your digital marketing program and help you understand how well you are achieving the goals.

Most Popular Data Analytics Tools to Consider

In today’s era, marketers can utilize various digital marketing analytics tools to understand customer behavior, examine how the buyer interacts with online channels, and identify new revenue prospects. Let us discuss the most popular data analytics tools that every business marketer should know.

SEMRush

SEMrush is ideal for anyone who desires to track what their competition is doing online. A great competitive analysis tool, it will help you to adjust your digital strategy by allowing you to monitor competitor performance.

The analytics reports will let you see a great pool of information like brand keyword analysis, analyzing competitor ad copy, and finding their ad strategies. One can analyze and decide which keywords are most competitive and which other advertisers are bidding on them.

There is also a backlink analysis tool that allows you to check who is linking to your website.

At Big Customer Network, we use the website audit tool on a regular basis for all of our clients to ensure their websites are fully SEO optimized.

Moz Pro

Moz Pro is a simple analytics platform to keep track of your SEO performance and guide you on how to increase traffic from search engines. It provides both your and the competitors ranking on search results and the trending keywords. Its endless features like research on link-building, page optimization, reporting, and site crawling make it a great digital marketing analytics tool.  Moz Pro takes away the pain out of link tracking by giving ample information through link profile spam analysis and competitive metrics.

The hype around Moz Pro can rightly be trusted since it saves you a lot of time by putting all of your SEO analytics in one place.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics one of the most popular analytics tools which every digital marketer should use.  It is a free website analytics platform that allows you to track your website traffic, understand your visitor demographics, how much time they spend on your website, which web page is keeping them engaged and much more.

As a digital marketer, this can be of great help to analyze which of your marketing channels generate the most conversions, sales, leads, and downloads. With all the rich data provided to you, you can easily optimize your channels to target the most profitable market.  The data can be overwhelming so please contact us so we can help you maximize Google Analytics.

Mailchimp

Mailchimp is ruling the email marketing industry. This email marketing platform has a very user-friendly interface which makes it one of the most loved marketing tools. For start-ups or digital marketeers who are just entering into email marketing, Mailchimp is a preferred solution.

For business owners who do not have very large email lists, the free package can be the perfect way to start your journey.

Mailchimp allows you to create automated email campaigns, monitor subscriber behavior through its built-in analytics and reporting functionally. One can easily judge the effectiveness of their email campaigns by studying the customer traffic and conversions.

How Big Customer Network Comes to The Rescue

Acknowledging the need for a one-stop digital marketing solution, Big Customer Network offers a complete suite of digital marketing strategies. Whether it is a small or a medium-sized business, Big Customer Network provides business owners the complete visibility for the performance of our digital marketing programs for clients.

Big Customer Network has proven itself as a trusted internet marketing and technology partner for small to medium-sized businesses across all industries. The success stories of our clients resonate with our commitment to creating a data-driven plan. Our extensive and best-in-class strategies deployed with top digital analytical tools help companies to grow and meet their goals. Our dedicated team of professionals is equipped to assist and provide leadership for all types of digital marketing programs.  We collaborate with clients to achieve their business objectives. We use the right mix of digital marketing and web analytics to help you grow your business.

If you are not using digital marketing tools to improve your campaign effectiveness, then you are missing out on powerful data that will help you extract actionable insights. The right metrics will enable you to make the right data-driven decisions and connect better with your audience.

Big Customer Network continues to create digital marketing success stories and plays a key role in providing digital marketing and IT services. So, keep tracking and analyzing to experience consistent growth. We can help you navigate the maze website tools and analytics so contact us today to learn more.

 

Digital Marketing Strategy to Drive Growth

 

Small to medium-sized businesses are in a constant battle to reinvent in order to contend with their competition. In a modern world where digital assets make way for relentless change, the ability to continually grow is a challenge. Smaller organizations that lack the funds of a big corporation must use an innovative digital marketing strategy to capitalize on opportunities to grow. When the coronavirus pandemic hit, many businesses were left scrambling for answers. What we have found is that most of those answers lie in digital marketing.

No one could have prepared for COVID-19 and the ensuing fallout. With unemployment skyrocketing and far too many companies forced to close their doors, the ones who were able to survive had to look to alternative methods of bringing in business. Reframing the way in which everyone does business means reframing the way in which companies seek new business. That is where digital marketing comes into play.

While industries like hospitality and service were hit hard, others like retail were largely able to remain afloat. Cash constraints have forced the hand of small to medium-sized businesses so lean on digital solutions to combat COVID-19 challenges in a cost-effective, savvy way. For instance, creating digital ordering tools has allowed for new ways of customer interfacing. This is critical to keeping sales steady today.

So, why is digital marketing the saving grace of the pandemic? How can companies take advantage of digital resources to grow their organizations? Below, we will tackle some of the most significant reasons for leaning on digital marketing opportunities to thrive in today’s climate and beyond.

Using Data to Grow

It goes without saying that the tracking capabilities inherent in digital marketing strategy make it an extremely attractive tool. This feature plays into the hands of small and medium-sized businesses beautifully. First, with the ability to track every dollar spent, a digital strategy can be curbed and altered nearly instantaneously to ensure the biggest bang for your buck at every turn. In addition, companies can pinpoint a target audience and then ensure that marketing materials reach only those people. This type of precision marketing is critically valuable, especially when budgets are tight.

Keeping Digital marketing Strategy Costs Low

It is simple math that small and medium-sized businesses need to keep marketing expenditures down while making sure that returns are up. Digital ads enable an organization to save big time on developing artwork, paying for eyeballs, and shelling out a lot of cash on a cost per lead basis. Utilizing digital ads properly places smaller companies in the position to attain and keep customers at a much lower cost per acquisition than any traditional marketing options.

Solidifying Long-Term ROI

With a focus on SEO, brands have the opportunity to not only grow in recognition but to increase conversions and revenue too. Optimizing your website, crafting thought-leadership content pieces, and creating click-worthy videos has the potential to convert customers long-term. This means that a few great pieces of content have the capacity to bring in new customers months, even years, down the road. What’s more? The long-term costs only shrink while the long-term ROI only grows. A true win-win for small and medium-sized businesses.

No matter what section you find yourself in, depending on digital marketing to grow your business has proven valuable time and time again. From Google to Facebook and everything in between, there is a real opportunity to take advantage of low-cost, high-return digital tools to grow your business today and set the tone for growth well into the future.

At Big Customer Network, we have mastered the art of constructing digital marketing strategy. Utilizing a wide range of digital tools, our customers benefit from our expertise, experience, and commitment to remaining on the cutting-edge of all things digital. Contact us today to get started.

How to Use Social Media to Grow Your Small Business

 

Social media is a vital tool used to connect your small business to the world. When the Pew Research Center began tracking social media usage in 2005, only 5% of Americans participated in one of the platforms. In their latest 2019 poll, 72% of the American population reported using social media at least once a day – making it an essential part of the promotion for a business. In addition to connecting with your existing customers, social media is the best way to expand your reach and grow your consumer base.

While diving into the world of social media to promote your small business can seem intimidating, there are many tools and resources to help small business owners get started. Here are some of the best tips for using social media to grow your small business:

Create a Social Media Strategy

While it might be tempting to just create an account and start posting, the best way is to establish a social media strategy unique to your brand. With a plan in place, you can set clear goals and objectives and measure your progress.

Before creating content, research similar businesses and compare their tactics to your objectives in order to determine what you like and dislike. Without copying anyone else, you can use this information to create your own social media marketing plan.

This plan may include:

  • Social media goals and objectives: Using specific measurements to track your progress is a great way to determine the impact on your business. The most effective goals follow the SMART framework, which means they are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely. Determine the goals that will help grow your business, for example, focusing on engagement rates instead of the number of likes.
  • Social media audit: If you already have accounts created, before looking at ways to improve your social media presence, it is important to evaluate the current situation, both what has been successful and what needs help.
  • Social media calendar: A calendar is a great way to organize all of the content that you want to share with your followers, mapping out the right time and the right platform to post on.

Define Your Target Audience and Expand

When using social media, it is often more effective to concentrate your efforts to reach certain audiences as opposed to creating content for the general public. To do this, start by evaluating your current customers. Then, with analytics you can delve deeper into these demographics, trying to figure out common patterns within this customer base. By micro-targeting your audience, you can create content based directly on their ages and interests.

Once you are able to define your target audience, it is time to expand your consumers by finding similar customers. For example, when trying to expand to a new market, you can mirror the traits of your current customers to find new people who will also connect to your brand.

Decide Which Platforms are Best for You

Depending on the age and habits of your target audience, you might want to focus more or less on certain platforms. For example, the average age of users on Facebook is 25-29, while the average age for Instagram users is 18-24. Gender can also play a factor in social media demographics. For example, women outnumber men on platforms like Instagram, with 43% of women using the app compared to only 31% of men. But for YouTube, 78% of men regularly watch videos compared to only 68% of women.

In addition to demographics, the platforms can serve different purposes based on your goals. According to an article from eMarketer, Facebook is a more effective tool for customer acquisition and to increase your overall scale, while Instagram is more successful for e-commerce and purchases.

The Power of Social Media for Your Business

In the early stages of growing your business, be mindful of what strategies are working and what is not working. No matter the scale of your business, social media tools can help you connect and build relationships with your audience, increase your reach, and build a successful brand.

Are you looking to establish a social media strategy or build upon a current one? At Big Customer Network, we have seen impressive results with research and strategy. Contact us today to learn more.

Growing Your Local Business With Digital Marketing

Grow-Your Business-With-Digital Marketing

 

Could a large global corporation’s marketing strategy work for a small local business? While some tactics may have to be adjusted, the answer is generally yes. Digital marketing efforts do not discriminate. This often surprises small business owners, as they view massive digital marketing campaigns as something unattainable and out of their league.

On the contrary, local businesses have a big opportunity to take advantage of digital marketing options that would promote and grow their organizations. Unfortunately, there are a few common roadblocks standing in the way:

  1. Budget Constraints
  2. Lack of Expertise

One of the biggest misconceptions about digital marketing in 2020 is that it is expensive and out of reach for a mom and pop shop. Business owners are used to the costs associated with traditional marketing tactics like television ads or print advertising. Digital marketing options, on the other hand, are much less expensive. As a result, local businesses are able to run campaigns that match their budgets and meet their targeting needs. More on this later.

In addition to cost, many local businesses lack the expertise necessary to run a successful digital campaign. With no budget to hire a full-time marketing person, they are left with questions and concerns about how they could possibly compete with their rivals.

These concerns are common and reasonable. However, digital marketing offers a solution to all of these worries. Today, we will break down just what it takes for a small local business to compete digitally and expand their reach.

Digital Marketing Tactics for Local Businesses

As a business owner, it’s easy to get intimidated by big chains and corporations in your industry. In the past, competing with organizations of that size would mean dishing out enormous budgets to get a 30-second local spot during a big game. Today, competing with them could be as simple as running a highly targeted Facebook ad or a strategic email marketing campaign. The point is that there is a wide range of options for small businesses to take advantage of in the marketing space.

Digital strides in marketing have made targeting specific customers easy, trackable, and successful. The heart of any winning marketing campaign lies in the ability to reach the right people, at the right time, and in the right location. The following are some of the most notable platforms to consider for local business digital marketing:

  • Facebook Pages and Ads
  • Instagram Pages and Ads
  • YouTube Commercials
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn Ads and Forums
  • Email Marketing
  • Local SEO
  • Website SEO
  • Search/Display Ads
  • Blogging
  • Lead Generation Efforts

From content and social media marketing to paid ads on Google and other social platforms, the opportunities to promote a local business digitally are vast. The struggle lies in determining where to spend the money and who to hire to run the campaigns. While something like running a Facebook page requires more time than money, the level of engagement with customers that it provides is invaluable.

In addition to being able to reach the exact type of customer that works best for your company, digital marketing also allows for in-depth tracking. Measuring results is critical to any successful campaign, large or small. So, it is imperative that local campaigns are tracked and then tweaked to account for the results of the analytics. Far too many local campaigns tank because of a failure to remain dynamic.

Leaning on digital marketing can transform a local business. The biggest challenge is getting started correctly. Whether that means hiring an in-house marketing expert or looking for an experienced consulting agency, local companies looking to succeed this year must expand their reach into the digital realm.

Do you have questions about taking your company digital? We are here to help! Contact Big Customer Network today to learn more about your options!

Are You Avoiding These Digital Marketing Mistakes?

A quick Google search will reveal countless digital marketing tips, guidelines, and “must-have” insider information. The internet is flooded with marketing formulas that are guaranteed to transform your company’s online presence. But what about what doesn’t work? With so much information about what to do, who is focusing on what not to do? How can you take failed digital marketing experiments and turn them into valuable guidelines for the future?

Digital marketing and data go hand-in-hand. Today, we find ourselves in a data-driven world, dictating decisions in nearly every industry, and on a global scale. This means that there is an abundance of facts and figures to shape decisions and guide new initiatives. In marketing, data lays the foundation for action.

While all digital marketing mistakes are avoidable, some of the more commonly seen blunders are certainly preventable. Having a dynamic approach to every digital marketing initiative is crucial to online success.

Have you given any thought to the mistakes that your organization has made? If not, it’s time to start digging in.

Digital Marketing Mistakes To Dodge

The enormity of digital marketing options can be paralyzing. Some companies are so overwhelmed with where to begin, they fail to get started at all. The fear of making a mistake is certainly daunting, but the beauty lies in the lessons taken from those mistakes, all made possible by the nature of digital information.

Making changes to a marketing strategy is far more complex than it may appear. So to say that one can address digital marketing mistakes with “the click of a button” is an oversimplification. However, since proper research and due diligence can set up any organization to succeed digitally, starting by pinpointing preventable mistakes is key.

The following are some of the most frequently seen digital marketing mistakes:

  1. Refusing to be dynamic. Trends change faster today than ever before, and this means not only being on the cutting-edge of those changes but having the flexibility to act accordingly.
  2. Failing to clearing state and write down marketing objectives. This is one of the most commonly seen errors today. People are so eager to get started, they fail to take a step back and determine where they want to go.
  3. Missing the mark on targeting the right audience. Digital marketing options today mean that you can create campaigns to speak to a very specific set of individuals. Ignoring the power of reaching a targeted audience, with the right message, can be disastrous for any campaign.
  4. Approaching social media marketing with a “post and pray” attitude. It’s easy to feel like simply posting on social is enough to engage an audience and remain top-of-mind. But without a strategy, your posts will fall on deaf ears.
  5. Ignoring the opportunity to test. A/B testing is extremely powerful in gauging the right approach to the audience, the medium, and so on. It’s easy to jump to a conclusion about a campaign without properly assessing its performance, but no assessment is complete without some form of testing.
  6. Spending minimal time with analytics. Falling into the trap of sending a monthly report is all too common. Are you spending time with the numbers to truly understand what they mean? Analytics provide a goldmine for marketers looking to make the most out of their digital campaigns.

We could go on and on about the mistakes digital marketers make, but the above six mark the most impactful issues to date. You will inevitably make mistakes in your efforts to dominate your competition online, but approaching these mistakes as opportunities to learn and evolve will set you up to avoid failure in the future.

At Big Customer Network, we approach mistakes with open arms in our quest to perfect our clients’ digital marketing strategies. Are you ready to take your company to the next level? Contact us today to get started.

9 Email Marketing Strategies for Major Marketing Wins

Smart business owners look at marketing as a necessity, not just a bonus if the budget allows. Even smarter business owners look at each individual marketing tactic separately to determine its return on investment (ROI). While measuring ROI on digital marketing initiatives may be tough, email marketing is indisputably one of the winners. Why? With low costs and high returns, email makes perfect sense for budget-conscious entrepreneurs looking to make a splash in 2020.

Social media is getting all of the recent hype surrounding digital marketing success stories. But the reality is that email marketing actually converts 40 times the number of customers. The ability to speak directly to a prospective customer puts email marketing in a league of its own. Sure, strategies involving Google ads and sponsored Facebook posts are important. However, the power of reaching someone exactly when you want to cannot be overstated.

Email marketing, when executed correctly, can truly transform an organization’s lead generation capacity. Today, we discuss 9 email marketing strategies that will make a big impact this year.

Taking Advantage of Email Marketing

Far too many marketers fall into the trap of assuming email marketing will work if they have a large list of subscribers and some content to share. In theory, that situation would facilitate some leads and general interest. In practice, it’s a recipe for disaster.

Who are your emails being sent to? Should all of those people be receiving the same content? What is your purpose behind sending the email? What action do you hope the recipient takes upon opening the email? The answers to these questions will lay the foundation for a successful strategy and create a new pathway for leads to travel.

No matter what your marketing objectives may be or how you decide to achieve them, email marketing should absolutely have a prominent place in your marketing mix. The following are some of the most impactful email marketing strategies to consider incorporating into a digital marketing plan:

  1. Focus on subject lines: while it can be tempting to stick with something catchy, the subject line must also facilitate conversions.
  2. Personalization: from personalized copy to action-based or location-based offers, customer retention is dependent upon a personal touch.
  3. Incorporate animation: things like GIFs are an easy and effective way to engage your audience.
  4. Keep it simple: take advantage of white space on your email design to focus your message and intention clearly.
  5. Content value: be sure to send emails filled with valuable content – whether that means an incredible offer or a background story about your company.
  6. Make it social: be sure to include icons of your social channels and encourage recipients to follow you there.
  7. Deploy A/B testing: running two campaigns simultaneously and comparing performance results is essential to effective email marketing.
  8. Time it right: time of day is crucial when it comes to email communications, we recommend sending an email between 10 and 11am.
  9. Track everything: customer insights and analytics are crucial to taking full advantage of the power in email marketing.

Using marketing automation, companies have seen massive improvements in the ability to communicate with their target audience and turn new leads into customers. At Big Customer Network, we are email and marketing automation experts. Using cutting-edge techniques, we have perfected the craft of generating leads for small to medium-sized businesses.

Are you ready to deploy a robust email marketing campaign? Contact us today to get started.