Reusing Blog Posts for Social Media: Time-Saving Tips on Remixing Your Best Content
Ever wondered how brands come up with fresh content to post on social media every single day? Their secret is remixing. Instead of creating brand-new content from scratch, many smart brands leverage their existing blog posts into fresh content for Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms.
There are lots of practical reasons to reuse blog posts for social media content:
- Save time. Rather than spending hours writing great blog posts and crafting social media content, you can produce multiple forms of content for your site and social media platforms simultaneously.
- Drive traffic to your site. Building content from your blog posts lets you re-share old URLs in a new context, driving more traffic to the original post you so carefully crafted.
- Maximize your audience reach. Some people love to hunker down for a good read, while others would rather consume quick bites of content in videos or graphic form. Turning a blog post into different social media content gets your message out to the broadest possible audience.
Which Blog Posts Make for Great Social Media Content?
You know your content better than anyone, so you probably have some idea of which ones would make for great videos or images. But keep in mind that the blog post should be:
- Relevant to your audience. Some posts age better than others; don’t choose a post that is outdated or no longer interesting.
- This depends on how you measure blog performance. If your number one goal is site traffic, use Google Analytics to find out which posts have generated the most user sessions; if brand-building is your focus, see which posts incited the most social media engagement.
Ways to Remix and Reuse Blog Posts for Social Media Content
To get you started, here are a few time-saving tips on reusing blog posts for great social media content.
1. Videos
We have written previously about the benefits of using video on social media. People are more likely to view and engage with videos than any other form of content, and there are lots of free tools that can help you make captivating videos out of blog posts. One of our picks is Lumen5, which automatically pulls content from articles and turns it into easily customizable scenes.
2. Quotes
One of the quickest ways to turn blog posts into social content is this: pull the juiciest bites of information from the article and share it in the form of a brief text post or image. It can be an authoritative statement, an inspirational quote, an impressive statistic, or a compelling question. Choose something that will stop users in their tracks and entice them to click through.
3. Graphics
Bold, colourful visuals boast universal appeal across social platforms. Social posts that include images always grab more attention than text alone. You can condense the main points of the blog into one image or break them into a series of images that each highlight a point.
4. Infographics
Turn an information-heavy blog post into an easily digestible infographic. While they do take longer to create than one-off graphics, the potential return on investment is high; an eye-catching infographic can catch on and spread to all corners of the web. Be sure to include your brand’s logo and a link to the original blog post somewhere on the graphic.
If you haven’t got a knack for graphic design, use a free template available with tools like Canva or Piktochart.
5. Live Video
Have more to say about a particular post? That’s a great opportunity delve deeper into the topic or host an audience Q&A in a live video broadcast. Live videos on Facebook are most likely to appear at the top of the news feed, and your followers will get a notification letting them know you are on-air. It’s free, simple, and gives your audience a chance to connect with you and your company on a more human level.
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SEO Writing Tips: 5 Blog Writing Do’s and Don’t’s
Writing for SEO is not all that different from writing well in general. You want to make it clear, compelling, and as concise as possible. But there are a few essential SEO writing tips you should know if you’re new to the world of blogging.
We’ll start with keywords, word count, and a few notes on style.
1. Keywords
Writing for SEO means choosing your words carefully. If a word or phrase reoccurs throughout a web page, the search engine algorithms are more likely to dig up that page when someone searches for that phrase. Those are your keywords: words and phrases that help to define what your blog post is about.
Do: Use Keywords Them Strategically in Each Blog Post.
An effective keyword is one that:
- Accurately reflects what the blog post is about.
- Is something your customers are searching for.
- Does not have steep competition for the keyword.
We visit the topic of how to use effective keywords in greater depth here.
Don’t: Stuff Blog Posts Full of Keywords.
Search engine algorithms look at more than the number of times a keyword reoccurs in a blog post; they also consider its semantic value. Algorithms penalize sites that engage in ‘keyword-stuffing’, which means cramming a dense volume of keywords into a post to try and game the system. While the ideal keyword density is up for debate, writing for SEO means integrating strategically-chosen keywords into natural-sounding prose.
2. Post Length
Ironically, it often takes longer to write a concise piece than a lengthy one. But there is such a thing as being too concise when it comes to writing for SEO.
Do: Write At Least 500 Words.
Like your high school English teacher, search engine algorithms may take points off if your work is too short. There’s no strict word count for blog writing, but any page with fewer than 300 words may come under scrutiny for having thin content. We generally aim for 500 words at minimum.
Don’t: Pad It Out With Fluff.
Most readers are looking for fast, clear answers. Don’t bury key information beneath a lengthy introduction or sprinkle it among irrelevant tangents. If you are stretching to reach 500 words, consider broadening your chosen topic.
3. Active vs. Passive Voice
There are two ways to write action. One approach puts the force driving the action first; the second focuses on the person (or place, thing, etc.) at which the action is directed. That’s the simplest way to explain active and passive voice, a choice which can have a big effect on a blog post’s readability.
What does this have to do with SEO writing tips? It’s simple: the more people enjoy reading your post, the more likely they are to consume it in full, explore the rest of your site, and share it with others. Search engine algorithms take these as signals of a high-quality post that should rank well in the search engine results.
Do: Use Active Voice Whenever Possible.
With few exceptions active voice makes for clearer, more effective writing. Active voice is generally more concise and transparent than passive voice, and it flows naturally. Try reading some examples of examples of active and passive voice out loud: you’ll notice how active voice is smoother.
Don’t: Use Passive Voice Unless You Have To.
Passive voice, on the other hand, is often stiffer and less exciting compared to active writing. While most readers won’t nit-pick your post for passive voice, it will affect their reading experience. Switching from passive to active voice is a small change that has a big impact on the quality of your work.
4. Grade Level
Grade level is a way of measuring how easy a post is to read. The higher a post’s grade level, the more work it takes to read and comprehend its content. You can assess your post’s grade level using Microsoft Word’s built-in writing tools or a free tool like Hemingway Editor.
Do: Write for An Accessible Grade Level.
Don’t shut out potential readers by using long, complex paragraphs and unnecessary jargon. For a general audience, we recommend aiming for a grade level of six to eight. This limitation also has the benefit of encouraging you to write clearly and concisely.
Don’t: Make Errors.
Writing at a sixth-grade level doesn’t mean you should make sixth-grade spelling and grammar mistakes. The occasional typo is fine, but readers are unlikely to read through a post that is rifled with errors.
5. Be Connected
Your blog is not an island. There are many reasons to incorporate outbound links to other sites into your post. Chief among them is the fact that high-quality links gives your readers more value when they visit.
Do: Vet Your Sources.
Emphasis on high-quality. Search engine algorithms judge you by the company you keep, penalizing sites that link out to sub-par pages. If you wouldn’t put something on your own blog, don’t link to it, either!
Don’t: Forget to Give Credit.
There are times when backlinking is mandatory. Borrowing content from other sites without attribution is plagiarism, which can tank your search engine ranking as much as your reputation. Always take notes on the origin of your information while you’re researching your blog post.
Video Marketing Tips: How to Use Your Video Assets on Social Media in 2018
We live in a time when all it takes to make videos is a smartphone and an idea. It’s incredible. Imagine how different our view of history might be today if our great-great-grandparents had been filming their daily lives a hundred years ago.
For businesses, the proliferation of online video presents unprecedented opportunities to connect with customers anywhere in the world. Video stands as one of the top ways people consume content online. By the year 2020, it will account for 80% of all consumer internet traffic.
Along with dedicated video sites like YouTube, all the major social media sites now serve as native video platforms (LinkedIn was late to the game when it joined in 2017.) Videos can also be embedded directly on a company website.
With so many ways to leverage video, it can be hard even to know where to start. Here, we focus on the major social media platforms. These video marketing tips will help you learn how to use your video assets to their fullest potential in 2018.
The Importance of Video Marketing in 2018
Gone are the days when you needed a script, a camera crew, and a budget to make high-quality, engaging videos. But don’t be fooled by the lucky few that go viral. It takes a lot of planning and behind-the-scenes work to make your video content succeed.
Small businesses often question whether video marketing is worth the time and effort. If you are looking to connect with customers online, the answer is a resounding yes. Studies show that most consumers would rather watch a video about a product or service than read about it. People are more likely to consume and engage with video than any other kind of content, and on Facebook, video content reaches an average of 135% more people than photos.
From an SEO perspective, video can be an enormously powerful tool. Well-optimized YouTube videos can rank at the top of Google search results, especially for instructional content like How-To’s. Videos that perform well on social media can be a generous source of social signals. And if you do happen to go viral, you can expect to get a torrent of backlinks to your site (look at what happened to the Dollar Shave Club when their launch video struck gold.)
How to Use Your Video Assets
If you know how to use your video assets, they can significantly boost the reach of your marketing efforts online. Implementing the following video marketing tips is a great way to get started.
1. Optimize Your Videos for Mobile Browsing
Social media is primarily a mobile activity. People between the age of 18 and 34 use mobile devices for social 78% of the time. To reach these users, make sure your video content translates to the tiny screens and fast pace of mobile browsing. Bold visuals and a clear message are essential.
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube have all introduced vertical video formats so users can watch without rotating their screens. If mobile users are your target, craft content that fits this taller frame.
2. Use Custom Thumbnails
Thumbnails are an art in and of themselves. A compelling thumbnail image can make the difference between another ordinary video and a huge hit.
Look at popular videos in your niche and note the kind of thumbnails that generate the most clicks. Is it big text and bright colours? Tantalizing product photos? An influencer’s head shot? Spot the trends and borrow them for your videos.
3. Have a Strong Start
According to Facebook, 47% of the value in a video campaign comes in the first three seconds, and the first 10 seconds amount to 74%. It is in those crucial moments that viewers decide whether your content is worth watching.
Most videos on social media AutoPlay by default. You can use this to your advantage. Start the video with a hook: a compelling question, an exciting scene, or an offer they can’t refuse. Just be sure to deliver on the promise in the rest of the video!
4. Show, Don’t Tell
This is one point where social media best practice diverges from that of a video-based platform like YouTube. On social media sites, most videos AutoPlay without sound; as much as 85% of all video views on Facebook occur on mute.
Whereas YouTube is both an aural and visual medium, social media video marketing weighs heavily towards the visual. Your video’s story must unfold primarily via images and on-screen text. It’s not that the sound is irrelevant, but when it comes to social media, you should assume your viewers will not hear it.
5. Know Your Platform
The above tips will help you understand how to use video assets across various platforms. However, when it comes to a broader video marketing strategy, each platform will call for a different approach. Facebook has a different tone and audience than Twitter, for example. Optimizing videos for YouTube requires exploring the platform’s search engine algorithm.
Keep in mind the purpose of each platform when deciding how to use your video assets. If you plan to invest heavily in one site over others, tailor your content to match it.
In Short: How to Use Your Video Assets
- Optimize for mobile browsing. Chances are, your audience will be watching on a 2×4’’ screen.
- Use custom thumbnails. Learn from successful competitors in your niche.
- Hook viewers in the first three seconds. That is where most of your value is.
- Assume your viewers are not Create content that resonates on mute.
- Tailor video to your platform of choice. Understand how different sites have different audiences and a unique tone.
Why You Should Dump Sliders On Your Website
Content sliders, also known as carousels, showcase multiple links and images inside one box. The slider rotates through a sequence of content at a set interval, displaying each ‘slide’ for only a moment before moving onto the next.
It was not long ago that sliders were the go-to homepage design. There’s a reason for that: sliders are dynamic and eye-catching, and they let you easily to swap content in and out to keep the homepage current.
So why are so many sites ditching them?
Just look at this post showing examples of beautiful slider design. How many of those sites still have homepage sliders today?
In short, the downsides of sliders outweigh their visual appeal. Sliders hurt a site’s search engine visibility, frustrate its users, and do little to drive conversions. We’ll take you through the reasons why you should dump content sliders on your website.
Page Speed Reduction
Page speed matters when it comes to search engine visibility. Most people will wait no more than three seconds for a webpage to load before they abandon it, and Google’s search engine algorithm penalizes sites that are too slow.
One of the downsides of sliders is that they weigh the page down with extra images and Javascript. This leads to longer load times and a higher bounce rate, meaning many people will turn and leave before they have a chance to see your content.
Too Many H1 Tags
Search engine algorithms look to H1 tags for clues to the subject of a page. Best practice is to have one H1 tag with relevant keywords per page. The more H1 tags you have on a page, the less clear it is what the page is about.
Trouble is, content sliders usually have a separate H1 tag for each slide. Each time it shifts from one slide to the next, the H1 tag changes as well. Search engines have a harder time contextualizing the page as a result, dampening the impact of those keywords.
Bad for Mobile Browsing
Soon, Google will begin ranking websites based on the mobile browsing experience rather than the desktop version. That’s bad news for sites with content sliders.
Not only do sliders reduce page speed (which leads to even longer load times on mobile devices), but they translate poorly to touchscreens. The images shrink, the text loses formatting, and the tiny controls are even harder to use than on desktop.
Low Clickthrough Rate
Many firms have done studies on the clickthrough rate of content sliders (Yoast has a great round-up here.) While different sites have had varying success, they all support the same troubling finding: few visitors click sliders at all, and the clickthrough rate decreases with each successive slide.
There are several reasons why sliders don’t click. For one, they often resemble banner ads, so the banner blindness effect leads people to ignore them. One company that ran tests on sliders found that users had a hard time locating information in a slider, even though it was in a large font at the top of the homepage.
Usability is another factor. People don’t want to wait for the slider to rotate, nor spend time figuring out how to go back to a slide they missed. As a result, many users either leave the site or find another route to the content they want.
Dominates Above the Fold
The space above the fold (meaning the part of a page users can see without scrolling) is a site’s most valuable real estate. If the content above the fold doesn’t make the right impression, people are less likely to explore the rest of the site.
Considering how few people engage with them, sliders are a poor use of that space. So what’s the alternative?
Take another look at the list we mentioned at the start. Many of those sites have switched to what’s called the hero layout – a single bold image and a compelling tagline. Given that the first image in a slider always gets the most clicks, this one-message approach makes a lot of sense.
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How to Make Sure Your Site is Ready for Mobile
In the early days of smartphones, the ability to search the web on-the-go was a wonderful bonus. Few realized it would become the predominant search method for an increasing number of people.
Statistica reports that global mobile internet traffic rose from 31.16% in the first quarter of 2015 to 51.12% by the end of last year. However, the importance of the mobile information revolution goes beyond even that.
A 2017 study by the Pew Research Center revealed that 51% of people now use their smartphone to make online purchases. When you consider there are about 1.15 billion mobile daily active users, the commerce possibilities are mind-boggling.
In light of this, the world’s leading search engine is taking steps to make its rankings more indicative of user behaviour trends. Currently in testing, Google Mobile-First Indexing may well roll at some point this year, though there is no exact date at the moment.
As the name suggests, mobile-first indexing means the mobile edition of your website becomes the starting point for how Google determines rankings, replacing the desktop version.
It’s no longer enough for a business to have a website; it also must now be mobile friendly.
You have no doubt landed on sites that look tiny or horribly cropped when viewed on your smartphone. This makes a terrible first impression and makes one less likely to trust that company. Soon, it will also impact those all-important search rankings. Google will still crawl websites that don’t have a mobile version, but the search rankings for those organizations will inevitably suffer.
If you don’t have a mobile-friendly site, the Google Webmaster Central Blog offers steps you should consider:
Deliver an Equal Experience
Your mobile site must offer the same quality content and images as the desktop version. It’s quite possible that if the mobile version has less of either, Google will only index the former.
Strive to have your pages looking identical in both versions. Expandable content will remain important and should be fully accessible on mobile as well.
Structured Data and Metadata
Users expect the same degree of ease and navigation from a mobile site. Your structured data must be on both sites. The structured data’s URLs must also update to the mobile version.
Metadata must also be on both versions and should be identical. If some content has a different title in one version, this just creates confusion and can impact ranking.
Higher Traffic
You might have noticed from your site statistics that the mobile site’s traffic equals or maybe even surpasses the desktop. That trend will almost certainly continue, so if your mobile version is on a separate server, make sure it can handle this increased volume.
Separate Mobile URLs
When it comes to interlinking with separate mobile URLs (e.g. m.sitename.com), there are no modifications. If you use separate mobile URLs, you will simply retain the current link rel=canonical and link rel=alternate elements between the two versions.
Hreflang Attributes
Because you have the potential to attract visitors from all over, alternate language options are extremely important. Review hreflang links on the separate mobile URLs. For sites with multilingual capability, be sure to link separately between the mobile and desktop URLs. It is imperative that the mobile URLs’ hreflang points to the other language and region equivalent on the other mobile URLs. They must also link the desktop with other desktop URLs that use link elements.
Your mobile URLs’ hreflang should point to the other language/region versions on other mobile URLs, and similarly link desktop with other desktop URLs using hreflang link elements there.
Google has promised to roll out Mobile-First Indexing gradually to give sites time to make any necessary alterations. However, it’s always wise to stay on top of such changes as they will benefit your business in both the short and long term.
3 Key Differences Between Voice Search and Text Search (and What It Means For Your Business)
The numbers speak for themselves. One in five searches on the Google Android App are voice searches. Over 60 million people in North America use digital voice assistants on a regular basis.
All signs point to 2018 being the breakout year for voice search.
It’s more than a novelty. Voice search is an evolution in the way we use search engines, and search engine giants like Google and Bing are already changing their search engine algorithms to adapt.
So, what does this mean for your business? To understand how voice search will impact your search engine optimization strategy, let’s look at the core differences between voice search and text search.
How Does Voice Search Work?
Voice search lets you use a search engine app by speaking to a device rather than typing the query on a keyboard or touchpad. The app uses voice recognition software to transcribe the spoken words into written text. Then the search engine algorithm strives to deliver the best possible results.
Voice search has been around in various forms since at least 2002 when Google launched the first incarnation of its voice-enabled search function. Believe it or not, there was a time when users dialled a phone number and received Google search results via text message! It was a far cry from the instant answers voice search delivers today.
Differences Between Voice Search and Text Search
Just as with a text-based search, the search engine algorithm aims to deliver results are as useful and relevant to the voice searcher’s query as possible. But the differences between voice search and text search can have a big impact on what those results look like — and how the algorithm goes about finding them.
1. Device (and Search Engine) of Choice
According to Google, more than 60% of all searches now come from mobile devices. A sizable 20% of those mobile searches are of the spoken variety. But not all voice searches are made on-the-go; more and more voice searches come from voice-enabled smart speakers.
The year 2017 saw an explosion in the number of smart speakers in homes across North America. Amazon, the frontrunner in the market, sold millions of Alexa-enabled devices on Black Friday alone.
Why does this matter? Not only does the device of choice impact how people search, but which search engine they use.
Although Google remains the search engine of choice for most people, Amazon’s Alexa uses Bing by default. So does Microsoft’s Cortana. Together, Alexa and Cortana represent over half of all smart assistant use, meaning the majority of voice searches from smart speakers actually use Bing, not Google.
If smart speakers continue to proliferate, and Amazon stays on top, Bing will become increasingly important to businesses who want to rank among voice searchers.
2. What People Search For
Voice search is more accurate and functional than ever. The more we use it, the better the voice recognition software behind the app becomes. However, Google’s own research shows people still avoid using voice search for certain subjects.
People are most willing to raise their voices on quick queries in the moment. They use voice search to find the nearest restaurant, ask how late it’s open, and check its star-rating on Yelp. That’s why local SEO is huge when it comes to voice search.
But when it comes to so-called ‘sensitive’ subjects, like healthcare, people prefer to search the old-fashioned way. Not surprisingly, the same goes for anything you could classify as ‘adults-only’. What is surprising is that social media is still largely taboo for voice search as well. Perhaps that’s because 63% of Internet users worry about voice-enabled technology spying on them.
Though this gap could decrease over time, not all types of content will necessarily benefit from optimizing for voice search today.
3. How People Search
The biggest difference between voice search and text search? Tone, phrasing, and word choice. To optimize their site for voice search, businesses will have to turn an ear to how their customers talk.
When people use a voice search app, they’re more likely to phrase the query as a question. They use natural language, choosing words that reflect a conversational tone. They expect quick answers to specific questions.
Ranking for voice search queries will require businesses to focus not only on long-tail keywords that come up in these queries, but on direct answers to users’ most common questions.
Search engine algorithms are increasingly able to precisely detect user intent. If your site can deliver, you can leverage voice search to climb the rankings and reach customers who know exactly what they’re looking for.
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How to Make the Most of Your White Paper Marketing
Type a query into Google and you get millions of different answers. How many are reliable?
A good percentage are perfectly valid, while others are poorly researched or intentionally misleading.
The internet is a vast resource of information, but not all sources are credible. The world of business is no different. Some companies will just tell you what you want to hear, while others have so little grasp of what they do, they may even accidentally deceive you. So, how do you know whether to partner with another firm?
A great way to demonstrate credibility is to position your company as an industry authority.
White papers achieve this by presenting facts on a particular issue in an efficient and persuasive manner. The Content Marketing Institute reports that white papers remain one of the five most important marketing strategies for B2B businesses.
One thing a white paper should never be, however, is an obvious sales pitch. Your mission is to instruct and inform, not sell. That said, white papers can still effectively market a company and its capabilities if you remember the following:
Optimize Your Title
Keyword optimization is a crucial aspect of digital marketing. You need to choose words that will attract your intended audience in the most efficient way possible.
If you were looking for a white paper on this topic, what title would prompt you to download it? Create an eye-catching title that conveys what the paper is about and includes at least one keyword. Limit it to 70 characters as this is all that displays in search results.
Do the Work
A white paper will not fulfil its purpose unless it is well-crafted on all levels. Research the subject thoroughly and back up all claims with credible sources. The document should help readers solve a problem, not make them wonder why they don’t understand your information.
Craft the text with care. Remember that this document is meant primarily to inform, not serve as an advertisement for your services. The lure instead presents itself to the reader through the quality of the work on offer. Be clear and don’t waste words, but avoid being too casual.
Decide on keywords or key phrases and make sure to include them. However, do not stuff the text with these words or you run the risk of search engines penalties that defeat the purpose.
Carefully spellcheck and copy-edit your final draft. All your hard work is lost if you don’t demonstrate such basic care and craft. Include footnotes and a references section for both sources you cite and ones not mentioned by name in the text.
Provide Compelling Visuals
A sea of unbroken text is off-putting for many people and will cause them to stop reading. Visuals help to prevent this, while also reinforcing your main points (charts and graphs are effective in moderation.) For example, a list of statistics is easier to process and remember when presented this way instead of a block of text:
Sales | 63% |
Marketing | 40% |
Audience Outreach | 7.2% |
Financial Growth | 54% |
Product Management | 17% |
This makes the document more appealing to read, and makes readers more likely to share it with others.
Relevant images are also good at reinforcing your points. However, be careful when using stock images. Overused or irrelevant images suggest a lack of work on your part. If you can create new, high-resolution pictures, do so.
Should you choose a stock image, remember to buy it and include that version. A big watermark on a temporary image from a provider like iStock demonstrates an embarrassing lack of care.
Finish with a Strong Call to Action
A white paper that is compelling 95% of the way through can still fail from a marketing perspective without a strong finish. Encourage the reader to learn more by contacting you for more information, visiting your website, signing up for your newsletter, or following you on social media.
Create a Proper Landing Page
A white paper is something to be proud of, so don’t tuck the link away in a corner. Create a dedicated page that includes a few brief sentences about its contents, some interesting graphics, and a prominent download button.
Make It Easily Shareable
Don’t promote a white paper on a landing page with a dead download link. Be sure to test the link before making it live.
Choose a resolution that looks good, but does not take a long time to download. High-resolution graphics are great, but most people are only willing to wait so long for a document to become available to them.
Some companies provide a contact form the reader must fill out before the white paper download commences. This is an effective way to get contact information but will cause some to skip the white paper altogether. As mentioned in the Call to Action section above, there are other ways to find out who your customers are and how to contact them.
5 Key Consumer Trends in the 2017 Holiday Season
Last month, global market research firm NPD released its findings on consumer purchase intentions in the 2017 holiday season. Drawn from thousands of consumer surveys and detailed checkout tracking (both online and offline), the data reveals five key consumer trends retailers should take into account.
Shoppers Will Spend More AND Buy More Frequently Online
E-commerce continues to outpace traditional, brick-and-mortar retailers when it comes to holiday shopping. In the fourth quarter of 2016, the frequency of online purchases jumped 12 percent, while brick-and-mortar purchase frequency dropped 4 percent from the prior year. NPD expects the trend to continue in 2017.
Not only are Americans making a higher number of their holiday purchases online, but those who opt to buy online plan to dig deeper into their wallets than their in-store counterparts. Consumers who plan to shop online are prepared to spend an average of $793 this holiday season — almost 70 percent more than brick-and-mortar shoppers, who plan to be only $467 lighter at the end of the day.
However, not all traditional retailers are being eclipsed by digital competition. The NPD report points out the Beauty category, which includes makeup, fragrances, and skincare products, is one of few to experience growth in purchase frequency in 2017. Stores like Sephora and Ulta Beauty thrive through brand exclusivity, offering products shoppers can’t find elsewhere, while keeping an ear to emerging beauty trends on platforms like Instagram.
Online-Only Stores Have Become the First Stop for Holiday Shopping
In its early days, e-commerce was mostly regarded as a back-up plan for holiday shoppers — an alternative for when products were sold out or unavailable in brick-and-mortar stores. Not anymore.
In 2017, a majority of American consumers plan to start holiday shopping at e-commerce sites such as Amazon, ebay, and Etsy. Many consumers head straight to online stores, or scope out potential purchases at a brick-and-mortar store before going online to find the best price.
Shoppers across generations are increasingly drawn to e-commerce as a primary shopping destination. Generational difference in this regard is shrinking, reports NPD, though Millennial and Gen X shoppers are still most likely to shop online.
The Internet has given consumers more choice than ever, but as stated in the report, the increase in competition has generated more online ‘noise’ for shoppers to sort through. This creates an opportunity for retailers to emphasize value consumers can’t find online.
Experiential Gifting is On the Rise
Not all gifts fit neatly into a box. Many holiday shoppers are eschewing material items in favour of ‘experiential’ gifts, like a day at the spa, event tickets, or an upscale dinner for two. Experiential gifts are increasingly seen to have a greater impact than traditional gifts, and they’re growing in popularity with holiday shoppers.
A notable subgenre of the experiential gift is the subscription box. Subscription companies have grown substantially since 2014, particularly in the beauty, food, and apparel categories. According to NPD, 7 percent of holiday shoppers plan to give a subscription box as a gift this year, representing another win for e-commerce.
Black Friday is Losing Its Shine
Once the apex of holiday shopping, Black Friday has been on decline in the United States for the past several years. Black Friday sales and shopper traffic in brick-and-mortar stores declined in 2015 and again in 2016, and there are no signs backtracking on the trend in 2017.
It’s not that people are waiting until December to start their holiday shopping. Nearly 30 percent of consumers still plan to shop for gifts during the week of American Thanksgiving, but fewer consumers are choosing to ‘save’ their big purchases for Black Friday, instead choosing to shop online throughout the week.
But retailers aren’t finished with Black Friday yet. In response, many brick-and-mortar stores are turning Black Friday into a week-long event, advertising in-store exclusive offers through online channels.
Value Beats Price in Consumer Purchase Decisions
An overarching theme of this report, as NPD’s chief industry analyst Marshal Cohen points out, is the importance of value. Value comes out ahead of all other reasons for consumer purchases, including price, and it’s more significant than ever in the 2017 shopping season.
Today, consumers can instantly compare one seller’s price to that of another, and price matching is standard among the biggest retail players. Keeping pace on price is a losing battle. To stand from the competition, retailers have to promise (and deliver) additional value to consumers.
For e-commerce platforms, value often comes in the form of free shipping and bonus features, such as Amazon Prime. For brick-and-mortar stores, it can be exclusive products and brands, standout customer service, or an extraordinary shopping experience.
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What to Look for In Google Analytics
Google Analytics offers a wealth of data. You need to know what to prioritize, or else you will spend hours trying to understand what all the numbers mean for your website traffic.
The main point of Google Analytics is to figure out how your website is performing, and what that means in relation to your marketing efforts. Let’s walk through this process.
Starting Point – Acquisition > Channels
Every time you log into Google Analytics, you want to look at the Acquisition Channels. It’s the best way a quick snapshot of what is happening with your website. You will quickly be able to identify any success or issues occurring on your site.
The default timeline in this section is one week, but that is a small sample size for most websites. Switch your timeline to a 30-day period for more reliable results. Compare this to the previous period, and you will have a great starting point to identify the performance of the website.
Further, you can break down the traffic into specific channels to get a more detailed grasp of the performance. If something is off, it usually jumps out here.
What to Do if Traffic is Up
This is a great thing! But just because traffic is up this month does not mean your job is done. Ideally, you’d like to see an increase in traffic month over month, so try to figure out what caused the increase and replicate it for the future.
Tip: Compare each channel’s engagement or conversion data to see which might be underperforming.
What to Do if Traffic is Down
Obviously, this isn’t ideal, but don’t worry. A change in traffic could be based on a factor outside of your control.
The most common reason for changes in traffic is seasonality. Keep in mind how your industry ebbs and flows, and standardize your results to get a better sense of how you are doing relatively.
The first step in accounting for seasonality is to analyze the year over year data. While this is not a perfect comparison, it can still be a good litmus test to see if the changes are normal. If your year over year data is also down, then you probably have a bigger issue on your hands, where further investigation is required.
The next step to determining reasons for a decline in traffic is to compare month over month data from the previous year. Look at the changes in traffic from past years, and compare that to the current data to get a gauge of your results. If your current decrease in traffic is less than previous years, you can consider your results successful.
For clarity, here is an example. In a previous year, your drop in traffic in October was -40%, but this year your drop in traffic is -20%. Although your overall traffic is still down, when you factor in seasonality, your YoY traffic is up 20%!
If your traffic is still down after accounting for seasonality, then you will need to conduct a deep dive into your analytics to figure out why. Carefully check out the performance of each individual channel to find out which avenue could have a problem.
Tip: Take a close look at your top three channels, as they are the largest contributors to your traffic.
Here are some factors to consider for each channel when traffic is down:
- Organic traffic – Check your keyword rankings.
- Social – Check into what content you’re posting.
- Paid – Check your total spend amount and cost per click.
- Referral – Check to see if you have lost any backlinks.
- Direct – There is no simple solution to why direct traffic is down. Any traffic that comes to a website that is not specifically classified will be logged in direct traffic, meaning it is difficult to pinpoint the problem. Fluctuation in traffic can often be attributed to spam.
Finally, if you still can’t seem to figure out why your traffic is down, look at individual page views and content types on your website. Certain types of content and landing pages my not be as relevant as you expected, causing a drop in traffic. For example, if you sell air conditioners, but it has been a cool summer, then you would not have as much traffic to those pages as usual.
If a single page has a dramatic decrease in views, this might be an SEO issue. If a page is no longer ranking properly, it might explain why traffic is down.
Engagement Metrics
Engagement metrics are another important data set to analyze. Key metrics include bounce rate, average session duration and pages per session. These metrics are large indicators of conversion likelihood, so continually monitoring and trying to improve engagement can lead to an increase of success on your website.
What to Do if Engagement is Down
Different types of traffic have different engagement metrics, so analyze where your traffic is coming from before panicking. Social and Paid traffic generally have poorer engagement metrics based on the nature of their medium, so if you had a massive influx of traffic to these channels, don’t be concerned when engagement is down.
Check out individual page engagement metrics to identify specific underperforming pages. Often, landing pages leave users with “nowhere to go”, causing high bounce rate and low session duration. Simply, when users finish with the content, there are no prompts to send them elsewhere on the website. A blog with related posts of links to a related product/service will have better engagement than a post that does not. Fixing underperforming pages is a great way to improve the overall metrics.
Finally, check behaviour flow and see which landing pages have high drop off rates. If you can identify which pages are not giving users the information they need, causing them to leave the site, then you can improve the overall engagement rate.
Checking these metrics should give you a good sense if there is an issue or it’s just normal fluctuation.
Google Analytics can give you a ton of information about your website. Once you know how to interpret the data, you will have new ideas on how to improve traffic and engagement, leading to a more successful website!
Find Out How TrafficSoda Can Make Your Analytics Stats Fizz!
Making Social Media and Content Marketing Work Together
Social media is a powerful marketing tool, helping businesses of all sizes and in all industries, reach their target audience. It’s the most effective way for a brand to connect on a more direct and personal level. While simply having a presence is good, developing a plan and tailoring your social media content to your industry and audience is the best way to optimize these platforms.
What is Content Marketing?
Traditional marketing tactics have become less and less relevant with the emergence of today’s digital landscape. The Content Marketing Institute defines content marketing as a “…strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience – and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”
So, instead of traditional practices like pitching your product, content marketing allows you to provide truly relevant and useful content to your audience like video, blogs, etc. By focusing on sharing quality content on social media, a business can achieve great things.
Building Relationships
Posting quality content on social media can help a brand establish and build relationships with desired audiences.
In life, the best relationships are built over time, based on mutual interests and philosophies, and grow strongest when tended to. The relationship between your brand and its audience isn’t much different.
By doing your research, catering to your audience’s interests and producing quality content, you can build strong and long-lasting relationships.
Amplifying Your Message
Content marketing allows a brand to connect to its desired audience and build relationships by providing valuable information. The beauty of using social media platforms to share your content is that once it is out there, there are few limits to where it can reach.
Brands can use social media to encourage users to share content in a variety of ways. Visual content usually gets more views, clicks, shares and likes than text-based material. So, turning that lengthy blog post into an infographic or finding the perfect image to accompany a post are two tactics that can further your content on social media.
Quality content is meant to be shared and social media is the perfect vehicle to get your material noticed.
Trust & Credibility
Posting quality content on social media can help establish a brand as an industry leader and expert.
Credibility online comes from a mixture of visibility and opinion. If your audience sees your brand out there, beyond your website, they will naturally find it more credible.
When you take the time to educate, help and share through quality content, it reaffirms that your brand is trustworthy and credible. Using social media and content marketing in unison can significantly increase brand authority.
Gain Valuable Customer Insights
Brands can leverage social media to better understand consumers and gather insights to improve content. Social media has made it possible to glean information from authentic, real-time conversations that audience have with one another.
As well, using these platforms to see what other brands are talking about lets you stay atop of industry trends. When developing quality content, it is important to develop ideas that are on trend and align with your audience’s interests – social media can help you gather these insights.
At the end of the day, your brand should make social media and content marketing work together. By doing this you can build stronger relationships with your audience, amplify your messaging, develop credibility as a brand and gain valuable customer insights.