Things You Don’t Know About Mobile SEO #semrushchat

Seo additionally known as SEO is a subject covered by lots of people and blogs, its the procedure of making your internet site appearance eye-catching to the internet search engine in the hope of acquiring a preferential ranking for your targeted keyword. During my research study I encounter many articles that give some fantastic understandings to search engine optimization.

Below you could locate an write-up from Kiss Metrics which I located to be extremely intriguing and also valuable .

Plenty of businesses and marketers understand the importance of search engine optimization and are willing to spend top dollar and a lot of time to make sure their site is fully optimized. Many, though, forget about mobile SEO, which is one very expensive mistake. Mobile usage has surpassed desktop usage, so if your mobile site isn’t just as optimized as its desktop counterpart, you could see your site sinking in SERP rankings and losing both traffic and sales.

During last week’s #SEMrushchat, we invited Scott Levy, a 19+ Year SEO Veteran, CEO/Founder of Fuel Online, and best selling author!  During this recap, we are going to go over everything you don’t know about mobile SEO but should. With industry experts like Bill Slawski and Dawn Anderson sharing their insights, this is one that you won’t want to miss.

Q1. If I already have a fast and responsive mobile site, should I implement AMP pages or not? Why?

It can be a hassle to add to a mobile site that has already been worked on a great deal by SEO experts. Even if your mobile site is already fast and responsive, many experts agree that you still want to implement AMP pages if you don’t have them already, and especially if you are putting out a lot of content on a regular basis.

Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) is a project that was created by Twitter and Google designed to make incredibly fast-loading mobile pages. They work by taking HTML and reducing it down significantly by cutting out components like forms or javascript. They optimize for readability and speed, and that is it.

Nothing beats AMP in terms of speed, and since this is a factor that Google values, it can help you get a slightly higher ranking in mobile SERPs. This combined with the fact that faster loading is directly correlated with higher visitor retention rates and reduced bounce rates will increase your mobile ranking even more.

AMP pages are particularly important for sites with a lot of content, including those in the news and publication industries and businesses that upload blog posts frequently. Google’s “top stories” consistently only feature AMP content, so you don’t want to risk losing out on that opportunity.

What about businesses who aren’t churning out content like crazy? Some experts believing that AMP implementation is not necessary for businesses who aren’t regularly pumping out content. Outside of publishing, it hasn’t necessarily been proven to be as immensely valuable. What good is a lead page, some experts argue, if the lead form has to be stripped away from it or other elements are cut out? Is a fast-loading mobile site worth it if it’s not really usable aside from high readability?

If you do SEO for an e-commerce site, AMP can make life more difficult. On product pages, you want to pull out all the stops to get those conversions. Review and UGC widgets, pop-ups for promos, and even videos can be used to increase sales, but AMP pages can knock all of this away. According to Dawn Anderson- @DawnieAndo, AMP pages could actually cause problems on e-commerce sites. Since small businesses have a limited amount of time, it could be a waste to spend it implementing AMPs on product pages.

q1-chat-recap.jpg

Essentially, if you have to adapt AMP pages to rank well and outshine competitors with your content, go for it. Otherwise, it makes more sense to check if the searches you are trying to rank for feature AMP pages. If not, spend your time elsewhere and make sure the rest of your mobile site is up to speed.

Q2. Let’s say your mobile site has less content than your desktop site, is this something to be worried about? Why or why not?

While some sites try to clone their desktop site with its mobile version, it’s not unusual for mobile sites to have different content. Even Google understands that we offer different content based on the type of device that the user has in front of them at any given time, which is why they have mobile searches and desktop searches.

Your mobile site doesn’t need all of the content available on your desktop site, but it should contain all the information users need to know about your business. Desktop sites, after all, generally have higher conversion rates than mobile sites, so not every single landing page needs to be mobile optimized. So, while you won’t need every landing page, customers should still be able to view product pages and get in touch with you from their mobile device.

One of the chat participants also found that, in his analysis of big sites, those with different content on mobile and desktop had different rankings as a result. Because of this, make sure that your highest SERP-rated content is available on both mobile and desktop sites, and that there is as much overlap between the two as possible. While desktop has more conversions, you can’t afford to miss out on the massive traffic that mobile can send by sinking in the mobile SERPs.

Creating a seamless, mobile-responsive site is a good way to go. It will reduce some of the bloat from a desktop site and make it much more user-friendly. Both customers and Google will notice. How you serve mobile content matters almost as much as the content that you actually have available because mobile is all about the user experience.

Ultimately, the best way to go is to try to provide the most content possible on your mobile site, but ensure that it is fast-loading and mobile responsive. If you have certain content on desktop, after all, you could still rank if a query calls for it even if your mobile doesn’t have it, which can cause one frustrated mobile searcher to end up on your site. Users judge mobile sites very quickly, with itchy trigger fingers reaching towards that back button, and you want to do everything you can to decrease the chance that they click it.

While desktop has more conversions than mobile, after all, having a high quality mobile responsive site can get significantly more conversions than a non-responsive one.

q2-chat-recap.jpg

Q3. In which stage of the buyer’s journey is optimizing my mobile site most important?

Mobile sites should be optimized for all stages of the buyer’s journey, point blank. It doesn’t matter whether you want to attract cold traffic to your site in the “awareness” stage of the digital sales funnel, or you want to capture users further along in the consideration stage. Every single stage in the sales funnel matters, so you can’t afford to focus on just one.

Conversion rates are generally higher on desktop, after all, but that doesn’t mean that your business can’t be the exception. Nearly 60% of traffic now comes from mobile devices, so you can’t afford to have a mobile site that can reel them in at the awareness stage but is so dysfunctional at the conversion page that you lose them. If customers struggle to purchase from your mobile site, you could potentially lose them for good.

While some might travel over to your desktop site if they are really firm in their decision, it is more likely that they will evaluate your online presence overall to be weak or lacking, and they will go check out your competitors instead. Attracting customers means nothing if you can’t get them to convert, or if you can’t keep them around for more than just one purchase. Since every stage is different- with different expectations, intentions, potential objections, and value triggers- you can’t skimp out and neglect anyone.

Though all stages of the digital sales funnel are important and you want to make sure that every customer finds your mobile site to be functional regardless of where they are in their buyer’s journey, it can be particularly important to ensure that you are ranking well at the awareness and research stages of the funnel. Make sure that you are hitting those essential keywords and ranking for them on mobile, just as you are on your desktop site.

If not, see how you can change that; creating AMP pages for these key pages may be a good idea. Other methods of improving ranking for your mobile site includes:

  • Using HTML5 instead of Flash.

  • Having more easily scannable content (think short bullet points instead of paragraphs).

  • Cutting back on images and videos, which can slow down loading times.

  • Utilizing more “proof terms,” or phrases similar to the chosen keyword.

No matter the stage of the user journey, your mobile site should be optimized. Why? Because different users use different things differently. However, you want to make sure you get them at the informational stage, right before they search for a keyword you might rank for at the initial informational stage. Each stage may be different; we have these different stages because users have different expectations, intentions & value triggers for each phase.

q3-chat-recap.jpg

If the thought is overwhelming, just ask yourself this: can you afford not to have a mobile-optimized site for any stage of the sales funnel? We are guessing not.

Q4. Which SERP features should I optimize my mobile site for?

  • The SERP features that you should optimize for completely depends on your individual business and your goals. These should be targeted after you’ve created a strong, mobile-responsive site in general.

There are plenty of options to choose from, so let’s take a look at the nine of the most valuable SERP features you can target and when you should optimize for them:

  • Local packs should be the first choice for local businesses. Local packs for each search contains three local business suggestions from Google. Each business will show up on Google’s map, along with their business name, website, hours, contact information, Google reviews, and directions to the store.

  • Schema generated review stars can help your business stand out from the rest by showing that your customers love you. Businesses with high reviews can be favored by Google, and will definitely be favored by customers. This is a good option to utilize for most businesses but can be particularly important for businesses in high competition fields establishing themselves online.

  • AMP, as we discussed above, is a good choice for businesses regularly publishing a lot of content– especially if it is timely. This content will load shockingly fast on mobile devices and can help increase viewer retention rates.

  • Google OneBox is a separate display box within the SERPs that shows information in a particular subset; this may include news stories or links to shop products. The separation helps it stand out, and the boxes often contain information that Google believes users are most interested in seeing based on the search. As a result, Google OneBox is a good option for products you are trying to sell through your commerce business. Getting your product featured there can mean a lot of clicks.

  • App rankings should be optimized for when you are trying to increase downloads of your mobile app. This one is pretty self-explanatory.

  • Featured Snippets are small summaries of an answer that Google will pull up for questions entered into the search engine. Featured Snippets are great choices to go after when you are optimizing content like blog posts and can help to establish your credibility. Try to answer commonly-asked questions in brief, concise text to rank for these.

  • Structured Snippets require Structured Snippet extensions and allow you to highlight specific aspects of your products or services that you most want customers to notice. They can be used to provide fast and valuable information to customers, like amenities of an apartment complex or different packages your business offers. You can use these to enhance your Adwords campaign.

  • Videos are an important part of marketing today, and videos both often show up on the first page of search results and have their own separate tab on Google. Videos are actionable, if you are looking to provide actionable, how-to content, this is a good one to target.

Ultimately, you should take a look at which feature will put you most immediately in front of your target audience on mobile for the keywords and searches you’re trying to rank for on mobile. Consider this with how it aligns with your overall content strategy.

Some publishing sites, for example, might try to go for the AMPs to end up in Google’s Top Stories, but evergreen content may have a longer lifespan if you go after featured snippets. Look at what’s actually showing up in that top spot before you make your choice.

Remember to do this research on a mobile device to get accurate information you can use to choose which SERP feature you want to optimize for.

q4-chat-recap.jpg

Q5. Do you have any predictions on the future of mobile website development and optimization?

All of our experts had different predictions regarding the future of mobile websites, but there was one thing many people agreed upon: that mobile traffic will continue to increase. Scott Levy- @FuelOnline even believes that we will see a shift from 60% of traffic coming from mobile to nearly 80% in the coming years.

It is no secret that mobile traffic has been growing quickly, and a lot of our experts believe that this trend will only continue. This has been true, despite the fact that research indicates that we have some security concerns regarding mobile devices. One study by Hitwise found that 72% of searches for the food and beverage are conducted on mobile, but only 39% of searches in the banking industry occur on our mobile devices. This indicates some trust issues that sites should be striving to resolve.

Mobile usability is still lagging behind what it could be. Living in a world where users are reaching for their mobile devices first will require us to change that. Websites will need to be faster and easier to use on any device– including phones, smart watches, and more. This may result in a shift to more app usage instead of conventional desktop usage, requiring more businesses to create apps for their customers to keep them engaged. It also could mean that we’ll become so obsessed with speed that we may end up with much more bare pages that are fast, but not quite as useful. This will all require marketing teams to learn to truly embrace multi-channel optimization.

Some of our experts also predicted that we will see more advanced technology affecting mobile optimization. A few believe that this will come from artificial intelligence (AI) to take over more automation for both users and businesses, and others believe we will see expanded capabilities of current features, like voice search. Voice search is currently booming in popularity and requires that sites are creating content that Google can use to provide a single answer to a voice search query to stay ahead.

q5-chat-recap.jpg

We will have to see what the future of mobile site optimization has in store, but we know one thing for sure: you need to keep a close eye on the current best practices and make sure that your site is functional, valuable, and (most importantly) fast.

Make sure to join us this week on #SEMrushchat as we discuss “Top Tips For Successful Personal Branding On and Offline” with special guest, Mel Carson!

I hope you have enjoyed this short article on Things You Don’t Know About Mobile SEO #semrushchat Then really feel free to browse our various other posts, if you would certainly such as to watch more write-ups on search engine optimization. We have many more curated articles from Ahref and I hope you delight in reading them.

Read more……>click Here<

How to Craft a Successful Abandoned Shopping Cart Email

Search engine optimization likewise referred to as Search Engine Optimization is a subject covered by numerous people and also blogs, its the process of making your internet site appearance eye-catching to the search engines in the hope of gaining a preferential position for your targeted keyword. Throughout my research study I find several articles that offer some fantastic understandings to seo.

Listed below you can locate an article from Ahref which I located to be helpful and also really fascinating . The short article is entitled How to Craft a Successful Abandoned Shopping Cart Email and you can discover it listed below

Cart abandonment is one of the most serious problems faced by e-commerce businesses.

Baymard Institute analyzed 37 separate studies containing cart abandonment statistics and came up with an average cart abandonment rate of 69%. For your average store owner, that is a significant loss of revenue.

Featuring a product page with killer sales copy, compelling images, and a powerful CTA will improve your chances of getting a visitor to convert – but it won’t guarantee it.

If a visitor adds your product to their cart but doesn’t complete the purchase, all hope is not lost. They have already signified an interest in the product; it might be that they just weren’t ready to purchase at that particular time.

Common reasons for cart abandonment include:

  • Temporary distractions

  • Unexpected shipping costs during the checkout process

  • Fears over data security

  • Lack of adequate payment options

While you should constantly be improving your user experience and checkout process to mitigate these issues, cart abandonment emails work particularly well at reviving visitors who didn’t purchase because of distractions.

While Facebook retargeting ads are also powerful for cart revival, I recommend starting with email marketing since it costs nothing to send an email.

1# Give Value

When someone enters their contact information but fails to complete the process, you have the opportunity to send them an ultra-targeted sales email in order to achieve the conversion.

According to Sales Cycle, nearly 50% of all abandoned cart emails are opened, so don’t think you are harassing people by reminding them about a product that they showed interest in.

Your products provide value to your customers, so you are giving them another opportunity to enhance their lives when they purchase (if you don’t actually believe in your products, I recommend going back to the drawing board).

When you write a cart abandonment email with the mindset of giving rather than extracting value, the process is much easier.

People are compelled to purchase due to emotional rather than logical reasons. By helping your customer to see how your product will allow them to avoid pain or move toward pleasure, you will maximize your impact with cart abandonment emails.

#2. Subject Line

Please don’t be tempted to send an abandoned cart email with Shopify’s default subject line: “Complete Your Purchase!”

This comes across as corporate and transactional. Instead, appeal to the reader’s self-interests and aim to spike their emotions. The average person receives 88 emails per day. It is important that yours stands out from the rest.

Consider incorporating one or more of the following elements into your subject line:

Personalization

Unique brain activation patterns occur when we hear our own name. Embedding the customer’s name in your subject line is an easy way to make your abandoned cart email stand out from the other generic marketing messages in their inbox.

Example: “Forget something Andrew?”

Fear of Missing Out (FOMO)

If someone is on the edge about making a purchase, you can push them over the edge by leveraging FOMO.

Tell your customer in no uncertain terms what they are missing out on, and how they can take action immediately.

For example: “Only 200 widgets left! Save 20% today.”

Alternatively: “Hurry! Your cart is about to expire.”

Humor

If you want to grab someone’s attention, make them laugh. Behaving as if their shopping cart has a mind of its own is a lighthearted way to re-engage customers.

Example: “Your shopping cart is lonely!”

Alternatively: “Your cart forced us to send this reminder!”

Education

Sometimes, users don’t complete a purchase due to lack of information. Instead of focusing on landing page optimization, you can improve conversions using education.

Example: “Do you have any questions about [Product]?”

Instead of pushing for a sale, this allows you to open a dialogue. Once you are aware of the customer’s concerns, you can link them to FAQ content, blog posts, external reviews or start a live chat with one of your customer service representatives to alleviate fear.

Often, taking a P2P (people-to-people) approach to marketing is the best way to increase sales.

#3. Body Copy

Your mission when crafting body copy is to encourage a conversion with emotive language and imagery.

semrush-image-1.png

In this fantastic cart abandonment email by Doggy Loot, many emotional levers are being switched.

By stating “Hurry, don’t let these deals run away” and “Fetch your items now before it’s too late!”; this evokes a sense of urgency for the reader. The fact that the copy is consistent with the dog branding is an added bonus.

As mentioned previously, avoidance of pain is a core emotional driver.

This copy is written with a specific buyer persona in mind (someone who loves their dog). The phrase “Please, don’t disappoint your dog” tugs at the heartstrings, particularly when coupled with the emotive hero image of the animal.

semrush-image-2.png

In this abandoned cart email by Threadless, it feels as if one of your friends is sending you a funny message – instead of a faceless corporation pushing you to convert.

After giggling at the thought of being captured by a giant bird or marauding clowns, you are left with a visual reminder of the product you nearly purchased.

In a predominantly black and white email, the pink elements immediately draw attention – especially the “Finish Your Purchase” CTA button.

Once you have leveraged urgency, FOMO, and humor in your body copy, always finish strong by imploring your reader to take action and complete the purchase.

#4. Incentivization

For most online stores, there is an inverse correlation between the amount of time that has elapsed since the add to cart and the likelihood of achieving the conversion.

Put simply: your chances of reviving an abandoned cart are highest within 48 hours of the initial engagement. After this, your chances become lower over time.

Many store owners offer special discounts in their cart abandonment emails. I think this is a great idea, but I also recommend increasing the discounts over time.

Since it is much harder to revive a cart that’s been inactive for 2 weeks compared to 2 days, offer these users a more substantial discount.

Your 48-hour discount could be 10%, whereas your 2-week discount could be 20%. A sale with lower profit margins is still better than no sale at all.

For stores with younger demographics, an abandoned cart may signify that a person is interested in the product, but doesn’t have the money to pay for it presently. To combat this, try sending out your abandoned cart emails at the beginning of the month when your customers have more disposable income.

Can you think of any other tips for crafting a killer abandoned cart email? Please let me know in the comments below.

If you would certainly like to see even more short articles on search engine optimization after that feel free to search our various other short articles. We have lots of more curated posts from Kiss Metrics as well as I wish you enjoy reading them.

Read more……>click Here<

How To Write High-Quality Blog Posts For Search Engines and Readers

Search engine optimization also called Search Engine Optimization is a subject covered by lots of people as well as blog sites, its the procedure of making your web site look eye-catching to the search engines in the hope of gaining a special ranking for your targeted keyword. During my research I discover several articles that offer some terrific understandings to search engine optimization.

Below you could discover an write-up from Kiss Metrics which I found to be valuable and also really fascinating .

The idea of writing your first blog post can be quite exciting. Once you begin working on a post, though, you realize it is just as daunting too.

That is because there are quite a few things that you need to do to write a killer post that your target audience and the search engines will fall in love with. And, that is the kind of blog post I will show you how to write in this piece, with an example from when I was a novice blogger myself. 

The Day I Sat Down to Write About What Makes a Great Blog Title

Starting out as a blogger, I already had the ambition to grow into a master blogger who would know everything about blogging and teach people how to do it right.

Out of the list of titles that I had created for the things I wanted to write about, I thought it was high time I wrote about what makes a great blog post title.

It was – and is still – a rich topic with a lot of substance that could be very useful to a lot of people. Obviously, anybody writing a blog wants their title to be appealing and eye-catching. The more your title appeals to readers, the more likely they are to click on your post and start reading it.

So, I was sure it would make a great blog post. Of course, I followed my mantra of the-six-principles-of-epic-blog-writing, like I always do, and got to work. Let me show you what my process is all about.

Step #1: The Only Good Research Is Finding Great Content on Your Topic

You may clap your hand on your open mouth, whispering the word “cheating” after reading that header, but that is basically what anybody does when they want to write something good.

I always begin with getting a good grasp on what is already out there. That is what good research is all about.

Besides, David Leonhardt, founder of The Happy Guy Marketing, says: Your best bet is to pick a proven topic, one you know your audience loves. And how do you know what your audience loves? By checking Google’s top results on the subject. Only popular content makes the top of that list.

So, I went on a hunt for articles and blog posts that talked about how good blog titles were made. Of course, I found endless results on Google that were mostly filled with sub-par content and looked a lot like spun versions of the good ones out of Google’s suggestions.

Pro tip: The smart way to avoiding bad content is looking at the design of the page. Spun content, which is mostly published to support poor quality SEO strategies, is often published on basic HTML layouts without any finesse. You will get that vibe from them.

Anyway, I found a few articles on the first page that had great substance and had been published on respected websites.

I sat down to read each one of them thoroughly.

Step #2: Find Faults in the Great Content You Discover and Aim to Make It Better

And this is the second reason why we went for that literature in the first place. We want to find fault in what has already been done, so we can fill that gap with our improved version of the same content (without the mistakes those writers made *evil laughter*).

This is something marketing experts do with a lot of pleasure, but it also involves a lot of work.

When you look at a few pieces of good content on a similar topic, sometimes it can be really tough to find their mistakes and, even when you do find them, filling that gap can demand some real work.

Coming back to the what I said about this being the method of smart content experts, when Brian Dean (founder of Backlinko) was working on his great post about ranking factors that affect Google suggestions, he looked for the most thorough piece available on search engines and started looking for weaknesses. He found the piece had a plain design, quite a few outdated ranking factors, and few references.

Brian then worked for 20 hours straight and made the post that increased his website traffic by 110% within two weeks.

In my case, I found a number of tips about titles that fit the bill, but what I didn’t find, in most cases, were proper examples to go with each tip. So, I made a note of that.

Step #3: Only Include Practical Ideas and Tips in Your Posts

This is another crucially important idea. If you want your reader to feel they learned a lot from your post and that they would want to come back to your blog for the value they have experienced, you need to include insanely practical, actionable tips. If you fail to provide that kind of value, the reader will soon move on to other sources of content.

In the words of Brian D. Evans, serial entrepreneur and founder of Influencive.com: “If you want to leave a lasting impact on someone, you have to find ways to help them, teach them, but also inspire them. You have to get them excited about what you’re saying and want to learn more!”

And this excitement is only born in your readers out of the value your content offers. So, make sure everything you say, every tip you offer, is worth their attention and a practical solution.

This is why I broke down that literature I found to discover the lack of examples. That was the value I could add to my post.

Step #4: Quote Industry Influencers

Again, this adds immense value to your content. Unless you are a big name in your industry, your reader probably won’t recognize you. You can show them your worth by sharing valuable ideas and backing them up with direct quotes from influencers.

Now you know why I went to find the quotes I have used in this article from my long list of powerful lines from my favorite online marketing gurus. *wink wink*

Step #5: Make Sure Your Blog Post Has Real-World Examples

If I just told you my process in these five steps and wrote lines over lines about how these are great ideas, they wouldn’t catch your eye as much as they do now without quotes regarding similar methods used by big industry names.

This is another kind of value. It shows you know what you are talking about. When you quote real-world examples that can be verified by the reader, they feel comfortable trusting your word.

Once that happens, you have started the trust process and on your way of adding a loyal follower. Despite this loyalty, with blog posts, you can expect relatively high bounce rates regardless of the quality of content.

Edward Leake the Managing Director of Midas Media explains the reason for this problem: “…reducing bounce rates can be tricky for blogs as people will often land with the intent of digesting the article and then leaving.”

While there are other factors that can stop readers from bouncing off, it is not our subject for today.

Step #6: Make Your Published Page Look Pretty

Website design is very important for attracting an audience and pushing them towards your content. I always take great care in designing my post pages and a lot of my readers have complimented my blog for it.

I don’t do it because I “have a great taste,” as one of said in a comment, though. My purpose is to make sure my design catches the eye of my reader and helps me make them stay a little while longer.

This is one of the things Brain Dean did with his famous post I mentioned earlier in this piece.

So, there you have it. Follow this process on how to write a blog post and your content will come out better than most things getting published on the Internet every day.

Bonus Tip for Publishing Professional Pieces

If you have just written a blog post that discusses a more professional subject than a personal or social topic, one great way to promoting it on social media is publishing it on LinkedIn.

With the now public forum of Pulse, LinkedIn gives you a unique opportunity to reach great professional audiences who will be able to read your content.

There are a lot of LI Pulse Channels, though. So, you have to make sure your content is in line with the expectations of a channel’s audience before you publish it there.

I wish you have enjoyed this post on How To Write High-Quality Blog Posts For Search Engines and Readers After that feel cost-free to browse our various other articles, if you would like to check out more write-ups on search engine optimization. We have a lot more curated articles from Ahref and I wish you delight in reviewing them.

Read more……>click Here<

How to Upscale: 7 Tips That Marketers Know About Holiday Email Marketing

Search engine optimization likewise known as SEO is a subject covered by many individuals and blog sites, its the process of making your web site look eye-catching to the online search engine in the hope of obtaining a preferential ranking for your targeted keyword. Throughout my research study I stumble upon numerous articles that give some great insights to search engine optimization.

Listed below you could locate an article from Kiss Metrics which I located to be extremely intriguing as well as useful .

The meaning of ‘Holidays’ is subject to perspective. It can be a good opportunity for throwing a Halloween party, catching up with long lost friends, carving a turkey during Thanksgiving, waiting expectantly for that specific deal during Black Friday sales, or unwrapping Christmas presents while sipping hot cocoa near the fireplace.

For a marketer, the onset of the holidays is synonymous to gearing up for the biggest and busiest shopping season. The total online sales recorded from Nov 1st to Dec 31st alone was about $91.7 billion in 2016. So, to help email marketers, like you, make optimum utilization of this beneficial time we have compiled 7 tips that every email marketer knows about holiday email marketing; the catch is our insights on how to upscale them.

Tip #1: Plan Early

Most of the articles you may have read earlier must be stating that email marketers begin preparing their holiday calendar and strategies based on the calendar almost months in advance. This helps avoid any last moment hiccups and plug any unseen holes. Christopher Donald, President of Operations & Managing Partner at INBOXARMY, shares the same thought that planning your holiday email marketing strategy early can be a smart move for your business.

Holiday Email from Fortnum & MasonFortnum & Mason sent its first Halloween promotion email at around mid-September

Upscaling Scope

While this stands true, all hope is not lost. Most brands send their Halloween promotion email a week prior to the holiday.

Forzieri’s Halloween emailForzieri’s Halloween email that was sent exactly a week prior to Halloween

Tip #2: Segment Your List

Gifting someone based on their likes/dislikes or wants tells so much about how well you know them. Personalization in emails is a similar concept, and your subscribers are bound to feel attached to your brand when you personalize your email content based on their preferences. One of the easiest ways to cater personalized content during the holiday season is by segmenting your email list, believes Kath Pay, CEO Holistic Email Marketing.

Upscaling Tip

This holiday season, clean your mailing list too. No point in sending holiday emails to those subscribers who haven’t engaged with your emails in the past 2-3 months.

SideKick Email

Tip #3: Spread the Cheer with Holiday-themed Subject Lines

The holiday season means your subscribers’ inbox is going to get flooded with promotional emails from all different brands. A relevant and contextual subject line can be the saving grace in such a scenario, says Dennis Dayman, Chief Privacy Officer, Return Path. As per Convince & Convert, 35% of email opens are purely based on subject line alone.

Subject Gmail Inbox - Email Subject Lines

Upscaling Tip

Since most of your subscribers are going to open your email on their mobile devices, you need to make optimum use of subject lines and pre-header text. The maximum supported characters for subject lines and pre-header text for different email clients:

  • Android Portrait:  46 chars
  • Android Landscape: 62 chars
  • iPhone landscape: 64 Chars
  • iPhone Portrait: 64 chars

Tip #4: Create a Holiday Guide

Most brands tend to create Holiday guides in order to help their subscribers make the right choice during holiday shopping. This is a valuable resource wherein customers purchase products that match their interests or a central theme.

Holiday Email By HBOHBO shop’s Holiday guide email showcases curated products that are neatly categorized

Upscaling Tip

Add testimonials or Instagram live feeds in the email footer to strengthen the purchase impulse of your subscribers.

The Body Shop Holiday Email

 Tip #5: Create Urgency

Many brands tend to create a sense of urgency in their email copy by using words such as ‘Limited Free Shipping’ and ‘Buy Now’. This is effective in drawing up all the last moment shoppers by creating the fear of missing out.

Reitmans Holiday EmailReitmans has a simple email design wherein the focus of the subscriber directly rests on the bold text in the image.

Upscaling Tip

Jaymin Bhuptani, Director of EmailMonks, suggests the inclusion of a countdown timer along with your holiday promotion email, cart abandonment, or advance sale announcement email to boost the conversion rate. When a countdown timer is used along with an actionable statement such as “Buy within X-hours and get a 20% discount on the items in your cart”, your subscribers subconsciously would worry about missing a great deal.

J Crew Email

Tip #6: Mobile First Designs and Responsive Emails

The holiday season is the time to be around your loved ones, so a majority of the subscribers are going to open your emails in mobile and other handheld devices. So, brands are creating emails that are specifically designed for mobiles and the email elements are re-arranged for desktop layout.

A C Moore Email

Upscaling Tip

Most of the native mobile email clients support CSS3 coding, and with the help of keyframe animations, you can turn your plain holiday email into an interactive, visual wonderland. The plus point, in this case, is that the more your subscriber interacts with your email, the more time they spend in learning the message that your email conveys. This can significantly help your conversion rate. Those who open your email on a non-supporting email client can still get to experience your awesome email by clicking the ‘view email online’ link.

Taco Bell is famous for including interactivity in their promotional emails. In the following email, all the 3 characters are static/sticky, and rest of the email background moves when you scroll down. This is achieved by setting them as fixed positioned elements.

Tacobell-EmailClick on the email to experience the interactivity.

On a similar tone, their Christmas promotional email made use of the concept of ‘Gamification’ in emails, wherein the email copy changes based on user input/interaction. As you can see yourself in this email, based on the alternative that you choose, the email copy displays a different message. In fact, the curiosity gets to you, and you tend to check all three alternates!

Tacobell 3 option email

Tip #7: Improving Cart Abandonment Emails Timing or Frequency

During online shopping, visitors abandoning their cart for varied reasons is bound to happen; identifying the cause and offering alternatives in a timely manner is what matters and it is very important especially during the holiday season.

Due to the increased visitor flow and limited stock, many marketers tend to reduce the time gap between cart abandonment and triggering of the email to help bring the abandoner back to the cart faster. No matter what improvements you do this holiday season, what you need to keep in mind is that your cart abandonment email needs to:

  • Be triggered quickly
  • Remind the abandoner about the products in cart
  • Have actionable content
  • Show alternatives based on the abandoned products
  • Have a holiday based message or seasonal greetings

Upscaling Tip

While cart abandonment emails have the immense scope of improvement this holiday season, do not forget the other behavioral or triggered emails. A social sharing button in the welcome email, ‘Refer to a friend’ option in the transactional email or holiday based message in the re-engagement email can prove very beneficial.

Wrapping Up

With the December holidays and New Year’s coming, you can still make use of the above tips to add that extra gleam to your email marketing campaigns this holiday season. How do you plan to execute your holiday email marketing plan this year? We would love to hear your thoughts.

If you would certainly such as to check out more articles on search engine optimization then really feel free to search our various other posts. We have several even more curated short articles from Kiss Metrics and also I wish you take pleasure in reading them.

Read more……>click Here<

5 Advanced Display Remarketing Strategies

Search engine optimization also called SEO is a subject covered by lots of individuals as well as blogs, its the process of making your site appearance attractive to the online search engine in the hope of getting a advantageous ranking for your targeted keyword. Throughout my research I come across several articles that offer some terrific insights to search engine optimization.

Below you could discover an post from Kiss Metrics which I discovered to be really fascinating as well as helpful .

On average it takes 5 – 8 touch-points before a person will buy from your website. It takes this long because there is so much information available and people need to be sure that they are making the right choice.

One single ad will not work.

It is good to think about the entire customer journey, from awareness to research to purchase. Also, keep in mind what happens after they become a customer? Don’t forget, once someone becomes a customer the journey isn’t over. In fact, it should be just beginning. If someone has already bought from you, then they are much more likely to buy from you again. 

Display Remarketing Campaigns

Display remarketing campaigns are some of my favorites to set up. They are cheap to run, the ROI is high, and they make sense if you think about the customer journey. People need time to consider their options, and remarketing campaigns keep you at the front of their minds. 

That being said, I think a massive opportunity is being missed in most AdWords accounts. Most PPC managers simply set up a remarketing campaign with a single audience for the last 30-days, and that is it. It is easy to let it run and forget about it because the return on remarketing can be so high. It doesn’t seem worth the effort to change it. 

But if you think about those touch-points, and that people need 5 – 8 before they purchase, your remarketing campaign will be at least one of those touch-points. Surely you would want to make that touch-point as relevant and as impactful as possible?

I have put together a list of 5 advanced display remarketing strategies you can implement right now. 

1. Create a Sequential Display Remarketing Campaign

The first thing you need to do is understand the time lag from when your customers first interact to when they convert. This varies from industry to industry. For example, if you are selling a low cost branded item it could be 0-1 days. However, if you sell a more complex and expensive product it could be 30 days +.

Go into Google Analytics, under “Conversions” you will find the drop-down button for “Multi-Channel Funnels”. Hit Time Lag.

1-time-lag.png

This report gives you some lovely data. From here you will be able to see when users typically convert after their first interaction and you will be able to plan your remarketing campaign. 

2-time-lag.png

Let’s say you have a scenario where 30% of your conversions came from 0 – 7 days after first interaction, 10% of conversions came from 8 – 12 days after the first interaction, and 60% of your conversions came after 13 days from the first interaction. You would probably have a product that was a bit more complex, and your users would need time to research before they signed up. 

You could then create a sequenced display remarketing campaign that took users through their research journey. You could switch up the creative and, giving them different messaging to help them come to the right decision.

You could also adjust your bidding strategy. For the above scenario, you have the highest bids for the 13+days customers as you know this group is more likely to convert. 

Do think about your messaging and your creative. Usually, the further away the ad is from the first interactions, the bigger the incentive/offer needs to be in order to bring them back.

Ad 1:  Could be a brand message.

Ad 2: Promoting your customer service or customer reviews.

Ad 3: New customer offer or free-delivery offer code.

3-ads.png

Create your sequence by creating different audiences based on days since the last interaction. Then, when you are creating your campaigns, simply exclude the other audiences from that campaign.

For example: 

You could create 3 audiences (your sequence):

Audience 1: 0-7 days since first interaction.

Audience 2: 8-14 days since first interaction.

Audience 3: 14 – 30 days since first interaction.

Then, when you create your campaigns: 

Campaign 1: 

  • Target Audience 1 (Exclude Audience 2 & 3)

Campaign 2:

  • Target Audience 2 (Exclude Audience 3) 

Campaign 3:

  • Target Audience 3

2. Segment Your Remarketing Audience

Don’t treat all your traffic the same. 

Each page on your website will have a different value. Someone who had an item in their shopping cart and then abandoned the journey is much more valuable than someone who landed on the home page then bounced. Targeting the latter with remarketing is a waste of time, money, and impressions. Your bidding strategy changes as well, for example, paying £1.50 per click from someone who has been on your website 2mins+ will be a better investment than paying £0.20 for all visitors. 

You can segment your audience based on their behavior on site and/or their traffic source. Some of my favorite segmentations include: 

  • Time on site
  • Number of visits 
  • Certain goal completion
  • Visiting specific pages
  • Demographics

Let’s say you were running a remarketing campaign for a company that didn’t have a huge budget, but you did want to include remarketing in your marketing mix. By segmenting your traffic, you could target high-value customers, for example, users who visit multiple times and spend over the average amount of time on your website, or users who abandoned their shopping cart.

You can do this by going into Google Analytics and setting up a custom audience.

Once you are in your Google Analytics, click on the “Admin” section. 

2-ga-admin.png

Click the link labeled “audience definitions”.

22-ga-audience-def.png

Select “Audiences”.

23-ga-audiences.png

Click on the “new audience” button.

24-ga-audience.png

Select “Create New”.

25-ga-create-new.png

As an example, let’s say I wanted to target users who visited my site at least twice and spent more than one minute each time and they didn’t buy anything. I could create this audience and build a specific campaign for them. 

26-ga-next-step.png

It is, however, worth keeping in mind that the more specific you get in your audience building, the smaller the number will eventually get. You have to have at least 100 members in an audience to run a display remarketing campaign. 

Once you have built your audience, name it, and hit “Next step”. From there it will ask you to choose a destination for your audience. If you have linked your AdWords and Analytics accounts select your AdWords account from the drop-down menu. When you next log into AdWords your new audience will be there waiting for you. 

3. Content Remarketing

If you are investing time and money into creating content on your site, then content remarketing could be a great option. There are two great things that happen when you don’t hound customers with hard selling messages; you earn trust and gain conversions in the future

Here is how you can do it: 

  1. Create a remarketing audience based on people who have been reading blogs or articles on your site. 
  2. Create an audience based on people who have shown an interest on your site (for example: spent more than 2min+ on your site, visited multiple pages, etc.) then retarget them with a piece of content on your site. 
  3. Create ads that show the next piece of content that they might like. For example, if you’re a bank you could offer them something like “5 things to look out for when deciding on a credit card”.

Content remarketing is all about increasing trust and nurturing the user. Its main objective isn’t to drive direct conversions right away, but over time it could have a positive impact on referrals and word of mouth (the more someone trusts your brand, the more they will recommend you). 

Here is an example from Tableau, they are a data visualization software company. Here they have served me a remarketing banner which points me to a whitepaper they created. Notice how there is not a hard-selling messages? They are simply using content to get users back onto their site. 

31-tableau.png

4. Create a Remarketing Campaign for Customers

You might be asking yourself “Why waste money on users who are already customers?”

Well, I have some stats for you: 

  • It costs 5x to acquire new customers than it does to keep current customers.
  • 80% of your future revenue will come from 20% of your base.
  • Creating customer advocates will have a massive impact on your overall results. 77% of people are more likely to buy a product after hearing about it from friends or family.
  • Word of mouth is a primary factor behind 20% – 50% of ALL buying decisions.
  • Returning customers spend 67% more than new customers

See what I’m getting at? 

You have an amazing opportunity to create value for your company by creating remarketing campaigns designed for your existing base. 

Here are a few ideas to get you thinking about what you can do for your base:

  1. Create an educational campaign. Highlight features that are available at your company at no extra cost.
  2. Give an offer code/free delivery to customers who have already purchased something from your site. Just as a thank you.
  3. Invite customers to a free webinar.
  4. Cross or upsell existing customers by telling them about other services your offer. 

As always, know your customer. If you understand what will give them real value, you will not only keep a customer you will create an advocate

5. Create Campaigns Based on Where the User Came From 

When you think about the different traffic that comes to your site you might value one above another. For instance, display awareness traffic might not be as valuable as a click coming from a high converting PPC campaign. 

Earlier we had a look at segmented users based on their behavior on-site. Now, let’s have a look at segmenting users based on where they came from

As a quick reminder, website traffic falls broadly into one of these four categories: 

  • Paid
  • Organic
  • Referral 
  • Direct

Let’s say you were a bank and you were running a new promotion on mortgages. You invest heavily into mortgage-related keywords on PPC. You might want to follow through with your new PPC campaign with creating a remarketing campaign based on users who visited your website but found it via your PPC campaign. By doing this, you will be able to segment your audience data, match up your creatives and messaging, and get a broader view of how effective your campaign is performing. 

Creating this new audience is relatively simple. You start off by logging into your Google Analytics account. 

  • Click on Admin then Audience Definitions (Audiences). 
  • Select + New Audience then Create New

This is where you’ll be able to select which Campaign, Medium, Source, and Keyword your user came from. 

51-ga-traffic-source.png

Once you hit Apply you will be able to see the estimate audience size. 

This strategy can be brilliant if you are looking to create a full circle paid media campaign. It also works if you are looking to test out new audiences. 

Some final bits of advice: 

Setting up a remarketing campaign shouldn’t be a “set & forget” job. You should be testing, switching ad creatives, and reviewing audiences. 

  1. Make sure your data is clean by excluding audiences from campaigns that are not relevant to them. If you are running a remarketing campaign to non-converters, make sure you exclude converters! (Seems simple, but you wouldn’t believe how many times I have seen this happen). 
  2. Keep an eye on frequency. Please don’t bombard your users with ads ALL day, every day. You are just going to burn through those impressions, and your ads will have less of an impact. 
  3. Watch those mobile clicks. Personally, I am not a fan of display remarketing on mobile. I have found there are so many clicks that are accidental that they just completely mess up the campaign stats and waste budget. Now, I am not saying completely remove mobile from your strategy, just keep a beady eye on those clicks!

I have outlined 5 remarketing strategies above, but I am keen to hear more, which ones have you tried?

I wish you have actually appreciated this short article on 5 Advanced Display Remarketing Strategies Then really feel complimentary to surf our various other write-ups, if you would like to see more short articles on search engine optimization. We have many more curated posts from Ahref and also I wish you appreciate reading them.

Read more……>click Here<