Category: Uncategorized

  • Why A/B Testing is a Valuable Marketing Tool

    When it comes to marketing your product or service, there is much to be said of A/B testing. This is the process of testing two versions of a product or service to see which is more popular among the masses. It is valuable in helping anyone with either a new business or product determine how well it will do. It is also helpful if you have two different website styles that you want to check out against what the crowd likes. This can give you the edge on the competition and allow you to use the one that best fits the market needs.

    What Can A/B Testing Be Used For?

    A/B testing can be used in all market types and is an excellent measuring tool with regard to what your niche market needs or wants the most. Marketing practitioners can perform these tests on a random group to see which product or marketing platform is the most affective for your niche clients. With professional help you can get the most for your money in your ultimate marketing plan and use what is proving to be the best laid plan for your situation.

    A/B split testing is largely used to enhance pay per click (PPC) campaigns, especially in when it comes to testing which alteration to your on-page elements – such as your headings and product images – yield the highest conversion rate and-or sales. In addition, brands that utilize email marketing often apply A/B testing to improve their click-through rates.

    Online marketing may have changed the way that you run your business, but A/B testing is still an important part of running an online marketing campaign. It allows you to truly get an idea of what your potential customers are looking for so that you can allocate your funds to those specific areas. In marketing, wasted time results in wasted money and getting such results will help you save on both. Whether you have a new online product that you want to market or you want to see what marketing platform your customers like the best, A/B testing can help supply you with the answers in an organized manner when you have professionals by your side.

    Learn More:

    If are interested in implementing an A/B testing campaign or would simply like to learn more about it, please contact the digital marketing professionals at DigitalParc. To begin, please fill out our simple contact form or call our staff at 612-845-5590.

  • 3 Advantages of Influencer Relationships

    When it comes to marketing your website and business, one of the oldest means possible is still one of the foundations today. Networking is the key to keeping your business flush with new customers. In terms of internet marketing and networking, building relationships with influencers can make all of the difference. Below are three of the many reasons that you might want to work to build these relationships.

     

    You can increase word-of-mouth. Influencers that you build relationships with have the ability to help move news of your business to others that they know. These individuals tend to have a wide following of people that listen to what they say. This means that if they are able to spread the news of what you have to offer to others, you are likely to gain many new customers.

     

    You can speed up your brand’s exposure. When you build relationships with influencers in your niche or market, you will find that it is much easier to get the exposure your business needs quickly. This means that if you have a new sale, new information or a new topic that you want everyone to know about right away, you are likely to have more success with the help of these influencers. They have large numbers of followers that they can share this information with and these follows look to the influencers as authority on the topics at hand.

     

    An influencer can provide education and mentoring. Building relationships with influencers in your niche can also be beneficial to your business and marketing because you will be able to learn from them. This means that you can pick up on marketing strategies that you could implement into your business efforts. These are likely tested and proven to be effective for helping your business grow. They have the tools to help you learn more and learn fast, bettering your own marketing campaign along the way.

  • 4 Fundamentals of a Successful Inbound Marketing Strategy

    Inbound marketing is perhaps the top way to promote business today. It is important to keep from wasting your time on poor marketing techniques. There are some ways to be effective in your inbound marketing efforts. Here are four inbound marketing tips to help you stay on track.

    Remember that your product is key. While you may want to market your product to death, you can only be successful if the product you are marketing is good quality. Choose products that are worth the time and effort to market and you will find half the battle won. Make sure the products are something that is going to be well received and that there is a need for.

    Understand SEO core factors. It is vital that you fully understand what makes SEO work. The relevance of the SEO and the authority of it are vital to success. Be sure that your SEO is relevant to the product that you have and the individuals looking for it. Additionally, be sure that you have the authority to back up what you are claiming about the product.

    Design for the customer. While you want to showcase the product in your website, remember that you also want to design the site for the visitor or customer. It is vital that you captivate the audience you have quickly once the hit your page. The attention span of the Internet surfer is very short and if you don’t captivate them right away, you will lose them for good. Keeping them on the page for as long as possible is the key to turning them into customers.

    Give it away. No, do not ‘give away’ your product. Give away knowledge when you attract visitors to your site. The more information that you can provide them, the more likely they will give you the authority you need and they will invest in what you have to offer. Take the time to provide them with quality information they can bank on and they will trust you enough to buy what you are selling.

    If you are interested in discussing the implementation of an inbound marketing strategy, do not hesitate to contact DigitalParc. We pride ourselves on helping our clients enhance their online marketing presence, drive visitors to their websites and improve their conversion rates.

    Contact us by filling out our brief contact form or by calling us at 612-845-5590.

  • 5 Ways to Write Website Copy That Converts

    Congratulations! You have created the business of your dreams. You have a killer product and-or service. All you have to do now is build a website and the people will be ready to pour their hard-earned cash into funding your enterprise. Correct?

    Hold on! The public is a bit more complicated than that. Potential clients click on websites for a reason, they use social media for a purpose and they are raring to stay plugged in to the digital world as long as their needs are met and they are kept engaged. The bottom line is that you must feed your visitors and consistently consider their consumer mindset. When you do this, you will get multiple visits, returning customers and referrals. You will also convert sales.

    Here is part of the key, as brought forth in the book, “Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook.” The book’s author and storytelling entrepreneur, Gary Vaynerchuk, indicates that every social media site and every digital application has a special mode of operation and targeted audience/use.

    On a company website, for example, you should not be making a call to action nor trying to sell with every post or article. You should engage the viewers with rich language that is easy to understand. The premise of Vaynerchuk’s strategy is that you should give way more useful information without a pitch than you do useful information with a pitch. In other words, think of your “non-pitch” information as jabs and your pitch as the right hook.

    You must make that right hook count if you plan to convert casual visitors to customers. They will not do that until they are “romanced” first. Below are a few tips for attracting them:

    Approach copy content based upon what you can do for them.

    Use headings and subheadings to break up the copy.

    Use some white space and great fonts in order to give their eyes a rest and make your content easy to read.

    Utilize higher resolution images to complement your posts and articles. Your images should rouse emotion from the user.

    Feature video on occasion. Studies show that users remain on sites the feature video content longer than they do on sites without video content. The quality of your video is important. I would recommend keeping your video under five minutes in length.

    Consider using infographics. They are pleasing to the eye and are great for simplifying the themes of your copy.

    When it comes to the content itself, here is what you should include:

    Use “personal” words such as “you”, “your family”, and “your job.” When sharing information about your company, try to tell a story. As Vaynerchuk points out, people love stories. Once again, words like “I”, “we” and “us” provide a major personal touch. On your “About Us” page, use personal terms and action words.

    Do not skimp on good descriptions. Descriptive words such as “strapping” paint effective pictures that people can visualize. For example, “When I was a strapping young lad running a sturdy and colorful lemonade stand in front of our modest home, I knew I wanted to run a significant business one day.”

    Use metaphors effectively and sparingly. If you are writing about friendships, you could write something such as:“Friendships are like bank accounts. You get deposits and withdrawals. Value goes in and some is taken out. You never want the withdrawals to outweigh the deposits.” On Paste Magazine, metaphors were likened to Post-it notes, so when you use them, keep that in mind.

    You are implementing some image building and establishing your credibility. Because of this, you must do so in a professional manner. Do what you can to avoid typos, thick technical language – unless you cater to technical individuals – and maintain your relevancy.

    Do not overlook search engine optimization (SEO). Include keywords that people use via search engines. Keywords should be merged and not stuffed. If you are a limousine service in Frankfort, Kentucky, you might wish to write something such as: “Our Frankfort bluegrass limousine customers love to take tours to see points of interest in our city.” You could break sentences like this up into two sentences.

    Remember that the most popular social media channels have a specialty. Mothers, for example, often use Pinterest. One study indicated that 68 percent of the visitors to Pinterest are female. If you think of Pinterest as a “fantasyland for all kinds of people” and keep in mind that women are the bulk of those people, you have the opportunity to gain more audience engagement by writing accordingly.

    When it comes to landing pages, balance “call-to-action” content with content that is engaging and informative. On you landing page(s), try to keep your copy brief so that people can quickly scan and understand the purpose of your brand. Use short but powerful words.

    When writing calls to action, make use of the following words:

    • Save now

    • Discounted

    • Deep discounts

    • Save

    • Limited time offer

    In the end, one of the major keys to improving your online sales conversion is to make sure that you have written with your target audience in mind. Remember that your landing pages should funnel your customers deeper into the website. In the end, your persuasive copy will enhance the visibility of your brand, leading to increased sales and conversions.

  • It’s official, Google to launch mobile-friendly algorithm update

    Google has recently made an announcement that they are making major changes to their search algorithm. Starting April 21, Google’s organic search algorithm will focus more on “mobile friendliness” as a ranking signal. What does this mean? Websites that have responsive design will be more attractive to Google’s search engine, while websites that are not mobile friendly will be penalized.

    Google is making these changes in hopes of making it easier for users to find relevant, high quality search results that are optimized for their devices. According to Google, 94% of people use a mobile phone to get local information, even if they have a desktop nearby. Google wants to make these users’ experience even better by listing search results that are friendly on mobile devices.

    Responsive web design has always been a smart thing for a business to have, but now it’s almost a necessity. 73 percent of web users prefer mobile-friendly websites and 61 percent leave a site if it is not mobile-friendly. 67 percent of users say they are more likely to buy from a site if it is mobile friendly. Because of the dramatic increase in mobile usage, naturally it makes sense for Google to play favorites and steer users toward mobile friendly websites. As a result, the search engine will push websites which are not mobile-friendly further down in search results.

    If your site is not mobile-friendly, chances are you won’t be found when someone is searching for the services you offer. For those that have sites that aren’t mobile friendly, it might be time to talk with a web designer.

  • How Does Copywriting Impact Internet Marketing Success?

    Not all marketing writers are created equal. According to entrepreneurial storyteller, Gary Vaynerchuk, having a top shelf content writer is critical to the survival of a company. In his best selling book, Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook, he writes that excellent marketing writers help give people a reason to click on your website or blog in order to learn more about you. He indicated at if one becomes a source that people can trust to provide great content, it will help them to elevate their brand.

     

    In writing about symbol and image rich sites like Pinterest, he writes that people love symbols, displays and content that sometimes silently discloses. Vaynerchuk also writes that integration of content is important, so that all social media sites promote the brand in similar ways. In addition, he sells the idea of user-centric content. One other excellent point he makes in his book is that even descriptions, such as on Pinterest, need to be written with the audience in mind first and SEO in second place.

     

    Two other writers concur with the notion that great marketing copy is king. Marketing experts Christine Martinez and Barbara Boyd have shared that, if necessary, a company should hire an experienced content writer and pinner. They referred to such writing pros as “curators of content.”

     

    They also use the term “influencer” to describe those brands who use marketing writing as a way to give meritorious industry knowledge to customers and followers. The duo also write that if people find content valid and informative, they will return for more of the same and recommend such sites to others.

     

    Other notable points about marketing writers include:
    • Excellent content enables people to connect emotionally
    • Sometimes a variety of writers can help to produce the type of content a brand needs
    • It should be easy for people to find the ideas and information
    • The content should always offer something of value

  • 8 Elements That Produce a Strong Company Website Design

    In today’s digital world, it is extremely important for business owners to rely not only on traditional media for marketing their products or services, but to make use of the Internet. Every company with an official company website should use it to promote their products and services and offer valuable information for their potential as well as existing customers.

    In the clutter of existing elements of a website design, you may find that the most important elements that make up a good design for any business, whether big or small, may get completely ignored. Enlisted blow are the top web design elements that you should utilize to improve your website’s traffic and conversion rates.

    Have your own domain name. It goes without saying that when your website has its own domain name, it raises the credibility factor of the company. To make it even more appealing to the potential customers, it is very important to select a domain name that matches the name of your business or company. However, businesses that operate on a smaller scale or those that are start-ups may find it difficult to acquire access to a domain name that is the same as the name of their business. In such cases, a good rule of thumb is to make use of a keyword that best describes the work that your company does. This will help Google and other search engines index your website and increase the visibility of your pages in Google’s search results.

    Create an ‘About Us’ page. Your potential customers will want to know more about you and your company goals when they land on your website. If they do decide to make a purchase from your website, they will want to know who you are and where and how your business came into existence. That is why you should provide answers for all of these queries in the form of an About Us page. The simple addition of this page with useful information about your company and its history – along with what you aim to achieve using it – will build trust and confidence in the minds of potential customers. If you own a store that serves customers on location, you should consider including a digital roadmap to help them find your store. Of course, if you are solely on online business, this step can be omitted.

    Do not fill up your website entirely with ad space. There is no doubt that an increase in the readership of your company website’s blog pages can help you earn good money from the ads that you decide to place. However, if you end up clogging the entire space on your website with ads, the chances are your potential customers will be turned off and will look to other sources for their needs. Therefore, while it is not a bad practice to have ads running on your website, it is also equally important to keep it to a minimum in order to give your potential customers exactly what they are looking for – informative content that they can make use of.

    Maintain a clean background. You may be tempted to add jazzy images that are relevant to your company to fill the background for your website, but this may actually drive potential customers away. As a rule of thumb, a good company website always has a clean background in one solid color, preferably lighter shades of gray, beige or cream tones. However, keeping your background plain white is all the more desirable. Not only does it make your website easier to view; it lends an incredibly professional touch to it as well.

    Make sure your visitors can locate your vital content within a minimal number of clicks. If you are confident that your potential customers will benefit from a piece of information that you place on your website, make sure that the window between the customer entering your website and finding the information is as small as possible. If you add too large of a gap between these two elements, your potential customer will end up getting frustrated and visit your competitors’ websites.

    Include breadcrumb navigation. Breadcrumb navigation is one of the most professional ways to design your website since it lists out all the links that got the potential customer to the most current page that they are on. Therefore, if the website visitor does wish to go back to the previous page, they can do so by simply clicking on the link instead of having to go all the way back to the homepage and then accessing another page.

    Understand the importance of color coordination. For any appealing website, the color scheme plays a very important role. When your background is lighter in shade, make sure that the text that you use features a darker shade to ensure that the it is visible. If you end up using a lighter shade, it will not be possible for the visitor to read what you have to say and this will drive customers away.

    Create a well-designed ‘Contact Us’ page. To ensure maximum website conversion, always include a Contact Us page so that your potential customers can get in touch with you when they have any questions or requests regarding your product or service offerings. In addition, this page can help you obtain valuable feedback from your customers that you can use to modify your business approach.

    Producing your ideal website design is the first step towards increasing your conversion rates online. Whether you are a large, established company or you are starting a business, the tips above will help you gain the most from your website.

  • 4 Ways Proper Web Design Can Enhance Your Search Engine Optimization

    When designing a website, many amateur web designers place too much focus on the visual appeal of a site instead of its user experience. This is a mistake for two reasons. The first is that – although a website might look pretty – the site’s visitors will not spend much time on the site if they have trouble navigating it. The second is that if your site is not user friendly, it is unlikely that search engines like Google and Bing will recognize its relevance. This will result in your site not being visible to search engine users. The key is to focus on both the visual appeal and the user experience. Your site needs to make a good first impression and grab the user’s attention right away. In addition, your site should be easy to use and interactive so that you keep users interested and enhance your search engine visibility.

    Four web design elements that can enhance the search engine visibility of your website:


    Mobile Optimization.
    Search engines are putting more emphasis on mobile friendly websites. If your website is hard to view on a smartphone or tablet, you may be penalized by search engines in the near future and lose your visibility.

    Many designers create a mobile-optimized website separate from the main company website. Today, the best practice is to have one site that is optimized for both mobile and desktop. Not only will this improve your SEO; it will improve your user experience and your overall website success.

    XML Sitemaps. Having an XML sitemap does not directly impact SEO. However, an XML sitemap will help notify Google of any changes you make on your site. This means that your pages will be indexed faster. To put it simply, XML sitemaps make it easier for Google to crawl your site and help it discover pages that may have been neglected. The more pages you have that get indexed, the more visibility your website receives.

    Heading Tags. Using heading tags will enhance the readability of your website’s copy as well as enhance your SEO. By adding an H1 or H2 tag to a bolded header on your site, Google will recognize that copy as being significant. That is why you should place your most important keywords within those tags. If you are a landscaping service, for example, you should place the word “landscaping service” in your H1 tag instead of simply placing your company name. Google will put emphasis on the H1 tag and you will rank higher for the term “landscaping service.”

    Website Load Time. The amount of time it takes for your website to load has a significant impact on your search engine ranking. In order to minimize your site’s load time for mobile and desktop users, a web designer must lessen the use of Javascripts and large images. In addition, enabling compression will improve your site’s load time as well.

    The four web design elements above will have a major impact on your SEO efforts. To truly enhance your search engine marketing strategy, it is important that you consult with a web design professional.

  • The Ultimate 2015 Internet Marketing Checklist

    Looking to drive more leads in 2015? We have put together a
    simple and effective guide to help strengthen your online
    presence and grow your business.


    At DigitalParc, our credo is Design. Drive. Convert. Above all else, these three elements need to be in place.


    1. Design a Better Website.

    A strong website is the first step to achieving success online. Consumers want information instantly in today’s fast paced, Internet-based world. In a matter of seconds, visitors will judge your business by the look and functionality of your website. Does your website accurately represent your business? We can help you build a website design that attracts new customers and perfectly expresses your brand.


    2. Drive More Traffic

    What is the benefit of having a strong website if people can’t find it? Search engine optimization (SEO) helps businesses become listed on a search engine’s un-paid or “organic” search results. The higher ranked on the search results page, and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive. DigitalParc can help your business climb the search rankings and bring new traffic to your website.


    3. Convert More Leads

    Conversion rate optimization is the strategy of creating an experience for consumers on a website in order to increase the amount of visitors that convert to customers. When a potential customer lands on your website, are they contacting you? DigitalParc can help you increase the odds that your website’s visitors convert into paying customers.


    After you have the fundamentals in place, now consider these Internet marketing techniques to help drive even more traffic to your website and create lasting relationships with your customers:


    4. Inbound Marketing

    Inbound marketing focuses on creating quality content that pulls people toward your business. By creating content that is aligned with customer’s interests, you naturally attract qualified traffic to your website that you can convert to customers. Not only does inbound marketing bring new visitors to your website, but it can also help turn those visitors into leads, and eventually into customers.


    5. Email Marketing

    Email marketing is a very effective, low cost marketing tool. It gives businesses the ability to grow the value of their customer relationships, while also converting new prospects into customers. On top of that, it’s incredibly cost efficient and easy to manage.


    6. Pay-per-click

    Pay per click advertising is a great, fast way to get visitors to your website. Pay per click marketing, or PPC, is pretty simple to use. Businesses pay to have their listings show up on search engines like Google or Bing, and these listings appear in search results along with the organic, non-paid results. We can help create listings using the right key words to so that you can get increased, qualified traffic to your website.


    There you have it. Internet marketing gives businesses a great opportunity to connect with their customers, leave lasting impressions, drive traffic to their website, and increase sales. Contact DigitalParc today if your looking to grow your business in the new year.

  • What You Must Know About Website Design Professionals

    Why does website design give us a competitive advantage? There are numerous sites online that sell same products. However, some websites that have the same Google SERPs get more conversion than others. One of the primary reasons why this happens is that their website is user-friendly and well designed. Online businesses are “shops” that are open 24/7 so people visiting these shops will usually will not stay there for more than a few minutes. That is all the time a website has to sell itself to the customer. That is why we need proper web design. An appealing web design does not just involve the simple correct placement of buttons and links. There is a complicated procedure that determines the way the webpage should look to the customer. It should be appealing enough to make users want to explore it, place an order and re-visit the same website when they are in need or desire that specific product or service.

    How are professional web designs different? Marketing is a major part of conducting an online business and every webpage of an online company must sell the picture of being a professional and qualified service. To do so, the look of the company’s website is important. A webpage should look interesting, inviting, informative, and instructive at the same time. Although that is a lot on a plate, professional web designers are good at linking all of these qualities together on a single webpage. They use innovative and creative ideas that focus on the product or service sold by the company. They tend to integrate marketing with technology to make any website alluring.

    Why is it Beneficial to Consult With a Website Design Professional?

    Professionals are just that! They are pros at creating fantastic web pages that tell the story you want to tell. They will listen to your ideas and concepts before drawing up a plan to design the web pages. They can revise the content on the website to make it easy to understand and intriguing enough so the user remains interested. They also ensure that keywords are placed strategically to help the website’s placement higher in rank of search engine results. They remain focused on the client’s way of promoting the website online. Professional web designers use the latest technology to make the website available both online and on mobile devices as well other Internet-enabled devices. They will work with their customer to make sure the web design is cost-effective and will provide simple instructions for site usability.

    Are there pitfalls to hiring a web design expert? Amateur webs designers do make good websites but do fall behind in some areas such as technology and cost. Amateur web designers most likely do not keep themselves updated on the latest trends and may use out dated technology to build the website. They might not take the task of making a profitable website as seriously as you and may take a complacent approach. The web design may be confusing and not attractive enough to hold on to customers. Old technology can make interfacing really hard for a customer. Sometimes they may load an irrelevant web design that does not convey the message that you want the customer to receive. Amateurs do not have the commitment that professionals have, making it harder for you to meet your deadline.

    How can you evaluate a web design? Web designs change constantly because newer versions of a user interface are being invented. One needs to keep up with the newest technology to become a pro in web design. A web design should accomplish many things to make a website popular. The web design should place the content advantageously. The user interface should be instructive and easy to use. The content should be kept to the point in a simple language expression. The color of the web pages should not be too bright or too dull. A clever combination of colors must be used to draw the customer’s attention to the positives of the product. Relevant pictures should be added at the right place to illustrate the point being made. The web design should be such that the latest in technology that is used making the website is at par with the competitors at all times. When a web design checks the boxes of all of the above then you have what you call the “money-making machine” in your hands.

    How should you choose a professional web designer? A professionally-designed website will look appealing, use the latest technology for interface, be user-friendly, have the latest news about the product or service, and have placement in the top ten results of any search engine list. Though it sounds exhausting, every professional web designer aims at this goal. Choose a professional web designer who is committed, well experienced and knows what he or she is doing. To consult and hire a web designer, always check out their previous work and see if these websites are faring well. The web design should be affordable as well. A professional web designer will give their honest opinion about your ideas for your website. This way you will avoid nasty surprises that can ruin your business.

    There are many benefits of hiring website design professionals to create your company site. So look for the experts that have worked with successful companies and still have the zeal to work one-on-one with you to create something exciting for your online business.