Using The Tools Available

Pay Per Click is PPC and Search Engine Optimization is SEO. Which will be best for you? It could be both. Usually, it will at least be one or the other. See, SEO applies even if you’re not specifically calibrating marketing for search engines. The way search engine algorithms works doesn’t care how or why you wrote content.

Because modern marketing must co-opt social media, there is a bit of a “system” in place. For example, if you’re on Facebook, and you just “share” something, there will be a limit to how “visible” it is. You might think this has to do with the ideological foundation of the statement, but not necessarily.

It seems outreach avenues like Facebook ads couldn’t compete if the field were entirely level. Test this for yourself. Make a post about something funny, make a post about something political, and make a post about some business pursuit you’re trying to build awareness around. Likely, the funny post will contend with the political post for prominence.

However, the post you made to advertise services or products will only get limited engagement. You will, though, see an ad to buy Facebook marketing for your “business” post. Accordingly, you can’t just trust in organic visibility on Facebook, and the same is true of YouTube. “Virality” isn’t as spontaneous as many would hope. In fact, on any social media avenue, relying on purely organic means of visibility likely won’t produce ROI.

ROI stands for Return On Investment. PPC and SEO can produce ROI, but they must be properly applied. With SEO, you want keywords, word choice, sentence size, paragraph structure, and imagery to align with known best practices. Said best practices shift as the “powers that be” intend.

To digitally advertise successfully, you must not only understand which avenues of outreach best match your business, but design associated content utilizing associated best practices such as using digital flyer, and those best practices change. With these things in mind, this writing will help you make the best choices for the digital marketing of your business.

MUST DO’S!

Personalize ads as much as possible – Drill down to what your prospects really want and need. Use messaging (their language) that will resonate with a specific problem – or personal interests like fitness – to grab and hold their attention.

Be creative! – If you want to catch the eye of prospects and customers and stand out from the competition, quit doing what everyone else is doing. Be bold and try different color schemes. Write headlines and copy that make people click on your ads. Like it or not, you must rise above the noise because ads are everywhere, and yours better be noticeable

Embrace data – Like it or not, data is a foundational piece to successful digital advertising. It doesn’t make sense to launch campaigns if you don’t understand the metrics, from exposure to visits, inquiries, leads, conversions, etc. See what patterns show up and adjust your plan and strategy accordingly.

Choose your platforms wisely – Focusing on one platform may not yield the best results, but focusing on too many produce unfavorable results. Learn where you target audience hangs out the most, and be on those platforms. Otherwise, you’ll waste your time, energy, and money.

Offer ungated content – The first impulse is to ‘gate’ content. However, decision-makers may not want to fill out another form and may go to your competitor who makes it easy for prospects and customers to get what they need and want. When reviewing your channels and funnel metrics, go outside of what looks successful because you may realize that you’ve been missing out on quality leads.

How to Use Google Analytics 4 Effectively – from Digital Marketing Consulting

The increasing importance of digital analytics tools needing to keep up to pace with changes in business and consumer behavior:

– Even the last standing bastions of brick and mortar are moving online and facing pressure to make sure their marketing budget is spent wisely.
– Major changes are seen in consumer behavior in the past two years, with mobile becoming the dominant method of doing research and shopping

Google is adapting to meet the needs of the current business environments and the people they serve. Hence, the launch of Google Analytics 4 came not just with a focus on helping businesses make better analytics-based decisions, but also with a focus on meeting consumer digital needs and their expectations of privacy.

Trends from Google’s data have shown that there have been significant shifts in the way consumers expect their online experience to be, as well as their perception of the way their data is being handled.

People are expecting their search intent to be understood by companies and at the same time, expect more transparency with how their data is used. These insights fueled GA4’s functionality which is to be a digital analytics tool that:

– Adapts to customers’ desire for privacy first
– Gives businesses a clearer picture of consumer behavior to help them adapt to their customers’ needs and gain long-term wins that improve the bottom line

Guide to Google Analytics 4 is here to help businesses ride the wave of change in their customers’ behavior and adapt to doing business post-pandemic. Here are a few quick points from Vidhya Srinivasan on how GA4 will help:

– Alerts on important trends where you need to take immediate action
– Predictive metrics to gauge the potential income from a specific customer group
– Google Ads integration
– App and web measurement in one platform
– Measurement that’s centered on the customer instead of by platform or device to gain a clearer picture of customers’ interaction with your business
– Simpler reports that will give you the ability to focus on specific parts of the customer journey
– Machine learning to help fill in the data gaps that come from the phasing out of cookies.

Since the African continent is home to more than 1.1 billion people, it has the potential to account for one-fifth of the world’s population by 2025. As a result, many businesses and investors have become aware of Africa’s consumer market potential. Despite this potential, many obstacles can make companies hesitate to enter the market. Even so, there are quite a few multinational companies that have managed to capture the opportunities in one of the world’s fastest-growing consumer markets. 

One of the main reasons for this potential is that a big part of the African population is young, urban, and connected. Currently, the working population in Africa is growing at 2.7 percent each year. At this rate, nearly two-thirds of the estimated 300 million African households will have some discretionary income by 2025. Additionally, a big part of African’s consumer market is filled with the younger generation who are aged between 16 and 34 years old. These people are willing to spend and tend to be more eager to try new products.

The two trends driving this rapid growth are urbanization and the rise of mobile communications. The continent already has many cities with more than 1 million inhabitants; this means that many companies can secure distribution in Africa’s fast-growing cities due to the concentration of consumers. Moreover, mobile technology is completely changing the game. In fact, by the end of 2014, mobile penetration in Africa was estimated at 89 percent and continued to proliferate and enable money transfers and microfinance transactions. 

However, just as the potential of the African has become widely acknowledged, so have the obstacles of potential business endeavors. Some of these include political instability and conflict, poor infrastructure, language barriers, differences in consumer behavior, a fragmented retail market, and low data availability and quality. Wars and authoritarian governments continue to affect businesses as well as policies in many countries. According to the world freedom index that measures political and civil liberties, of the 54 countries in the African continent, only 10 are considered free, 22 are partially free, and 22 are not. Second, many African cities currently have modern road systems. However, only one-third of the population lives within 2 kilometers of a paved road that is stable year-round. Furthermore, travel within the continent is quite expensive and challenging.

Along with that, a high percentage of the population has no access to electricity. These problems do not just constrain consumer demand but supply as well. While linguistic diversity is excellent, it can get complicated when companies need to deliver their marketing messages in multiple languages to communicate effectively with African consumers. Another factor that could be an obstacle is that Africans in different countries make purchase decisions differently. For example, research has shown that while most Angolans look at ads and compare stores to get the best prices, only about 27 percent of Kenyans do the same.

Opinions about brands differ by country and region as well and the continent has a fragmented retail market. For example, most consumers will buy their groceries primarily from the neighborhood or independently owned convenience stores. On the other hand, few consumers will go to supermarkets for these items. Finally, except for the largest cities, there has been a disparity in economic data and market research. As a result, companies which look at existing data and extrapolate it to a national and regional level get inaccurate insights.

Regardless of some serious challenges, many companies have made the African continent a part of their success story. The reason that consumer companies like Coca-Cola, Nestlé, and Unilever have succeeded in Africa is four-fold; they took a granular view of growth, tailored their offers to local needs and preferences, created a route-to-market model based on geography and channel, and built a large well-equipped sales force.

According to research, the most successful companies on the continent have been selective about the markets they want to enter. Rather than building a presence across entire countries, they opt to target the fastest-growing cities and city clusters where per capita income and spending exceeds the national average. Moreover, companies need to understand each target audience’s local needs and preferences to drive mass adoption of their products or services. As mentioned previously, it is not just about local product preferences but also local buying behaviors. Once companies have prioritized the highest-growth cities and have defined a portfolio of products for them, the next step is to ensure that the products are available for sale in those cities. To do so, successful companies tend to develop route-to-market models that primarily focus on the most attractive channels. 

Rwazi is a data services company that is dedicated to helping businesses around the world collect and analyze on-ground data from African countries. They provide organizations with new on-ground data on products, services, and activities from the African continent by utilizing a network of mappers and data collectors spread across urban and rural areas in Africa. While the company is based in Mauritius, Rwazi serves customers across the globe in different industries, including healthcare, consumer goods, automotive, education, finance, agriculture, energy, transport, and media.

The team behind Rwazi understands that organizations need near real-time, on-ground data to make effective decisions on activities such as expansion, investments, distribution, new product/service offerings, and reach target beneficiaries. For this reason, they’ve developed a network of 5,000+ mappers are spread across cities, municipalities, towns, and villages in 40 African countries. This network is expected to reach 50,000+ mappers by the end of the year.

Customers can utilize the Rwazi network to gain data from target areas and personas. Given the travel limitations that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused, organizations can execute on-ground activities even in the regions that are difficult to reach. 

Currently, Rwazi is the first and only company in the world with a large and growing network of mappers spread all over sub-Saharan Africa. They want to help organizations get the data they need to make informed decisions, in addition to helping millions of young people in Africa who need more opportunities to earn an income. 

For more information about Rwazi’s data services and their platform, check out their social media platforms. 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RwaziLtd/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rwaziltd/?hl=en 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rwazi 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/rwaziltd?lang=en  

According to Pew research Center, the majority of Americans seem to favor renewable energy sources. Over 80% of them support the expansion of solar panel and wind turbine farms, with support for offshore drilling, fracking, and coal mining declining more and more with each passing year. 

It’s no longer the question of whether the oil and gas industry needs to change – the question is how to do it. The slow downturn that started back in 2014 is still influencing many companies, and even though signs of possible recovery are becoming apparent, only the smartest, most adaptable of businesses are likely to succeed. 

So, what’s the key to triumph? It’s simple – new technology. Technological advancements can quickly lead to growth if you utilize them right. We’re here to show you how to do that. 

Consider AI technology 

Using AI isn’t just about doing things faster. The potential to improve processes is practically endless if you invest enough. You can make the entire supply chain exceptionally efficient with the help of AI programming that will quickly solve various development, production, and transportation issues that you’ve been struggling with. 

This doesn’t mean that AI will replace your people, either. Your most competent workers will now be free to use their creativity to think of new business solutions. The oil and gas industry is generally struggling with lack of new talents right now. Too many experienced workers (especially engineers) are retiring with not enough fresh young blood to replace them – the youth are simply shifting their focus to IT skills. Using AI in your company could actually attract these young talents and help you fill up your workforce with competent and eager workers. 

AI can also be used to measure seismic activity and analyze subsurface levels, minimize downtime for predictive maintenance, and predict risks of oil corrosion. Basically, if you’re not investing in AI right now, you’re bound to fail. All your competitors are doing it, and you need to beat them to the punch. 

Invest in the latest equipment

Outdated equipment is not only slow, but dangerous. Keeping old pieces around is a big hazard, so you need to assess every piece you own and figure out when was the last time you did maintenance or changed necessary parts.  

Something as simple as investing in new gate valves can make a huge impact on your business, especially if you get equipment made out of quality materials that are resistant to corrosion. If you haven’t taken stock of your inventory now would certainly be a good time – see which pieces need to be repaired, which needs some basic maintenance, and which need to be completely replaced with newer, faster, and sturdier models. 

Infographic created by Smartcorr Systems, a corrosion monitoring equipment supplier

Rely on robotics

Investing in robotics can turn jobs that were previously extremely difficult and dangerous into a breeze. For example, connecting and disconnecting drill pipes is something a robot can do with ease. This dangerous operation is crucial to the whole process, and with proper robotic advancements you can make sure no person ever has to risk their life to do it. 

Try out drone technology

A droid is small and it can fly – two characteristics that make it the perfect little soldier that you can send to all those places a human would have a hard time reaching or even find them inaccessible. This can make it a lot easier to monitor every single part of your operation and make sure everything is in order. 

You can carry out every inspection remotely and then have your drone take a high-resolution picture of anything you need. The drone will give you feedback in real time, and you can quickly react if you notice that anything is amiss. 

A drone can also help you map out rock outcrops and then have them be used to create 3D models that can act as a learning aid for new workers. 

Minimize the impact on the environment

The oil and gas industry, same as any big industry, needs to find ways to become more environmentally aware if it wants to meet the ever-increasing demands for a greener Earth. More efficient equipment, automation, and progressive air pollution control technologies can go a long way to helping you minimize the impact of your business on the suffering environment. 

The only way to improve public opinion of your operations is to keep these things in mind. 

Investing in the technologies we mentioned can help your business thrive. Not only will you make the whole process faster, smoother, and more effective, you can also minimize your impact on the environment. With AI, robotics, drones, and good equipment you will lessen the chances of oil spills, which are generally still one of the biggest and most dangerous ways the oil and gas industry causes harm. Find a way to make your business cleaner, safer, and smarter, and you’ll stay on top.

The deadline for improving Core Web Vitals Scores & Page Experience Signals is nearing for eCommerce Website Design Service providers all over the world. From the 1st of May 2021, Google is going to introduce core web vitals scores metrics on its algorithm as the vital contributors to predict the page experience of the eCommerce sites.

It is too early to predict how it is going to create an impact on the website performing organically or its search engine results. However, it is assured that the upcoming Google algorithm update with Core Web Vitals & Page Experience Signals will create a significant impact on boosting the ranks of eCommerce or retail sites.

Here this article is dealing with the top 6 effective ways to boost core web vitals scores & page experience signals. Before going to the core topic, let us brush up with the basics.

What are Core Web Vitals Scores?

It is a set of metrics specially created by the search engine giant Google to measure the page load performances of a website. When these metrics combined with the existing Google Page Experience Signals, it will provide an important contributing factor to predict the User Experience of a particular website.

Here are the 3 key core web vitals metrics that predict the user experience of a site.• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): Metrics that measure the loading performances of the large image/videos/animations of a website.• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): Metrics measuring the visual stability of a website that can disturb users to access the page/site content.• First Input Delay (FID): Metrics that measure how a website responds to the first user interaction.

Elements That Determines Page Experience of a Website 

Web Development Company offering custom PHP development services for eCommerce sites must take care of these elements for boosting its overall page experience.• Core Web Vitals• Mobile Friendliness• Safe Browsing• HTTPS• Non-Intrusive Interstitials

To improve the core web vitals scores and page experience signals of the site and to lineup according to the upcoming Google Algorithm update from 1st of May, implement these 6 tips.

Tips to Boost Core Web Vitals Scores & Page Experience Signals 

1. Reduce & Optimize JavaScript (JS)

Optimizing JavaScript (JS) or removing unused JavaScript (JS) will reduce the time taken by the browser to execute the website’s JS code; as a result, the loading time of a website improves a lot. As per the Google Algorithm report, a site has more than 300 milliseconds for interacting with users marked with poor FID score.

2. Implement Lazy Loading 

The lazy loading technique avoids images of the site loading when the site opened and loads them during the exact moment when a user views it. Implementing lazy loading won’t harm the site’s UX or web vitals scores, instead, it will boost the site’s loading time. In addition, lazy loading restricts bandwidth usage and restricts the site’s bounce rate.  

3. Image Optimization

Optimizing & compressing images of a website can significantly boost the loading speed of a website. Many may convey as compressing an image will affect the image quality, but the quality of the may differ only if it zoomed or saved in the wrong format. Always use .jpg format for images in landscape and .png format for graphical images.

4. Improve Server Response Time

Server Response Time plays a crucial role in displaying content/images on the browser when a user opens a website. The server response time will directly affect the site’s loading metrics. So, it’s better to choose a web hosting service that offers faster server response time. Google suggests using hosting servers that offer server response time below 600 milliseconds.  

5. Avoid Intrusive Interstitials

Having intrusive interstitials will create a negative impact on users while accessing the important on-page content. Intrusive interstitials will consume a significant amount of screen space causing frustration among users on accessing the site content. To avoid such negative UX, redesign site pop-ups and other interstitials in such a way that they do not obstruct users to access site content.

6. Incorporate HTTPS Connection

Implementing HTTPS secure connections to a website will be a promising way to boost the page experience signal. The internet giant Google always tries to ensure its users accessing safe and secure websites through its search engine results. So, having a site with an HTTPS secure connection will improve the site’s SEO score and creates more trust among the users.

Apart from that make sure to use Mobile-Friendly Page Templates, as mobile traffic is going to be the key aspect for driving more visitors to the website when compared with desktop traffic.

Conclusion

Incorporate all the above-listed page experience optimizing techniques to improve the web vital scores of a website and experience the positive effect on the upcoming Google Algorithm update.  

Conversion optimization is an essential aspect to consider when you’re running an eCommerce store. 

After all, if you’re investing so much time and money into your store, you’re going to want the users coming to your website to not bounce off. 

But how can you ensure that they don’t bounce off? Well, there are plenty of strategies that you can try to that end. 

In this post, we’ll be explaining how eCommerce store owners can implement conversion rate optimization strategies for their eCommerce processes. 

So, let’s start.                                                       

#1: Discount Coupons and Points on Referrals 

In the long run, your goals should not only be more customers but also returning and referral customers. 

By introducing points and rewards on the referrals system, you can gamify the eCommerce experience for your website users. This will not only improve the conversion rates of your eCommerce store but also get more eyes on your products whom you can later convert.

Okay, let’s try to explain the benefits you can gain from referrals.

Referrals create a win-win situation. When a referral is complete, you (the referee) get a discount, the person joining up gets a discount, and for the store, it means a double sale. In the long run, the discount costs on referrals can be covered since you have brand loyalty and superior conversion rates. 

The only thing that you need to take care of from your end is the product quality. If the quality of the product is bad, then you’re going to have a bad time getting more customers back to your store. 

#2: User Reviews, Suggestions, and Ratings

User reviews, suggestions, and ratings are one of the most important aspects of social proof indicating a user’s experience with an eCommerce website. 

These metrics are “on the ground” so to speak and give you a gauge of the performance of your eCommerce store and its associated products. 

Now, let’s explain each of these three:

Reviews: Detailed product reviews give you an idea of where you need to improve with your product offering. It also shows others users how satisfied they were with the purchase.

Suggestions: These types of reviews are aimed at providing the website owner with input on how he/she can improve the performance of a website. The prime benefit of suggestions is that they help you build your product quality. 

Rating: The quickest way to gauge the performance of a product, ratings are a bird’s eye view for a product. They indicate whether or not the product is good. 

Now, how do these reviews help in improving conversion optimization? Well, user reviews optimization helps you improve the performance of your store. This leads to better performance overall and can improve customer’s eCommerce experience by a significant margin. 

#3: Minimize Load Times for Your Store

Suppose you’re running an eCommerce store. Things are going well, and your site is gaining more and more customers. However, you’re not getting the amount of traffic that you got before because your site’s load time, for one reason or another, increased. 

This is a problem.

Load times matter a lot and can mean a lot in conversion rate optimization. Think of it from a user perspective. Would you ever visit a slow-loading website if you have a lot of other options available? 

Unless necessary, you’re not going to do that. you can have the best-designed website, but if you haven’t optimized it for load-times, then you’re going to lose a chunk of your customers to the competition. 

Besides losing the competition, slow loading websites have a disadvantage in terms of the Google ranking. Yes, Google penalizes sites that have a slow loading speed. 

To improve the load times of your eCommerce stores, you can use a tool like GTMetrix to check the current performance of your website. Afterward, you can perform the fixes.         

#4: Your Product Descriptions Should Add Value

If you’re running an eCommerce store, your product description content should be optimized to entice the user into converting. 

You see, the product page is where the customer decides to enter or exit your store. If you can persuade the user to purchase the product at that point, then you’ve got yourself a conversion. 

The product copy and the visual content of the product description should be tailored to the users-intent. It should provide benefits that the user can avail. 

How you display your product visually matters a lot as well. You can add custom carousels, infographics, video content, and more. The end goal of all these marketing materials is to ensure that the customer is persuaded enough to convert. 

#5: Multi-Payment Gateways 

If you’re running an eCommerce store, then you need to invest in having multiple payment platforms on your store. 

You see, your users are distributed over a particular geographical area and demographic profile. Because of that, you must understand that not everyone is willing to pay for your products/services similarly. 

Some users are going to pay through credit card, and some might prefer PayPal, and some might just prefer Stripe or any other payment for your eCommerce platform. Whatever their selection is, you need to have those payment gateways present as support for your eCommerce operations. 

Now, why does that matter?                    

If a certain user is satisfied with paying through a credit card, they can do so. If they want to pay through PayPal, they can do so with PayPal. Whatever method they choose, what they won’t do is exit your store.

The CRO Journey is Tough

Now, we’re going to conclude this article by just saying this:

E-Commerce is a perilous journey with many hurdles coming to stop your progress. To avoid these hurdles, you need to follow the best practices for conversion optimization discussed in this article. They are only a few which should be easy to understand. 

We would suggest that you A/B test your offerings as much as possible to ensure that you have multiple strategies. Going with a single strategy is always counterintuitive. It’s always best to diversify. 

So, keep pushing, you’ll get there!