Archives for 2017

The Simple Complexity of Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising

March 20, 2017 by Dabrian Marketing Group Leave a Comment

Does PPC Advertising Even Work?

True Story: Recently, I was told that Pay per Click (PPC) advertising does not work. As the Search Manager at DaBrian Marketing, I was naturally curious as to why the person had renounced paid online advertising. After having a longer conversation with this person, I found out that his/her existing campaigns simply did not consider the appropriate keyword match types. The campaigns were not complete!

Yes, If You Do it Right

While the campaigns may have contained relevant ad copy and led users to helpful landing pages, there was no sufficient targeting. In other words: this person’s ads were displaying for a multitude of search queries – many of which did not actually pertain to the advertised product or service.

Only broad match type was implemented without negative keywords. In other words: the person spent a marketing budget on impressions and clicks without considering how to actually gain new customers. For any advertising campaign – including a PPC campaign – to work, it must consider the complete sales-process.

Accomplishing desired goals connected to new customer acquisition requires precise and accurate targeting in PPC campaigns. Like the kind of targeting the gif, below. But, just with a much happier ending: more sales for your business rather than a concussion. Using several match types (broad modified, phrase, exact, and others) as well as negative keywords could have prevented several unwanted impressions and costly clicks for the person in this story.

Make Your Ads Count & Stop Wasting Money

For your own paid online advertising, eliminate wasted ad spend by ensuring that your ads are reaching the right target audience with the right search queries. Create well-managed keyword groupings that:

1) Cover a host of in-the-moment needs for your potential customers
2) Filter out users that are searching for content that is irrelevant to your business.

When you account for these factors, your PPC campaigns will effectively create impressions, clicks, conversions, and ultimate sales for your business.

For in-depth knowledge about this topic, download our white paper on PPC Keyword Match Types.

When have you seen a badly targeted paid ad on Google or Bing?

Tell us about your experience in the comments to hear from us. Or, just give us a call for fast help and improvement of your PPC account.

How SEO Can Help Your Auto Business Outrace The Competition

March 13, 2017 by Dabrian Marketing Group Leave a Comment

Traditionally, automotive marketing techniques have been rather standard. Car dealers and shops may have bought billboards, ads in the newspaper, and maybe even produced a corny, but fantastic commercial (you’re welcome).

Like that commercial, these marketing methods are outdated. Now that we live in a digital world, it’s time for your business to switch gears and go full-speed ahead with digital marketing. Here are four SEO tips that will help increase your automotive business’ online presence and overall sales.

1. Dominate The Local Market

As a car dealership or an automotive shop, your target audience is predominantly local. Knowing this, it’s imperative that your automotive business invests in local SEO. Major search engines, such as Google and Bing, have updated their search algorithms over the years to place a heavy emphasis on locality. Search engines do not only evaluate your company’s website but also other local listing platforms – including Google My Business, Bing Places, Yelp, Facebook, and an array of others. In order for search engines to accurately pinpoint your business, your contact information (name, address, and phone number) must be consistent throughout the web.

Think about local SEO as if it were the dashboard of your car. When icons appear, it means there are issues that need to be resolved. The icons represent your website, local listing profiles, and other websites with your information. Your car is your overall digital presence. In order for your marketing efforts to be successful, you need to make sure these issues are taken care of. Don’t ignore them!

Like your cars, your customers are always on the move. People are searching more on their mobile devices than desktop. How does this impact the automotive industry? Well, Think With Google reports that 1 in 3 car shoppers who use their mobile devices as part of the car purchase process also locate or call a dealer on a mobile device. By not having your information listed accurately across the board, you’re missing out on potential sales.

2. Your Content Is Your Sales Pitch

Being a good salesperson is an art and a science. You need to make the customer feel welcomed, informed, and persuaded to take action. The same is true for the content on your site. Your website is not just another asset to own. It’s a marketing and sales tool. A basic website is basically like buying a lemon – it’s useless. Provide your customers with all the information they’ll need online (price, features, reviews, etc). This gives them peace of mind knowing they have all the details, as soon as they need them. It helps build trust in an industry that is typically associated with not being trustworthy (like this shifty car salesman).

Aside from the technical/product details, be sure to convey emotion and storytelling through your content. Purchasing a car is an emotional, long-lasting process. It needs to feel right.

Your content is not just confined to the text and pictures on your website. It also encompasses video. Video marketing is a huge opportunity for the automotive industry. And no, I do not mean producing more commercials like the one in the beginning (although, it just may be the greatest thing I’ve ever seen). According to Think With Google, 69% of people who use YouTube while buying a car are influenced by it – more than TV, Newspapers, or Magazines. The top 3 most popular types of these videos are test drives, feature & option overviews, and vehicle walkthroughs. The time spent watching these kinds of videos has doubled in the past year.

It all comes down to being open with your customers. You need to speak to them online as if you were trying to make a sale in-person. The more transparent you are, the more likely someone will feel comfortable enough to make such a big financial decision.

3. Search Results Come With Added Features

Search results are no longer just your traditional top 10 organic results. Now, they contain paid ads, local listings, social media, images, videos, news, and more. And, if the results have changed, so should the measurement.

While rankings do matter, they do not paint the entire picture. In order to keep up in the digital race, you need to analyze your competitors and the industry norms to see what kind of search marketing methods are happening and what type of content is being disseminated. If your competitors are active on social media, creating great videos, and are listed in local, they are going to appear before the organic listings. It would behoove your business to do the same.

4.Link Earning: Win The Race With Help From Others

A huge part of having an effective SEO campaign is link earning (often referred to as link building). Link earning is the process of obtaining high-quality links from other reputable websites. This not only helps your overall exposure, but links from other sites also pass link juice (fun, right?). The more high-quality links you can receive, the more reputable search engines will deem your business. This places your site higher within the rankings and makes it appear more often for your desired audience. If you own a car dealership, an extremely important link is from the corporate website. For example, if you’re a Ford dealer, you need to be listed on their “Find a Dealer” tab.

Link earning can also help with your local awareness. By acquiring links from influential organizations within your community, your local search visibility will increase. And, if you didn’t skip to the end of this blog and you read numero uno, you’d know that local is kind of a big deal.

On Your Mark...Get Set...Go!

The entire automotive industry, including your competitors, is moving towards digital marketing. Don’t get left in the dust! Use the SEO tips listed above and start competing for first place.

Have additional questions surrounding automotive marketing? Leave them in the comments below!

By: David McDowell

Why Your Business Might Need a One Page Website

March 6, 2017 by Mark Mapp 1 Comment

Among businesses throughout the world (and, possibly the universe), one page websites are becoming increasingly popular. Just take a look at this list of one page websites
from Awwwards. They go by several names – including “single page” and “pageless” web designs.

While there are lots of benefits to using this simple, visual, and text-light design, this doesn’t mean that a one page website is always the right choice, though. A perfect example is Parallax Scrolling – an often-used pageless layout. It emphasizes flat design and responsivity of background images. However, its use is limited to certain templates because of technical aspects of its programming.

Before you implement a one page website, decide whether or not it is right for your business and your unique marketing goals. If the following attributes sound like your business, you will most likely benefit from a single page or pageless web design.

1) Your Business Tells a Story

A continuous scrolling experience creates the perception that you are actually reading a continuous narrative or story. Each section naturally leads to another section because the bottom of each is a cliffhanger to the opening of the next. MayeCreate Design would agree with us on this one.

As a result of no links to other pages, it is necessary to develop interactive features on your website – such as animations or lightboxes. Digital Telepathy discusses this in a recent blog post. Since users are always contained within that single page rather than multiple pages, you can easily concentrate their focus to engaging features. This means that your website is really a funnel to a contact form, subscription, or purchase that gets you in contact with users (UXPin Studio’s blog post). Every story leads to an ending.

2) Limited Content

For businesses with a small number of major products or services, a one page website would definitely be a helpful way to display that information. Without numerous offerings or plenty of content, save time and money by conserving the amount of space on your website (UXPin Studio’s blog post).

Also, straightforward or proprietary service-related strategies benefit from a one page website. If you technically or legally can’t talk for pages and pages about your business, use what suits you. Like shopping for clothes, a small amount of content needs a right-sized website to maximize users’ engagement.

3) Selling Your Business a Whole Experience

Often, businesses sell products or services that nearly always go together. A single page layout is perfect if you usually end up selling your offerings as a package rather than as individual choices.

Users read about all of your offerings on “one page” or within the same space. This emphasizes that your products or services go together.

4) You Want Your Customers to Get Through the Website Fast

It is rarely the case that a business wants users to spend hours or even days visiting and returning to a website. The point is most often to drive profitable traffic to your office or phone, ASAP.

Pageless web designs are effective ways to quickly escort users through a brief introduction before generating meaningful interactions and conversions. WholeGrain Digital will tell you the same.

5) You Want Your Website Cheap

Finally, what probably matters the most to you: the cost of one page websites. Good news! They are often dramatically cheaper than traditional layouts because of the consolidated amount of space and streamlined content (Digital Telepathy’s blog post).

On the Other Hand...

Again, be mindful that a one page website is not right for every business. This kind of web design might make it difficult to track data in Google Analytics and make the time to load your website longer (WholeGrain Digital’s blog post). So, if you’re focused on measuring or analyzing your website’s performance, a single page web design might not be your cup of tea.

In the end: you don’t want to make the decision to use or not use a one page website without the help of digital marketing experts (you know, like the folks on our team #shamelessplug). There are lots of aspects of your business to consider – including those listed, above.

Seen any well-designed one page websites? What do you look for in an interactive website? Let us know what you’re thinking in the comments, below. Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter to get more digital marketing advice.

DaBrian Marketing Group Hires Nick Davies as Web Designer

March 1, 2017 by Dabrian Marketing Group Leave a Comment

Nick Davies contributes his expert-level knowledge, skills, and abilities to creating and implementing web designs, photography, and videography for clients of DaBrian Marketing Group, LLC.

1 March, 2017 (Reading, PA) – DaBrian Marketing Group, LLC hires Nick Davies as the full-time Web Designer to collaborate with rest of the agency’s team members to create diverse digital marketing materials for clients.

As a graduate of Full Sail University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science & Graphic Design, Nick delivers creative ideas and innovative work to the team at DaBrian Marketing. His daily tasks include formulating new designs for clients’ websites and downloadable content, creating and implementing photography into advertising campaigns, as well as filming and editing video marketing.

Nick operates as a valued member of the Creative department at DaBrian Marketing. He most often collaborates with the Creative Director, the Copywriter, and the Inbound Marketing Manager to ensure that all visual elements of clients’ digital marketing match their goals and generate profitable results. This involves Nick in every stage of the development of marketing materials – from brainstorming, to web design, to copy fitting, to implementation.

A welcomed new addition to the office, Nick gave the following statement:

“I’m excited to be part of the DaBrian Marketing team and I am looking forward to creating some great work with them.”
With additional experience in print design and social media marketing, Nick is a flexible team member that aids in not only designing websites but also the materials that lead users to those websites. This results in a consolidated, streamlined creative process for the rest of DaBrian Marketing’s team. Whether it is a printed brochure, a paid advertising campaign, a promotional eBook, a fun video, or an entire website, Nick devotes his unique and varied skill-set to the collective efforts of DaBrian Marketing Group, LLC. This allows the digital marketing agency to create work that increases brand awareness and improves user-experience.

About DaBrian Marketing Group, LLC

Founded in 2008, DaBrian Marketing Group, LLC is a full-service digital marketing agency, focused on providing original and strategic digital marketing solutions for businesses, that want to create digital awareness, increase return on investment (ROI), and identify insights that not only will help achieve goals but will also help to increase your business’s efficiencies. DaBrian Marketing Group’s services include email marketing, digital branding, search engine optimization (SEO), Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising, web design, web analytics, social media marketing, and more. Company headquarters is centrally located at 500 Penn Street, Suite 201, Reading, Pennsylvania 19602. For more information about DaBrian Marketing Group, visit dabrianmarketing.com or call 610.743.5602.

Nonprofit Marketing Tips for 2017

February 27, 2017 by Daniel Laws Leave a Comment

Nonprofits have several challenges in attracting individuals for their causes and converting those individuals into donors. To successfully promote and supply aid to those causes, nonprofits’ marketing efforts need consistent branding, effective use of Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and efficient use of marketing budgets to grow donations.

Based upon the economic climate and the job market, getting millennials and other individuals to donate to your nonprofit will become increasingly challenging without the following tools.

Build Your Nonprofit Brand

There are so many great nonprofits that it can be difficult for yours to stand out. Building and establishing your brand will help. Start by defining your nonprofit. Clearly state what makes your organization unique:

Why should people donate time and resources to your cause?
How do you emotionally or personally connect with your donors?
How do you directly affect your cause?

Answering these questions will build awareness and credibility for your valuable service and distinguish you to donors, everywhere. Once your brand is built, all parts must be consistent within your disseminated content – your flyers, social media posts, and videos. Live it and show it!

Master Your CRM & Database of Donors & Volunteers

Email marketing continues to be an effective marketing channel for nonprofits. People like to see positive messages from companies that do good work. To get the most out of your email marketing, organize your CRM database to personally reach out to donors and volunteers.

Don’t just send mass emails; make them count by generating unique interactions with individuals through certain segments of your audience. Identify what information resonates with these individuals to provide them with relevant information.

TIP: Personalizing your message to an individual will make her/him feel more connected to your cause.

Direct Mail to Make a Direct Impact

Direct mail isn’t dead! According to Inman, baby boomers have a high direct mail response rate. It’s worth noting that this generation also controls 70% of all disposable income. So, they have the money to donate to your nonprofit – don’t miss this opportunity!

Use your CRM to measure responses and limit direct mail to audiences that are more likely to take action. In other words: target your direct mail to those people that are going to make your nonprofit an effective source of aid for your cause.

Grow Your Online Fundraising

Social media and Google for Nonprofits are great opportunities to increase your online fundraising through awareness and meaningful interactions. You can bring your nonprofit marketing story to life with YouTube, Google One Today, and Google Earth Reach.

These platforms allow you to create valuable relationships with like-minded individuals from anywhere at any time. Share and connect your online fundraising across the globe.

Measure Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) and Market Smarter

Focus on measuring the ROAS of your marketing and fundraising campaigns. If a campaign didn’t yield results to justify the spending or effort, consider changing the approach or discontinue that campaign in the future.

With continuous shifts in demographics and consumer behavior, you’ll need to make informed decisions on where to allocate your time and money for long-term success. When you consistently measure the performance of your efforts through your ROAS, you will stay alert to those shifts.

What marketing struggles does your nonprofit consistently face? Tell us in the comments, below! While you’re at it, make sure to subscribe to our newsletter.

Content Marketing Is Like Being a Parent

February 20, 2017 by Dabrian Marketing Group Leave a Comment

Content - A General Word for General Stuff

Quite literally: your content is any text (also known as “copy”), imagery, video, or other material that engages consumers. In other words: content is everywhere and on everything. When you engage in any digital marketing – digital branding, paid online advertising, social media marketing, search engine optimization, or web design – you will be creating and using content.

But, that’s just it! Once you create and use your digital content, the job’s not done. The biggest mistake that you can make is believing that your content doesn’t need to grow up.

Congrats! You’re a Proud New Parent

When you create content for your new website or digital campaigns, you basically become a parent to that content. Just like any good mom or dad, you’ll want to give your new baby constant attention. After you actually create and implement content onto web pages, email campaigns, or social media posts, measure your content’s performance.

Identify the areas of growth that you want to see and that define your business’ success. Keep track of how those areas change with your new content being used. If there is any room for improvement or progress, make necessary changes. Increase your business’ generation of leads by always enticing your target audience to click or call.

Your Content’s First Steps

It’s the moment that every parent loves, the most: your baby starts to learn how to walk! In the same way, your digital content needs to learn how to navigate your target audience to where they need to go. Continuously guide your content marketing to include new facts, consider new members of your audience, and feature new copy or visual material.

A recent article from Think with Google stresses the importance of every second in a consumer’s search for your products or services. Your content must always be relevant to what paying customers want at the moment that they search. Keep one eye on the path, ahead, by understanding trends in consumers’ behavior. Keep the other eye on your content to make sure that it’s walking in the right direction – profits.

But, don’t worry if your content falls down a few times. Creating effective and relevant copy, videos, and designs requires time and lots of practice.

Treasure Each Micro-Moment with Your Content

As your content starts to mature, you’ll also notice that the world keeps on changing, too. Technology always advances and consumers’ behavior keeps adapting to it. Your content must do the same.

Consumers searching on mobile devices are often moving around their local areas. Whatever they’re trying to find, they most likely need it, NOW. They want informative, helpful content that solves their problems at that very location. How can your digital content do that if it’s still a baby?

Another article from Think with Google reports that approximately 61% of people on smartphones will probably buy from websites that adjust their content to specific locations (data from Wave 3 & Google/Ipsos). If your content isn’t changing to meet consumers’ spontaneous and local needs, your content is unsuccessful. Protect your content from failure by creating new material that reaches and informs your audience at the right moments.

Before You Know It, They’re All Grown Up

That’s right. Sooner or later: your digital content is going to be a great success:

Your ad copy will inform searchers and emotionally attract your audience.
Your imagery will show consumers what they need in that very moment.
Your videos will answer any question that a potential customer has.

Create and implement effective content throughout your digital marketing campaigns. Measure the results with insightful analytics. Continue to optimize and refine your content to generate the leads and sales that you need. Always adapt your content to reach the right audience at the right time and place.

Your Content Will Always Be Your Baby

Just like parenthood – content marketing is a process that is never truly finished. But, it’s all worth it when your content raises your company’s revenue.

Need help raising your digital content, the right way? Just leave a comment and you’ll hear from us. Or,contact us to chat about your current digital marketing plans.