DaBrian Marketing Blog: News, Insights, and Digital Marketing

3 Web Design Essentials for Business Owners

August 10, 2018 by Dabrian Marketing Group Leave a Comment

A good web design is essential to the success of any business. Business Owners and executives have many choices but limited information to make the best decision. The average lifespan of a website is about 3-5 years so you’ll be making this decision often. Here are 3 ways to break down your next web design project:

Invest in Your Web Design based on Needs & Goals

The initial investment for a new website will range from an estimated $3,000 to $20,000. It’s just a matter of getting the features and functionality that you need for your business. The list of options for your web design project included:

Do-it-Yourself (DIY) Web Design: WIX & Squarespace are famous examples of a DIY website. It will cost you about $15 per month for a domain and access to easy to use software to build the website yourself. It will require your time to create and launch the website.
Customize Web Design: A custom web design project usually requires that you hire a freelancer or ad agency with the expertise to make recommendations as well as differentiate your business from the competition. They are often compensated based on design skills, technical skills, time, and cost. WordPress & Magento are popular platforms for custom web development with an hourly rate ranging from $50-$250.
Ecommerce Web Design: Bigcommerce, Woocommerce, and Shopify are a few popular examples of customizable ecommerce platforms. The cost of the platform start as low as $9 per month and some of the ecommerce platforms take a transaction fee (1-3%). Additional functionality sometimes requires the purchase of apps.

Most of these options include responsive websites and support mobile-friendly websites. Consider your businesses users and covers all devices, views, and resolutions that are most common. Don’t confuse a responsive site with Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP). The Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) project is built on top of existing web technologies to enable blazing-fast page rendering and content delivery. The implementation of AMP often requires customization and additional time for programming which will impact the cost of your web design project.

Limit Security Risks with Good Website Hosting Services

Building your new website in the best environment and protecting is many cases is an afterthought. You need the necessary storage and security to support your website features, functionality, and volume of users on the website. It’s not a one size fit all scenarios. There are 3 common types of hosting environments:

Shared Website Hosting: Your website is located on the same server as hundreds of other websites. You can have it for as cheap as $2/month with the average cost in the $5-$10/month range.
Private Website Hosting: A Virtual Private Server (VPS) is still a shared environment and is usually limited to 10-20 websites per server. Price ranges from $25-$250 per monthly
Dedicated Hosting: You have a server all for yourself. Prices start at $50/month and go all the way up to $500+/month.

Hosting environments may include the cost of daily backups, SSL certificate, Content Delivery Network (CDN), staging or testing environment, free migration, and more. Based on your business needs, some of these features are more important than others so consider the quality and limitations such as visitors per month or bandwidth of the additional features associated with your hosting service.

Plan for Website Maintenance: Hourly vs. Plans

The website maintenance can be separate from hosting services and after the website has been launched to the public. Your website will no doubt need to be updated, change graphics, photos, text, and the code. There are 2 standard approaches to website maintenance:

Hourly Rate (“Pay as You Go”): the maintenance is charged at an hourly rate and can range from $100-$300. We charge only per quota (capped every 15 minutes), but this is not the case for every web design agency. Pay as You Go website maintenance clients generally are less of a priority than fixed cost website maintenance plan clients.
Web Support Plans (Fixed Cost Plans): are usually more economical because they are for a prepaid block of hours. The fixed cost web support plans are often discounted by 5-20% off the hourly rate. There is usually a service level agreement that states the how long it will take to implement your requested changes (48 hours).

When evaluating your website maintenance options, consider what’s included in the web support plan vs. pay as you go. Some web maintenance and support plans are limited to content, images, etc. while hourly rate changes usually apply to a longer range of these such as landing page creation, email subscription implementation, etc.

Don’t think your business is covering the 3 web design essentials, give us a call for a free consultation.

Introducing Responsive Search Ads

August 3, 2018 by Justin Miller 2 Comments

How Responsive Search Ads Are Transforming Ad Writing

Google Marketing Live 2018 event was only a few weeks ago. One of the “big” announcements was a new Search Ad Format – Responsive Ads. This is still within Beta, but will be fully available soon. Whether you are able to begin testing Responsive Search Ads now, or just want to be prepared for when it is available, let’s discuss some strategic approaches to these new search ads.

How are Responsive Ads Different

First, stop thinking about Ad Copy as a whole ad unit. We need to start thinking of Search Ads as plug-and-play components. There are Headlines, Descriptions, URL and paths. The current Expanded Text Ads (ETA) allow for a maximum of

(2) x 30 Character Headlines
(1) x 80 Character Description
(1) x URL (your final URL root domain)
(2) x 15 Character Paths

While that was an increase over the Legacy Ads, the new Responsive Ads are even longer. These new ads allow for up to:

(3) x 30 Character Headlines
(1) x 90 Character Description
(1) x URL (same as ETA Ads)
(2) x 15 Paths (same as ETA Ads)

What Else Is Changing?

In addition to the increase in characters allowed, the other, more drastic change is how Responsive Search Ads are constructed. You no longer write a single (full) Ad Copy. Instead, you write multiple (max of 15) Headlines and a few (max of 4) Descriptions. Google Ads (formerly AdWords) then “constructs” the final Ad Copy by using 3 of your Headlines and 1 of your Descriptions.

It is important to know that any of your Headlines could appear as the first, second, or third Headline, but will not be repeated within the same Ad Copy. There is however a “Pinning” option which allows you to pre-select a Headline to only be shown in a given Headline position.

Why The Ad Copy Change

This new approach to treating Ad Copy as components as opposed to a single Ad unit has the biggest impact on Ad Copy Testing. You no longer need to have multiple unique Ads within a single Ad Group. Instead having just 1 Responsive Search Ad in which you write 5 Headlines and 2 Descriptions with a Final URL and (optional) paths, is equivalent 120 Ads. The testing is then automatically done within Google Ads.

After this Responsive Search Ad runs and it becomes clear that certain Headlines and/or Descriptions are being shown more often due to maximized performance, then it is time to start a new test. Rather than writing a completely new Ad or making a subtle change to a current Ad, by replacing a few Headlines and/or Descriptions the auto testing starts all over again.

Are Responsive Ads Better

Since these Ads are still in Beta, the verdict is not in yet. Longer Ads allow advertisers to say more, which going from Legacy to ETA ads seems to be very helpful. The real question here is “Will writing the components of an ad (Headlines and Descriptions) separately and allowing Google Ads to auto create the actual Ad Copy that will be seen by searchers lead to a performance boost? Only time will tell.

Let’s us know your thoughts on or experience with Responsive Search Ads. Are you a fan of the segmented approach to Ad Copy writing or do you prefer to have more control over how your final Ad Copy will look?

4 Steps To Find Your Brand Voice

July 19, 2018 by Michael Sanders Leave a Comment

Congratulations! You’ve just launched a new service and are eager to create a strong online presence. Or perhaps you’ve just been given the green light for your business’s first website redesign since Al Gore invented the internet. Either way, you’re ready to start the process of crafting a winning digital brand strategy. However, before you start shouting your message to anyone and everyone, there are some important things you need to consider.

The Importance of Brand Voice

First, you need to establish your brand’s voice, or how you plan to consistently express your brand through words. While images, videos, and podcasts have grown in importance, text-based communication remains critical to online marketing. Relatable language lends credibility to your message and can contain the keywords that your customers are searching for.

While you can certainly improvise and have some success, by not having a defined brand voice you risk confusing your audience with different messages. And since 83 percent of customer loyalty is driven by trust, mixing your messages makes turning first-time customers into returning customers that much harder.

Instead, consider how you’re going to communicate your value before you start a conversation with the audience. The process can be broken down into four easy steps:

1. Define Your Major Brand Traits

Think of a few words or phrases that describe your business, your product, or your culture. Are you professional or fun? A thought leader or a product innovator? Whatever words or phrases you choose, these brand traits will form the foundation of your company’s marketing efforts and the cornerstone of your brand voice.

The characteristics should reflect the value you aim to provide. Do your B2B customers want to hear that you’re adventurous? Maybe not. But if you sell gaming products, that trait might resonate with a large segment of your target audience.

2. Convey Why You’re Different

Odds are, the traits you’ve chosen to reflect your company aren’t exactly unique. We get it: here at DaBrian, we’re also quirky and authentic. Remember, you’re trying to reach the same buyers as competitors in your industry. This means there’s a good chance that you’re all defining yourselves in similar ways. However, if you can move past the “what” and the “how” to convey the “why” to your listeners, you can quickly set yourself apart from the crowd.

The WHY is about what a company believes in, not about what you make or how you make a profit. So extend each of your key defining traits so that they begin to tell a story. If one of your traits is “irreverent”, have a plan to explain why you’re irreverent. People want to hear your David vs. Goliath origin story, not the latest software features you offer. Influential companies link their purpose with their brand voice to convey why they are different.

3. Give Your Voice a Break and Listen Up

This is a key step that many companies skip in their rush to spread their messages. Don’t forget that the audience you’re trying to reach probably has its own way of communicating. Take a break from developing your own brand voice and tune in to what your peers, competitors, leads, and customers are saying.

Every industry has jargon that you need to be careful to include – or avoid – in your own messaging. Brands that fail to embrace the language of their target audiences come off as outsiders who don’t care about the people they want to work with. Companies that listen develop stronger brand voices, and come across as consultants instead of the latest in a long line of product pushers.

4. Put Brand Voice into Action

Once you’ve agreed on a few unique traits for your brand voice and confirmed that they align with your audience and industry, it’s time to put your plan into action. Extend your voice characteristics to include a few practical “do’s” and “don’ts” for your marketing team. If your brand voice includes “passion”, you might give the direction to include strong action verbs and to take a stand, even on controversial issues. You might also tell your marketers to avoid passive voice and lukewarm endorsements.

Lastly, make sure your team is on-board. Your brand voice needs to be clearly articulated to everyone in your organization as part of your overall brand guidelines. Go through examples of content that hit the mark. And show content that misses the mark, and make suggestions to fix it. Doing so will provide clarity for your content team and ensure that your brand voice is consistent across your marketing channels.

Conclusion

Developing your brand voice is crucial to conveying your brand’s personality and authenticity to potential customers. With just a few unique traits that resonate with your target audience, you’ll be on your way to digital content that builds brand awareness and customer loyalty.

For more information about brand elements to consider when designing digital content, contact us or leave us a comment below!

Before You Use Google AdWords…

June 13, 2018 by Justin Miller Leave a Comment

Although creating an Google AdWords account is easy and free, there is a good amount of preparation work that should be done before paying for your first PPC click. Before you put your company credit card info in AdWords, make sure you can clearly answer the following questions:

What Is The End Goal For Your PPC?

Stephen Covey wrote it best in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, “Begin with the end in mind.” Knowing if you want to build a subscriber list, generate leads via form submissions, or increase online sales, will change your campaign targeting and setting as well as your keywords, call to actions, and extensions.

Who Is The Target Audience For Your Google AdWords Ads?

Know who you want to reach and engage with online. This will impact audience targeting setting including which network(s) to target (Search and/or Display). Are you trying to generate new traffic or focused on driving return visitors via remarketing? This would drastically impact the verbiage of your ad copy and landing page(s). Pairing the answer to the first two questions, will help you write targeted and clear Call-To-Actions within your ad copy and landing pages.

Why Should Your Audience Click On Your PPC Ad?

Without knowing your company’s value proposition, your ad copy on Google AdWords will be very generic and unlikely to get clicks. Make sure you highlight features and benefits that you (and only you) can offer your customers. Give them a reason to click on your ad. Here is the example (with my notes) from Google AdWords Support:

The Headlines hint at who they are targeting – someone looking for insurance within their budget.

The body/ad description line builds trust, offers and discount and the suggested call to action is request an online quote. (Sidenote – don’t forget to leverage Ad Extensions to add more specific details to your ads.)

How Will Your Customers Reach You After Their AdWords Click?

Go through your customers journey yourself. What are they searching, does your ad catch your own attention, and is your landing page relevant and easy to use/navigate? After you have done that once, consider doing it again on a different devices (computer, tablet, or most importantly mobile.)

After, going through these quick questions, you will be prepared to setup and begin running your Google AdWords. As you go through the setup process, keep in mind your target audience and what their needs/wants are. Use your ad copy and landing page to speak directly to their problem/pain points and your solution to them. Ensure your landing pages are as mobile friendly as possible and that your conversion funnel/path can be easily completed on any devices. Once you are ready to go live, start collecting data and reap the benefit of all your preparation work.

Have any questions, or think we missed a crucial piece of preparation work for setting up a PPC campaign, let us know in the comments or via twitter or facebook.

General Data Protection Regulation: What You Should Know

May 24, 2018 by Daniel Laws Leave a Comment

If you’re in the digital marketing or analytics industry, you have probably been inundated by communication from vendors and partners regarding the General Data Protection Regulation, often referred to as (GDPR). Below, we’ve highlighted what GDPR is, why you should care, what impact it will have on your business, and what actions you need to take.

What is GDPR?

GDPR standardizes data protection law across all European Union (EU) countries and imposes strict rules on how personally identifiable information can be collected, stored, and used. The law goes into effect on May 25th, 2018, and all organizations working with the data of EU citizens must comply or face heavy fines. GDPR applies to every business that collects data from customers in the EU, regardless of the company size, location, or intentions.

Why should you care?

GDPR applies to all organizations that handle the personal data of EU residence. Many companies located outside the EU are unaware that the new EU data regulation applies to them. If an organization offers any products, services, or information to EU residents, it must meet all GDPR compliance requirements. Gartner predicted that up to 50% of American firms will not be compliant. Those organizations that do comply with the required transparency should help to build brand trust and equity among consumers.

How GDPR impacts your business?

Fines for noncompliance can be significant. A maximum fine of 4% of global revenues can be applied to companies that fail to gain user consent or violate core data security expectations. Lesser fines of 1-2% of revenues can be applied in situations where a company keeps incomplete records or implements insufficient data controls. GDPR requires organizations to appoint a Data Processing Officer (DPO) for EU government entities or public bodies or a company that either processes or monitors data subjects or sensitive information for citizens of the EU on a large scale.

What actions should your business take?

Below are a few steps that can help guide you for GDPR compliance:

Create Procedures for Breach Notifications
Determine if you’re a controller or a processor. The regulation breaks out responsibility for protecting data into two roles: controllers and processors.
Audit your data and know which technologies are being used on your website
Take the time to understand what data your business is collecting and why.
Review what consent and disclosure look like for your customers. Get the consumer’s blessing on data collection.
Evaluate exactly what third-party processors are collecting, where that data is going and how it’s being used.
Keep a document on data processing and create a process to refresh the documentation periodically
If a breach occurs, take action to inform regulators within 72 hours and be
ready to inform consumers as quickly as possible.

GDPR Impact on the United States

In our opinion, it’s a matter of time before the US government takes action on data collection. With Facebook data privacy being a “hot button” issue currently, antitrust questioning, data collection, and consumer privacy are on the radar of the US government and citizens who watched the Congressional hearings. You would think that the US government is closely watching and measuring the impact of the GDPR to see if it’s worth considering within the US.

Resources:

https://www.pandadoc.com/gdpr

https://www.observepoint.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/GDPR-ASAP-a-7-step-guide-to-prepare-for-the-general-data-protection-regulation.pdf

https://blog.pipedrive.com/2018/03/gdpr-compliance/

https://www.informationweek.com/strategic-cio/security-and-risk-strategy/7-steps-to-gdpr-for-us-companies/a/d-id/1329235?

What to Look for in Hiring a Digital Marketing Agency

May 1, 2018 by Dabrian Marketing Group 5 Comments

In the age of digital marketing, it’s hard to know where to begin or even the different avenues you can take to market your business online. In most cases, digital marketing requires businesses to hire specialists in all areas of digital marketing including PPC, SEO, Social Media, Graphic Design, and Programming, just to name a few. This process can not only be time-consuming for you but costly. By selecting the right digital marketing agency, you can not only cut down on in-house costs of hiring and maintaining staff, but you will be working with experts who stay up to date on the latest developments in the digital world.

So you’re ready to start looking into agencies, but not quite sure what to look for. Here are a couple tips in order to help you select the right one for your business.

Selecting the Right Digital Marketing Agency for You:

You might think that hiring the right agency will strictly depend on performance-based work and the culture of the company doesn’t matter, right? Wrong! Before selecting the right agency, it is important to meet with them and get a feel for their company’s culture. Make sure that it aligns with yours. Ask to meet or speak with the team members that will be working on your account to get a sense of their background and that their vision aligns with what you want. They must take your company’s culture, values and mission seriously.

Figure Out What Kind of Client You Are

A good digital marketing agency will understand each client is different and has different approaches to their marketing and goals. An agency will tailor a marketing campaign that is catered towards your business but first, figure out what kind of client you are and want to be.

“Do It All” Client– Once you have chosen the right agency, your motto is, “Just get it done”. You want all the work done by your agency with little input.

“Do It My Way” Client– These clients have a definite vision of what they want and are hiring an agency to deliver those visions. They are less interested in feedback or collaborating.

Collaborators– These clients want an agency that will sit down with them and strategize the best approach to reach their marketing goals and conversions. The agency and your business will go back and forth to collaborate the best strategy for your business.

Do Your Homework!

If you have never worked with a digital marketing agency, you will want to make sure you do your homework and learn a few things about them. There are many digital marketing agencies out there that will promise their clients the world, and deliver lackluster results. While most businesses are not like this, there are some things to be cautious of when researching a potential agency. To make sure you are hiring the most reliable agency, there are a couple things you can do:

Be cautious of hiring overseas agencies
Hiring the cheapest agency isn’t always the best choice. Sometimes the cheapest equates to low-quality services
Look up agencies on the Better Business Bureau
Reach out to clients in a potential agency’s portfolio and ask questions about their service
Check their credibility: Do they work with similar industries as yours? Do they have an eye-catching website?
Request case studies: Ask to see specific examples of how they have helped their current or past clients achieve success. What did they do to help their clients reach their goals? What steps did they take? What were the results?

Make a List of What You Want

Every client wants something different out of their marketing agency. make a list of must-haves when hiring an agency and follow some of these guidelines when doing your research. There are many different tools a company needs to be successful, but online marketing is definitely the most effective.