Email Marketing

5 Ways to Get Customer Insights from Google Analytics & MailChimp

August 29, 2016 by Daniel Laws Leave a Comment

Businesses are always attempting to understand customer behaviors more accurately. MailChimp (email marketing service) provides businesses with the ability to send promotions, automated follow-up emails, and a lot more. Unfortunately, it doesn’t automatically connect the email marketing metrics with your website’s Google Analytics metrics to gain an understanding of what people did after clicking a link to your website. Here’s some information to help you understand the purpose and get more data to improve the effectiveness of your email campaigns through Google Analytics and MailChimp:

Implement Basic Set-up Google Analytics & MailChimp

The integration between Google Analytics and MailChimp gives businesses an opportunity to track email marketing campaigns within analytics. It goes beyond the standard email marketing metrics within Mailchimp and into the customer’s behavior after leaving the email to browse your website.

How to Integrate Google Analytics with MailChimp?

Annotate Google Analytics with MailChimp Launch Dates

In many cases, your email campaign will be opened within 48 hours after the launch. Did you notice any incremental customers on your website, new leads, or online purchases? By annotating your Google Analytics account correctly, you will be able to see any incremental activity.

A/B Test Email Marketing Campaigns with MailChimp

Email marketing campaigns are used to increase awareness of an offering or generate leads and sales. Why not test which email marketing elements are leading to awareness, leads, and sales with A/B testing? With MailChimp, you can test elements such as subject lines, who it’s from, content, and delivery time. When Google Analytics and MailChimp are integrated, an email marketing campaign that’s associated with the A/B test will be visible within Analytics too.

Create A/B Test Campaign with MailChimp

Track Users Across Devices with MailChimp IDs & Google Analytics

Your potential customers are using multiple devices (tablet, mobile, and PCs) to compare offerings or products. Track your users across devices with a MailChimp ID to see which devices generate leads and sales. You’ll need the Google’s Universal Analytics code on your website. Set-up a User ID view within Google Analytics. Add the MailChimp ID to the links within your email campaign. Finally, send the User ID to your Google Analytics.

Create a Custom Dimension in Google Analytics for MailChimp User ID

The User ID is not a dimension in Google Analytics, so you’ll need to create a custom dimension for your reporting. Again, you’ll need to use Google Universal Analytics. Go to the Admin section within Google Analytics and click on “Custom Definitions”. This will allow you to access “Custom Dimensions” to name your dimension and Scope. Go to “Custom Dimensions” to name your dimension and Scope (hit) to create it.

I only touched on the capabilities for integration between Google Analytics and MailChimp here. I encourage you to implement these and see how it impacts the top of your email marketing campaign funnel (delivery > opens > click> website > conversions). Send me any thoughts or issues that you’re having with Google Analytics, MailChimp or your email marketing platform.

Why Your Small Business Needs Digital Marketing

August 8, 2016 by Dabrian Marketing Group 4 Comments

As a business owner, your time is precious, budget is limited, and your hands are always full with a thousand different things. Currently, you have a website and are running ads in the local newspaper, but you know it’s not enough in today’s digital world. In order for your small business to be competitive in your respective industry, you need to utilize digital marketing.

Why Your Small Business Needs a Digital Marketing Agency

By hiring a qualified and reputable digital marketing agency, you will gain an entire team focused on your goals and objectives without the additional salaries and benefits to your payroll. As easy as it is to hire a digital marketing firm, you can just as easily fire them if they’re not performing to your standards. You pay for performance. Simple as that.

You will have more time to focus on your area of expertise. There are a lot of facets involved in digital marketing as you can see in the word cloud below.

You don’t have the time to learn it all, let alone manage it effectively and efficiently. You will quickly become overwhelmed. Hiring a certified partner agency with the likes of Google, Bing, Hootsuite, and Big Commerce, you won’t have to waste time training employees. An agency will allow you to hit the ground running as you and the agency focus on the areas of expertise you each possess.

Digital Marketing Helps David Fight Goliath

Digital marketing helps level the playing field. Done properly, it allows you to reallocate your marketing investment and target the audience you want to reach more efficiently. An agency will utilize their expertise and experience and be able to show exactly what is working and what’s not via analytics. The best practices large corporations use are the same ones an agency will (or should) be using. Let them use their expertise so you can use yours.

The fact is, many companies are still not utilizing digital marketing, so there is a real opportunity to grow quickly. This is especially true when you can eliminate the learning curve and hire a certified partner agency right from the start. They live and breathe SEO, PPC, email marketing, social media, click-through rates, and conversion rates. An agency understands that your success is essential for their success and ultimate survival. That is a rather big motivation, wouldn’t you say? So you’ve waiting long enough, hire a certified partner agency before your competition does.

For more information about our digital marketing services, leave a comment below or call us for a free consultation!

Stay Connected With a Social Media Certified Partner

August 1, 2016 by Dabrian Marketing Group Leave a Comment

What’s all this Hoot-n-Holler about Hootsuite?

Hootsuite is a social media management program which helps consolidate a variety of social media platforms into one location. From Twitter to Facebook to LinkedIn and even YouTube, Hootsuite gives us the ability to check posts, images, comments, reviews, likes, hashtags, and more all on the same page.
We can create individual posts to immediately share or schedule it for a later date and time. We can also bulk-upload an entire month’s worth of content at once. It shortens links (called ow.ly links) within the posts to allow for more room to write (which is extremely helpful with Twitter’s limit of 140 characters).
Hootsuite has many integrations. If you use MailChimp for your email marketing or WordPress as your website builder, there’s an app to include updates and track your activity. Tracking information through Google Analytics can be easily transferred into a Hootsuite analytics report for an easier way to disseminate the results.

Team Up With Hootsuite Certified Partners

Being Hootsuite certified requires us to take lessons on how it operates and pass an exam with a grade of 95% or higher. We understand the platform and know each of its capabilities (and there are a lot, believe us). As an agency partner, we have a point-of-contact on their staff that will immediately answer any questions or assist in solving any issues. Whenever any changes occur within the platform, we are the first to be aware of them. We are on Hootsuite every day monitoring the accounts, responding to customers, and making recommendations for your company, so we are completely knowledgeable on what it can do.

Hootsuite’s Analytics reports display just how well your social media accounts are performing and we always explain them, thoroughly, for you to understand.
Since we’re in-the-know, you’re in-the-know. You will never have a slacking social media marketing campaign if you’re on our team.

How We Use It to Help Your Company’s Social Media Marketing

Whether you have a campaign that you’re interested in implementing or you’re not sure what you should be doing with social media, we will work with you to get started. Whatever ideas you may have, we provide you with feedback on what will work the best. We work with you to develop a unique hashtag, customize the imagery, and figure out the distribution of posts across all accounts.

We will track specific keywords, hashtags, and geocodes (those are keywords within a particular location). Whenever someone mentions your industry or business, we will know about it. We will collaborate with you in order to provide the best customer service to your digital customers or prospective customers. We will represent your brand in its entirety; from tone of voice, to language, to imagery and video.
We won’t let you struggle like this social family.

If you’re ready for a kick-ass social media marketing campaign to connect with an assortment of current and potential customers, chat with us about what we can do for you.

DaBrian Marketing Group, LLC Hires Logan Bucks as Inbound Marketing Manager

June 28, 2016 by Dabrian Marketing Group Leave a Comment

Reading, PA – DaBrian Marketing Group, LLC hires Logan Bucks for the new position of Inbound Marketing Manager.

Responsibilities of the Inbound Marketing Manager at DaBrian include the application, maintenance, and growth of clients’ social media accounts, email marketing campaigns, and all other forms of digital content. The Inbound Marketing Manager’s tasks are to evaluate the use of social media, email, and content, attract a client’s targeted audience through paid and organic initiatives, and promote services or products through a voice that matches the client’s unique brand. Answering customers’ questions, promoting discounts or sales, sharing a company’s unique culture, and building a company’s brand awareness are just some of the major goals of the Inbound Marketing Manager at DaBrian.

Logan Bucks is a 2016 Kutztown University graduate with a dual-major B.S./B.A. in Marketing and Management. Bucks, a former intern at DaBrian in 2015, demonstrates her skills and abilities to understand and utilize the world of social media, email marketing, and digital consumer behavior to improve clients’ online presence. She is a valued new addition to the close-knit team at DaBrian Marketing Group, LLC.

President and CEO, Daniel Laws gave the following statement: “We’re happy to have Logan back at DaBrian Marketing Group and we look forward to her continuous growth and valuable contributions to our team.”

Visit the team page of DaBrian Marketing Group, LLC’s website to learn more about Logan and the rest of DaBrian’s personnel.

Five Cause Marketing Must Haves

April 4, 2016 by Dabrian Marketing Group Leave a Comment

Whether you’ve just begun the process of organizing your company’s cause campaign, or you’re stuck in a rut feeling overwhelmed by the many marketing tactics available – take a breath and read about these five Cause Marketing must haves.

1. Authenticity is Key

Support a cause that you truly care about and your supporters will show compassion just the same. There’s nothing worse than being asked 6 times in one day if you’d like to donate to [insert cause here] by kids being forced to ask simply to meet their job requirements. There are also plenty of cause marketing email and content templates out there that you could lean on for support, but don’t be cookie cutter, break away from the norm! Show you care! Tell your story, show your support with pictures of you and your team working towards a common goal, get creative all the while remembering why you’re donating your time.

2. Start with a Bang!

If your cause campaign is directly reflected by fundraising dollars, get a head start and donate your own personal contribution in the beginning. Ask your employees, coworkers, and those closest to you to donate right away. Later on down the road, you may formally request another donation and it may seem more feasible to donate again. Or if donations are not your apart of your cause campaign’s goals, start by generating content, branded materials, or signage for the initiative right away. No better time than right now to get started!

3. Give more than Dollars

Even if the Cause Campaign goals your company is working towards is simply to gain monetary donations, show your support by donating your time or resources. Non-profit agencies usually have a lack of support in consistent volunteers. According to a 2015 study of The Nonprofit Sector, only 25.3% of adults volunteer at least once during a year. Your time and efforts may be just what your local non-profit for your favorite cause may need.

4. Involve your team in Cause Marketing

Your coworkers or employees may not necessarily care about the local animal shelter losing funding, but just a small amount of time with a friendly dog might change anyone’s perspective! Encourage your team members to find their niche. Involve your IT department in decorating instead of troubleshooting issues for the local cause office, they might just love it! Allow your team to learn more about themselves while engaging with the cause at hand.

5. Use your Resources!

Reach out to your clients, vendors, the UPS delivery person, everyone you know. Ask for help in support of this cause by any means. You could even get your message across on Social Media! Utilizing Facebook Ads, pinned posts, check-ins at a cause’s homefront, etc. can broaden your audience to people you may not have connected with without the use of Social Media for cause marketing. Don’t forget to change your social media “Timeline” or “Background” photo while you’re logged in! Show your team spirit for this cause with a fresh themed background photo. Utilizing your company’s Email Marketing platform, you can also send out emails to your clients and contacts. You can even change your signature in your personal and professional email that notes your interest in your favorite cause and how your recipients can participate. Gather your resources and initiate a plan of attack!

Get on the Right Track for Cause Marketing

Starting down the road to raising awareness for causes you care about and even driving donations may seem insurmountable. With the help of friends, family, your coworkers, and strangers, you don’t have to feel alone. Also remember that 55% of those who engage with nonprofits via social media have been inspired to take further action. You can’t beat those statistics! Show your support and let other follow!

For more information about cause campaigns and how we can help yours grow, contact us or leave us a comment below! Also, check out our latest cause campaign initiative for our local Walk MS event!

Common Myths of Digital Marketing

October 7, 2015 by Daniel Laws Leave a Comment

As an ad agency owner, I speak to a number of prospective clients throughout the year. It’s very common for people to have misconceptions about the advertising business but in some cases, these issues are common myths. With that said, below are my replies to common myths to help understand our industry, services, and agreements:

Website Hosting is all the same!

WordPress is one of the most popular Content Management Systems (CMS) and powers an estimated 24% of the internet. Contrary to popular belief, it’s important that you update most CMS’s for security purposes and that includes the themes and plugins. Only 36% of all WordPress websites are the most up-to-date version and that doesn’t include the plugins which means that the website is a security risk.

My Website Works for me!

Define “work”? According to Webster, work is: activity in which one exerts strength or faculties to do or perform something. What function is your website performing for your business and do you have the metrics to prove it? Is it an online brochure or does it generate visits, collect form information, or drive sales? If not, can you truly say that it’s working?

Paid Search doesn’t work for my business or my industry but You ran it!

Let’s be honest, it didn’t work because you’re not a marketing professional, you don’t have the time, don’t know the AdWords or Bing Ads platform, you can’t code/program landing pages for your campaigns, and that’s just for starters. The AdWords and Bing Ads platforms are tools for your business, so learn how to use them or get a certified AdWords or Bing accredited professional to handle it for you!

I’m B2B, Don’t Need SEO or Digital Marketing, and My Prospects know me!

According to Google, 89% of B2B researchers use the internet during the B2B research process. So, you are missing an opportunity to differentiate your products or services from the competition. Purchasing a product or service is a human behavior, and those decision-makers are doing the research and are also the ones signing-off on agreements or purchases. When was the last time you saw just the company’s name on the dotted line or the signature on the check?

Every agency is certified for Paid Search, Really!

Depending on the source, there are an estimated 32,000 up to 55,000 advertising agencies in the United States. There are a few thousand certified AdWords Professionals but only a few hundred Google Partners within the United States. Each of the Google Partners have unique budget limits for new clients and individual industry expertise. So, not all agencies are certified for paid search and I would estimate that only 25% are Google Partners.

Don’t Need Social Media!

80% of small businesses use social media websites for monitoring and collecting information about competitors to their businesses (Source: Socialmediatoday). In addition, existing customers are discussing your products or services which leads to research, purchases, and product/service reviews. Many businesses are using social media as part of their customer service as well. I guess there is no need to collect information on the competition, promote your products or services, or listen to customers.

I use social media but I don’t need a content strategy

What’s the plan and how do you know if your posts are useful for your fans, followers, friends or connections? You’re talking but is anyone listening? Even worse, you’re the diva on social media that only talks about themselves, doesn’t share others social posts, or interact with others! Let’s identify your target audience and share information that’s useful to them. You might even be considered an expert and start discussions about your products, services or industry.

We’re using Email Marketing

So, you have a Constant Contact account but you’ve got no email marketing plan, no metrics to gauge success, limited integrations with your customers database, no automated follow-ups, and everyone gets the same generic email. Constant Contact encourages contact management, list segmentation, and other features. If you’re going to use email marketing, maximize your time and leverage the email platform to it’s full capacity to generate leads, sales and save you time.

The Ad Agency didn’t do their job

You paid for a website redesign project with hosting but making changes to the website, content, or security updates are not in the agreement. Now, you’re upset because you don’t know how to make changes and the website hasn’t been updated in months. Also remember that you updated the website for a strategic reasons so what metrics did you want to improve and were these metrics improved? Review the agreement and understand what it is that you are paying for. In many cases, there is a specific reason for the estimate from ad agency to ad agency and the devil is in the details.