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DaBrian Marketing Blog: News, Insights, and Digital Marketing

Design Solutions for the Mobile Web

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The introduction of mobile devices, such as smart phones and tablets, has given people the ability to browse the web and complete additional task on the go. In January, 2014, mobile devices accounted for 55% of the internet usage in the United States with mobile apps making up 47% of the internet traffic while 8% came from mobile browsers. This was the first time in history mobile app usage eclipsed desktop usage (45%). This continual growth in mobile device usage also created several issues in the web design and web development workspace. Designers and developers now have to compensate for how web pages are being viewed on these devices as well as choose the best solution to implement.

This week, we’re going to walk you through the three most common design solutions for the mobile web.

Mobile Websites

The initial way of handling the mobile web experience was by creating an entirely separate website just for mobile. A good example of this is ESPN’s website. If you type http://espn.go.com/ into your browser window in a desktop setting you will be taken directly to their “desktop” version of their site. However, if you type that same URL into your smart phone or tablet’s browser you will notice that it will redirect you to their mobile version of the site and the URL will reflect m.espn.go.com/wireless/index instead.

This direction was effective, but it still created several issues. Mobile websites often have completely separate content and a bit less functionality in comparison to their desktop counterparts.

See other advantages and disadvantages of mobile websites here.

Websites designed for mobile devices.

Mobile Apps

Another solution for catering to the mobile web is developing a mobile app. This is not to be confused with a mobile website. Unlike mobile websites, mobile apps work independently of a browser and they don’t depend on an internet connection for general usage. Mobile apps are popular for linear processes, or processes that have a starting and an ending point. They also have the ability to utilize mobile device hardware such as credit card readers, cameras, and GPS locators.

A good example of this would be bank apps like Wells Fargo, or Bank of America that would allow you to scan your check with the use of your mobile phone or tablet which would then allow you to make a deposit into your bank account. You can browse and download other mobile apps from the Google Play Store from your mobile devices as well. The main disadvantage of developing a mobile app is that you have to create code for three platforms (namely Apple, Android, and Blackberry). The code is not universal and cannot be implemented across platforms.

See other advantages and disadvantages of mobile apps here.

Responsive Design

Responsive design is currently the best solution for mobile web development (See Google’s Mobile Guide). It is considered the best solution because it is one website, one URL, and one set of HTML code which allows the website’s content to be displayed on wide variety of mobile devices at multiple resolutions. Some good examples of responsive design are the Microsoft, Adobe, and BlueSky Interactive websites.

Responsive design can be a bit more costly to develop than your standard desktop website, but the low maintenance advantage of creating content for only one URL vs. multiple URLs saves time and money in the long run. In addition, having one URL is better suited for SEO related purposes.

Websites utilizing responsive design techniques.

Conclusion

Although all three solutions are proven ways of designing for the mobile web, in 2014 responsive design is the solution of choice. From our experience, responsive design is the simplest solution to the mobile design problem and has been the most effective for our web design projects.

Now that you are familiar with three design solutions, you are now able to make a better decision on which one is best for you and your company.

Which mobile design solution would you choose? Let us know in the comments below!

Why Paid Content Marketing Should Be on Your Radar

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Content marketing is at the top of every marketer’s mind. How to plan it, how to execute it, and—most importantly—how to dive in and pull with the most value from it. The problem is, since content marketing is becoming such a blanket term that encompasses social media, email, video, and everything else, it can be difficult to dial in to the combination of tactics that generates maximum ROI.

A big issue we’re seeing in the space isn’t around content development processes, best practices, or even how to go about measuring content marketing’s effectiveness. For a lot of businesses, the problem lies in getting the right message in front of the right people. We know that operating different areas of the content marketing machine in isolation is a recipe for disaster, so we’ll have to tackle this hurdle at the source—building awareness around the content being produced.

Taboola content promotion network

Paid content distribution (sometimes called “content syndication”) is the practice of paying to distribute content to users via a third-party site. If you’ve ever read a blog post and seen a “Sponsored from around the web” section near the bottom of the page, that’s one way that content syndication works. As with anything digital, platforms vary in both price and functionality. Let’s start by covering why you may want to consider incorporating paid placements into your content strategy.

Benefits of Paid Content Syndication

Gain Exposure – Generally, the value of paid content syndication comes from the quality of the message itself; not how much you spend or how enticing your ad copy is. This value is perceived as more genuine and, thus, more likely to drive business results.

Streamlined Process – In order to get started syndicating content, you often don’t need anything more than a budget and a URL. If you already blog as part of your content mix, it’s just a matter of selecting a choice few to get started.

Customization – In order to make sure the right people see your content, solutions are available that allow you to control targeting settings, whether by location, age, or interests. This ensures you’re not wasting your budget on uninterested users.

Easy Measurement – Nearly every content syndication solution has built-in analytics that are no-nonsense and allow for simple CSV exports. For the more advanced marketer, custom URL tagging is supported as well.

Taboola content promotion network

Now for the Drawbacks

You’re probably thinking that you’re completely sold on paid content marketing. We’d advise taking a quick cautionary step before you head down that path, though. Some drawbacks of taking your content marketing to this level include:

It’s not a silver bullet – Paying for this kind of visibility isn’t the end-all be-all content marketing tactic. That means it may work in conjunction with more proactive outreach, or it may not work at all. In other words, your mileage may vary.

Potentially high costs – Our research shows that this type of approach warrants a more substantial monetary investment (Between $300 and $500/month at the low end). For small or medium-sized businesses, this may be problematic when it comes time to divvy up the annual marketing budget.

The time investment – Put simply, if your content doesn’t provide value in some way, it won’t be worthwhile to pay for its distribution. As your budget dwindles, it won’t take long to determine whether the content you’re pouring money into is sub-par.

So is paid content syndication right for your business? Unfortunately, it depends. As noncommittal of a response as that is, the decision to invest in this type of marketing should not be made without answering some fundamental questions:

  • How much do you currently invest in your content marketing program?
  • Has your content been well-received by your audience in the past?
  • Are you looking to build a wider audience or interact with existing ones?
  • Do you have well-defined policies and procedures around your brand’s messaging?
  • How have you measured the value of content marketing up until now?

Whether you’d like to get your brand name out there, showcase your expertise, or generate more buzz around your message, paid content syndication can be a great way to start building those relationships. So long as you’ve got something meaningful to say and a way to measure success, it’ll be well within your reach.

Have additional questions before pulling the trigger on paid content syndication? Ask yours in the comments!

2015 Social Media Wish List

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In this video, Steve Groller and Jim Doherty discuss the biggest social media marketing gifts Santa forgot to leave under our trees in 2014.

Here’s to a New Year of social media success, useful integrations, customized business solutions, more efficient management, and killer reporting!

1. Desktop Notifications

Social media is a really fast-paced environment from a marketing standpoint, and I think it’s important that there’s a one-to-one connection with the intended audience. It can be a big disconnect from a brand standpoint if that communication is stalled or delayed by a certain degree of time.

A lot of social media platforms in 2015, we’re looking for that more instantaneous notification system. A lot of them have those notification systems, but they’re very mobile-based; they’re not so much desktop-based. And throughout the day, a social media marketer might not be on their mobile phone, on that mobile application as much as they might be on their desktop. And most social media marketers might have ten lists open with five or six tabs, and might not have the time or even the inclination at some points of the day, to scroll through and refresh each one of those feeds. But they would rather have that notification system, whether it’s a desktop pop-up or an email or something along those lines to let them know about the important things that are going on behind the scenes.

2. Realistic Upgrades

So the beauty of social media management solutions is their ability to integrate with other third-party solutions, whether it’s a CRM or whether it’s an app, different analytics platforms. That connection is great for businesses that have existing platforms but want to bring and tie all the pieces together.

A lot of these solutions say that all of these integrations are coming forward and they’re in the pipeline and they’re in the works, but none of these transitions actually translate into meaningful data that we can use.

So one thing that we wish for in 2015 and moving forward from these platforms is a more clear distinction between the expected roll-outs for updates and integrations and for better data, for better features, and what actually makes it to the platform at the end of the day.

3. More Robust Reporting

For any business that has made the foray into social media, one big challenge that we’re seeing is the ability to justify the expense and the investment, and show a return on investment for their activities on social. And for the most part from the marketer’s standpoint, that falls to reports. Reports of progress, reports based upon activities they’re doing on the networks and that sort of thing.

So from a reporting perspective, the visual interpretation that we’re able to provide to our clients and to upper management is key in our industry, especially when social media is becoming more visual in and of itself; that holds true for the reporting aspect as well.

So that’s why we hope for, on our wish list for 2015 for social media, that a solution comes around that can strike that balance between great looking visuals, customizable information, and quick exports into a presentable format.

4. Small Business Solutions

For a small to medium sized business to only be able to manage three of their accounts on a free version of a solution usually is problematic. Usually if they’re a local business, they have more than just a Facebook, a Twitter, and perhaps a Google+. There are other platforms that are very valuable to their business such as review platforms like FourSquare and Yelp. If they do videos on a regular basis, their YouTube is also probably a very important social asset.

There’s often a big disparity between the features any business needs and the features that really are catered to an individual person, so where you might want to run a campaign or a contest or something a little bit more elaborate for your small business, in most cases that costs an exorbitant amount of money in relation to how much you pay just to use the platform on a monthly basis.

In 2015, we’d like to see more middle-of-the-road options for small and medium sized businesses who don’t want to necessarily break the bank to run a contest or a promotion, to incentivize their customers to connect with them, to have a more meaningful relationship with their customer base, and eventually turn that social media traffic into foot traffic.

What items are on your social media wish list? Let us know in the comments!

2015 Guide to Kickstart Your SEO Strategy

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The office holiday parties are over, the gifts have been opened, and the New Year’s ball has dropped! 2015 is officially underway and so it’s time to move you and your clients’ SEO strategy into this year and beyond. If one thing is certain, it’s that big changes to the organic search algorithm are on the way. With that being said, here’s your guide to the big ticket items that will impact your 2015 SEO strategy.

Improve Organic Search with Mobile Devices for a Successful 2015 SEO Strategy

According to the November 2013 Google/Nielsen Mobile Path to Purchase study, search is the most common starting point for mobile research. Mobile organic search and smartphone usage continues to increase and makes information accessible in real-time. This trend undoubtedly will continue in 2015. But it won’t just be about finding your products or services; it will be the entire mobile user experience across multiple devices (tablet and smartphones) and operating systems. Focus on having customers find you, navigate seamlessly, and discover relevant content based on their search terms.

The mobile components in your 2015 SEO strategy will be more important.

Use Different Content Types with Intent in Mind

There are “different strokes” for your different audiences, so it’s important to use different content types for search platforms (images, videos, text) as well as considering demographics, interests and a user’s intent. For example, are customers looking for product instructions, directions to a storefront, or comparison shopping? I would recommend that your content represent the brand voice and follow brand guidelines for consistency. Regardless of the different content types, organic search does not exclude branded search terms and your brand can and will appear in different forms. By diversifying your content, you’ll have more opportunities to achieve the goals of your SEO strategy.

Search terms and varying types of content will be a major factor in SEO in 2015.

Invest in Video as Part of Your SEO Strategy

Based on a recent eMarketer study, watching videos is on the rise, so have you given thought to communicating with your customers with video content? More than 77% of all tablet users will watch video programming on their devices at least monthly, and that penetration rate will grow to 87% by 2018, totaling 149 million tablet video viewers. My recommendation is to start brainstorming, create relevant content, optimize your videos, and leverage video platforms that connect prospective customers to your brand. Consider transcribing your videos into text to improve visibility and additional link earning as well. And remember, YouTube isn’t the only video platform on the planet! Find the best fit for your brand’s message and pursue it.

Build Relationships to Strengthen Your Organic Search Strategy

In my opinion, brand relationships will be critical to driving SEO strategies in 2015. I use the word “relationships” because it’s about the people and the relevant content that’s associated with them (what brand advocates like vs. what your prospective audience likes). By building relationships, you will increase visibility for your brand, create linking opportunities, and engage with influencers that resonate with you as well as your brand. Think about ways to develop an effective outreach program and reconnect with bloggers, journalist, reporters, etc. to get you started.

Develop Your 2015 SEO Strategy with Metrics and Milestones

Take a look at your mobile organic search traffic, assess your existing mobile design and organic search from mobile devices (smartphones and tablets). Identify opportunities to help customers find you, navigate seamlessly via mobile and get to your most relevant content. Test new ways to diversify your content with customer intent in mind. Find opportunities to build relationships via social media, but don’t be afraid to pick up the telephone (they’re people too)! I would recommend re-evaluating metrics/KPIs, establishing benchmarks associated with your organic search strategy’s past performance, setting targets or milestones, and connecting periodically within internal contributors to gauge progress.

Ready to ring in the New Year with an updated SEO strategy? Share your story in the comments!

Marketing Tips for Businesses in 2015

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This week, we’re pleased to feature a guest blog post from Ivan Serrano, a digital journalist hailing from Northern California. If you’d like to catch up with Ivan, you can hit him up on Twitter!

The New Year is a time for change and a fresh start. Whether your 2014 marketing strategy was solid or not, it’s time to look to the future and make some necessary updates for 2015. The most important ingredient for marketing success now and in the future hasn’t changed though: You must know your customers and understand what they want. These marketing tips can hopefully steer you in the right direction and give you some ideas for your own digital strategy.

Digital marketing tips for 2015.

Go Mobile

It is clear that it is becoming an increasingly mobile-first world. Worldwide there are over 7 billion mobile devices with smartphones making up 25 percent of the total. If you haven’t already gone mobile, now is the time to embrace it as more people expect brands to offer mobile optimized websites. While this might require a complete overhaul of your site, approaching your site design with a mobile- first mentality will lead to more traffic. Consider this: 61 percent of people will immediately navigate away from a site if it isn’t mobile-friendly. When revamping your site for mobile, use a responsive design instead of a new mobile site. A responsive site will automatically adjust your webpage to fit on different screen sizes.

Don’t stop at your site though. Make sure you optimize your email messages for mobile as well. Surveys suggest that 80 percent of mobile users will delete emails if they are not optimized for their screen. Keep your emails easy to read with larger fonts and a simple layout.

Use Long-tail Keywords

Over the years, people’s searches have moved more towards long-tail keywords, as it produces more personal and relevant results, especially with the increasing popularity of mobile. Choosing the right long-tail keywords can be difficult but there are several options you can use to find the best ones for you:

  • Google Keyword Tool or other similar services
  • The meta tags in your competitor’s source code
  • Common keywords on comments, forums and emails

Once you have identified the long-tail keywords relevant to your business, create unique content around it. Do not try to stuff all of your keywords into one post though. Instead, spread it out among several posts or pages. Not only will your content sound more natural, you will also attract the right audience to your pages. As an added bonus, the more pages you have the more likely your site is to appear in someone’s search results.

Personalize Your Communication

With so many businesses and sites vying for people’s attention, it is no longer enough to just send out a mass email or post a generic update and expect to see results. People now expect a level of personalization to their customer experience. Without it, they will move on to your competitors. Personalization isn’t necessarily difficult, but it will take some time. You might already dabble in it with your social media accounts by responding to comments and directly interacting with your followers. In 2015 you’ll need to go a step further by personalizing every interaction your audience has with your company. Some important examples include:

  • Emails – While including a person’s name in the subject of the email can increase open-rate by 22.2 percent, you can go a step further by tailoring your message to suit the customer. Where do they live? What have they bought from you in the past? How long have they been subscribers? If you take all of these into account you can create a more personal email message that will lead to a higher CTR.
  • Content – Before you publish another post or update, take your audience into consideration. Do they prefer videos or case studies? What influencers do they go to for information? Create a profile of ideal customer and then base your content around what they want.

Go Local

95 percent of mobile users have used their device to perform a local search, with 88 percent taking action within a day of the search. Local search has become so prevalent on mobile that Google has included location signals in their mobile algorithm. The quickest way to go local is to include your address, phone number and email on the homepage of your site. Make sure you add a click to contact feature so customers can easily reach your business with a single tap.

Incorporate Videos

The growth of video as the major form of content will continue to increase as more social platforms incorporate it on their sites. Video will no longer be about just providing a polished viewing experience; it is moving more about providing experiences to the viewer and starting a conversation.

Usher in 2015 with a Solid Marketing Plan

Personalization will be the name of the marketing game in 2015 as people become more selective with what they choose to read and watch. Adjust your marketing plan accordingly and then continue improving throughout the year.
How do you intend to update your marketing plan in 2015? Tell us in the comments!

Rackspace vs. GoDaddy Hosting Platforms

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Rackspace eCommerce Platform

A new contender has joined the eCommerce competition. Rackspace is a UK-based web hosting company that boasts some premium services, but they have been known to be on the expensive side. Compare them to GoDaddy, the widely popular (and often less pricy) eCommerce hosting company, and it might seem like the decision between these two is easy. Let’s see how these two eCommerce platforms stack up against one another.

Rackspace eCommerce Hosting

Some advantages of Rackspace include…

  • They have nice diagnostic tools like page load speed checker and downtime cost calculator. Those alone can make a huge difference for webmasters when it comes to troubleshooting issues on an eCommerce site.
  • They have reliable hosting and rarely experience outages.
  • If your eCommerce site receives a sudden influx of traffic, Rackspace can easily manage the bandwidth.
  • Rackspace is well-known for their excellent security. We have yet to see them make a list of
    “hacked hosting companies.”
  • Rackspace offers multiple eCommerce software options, including the ever-popular Oracle and Magento.
  • In our team’s experience, Rackspace has had excellent customer and technical support.
  • Rackspace has 24-hour support, so there’s no need to worry if you ever have an issue.

The disadvantages…

The price. Their lowest eCommerce package is $300 a month.

Rackspace
Rackspace

GoDaddy Hosting

Some advantages are…

  • Pricing for GoDaddy is much less expensive than Rackspace–you can generally get hosting packages in the $5-$10 a month range.
  • In a span of 5 years, they have been reported to only of been down for 6 total hours. That’s quite impressive, even though they have received more media coverage than some smaller hosting companies.
  • There are several various add-ons you can implement on your eCommerce site (though most of them require you to purchase access to them). The add-ons differ from Rackspace; Godaddy’s add-ons are more along the lines of email, SSL, domains, etc.
  • They have 24/7 customer support.

The disadvantages…

  • Even though they have round-the-clock support, we’ve noticed that we often get transferred through several departments before we get to someone who can help solve our issue(s).

Because they’re so popular, they’re usually targeted for malicious attacks. So even though they claim to have excellent security, they’re not completely protected from hackers.

GoDaddy
GoDaddy

If you are a smaller eCommerce company that does not max out its bandwidth and uses little space on your server, then GoDaddy may be your best bet. If you have a larger or resource-intensive website and choose GoDaddy, you may find yourself dealing with customer service a lot. To save yourself that time and aggravation, you may wish to check out Rackspace and determine if the higher cost is the most effective business decision.

Have a question about these two eCommerce platforms? Leave us a comment below!