There are a few questions you need to ask yourself if you are trying to answer the question, “Do I need a new website?”
Every so often, we sit down in front of our computers, open our homepages and ask ourselves this: Do I need a new website? It is a tough question to answer. On the one hand, we tend to have a particular affinity for our website. We designed it and, in the case of small and medium-size business owners, hand picked all of the elements that went into it. To say that it is no longer useful or requires a major overhaul is hard to admit.
These are a few questions that we need to ask ourselves, as objective marketers, to determine whether or not we need to take that leap and completely redo (or update) our existing website.
Is your website responsive?
Today, it is significantly less expensive to develop a completely responsive website than it used to be. That said, it can still cost a pretty penny.
People want a seamless and optimized experience on every device that they are using. So, if your website is not responsive and is completely warped on non-desktop (i.e. mobile) devices, you’ll leave a bad taste in the mouths of visitors to your site on those devices.
If your site, like so many others, is built with WordPress, finding a responsive template can be an easy fix. That said, if you’re looking to add some serious customization, it can start to take some time and the costs will definitely shoot up.
To check if your site is responsive (or, rather, how responsive your site is) you can take a look at a tool called Responsive Design Checker.
Do you feature a clear call-to-action above the fold?
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These are all examples of very clear calls-to-action, and you need to review your site to see if it features at least one on every page, preferably above the fold.
Granted, not every site needs to have a call-to-action that bold right in the face of visitors. Sometimes a soft call-to-action can do wonders for conversion, leading to people taking action without even realizing it. That said, if you want to see conversion, you’ll want to ask for it.
So review your homepage and the most visited/important pages on your site. See if you’re asking people to take an action and, if not, where that call-to-action might be best suited.
Are your social profiles easily accessible?
Your social profiles should be readily accessible on every page, and it should be made very clear that they exist. Too often, websites insist on hiding social profile links in the footer of a website. They should be a much more prominent component.
Your social profiles need to be treated like the valuable assets they are. Your website visitors are more than likely going to research your brand on social media as thoroughly as they do on your website. So, you shouldn’t hide these profiles in order to maintain a level of transparency online.
And speaking of the importance of social…
Is your content easily shareable?
Today, social signals (links built through social sharing, or, social SEO) are among the most important criteria for building your brand’s online presence. If you have a blog or share important information on your website (which you more than likely do) you’ll want to be sure that this content can be shared to social media.
Whether you’re working on a CMS like WordPress, Drupal, Hubspot or you’ve built something customized, you’ll want to ensure that social sharing is fully integrated.
When you have valuable content on your website, you should be encouraging your audience to share it with these kinds of soft calls-to-action. Without social sharing capabilities, it will be that much more difficult to get your content out there and making the rounds in the socialsphere.
Do you have a mobile version/app of your site?
There is a difference between a responsive site (see the first question) and a mobile website. While you certainly want to have a responsive construct, you may also want to take it a step further and feature a mobile app for your mobile visitors to enjoy.
This can either be a native app or a web-based mobile app of your site. The difference here is really in the experience. You want people to easily navigate your content whether they are on a desktop or on their mobile device. The best way to do this is to have something that is easily navigable and features a whole bunch of mobile-specific elements.
While a purely responsive website that adjusts to the screen of a mobile device is a great, big step in the right direction, it is not the only step that needs to be taken to fully optimize your web presence.
So, do you need a website?
If you went through these questions and answered “No” to the majority, it might be time to start considering a website redesign.
The world of the web moves at lightning speed, and it can be hard to keep up. What works today might be obsolete tomorrow, but these are a few staples that need to be incorporated into any optimized website.
If you would like to discuss the development of a new website, or would like to know more about building a new website, feel free to contact t2 today!
How Often Should You Post to Social Media [INFOGRAPHIC]
/by Corey PadveenHow much is too much? How little is not enough? This infographic does a pretty good job of answering those questions.
One of the more popular questions marketers tend to ask relates to how often to post to social media. The truth of the matter is simple: the frequency with which you post will differ based on both the industry in which you find your business and the qualities of your audience. That said, there are some basic guidelines that serve as a starting point when considering where to begin.
This great inforgraphic from Spokal does a great job of analyzing current trends, aggregating that data and providing us with a guideline which can easily be followed when deciding how often to post to social media. Though you might find that, with time, your strategy might change, this will help get you off on the right foot.
Things to Remember when Creating Goals in Google Analytics
/by Corey PadveenWhen creating goals in Google Analytics, there are a few things that we need to keep in mind.
Goals in Google Analytics can be extremely valuable. They allow us to identify where we are finding success, and when we dig down a little further, we learn a lot about our audience’s behavior. But when we create our goals in Google Analytics, there are a few things we need to remember.
Give Your Goal a Proper Name
This seems trivial, but it is an issue that so many marketers deal with on a regular basis. When you create a goal, give it a clear name that you can recognize at first glance, instead of something generic like ‘Goal 1’.
This might not seem like a major issue at first, but as you begin creating new goals and your list grows, you will notice that it becomes much more difficult to track which goals are which. Eventually, when trying to edit your goals, you will have to sift through them one by one in order to find the goal you are trying to change, and the time this takes is simply not worth skipping this small detail.
Set Up a New View
The last thing you want to do is learn the hard way that Google does not back up your data. Contrary to what you might think, there is no secret archive of information should you make a mistake and lose some of your data. It is simply gone. So, when making changes and creating goals, do so in a new View.
Creating a View is simple. Go to your Admin dashboard, scroll to the absolute right, open the dropdown menu and create a new view. It’s there that you should do all of your goal testing. Figure out what goal composition you would like to work with, and once you have found it, apply it to your primary dashboard.
Consider Assigning Monetary Value
Just because your goal is not related to a purchase, and you may not even have an ecommerce website, it does not mean that you shouldn’t be assigning monetary values to certain conversions.
Consider this simple example: you create a goal that registers a conversion every time someone signs up for your newsletter. If the lifetime value of a customer is a nice, round $1000, and you know that you can convert exactly 10% of your newsletter subscribers, then you can assign a value to each conversion of $100. Of course, this makes life fairly easy, but this is an example of how you should start thinking about your goals in monetary terms.
Avoid Generic Goals
Creating a very broad goal will not necessarily help you improve your online operations. Of course, if you are trying to track for purchases, then you’ll create goals with those parameters. But if you are trying to leverage goals in an effort to learn more about your audience, get granular.
Instead of simply creating a goal that tracks a certain number of pages visited, include funnels and filters, and separate your goal in a new view in order to truly dig into the data you are seeing. You have the potential to create up to 25 views with basic Google Analytics, that means you can segment your data significantly and really learn about your audience in great detail.
Verify Your Goals
When creating a goal, you will notice that there is a small option at the bottom of the screen to verify your goal. This is a great practice and one that you should be familiar with when creating your goals.
By verifying your goal, you are able to see how many conversions there have been in the past seven days. If you were to create a goal that simply didn’t have any conversions, you would think that there was something wrong with your website or your marketing. The reality might be that you made a mistake when creating your goal (e.g. typing in 30 pages visited instead of 3) or your goal simply didn’t reflect your audience’s activity. All that can be avoided by verifying the goal before you get started.
Useful Social Media Advertising Tips for Beginners
/by Corey PadveenWhen it comes to social media, there are few areas that can be more powerful than social media advertising, and these social media advertising tips will help you get the most out of a campaign.
It is no secret that the social media space is increasingly favoring the pay-to-play model for brands and businesses. That being the case, we are starting to see a move by many users towards social media advertising. Whether you are building your social presence, launching a new product, or driving conversions from untapped audiences, social media advertising can be a powerful tool. But it is important that you are using it properly.
These social media advertising tips are really presented as thought points that should be considered when deciding to venture into the space. Though social ads are cost-effective, you still want to make certain that you are not wasting any money by simply throwing it at a network and hoping it works.
Know Thy Target Audience
Target audiences are extremely important on social media, and that is particularly true for social ads. With so much noise online, we need to ensure that we know exactly who we are talking to. When developing your social advertising campaigns, have a particular audience in mind for the message as opposed to a generic one – it will lead to significantly greater conversions.
Use Relevant Content
Once you know your audience, you’ll want to make sure that the content you plan on promoting is relevant to their tastes and preferences. One of the greatest benefits of involving one’s brand on social media is the amount of information that is available about your audience. Determine what type and tone of messaging will work and create that ad.
Don’t Boost Your Account
It might seem enticing, but one of the most futile ad types are the promoted account ads. While these ad formats might generate positive results in terms of audience growth, we have moved away from the days where a larger audience means a more valuable social presence. With a targeted message and a clearly defined audience type in mind, you will find that your ads not only garner engagement, but acquire new fans and followers as well.
Take Advantage of Additional Features
Simply boosting a post to your friends and fans can be somewhat useful, but to really get the value out of social advertising, take full advantage of its capabilities! In Facebook’s Power Editor or in the advertising backend of Twitter, you will find several additional capabilities, like Custom Audiences and Twitter Cards. Learn all you can about these features and then incorporate them into your campaigns.
And on that note…
Study the Social Advertising Landscapes
Social advertising is much more than “boosting” your content. If you have decided to begin taking advantage of the social advertising landscape, you should be taking the time to learn everything there is to know about the platforms. As noted above, there are a lot of valuable features that can be exploited in the backends of these programs. Figure out what they are!
Pay Attention to Your Ads
Throwing a budget behind some content will yield average results, but you want your results to be above average! Keep a close eye on the activity of your social ads and make adjustments where you see opportunities. Real-time ad optimization is a great practice, and one that will keep your operation profitable.
Avoid Optimized CPC
Bid for yourself. Optimized cost-per-click does not yield the best results. It is significantly more convenient, and the results are not bad. But again, you don’t want your campaigns to simply be average! Once you understand how these ad platforms work, start bidding for yourself in order to extrapolate all the potential that you can out of every penny you invest.
Keep some of these tips in mind when you decide to begin your journey into the world of social media advertising!
What other practices have you found valuable? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!
Social Media Trends to Watch in 2015
/by Corey PadveenThese are a few of the more exciting social media trends to watch for in 2015.
Each year, industries are shifted dramatically as multiple use cases are made for social media and new technologies emerge to disrupt business as usual. This was true in 2014, and there are several social media trends to watch for in 2015 as well.
More Hosted Video
Facebook has made it abundantly clear that if you want your video to be seen, you’ll have to load it directly to the network. Twitter has also made similar efforts and it won’t be long before other networks make the same move.
With so much competition for users’ business, networks need to offer both users and businesses reason to not only visit the network, but stay active. Encouraging business to post videos directly to a network feed (as opposed to sharing a link to an external video sharing platform like YouTube or Vimeo) and running autoplay (for better or worse) as users scroll through their recent updates is one way we will see networks’ landscapes change in the coming year.
Malleable Data
Both Facebook and Twitter have made drastic changes to their analytics platforms for business, and Pinterest has been working to offer some of the best analytics businesses can get when it comes to how their websites and social profiles work together. Moving forward, we can surely expect to see the use of social data become a little more robust.
It is no secret that social data can offer huge amounts of value to a business, and it is a primary reason why businesses are willing to accept the pay-to-play model that is being pushed. Moving into 2015, we can expect the major networks to begin working on ways to monetize their own data by offering more comprehensive uses for it to businesses. Right now, brands tend to look elsewhere to mine and leverage these data. Expect these networks to try and change that this year.
And speaking of pay-to-play…
Get Ready to Invest
It might have started off as small (or rather significant, in some cases) declines in organic reach on Facebook, but we are now seeing that if we want our content to make waves, we’ll need to give it a little push.
The great news for brands and marketers is that we are living in a golden age for social advertising. We recently ran an internal test in order to measure the effectiveness of new ad media compared to traditional PPC ads on networks like Google and Google Display, and we found that for some of the most competitive search terms, your dollar can be up to ten times more effective on social media. If ever there was a time to invest heavily in social advertising, it’s now.
Remember, these networks are still companies (several of them public) trying to prove their oft-ballooned valuations. They need to make it appealing for marketers to invest.
You’ll Hear Less of the Term ‘Social Media’
For the longest time, we’ve been hearing things like, “…do social media.” In 2015, one thing we will start to see a little less of is the use of the term “social media”, at least as we see it now.
We have started to pigeonhole ourselves into thinking of social media as a concept, and not as the term it is. The reality of the situation is that virtually any medium in which two or more parties are put in contact with one another is inherently social. So, “social media” can be anything from big networks like Facebook to the comment section on a food blog. Once people start to see that (and they have already) we will see a move away from this overuse of a term that doesn’t quite make sense as its currently used.
A More Targeted Message
One thing that brands have struggled with considerably is the messaging and rhetoric used on social networks and the clear lack of audience content differentiation necessary to effectively leverage what each network can offer. For example, your Twitter audience doesn’t necessarily care about the same issues and isn’t necessarily made up of the same people as your audience on LinkedIn. What’s more, your overall social audience (or, social client persona) might be interested in only one type of messaging in particular, and this message might apply to all networks.
In 2015, there will be a clear move away from the attempt by brands to please everyone and a move towards an attempt to zero in on a particular audience – your social client persona.
Conclusion
These are just a few of the social media trends we can see taking shape in the coming year. That is not to say that there won’t be more, and it certainly doesn’t mean that these will be the only ones. Every second of every day, something new comes up and all of these trends might fall in order of their importance to something new. We will just have to wait and see.
What social media trends can you see taking shape in 2015? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!
The Most Anything of Everything in 2014
/by Corey PadveenEvery year, it is always exciting to see what trends made it to the top spots on every one of our favorite search engines and social networks. Here are the winners from everything in 2014.
It is always exciting to see the results from a year of searches, tweets, posts, shares, comments, and everything in between. This past year, there were a few interesting results in different categories (perhaps most notably, the fact that Apple or Apple products were not in the most searched keywords on Google for the first time in years) and much of what you would expect to find.
So, here are the results for the most anything of everything in 2014!
Google/Search
Top 10 Searches: Robin Williams, World Cup, Ebola, Malaysia Airlines, ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, Flappy Bird, Conchita Wurst, ISIS, Frozen, Sochi Olympics
Facebook
Top 10 Most Discussed Topics on Facebook: Ebola, ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, Robin Williams, Super Bowl, Michael Brown/Ferguson, World Cup, Gaza, Midterm Elections, Malaysia Airlines, ISIS
Facebook Game of the Year: Cookie Jam
Facebook Best Mobile Game: Boom Beach
Most Viewed Facebook Ice Bucket Challenge (USA): George W. Bush
Most Popular Celebrity Page: Shakira
Most Popular Brand: Coca-Cola
Most Engaged Brand: NBA
Most Engaged Movie: The Hunger Games
Twitter
Most Tweeted TV Show: Walking Dead
Most Tweeted Artist: Justin Bieber
Most Tweeted Theme: Selfie
Most Tweeted Sporting Event: Super Bowl XLVIII (followed closely in 2nd and 3rd by FIFA World Cup matches)
Most Tweeted TV Event: Oscars
Most Tweeted Song: Pharrell Williams, ‘Happy’
Most Tweeted Hashtag: #WorldCup
Most Retweeted Tweet: The Oscar Selfie
LinkedIn
Most In Demand Employer: Google
Most Engaging Post Type: Pro/Career Tips
Instagram
Most Popular Account: Justin Bieber
Photographer of the Year: David Guttenfelder
Most Liked #TBT: Justin Bieber
Most Popular Hashtag: #Love
YouTube
Most Viewed Video: Katy Perry, ‘Dark Horse’
Most Subscribed To Channel: PewDiePie
Vine
Most Popular Vine Accounts: Nash Grier (10.3 million followers), KingBach (9.7 million), Brittany Furlan (8 million), Jerome Jarre (7.8 million), Curtis Lepore (6.8 million)
It might seem like this is everything we have seen in 2014, but knowing the speed at which these media move, this is likely just the beginning! There is surely much more to come as we come closer to the holiday season and there will undoubtedly be plenty more in the coming year.
As we head to the downtime of the year end, we would like to wish all of our clients, fans, followers and readers a very happy and healthy holiday season, and a very happy New Year!
We’ll see you in 2015!
The Rise and Fall of Big Data Hype
/by Corey PadveenWe are still a few years away from fully utilizing big data, but we have now moved past all the big data hype.
Every year, Gartner releases their Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, and in 2014, we can see that big data hype is on its way out, and we can now start to focus on its practical applications, rather than focusing only on the broad concept itself.
Source: Gartner
We can clearly see that there are five stages of response to emerging technologies, and when we look at where things like the Internet of Things (right on top of the Peak of Inflated Expectations) and Speech Recognition fall (in the Plateau of Productivity), we start to get an understanding of what these different categories are.
Essentially, in the lifecycle of an emerging technology, use cases, excitement surrounding and responses to a product or concept vary considerably based on where the product or concept falls in the hype cycle. It is once it leaves the Peak of Inflated Expectations that we can begin to identify its real, valuable applications and it can be applied to a variety of markets at scale.
Where was ‘Big Data’ before?
For a long time, we have found big data in the Peak. Some examples of this are sites like Spurious Correlations, and Google Flu Trends. There is a lot of hype, but little value pulled from the applications. Moreover, there is little proof of concept.
With regards to business applications, the concept of big data was shrouded in hype and preached with excitement, but there wasn’t much of a business case made for quite some time. We knew that the vast amounts of data that were being collected could be beneficial to our operations, but for the time being it was simply unstructured data that could be used in a few tests and unproven methods.
Slowly, people started to realize that, while the applications could be developed, they hadn’t yet been perfected.
What is meant by ‘Disillusionment’?
As we can see in the chart above, big data is headed in to the Trough of Disillusionment. What exactly does that mean? Will we see the abandonment of big data by some brands, or even entire industries?
Not quite.
Essentially, as people begin to get somewhat of a grasp on big data – at least conceptually – they are beginning to feel a degree of disappointment in what it can currently offer. There are quite a few companies that have found unique, creative and valuable ways to use these data sets, but for the majority of brands (even the majority of industries) this has not yet been the case.
Currently, the big data hype that we have seen surround the fields of marketing, sales and operations is dying down. People are realizing that there is no magical solution that will be made clear simply by “using” big data. Data sets are tools, and brands are starting to realize that in order to use these tools, they need to become intimately familiar with their inner workings within their own brands and industries.
What is coming next?
Though the big data hype seen over the last few years may be quieting down, it does not mean that the applications surrounding big data will be abandoned. There are still plenty of startups and established companies that are looking for new and useful ways to use these data so that we eventually find ourselves in the Plateau of Productivity.
Now these data are being pulled and used for things like predictive analytics, business intelligence and other exciting emerging fields. The key for brands now is to think about data on a micro scale.
It might sound somewhat paradoxical, but in order for brands of all sizes to start taking advantage of their data, they will need to approach it on a smaller scale. When large brands have hundreds of terabytes if not petabytes of data, they can afford to run comprehensive tests because there are proofs that can be found within these data. For smaller brands that might not have all that information, they need to think about their information somewhat differently.
Looking at smaller data sets that are specific to a given initiative, social network or ad campaign can provide plenty of valuable information ranging from targeted audience, to high-performing campaign types to rhetoric on social media that outperforms the competition.
Thinking about data in this way will help move us through move us through to the Slope of Enlightenment, and eventually allow all brands to be as productive as possible using their data.
Leveraging Employee Advocates [INFOGRAPHIC]
/by Corey PadveenBrands rarely take advantage of one of their most valuable assets: employee advocates.
Employees are among the most valuable resources a brand has at its disposal. There is an entire network and secondary network of users working for a brand, and by leveraging employee advocates, a brand’s message can very quickly surpass benchmarks for reach and engagement.
This great infographic from GaggleAMP shows exactly why employee advocates are so important, and makes a great case showing how brands should be leveraging this asset at every turn.
4 Ways to Identify Growth Opportunities on Google Analytics
/by Corey PadveenGoogle Analytics is a hugely valuable resource when it comes to measuring the performance of your website, and the majority of marketers tend to use Google Analytics for these superficial measurement criteria.
Digging a little deeper into our reports, we can begin to identify a lot of opportunities that can lead to significant growth and increased conversion rates on our website.
These four tactics are just a few of the great ways in which marketers can begin to leverage opportunities on Google Analytics for a lot more than simply measuring web traffic.
Behavior Flow – Conversion Traffic
Under your Behavior menu on the left hand side, the second option down the submenu reads ‘Behavior Flow’. Flow charts exist in several places on Google Analytics, and they can provide some deep understanding of how your content resonates with your audience. The benefit of the Behavior Flow is that is can be a crucial component in ramping up your content marketing efforts.
Screenshot taken 7/14/2014 on https://www.google.com/analytics
When looking at the Behavior Flowcharts, we can see a number of columns that outline exactly what actions were taken by visitors. Ultimately, we would like to see visitors convert. Whether a conversion is registered through an ebook download, a newsletter signup, or an actual purchase is up to you. But in using this chart we can see exactly what course of action led users to the most conversions. With this information, we can begin strategically directing visitors to specific landing pages that, historically, lead to higher action rates.
User Flow – Minimizing Drop Offs
Just as we can use the Behavior Flowcharts in order to identify opportunities for conversion, we can use the information provided in your User Flowcharts to increase average session durations, decrease bounce rate and increase pageviews per session. When we look at the chart, we can see dropoff rates expressed by red bars.
Screenshot taken 7/14/2014 on https://www.google.com/analytics
In keeping with the content marketing motif noted above, we would want to share only that content that leads to higher flow through rates and smaller dropoff rates. (HINT: The landing page with the almost certainly highest dropoff rate will be your homepage. Don’t direct visitors to a homepage; send them to a page with useful content.)
Trackbacks
Identifying and cultivating brand advocates is every marketers dream. After all, the longevity of a business rests in its ability to generate loyalty with its customers. You may be wondering, at this point, what that has to do with Google Analytics.
Screenshot taken 7/14/2014 on https://www.google.com/analytics
Under the ‘Social’ submenu of your ‘Acquisition’ tab, you’ll find your Trackbacks report. Trackbacks – which many of us might know as pings, pingbacks or, simply, backlinks – are social shares of your content (which, by the way, rank quite highly in terms of SEO). When you review your trackbacks report, you can see exactly what content was shared by visitors on social media (including blogs) and, from there, identify potential brand advocates based on the rate at which they share your content.
In-Page Analytics
A/B testing landing pages is an extremely important site optimization technique. After all, we need to know what aspects of our website are working and where we need to make improvements. Using the In-Page Analytics report under your Behavior tab, you can begin to do just that.
Screenshot taken 7/14/2014 on https://www.google.com/analytics
In this report, you can see where users are most engaged on your page. Whether you’re analyzing two versions of a landing page or looking at commonalities across your site (for example, seeing if there is a particularly higher ratio of clicks when a call-to-action is placed in a certain location on the page) this report can do quite a bit when it comes to optimizing the performance of your pages.
Conclusion
While it might seem, on the surface, that Google Analytics is all about measuring traffic, there are plenty of reporting functionalities that can help us improve the performance of our website in a number of categories. Take some time to sift through the various reports and see how you can benefit from Google Analytics.
Predictive Analytics for Data Beginners: An Introduction
/by Corey PadveenPredictive analytics are on the rise in terms of popularity and importance, and for data beginners, they can be quite intimidating.
Imagine a world where you could predict what would happen before it ever took place and be able to plan accordingly. It might sound like something H.G. Wells would write about, but in fact, this is the world we’re living in; this is the world of predictive analytics.
Although some people see predictive analytics as a subset of the world of big data, it can easily be studied as an entirely separate phenomenon. That’s because predictive analytics can be leveraged in a number of different ways, and in each of these unique use cases, one needs to take an entirely different approach.
Here, we’ll be looking at the concept at a rather high level so that we can begin to understand exactly what the school of predictive analytics is, and how we can begin viewing data with this new perspective.
There are two ways in which predictive analytics can be defined, and those definitions are determined by your approach from either the sales side or the marketing side. To start understanding the world of predictive analytics, we need to first be able to understand the concept’s applications, so here we’ll really focus on definitions. Let’s start simply with a look at predictive data from the marketing side.
Predictive Analytics in Marketing
When it comes to marketing, predictive analytics are rooted in two main criteria: trends and correlations. Effectively, we want to be monitoring trends and velocity of conversation to determine if there is a topic gaining momentum and exponentially increasing in mentions.
When this is seen, we can begin identifying opportunities for conversation topics that are far more likely to resonate with a target audience based on the fact that there is clearly an uptick in popularity around the subject.
With regards to correlations, we want to pay attention to any outliers or high-value influence points that might indicate an industry or conversational shift. Again, watching these influence points actually change the rate at which a conversation is growing can help marketers understand where they should be positioning their brand in order to have the greatest impact and decrease the conversion time.
On the sales side, predictive analytics are somewhat different.
Predictive Analytics in Sales
The main point of contrast when it comes to these kinds of data in the sales world has to do with your pipeline. Predictive analytics for sales are much more about identifying opportunities both within your sales pipeline and in adjacent markets (which we’ll get to shortly).
There is no shortage of tools on the market that can provide insights into activity within your pipeline (e.g. Predixion, SiSense, C9, Lattice, etc.) and these insights will tell you where potential exists to close a deal, and what that potential deal might be worth.
These insights range anywhere from lead scores based on the speed with which a prospect is moving through the funnel to opportunities based on rhetoric and activity on multiple networks (including research being done on your own website, separate from a sales rep). All of these insights are gathered and analyzed to provide you with an understanding of where your greatest chances for success might exist, and where you should be focusing your sales efforts for the easiest close.
Where the Two Meet
So where exactly do these two worlds – the sales and marketing worlds – collide? This has to do with an analysis of trends and topic conversation velocity in different markets and among different demographics and providing you with those insights so that you can begun prospecting in a new market ripe for opportunity.
Using both of these concepts together can mean a better understanding of your target consumer, a more efficient use of your resources and, perhaps most importantly, a chance to capitalize on opportunities before your competitors.
Conclusion
There is a lot involved in the world of predictive analytics, and it is a fast growing and very exciting space. A basic understanding of what the term means and how the industry works (on a very simplistic level) is a good start to taking advantage of all that these insights can offer your brand.
Have you worked with predictive analytics at all? What kinds of successes or difficulties have you seen? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!
“Do I Need a New Website?”
/by Corey PadveenThere are a few questions you need to ask yourself if you are trying to answer the question, “Do I need a new website?”
Every so often, we sit down in front of our computers, open our homepages and ask ourselves this: Do I need a new website? It is a tough question to answer. On the one hand, we tend to have a particular affinity for our website. We designed it and, in the case of small and medium-size business owners, hand picked all of the elements that went into it. To say that it is no longer useful or requires a major overhaul is hard to admit.
These are a few questions that we need to ask ourselves, as objective marketers, to determine whether or not we need to take that leap and completely redo (or update) our existing website.
Is your website responsive?
Today, it is significantly less expensive to develop a completely responsive website than it used to be. That said, it can still cost a pretty penny.
People want a seamless and optimized experience on every device that they are using. So, if your website is not responsive and is completely warped on non-desktop (i.e. mobile) devices, you’ll leave a bad taste in the mouths of visitors to your site on those devices.
If your site, like so many others, is built with WordPress, finding a responsive template can be an easy fix. That said, if you’re looking to add some serious customization, it can start to take some time and the costs will definitely shoot up.
To check if your site is responsive (or, rather, how responsive your site is) you can take a look at a tool called Responsive Design Checker.
Do you feature a clear call-to-action above the fold?
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These are all examples of very clear calls-to-action, and you need to review your site to see if it features at least one on every page, preferably above the fold.
Granted, not every site needs to have a call-to-action that bold right in the face of visitors. Sometimes a soft call-to-action can do wonders for conversion, leading to people taking action without even realizing it. That said, if you want to see conversion, you’ll want to ask for it.
So review your homepage and the most visited/important pages on your site. See if you’re asking people to take an action and, if not, where that call-to-action might be best suited.
Are your social profiles easily accessible?
Your social profiles should be readily accessible on every page, and it should be made very clear that they exist. Too often, websites insist on hiding social profile links in the footer of a website. They should be a much more prominent component.
Your social profiles need to be treated like the valuable assets they are. Your website visitors are more than likely going to research your brand on social media as thoroughly as they do on your website. So, you shouldn’t hide these profiles in order to maintain a level of transparency online.
And speaking of the importance of social…
Is your content easily shareable?
Today, social signals (links built through social sharing, or, social SEO) are among the most important criteria for building your brand’s online presence. If you have a blog or share important information on your website (which you more than likely do) you’ll want to be sure that this content can be shared to social media.
Whether you’re working on a CMS like WordPress, Drupal, Hubspot or you’ve built something customized, you’ll want to ensure that social sharing is fully integrated.
When you have valuable content on your website, you should be encouraging your audience to share it with these kinds of soft calls-to-action. Without social sharing capabilities, it will be that much more difficult to get your content out there and making the rounds in the socialsphere.
Do you have a mobile version/app of your site?
There is a difference between a responsive site (see the first question) and a mobile website. While you certainly want to have a responsive construct, you may also want to take it a step further and feature a mobile app for your mobile visitors to enjoy.
This can either be a native app or a web-based mobile app of your site. The difference here is really in the experience. You want people to easily navigate your content whether they are on a desktop or on their mobile device. The best way to do this is to have something that is easily navigable and features a whole bunch of mobile-specific elements.
While a purely responsive website that adjusts to the screen of a mobile device is a great, big step in the right direction, it is not the only step that needs to be taken to fully optimize your web presence.
So, do you need a website?
If you went through these questions and answered “No” to the majority, it might be time to start considering a website redesign.
The world of the web moves at lightning speed, and it can be hard to keep up. What works today might be obsolete tomorrow, but these are a few staples that need to be incorporated into any optimized website.
If you would like to discuss the development of a new website, or would like to know more about building a new website, feel free to contact t2 today!