Since the 90s, Google has been developing to be the well-oiled machine that it is today. Every year, they lead the innovation in online advertising and search engine tech.

And with people becoming more reliant on Google to get information about pretty much anything, it’s no surprise that they’ve become a household name.

Business owners were quick to take advantage of this, especially since the vast majority of any company’s audience can be found online.

Google shows no signs of slowing down. Recently, they’ve come up with something called “Google Posts.” Companies, however small, that have a Google My Business profile may have already noticed this snazzy new feature as an added option.

So what are Google Posts and how is this supposed to help your business? We’re glad you asked.

Understanding what Google Posts are

Initially, Google Posts is a feature that was only available to specific profiles like celebrities, film studios, sports teams, and a few small businesses.

Now, they’ve made it available to all to anyone who is on Google My Business. What does it do? This feature gives the user the freedom to share content right from their profile.

It’s exactly what the name implies. It allows you to post links, images, and text. These will show up in your Knowledge Panel right along with your Maps listing.

Each post has a distinct link that users will be able to share, and Google will not index them like a typical search engine result.

Also, they can only stay live for a week. If you choose to take advantage of this new feature, you can have up to 10 posts live at a time. These will show up in the Knowledge Panel in the order that you posted them, with the first two being the only visible ones if the user doesn’t scroll down.

 

 

How do I use Google Posts?

You can start posting by looking for the “Posts” tab on your Google My Business account. Once you’ve clicked on that, you’ll find an option to “Write your post.”

Notice that there are numerous components you can add to your post like images and customized links. These are optional, but they’re good to make use of.

Why? Graphics are eye-catching, particularly those are that are well-designed and have a resolution of at least 500 x 500 pixels. Doing this ensures that your post won’t get lost among the tons of text and low-quality images flooding the SERPs.

We also have to mention that positioning is important when it comes to posting. You don’t want to have any important information positioned at the very top or bottom of the image, as it may be cropped out in the Knowledge Panel preview. Users aren’t going to be able to see it.

You have to remember that you’re doing this to get more visibility. So spruce up your text with simple formatting to make them stand out.

Tip: If you ever want to remove a post after it has been published, you can simply click on it and an option to delete it will pop up. After seven days, users won’t be able to see this post anymore. However, it will remain visible to you through your Google My Business account.

Why are Google Posts important for your business?

We can’t help but give Google a lot of credit here. While Google Posts does have its limitations, any business can essentially view it as free advertising.

You won’t be able to target specific audiences, as your posts will be available to anyone who comes across your Maps listing. Fair enough.

Here, we’ve listed a couple of things that show how this tool can be fully utilized:

1. The obvious one is that you’ll be able to quickly inform your audience about any special promotions you could be doling out at a given time. This lets them know that they can avail of limited time offer coupons and discounts.
2. You can announce certain events that your company would be participating in or even holding yourselves.
3. This gives you the chance to separate yourself from your competition by letting your audience know, right off the bat, what only your company can offer.
4. This can be used to promote products or services that are newly released and need attention.
5. Basically, whatever you would want your audience to know very quickly, you can put in the form of a Google Post, so that they’ll see it right away with your Maps listing.

With all these things that you can do with Google Posts, it’s hard not to get excited. Free advertising is hard to come by and it would not be smart for any business to pass up this chance.

Using Google Posts is not even difficult at all, so what’s the harm in trying? But perhaps the part about all of this is that Google will track the progress of your advertising campaign for you.

By taking advantage of this other feature, you can then figure out what works best and what isn’t so ideal.

 

How to use metrics to track your activities on Google Posts

Advertising without using analytics will always be a shot in the dark. You’re bound to fail if you don’t know what you’re doing in the first place.

That’s why it’s so cool that Google also added the feature of being able to measure the success of your posts. You don’t even have to access it separately. You can view the metrics on the platform itself.

There, you can check how your posts are doing – how many times they’ve been viewed and how frequently your link is being clicked.

Google will automatically inform you how well or how poorly your post performed once it stops being live.

Knowing what works and what doesn’t will make a world of difference in your advertising campaign.

Will Google Posts aid my SEO efforts?

We’re not entirely sure if Google Posts have something to do with building up your search ranking organically.

What we’re sure of is that using Google My Business converts traffic two times more than the regular organic SEO.

So we’re going to say, yes, it will aid your SEO efforts. Anything that will increase your visibility online can’t hurt.

We think it’s safe to assume that Google’s ranking algorithm takes into account whether a company has a Google My Business account anyway. That in and of itself is promising.

What we can do for you

We’re sure that, as a business owner, you have a lot of things to keep track of everyday. Something as menial as dealing with Google Posts is not likely to be in your wheelhouse. We’re sure there are more pressing things that you would want to attend to.

Don’t worry. We can take over your SEO endeavors for you – from managing your content to keeping track of your progress and figuring out how you can stay ahead of your competitors.

We can also optimize your Google My Business profile to make sure that your company can take advantage of everything Google has to offer.

Get in touch with us, so you can have these things off your plate today.

It comes with the territory that as a business owner, you hardly ever have the time to focus on things like getting reviews from customers on Facebook. While we can’t say that that should be the least of concerns, this aspect of marketing can be easily overlooked.

More established businesses have a team to take of these things for them. This is because it can get quite tedious and time consuming. I’m sure there are a lot more pressing matters that require your attention.

As you’re reading this, we’re sure that you’re curious about how to get more reviews on Facebook. Good on you. Our social media marketing team has put together a quick guide to give you the basic know-how, including detailed instructions to get you all set up.

We hope that we can answer some of your questions along the way.

The Importance of online reviews

Back then, we would have discussions with family, friends, and acquaintances about what’s on the market. This was a regular topic because this information wasn’t as available as it currently is.

Nowadays, most people go on the internet to gain some confidence about paying for a product or service that they might be interested in. They don’t have to rely on people they know for opinions. All they have to do is read reviews.

57% of consumers say that reading glowing reviews about a product, service or business influences their overall attitude towards a brand and how likely they are to convert.

This makes perfect sense because wouldn’t bad reviews deter you from getting a product you know you’re going to be disappointed with? We thought so.

So what does this mean for your business? Let’s say your competition has no shortage of raving reviews and you do. Who do you think is more likely to get more leads? Definitely not you.

But don’t worry. We’re here to help you out.

 

 

STEP 1: ENABLE REVIEWS ON YOUR FACEBOOK BUSINESS PAGE

1. Log on to your company’s Facebook page and find Business Manager
2. On the upper right-hand corner of the page, next to the Help drop-down menu, click on Settings.
3. You’ll be shown a list. Find Reviews and click on it.
4. You’ll see two options. Choose Allow visitors to review this Page.
5. When you’re done, click Save Changes.

STEP 2: GET THE REVIEWS TAB TO SHOW UP ON YOUR FACEBOOK BUSINESS PAGE

1. Log on to your company’s Facebook page and find Business Manager.
2. On the upper right-hand corner of the page, next to the Help drop-down menu, click on
3. On the left, there is a navigation menu. Below messaging, click Edit Page.
4. You’ll see two options: templates and tabs. Select Tabs and find Use default tabs. Enable this option. This allows you to choose which tabs show up on your page.
5. Next, click Add a Tab. Reviews are the third on the list. Click Add Tab.
6. When you’re done, click
7. Back on your tabs menu, click on Find Review Tab is Visible and make sure it is set to ON.
8. When it is, click

STEP 3: STAY UPDATED AND RESPOND TO THE REVIEWS THAT YOU GET

This shouldn’t just end with your customers leaving their reviews on your page. You have to engage with them and respond to what they have written.

This gives you the chance to thank the ones who have left positive reviews and to apologize and come up with solutions for those who have left negative ones.

Seeing a company respond ticks something in the consumer’s brain, making them more likely to leave glowing reviews.

Responding to most, if not all, reviews humanizes your company and makes it apparent that you really do care about your customer base.

Check and manage your reviews, so that you’ll be able to respond to them right away. It helps to not wait for too long and have your presence felt immediately. A quick response rate is always a plus with any customer.

1. Log on to your company’s Facebook page and find Business Manager.
2. If you were successful with Step 2, you can now see Reviews in the navigation menu on the left. Click on it.
3. There, you’ll see all the reviews people have written for your company. You can distinguish them by star rating, Most Helpful or Most Recent. To be able to check on the new reviews that people have recently left, choose Most Recent.
4. The latest reviews you’ve gotten should be on top of the list now. To respond to a review, click on Write a comment.

STEP 4: GET YOUR CUSTOMERS TO LEAVE REVIEWS FOR YOUR BUSINESS ON FACEBOOK

Now that you’re all set up and have responded to previous reviews you might have gotten in the past, we have to get you new ones.

How do you do this?

1. THROUGH EMAIL

If someone has already purchased a product from you or have an availed a service, then you probably have their email.

This is an essential piece of information to have because it allows you to contact your past customers for free.

Send them an email and request them to leave your company a review. As if they were happy with what they have purchased and what areas you can improve in.

Make it easy to understand and to find their way back to company’s Facebook page by also including a link.

It’s best to do this right after their purchase, so it’s still fresh in their mind.

2. ADD CALL-TO-ACTION ELEMENTS TO YOUR WEBSITE

Whether it’s a high quality banner or a whole separate page detailing your company’s principles, add ways your website can be linked to your Facebook page where they can leave reviews.

Fans of your products are sure to do this for you, so make they can easily do this. Also, most consumers will not pass up the chance to help out a company with a cause that they like.

3. TURN COMMENTS INTO REVIEWS

Some people will not bother to write a review. Instead, they will just leave a comment on your page.

Respond to these comments immediately and thank them. In the end, express that their feedback is more welcome in the Reviews tab because other customers would benefit from it.

4. DO NOT COMPLICATE IT

If you’re sending your customers emails, asking them to leave reviews, give them very simple instructions. Better yet, include one or two lines and message and a link. Keep it clean.

5. PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT YOU SAY AND KEEP IT VARIED

It’s advisable that you don’t have an automatic response for the reviews that you get. People will not like it if they see that all your responses are just copied and pasted.

Address what people say they liked or did not like about your product. Give them specific troubleshooting options if they have raised an issue that they encountered with your product.

A helpful tip is to use their names. This will give your messages a more personalized touch.

Whatever responses you come up with, make sure that you always express your gratitude.

Let us help you

This is our attempt at making this process as straightforward as possible. However, we do realize that this can be quite complicated and time consuming.

Plus, Facebook reviews are just an aspect within a more complex marketing strategy on Facebook. This is where we come in.

If you’d like to boost your reputation online and leave it to the pros, contact us today and we’ll help you get started.

It’s getting harder and harder to find a business owner who doesn’t appreciate Facebook’s marketing potential. After all, a whopping 22 percent of planet Earth’s population has a Facebook account. Closer to home, 68% of all adults in the USA are Facebook users.

No wonder most people assume the terms “Facebook Marketing” means placing ads on Facebook itself. Believe it or not, ad placements on Facebook’s timelines, sidebar section, and other spots on the typical FB user’s timeline make up just the tip of the overall Facebook marketing iceberg.

Facebook’s ad reach actually extends past Facebook itself-your ads can show up on all sorts of feeds, apps, and other FB properties outside of its main social networking platform. FB can show your ads on Instagram, Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger, and a wide range of third-party properties. This extended network is called the “Facebook Audience Network” (‘FAN’).

If you don’t want to miss out on the tremendous marketing opportunities the Facebook Audience Network can deliver to your marketing campaign, keep reading.

What exactly makes up the Facebook Audience Network?

Just like Google’s Adsense program, FB allows app developers and website publishers to run its network ads. Facebook recruits advertisers, network publishers provide traffic, and both FB and publishers split ad revenues.

Okay, this is great and everything for publishers and app creators, but what do YOU get out of Facebook audience network?

• Reach more prospective customers
• Facebook Audience Network uses native ad placements which enhance user experience and can lead to better clickthroughs since your ads don’t look like blatant ads
• Advertisers’ can ‘follow’ Facebook audience network users as they go from one network site to another – this increases the chances of your target users clicking on your ads
• Placing your ad in Facebook audience network decreases your impression ad campaign costs because of the network’s larger supply of ad impressions.

Just how wide is the Facebook Audience Network? Let’s put it this way, 40% of the top 500 mobile apps are in Facebook audience network. Better yet, 80% of all ads shown in the network are native ads-which have been proven to provide advertisers greater per user revenues!

 

 

Should advertise your business on the Facebook Audience Network?

There are many reasons to advertise on Facebook audience network but the one that truly stands out is: Facebook’s main Timeline ad spots are running out.

You read that right-FB is simply running out of ad spots to sell on its main social network property. No wonder average timeline ad spot prices have gone up a lot. Don’t expect this to change any time soon.

As more and more businesses (both online/national and local) jump on the Facebook ad bandwagon, there’s simply not enough space left on user feeds. So far, Facebook has held off on packing more ads on timeline to preserve user experience.

To stave off ad ‘overflow,’ Facebook opened its other properties like Instagram, FB Messenger, and others to soak up the extra advertiser demand. It has also allowed third-party app developers like Apple TV and Hulu and online publishers access to get their cut of the FB ad frenzy.

The bottom line for you: the Facebook Audience Network helps you expand your ad reach while reducing your ad costs

Best of all, you don’t have to worry about your ads being shown next to hate videos or other objectionable content like what happened to Youtube.

How did Facebook avoid Google’s Youtube headache? They let exclude their ads from certain categories of websites and apps. Don’t like your dog training video ad to show next to content tagged as “Tragedy & Conflict”? No problem, just click the radio button in the content category restriction section when placing your ad order.

 

 

How can you protect your brand?

Facebook enables advertisers to block their ads from showing in sites or apps falling under the following categories:

• dating
• gambling
• debatable social issues
• tragedy and conflict
• mature

Want to get better results from the Facebook Audience Network? Contact us today and let our experienced Facebook audience network experts help you save time and effort while making more money. We’ll help you navigate through the process of picking out the most optimal ads so you have a better chance of hitting your ROI targets!

Up until recently, Google Local Services Ads (LSA) were known as Google Home Services Ads. They made the switch because, more often than not, these services happen outside of the home.

To keep things simple, Google local services ads is a tool that helps your business become more visible to people who are searching for the services that you offer.

These people are going to be within close proximity to your business’ location. This way, you won’t be in a shortage of work.

In this post, our team hopes to provide you with a better understanding of the following:

1. The basics of Local services ads and how you can get them to appear in local search results
2. What the Google Guarantee is and how you can get your business to qualify for it
3. How Google ranks the ads
4. How much you’re going to pay and how
5. How you can get started with Local Service Ads
6. What locations are Local Service Ads available

Let’s get right down to it.

 

What Google Local Service Ads are and how to get them to appear in local search results

In a nutshell, a business selects an industry and goes through the list of services within that industry to find the ones that apply to them. Once this is done, a user would then be able to search for these services and find the said company. Simple.

To distinguish Local Services Ads from Google Ads, it doesn’t make use of keywords. So it’s not going to be as specific because all you’re doing is picking a category.

The main upside to Local Services Ads is that you’re not going to be paying per click.

These ads are also unlike traditional ones because they don’t link to anywhere. The only thing that’s visible are your contact numbers. This is the update version. Before, there was an option on desktop to send a message request to companies.

However, due to business reports, Google has conceded that there wasn’t much use for that feature.

What Google Guarantee is

If you look at these ads, you’ll notice a green badge with a check on it next to where it says, “GOOGLE GUARANTEED.” What does this mean?

This means that these businesses are “backed” by Google and they stand by what the business offers. Think of this as a sort of verification on Twitter.

Now, how does one qualify for this? Here is a quick checklist.

• Your employees that perform your services should pass a background check performed by Google. As of now, these background checks are free.
• Meeting licensing and insurance requirements is a must.
• As per Google’s terms, you must inform the background check company should you hire more employees. You would also be required to report any legal issues that your business might come by. There is a periodic check for Local Services so that they may be recertified every once in a while.
• That green badge that we were just talking about? Your business will not be allowed to use that in any of your marketing efforts, including your website.
• It’s also important to note that this badge will disappear if you use up all your budget.

How these ads are ranked

Google automatically manages your budget throughout the week. This means that, sometimes, you might see your ad rank lower than it initially did in the beginning of the week if your business got a lot of leads all at once.

Basically, these are the factors that affect how your ad is ranked:

• How close it is to the user who has searched for your services
• Your rating on Google My Business and how many reviews you have
• How quickly and frequently you respond to users who contact you through the ad
• Your hours of operation. Generally, these ads show up during business hours.
• How the ad is received. If Google starts receiving multiple complaints about your ad, your account will be suspended.

How much you’re going to pay and when

First, let’s be clear that with Local Services Ads, you’re not charged per click. You’re charged per lead. What qualifies as a lead?

Google considers customers leads once they send you a text message, voicemail or email. Of course, they would also consider it a lead if you answer their phone calls.

The amount that you’re going to pay per lead depends on your industry and location. For example, if you have an HVAC service, you’re going to have to pay within the $20-$29 range.

How to get started with Google Local Services Ads and how to manage them

As of now, Local Services Ads aren’t available for all industries in all markets. Here are the ones that are available and where:

Service categories

Available in most markets:

• Locksmiths
• Plumbers
• Electricians
• HVAC
• Garage door services

Available in limited markets:

• Roadside assistance
• Auto glass
• Painting
• Handyman
• House cleaning
• Appliance repair

Service Areas

• Arizona: Phoenix
• California: Los Angeles, Riverside/San Bernardino, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose
• Colorado: Denver
• Florida: Miami, Orlando-Daytona Beach-Melbourne, Tampa-St. Petersburg
• Georgia: Atlanta
• Illinois: Chicago
• Maryland: Baltimore
• Massachusetts: Boston
• Michigan: Detroit
• Minnesota: Minneapolis-St. Paul
• Missouri: St. Louis
• Nevada: Las Vegas
• New York: New York
• North Carolina: Charlotte
• Ohio: Cincinnati
• Oregon: Portland
• Pennsylvania: Philadelphia, Pittsburgh
• Texas: Dallas, Houston, San Antonio
• Washington: Seattle
• Washington, D.C.

All you have to do is a sign up a service provider and set your budget. All that’s left is to be background checked. Here is the website.

Extra Local services ads tips

We have to stress that you give Google accurate information. As of right now, there is no way you can edit your ads yourself. What shows up on your ad, Google will pull from the information that you provide. You have to make sure that they’re correct.

The only things you can do right now is activate or deactivate your ads and adjust some (not all) of the targeting settings. You can also access recorded phone calls if you submit a tracked phone line in your application.

Other than that, you’ll receive what you expect to receive: more leads. Since this is a relatively new program, Google is still tweaking their system and listening to business owners for feedback.

In the meantime, we can look at this as a bonus, as it can’t hurt to gain more visibility and to generate new leads.

The best part about this is being able to tie it to other features that Google offers. You could link it up to G Suite and set up your appointments through the calendar. You could also link it up to Google Analytics to check the progress of your business.

Google Local Services Ads are just a part of a solid advertising campaign

Google shows no signs of stopping when it comes to helping business owners and customers alike. We certainly appreciate the efforts that they take to bridge this gap.

Local service ad is a nifty little feature that will aid your marketing efforts, but it will most definitely won’t be enough for word to get around about your business.

So we recommend that you just make this a part of a larger advertising campaign. However, we understand that this is easier said than done.

If you want to learn more about Local Services Ads and plan a larger advertising campaign overall, our experts are more than willing to help you.

In this day and age of online digital marketing, a lot is riding on how your company presents itself online. Most typically, this is done through a website.

How your website is designed determines whether or not you’re going to be able to snag potential customers. Why?

People are very visual creatures and we retain things based on how we perceive them. To give you an idea, it takes about 10 seconds for a user to form an impression of your website. Yes, that’s a very limited window.

There are countless articles out there, listing how you can optimize your website to make viewers stay. However, we feel that it would be useful for us to provide some contrast.

Let’s say your business has a live website and you still don’t know why you’re not seeing the results that you hoped for. Then perhaps what you need to learn is how you can improve upon it.

This is what we’re trying to do with the list. In 2019, online marketing is no longer a cakewalk. It used to be, when there was a lot less competition around and the creative things you could do with your website were very limited.

Nowadays, the plethora of solutions and tips out there can get quite confusing. We’re here to narrow it down and list the things that you should avoid when building your company’s website.

 

 

The top worst website design mistakes that every business should steer clear of

What you aim to achieve with your company website is fairly straightforward. You want potential customers to know what you’re all about and to guide them throughout their conversion.

Since the 90s, website design is only becoming more involved, especially since almost every business has some form of an online presence.

With this kind of competition, more established companies make it a priority to have their websites designed for them to make sure that they’re constructed optimally.

It’s smart to invest in something as complicated as a website because this is essentially your virtual storefront.

You want to make is as inviting and intuitive as possible. So below, we’ve listed some things that could be holding you back from having a solid and foolproof site.

1. Your website is slow to show the customer what it’s all about and why it’s worth exploring.

Did you know that once you page loads, it takes about .05 seconds for a potential customer to decide whether it’s worth staying on it?

This is why you should lay things out them as soon as possible. Make sure that what your company is offering is easily discernible.

Don’t hide your assets. If you’ve garnered some awards or affiliations, show that off right on your main page.

It’s also important to highlight your products and services. Come right out with it. Your website has to scream, “This is who we are and this what we offer,” right on the main page. Otherwise, the average user won’t take the time to dig around for this sort of basic information.

 

 

2. Your website is not properly optimized for mobile devices.

We can’t stress enough how much this matters. These days, most internet users choose to stay connected through their smartphones or tablets rather than a desktop setup.

This means that your business has to be available where their target audience is. If this isn’t enough to convince you, we’re going to provide some hard stats.

• 48% of users won’t trust a company that has a website that hasn’t been optimized for their smartphones. They think that because the company didn’t bother to have this done, then this automatically means that they’re not serious and they don’t really care.
• 52% of users who have found a company’s website online and weren’t satisfied with the experience say that they’re not likely to revisit it again, let alone purchase anything.
• 91% of users think that speed is a prerequisite. If the website doesn’t load fast enough on their mobile device or they’re having a hard time navigating through it, then they would automatically opt out.
• 50% of users will choose some other company if the initial company that they thought of doesn’t have a site that is mobile friendly.
• 61% of users will choose some other company if the information that they were looking for is not readily available.

Convinced? Not having a website optimized for mobile devices could be why you’re even driving potential customers to your competition. You have to correct this mistake as soon as possible.

3. Your website doesn’t load in less than three seconds

Now that we’re on the subject of convenience, the reason why the digital marketplace is so popular is because people can’t be bothered to leave their homes and go to physical stores anymore.

These days, it’s all about who can provide you the right products in the shortest amount of time possible. Waiting has now become a thing of the past.

So, how can you expect to drive in more customers if your website fails to provide them with that kind of efficiency right off the bat?

We’re talking about fast here. According to online users, 47% of them need to a page to load in no more than 2 seconds. If you fail to provide that, then it’s adios.

 

 

4. Your website has the wrong font size.

This is a no-brainer. We’re encountered this multiple times from websites that are trying to go for something hip and ultra-minimal. What the company fails to realize is that efficiency trumps aesthetics.

One of the most common mistakes that web designers make is that they make font sizes too small. You can’t expect potential customers to just squint and endure poor website design when there are many other websites who will provide them with a better experience.

Ask you web designer to select fonts that will be compatible across all devices (honestly, we’re surprised that you would even have to ask). The reason why this mistake is so often made is that some web designers tend to focus on the desktop version of the site.

While it might look great on a big hi-res monitor, that usually doesn’t translate very well on smaller screens.

Your best bet should be a font size that is 14px or higher.

5. Your website has pages that open through new browser windows.

If all your links open through new browser windows, then this makes for a very congested online experience. Not only will this give the user a more difficult time navigating through your site, this eats up a lot of bandwidth.

It’s also important to give the user the option to return to the previous pages that they were on.

6. Your website has social media icons right at the top.

It’s smart to expand and branch out through other social media platforms. And of course, it’s important that you have links for these on your website.

However, you have to place them in the proper position. Never put them at the top and don’t let them be the first thing that the user sees.

For good measure, place them at the bottom. Why? You don’t want the user to be distracted away from your site. You’ve gotten them there. Now, do your best to keep them.

 

 

7. Your website doesn’t have an intuitive navigation panel.

A good way to come outright with what users can view on your site is to have a simple navigation panel. Right off the bat, this shows the extent of your entire website.

If your website hides certain pages or has confusing picture or icon links, then that would be the equivalent of a meandering salesperson who doesn’t really know what they’re talking about.

8. Your website has tiny links and buttons that are hard to click.

With ease of use in mind, you don’t want it to be a dart game every time your user wants to check out a page on your site.

On a desktop, these buttons might be easy to click with a mouse pointer. But on a phone? They might be too small for human fingers.

9. Your website doesn’t have headings and is too text-heavy.

Nowadays, it’s all about the skimming. Your potential customers will be turned off if you all you present them with are walls of text.

And even if the text is reasonably spaced out, perhaps sections are not easily distinguishable because you don’t use H1 or H2 headings.

More importantly, if you don’t use headings, you’re less visible to search engines. Headings are a perfect way to use optimized keywords that users are searching for online.

Search engines like Google use complex algorithms to scan websites in order to determine where they rank in search engine results pages.

If nothing about your text stands out, this makes it more difficult for their bots to know what your website is about, making your site more likely to be ignored.

While we’re on the subject of the content on your site, maybe the reason why it’s not getting much traffic is that the content is not that attractive to begin with.

Another common mistake that companies make when they build their website is that they include photos or videos.

Since we’ve covered that people are visual creatures, then it follows that they’re more likely to find your website more engaging if there is something to look at or watch.

This isn’t the only upside to high quality images and video content. It’s easier to unload information through these methods as well.

A typical blog post can be summarized in 5-minute video or one even shorter than that.

10. Your website does not have contact information on prime site real estate.

The whole point of having a website is to convert traffic to sales. How do you expect to this if you make it hard for customers to contact you?

Your customers should have your contact information handy not only to rake in sales, but for you to answer any queries they might have. Most of the time, all it takes is a couple of answered questions to drive in a sale.

Your best option: hire a professional web design team who knows what they’re doing

We understand that most of this stuff can be a pain to stay on top off. We’re also pretty sure that you don’t want to waste time troubleshooting with a freelance web designer who doesn’t really care about your business anyway.

Your online image is a big deal and your business should entrust it to a team who will make it their business to build it up. This is where we come in. Contact us today, so we can make your website the well-oiled machine that it should be.

If you have a dental practice all on your own, you’re expected to have at least 20 new patients per month in order for your practice to flourish.

While you might be thinking that this is still doable, in reality, this would be very difficult to achieve through old-fashioned marketing practices.

Take it from other dentists who have gone on this journey before you. Dental specialists report that there has been a surge in the number of incoming patients once they had gone online.

This makes perfect sense. Nowadays, 97% of consumers go on the internet to find information about local services. That’s almost everyone.

If that isn’t enough motivation to have an online presence, 73% of them use Google or other search engines to find local dentists. Most of their attention is focused on online reviews.

So, in essence, your dental practice is still going to gain attention through word of mouth, only virtually.

Convinced? We hope so. Business owners (dental practitioners included) have to keep up with the times if they want to make it in their respective industries.

Don’t know how to get started? Well, you’re in luck. Below, we’ve listed some marketing tactics you can utilize to get more patients and grow your practice.

 

 

The 10 most effective online marketing practices for dental clinics

1. MAKE FULL USE OF YOUR GOOGLE MY BUSINESS ACCOUNT

This is arguably the easiest thing that you can do on this list, so we’ll start here. While this is objectively uncomplicated, you can expect to gain a lot of benefits from this.

Just by putting in all the necessary information on your GMB page, you can instantly start attracting a wider audience.

How? Well, if a user searches for a keyword that is related to your field, a box will pop up right above the first organic search engine page results and below a window of a preview of Google Maps. The box contains up to five local listings that are in close proximity to the user.

This is called a local pack and this gets around 44% of clicks from Google users. You can get your practice to appear in this local pack just by having and filling in your GMB page. Pretty simple.

If you don’t have one yet, we recommend that you sign up for one right away. To get the most out of it, you have to make sure you include the following pieces of information. This is where Google will put information for the local pack.

• Your main contact numbers
• A brief description of your business
• Your business hours
• Where it is located
• The categories of your business (dentist, orthodontist etc.)
• Reviews from past patients

 

 

2. SPRUCE UP YOUR WEBSITE

Your website is going to be the online representation of your practice, so you have to make sure that you put it in the best light.

The modern consumer is quick to judge. If a person sees that your site is poorly optimized and riddled with problems, you can’t expect that person to stay and be curious about the services that you offer.

It would be hard to trust a business that can’t be bothered to do something as simple as putting up a decent website.

According to half of all consumers, a website’s layout and navigability is the main determining factor that they use to judge a business’ credibility and authority.

How quickly do they come to this judgment? .05 seconds. A super quick scan is all it takes.

Aside from a clean and beautiful layout with the user’s experience in mind as it’s being constructed, there are a couple of features that your site should have to increase the chances of your potential patients of staying.

• The option to book an appointment online
• The option to pay their bill online
• The option to have their prescriptions renewed online
• An efficient way to communicate with their dental healthcare providers like a chat box or a contact page with a message field
• Profile pages for each dentist so that the user may be able to see their credentials and qualifications
• High quality videos of glowing testimonials and intro videos detailing company facts
• High quality content about good dental practices

But how do you get patients to be on your site in the first place? Here are some things to consider:

• It has to be optimized for mobile devices

82% of internet users would rather use a mobile device rather than a desktop setup when searching for a local health facility, while 62% will use it to research health information.

Your website should be able to handle this. If it isn’t fully optimized for smaller screens, it will be a lot harder to navigate, maybe even impossible.

If you don’t take the time to optimize your website, some buttons might be hidden or unclickable. Some of the text might be unreadable. In short, it will look like a mess.

• It has to have a great loading speed

If your site doesn’t load in three seconds, the average user will not wait around any longer. You have to make sure your loading speed falls within that window.

• It has to be secure

Naturally, since you’re going to be dealing with medical transactions, sensitive information is going to be passed from patient to doctor.

You have to make sure that your site is capable of holding this kind of information. In addition to that, it has to be regularly checked for spam and viruses.

• Its content must be optimized for SEO

The main way to make your website more visible for search engines is to code it as such. We’ll get to this more as this goes on.

3. CONSIDER MAKING A DENTAL BLOG

Having a blog that is linked to your site will gain you a lot of traffic. As experts, we can attest to this.

Nowadays, people have the tendency to self-diagnose. They just Google their medical queries and find answers themselves. It doesn’t even have to be as severe as that. Most people just have a lot of questions in general.

Having a blog is the perfect way to answer some of these questions and to gain people’s trust. Letting them know how knowledgeable and credible your practice is will make them more confident should they decide to consider giving your office a visit.

These can range from simple to more complicated topics that address questions like, “What kind of toothbrush should I use?” or “How do I know if I have weak gums and what do I do about it?”

Sounds like a good idea, right? Here are the kind of topics you should expound on. Have your dentists write about these to share their expertise.

• Pay attention to trends and always give your give your two cents

Every once in a while, certain fads will come up will gain a lot of buzz on the internet. For example, in the case of teeth whitening, everyone has been raving about activated charcoal.

Everyone is interested to know whether or not it truly is effective or if it’s safe to use. Your practice can be there to save the day and clear things up once and for all.

Sometimes, it’s not hard to fall into a pit of repetitive articles that don’t answer any questions. A blog written by experts should be the solution to that.

• Offer valuable advice to promote dental health

Health and wellness is a big topic on the internet. People always want to learn information on how to keep their bodies in tiptop shape. Oral care is no exception. As you probably already know, that goes beyond than just brushing and flossing.

It goes over to bone health, hence topics on proper diets and regimens would also be helpful.

• Clear up false assumptions and health myths

As we mentioned before, people have the tendency to self-diagnose these days. This is can be very dangerous because this sort of thing should be left to the professionals. But some people wouldn’t even consider going to the dentist even if they need to just because they’re not in pain.

You, dentists, could write stories about specific cases and presents stats that would make people more aware of what symptoms they might be ignoring.

This would also be a good chance to debunk dental myths like “the harder you brush, the cleaner your teeth will get,” and so on.

 

 

4. PERFORM SEO ON YOUR BLOG POSTS AND WEBSITE PAGES

Search engine optimization is the process of increasing your visibility on search engines by loading your content with optimized keywords. This is why some websites are ranked higher than others on search engine results pages (SERPs).

How your website can get on the rankings depends on a complex algorithm. Google keeps track of the elements that go into these algorithms by something called “spiders.” These “spiders” scour websites to look for specific keywords.

This how a user who would type in keywords you’ve used on your site would find you. Honestly, we’d need a whole other post to get into the technicalities of this. But here are some basic things you should consider doing to maximize your SEO efforts:

• Include images with alt-tags
• Use a dental scheme throughout your entire website
• Only use quality content that is relevant and not deceptive
• A good presence on online social media platforms
• Leave as many backlinks on other reputable sites

5. HAVE SHAREABLE CONTENT TO BE DISPERSED ON SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS

Almost everyone expects any company to have some sort of online presence through social media outlets. This is especially true for younger generations. Aside from the main company website, this is the other way that people will get to know about you.

Here are the reasons why having shareable content is so important:

1. Good quality content drives people to action

About half of your customers would appreciate having content from you that is available to share because they would want to share their experience with others.

It makes the whole process of sharing a lot easier if the content is already there and ready to go.

In other words, this is a good way your patients can do some of your advertising for you. That’s a good idea if we’re ever heard of one.

If other people see how happy your patients were with the services you provided, you’re more likely to snag more patients that way.

2. This lets people know who you are

Having shareable content is a great way to get your story out there. People are more likely to be drawn to stories rather than plain facts. For example, if you create a video detailing the origins of your practice and what you believe in, this is more likely to attract people, as opposed to just publishing a brief overview of your timeline like, “2006 – our practice opened” etc.

If you have certain advocacies like offering free dental services for underprivileged neighborhoods, this is the perfect way to showcase that.

 

 

3. This establishes an online community around your practice

People are more likely to trust a company if they are available and consistently present. Unfailingly posting good quality content lets your audience know that you’re serious about sharing useful information. It shows that you care.

And in a field such as dentistry, this goes a long way.

4. This lets your patients in on the experience

69% of online users share content with others because this makes them feel more connected to the world. It’s all about creating an experience for your patients outside of your office. This also lets them feel that they’re taken care of even after they’ve left your dentist’s chair.

5. This increases people’s brand awareness

Or in this case, awareness of your practice. If your patients are always satisfied after leaving your office, it’s only natural that they would want their friends and family to experience this as well.

With the why out of the way, let’s get into the what. What should you be posting about on social media?

1. Attention-grabbing infographics

Infographics are condensed pieces of information presented visually. This is one of the best ways keep people engaged (the other one being video content).

You can hire a team of creatives to do make these for you or you can make them yourself using free, easy tools like Canva.

2. Good quality video content

You want these videos to be well-produced, not just videos recorded on a smartphone with absolutely no editing. They have to look professional and it’s best to keep them short.

The kind of videos you should be making are testimonials from past satisfied patients sharing their experience or conferences your dentists might have recently attended to show that they are keeping up with dental innovations.

3. As a reminder for deals or benefits that your patients may not be taking advantage of

Transparency in a business goes a long way. By telling your patients that they could be benefiting a lot more if they were only aware of it would let them know that you’re not just after their money and you want them to get their money’s worth.

4. As proof of how great you are at your job

A common way dentists do this is by showing before and after photos. We’re sure you’re familiar with these. Everyone has seen a dental flier or two with photos of people before and after getting their braces out and how beautiful their smiles are after the whole ordeal.

This is the same thing, but an online shareable version.

 

 

6. INVEST IN DENTAL VIDEO MARKETING

You’re in the perfect industry to take advantage of the effectiveness of video marketing. Not only is dental field focused on medical services, but it also dabbles in cosmetics.

This means that a large part of your work deals in visuals – how straight teeth are, how white they are etc.

But this is just aspect of that. There are a plethora of videos you could invest in that would boost your SEO efforts. Here are a few:

• Videos to welcome website users

Here is an example of a great welcome video. Notice how it gives the dental practice a human side and gives the viewer an insight into what the dentist believes in.

• Dentist profile videos

Finding the right dentist can be just as arduous as finding a therapist or a surgeon. This is someone that you have to be comfortable with. This is a great way to showcase your dentists and to let them show off their manner and accomplishments.

• Videos of past patients giving reviews

Reviews alone have garnered 50,000 years’ worth of watch time on mobile devices. That’s how much people rely on other people’s opinions when it comes to products and services. Most of the time, they even rely on those more than the company’s advertising.

• Time-lapse videos of procedures

Provided that you’ve gotten the patient’s permission, record and show off the quality of your work.

• Educational dental videos

This can be an aid to your blog posts. Since most people would prefer to watch videos than reading blog posts, include videos that correspond to each blog post containing the same information to give them an option.

7. GET YOUR PRACTICE INCLUDED IN DENTAL DIRECTORIES

To narrow your potential patients’ search even further, get yourself on dental directories. They’re more likely to check out a practice if it is affiliated with a larger association, rather than it being a rogue dental website in the latter pages of search results.

Here are some you claim your listing on today:

• American Dental Association
• ZocDoc
• Smile Guide
• Dentist Directory
• The Dentist Hub

 

 

8. KEEP TRACK OF THE DENTAL KEYWORDS WITH THE HIGHEST CONVERT RATE AND CREATE PAY PER CLICK ADS BASED ON THOSE

Around 44% of people say that they skip dental appointments because it’s not in the budget. You can offer a solution to this by using pay per click (PPC) ads to give out special deals and promotions.

Here is a simplified version of how PPC ads work:

You select the keywords with the highest conversion rate and you create ads based on those keywords

1. A user types in those keywords in a search engine
2. Your ads show up in front of SERPs
3. The user clicks on the ad and you pay a fee for this

This is a simple workaround to one of your audience’s biggest problems. By being transparent with your dental fees and making them see that they’re getting a deal out of it, they are encouraged to avail of your services.

However, PPC ads can be quite complicated. This is not in the wheelhouse of the average business owner. We recommend that you hire a team of experts like us to handle this kind of campaign for you.

9. ASK YOUR PAST PATIENTS TO LEAVE YOU A REVIEW

Reviews are your greatest asset when it comes to online marketing. We’ve mentioned before that when patients are trying to look up information about a practice, they mainly focus on the reviews left by past patients.

This makes a world of sense. You would want to base your decisions on what other people have experienced.

We think it’s also worth mentioning that for almost half of all patients, whether or not a doctor is included in their insurance network is irrelevant If that doctor gets glowing reviews.

Ask your patients to leave reviews on Google, Facebook and Yelp. You can do this by asking them in person after a dental session is finished or by sending them an email with a link to where they can review you.

If you can manage it, respond to these reviews as well. Always express your gratitude towards patients for giving you support.

10. STAY VISIBLE BY BEING IN YOUR PATIENTS’ INBOXES

Email marketing is the cheapest form of marketing there is. The best part to all of this is that it’s also very effective. 66% of internet users say that the first thing that they do when they wake up is check their email.

Think of this as an extended care service. Remind them of upcoming appointments and reminders to keep up with their oral care game.

Did you know that over 90% of adults wish they had more communication with their healthcare providers?

This is also the perfect way to update your patients on the latest dental news and deals you might be offering for a limited period of time.

 

 

Coming up with the best dental marketing strategy will make sure that your practice thrives

We’re not talking about staying afloat. We’re talking about thriving.

You might just be a marketing genius on top of your being a topnotch dentist. We don’t know. But most practices will benefit from hiring a skilled dental marketing team like us.

We assume that you already have a lot on your hands and online marketing is definitely no cakewalk. If you’re on the verge of closing up shop, not knowing what to do to improve your situation, then it might be time to let a professional marketing team handle your online affairs for you.

Contact us today and we’ll find the best solutions, so you can keep on providing patients with beautiful smiles.

To no surprise, the HVAC industry is ever-evolving and growing. With innovations popping up every year and no signs of ever losing the demand for it, it has become one of the top businesses of choice for savvy entrepreneurs.

What is something that every household has on its list of priorities? Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning. That’s just the basic standard of living that everyone in the US expects.

To keep up with the times, we’re sure you’ve looked into building a website for your business. Nowadays, most customers find the services that they need online.

So it’s only natural that you want your business to be in the forefront of these searches. You might be asking how you can optimize your website to drive in the most traffic. Well, we’ve got the answers for you.

We’ve built countless websites for HVAC services for years and we know what makes them successful. Below, we’ve made a list of 20 ways your website can stand out among the rest.

 

 

1. Optimize it for mobile devices

50% of customers looking for an HVAC service online use their smartphone. As of 2019, we’ve gathered that people are more likely to do their internet activities through their phone than a desktop setup.

We can account this to the modern consumer’s on-the-go lifestyle. What you should take from this piece of information is that you should make your website mobile-friendly.

What does this mean? If a website is not optimized for a mobile device, it’s going to look messy and unprofessional. What’s worse, it can even be impossible to navigate. That’s a surefire way to lose a customer.

2. Load it with good content

The reason why a customer would want to search for an HVAC service online is to gain more information about the said service.

These days, people want to be more informed before they avail of a service. They want to gain some confidence before they shell out their hard-earned cash.

By having well-written blog posts, comprehensive FAQs, and well-produced video testimonials, you’re more likely to gain the potential customer’s trust.

3. Make it simple for your customer

You have to be able to predict what a customer will go through as he or she considers and finally decides on choosing your HVAC service.

Once you’ve done this, provide your customer with visual cues to guide them along the way. Make sure it ends with prompt that calls them to action like a contact form.

4. The header should contain your contact information

The header is a prime real estate in a website. That’s why your contact info belongs there. This evokes the feeling that your company is ready to get down to business and help the customer out.

Plus, affixing the header with your contact info will make sure that it’s visible in any page of your website.

5. Simplify your contact form

Too many form fields actually deter potential customers from getting in touch with you. Filling out unnecessary fields can be quite tedious.

Make sure that you only include the basics like name, address, contact number, and email. You don’t need to know where they went to high school.

6. Create a separate testimonials page

Glowing reviews can make a world of difference when a potential customer is weighing you against your competitors.

If they see that past customers were satisfied with the services you provided, they’re more likely to choose you. It’s interesting to note that 84% of online consumers trust reviews as much as they trust recommendation from people in their lives.

7. Display any awards and or affiliations that you have

So you’ve been commended in your field. This is where you that off. Awards equate to a better reputation. This will keep your business ahead of the competition because it establishes authority.

8. Create a company introduction video

Let your potential customers know who you are! These people are going to be trusting with you with something that is so incorporated in their daily lives. We’re sure that they want someone they can trust to handle it.

Having a well-produced video that tells your company’s story and how proud your employees are to be a part of it will elicit more feelings of trust and dependability.

9. Make sure calls-to-action pop

Choose the right colors. We know that this might seem rudimentary, but having your links and buttons in colors that pop contributes to how navigable your website is.

10. Avoid tacky stock photos

Generic photos are a sloppy choice. Consumers are not likely to trust a website that was just roughly put together by some who seems disinterested and ill-informed.

If you can manage it, invest in having relevant photos taken – photos that are unique to your company and won’t be found anywhere else.

11. Throw around the word “Free”

We mean this with caution. There’s nothing that will lose a customer faster than false promises.

But just by seeing the word “free,” this gives the customer the feeling that they’re not at risk and that they don’t have to commit.

Use “free” when it is applicable. For example, if you do offer free quotas, then make sure they’re aware of that fact.

12. Declutter heavy text

Text-heavy pages will make your website look uninviting. It’s important to make use of whitespace and break down info into readable sections.

When people are looking through your site, they’re probably looking to solve a specific issue. Making it so that the user will be able to scan pages easily gives them an overall better experience on your site.

16. Stay unique

This is a mistake that a lot of HVAC companies make. They usually just select a generic template and work with that.

People consider the time and effort companies take into their marketing. This shows them how serious the company is.

For best results, hire a time of creatives to design a unique website for you.

17. Don’t hide promotions and deals

Let’s say you’re offering special deals for a limited amount of time. Those should be front and center. That way, if you’re advertising on some other platform, your landing page should be the front of your website.

18. Optimize every page

If your multiple services are broken down into different pages that are accessed through a navigation panel (this is smart), then there’s a chance that people looking for a specific service might just land in a subpage of your site.

You have to make sure that the quality of all the pages are consistent throughout the entire site. If possible, include a condensed contact form on all these subpages.

That way, it’ll be easier for your customers to get in touch with you.

19. Keep track of your site’s analytics

Having a great website would be useless if you don’t know how much traffic it’s generating and how much of this traffic is converting.

Make sure you gather and interpret this data to optimize your site.

20. Keep updating it

With this data, tweak away. Find out what works best. Perhaps you recently had a surge of traffic because of a video that you posted.

Then the next step is to amplify that success by replicating what works, meaning post more videos.

Or you could just leave it to the pros

As a business owner, we’re sure that creating and keeping track of a great website can be tedious work for. Why not hire WebyGeeks to do that for you?

With years of experience, we’re confident that we can build the best website to improve your online reputation. Contact us today and let’s get started!

If we compare how we live our lives now from the way things were 20 years ago, one of the more obvious differences is how we behave as consumers.

This, of course, extends to how companies interact with us consumers. Back in the 90s, you might have gotten an occasional fax or two as a promotional ad. These days, we doubt that members of Gen Z would even know what on earth a fax machine is.

Because of the rapid development in the kind of technology that promotes easier connectivity, companies were forced to keep up with the times to be able to reach their audience.

It wouldn’t make much sense for them to rely on the old-fashioned ways of marketing, considering that pieces of tech become outdated faster than they used to. No one would be caught dead sporting a brick of a phone that has no internet capabilities anymore, that’s for sure.

That’s due to the fact that there are so many conveniences that are available to us, but, obviously, they can only be accessed through modern tools.

Now, the old marketing funnel has essentially become obsolete. We’d be surprised if you recently made a purchase because of an ad you saw on the newspaper. These days, it would be considered bold if you were to make a purchase without being fully informed.

The new marketing funnel has adapted to how consumers have come to behave. It is now based on the consumer’s activities online.

Below, we have tried to lay out everything as simply as possible, walking you through every step of the modern online marketing funnel model.

Should you want to know how to create the most effective strategy to reach your audience and drive in more sales with this modern tool, then we’ve got you covered.

 

 

The stages of the modern digital marketing funnel model

The new digital marketing funnel is fairly broad. Basically, it’s a guide that demonstrates the flow that consumers follow before, during, and after the purchasing process. Back then, it was pretty straightforward and consumers were less likely to deviate from it.

In truth, it would be misleading to even call it a “funnel” anymore. It’s more like loops within a loop. Don’t worry, it’s not as complicated as it sounds.

There are phases that were adapted from the old model. These are:

• Awareness
• Consideration, which contains the research and discovery loop
• Purchase
• Post-purchase, which contain the loyalty loop

See? It’s not that much more complex, but let’s break everything down just so we can have a good understanding of this.

To illustrate a consumer’s typical buying cycles, let’s consider Emma – a 35-year-old homeowner and single mom of two. We’ll examine three cycles – one for an online purchase, one for a need-based service, and another for a want-based one.

SCENARIO 1: Emma gets in on a skincare subscription box service

• AWARENESS: While scrolling through a friend’s feed on Facebook, Emma notices an ad for a skincare subscription box. She checks it out and remembers that she has been meaning to do something about her developing crow’s feet.
• CONSIDERATION: The next day, on Instagram this time, she notices an ad for the same skincare subscription box in the form of a photo. And this ad has about 1000 comments from women who are loving what they’re getting from these boxes. Again, she remembers worrying about the fine lines on her face and finds herself on the Instagram page of the subscription box service itself.
• AWARENESS, CONSIDERATION: A little bit more interested now, Emma goes on Google to search for the products that have been previously included in these boxes, making calculations as to whether it’s just a rip-off and if it’s better to just purchase them individually. She also checks out other skincare subscriptions boxes to see if they carry the same products.
• CONSIDERATION: Emma looks at the company’s website and sees a banner on the front page, saying that they’re offering a month-long trial for the subscription box.
• PURCHASE: This is what finally makes up her mind. She subscribes to the trial.
• LOYALTY LOOP, PURCHASE: Emma is happy with the initial results, so she stays on the subscription. She follows the company on social media and learns that they advocate all natural, vegan, and cruelty-free skincare products. She’s happy about this.
• AWARENESS: Emma notices that her fine lines are slowly fading, so she’s more confident about the products that she’s getting. She knows they’re effective. Because Emma follows the company she gets the boxes from on social media, she finds out that they’re coming out with an all-natural household product line.
• LOYALTY LOOP, PURCHASE: Because Emma trusts the company now, the consideration stage is skipped and she immediately subscribes to their other new line.

 

 

SCENARIO 2: Emma needs to have the plumbing checked out

• AWARENESS: First, Emma notices a growing water stain on her living room ceiling. She checks all the upstairs bathrooms to figure out where the leak is coming from. No luck.
• CONSIDERATION: Emma grabs her smartphone and Googles, “water stain on ceiling” to see the possible causes and what she’ll have to do to get it fixed.
• AWARENESS: Emma goes on Facebook to hunt for recommendation on a good plumbing company.
• CONSIDERATION: Emma weighs her gathered recommendations, looking to see which one is the most reputable and has gotten the best reviews, which one she can afford, which one is closest to her house, and which one can work at hours that are most convenient for her.
• CONSIDERATION: Emma now has zeroed in on a few plumbing services, so she logs back in on Facebook and asks her friends who have had previous experiences with these services.
• CONSIDERATION: Emma comes across an ad by one of the services she has been keen on and they’re offering discounts.
• CONSIDERATION: Emma chooses a discount and continues to read and watch videos about the said plumbing service. She’s now very convinced.
• PURCHASE: Emma gets in touch with the company and finally schedules an appointment.
• LOYALTY LOOP: Emma gets her pipes ripped out and replaced. There are no more leaks and the value of her old house has increased. She’s pleased with the results. She gets an email from the plumbing company, asking her to leave a review and she does.
• AWARENESS, CONSIDERATION, PURCHASE, LOYALTY LOOP: Since got lucky, having bought a mid-century home for cheap but had to remodel it herself, a year later, their water heater breaks down.

She decides that it’s time to get a new tankless water heater installed because it’s more energy efficient and she wants to keep updating her home.

Through the email newsletter of the plumbing company, she finds out that they’re offering a discount on tankless water heater installation. She clicks on it and schedules a new appointment.

Her family doesn’t have to deal with cold showers anymore and she leaves glowing reviews again.

SCENARIO 3: Emma wants her backyard redesigned

• AWARENESS: Emma has finally saved up enough to update her backyard. This wasn’t high up on her priorities when they first moved in the house. But it has been a couple of years since, so the budget is not as tight and this is the last part of the property that she has yet to renovate.

She wants to have major landscaping done and she wants a pool installed for the kids.

• AWARENESS: Emma goes on her favorite site, Pinterest, to pin cool backyard ideas, looking at plants and pool shapes.
• CONSIDERATION: Emma picks her favorites and searches for a reputable contractor that includes landscape design in their services.
• AWARENESS: This takes a while and she can’t make up her mind whether or not to hire a freelance landscape artist. She goes Facebook to ask her friends for advice.
• CONSIDERATION: Her friend, Marco, just so happened to have gotten his lawn redone by one of the designers she’s following on Pinterest. He can’t say enough nice things about the service and he sends her photos of the finished project. Emma is impressed.
• CONSIDERATION: Emma contact the landscape company and books an appointment to have her property looked at.
• PURCHASE: The designer arrives at her home and they discuss what she wants and the designer tells her what’s doable within her budget. After a few days, she is sent a couple of designs to choose from based on her preferences. Emma selects the one she’s most happy with and signs on for the contractors to begin work.
• LOYALTY LOOP: Emma takes pictures of the entire process, documenting every stage and posting the photos on Instagram.
• LOYALTY LOOP: The new backyard looks amazing. She posts photos from a barbecue that she recently held at her backyard on Facebook, including photos of the kids enjoying the new pool. She gets tons of positive comments.
• LOYALTY LOOP, PURCHASE: Five years later, Emma gets an amazing job opportunity from out of state. She decides to sell the house and buy a new one in the state that she’s moving to. She has to have the front yard updated to make it the property look more attractive and to increase its value.

She remembers how happy she was with the backyard remodel, so she hires the same designer and contractors again without considering any other service.

 

 

The one marketing funnel model and framework that you should absolutely follow

To simplify this cycle even further, we always reference Avinash Kaushik’s model. This is as simple as it can get and it takes consumer intent into account very accurately through each stage.

The stages are:

• SEE: reaching the widest addressable qualified audience who may or may not have commercial intent yet
• THINK: reaching the widest addressable qualified audience who does have some commercial intent
• DO: driving in the widest addressable qualified audience who already has a high commercial intent
• CARE: reaching customers who have already purchased products or availed of services

These stages can be linked to the basic model that we touched upon earlier.

• SEE → AWARENESS
• THINK → CONSIDERATION (includes RESEARCH AND DISCOVERY LOOP)
• DO → PURCHASE
• CARE→ POST-PURCHASE EXPERIENCE (includes LOYALTY LOOP)

Exploring every stage of the STDC model

1. REACHING THE “SEE” AUDIENCE

Within the “see” category, you will want to reach your widest addressable qualified audience, meaning consumers who might not know who you are, but has the chance to be interested in what you’re offering.

Obviously, your goal here is to increase your visibility, so that they become aware of your products or services and what they’ll gain from purchasing these.

You’re trying to drive them to the “think” stage, where they might start to consider purchasing something from your company.

How do you get them there? Through a combination of SEO and SEM, with a particular focus on marketing on various social media platforms.

Within platforms of social media, there are online communities. These communities thrive on information exchange. This is one of the main ways consumers get to know companies and gain confidence about their purchase decisions.

Let’s look at some stats:

• Facebook population
• ADULTS

88% – aged 18 to 29

84% – aged 30 to 49

• With all internet activity, almost 17% is spent on Facebook. 25% is spent on a mobile device.
• Instagram population
• ADULTS

59% – aged 18 to 29

33% – aged 30 to 49

• YouTube population
• MILLENNIALS – 81%
• GEN-X – 58%
• The average time spent on YouTube is 40 minutes per session

Some forms of social media marketing are more expensive than others, but some remain relatively cheap and some don’t even cost anything at all.

In essence, posting a high quality infographic on Facebook shouldn’t cost you a penny. However, companies who are serious about their social media marketing strategies often have skilled teams of marketing experts and creatives behind their brand. That will cost you money.

This is to ensure that their company has optimal content that is more likely to convert more potential customers.

Establishing a solid online presence through social media platforms is the perfect way to let your audience know what you’re all about. This humanizes your brand, encourages trust, and sparks interest.

It’s also important to note that in this day and age, consumers, especially millennials, expect companies to have some sort of social media presence. That’s something to keep in mind.

Aside from having a strong website, you should also invest in PPC display ads, which is an SEM strategy. This is especially useful if you haven’t built up much of a reputation and you’re not sure where to get started.

Pay-per-click (PPC) ads are exactly what the name implies. They’re ads that cost you a small fee whenever a potential buyer clicks on them.

To understand how powerful ads are, let’s have a quick overview of the cell phone theory.

This theory hails from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Dr. Alan Brown and a team of researchers conducted a study on the human attention span. It basically states that we’re still subliminally aware of everything that’s around us despite any kind of distraction.

As time goes on, these subliminal surroundings become a part of the inner workings of our brain. They remain there and that’s why they seem to be more and more familiar.

This implies that something as inconspicuous as ads can stay in our minds even as we’re doing something else.

What can we take from this? This phenomenon is essentially what builds up brand recognition. Why do you think household brands are so ingrained in our psyche? Because we’re constantly bombarded by images that are associated with these brands without us even realizing it.

2. REACHING THE “THINK” AUDIENCE

Assuming that you have already caught your target audience’s attention, we can now move on to the “think” stage.

This is the part where the average consumer does the most research. The consumer will weigh his or her needs and wants, and what options are available to address these.

This is the stage where it’s important that you outshine the competitors in your market. Here are some stats of an average consumer’s activities during this stage:

• 71% of consumers start to learn about the products that they’re interested in through a search engine like Google.
• A staggering 92% of consumers read and watch online reviews before buying a product.
• Out of five customers, four prefer to watch a video about a product than to read about it.
• The top 3 paid ads on a search engine results page get 41% of clicks.

From this, we can gather that the modern consumer is much more informed than consumers from 20 years ago.

The caveat is that consumers can be more selective and corporate ads receive a lot more judgement than before.

We also have to take into account that different individuals have different buying patterns. You have to make sure that you address all potential customers in whatever stage of the marketing funnel they might find themselves in.

What strategies can you put into action to achieve this? Let’s get into each one.

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)

SEO is the process of building an organic following for your brand. This is applicable for every stage of the marketing funnel.

SEO done right ensures that your site will be among the top hits on search engine search results and you have tons of links leading back to it from other platforms.

As a internet user yourself, you might agree with us that you rarely ever get to page 2 or 3 when looking something up on Google or Yahoo.

Our best advice to be transparent about what your company offers. Make sure that you have top-notch content in the form of blogs and social media posts. Also, it’s important to optimize your website to make it easily navigable and mobile friendly.

More and more consumers prefer to be on their phones than with a desktop setup or laptop.

Furthermore, perhaps the most important element of this stage in the marketing funnel is garnering good reviews. Remember, 92% of online shoppers rely on reviews and base their purchasing decisions on them.

A majority of this these shoppers even trust these reviews as if they were personal recommendations that they would get from people who they actually know.

Our theory about this is that people are not really keen on advertising anymore. Naturally, companies would want to present themselves in the best light and they always have to put their best foot forward.

They’ll do this even though they might be working in shady operations. At some point, a lot of us have been disappointed with a purchase one way or another.

So consumers have learned their lesson. Most of the time, it’s better to rely on other consumers and their opinions on the said product. Companies will rarely ever admit to their weaknesses.

Now, reviews have become another tool that companies use to drive in more customers. The more glowing reviews they get, the more attractive their products are. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out.

 

 

VIDEO MARKETING

With the modern consumers’ dwindling attention spans, it’s no surprise that they would rather take in information visually. It’s a sad fact that reading has become a chore to most people.

But did you know that you squeeze in about 30,000 words into an 8-second video? And 8 seconds is roughly the duration of an average person’s attention span.

You can take advantage of this. We can attest to the fact that one video would be just as effective, if not more than, about 30 blog posts.

Factor in the time it would take to create such content. Obviously, creating a visually stimulating 8-second video would take a lot less time than writing 30 blog posts.

What kind of videos should you make?

• Videos addressing frequently asked questions
• Tutorials
• Stories about your company (origin, advocacies, gatherings, outreach, principles, notable sponsored people etc.)
• In-depth product descriptions

Ideally, all of these should be short, best kept under a minute. You or your marketing team can post these on YouTube and other social media platforms that support the video format.

Make sure that you publish with links that have landing pages to your main website or blog.

EMAIL MARKETING THROUGH AUTOMATED NEWSLETTERS

As an ethical decision, you want your company to have an opt-in email subscription for your customers. We say that because no one like receiving unwanted emails, as they can feel a bit invasive. Plus, that’s surefire way to clog your customers’ spam folder, which would be a waste.

The best thing about email marketing is that it’s the least expensive out of all marketing ploys. On top of that, it has a 4400% return on investment. This seems like it’s too good to be true, but it is.

Not convinced? Check out these stats.

• 51% of all customers subscribed to some form of newsletter spend around 10 minutes to an hour browsing these emails per week.
• 70% of these customers who have been looking into these emails in the past week take advantage of the promotions offered by the company.
• In marketing through messaging, automated emails take the top spot when it comes to conversion rate, coming it at 66%.

The easiest way to stay visible to your customers is to be in their inbox. Since they gave you the permission to do this, this actually means that they want to stay updated about what your company is currently offering.

3. DRIVING IN SALES WITH THE “DO” AUDIENCE

We’ve finally reached the part where it’s decision time for the customer. This is where you’ll give the buyer a final push.

The challenge here is to drive them to action. They might be interested in one of your products, but it takes something extra for them to actually click “add to cart.”

How exactly do you zero in on potential customers who are on the verge of purchasing? By going specific and optimizing your content and ads. Do the following:

• Make sure you also purchase keywords that are related to the “do” stage like “buy,” bundles,” or “quote.”
• Use reverse engineering and use terms that are more associated to your competitors
• Have keywords that relate to having your customer getting in touch with you like “contact” and “request”
• Have keywords that relate to potential buyers in a specific area like “city” or “zip code”
• Try to be more personal. For example, when responding to a previous customer’s review. Thank them and use their name.
• If your products are targeted towards different demographics, have ads that are tailored to each one.
• Include case studies and testimonials as an advertising tactic.
• Try to get on reviewed on reputable online magazines and journals. If you can’t them to review you on their whim just yet, pay for advertising.
• Make sure to promote events like live demos and conferences.

If you do all these, you can expect to see an increase in leads that will eventually turn into sales.

 

 

4. THE “CARE” STAGE

If a customer is happy with your product or service, the cycle doesn’t end there. You have to make sure that they stay loyal to you.

Another important thing to note here is that it’s easier to retain existing customers than to gain new ones. That’s why it’s crucial that you care for your audience even after the “do” stage.

The best part about having a loyal customer base is that they can do some of your advertising for you. Not only will they keep purchasing your products, they will also be more likely to recommend you to their friends and family.

So by raking in one customer, you gain, let’s say, 20 others. We’d say that’s worth the effort in trying to keep that customer interested.

The “care” stage is all about establishing a relationship with your customer or building an online community with them. Let them know that your company is not just some cold corporation that only cares about sales.

You can do this by responding warmly to reviews, thanking the ones that are positive. If you ever get negative reviews, make sure you apologize and offer some solutions to the issues that the customer brought up.

Share your stories through social media and get people in on how awesome your company work environment is. Customers like the idea that they’re being catered to by people who really want to help them.

Another easy way to do is to keep track of an individual customer’s order history. Shoppers love it when the ads that they see are tailored to what they’re most interested in. By taking their past purchases into account, you can provide a more personalized experience.

Formulating a strategy to stay present at every step of your customer’s journey

We know that this is a lot of information to take in. Every step is its own detailed aspect in this whole cycle.

Our parting tip: your company should keep track of its online marketing analytics. These strategies would not amount to much if you don’t know or understand the results that you’re getting.

In the first place, we doubt that any company could troubleshoot issues without knowing where the problem is stemming from. Similarly, they won’t know what they’re doing right if things ever start looking up.

Make sure that you record and analyze your metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs). These include the basics like brand awareness and customer retention.

Yes, this can be a lot to handle. On top of keeping up with all your activities online, you also have to be able to interpret the data that comes with it.

This is why we recommend having a skilled marketing team like us behind you. We can manage your online reputation, so you can be free to focus on other aspects of your growing business.

Want to know more about what we can do for you? Get in touch with us today.

Any business will definitely benefit from having their website at the top of Google search results. This is especially true for medical facilities. Why is this so?

It turns out that 73% of people with ailments go online and use search engines to find the proper health practitioner.

Not only that, 89% of internet users also use search engines to find answers to their medical questions. So you want to be able to meet patients’ needs right off the bat.

What is important to note here is that 55% of search engine users usually click on the first three entries that pop up on the results page. This is why your medical facility’s website has to be among those first three, otherwise they will end up being treated somewhere else.

That’s bad for business.

Now, how do you optimize your medical facility’s website? Through medical search engine optimization (SEO) done right.

 

 

What is Medical SEO and why is it so important to invest in it?

Essentially, medical SEO involves everything it takes to boost your medical website to get it to show up higher in search engine results pages.

This is to ensure that physicians, clinicians, specialists, and medical labs meet the patients who are online, looking for specific services.

We’re sure that you’re aware that times have changed. People are becoming more reliant on the internet to look up information.

This, in turn, made the internet what it is today – an ever-evolving gateway for consumers and companies alike, for them to meet halfway.

So it’s hardly surprising that patients will go on their computer or, more frequently, on their mobile devices to look for the right hospital, clinic or lab.

It’s important to invest in medical SEO because you want to be available to your patients. This is not going to be possible if your website is not as visible as it can be.

There are hospital administrators and doctors who believe that they can just resort to using pay per click (PPC) ads and call it a day. Sure, at a very basic level this makes sense, especially if your website is a small new boat just entering a sea of search results and you don’t want it to sink and get lost.

However, what you should be aiming to build here is a massive unsinkable ship. You have to understand that while PPC ads can do the trick sometimes, it can cost you a lot of money. What’s worse is that you can’t be sure if these clicks convert at all.

It will take some time since successful SEO doesn’t happen overnight, but it’s definitely worth doing if you want a sustainable marketing strategy.

Ready to learn more? Let’s get started.

Using Medical SEO to get your healthcare company’s website to rank higher in Google’s Search Results

Googles ranks websites based on a complex algorithm that sorts them by relevance. This means that your website has to possess certain qualities for it to get to the top. Generally, these factors are:

1. You have to have a Google My Business page and the information has to be filled out completely.

Having a Google My Business account gets your site to show up in a user’s search engine local pack. What’s that, you ask? It’s a box above the organic search results that contain up to 5 business listings that are based on the user’s location.

This is important because your potential patients are most likely looking for health services that are in close proximity to their homes. Since three years ago, search queries that contain the phrase “near me” have doubled.

The information that will show up in Google’s local pack is based on what you’ve filled out on your Google My Business page. This is why you have to be 100% thorough with this.

You have to make sure that the following fields are filled in correctly.

• Your main contact numbers
• Your facility’s hours of operation
• Your facility’s location
• A comprehensive, yet concise description of your company
• Tick the categories that your medical professionals fall under (GP, OBGYN, ENT etc.)
• Reviews from past patients

 

 

2. Your website has to load quickly and it needs to be secure. It also has to be optimized for mobile devices.

The average window that a webpage must appear before the user opts out is three second. Miss that window and that’s one patient lost.

Of course, Google is well aware of this fact, so they include a site’s loading speed in their algorithm. They will prioritize sites that users will want to stay on and explore.

The goal is to get your website to load in under a second. There are a number of things you can do to accomplish this like implementing your own content delivery network (CDN) and compressing your content.

A competent web design team can do this for you.

Next, you want to make sure that your medical site is secure. Security should be at the top of your priorities because you will be dealing with a lot of sensitive information.

Having a secure HTTPS website will put your potential patients at ease and they will be more likely to trust you with this said information.

Lastly, you want your site to be mobile friendly. About 70% of internet users nowadays prefer to browse the web using a mobile device rather than a desktop setup.

If your site is not optimized for mobile, then it’s going to be difficult to navigate.

Based on studies conducted by Google, in the past 6 months, 77% of smartphone owners do their research on local health services on their mobile device. 79% of those users say that they would most likely visit a sire again if it was easily navigable.

 

 

3. Your website must contain quality content that is loaded with optimized keywords for medical SEO.

Even with having the qualities we explained on the previous item, your website would be useless if it didn’t have optimized high quality content tailored for SEO.

You can share quality content with your potential patients by sharing information that would be useful to them, meaning no fillers, no fluff.

Your content must be able to address what the patient needs. In the first place, patients who are online are most likely looking to address specific issues. It is your part to address these issues as best as you can.

In what forms does quality content take? You can take the time to dole out useful information through blog posts, relevant landing pages and automated opt-in email newsletters.

Google uses the following criteria to determine whether your site is high quality or not.

• The pages must be made with the user in mind. Google will notice if you’ve just slapped on a couple of optimized keywords to get more hits than you deserve.
• The site must be transparent and not deceptive.
• The site must not be gimmicky, with ploys just to get higher up on rankings.
• The site must be distinct and not just a tweaked typical website template. It must be easily distinguishable from other medical sites.
• You regularly check your site for hacking and address these issues immediately if they ever do occur.
• You regularly clear out user-generated spam. Your efforts into maintaining your website will be taken into account.

Things to avoid:

• Leaving backlinks where they’re not relevant.
• Having pages with plagiarized content.
• Having pages with viruses and other types of malware
• Veiled text or links and redirects that don’t make sense
• Being a part of an affiliate program without contributing anything of value

4. It also has to have quality images and videos that are relevant.

People tend to shy away from text-heavy sites and they are more attracted to visual content. This is why the focus on video marketing has reached an all-time high.

Because of this, sites that have videos in them get up to a 157% increase in traffic organically. On top of that, videos are more 50 times more likely to appear before the usual SERPs.

Creating high quality videos is the perfect way to share information about medical your potential patients’ concerns and to let them know who you are.

Yes, companies often have some sort of video introduction included in their site to make them appear more friendly and accommodating.

You should be aware that this is the must in the medical field. When dealing with individuals, especially in a very personal and private way, you have to be able to elicit feelings of trust.

When having video content created for your website, make sure that are optimized and uploaded with a speedy web player. You can’t expect to rake in views if they take too long to load.

As for images, these can be useful to space out text-heavy pages. But you have to make sure that you use high-res photos that, ideally, you have had taken specifically for your website.

It seems that a common quality of poor quality sites is their use of tacky and overdone stock images. It’s best to stay away from those.

 

 

5. Its navigation pages must be in order of a medical schema. The title tags and metadata has to be tight.

These days, Meta descriptions are already automated. But this doesn’t mean that you can’t optimize these yourself.

By using a WordPress medical template to build your site, install a plugin so that you’re able to edit Meta descriptions. You should also do with your title tags. And it’s highly advisable that you use optimized keywords.

A medical schema are codes that gives Google a more comprehensive view of your website. This is essentially what will de-cloak you and make your site more visible to Google.

Some of the things that you should highlight with medical schema are:

• Medical drugs
• Medical Guideline
• Medical Condition
• Medical Webpage
• Medical Scholarly Article

6. You have to use the right keywords that are related to your field

We’ve already established that the main way you can optimize your content for SEO is by using the right healthcare keywords. Let’s go more in depth into this.

We assume that your facility houses many specialists. You have to help potential patients as they narrow down their searches, looking for the right kind of service.

For example, let’s say that a patient is looking for a dermatologist. This is what optimized keywords would look like for that specific area:

• Dermatologist+ your city
• Dermatologist + your country
• Cystic acne + your city
• Acne treatment + your country
• Dermatology clinic + your city
• Acne treatment + your city
• Acne + doctor + your city
• Acne + treatment + your city

The list goes on…

A good way to utilize all possible keyword combinations is by using Google Keyword Planner. There, you’ll be able to see how frequently certain keywords are used for each specific practice in your medical facility.

It’s best to use phrases as keywords instead of individual words. This is a common sketchy practice among less skilled business owners who practice SEO and is penalized by Google.

 

 

7. You have to build up off-site authority. This means boosting your reputation through affiliations and having backlinks from other reputable sources.

Your popularity (not notoriety) depends heavily on your reputation. There are a number of ways you can build this up.

One, you have to gather as many virtual nods of approval. These can be in the form of links that have your site as its landing page, directory listings, and even recommendations on social media platforms.

Yes, building up your presence on social media platforms should be one of your priorities to boost your SEO efforts. In fact, studies show that 41% of consumers report that content on social media sites greatly affects their decision of what medical facility to go to.

42% of these users concentrate on reviews left by past patients of your medical facility, so this matters a lot.

Also, if you have garnered awards and citations, your website is the best place to showcase these.

 

 

Your main takeaway: A higher spot on Google Rankings equals more patients. Solid Medical SEO is the answer.

We recommend that as you employ these good SEO practices, you track your site’s analytics as well. On top of that, you have to interpret their implications to your overall strategy.

All of these efforts would go down the drain if you can’t improve upon the areas that need to be improved.

That being said, following these tips would be better than no SEO at all. However, if you really want to develop an excellent Medical SEO strategy that will blow your completion out of the water, it’s best that you hire a time of Medical SEO experts.

This is where we come in. We can take this off your hands and make your medical facility the most reputable and prominent healthcare provider center around.

Contact us today and learn more about what we can do for you.

If we want to sum up everything that we know about the ins and outs of HVAC online marketing, there are five key statistics that sum everything up.

• Google’s organic search results fell on average from ten to eight and a half
• Fifty seven percent of all HVAC company website visits came through mobile devices like smartphones and tablets

Half of all search results on Page One are HTTPS

• Every single second your mobile page delays in loading, your conversion rate decreases by twenty percent
• Social media, website and email make up the three most powerful business marketing tools: fifty-four percent for email, fifty-one percent for website traffic, and forty-eight percent via social media.

Pay close attention to all the statistics I have shared above. They play a big role in how you should plan your digital marketing.

What follows is a detailed breakdown of how you can use the realities behind these statistics to produce actionable strategies for your overall digital marketing plan. All of these have implications for your HVAC business’ online marketing plan.

 

Google’s Average Organic Search Results Shrank From Ten to Eight and a Half

When you look at the typical result for a service and location-specific search term like “plumber, San Francisco, California,” you will see massive changes in a typical Google search result.

At the top, you are likely to find ads for local services. Beneath it, you will see pay per click ads. Beneath those, you will see listings that make up “local pack”. Finally, far down the page will be your organic search results.

This placement hierarchy highlights the fact that it’s getting more difficult for HVAC businesses such as yours to appear in Google’s organic results.

To work against this, you need to invest in placements for Google Local Services. There are no two ways about it. You need to show up as an HVAC contractor using Google Local Services ads. You should also pay for PPC ad visibility.

These are very strategic ad buys because they appear highest up on the results page. This statistic also reminds you to invest serious time, effort or resources in making sure your HVAC business’ local SEO is as tight as it could be.

Fifty-Seven Percent of Visitors Looking for HVAC Services Came Through Smartphones, Tablets or Other Mobile Devices

It’s really important for your website to be optimized for mobile devices. As more and more consumers use tablets and smartphones, the percentage of HVAC website viewers using mobile devices will continue to increase. This is a trend that is not going to go away anytime soon.

You can’t put your prospective customers in the ridiculous position of having to zoom in and out of your website or scroll through different parts of your website. They don’t have the time for that. Your website must look professional and easily accessible regardless of the size of the screen it appears on.

Please understand that there is a big difference between a mobile-responsive website and a mobile-specific website. When you show a mobile-responsive website to a mobile user, they will be able to see your content.

But this is very different from having your website made specifically for mobile. In that situation, you put your best foot forward. Your customers will have an easy experience and they are more likely to return.

 

Half of the Page One Search Results on Google are HTTPS

When you look at your browser bar, you will see HTTPS or HTTP. When you see a website that has HTTPS, this means that it is very secure. It is using a website security that prevents people from intercepting information users send through their browser.

Google places such a high importance on security that it actually rewards HTTPS websites with higher rankings for their target keywords.

Also, when consumers can tell that your website is secure when they see the padlock icon for your site on their browser, they’re more likely to trust your website.

Every Second Your Mobile Page Delays in Loading, Your Conversions Decrease by Twenty Percent

Make no mistake, the faster your website loads, the higher the chance you will convert your visitor.

You have to understand that starting in 2017, more consumers view websites through mobile devices than desktop computers. This means that they are using relatively slower devices to view websites.

Accordingly, speed is extremely important to them. If they have to wait over three seconds waiting for your site to appear, they will drop out.

It is no surprise that Google counts page load time as one of its ranking factors. The faster your site loads, the higher you rank.

The Three Most Powerful Digital Marketing Tools for HVAC Businesses are Email, Website Traffic, and Social Media

A lot of HVAC business owners are under the impression that they just need to put up a professional looking website. The problem is, this is just one part of the equation. You have to look at the big picture.

The typical consumer has a profile on Facebook or other social media platforms. The average consumer also signs up to approximately forty or so email newsletters. You have to factor in all these statistics and their implications into your 2018 HVAC business digital marketing plan.

What follows is a full guide that gives you a framework for your HVAC marketing:

HVAC Company Guidance for Marketing on Search Engines

Why Should Your HVAC Business Bother with Search Engine Marketing?

Please understand that search engine marketing remains one of the most powerful ways to market your business. This type of marketing enables you to get the attention of homeowners precisely at the time they’re most interested in your type of services.

Please note that around ninety-seven percent of American consumers go on the internet to look for local services. Similarly, among smartphone users, eighty-two percent go on search engines when they are on the hunt for local merchants or service providers.

Search engine marketing is a catchall term that covers pay per click or PPC advertising, local SEO, and overall HVAC search engine optimization (SEO).

The Name of the Game is to Rank in Municipalities and Locations You’re Not Located In

Due to the search engine traffic shift to mobile traffic, it’s harder for HVAC businesses to rank in towns and cities where their business doesn’t have a physical location. This is a serious problem if you have a large service area.

Typically, HVAC companies would be based in a town, but would actually service the nearby county, cities, or even regions. This is why it’s really important for HVAC businesses to put in the time, effort and energy required in capturing local search rankings involving multiple states and cities. We can help you do this efficiently and effectively.

 

 

Try These Three Tips So You Can Quickly Improve Your HVAC Business’ Local SEO

Due to the fact that the “local pack” is rising in importance in local business search results, HVAC companies need to pay more attention to local SEO. This is crucial for potential customers physically near your business’ location to find you in Google’s organic search results.

There are a lot of ways to improve your HVAC business’ local SEO. We have identified three methods that require the least effort on your part. They are the easiest methods to boosting your company’s overall local SEO immediately.

Put Up a Local HVAC Business Blog for Effective HVAC SEO Content Marketing

If you want to capture as much local searches for HVAC businesses, you need to put up a blog. You need to post quite a bit of content. This is in keeping with the fact that Google actually ranks individual web pages. It doesn’t rank full websites.

This means you have to post enough content so you get more chances at ranking on Google for several of your pages. The more pages you publish, the higher the chance that at least some of these will rank well on Google.

Once people find you on Google, you can then link them through to your main service page. The key is to get your foot in the door.

Effective HVAC content marketing means listing out and writing about topics that are related to the services you offer. For example, you can talk about furnace inspections, the importance of regular duct cleaning, as well as what to do when trying to get emergency repairs on an HVAC system and other topics.

When you blog, you get to write about your main service areas, and then related issues, and then issues related to that. You also can blog about common questions that your target customers ask like, “How do I know when to replace my air conditioner?”

Place Local Services Ads on Google

If you are stumped when trying to discover new HVAC marketing ideas, take a quick look at the ads shown by Google Local Services. This feature is still being rolled out throughout the United States by Google. These ads specifically promote HVAC companies such as yours.

Pay close attention to them because they are the first thing you will see when you search for HVAC services in a particular area. How do they work?

How do you get your HVAC business advertised through Google Local Services? Here are the steps:

Step #1: Enroll in the Google Guarantee Program.

Step #2: Once you are enrolled, whenever a Google user searches for HVAC services in the area you selected, your ad will appear.

Step #3: (This is the most important part) Google Local Services Ads will only charge you if the searcher calls you. That’s right. You only pay for each qualified lead.

 

 

Traditional PPC (Pay-Per-Click): The Quickest Way to Generate HVAC Leads

Is Pay-Per-Click Still Worth It in the Year 2018?

Absolutely. As we have mentioned above, based on statistical analysis and their implications, if you want to get more leads, you need to get as high up on the first page of Google Results. There are no two ways about it.

Many small local business owners think that PPC is inapplicable for their local business. This is not true. Considering the fact that local search real estate space continues to shrink for organic results, you need to make it near the top of HVAC search results in your area. If you need to pay for it, then you need to do so. This is an investment in solid leads.

The key to PPC campaigns is to determine the value of each new customer you get. Once you have that information, you can then figure out the value of each new HVAC prospect you get from Google. Don’t just focus on the price. Focus on what you stand to gain and the probability of you getting a new customer.

Do People Bother Clicking Paid Ads?

Let’s put it this way. When you do a local search for HVAC services such as yours, you will see paid ads. Now ask yourself this: If these ads are not working at all, why are these companies paying good money for these ads? That’s the bottom line.

These are different companies. They’re not all clueless. They’re not all out to lunch when it comes to the value of each lead they get from Google. Given the price of local paid ads, you can bet that these companies are getting positive ROI. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be investing in paid ad clicks for their HVAC services websites.

Social Media Marketing for HVAC Companies

What You Need to Know about Social Media Marketing for Your HVAC Business

While it’s true that social media enables HVAC companies such as yours to directly engage with your existing customers and boost your local visibility, you have to know what you’re doing. If you’re a rookie to this type of marketing, it’s very easy to mess up. It’s very easy to throw a lot of money at the problem only to have very little to show for it. Pay close attention to the platform-by-platform analysis below so you can get a head start on HVAC contractor social media marketing.

 

 

Facebook

Does Your HVAC Outfit Need Its Very Own Facebook Page?

This is a common question. It’s very tempting to say “no.” However, wrap your mind around this fact: Most of the people you are trying to reach in your local area already have Facebook accounts. This is why it’s really important to leverage the social reach of Facebook to spread the word about your HVAC business.

While it doesn’t have to be front and center of your digital marketing plan, it has to be a key component of it. You can get qualified leads, increase brand visibility and leverage your existing customer base to get new customers all thanks to Facebook. The first step is to put up a professional Facebook page for your HVAC business.

How to Come Up with the Very Best Ads on Facebook for HVAC Contractors

If you’re already running a pay-per-click campaign on Google, you might be thinking that paid Facebook ads is redundant or absolutely unnecessary. Please keep in mind that the audience you will find through Google is different from the people who will be looking at your local ads on Facebook.

The name of the game is to maximize the visibility of your online brand. You have to use both platforms “budget permitting.” Please note that advertising on Facebook doesn’t have to break the bank.

There are many types of ads you could run. You can one an engagement campaign. You can promote a specific post or you can get direct clicks to your website. These have different cost factors. Depending on your budget, you can focus on one type and optimize it so it leads to actual visitors to your website.

Instagram

How Can Your HVAC Company Get More Business from Instagram Users

As you probably already know, Instagram is growing rapidly. There are a lot of local people using that platform. Interestingly enough, even service businesses like HVAC plumbing and roofing stand to gain quite a bit of new business from Instagram if they know how to leverage its content and social features.

Pay-Per-Lead Directory Site Placement Services Specializing in HVAC Businesses

Is It Worth Paying for a Directory Placement for Your Business?

It’s easy to see the attraction many HVAC company business owners have for directories like Yelp, HomeAdvisor and Angie’s List.

In fact, when you do a search on Google, a lot of times you would listings from these places. The problem is there are different business factors that go into whether you should invest in direct replacements. Please check out our detailed discussion on these options.

HVAC Business Email Marketing

Stay Engaged with Your Customers through Email

If you want a system that will enable you to reach out to your customers wherever they are and whenever you want, get them to sign up for your mailing list. If you’re running any sort of special promotion or you are trying to drum up a repeat business, email is the best way to do it. Not only can you get new leads from it, but you can also get repeat business from your existing clients. To get the inside scoop on email marketing success, check out our tips for effective email promotions for your HVAC business.

How to Get Your Email Noticed in a Full Inbox

Let’s face it, a lot of web users sign up for all sorts of mailing lists. In fact, according to a recent report, the average consumer signs up to around for forty email lists. Given this reality plus the emails they get from their work, school, family members and friends, it’s easy to see that most people’s inbox can get full very easily. How do you get your HVAC marketing emails noticed in a full inbox? Check out our helpful on how to send out newsletter updates that actually get noticed.

Website Design Considerations for HVAC websites

Aim to Build a Superior HVAC Business Web Presence

Many HVAC business owners think that once you’ve seen one HVAC website, you have seen them all. This is a common misconception. These websites are not equal, not even close.

You have to be strategic in designing or renovating your existing web presence. Just because something looks good doesn’t mean that it will pull in new customers. At the end of the day, you want people to call you through your website. You want leads; that’s the bottom line. The bottom line is not to have the prettiest homepage. If you want to get the inside scoop on where to put your phone number, how to put together a website that attracts attention and, most importantly, generates leads, visit our section on this very important topic.

Mobile Load Speed is Crucial for the Success of your HVAC Business

There are no two ways about it. If your website doesn’t load well on mobile devices, you are playing the game to lose. Google has made this abundantly clear since 2016. On April 21 of that year, Google officially included mobile friendliness as one of its 200+ ranking factors.

The bottom line is if your website looks good on mobile devices, chances are you will rank higher on Google. A key part of this is the speed at which your website loads. This is also a crucial ranking factor on its own.

HVAC Business Online Reviews

How to Rack Up More HVAC Google Reviews

Reviews are extremely important. If you don’t have any reviews or you get very low ratings, potential customers might avoid your company like the plague. Moreover, if your HVAC business gets high review ratings, this can help you get a better position at the “local pack” Google results. If you want to get important tips and guidelines for boosting the number of Google reviews of your HVAC business, visit our Google review section.

HVAC Business Online Recruitment Promotions

Access Better Talent by Using LinkedIn

According to Pew Research, 90% of Americans looking for new employment over the past two years used the World Wide Web to research companies and the employment opportunities. Use this to your advantage. Put your company’s profile on LinkedIn. This ranks fairly high and this enables you to position your business to attract the very best local talent for your HVAC company.

How to Leverage Glassdoor to Build Up Your HVAC Business’ Team

If your business is like most other businesses in the United States, you know full well that attracting and hanging onto valuable employees is a problem. In fact, according to the NFIB, close to half of American small business owners say that they are very few or absolutely no applicants who are qualified in their local area.

If you place a company profile on Glassdoor, you get a high-ranking page in your local area for HVAC jobs. This increases the likelihood of your company getting in front of the right eyeballs so you can build up your team with qualified, competent individuals.

Add Customer Service to Your HVAC Marketing Tool Kit

Providing Excellent Customer Service is the Ultimate Marketing Strategy

If you want repeat business and you’d like to grow an organic community of people who praise your business, look no further than how you treat your existing customers. Please understand that the number one source of new business growth for any small business like your HVAC company is your existing relationship with your customers.

It isn’t SEO. It isn’t content marketing or social media marketing. You already have it. Build on it. You’d be surprised as to how eager your existing customers will refer you to their family and friends. Just as social networks online can spread the word very quickly about your business, offline word-of-mouth is equally potent.

Show Your Existing Customers How Much You Care

It’s really important to take a long, hard look at your existing customer service process. Figure out if it produces the desired effect. Are people happy? Are people happy enough that they would tell the rest of the world about your company?

You have to look at your customer service staff. Pay attention to what they’re doing. Can they use a little extra training? Can their processes be standardized so customer experience is predictable and meets the highest standards?

Please read our section on customer service enhancement. By making sure your existing customer base is happy, you can pretty much guarantee repeat orders from them while at the same time increasing the possibility that they will refer new business to you.

Key Rules for Dealing with HVAC Service Price Shoppers

Have you overheard some of your customer service staff talking to prospects and noticed that most of the conversation turned on price? It can be very depressing when your customer service staff talk about the installation of air conditioners and repairing furnaces at the highest quality standards yet all the prospect wants to talk about is the bottom line.

It’s very easy to dismiss such leads as wastes of time. Please note that you just need to retrain your customer service staff to handle such calls better. Believe it or not, with the right script and the right optimized training, these leads can easily turn into paying customers. We’re not talking about low-cost customers here. We’re talking about people who would pay your premium rates.

 

 

Do You Need Professional Help to Market Your Local HVAC Business Right?

Now that you have a good idea of the things that you need to focus on to get better sales results for your HVAC company this year, please note that the best plan in the world is not going to help you.

That’s right. You may come up with the best blueprint, the best action plan, the best framework; but none of those digital marketing strategies would add a single dollar to your bottom line if they were not implemented correctly. It’s not a question of just taking action. This is a question of getting it done right.

Contact us today to see how our experience and our tried-and-proven ability to get results can help take your HVAC company’s revenues to the next level. You have come to the right place for professional HVAC company digital marketing services.