“Follow me on Instagram.” “I sent you a friend request on Facebook did you accept it yet?” These are things that we ask people after making a connection with someone. We fill our spare time scrolling through various social media channels. We also follow pages of businesses that we like and every so often, have our feeds interrupted by an ad that a company has paid to be there. This time in #wwudigimark, we are talking about organic social media. No need to pay for those ads when you can create and post content for free. Let me teach you about how your company can use organic social media to their advantage-oh yeah and did I mention that it is free?

What is Organic Social Media?

What if this sign flashed before you as you posted on social media? Did you know that you’ve basically been creating organic social media for as long as you’ve had an account or profile? Organic social media is content that is created and posted on social media that is not boosted or sponsored – so in other words, like the sign says: it is free. Organic social media is primarily seen by followers and loyal customers of the brand because it is not being promoted financially to be shown to people not following the brand.

Organic Social Media Strategy

A good organic social media strategy answers all customer questions. It includes informing your customers with updates, links, images, and anything that will inform them of how the brand is doing. A good organic strategy should increase the word of mouth marketing from your customers. Creating organic social media content allows for connecting with your customers and this can only become possible once they are followers of your account. A good strategy should:

• Create engaging content that followers want to see

• Should answer all their questions they may have about your company and your brand

• Utilizes all of the free services and tools that each social media platform provides to its users

• It should build followers of your organization or business

• Interact with the followers that you continue to have to ensure that you continue to keep the relationship you have with current followers

A good social media campaign should be integrated into the marketing plan. It should give the company feedback as to what it needs to change and what the consumers are looking for.

Organic Social Media or Brand Building?

Organic social media is more than just brand building because it is all about creating a community for your company.

While it is important to represent your brand well through social media, you should use organic social media to entice customers to understand your brand. If a customer finds you through a paid social media ad but has no information about what it is they are looking for, then organic social media should answer all of the questions that they may have. Social media is a tool that enables customers to understand exactly what they are getting from a brand. People follow their favorite brands on social media because they want to be the first to know when something happens to that brand.

Value of Social Media Management Platforms (Hootsuite)

Hootsuite, a social media management platform is very beneficial to building a strong organic social media campaign. Hootsuite allows you to manage all your social media platforms from one site; scheduling posts, filtering comments, and tracking engagement on your posts. This is extremely valuable when using organic social media because it allows for consistent posting across all your social media channels. It also assists in integrating the social media into your marketing campaign.

Shit that I Knit and Lessons for Organic Social Media

Shit that I Knit – a company that was started by Christina Fagan after her hobby of knitting became more of a career path started out when Christina started a blog about her projects. The social media channel for the company promotes all sorts of products that they have as well as consumer posts that they have tagged the company in. It also promotes current events such as thanking healthcare workers for their work in the current COVID-19 pandemic. Their Instagram channel is very organized so that consumers can watch their stories and learn more about the company. The company stays true to their mission through their posts and continue to promote their brand, their influencers, their customers, and their company.

Conclusion

Organic social media is extremely valuable to a company. It allows information to be passed on to customers through one given location that is easily accessible for them. It also is FREE! Organic social media allows for customers to follow their favorite brands so that they can keep up with the latest and greatest that have been happening to the company. Who wouldn’t want some free advertising for your company as a way to create and maintain relationships with your current customers? Stay tuned for next week’s blog in #wwudigimark, and remember, always utilize your free advertising!

Is anyone else Team Gryffindor? Have you taken the Sorting Hat quiz? During the first part of week 3 in #wwudigimark we’re talking about and answering your questions that have to do with inbound and content marketing. Stay tuned to learn more about I’ve learned about inbound and content marketing and how it will help you and your business.

Inbound Marketing

What is Inbound Marketing?

Inbound marketing is a business methodology that attracts customers with valuable content created and tailored to them. It forms connections and solves problems that the consumer might have by using an inbound marketing strategy. Broadly, inbound marketing is built on the foundation of the idea that it’s not enough to just attract people to your website but you have to ensure that they continue to feel supported and valued to keep them as customers.

How to Use Inbound Marketing

You can use inbound marketing to control your online presence. According to a blog written on Marketo, through content, inbound marketing focuses on keeping customers engaged and creating a brand for themselves while potentially creating up to three times the amount of exposure than a regular marketing strategy could.

Inbound Marketing Used in Blogs

Did you know that the most successful blogs are not only informational, but they are also informative too. Blogs should answer the readers questions. In fact, when trying to use blogs as content in the inbound marketing strategy, it is important to answer all of the questions a potential customer might have. The most effective blogs are those that have identified the audience that may be interacting with them. They have assessed and determined all of the different types of questions that customers may have and attempt to successfully answer them throughout the blog. It is also important to engage readers in the blog. They should be engaged by hooking them in the introduction. They should also have interactive pieces in the blog or additional information for visitors to click on that is linked throughout so that they can supplement their knowledge.

Content Marketing

What is Content Marketing?

As Bill Gates would say, “Content is King!” Content marketing is the strategic approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience – and, ultimately to drive profitable customer actions.

Goal of Content Marketing

The goal of content marketing is to encourage engagement with consumers in hopes of developing a relationship that ends in a conversion. Content marketing is actually a popular tactic often used in inbound marketing because content is used heavily when performing inbound marketing.

Content allows for so much exposure for a company. The exposure of a company is vital to its success and creating multiple different types of content provides the ability to attract and convert multiple different types of people. Content marketing is used by leading brands in the industry. It also helps organic search.

What Makes Content Marketing Successful?

Content marketing is successful because of its ability to show the customer just exactly what the brand is. It shows the customers what to expect and what they can be getting from each brand. It is also the new form of marketing that almost all companies and businesses are using because of today’s tech industry. It is successful because it is too valuable for consumers and businesses and the maintenance of the relationship created between them. Every great brand has a wealth of valuable and relevant content that connects with the company’s audience. It creates a trust because consumers can see what they are getting and the content that is provided is actively being created to convert the customer.

Hubspot Academy and Harry Potter

Through the Hubspot academy inbound marketing course, I learned that it is important to use the three important steps in an inbound marketing campaign. Those steps are:

• Attract

• Engage

• Delight

One way to do this is through content. In the Hubspot content marketing course, it teaches about the ability for content to tell a story.

Does taking the Sorting Hat quiz make you as nervous as it does the characters in Harry Potter? Does it seem like this quiz will define who you are after you are assigned a house? The quiz asks a series of questions that ultimately almost create a character for you. The end goal assigns you one of the four houses in Harry Potter:

• Gryffindor

• Hufflepuff

• Ravenclaw

• Slytherin

The questions that you answer will decide your strengths and weaknesses and also describe the type of person you are; brave, humble, courageous (all characteristics of a member of Gryffindor). This will then create a character profile that is used to describe what type of house you belong in. This content connects visitors to the characters and gives them a deeper connection to the story of Harry Potter. They now can align themselves with the characters in the book and feel a deeper connection to the story line. This content has the power to convert the average fan into a loyal fan or even a person who has never seen or read the books into someone who actively can now go and seek that connection.

Conclusion

Ultimately, we live in a world full of content and inbound marketing, and whether you know it or not, you too have been influenced by it. Companies are using these strategies to connect with their consumers and create bonds that will last in the long-term. I hope that through this blog you were able to understand the importance of content and inbound marketing and how it is being used by businesses to create connections with you in your everyday life. Stay tuned for the second half of week 3 in #wwudigimark and I’ll see you next time!

Option A or option B? This is a question that you’ve probably been asked for as long as you can remember, but how does this relate to marketing? A/B testing and Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) are tools used in digital marketing. You don’t have to be a scientist to run these types of tests, so stick around to find out what we’re learning about this week in #wwudigimark, as I talk about everything A/B Testing and CRO.

What is CRO?

CRO is much like all the people running through this funnel. The goal is to change site visitors into conversions. It is defined as “the systematic process of increasing the percentage of website visitors who take a desired action.” A conversion (aka goal) is measured in micro-conversions and macro conversions. CRO is measured by calculating a conversion rate.

What is A/B Testing?

Also known as split testing, A/B testing is a way in which companies can compare two versions of a website to figure out which performs better. This is nothing new, as the method of A/B testing has been around for almost 100 years! A/B tests show which version of a webpage is performing better than the other so that website conversions can be optimized. This is determined through statistical analysis that shows what variation of the webpage has been performing best for the conversion goal of the company. A/B testing is a tool used by companies to not only optimize their conversion rate, but also to optimize user experience. The easier it is for a user to interact with your site, the more likely they are to convert. Using A/B tests are another way to also understand consumer’s behavior and their preferences as to what makes them to pursue an interaction or conversion with a webpage.

Measuring CRO

The way to measure CRO, is by finding a conversion rate (the percentage of visitors who take a desired action). This is calculated by dividing the site traffic by the number of times a user completes a goal then multiplying it by 100.

Performing A/B Tests

Listen to this little girl! A/B tests are science, but you don’t need to be a scientist to perform them. The test follows a similar layout to the scientific method, but it will be unlike any chemistry experience you may have had to do in a gen chem class. According to Optimizely, the steps to start running an A/B test are as follows:

1.      Determine conversion to improve

2.      Hypothesize change

3.      Identify variables/create variations

4.      Run experiment

5.      Measure/analyze results

When performing the experiment, half of the traffic is shown the control (original) variable and the other half are shown the variation (modified) variable. The engagement with each page is collected, measured and then analyzed through a statistical software. It is important that the users receive the page randomly, as A/B testing is a randomized controlled experiment.

Why use CRO?

Paying special attention to CRO is important because ultimately the interaction site visitors have with your webpage is crucial to continuing to profit as a company. The more likely a visitor is to interact with your webpage, the more likely they are to convert and use your site again. It also benefits SEOs. According to MOZ, there are five ways that CRO benefits SEOs. They are:

1.      Improved customer insights

2.      Better ROI

3.      Better scalability

4.      Better user experience

5.      Enhanced trust

This is important because while CRO may not directly affect SEO, it gives you more insight into how to best use SEO. CRO helps a company make the most of their webpage and get the most out of the current traffic that they already have. If you don’t use CRO, you are most likely not maximizing the use of your webpage and therefore you are wasting money! It is important to use CRO because it will also assist your sales team. If you consider the conversion of visitors to your webpage, it makes it easier for the sales team because they will have leads which could make their job a little easier.

Why use A/B Testing?

A/B testing should be used because it gives you necessary data to ensure you are maximizing your marketing budget. It gives you major improvements with small and minor changes. There is low risk but high reward in using these types of tests, and they are useful to answer smaller questions and to improve small goals one at a time. They also better help to pinpoint exactly what was not allowing a company’s webpage to be most successful.

Who’s Done it Well?

Many companies use CRO and A/B testing as methods for their performance research. People who use A/B testing and CRO may work on email campaigns, paid internet advertising, e-commerce, in the travel industry, or at technology companies. Companies like The Discovery Channel, Secret Escapes, and ComScore have all successfully used A/B testing to increase the conversion rate through the help of the company Optimizely.

The Discovery channel was able to utilize AB testing to increase video engagement and improved ad viewing. This resulted in a 6% increase of click-throughs in the video content.

The company Secret Escapes utilized Optimizely to successfully double their mobile signup rate while optimizing their customer acquisition.

Lastly, ComScore was able to test Brand Validation and Social Proof to create a 69% increase in leads generated in many of the world’s primary enterprises, publishers and agencies.

Conclusion

A/B tests and CRO hold a special place in the heart of digital marketers. I hope that this article has taught you some basics about both unique tools that can be used to help companies optimize their online websites. Stay tuned for next week’s topic in #wwudigimark and remember, you don’t have to be a scientist to perform A/B tests, so don’t be afraid to try them!

Google Analytics

Do you understand what the amazing Leonardo DiCaprio is referring to? Read more to find out!

Google Analytics (GA), if you didn’t already know, is a very useful tool. As a future digital marketer, (and really just a marketer in general), having the skills and ability to use this “freemium” service is one of the most beneficial tools for the future.

It’s Important

You might ask yourself, “the name is so straightforward so why do I need to read yet another article on GA?” Well, while the name of GA may straight-up tell you what it does, there are many functions within GA that you may not know exist and can help you when trying to understand more about your company and its consumers. GA takes the numbers and metrics that people like me once never wanted to touch in their career and turns them into something that I do want to look at every day. Companies use GA to understand both current and new potential customers. THEY DON’T WANT PERSONAL INFORMATION; they just want to know about you and people like you! GA gives a deeper understanding of the customer and helps to build a bigger picture for your company using data while making the data work for you and not the other way around. GA also helps people working in SEO and not just people looking to analyze data as well.

How it Works

So, how does it work? First, you must create a Google Analytics account. After the account is created, it will bring you to your home page. This page will soon be filled with all sorts of numbers and metrics once you start tracking websites. GA helps companies move consumers through the purchasing funnel by acquisition, behavior and conversion. It uses the data to figure out how to get more customers to interact with their company. Companies such as Spotify, Airbnb, Dropbox, and Slack are just a few of the companies known for using this tool.

Google Analytics for Beginners

Next, you start tracking websites. Unlike this gif of tracking your location on a map, when you begin tracking website(s), Google Analytics places a Javascript tracking code to each page on the website. This tracking code ANONYMOUSLY collects data on the people visiting the website. (It is important to note that this data is anonymous). The tracking code can track the language of the website (code it was written in), type of browser, device accessed on, operating system currently being used, and traffic source (what brought the user to the source). It then groups the data into sessions. Each session is the interaction on the website within a specific time frame, and a session ends after 30 minutes of inactivity.

Organizing the Data

GA for Beginners teaches you how to keep the data organized. It is important to understand how to find and filter the data. There are three different views of the data. Raw Data, Test View and Master View. It is important to save all the data you may need because you cannot change it later. Filtering the data will help you find exactly what you are looking for when trying to answer specific questions you may have when reading the data.

Reports

Three of the most useful groups of reports that can be found in Google Analytics are titled Audience, Acquisition and Behavior.

• Audience reports will assist you in understanding demographic, behavioral and interest characteristics of users.

• Acquisition reports show which channels brought users to your site.

• Behavior reports showed how people engaged in the site. This includes which page of the website people land on and which page they exit from.

Google Ads and Google Analytics can be linked to track your campaigns. GA for Beginners teaches about how to track campaigns and goals you may set whether they be business goals or GA goals.

Advanced Google Analytics

Advanced GA dives into deeper water. It gives a more in-depth description on how to use the functions within GA and how to make them more specific and less generalized to what you might need to do. The advanced training in GA teaches about how GA categorizes its users and how to more clearly understand the data in ways that interest you. The advanced GA course will teach you how to:

• categorize into users and sessions

• organize and create advanced filters

• create custom dimensions and metrics

• segment and analyze data

• re-market to consumers

Understanding the relevance and importance of each of these functions taught in the advanced GA course will serve you well later down the road when using GA as a tool for your business.

Google Merchandise Store Demo Account

Throughout both the beginner and advanced course of GA, it takes you through a simulation using the Google Analytics Store Demo Account to understand and analyze the Google Merchandise Store. In the simulation, GA instructs what to do when trying to perform specific functions. It is here where you learn how to navigate through Google Analytics, understand both overview reports as well as full reports, how to share reports and how to set up dashboards and shortcuts. In the advanced GA sessions, you are taught how to analyze data by channel, audience, and custom reports.

Findings

When working through the simulation, the audience overview report shows audience metrics like number of users, pages visited in a session, average session duration, and bounce rate.

Pictured above is a screenshot of the audience overview report. The audience of the page was primarily new users and the primary language spoken is English.

Majority of the people that visited the site speak English. 65.63% of people spoke English from the United States. This is shown lower in the report as it shows different languages and the percentage of visitors that speak each language.

Conclusion

Whether you’re someone who loves or hates numbers, GA turns everyone into a friend of analytics. Google Analytics has taught me the value and importance of understanding data and what it can do for any company I may work for in the future.