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amarketingautomation · 6 years ago

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Small but mighty: how to use apps to improve your marketing

Digital marketing lets you connect with your audience any time in a personalized way. But, with all of that promotional opportunity just a few clicks away, you may feel overwhelmed. As a small business owner, the more you can organize, automate, and streamline marketing tasks, the more successful you will be.

Fortunately, there are a number of digital tools that can help you tackle key marketing areas. These apps are proven game-changers for entrepreneurs who use those tactics, and they can help you improve and simplify the following aspects of digital marketing.

Social media management

Stringjoy, a boutique guitar string company based in Nashville, Tennessee, uses Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube to build personal, long-lasting relationships with its customers. Founder and President Scott Marquart says monitoring interactions on multiple social accounts gets “wily and unwieldy pretty quickly.” He recommends Agorapulse, a social media management tool that filters social mentions and messages into one inbox. Pricing starts at $79 per month.

“Customers will communicate on whatever platform they are most comfortable with. If their order doesn’t arrive, they might drop a comment on your YouTube video or Instagram post. Having an app that integrates everything is essential, so you don’t miss opportunities,” Marquart says.

In 2015, Marquart did Instagram hashtag research to see what posts were resonating with guitar lovers. He started applying Stringjoy strings to cool-looking guitars and sharing the photos on his feed. The company still uses this strategy today, using Later, a mobile app for planning and scheduling Instagram posts. Later has a free version for individuals and a $19-per-month plan for small businesses. Buffer is a popular multi-platform management choice. Costs range from $16-$99 per month for small businesses.

Digital graphics customization

Apps and tools can also simplify graphic design, allowing you to create social media ads, landing pages, and other marketing material. Amy Birks, a digital marketing strategist and author of The Hustle-Free Business, recommends Word Swag, an app for creating custom text designs to add to photos. Her other favorite app for small businesses is Canva, a graphic design tool that makes it simple to create professional-looking content. Both apps are free to use and offer additional features for purchase.

Stefan Lewinger, founder and CEO of Sock Fancy, an online monthly sock subscription service, works hard to “create a customer experience worth sharing.” The company uses Mailchimp, a multifaceted small business marketing platform, to find and build relationships with its customers. The Mailchimp ad builder lets you build professional Facebook and Instagram ads and use audience segment tools for better targeting. Mailchimp’s template library also lets business owners design effective landing pages, and flexible pricing scales with your business.

Sales integration

You can’t sell online without a point of sale (POS) or e-commerce platform. Popular choices like Square and WooCommerce have apps so you can manage your business on the go and complete in-person transactions, too.

When building your marketing technology stack, look for tools that “play well with others.” Mailchimp’s customer relationship management (CRM) function integrates with leading e-commerce platforms, as well as Salesforce. This allows you to use all the data at your disposal to make smart marketing decisions.

To drive more sales with email, Mailchimp can automatically recommend products people will want to buy based on data. It can also send abandoned cart emails when a prospective customer fails to complete a purchase.

Email marketing

Forty-five percent of Stringjoy customers become repeat shoppers. Marquart says email marketing helps him build long-term relationships by regularly sharing relevant content, such as videos and blog posts. Mailchimp segmenting and automation features make doing so easier. For example, he can automatically send customers emails every two to three weeks so his brand stays top-of-mind.

Mailchimp has more marketing functions than you can imagine, including tools for creating Google ads and postcards, automating digital advertising campaigns, and optimizing performance with segmentation and A/B testing.

Help with analytics

The beauty of digital marketing is that you can monitor performance in real time and make smart changes that drive return on investment (ROI). Here, apps are particularly handy, so you can oversee your marketing no matter where you are.

Both Marquart and Lewinger use the Mailchimp app for insights and analytics. You can monitor, schedule, and launch campaigns, and analyze performance across campaigns for a more complete understanding of your customers.

Marquart also recommends Google Optimize, a free tool for comparing the performance of copy or design on your website. It is built on Google Analytics, a must-have for understanding what is driving your website traffic.

With these tools, a lean team can do the work of much larger ones, delivering personalized marketing experiences that can set a small business apart.

This article was created for and commissioned by Mailchimp

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from Marketing Automation and Digital Marketing Blog http://amarketingautomation.com/small-but-mighty-how-to-use-apps-to-improve-your-marketing/

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amarketingautomation · 6 years ago

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Planning a Digital Marketing Promotion? Take This Website Speed Test First.

Google estimates that 40 percent of people will leave a mobile site that takes longer than three seconds to load. How long does yours take? Find out now!

May 30, 2019 4 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Entrepreneur Insider’s Tip of the Day provides concise input on how you can improve aspects of your business or professional routines.

You spend time and money creating the right content to get your audience to visit your website. Unfortunately, a slow website can stop this whole process in its tracks. Google estimates that up to 40 percent of website visitors will leave a mobile website that takes longer than three seconds to load.

How long does your website take, and what can do you to speed it up? Fortunately, Google has a tool that will help with both. You can check it out here. Before you get started, it’s important to note this tool will test your speed based on a 3G or 4G mobile connection. Your site will load much quicker on Wi-Fi. Beyond that, you’ll typically want to test the speed of each page, which you can do via the Google Analytics Page Speed Report.

That said, let’s take a look at my website.

Slow? I suppose “needs improvement” would have been a more polite way to say it. Either way, it is what it is. The majority of my traffic comes from desktop, but this is still something I’ll address.

Fortunately, this tool provides tactic level advice for increasing speed. As is the case with my site, large images are a common culprit, they take longer to load. That hero image on top of your page may look good, but so does money. You’ll need to either compress or remove if you want to speed things up.

Take a look at some of the other tools that are available as well. You can benchmark your speed against competitors or industry leaders. If you run an ecommerce site, you can evaluate how much money you may be losing due to your site speed.

In this scenario, a business could make another $18,000 per year by shaving three seconds off its load speed. Reducing speed by just a second is predicted to net another $4,000 in revenue. So, even if you need to hire a website developer, the incremental revenue could pay for their time.

As mentioned, this tool provides an estimate. If your campaigns are on Facebook or Instagram, you can easily find out exactly how much traffic you’re losing from your ads. First, I’ll need to provide a few quick definitions.

Link Click: This is when someone clicks on your ad, with the intention of leaving Facebook/Instagram.

Landing Page View: This is when the Facebook Pixel records a visit on your site.

Assuming your pixel is set up correctly, the delta between Link Clicks and Landing Page Views shows you how much traffic you’ve lost. Here’s an example of how that will look.

Wow, more than 50 percent of traffic was lost. Sixty-six people saw this ad and said “looks cool, I’ll take a look,” but 37 of them said, “this is taking way too long, I’m out.”

So there you have it, a quick way to estimate the amount of traffic you’re losing on your site. No site is ever “perfect,” but hopefully this provides input on how you can improve the overall efficiency.

Need some help with this, or have other digital marketing questions? Book a consulting session with me on Entrepreneur’s Ask an Expert platform. My schedule is always up to date, and you can even record the meeting if you’d like. Hope to speak with you soon, and good luck with your next campaign!

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from Marketing Automation and Digital Marketing Blog http://amarketingautomation.com/planning-a-digital-marketing-promotion-take-this-website-speed-test-first/

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amarketingautomation · 6 years ago

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Why is Link Building So Important to Your SEO Strategy?

There is no denying the importance of SEO to your business. In today’s competitive market, SEO is more important than ever. However, SEO can be difficult to execute effectively because there are several ranking factors involved in generating high organic search results.

Link building is the most important and often most overlooked aspect of SEO. If you’re not including link building in your overall SEO strategy, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity for business. Keep reading to learn the importance of link building and how you can further your SEO strategy through earned links.

What is Link Building?

Simply put, link building is the process of getting other sites to hyperlink to your website. According to Moz, a link is a way for users to navigate between pages on the internet. Search engines use links to crawl through individual webpages and to crawl through the links between entire websites. Links also drive referral traffic and increase your site’s authority.

To be frank, organic link building can be a difficult and time-consuming process. Despite its value, many avoid or try to shortcut the process by employing black-hat tactics to obtain links. If you care about the livelihood of your site and business, you should only engage in the process of earning high-quality links versus resorting to unfair tactics that could ultimately get your site banned from search results.

Why Link Building is So Important to SEO

Given the fact that Google’s algorithms are highly complex and constantly evolving, links remain an important factor in how every search engine determines which sites rank for which keywords. Link building is the most important tactic used in SEO because links are a signal to Google that your site is a quality resource, worthy of citation. In turn, sites with more backlinks tend to earn higher search rankings.

There are a few important aspects to keep in mind when building links. You should know that all links are not created equal. For example, a link from an authoritative website like the Washington Post will have a greater impact on your rankings than a link from a small or newly-built site. You should only focus on earning links from websites with a higher domain authority than your site with a decent amount of backlinks. Tools like SEMRush will easily pull data for you to identify these sites.

How Do You Get Sites to Link to You?

There are a variety of strategies to get external websites to link to yours. Here are a few examples:

Content Creation: Content that is compelling, high-quality, and unique encourages others to link to your site. To make it easier for people to find your content, make sure you promote it through email marketing and on social media.

Ask for links from your friends and partners: Link building can be as easy as asking your friends and people you work with to link to your site. But, it is important to stay within the parameters of your industry or niche. Always keep in mind, relevance matters!

Ask for mentions and reviews: You should always put your product, service, and website in front of industry leaders and influencers who can potentially give you a mention on social media or a public review.

Utilizing a link outreach service: While there are several ways you can attempt to build links on your own, many tend to rely on the assistance of a link outreach service or agency. In most cases, relying on a link outreach service is a safe way to ensure links are built. At SMA Marketing, we rely strictly on white-hat link building tactics, maintaining the integrity of our clients and ensuring all links are of high quality.

Conclusion

No SEO strategy is complete without link building. While link building is recognized as one of the most difficult and time-consuming SEO tactics, it can help your site rank significantly higher, bring you more traffic and grow your business significantly.

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from Marketing Automation and Digital Marketing Blog http://amarketingautomation.com/why-is-link-building-so-important-to-your-seo-strategy/

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amarketingautomation · 6 years ago

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What Is Marketing Automation: Services and Benefits with Examples

Marketing Automation is a software platform that lets you reach out to your target audience across multiple marketing avenues such as websites, email, and social media by automating and streamlining marketing activities and workflows to bring in more leads and revenue.

In this installment of MarTech 101, we cover the fundamentals of Marketing Automation, how it works, its services, platforms, benefits and examples.

IDENTITY RESOLUTION FOR WINNING CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE- A GUIDE FOR ENTERPRISE MARKETERS

Identity Resolution is central to customer data management in the omni-channel world. Enterprise marketers would be unable to create winning CX without it. But customer data itself is both- a challenge and an opportunity.

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Whether you are a marketer working at a startup or a corporate giant, you’ll agree that generating and nurturing leads is not easy. The buyer journey is no longer a straightforward phenomenon. Its complexity increases as new marketing channels are introduced. In fact, Salesforce has identified that it takes approximately six to eight touches to generate a sales-ready lead.

Marketers have to juggle between multiple tools and software suites to communicate with their audience, identify and generate leads, nurture them, and pass the sales-ready leads to the sales team. This switch-tasking is not productive. Also, if you keep adding new tools to your MarTech stack, it will eventually lead to the dreaded frankenstack phenomenon and leave you overwhelmed.

To be efficient, you need an application that allows you to engage with your audience across different channels through a single suite of applications.

Enter Marketing Automation!

Before we dive into the concept of marketing automation, let’s look at a brief overview of the points we aim to cover in this article.

Table of Contents:

What Is Marketing Automation?

Marketing automation is software and technologies that help marketers reach audiences across channels and automate tasks such as organizing, streamlining and measuring analytics.

Different companies define marketing automation differently depending on their set of offerings, but Marketo perfectly sums up the essence of marketing automation in their definition:

“Marketing automation is a category of technology that allows companies to streamline, automate, and measure marketing tasks and workflows, so they can increase operational efficiency and grow revenue faster.”

Marketing automation helps marketers segment their audience, generate and nurture leads, identify the most valuable leads (lead scoring), and retain existing clients by identifying upselling and cross-selling opportunities.

How Does Marketing Automation Work?

Your customers interact with you across multiple avenues including website, social media, mobile apps, and emails. This gives you plenty of data points that can be used to identify the needs and habits of potential customers.

By integrating with other tools from your MarTech stack, such as your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) or customer service platform, marketing automation provides a cohesive view of your audience and enables you to create more refined segments, craft highly targeted messaging, and guide your leads through the marketing funnel. It doesn’t matter how many leads you have, marketing automation is capable of processing all this information at scale.

Learn More: 10 Must-Have Features of Enterprise Marketing Automation Platforms

Difference Between Marketing Automation and Email Marketing

A common refrain among marketers is, “Why do we need a marketing automation platform when we have already invested in an email marketing tool?” This confusion often stems from the assumption that marketing automation is synonymous with email marketing. While marketing automation incorporates email marketing, it also offers a wide array of other features that email marketing tools do not.

The biggest strength of a Marketing Automation Platform (MAP) lies in its ability to help you track and guide your leads through their purchase journey. Features such as lead profiling, lead scoring, drip marketing campaigns, multi-channel marketing, dynamic segmentation, personalization, social marketing, analytics and so on, allow you to build relationships with your leads and customers.

These features make marketing automation a powerful platform compared to a run-of-the-mill email marketing solution.

How to Integrate Marketing Automation into Your Existing Environment?

Implementing marketing automation software is a major undertaking. There are two potential hurdles you need to overcome before you start looking for a marketing automation platform:

For example, if your MAP offers Social Media Management (SMM) features, you need to decide whether you’ll use the MAP or the independent SMM tool to manage your social media activities.

Let’s look at how you can tackle these issues and implement marketing automation in your organization.

Representation of the Steps to Integrate Marketing Automation

Integrating marketing automation in your existing environment

1. Identify Your Requirements and Define Your Goals

The first step even before you decide on a MAP is to identify why you need marketing automation in the first place. Are there any shortcomings in your existing MarTech stack or are you looking to unify key marketing tasks?

Study different use cases to understand how you can use marketing automation. We will look at a few examples later in this article.

Simultaneously, define what goals a MAP would allow you to achieve. It could be to amplify lead generation activities or retain customers by identifying upselling or cross-selling opportunities.

2. Get Key Stakeholders Onboard

Based on the use cases identified and defined goals, explain how marketing automation can help the marketing and sales departments become more efficient and ultimately impact the bottomline. For smooth and seamless implementation, you need to have a buy-in from C-level executives and your own sales and marketing departments.

3. Research Various Marketing Automation Software

Different marketing automation platforms cater to different requirements and different organization sizes. A marketing automation tool designed for startups and SMBs will not be suitable for enterprise-level requirements. You need to consider your requirements, organization size, the MarTech stack (for integration capabilities), team size, budget, features, etc. before zeroing in on a solution.

Pro Tip: We, at MarTech Advisor, have prepared The Ultimate Marketing Automation Buyers Guide to help you start on the right path.

4. Create an Implementation Plan

Once you have decided on a MAP, figure out what changes you need to make in the existing team structure to accommodate the platform. For example, define the hierarchy of the super admin, admin, and users.

You also need to consider how to communicate with the sales department moving forward, how any reporting will change, which tools you need to integrate, which systems you need to stop using, etc.

If this looks like a herculean task, you may have to seek assistance from a marketing automation consultant.

5. Follow the “Less is Better” Philosophy

Your MAP might offer a zillion features, but you don’t need to go all in right away. Start with the essentials and introduce more features as you move along. Adding a new technology often brings in its set of challenges, and being minimalistic in your approach always pays off in the long run.

Learn More: How to Get Marketing and Sales on Board with Marketing Automation

Marketing Automation Services

As mentioned, implementing a marketing automation platform is a major undertaking, especially if you have been collecting customer data over the years. The challenge is bringing data under one roof when it is scattered across multiple tools and platforms.

Although modern marketing automation platforms are intuitive and easy to use, their implementation and configuration can be quite effort intensive.

This is where you might need a good marketing automation service provider. Marketing automation service providers can help organizations in the following areas:

5 Free Marketing Automation Platforms

While almost every marketing automation tool incurs investment, there are a few MAPs with free plans that offer a basic set of features to help you get started.

Visual Depiction of the Free Marketing Automation Platforms

1. MailChimp

MailChimp’s free plan allows you to send 12,000 emails per month to up to 2000 subscribers. Along with email campaigns, you can create landing pages, run Google Remarketing, Facebook and Instagram ads, perform A/B tests, execute cart abandonment campaigns, etc.

However, if you are looking to conduct multivariate tests and delve deeper into customized marketing campaigns, you need to subscribe to their premium plan, starting at $10 per month.

2. SendinBlue

SendinBlue allows you to add unlimited contacts but has capped the email sending limit to 300 per day. It provides a repository of email templates, enables you to run A/B tests and create customizable sign-up forms. Unlike MailChimp, SendinBlue doesn’t offer Facebook ads in its free plan.

3. Zoho Campaigns

While Zoho Campaigns offers subscription-based and pay as you go plans, its free plan lets you send 12,000 emails per month to up to 2000 subscribers, just like MailChimp. Zoho Campaigns, however, doesn’t offer the social ads feature, but premium users can manage their social media presence through the software. Zoho Campaigns is a powerful option for free users when it comes to tracking data. It offers the same reporting features across all plans.

4. SendPulse

SendPulse has a free plan through which you can send 15,000 emails per month to up to 2500 subscribers. You can also send web push notifications and create Facebook Messenger bots through its free plan. Compared to the other platforms that we’ve seen so far though, SendPulse is quite restricted when it comes to reporting features.

5. MailerLite

MailerLite’s free plan lets you send 12,000 emails per month to up to 1000 subscribers. Through this plan, you can create your own landing pages, build pop-up forms, embed forms, run A/B tests, and get real-time reports.

5 Benefits of Marketing Automation

Integrating a marketing automation solution with your MarTech stack can result in the following benefits to your organization:

Representation of Marketing Automation Benefits

1. Improves Productivity

Marketing automation makes things efficient. Automating repetitive yet important marketing workflows improves organizational productivity. As monotonous tasks are automated, your team is free to think creatively, and that can be utilized to come up with better strategies to propel marketing activities to the next level.

2. Enables Lead Nurturing

Not all leads will convert into customers right away. You always need to stay top of mind, and if you do not have an automated process in place, it is impossible for salespeople to keep in touch with them regularly.

With lead nurturing, you can send out emails periodically, ensuring that your prospects remember you, allowing you to guide them through their purchase journey.

3. Facilitates a Personalized Customer Journey

An essential aspect of lead nurturing is personalization. More data helps you understand your audience better. When you integrate your MAP into your existing CRM, it helps you get greater insights into your audience. This information can be used to define relevant segments and deliver content to the right prospect at the right time in their buyer’s journey.

4. Provides Sophisticated Reports

Real-time campaign data helps you analyze how well your campaign was received. Using metrics such as the open rate, click-through rate and so on, you can understand what clicked with your subscribers and what didn’t. This allows you to make tweaks and optimize your marketing campaigns along the way.

5. Enables Increased Revenue

These benefits lead to increased revenue. Along with lead nurturing and contributing to closing new deals, marketing automation also helps you retain existing clients by identifying cross-selling and upselling opportunities.

Learn More: The Marketing Automation & CRM Relationship Is Evolving in 2019 and Beyond

5 Top Marketing Automation Examples

Marketing automation presents a plethora of opportunities that can quickly enhance your marketing strategy. Evaluating these opportunities might, however, lead to analysis paralysis. To make things simpler, here are a few marketing automation use cases/workflows to inspire you.

Representation of 5 Examples of Marketing Automation to Guide You

1. Onboarding Email Series

When someone subscribes to your newsletter or signs-up for your product/service, email often proves to be the most effective first point of contact. You can create different onboarding campaigns depending on the subscriber list. For instance, if a user has subscribed to your newsletter, you can send them a series of emails with your most visited blog articles or downloadable content. Similarly, if someone signs up for a trial for your product, you can send them instructional material that will help them understand the different product use cases.

2. Lead Nurturing Campaigns

If a subscriber has downloaded your gated content, it’s an excellent opportunity to start nurturing relationships with them. The purpose of lead nurturing campaigns is to guide them through the sales funnel. If someone downloads top-of-the-funnel content such as The Introductory Guide to Marketing Automation, you can send them a whitepaper covering the topic in greater depth and graduating them to the middle-of-the-funnel stage.

If someone downloads case studies, you can send them a campaign persuading them to register for a product demo or a free trial.

3. Omnichannel Campaigns

Many MAPs offer features such as SMS or social media ads that go well with email marketing. You can devise omnichannel campaigns that will project a similar message across different channels to maximize your reach and improve your chances of being noticed.

4. Re-Engagement Campaigns

These campaigns can be used to reactivate dormant leads or find upselling or cross-selling opportunities for existing clients. If a lead at the bottom-of-the-funnel has been taking too long to decide, you can send them an offer or a free consultation to speed up the decision-making process. Similarly, if a user is nearing the end of their subscription period, you can kick-start a subscription renewal campaign. Remarketing ads is an effective medium to double your re-engagement efforts.

E-commerce vendors can effectively reduce cart abandonment through re-engagement campaigns.

5. Event Campaigns

If you have organized an event, a conference or a webinar, you can start a conversation before the actual event to create a buzz. Before the event date, you can send content such as blog posts covering the topic or promoting celebrity speakers. If you are hosting a physical event, you can inform attendees about the schedule of events, accommodation options, things to do, etc.

Sending the downloadable video file of the webinar to attendees after the event, or even presentations in case of conferences, is a great way to keep in touch with your audience.

Conclusion

The right marketing automation software will increase your organization’s productivity by automating workflows, integrating with your MarTech stack and, eventually, skyrocketing revenue.

Hope this primer helped you understand marketing automation, how it differs from email marketing, its multiple benefits and services, and how to go about implementing it in your organization.

If you have any questions, feel free to a ask us on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. We’re always listening!

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amarketingautomation · 6 years ago

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Enabling SMBs To Successfully Navigate The Digital Marketing Landscape

Currently, India has over 51 Mn registered SMBs who contribute over 35% to India’s GDP

Today, SMBs need to get the best possible performance from the data they have available

Soon SMBs will have the potential to drive twice the revenue growth and employ five times more people

It is no secret that SMBs (small and medium businesses) represent the main engine of growth and development of most of the world’s economies since they promote self-employment and independent entrepreneurship. Currently, India has over 51 Mn registered small, micro and medium, enterprises who contribute over 35% to India’s GDP. They employ over 120 Mn people (nearly 10% of the Indian population).

This growth of SMBs is being fuelled by the rising internet adoption in the country. Worldwide, the number of people with internet access exceeds 4 Bn, which represents 54% of the total population. In India, there are around 560 Mn internet users. Internet penetration and digital technology in India are visibly reflected in the transformation of consumption habits and the rise of ecommerce.

Today, merchants are more aware than ever before, of the power of digital marketing, but with many platforms, tools, apps and technology solutions at the disposal, it is imperative to know what should be considered by SMB to grow and succeed in the competitive and changing current scenario?

Here are some of the ways which can help SMBs navigate the digital marketing landscape successfully.

Implementing Targeted Customer Acquisition Campaigns

SMBs need to get the best possible performance from the data they have available, which provides valuable information about their customers’ preferences. Personalising messages and conveying the correct story to the right audience is important.

This is even more important for SMBs, who do not have unlimited budgets to risk making bad decisions. Optimise marketing spend by sending users convincing messages at the right time and place, would increase the chances of increasing sales.

Using Customers’ Data For Their Benefit

The laws and privacy regulations in force around the world, such as the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), are a direct reflection of the needs and desires of consumers, who are increasingly aware of their rights. When formulating a marketing plan, SMBs need to check the following -: Do they comply with the new regulations? and How can they use the data to give customers more added value in return?

Personalisation Is The New King

Consumers today crave advertising experiences that are tailored to them, making generic marketing messages counterproductive. Potential buyers easily recognise depersonalised ads and, as a result, ignore them. If brands/businesses continue with the same marketing strategy, the ROI will exponentially decrease.

In 2019, brands are driving their campaigns beyond sales, evoking positive emotions, curiosity and enthusiasm to drive conversions. Again, businesses need to make retargeting part of the process – by partnering with suppliers who know how to implement it – through ads that promote relevant experiences.

Harnessing The Power Of AI And Programmatic Advertising

AI is for everyone. And yes, for SMBs too. We have seen many marketing companies of different sizes around the world who gave a strong boost to their investments in AI, and this year we are witnessing the evolution of this technology and its multiple benefits.

A question that is frequently asked is why bet on AI? The answer to this that AI allows you to improve and automate your budget decisions, automatically optimise the results of campaigns, standardize marketing processes and promote highly relevant and personalized user experiences.

In addition, AI will also enable many SMBs to migrate external services to in-house, lowering costs and accelerating response times, allowing them to be more competitive in the current digital landscape where the technology giants are still ahead of the game.

In Conclusion

In recent years, the development of ecommerce in India has grown by leaps and bounds, and it will touch $84 Bn in 2021 from $24 Bn in 2017, according to the report by Deloitte India and Retail Association of India. This is relevant among India’s SMBs which see ecommerce, especially m-commerce as one of the most profitable and cost-effective resources to promote and sell their products.

For SMB, it is convenient to devote time to reflect and strategically think so that they can optimise the ecommerce resources with them so that they are in tune with the main digital trends and commerce marketing.

As per projections, it is also expected that digitally empowered SMBs will have the potential to drive twice the revenue growth and employ five times more people.

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amarketingautomation · 6 years ago

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Attributing Value to Multiple Marketing Channels

As the Director of Business Strategy at Vertical Measures, Mike Huber works with potential clients to determine if they are a good fit for our team’s expertise and capabilities. He’s constantly on the phone or exchanging emails that are full of ideas and thoughtful recommendations based on the potential client’s current situation. Mike has a wealth of experience in marketing and advertising. Starting out in newspaper advertising, he has seen the transformation of print to digital. For the past 15 years, he has been involved in online marketing, developing extensive PPC programs and organic SEO tactics, resulting in a significant growth, traffic, and revenue for clients. Mike is an accomplished public speaker and presents frequently on advertising and online marketing topics. When he’s not at work, you can find him out fly fishing, hiking or enjoying his log cabin in the mountains north of metro Phoenix. + Mike Huber

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amarketingautomation · 6 years ago

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Spread your social media wings

Express News Service

HYDERABAD: There today one tomorrow. It seems like that’s how the world works online. Whether we are talking about viral videos, overnight stars or just social media apps. With Intagram, Facebook and Twitter- or the Big Three if you will – still ruling the roost and going strong, there are some new alternative apps that are emerging for common users to explore, create and react to content.

Every social media app particularly the leading ones have their own drawbacks. Facebook is now a medium supposedly meant for moms, dads and the nosy uncles and aunts. Twitter is the hub for online abuse and spawns negativity while Instagram breeds lies about everyone’s perfect life.

What’s next? Oh, there’s a lot to explore! Tiktok obviously has turned a lot of heads as we know what with its ban, and remission. It has 1.6 billion active users and is the biggest contender for the big trio. Meanwhile a lot more social media platforms have emerged which serve different purposes for different types of users. Let’s take a deep dive

The overdose of tiktok

Although Tiktok’s userbase proves its popularity among users from all over the country, it can’t be denied that how one comes across viral Tiktoks are often through the Big Three. Deepthi Sunaina who is popular for her music videos and her stint in Bigg Boss season 2 also found solace in this app. “You basically overlap your own selfie video over a prerecorded audio. This usually involves songs dialogues and comedy bits. Now because we have to repeat the bit and act it out numerous times to sync it with the audio it acts as practice. Also, lately many brands are asking for the number of Tiktok followers we have along with Instagram or Twitter followers,” says Deepthi.

The popularity of the app has penetrated the social media marketing platform and influencers are making the most of it. However Deepthi has a complaint about the same. ““All it takes is one video to get famous. Anyone from anywhere can become famous overnight and that is leading to an overload of content. It’s a bit of an overdose. There’s too much of it online now and it has become more of a menace than entertainment lately. It feels that this fad will die out as well,” she says. There are many apps that function similarly as Tiktok such as Like and Viva Video.

Loving the language

Sharechat is another social networking app which works pretty much like Instagram, except that it completely functions in vernacular languages. You can choose the language that you will consume your media in and the accounts that are a part of that community will emerge. The text is in the language you choose making it easier for regional artists to stay in touch with their targeted audience.

Lahari Sanju, one of the lead actresses in the popular TV series Koilamma finds that it is easier to interact with her fans through this app. “Most of my audience are Telugu owing to the TV show and a big chunk of them may not be familiar with English. Using a platform that is in my own language is exciting me first because it’s a way to stay in my own skin and post as a true Telugu girl. It makes it easier to reach out to my audience,” she says. Helo app too makes sure to promote the regional language compatibility to cash in on the interest.

Send some love Where there is social media there there is social media influencers. Where there are influencers there’s a way to make money. Making fans and users of the app happy by connecting them to their favourite artistes Wysh app has a unique positioning. This is how it works: You can send a request to an actor or an artist to wish or send a message to your friend or yourself for an occasion for a cost. They send make a personalised video for you and wish you through it. Interesting, yes?

Viva Harsha who recently joined the app as an influencer says that this is a great way to get closer to those who admire him. “Our Youtube channel deals a lot with student problems so I had gotten a lot of requests to wish someone the best for their exams. It isn’t a big deal for us but it will make someone’s day,” he says adding, “There is also the benefit of choosing your wishes and doing it entirely through the app without compromising your privacy.” So there you have it. The influencers have spoken. Whip out your phones and explore some of these apps and try your hand at them!

[email protected] @PSrividya53

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amarketingautomation · 6 years ago

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How you can master SEO & become an elite digital marketer

It’s pretty common knowledge that as far as digital marketing goes, unless you hit the first page of search results for the keywords you’re targeting, your website won’t get the visibility you want it to have. It’s not even quite enough just to get visitors to your page — if you want people to ask questions, engage and eventually, buy-in, you need to develop online authority and help your website meet content best practices. Having the right SEO strategy in place plays an instrumental role to the success of your website — and this Complete SEO Certification Training Bundle trains you in the methodologies and processes needed to generate more sales and conversions online.

This comprehensive bundle shows you how to use tried and true strategies that you can leverage across any digital property, whether that’s e-commerce sites to landing pages, and even across your social media efforts. Learn how you can develop a social media plan that delivers rich insights into customer data and gives you the chance to get ahead of your competitors — and use SEO principles as you build out your website to optimize your content and web structure.

From increasing your ranking online to creating brilliant Facebook ads, this Complete SEO Certification Training Bundle shows you how to do it all. Usually, this training is $979.92, but you can get it here for $30. Plus, you can get an extra 60% off the sale price with coupon code WEEKEND60.

Complete SEO Certification Training Bundle – $30

See Deal

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amarketingautomation · 6 years ago

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New online master’s degree in digital marketing will supply new talent for industry

Rutgers Business School is offering a new online Master of Science in Digital Marketing to help produce modern marketing professionals with the knowledge and skills in demand by a growing industry.

The program is designed to provide in-depth instruction to a variety of prospective students, including highly educated marketing veterans yearning for the knowledge to continue their careers in a digital world and young marketing professionals with one or two years of work experience and ambitions of obtaining a new credential.

The master’s program is also tailored for individuals from complementary fields, such as communications and web design, who want to combine their experience and know-how with a marketing and business foundation.

Hurry! The deadline to apply to begin classes in the fall is Aug. 5. Applicants will be admitted on a rolling basis until the application deadline.

As students complete the rigorous 36-credit program, their master’s degree will be supplemented and enhanced by industry certificates that endorse their working knowledge of digital marketing platforms such as Hootsuite and Google Analytics. Prospective students with industry experience or who have completed other digital marketing curriculum, such as Rutgers Business School’s Executive Education Mini-MBA in Digital Marketing, can qualify for up to six credits toward the master’s degree.

“I often say there’s no such thing as digital marketing. There’s just marketing in a digital world,” said Stacy Schwartz, a Rutgers professor of professional practice who is building the program to address the industry’s need for a larger pool of digital marketing expertise.

According to McKinley Marketing Partners, nearly 60 percent of marketing hires require digital marketing skills, but less than 20 percent of job seekers possess the digital marketing talent to meet the demand of employers.

To remedy the talent shortage, the Rutgers Master of Science in Digital Marketing will teach students traditional marketing fundamentals, including consumer behavior, marketing research, retail marketing, law, policy, ethics and marketing strategy, from a digital point of view.

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amarketingautomation · 6 years ago

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New online master’s degree in digital marketing will create new talent for growing industry

Rutgers Business School is offering a new online Master of Science in Digital Marketing to help produce modern marketing professionals with the knowledge and skills in demand by a growing industry.

Hurry! The deadline to apply to begin classes in the fall is Aug. 5. Applicants will be admitted on a rolling basis until the application deadline.

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amarketingautomation · 6 years ago

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Hayes Tauber Joins INSP as Exective Vice President, Marketing

Indian Land, SC, May 29, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) —

For immediate release

Contact: Tara Brown

[email protected]

Hayes Tauber Joins INSP as Exective Vice President, Marketing

Will Oversee all Marketing Activities & Initiatives, Including Expanding Consumer Awareness and Brand Development

(Indian Land, SC – May 29, 2019) Hayes Tauber has been named as Executive Vice President-Marketing for INSP, LLC. The announcement was made by Dale Ardizzone, INSP’s Chief Operating Officer.

“This decision is the result of an extensive search process over the past several months,” Ardizzone said. “Reporting directly to me, Hayes will have overall responsibility for all INSP related marketing activities, including Distribution & Consumer Marketing, Creative Production & Promotion, and, Digital / Social Media Marketing.

“Hiring Hayes signals a new aggressive phase in INSP marketing,” Ardizzone continued. “Already one of the industry’s great success stories, INSP consistently ranks among the top 25 of all cable networks. At a time when most networks are experiencing declines, INSP’s ratings continue to grow. In addition, INSP’s expanded original and exclusive programming development is building on an already strong base.”

Ardizzone explained that Hayes has extensive experience in all phases of network marketing, including social media, distribution, consumer promotion, program-related development/marketing, and brand management (including network rebranding). He has overseen award-winning creative departments.

Hayes previously had been Senior Vice President/U.S. Marketing for National Geographic Partners, overseeing marketing for National Geographic and Nat Geo Wild. He had been Vice President, Brand Strategy & Multiplatform Marketing for TruTV (Turner), for which he lead the network rebrand from Court TV.

From 2008-2011, he was Senior Director, Brand Marketing & Social Media for ESPN, and from 2006-2008 was ESPN’s Director, Media Networks. For the past year, he has been VP, Executive Talent Group for RevelOne, and from 2017-2018 he was chief marketing officer for Foundermark. Before entering the cable industry, Hayes worked with several firms in brand management, with distinguished results.

###

About INSP

INSP is available nationwide to more than 78M households via Dish Network (channel 259), DirecTV (channel 364), Verizon FiOS (channel 286), AT&T U-verse (channel 564) and more than 2,800 cable systems. Click here to find INSP in your area. INSP provides a trusted viewing experience with a lineup of exclusive and original series, timeless Westerns, action-filled dramas, and films focused on adventure and heroic characters.

Attachment

CONTACT: Tara Brown INSP 8034482698 [email protected]

GlobeNewswire

GlobeNewswire,is one of the world’s largest newswire distribution networks, specializing in the delivery of corporate press releases financial disclosures and multimedia content to the media, investment community, individual investors and the general public.

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amarketingautomation · 6 years ago

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Understanding Digital Marketing: More Financial Advisor Marketing Terms Explained

Just like with any field, marketing jargon can be confusing, intimidating and complicated. A financial advisor may be ready to upgrade his or her marketing plan, but then gets turned off when the terminology being used doesn’t make sense.

In an ongoing effort to educate financial advisors about the importance of a strong digital marketing plan, we are breaking down some of the most common terms that clients ask about.

Inbound Marketing

Inbound Marketing is the modern way to market financial planning services. No longer do investors wait for financial advisors to contact them by obtrusive phone calls at dinner time, junk mail fliers or offers for a “free lunch” – which typically come with an aggressive sales pitch. The Internet is a game changer, shifting the power to investors. Investors now take the reigns and head online when they’re ready to research financial advisors. Then, they only make contact when they’re ready to give up their information.

Because of this shift in the way lead-generation works for financial advisors, Inbound Marketing is a must. Financial advisors need an online presence so they are where their potential clients are looking for them. This means they need an interactive website, effective Calls To Action ((CTAs)), an intuitive drip system and strong local SEO.

Inbound Marketing is a trend that financial advisors can no longer ignore.

Traffic: Organic, Direct, Referral

Website traffic refers to the visitors who come to your website, either organically, directly or by referral.

Organic Traffic

Organic traffic refers to visitors who come to your website through a keyword search – when someone types in terms such as, “financial advisor San Antonio,” and then clicks on your website as it appears in their results. This type of traffic is very important, as more and more investors are searching for financial advisors organically.

Direct Traffic

Direct traffic refers to visitors who come to your site by typing in your URL directly; not relying on Google to find you and suggest your site.

Referral Traffic

Referral traffic refers to visitors who come to your website from a referring site, such as NAPFA, which may include a link to your website.

Topic Clusters

Topic clusters are another way to generate high Google rankings.

In the past, online content would be laced with specific keywords that would attract Google, and therefore potential clients when they typed these terms into a search bar. While keywords are still used, topic clusters expand on this concept, connecting individual blog posts and landing pages to an overall expert page, giving this page more traffic. Increased traffic is a sign to Google that a link is really an expert on a specific topic, and Google will rank a site higher because of this.

Ranking

Good rankings are crucial. This is the place that your website is listed in search results. Spots 1 to 10 appear on page 1 of a Google search. Spots 11 to 20 appear on page 2. These are the most coveted spots, as most web searchers won’t continue on to the third and fourth pages to find what they’re looking for.

When working with an experienced firm, an expert team will know how to best optimize your content to improve your ranking results.

Hyperlinks

When posting content to your website, hyperlinks are important. When added correctly, links to other pages (yours and other industry expert websites) will establish you as an expert, both with potential clients and with Google. Google uses 200 search-ranking factors when determining where your site will appear in a search result. Hyperlinks to other helpful pages is one of them.

Content: Original Vs. Repurposed

Content is what drives visitors to your site. Content consists of everything from the wording on your home page to the blog posts you publish.

Original Content

Original content is best. Original content is anything not already found online. When Google sees fresh, original content, a link to this content will get a better ranking than something that has been “seen” before on another site. Regular, original content that resonates with your clients is how a firm expands its digital footprint.

Creating original content on a regular basis can be difficult and time-consuming, especially for a financial advisor who wants to spend his or her time working with clients. With this in mind, outsourcing your blogging efforts and other Digital Marketing services can be a very cost-saving and time-saving decision. Working with a marketing firm that has experience in the financial services industry can be extremely beneficial, as the industry uses a lot of complex jargon itself, and when used incorrectly, a potential client can tell.

Repurposed Content

Repurposed content can also be original. For example, a well-written blog post that meets all of Google’s requirements can be repurposed as an explainer video, a social media post and/or an email to clients. Digital Marketing experts should know how to use your content in many ways, giving you more bang for your buck.

Likes, Shares, and Other Social Media Terms

Social media has become an important factor in marketing financial planning services. More and more investors are turning to Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter for reviews, comments and news about financial advisors.

With that said, in addition to posting on a regular basis, it’s important that your “friends” like your posts, share them on their social media pages and re-tweet them, which basically means passing your content on to another group of potential clients.

“Liking,” “sharing,” and “re-tweeting” are ways information is passed on to others among social media platforms.

The Buyer’s Journey

The buyer’s journey refers to the journey an investor takes when hiring a financial advisor, and it’s important when establishing a good marketing plan.

Investors typically start searching the Internet for general information first – this is called the information-gathering stage. It is important that an advisor’s content, free offers and language on certain pages reflect this mindset.

Once an investor establishes an advisor’s site as an industry expert, he or she only then starts to research an advisor for more information, such as credentials, experience and services.

Investors typically decide to hire a financial advisor after at least one visit to a website, so it’s crucial that the language on specific pages of your website speaks to these different stages.

A Virtual Presence

What does it mean to be a virtual advisor or to have a virtual presence? This simply means that you are available online. Financial advisors who operate on a completely virtual level means they meet with clients, schedule appointments and share information solely over the Internet.

A user-friendly, modern and interactive website is crucial to a virtual existence.

While many financial advisors still operate out of a brick-and-mortar office, more and more are adding a virtual presence to their business plan, offering online meetings, e-statements and scheduling apps to attract investors who don’t want to drive to an office every time they want to meet with their financial advisor.

Adding virtual opportunities for your clients has become one of the top marketing trends for financial advisors.

Disclosure: I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

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amarketingautomation · 6 years ago

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Education Foundation Names New Marketing and Communications Director

Tracy Spalsbury has been named director of marketing and communications at the Education Foundation of Sarasota County.

In her new role at the foundation, Spalsbury will be responsible for all aspects of marketing and communications, as well as building the community’s understanding of and support for the foundation’s mission, which is to enhance the potential of students, promote excellence in teaching, and inspire innovation in education, guided by strategic philanthropy.

Spalsbury most recently was the senior vice president of marketing and communications at Sarasota Family YMCA. Prior to that, she specialized in brand management, including social media marketing, with Feld Entertainment and Tervis Tumbler.

Spalsbury earned a bachelor’s degree in integrated marketing communication from Winthrop University, Rock Hill, South Carolina. She is a member of Florida Public Relations Association Central West Coast Chapter and the Association of National Advertisers. She is also a board member for the University of South Florida College of Business Digital Marketing Certificate program.

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amarketingautomation · 6 years ago

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To Avoid Subpar ROI From Marketing Automation, Start With Integration And The Organization

“Data-Driven Thinking” is written by members of the media community and contains fresh ideas on the digital revolution in media.

Today’s column is written by Ben Eisenkramer, principal at Infinitive.

From email newsletters and content management, to campaign design and cross-channel user tracking, to media buying and activation, there’s almost no end to what you can do with marketing automation.

But its robust capabilities may be a part of the issue for many stakeholders. Despite all the new firepower, some marketers find themselves frustrated with the value they are generating after making significant investments.

And as has happened with other powerful technologies, the finger of blame is usually pointed at the technology. It’s too complicated or doesn’t let us work in the ways we have always worked, some complain. Or the right people aren’t using the software in the right way, and others aren’t using it at all. Yes, we can track everything users and prospects are doing, but, no, our reports don’t really give us the clear insights we need to make decisions that can actually move the needle on marketing performance.

Perhaps it’s no surprise that the barriers to success with marketing automation are similar to those that have prevented organizations from optimizing returns on investments in other types of marketing technology. Those barriers include limited organizational readiness for change, siloed operations and lack of end-user adoption of new tools and redesigned processes.

In other words, it’s not about the technology. Even the most powerful software can’t create value by itself. It needs to be configured and implemented in the right way, deployed within efficient and well-designed processes and used by people who know both why and how to use it.

So, how can marketing groups make that happen? From the organizational perspective, marketing leaders must ensure that disparate teams and stakeholders are aligned on the vision and new ways of doing things, including specific use cases.

For instance, IT groups must become more conversant with marketing initiatives, and marketing teams must better understand technology requirements. This alignment sets the stage for effective data management, with data flowing appropriately through external systems and internal IT data warehouses, as well as in line with privacy regulations.

Given the high cost of marketing automation systems, it’s natural to want to trim costs elsewhere, like on communication and training. That’s a mistake, because effective communication about the business case for marketing automation and solid training are proven to boost end-user adoption.

Within marketing, different teams – TV vs. digital or CRM vs. email, for example – must see how their individual objectives ladder up to bigger-picture business objectives and how marketing automation will help them meet both individual and company goals.

For instance, promotional offers for new product releases should be sequenced with standard communications for loyalty programs. That way, consumers won’t feel confused or overwhelmed. Similarly, combining offline sales and behavioral data with digital information and linking internal and external data sources allows brands to see customer profiles more holistically.

That brings us to the importance of integration. Marketing automation systems must be fully integrated with other components of the mar tech stack. That major providers of customer relationship management platforms offer their own marketing automation systems reflects the advantages that come with sharing data. Data management platforms and customer data platforms should also be patched into marketing automation systems. These integrations are especially important today, as data flows between systems must comply with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation and California Consumer Privacy Act, in addition to providing the consumer insights that companies are looking for.

Such multisystem integration is hard work. That’s why many firms start using marketing automation tools – especially the easiest and most accessible features, like email and campaign management – without waiting for full integration. That step exacerbates problems all of these systems were purchased to solve, such as clearer recognition of, and engagement with, individual consumers across channels.

Marketing automation has followed the classic hype cycle of next big thing and alleged silver-bullet technologies. Compelling value propositions, plus robust (even aggressive) marketing by software providers, complex and powerful technology and complex technology environments almost invariably equals limited user adoption and, ultimately, subpar ROI.

The good news is that by addressing the variables of integration and organization, marketers can rebalance their value equation and get more from their marketing automation systems.

Follow Infinitive (@InfinitiveRocks) and AdExchanger (@adexchanger) on Twitter.

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amarketingautomation · 6 years ago

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How to run Screaming Frog SEO Spider in the cloud in 2019

How to run Screaming Frog SEO Spider in the cloud in 2019 – Search Engine Land

‘,a=”;return t.replace(“ID”,e)+a}function lazyLoadYoutubeIframe()var e=document.createElement(“iframe”),t=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/ID?autoplay=1″;t+=0===this.dataset.query.length?”:’&’+this.dataset.query;e.setAttribute(“src”,t.replace(“ID”,this.dataset.id)),e.setAttribute(“frameborder”,”0″),e.setAttribute(“allowfullscreen”,”1″),this.parentNode.replaceChild(e,this)document.addEventListener(“DOMContentLoaded”,function(){var e,t,a=document.getElementsByClassName(“rll-youtube-player”);for(t=0;t

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amarketingautomation · 6 years ago

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My Marketing Auditors' Scathing Review of the Digital Marketing Industry and Their Commitment to Cleaning It Up

(MENAFN – Newswire.com LLC) LOS ANGELES, May 29, 2019(Newswire.com) – First, what exactly is a marketing audit and why is it useful? Amarketing auditis a comprehensive, systematic way of reviewing your marketing plan and includes a review (or audit) of all marketing facets, including website, branding, SEO, social media, and user experience. A marketing audit is useful in ensuring that a marketing plan is implemented properly; however, for it to be effective, it must be performed by an objective and unbiased team.

Having spent years in the marketing world, Owner and CEO, Jesse Garcia M.S. started to see all the holes in the marketing industry. ‘I just started to notice all the ways in which digital marketing companies were taking advantage of their clients. On a daily basis, I listened to clients bemoaning the services they received from their digital marketing team. That’s when I decided to launchMy Marketing Auditors . Our mission is to bring complete transparency to the marketing industry.’

A major problem in the digital marketing industry is the complete lack of accountability of marketing agencies. And unfortunately, along with a total lack of accountability comes a great deal of deception. Many digital marketing companies use a litany of misrepresentations to entice their clients into spending more money. Results are promised and rarely delivered, and the end result is thousands of dollars of a marketing budget and months wasted while the client’s business remains stagnant. Why is this?

According toMy Marketing Auditors , there is essentially no barrier to entry when starting a digital marketing agency. Literally, all someone needs is a computer, a website, and a company name. It is simply too easy to start a digital marketing company and falsely portray yourself as an established marketing team. What we are essentially left with are dozens and dozens of marketing agencies popping up all over the place, and absolutely no one to regulate them.

In the end, it is the small business owner, who cannot afford to waste thousands of dollars and months of time, who is really impacted the most. That is why there is a need formarketing auditcompanies likeMy Marketing Auditorsto help protect the client and to keep digital marketing companies accountable.

About My Marketing Auditors

My Marketing Auditorsoffer comprehensive systematic marketing audits designed to help small business owners save time and marketing money. Contact us today atwww.mymarketingauditors.comto learn more.

Media Contact: Jesse Garcia Phone: 818.696.0125 Email:

MENAFN2905201900704191ID1098584769

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amarketingautomation · 6 years ago

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How to Use Archived Versions of Websites for SEO Troubleshooting

In 2001, a nonprofit named the Internet Archive launched a new tool called the Wayback Machine on the URL: archive.org.

The mission of the Internet Archive was to build a digital library of the Internet’s history, much the same way paper copies of newspapers are saved in perpetuity.

Because webpages are constantly changing, the Wayback Machine crawlers frequently visit and cache pages for the archive.

Their goal was to make this content available for future generations of researchers, historians, and scholars. But this data is just as valuable to marketers and SEO professionals.

Whenever I am working on a project that involves a steep change in traffic either for my core site or a competitors, one of the first places I will look the cached pages before and after the changes in traffic.

Even if you aren’t doing forensic analysis on a site, just having access to a site’s changelog can be a valuable tool.

You can find old content or even recall a promotion that was run in the previous year.

Troubleshooting with the Wayback Machine

Much like looking at a live website, the cached pages will have all the information available that might explain a shift in traffic.

The entire website, with all HTML included, is contained within the cache, which makes it fairly simple to identify obvious structural or technical changes.

In comparing the differences between a before and after image of my site or a competitor’s, I look for issues with:

On-page meta.

Internal linking.

Image usages.

And even any dynamic portions of the page that might have been added or removed.

Here are the steps to use the Wayback Machine for troubleshooting.

1. Put your URL into the search box of Archive.org

This does not need to be a homepage. It can be any URL on the site.

2. Choose a date where you believe the code may have changed

Note the color coding of the dates:

Red means there was an error.

Green indicates a redirect happens.

Blue means there was a good cache of the page.

You may have to continue picking dates and then digging through each version until you find something interesting worth looking at further.

For larger sites, you will find that homepages are cached multiple times per day while other sites will only be cached a few times per year

3. The cached page from archive.org will load in your browser like any website except that it will have a header from Archive.org

Look for obvious changes in structure and content that may have lead to a change in search visibility.

4. Open the source code of the page and search for:

Title

Description

Robots

Canonicals

JavaScript

5. Compare anything that is different from the current site and analyze causal or correlative relationships

No detail is too small to be investigated. Look at things like cross-links, words used on pages, and even for evidence that a site may have been hacked during a particular time period.

You should even look at the specific language in any calls to action as a change here might impact conversions even if traffic now is higher than the time of the Wayback Machine’s cache.

Robots File Troubleshooting

The Wayback Machine even retains snapshots of robots.txt files so if there was a change in crawling permissions the evidence is readily available.

This feature has been amazingly useful for me when sites seem to have dropped out of the index mysteriously with no obvious penalty, spam attack, or a presently visible issue with a robots.txt file.

To find the robots file history just drop the robots URL into the search box like this

After that choose a date and then do a diff analysis between the current robots file. There are a number of free tools online which allow for comparisons between two different sets of text.

Backlink Research

An additional less obvious use case for the Wayback Machine is to identify how competitors may have built backlinks in the past.

Using a tool like Ahrefs I have looked at the “lost” links of a website and then put them into the Wayback Machine to see how they used to link to a target website.

A natural link shouldn’t really get “lost” and this is a great way to see why the links might have disappeared.

Gray Hat Uses

Aside from these incredibly useful ways to use the Wayback Machine to troubleshoot SEO issues, there are also some seedier ways that some use this data.

For those that are building private blog networks (PBNs) for backlink purposes, the archived site is a great way to restore the content of a recently purchased expired domain.

The restored site is then filled with links to other sites in the network.

Affiliates

One other way, again from the darker side of things, that people have used this restored content is to turn it into an affiliate site for that category.

For example, if someone bought an expired domain for a bank, they would restore the content and then place CTAs all over the site to fill out a mortgage form.

The customer might think they were getting in touch with a bank. However, in reality, their contact info is being auctioned off to a variety of mortgage brokers.

Not to end on a dark note, there is one final amazing way to use the Wayback Machine and it is the one intended by the creators of the site.

This is the archive of everything on the web, and if someone was researching Amazon’s atmospheric growth over the last two decades through the progression of their website, this is where they would find an image of what Amazon’s early and every subsequent homepage looked like.

Shady use cases aside, the Wayback Machine is one of the best free tools you can have in your digital marketing arsenal. There is simply no other tool that has 18 years of history of nearly every website in the world.

More Resources:

Image Credits

All screenshots taken by author, May 2019

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