WSI Blog

Why Most AI Adoption Efforts Stall — And What to Do Instead

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 07:49:29 GMT

AI is everywhere, yet few companies are seeing lasting value. Why? Because most AI roadmaps treat adoption as a tech project — focusing on tools, data, and timelines — instead of treating it as a business transformation.

At WSI Digital Boost, our AI consulting company takes a different approach.

Our AI Adoption Roadmap is not a checklist or implementation template. It’s a leadership-driven, human-centered framework that helps organizations adopt AI in a way that lasts. We focus on changing how your organization works — not just what software you use.

If you want to skip guesswork and start with clarity, schedule time with Gerardo Kerik, our AI keynote speaker in Atlanta to build a roadmap that fits your business.

Our Approach: Business Before Tools

Unlike common IT-led rollouts, our roadmap starts with alignment, not applications. It creates clarity before speed and focus before execution.

We believe AI adoption fails more due to leadership gaps, behavioral friction, and misaligned priorities than any lack of tools or data. That insight drives our structured yet flexible process.

Most organizations begin their AI journey by choosing software or experimenting with tools. But without clear business intent and operational buy-in, those efforts often fizzle. Our roadmap avoids that pitfall by treating AI as a lever for evolving how the business operates — not just what it uses.

By focusing first on why AI matters, we help executives connect adoption to strategic goals: reducing complexity, increasing speed to insight, improving service quality, or unlocking new value creation opportunities. That shared purpose becomes the anchor for every future decision — from use case selection to governance.

We also surface where AI doesn’t belong. Not every workflow benefits from automation or augmentation. Sometimes, the best use of AI is to eliminate a task entirely, not to optimize it. Helping leaders make those distinctions early avoids wasted effort and reinforces good decision hygiene.

Leadership alignment is the bedrock of the roadmap. Without it, teams drift. Silos form. People work on parallel pilots with no shared understanding of success. Instead, we bring cross-functional executives together to align not just on ambition, but on guardrails: how the organization will handle risk, data governance, ethics, model transparency, and change management.

In this phase, we also assess your organizational readiness. Are your teams equipped to engage with AI responsibly? Are processes flexible enough to absorb new tools? Do leaders understand the implications of deploying AI into core workflows? These assessments set realistic expectations and identify the behavioral and operational shifts needed before any tool enters the picture.

We don’t rush this stage — because every downstream decision depends on it. Skipping alignment in favor of action leads to short-term activity with little long-term value. We help you move fast later by slowing down now.

Only once this foundation is secure do we move into enablement and use case design. In doing so, we ensure that adoption is not only technically feasible, but also culturally viable — because success with AI is not about the software, it’s about how people use it, trust it, and adapt to it.

1. Foundation and Leadership Alignment

This phase grounds your roadmap in real business priorities.

Why AI matters — and where it doesn’t: Not every process needs AI. We help you identify which business decisions AI should support, automate, or leave alone.
Guardrails and governance: Ethics, data usage, ownership, and risk policies need executive alignment early.
Readiness and maturity: We baseline your current AI capabilities and leadership behaviors before any pilots begin.

This step ensures your team doesn’t chase hype or launch tools without support.

2. Enablement and Behavior Change

This isn’t about turning staff into prompt engineers.

Practical AI education: We build AI understanding into roles and workflows, so teams can use AI with confidence — not confusion.
Shared language: A common vocabulary for AI reduces fear and overconfidence, both of which can stall adoption.
Behavior-first approach: We focus on the small shifts in daily work that drive long-term change, not technical mastery.

AI adoption depends more on how people think and act than on which model you deploy. That’s why enablement is a core phase — not an optional step. Most resistance to AI isn’t about the technology; it’s about uncertainty. People worry they’ll be replaced, that they’ll say the wrong thing to a tool, or that they’ll look incompetent in front of peers. Our enablement approach reduces those fears through simple, repeatable learning moments tailored to each role.

We don’t host generic trainings. We deliver contextual education tied to what teams actually do: drafting proposals, reviewing invoices, responding to customers, or planning resources. That relevancy builds trust and momentum.

We also coach managers on how to model healthy AI use. Behavior change doesn’t just happen at the user level. When leaders visibly use AI tools in meetings, workflows, and decisions, it creates social proof — a critical lever in driving adoption across teams.

Enablement includes structured learning paths, but more importantly, it promotes experimentation. Teams are encouraged to try, learn, and iterate without fear of failure. That cultural permission is what separates surface-level adoption from sustained transformation.

Finally, enablement builds the bridge between vision and execution. It turns abstract AI goals into practical capabilities. It helps organizations shift from asking, “What can this tool do?” to “How does this tool change the way we work?”

Enablement is what makes adoption stick.

3. Use Case Identification and Prioritization

Once the team is aligned and enabled, we help you identify where AI can make the biggest impact.

Map real workflows and bottlenecks : We look at where work slows down or decisions repeat.
Filter out shiny objects : Interesting isn’t the same as valuable. We help teams say "no" to what doesn’t serve the business.
Score for value and feasibility : Prioritized use cases balance risk, effort, and return — not just what’s trending.

This phase creates a smart, limited pipeline of high-confidence use cases.

Too often, companies get stuck chasing novelty — chatbots, virtual assistants, or automation platforms — without linking them to core business problems. We help leadership and operations teams resist that temptation. Our process isn’t about filling a backlog with ideas. It’s about curating a small, meaningful set of AI-enabled changes that can drive measurable value.

We start with a collaborative discovery process: interviewing teams, reviewing workflows, and identifying where cognitive load is high, decision rules are repeatable, or information is hard to access. These signals often point to ripe opportunities for augmentation or automation. We also look for high-friction handoffs between teams, where AI can streamline coordination or triage.

Next, we categorize and filter use cases through a business lens. Is the problem worth solving? Will it create time, reduce risk, or unlock revenue? Does solving it with AI provide unique leverage, or would another solution be better suited? These questions help us separate real opportunities from experiments that look good in a slide deck but deliver little value in practice.

We then apply a scoring model across three dimensions: potential business impact, data and process readiness, and implementation complexity. This structured evaluation ensures you pursue projects that are not only high-value but also doable within your current capabilities.

Prioritization is also about what not to do. Many organizations fall into the trap of overcommitting early, only to dilute impact across too many pilots. We help you focus on 2–3 use cases that are both meaningful and manageable. These early wins build confidence, generate proof of value, and establish a playbook for scaling later.

By the end of this phase, you’ll have more than a list — you’ll have a ranked, resourced, and reality-checked pipeline that aligns with business goals and operational capacity.

4. Selective and Intentional Implementation

Only after alignment and use case design do we build.

Pilot with purpose: Start small with a few targeted, meaningful initiatives.

Embed AI into workflows: We design processes and tools to fit how your people already work — not force them to change for the tech.
Measure what matters: Success metrics go beyond dashboards. We define what good looks like for business outcomes, not just adoption rates.
Plan for scale without burnout: Roadmaps include iteration loops and scaling plans that don’t depend on a few power users.

We build for durability, not demos.

This stage is where most companies are tempted to overreach — launching multiple pilots at once or pushing flashy applications before foundational workflows are in place. We take the opposite approach: less flash, more traction.

Our implementation phase starts with intention, not speed. We pick 1–2 high-priority use cases from the roadmap that meet key criteria: clear business value, user readiness, technical feasibility, and measurable outcomes. These early projects serve not only to prove value but to establish reusable patterns your team can build on.

Each pilot is treated as an operational experiment, not a technology test. That means we don’t just evaluate whether the AI works — we evaluate how it affects work. How does it change the pace of decisions, the role of staff, or the flow of communication? We use that lens to refine both the tool and the workflow in tandem.

Our team also supports change management at the pilot level. We coach users, train managers, and set feedback loops in motion from day one. This helps surface friction early — when it’s still fixable — and avoids the common scenario of tools being “deployed” but never adopted.

Success is defined up front and tracked throughout. Rather than relying on vague AI metrics like model accuracy or usage rates, we tie results to specific business KPIs: time saved, throughput improved, error rates reduced, or customer experience uplifted.

Finally, we develop a scale plan that’s grounded in reality. That means naming who will own the rollout, how teams will be supported, and what changes need to happen in process and governance to support broader use. We don’t rely on a few early champions to carry the burden — we create systems that allow AI adoption to scale without heroics.

Intentional implementation is how pilots turn into platforms. And that’s how AI moves from concept to capability.

Where Tools, Data, and Vendors Fit In

We don’t ignore tools — we contextualize them.

Data quality comes after business alignment: You’ll know what data matters once your priorities are clear.
Tool selection is use-case driven: We evaluate vendors only after defining success, not before.
Dashboards support iteration, not validation: Metrics evolve as your roadmap matures.

Technology becomes an enabler, not the headline.

Why This Roadmap Works

This roadmap is built to avoid common traps:

No endless pilots with unclear value
No rushed implementations without buy-in
No tool-first strategies that ignore human impact

Instead, you get:

Executive clarity
Team alignment
Measurable business value
Scalable, supported AI use

Ready to Build a Durable AI Roadmap?

If you’re done with AI guesswork and ready for strategic clarity, talk to Gerardo Kerick. He’ll help your leadership team align on purpose, prioritize smart use cases, and build a roadmap that lasts.

Book a Consultation or learn more about our AI consulting services .

AI for CFO: How Finance Leaders Can Use AI Effectively

Wed, 28 Jan 2026 09:15:11 GMT

AI solutions for CFOs is transforming finance teams. Many CFOs are adopting tools that help with forecasting, planning, reporting, risk management, and controls. By leveraging these tools, finance teams can reduce manual work, improve accuracy, and better respond to change. This article explores trends from finance leaders in 2026, offering practical steps for implementing AI effectively.

What Does AI CFO Capability Really Mean for Modern Finance Teams?

AI CFO capability refers to the use of AI technologies to streamline tasks like forecasting, planning, and data analysis. With AI, finance leaders can rely on advanced algorithms to perform repetitive tasks, analyze large data sets, and uncover patterns that might be missed by human analysis. As finance teams move beyond spreadsheets, AI is allowing them to access faster, more accurate insights, ultimately freeing up time for strategic decision-making.

AI for CFOs means:

Routine automation : AI can handle tasks such as reconciliations and transaction coding, so your team can focus on analysis and strategy.
Pattern recognition : Algorithms can identify trends within vast data sets that humans might overlook.
Scenario planning : AI enables the testing of multiple business scenarios quickly to assess outcomes under varying conditions.
Risk management : AI models help identify high-risk areas and flag unusual transactions early.
Real-time reporting : Dashboards powered by AI provide up-to-date insights, reducing reliance on outdated, manually generated reports.

In a recent study by Deloitte , finance leaders emphasized the importance of AI in enhancing decision-making speed and accuracy.

The adoption of AI for CFOs helps shift the role of finance from data recorder to strategic partner. With the right tools and governance, finance teams can deliver more value with fewer resources.

How Can AI for CFOs Improve Forecasting, Planning, and Decision Quality?

Forecasting and planning are two of the most critical functions for CFOs, as they directly impact strategic decisions and financial stability. Traditional methods of forecasting, relying on manual data entry and historical trends, can be slow, error-prone, and reactive. AI improves both forecasting and planning by increasing accuracy and enabling more timely insights. As businesses face rapidly changing market conditions and increased uncertainty, the ability to forecast and plan with precision is more important than ever.

AI supports forecasting and planning in several key ways, each of which plays a vital role in driving better decisions:

Enhancing Pattern Recognition

AI algorithms excel at processing vast amounts of data from various sources, such as financial statements, market trends, social media signals, and even global economic indicators. These algorithms identify hidden patterns and correlations that human analysts may miss. This ability to process and analyze data quickly and at scale boosts forecast accuracy by up to 30%, according to recent studies. With AI, CFOs can rely on data-driven insights that are far more accurate than traditional methods, which are often based on incomplete or outdated information.

For example, AI tools can track real-time changes in key performance indicators (KPIs) and adjust forecasts dynamically. These tools are particularly effective when working with large, complex data sets that involve variables such as sales volumes, customer behavior, and supply chain disruptions. AI can identify trends that emerge in different segments, products, or regions, allowing CFOs to take a more granular approach to forecasting.

Accelerating Scenario Analysis

One of the greatest advantages AI offers is the ability to accelerate scenario analysis. In traditional planning, testing multiple "what-if" scenarios can take weeks, as it requires manual adjustments to spreadsheets and time-consuming simulations. With AI, CFOs can test various business scenarios in minutes. AI models can instantly calculate the impact of different variables (such as changes in pricing, customer demand, or operational costs) on financial outcomes.

This faster testing of assumptions allows CFOs to make informed decisions with minimal delay. For instance, if market conditions change rapidly—like in the case of unexpected shifts in consumer behavior or supply chain disruptions—AI can quickly model the financial impact of these changes, helping the CFO adjust plans on the fly. This enables businesses to stay agile, responding to risks and opportunities without being caught off guard.

Continuous Revenue Forecasting

AI enhances revenue forecasting by combining historical data with real-time market signals to update projections continuously. AI models analyze factors like historical sales trends, customer sentiment, and external economic conditions to generate real-time updates to revenue forecasts. Unlike traditional methods, where forecasts are updated on a periodic basis (e.g., quarterly or annually), AI tools can revise forecasts at regular intervals, or even in real-time, allowing for more accurate and up-to-date projections.

This continuous revenue forecasting is especially valuable for businesses that operate in industries with high volatility or uncertainty, such as retail, tech, or manufacturing. AI helps CFOs spot shifts in demand early, whether from seasonal changes or unexpected market events, and make adjustments before issues grow larger.

Predicting Cash Flow Gaps

AI for CFOs plays a critical role in cash flow prediction. AI models use historical cash flow data, along with accounts payable and receivable data, to forecast potential cash flow gaps weeks or even months in advance. By forecasting when cash inflows may slow down or when large expenses are due, AI gives businesses ample time to plan for liquidity shortfalls.

This predictive capability allows CFOs to take proactive measures, such as arranging short-term financing or adjusting spending plans, before a cash crunch occurs. The ability to predict cash flow gaps with such accuracy helps businesses avoid financial crises and stay ahead of their working capital needs.

Improved Expense Planning

Expense planning is a key area where AI can help CFOs allocate resources more effectively. AI tools can analyze historical cost data, contracts, and operational expenses to identify areas where costs may fluctuate in the future. These tools can even predict when certain contracts or agreements may trigger price changes, helping CFOs plan for future expenses with greater precision.

AI also enables CFOs to spot inefficiencies in the cost structure that might go unnoticed with traditional methods. By comparing current spending to industry benchmarks or historical trends, AI can help identify areas for potential cost savings and provide actionable insights for improving operational efficiency.

Enhanced What-If Analysis

AI improves the traditional "what-if" analysis by allowing CFOs to quickly test a variety of assumptions and adjust forecasts in real-time. For instance, CFOs can model the impact of different pricing strategies, supply chain disruptions, or changes in demand. This real-time analysis helps identify risks and opportunities more quickly, allowing for faster decision-making.

AI-driven "what-if" analysis also enables CFOs to explore multiple possible futures. Instead of just testing one scenario, AI can run hundreds or even thousands of scenarios simultaneously, providing a broader range of possible outcomes. This allows for more comprehensive risk management and more confident strategic planning.

From Reactive to Proactive Planning

AI is helping finance teams shift from a reactive to a proactive approach to planning. In the past, finance teams would often only update forecasts and plans after problems arose. With AI, businesses can continuously monitor market conditions, customer behavior, and internal performance, allowing them to act before issues become critical.

According to a Mastercard article , AI tools are enabling finance teams to transition from relying on historical data to forecasting and planning based on real-time insights. This shift allows businesses to make more informed, data-driven decisions that are aligned with current market conditions. AI also helps CFOs adjust to fast-moving economic shifts, ensuring that financial strategies remain relevant even in times of uncertainty.

AI's ability to continuously update forecasts and plans means finance teams can make more agile decisions, reducing the likelihood of surprises and improving overall business performance. By integrating AI into forecasting, planning, and decision-making, CFOs can enhance accuracy, streamline workflows, and ensure their organizations remain responsive to changing market conditions. The ongoing evolution of AI in finance offers immense potential for improving both the quality and speed of decision-making, empowering CFOs to drive greater value for their organizations.

Where Does CFO Artificial Intelligence Deliver the Fastest ROI?

AI for CFOs delivers the fastest ROI where workflows are repetitive and data-rich. Implementing AI in these areas can significantly reduce manual effort and errors.

Key workflows that show quick ROI include:

Financial close and reporting : Automation can reduce the time spent on monthly close cycles by streamlining data validation, reconciliation, and reporting processes.
Forecasting and planning : AI-driven forecasting tools allow for more accurate and timely projections, leading to better capital allocation and operational planning.
Accounts payable and receivable : AI can automate invoice processing and flag inconsistencies, speeding up the payment cycle and reducing late fees.
Risk and compliance checks : AI tools can monitor transactions for compliance, reducing the likelihood of errors and fraud.
Budgeting : AI automates the data collection process, enabling teams to focus on reviewing assumptions and outcomes.

Studies show that companies adopting AI for CFO tasks have achieved measurable improvements in productivity and reduced operational costs. This helps businesses improve cash flow management and optimize spending.

By targeting high-value areas for AI implementation, CFOs can see quick returns while laying the groundwork for further AI adoption across the organization.

How Are Leading Companies Using CFO AI to Strengthen Financial Strategy?

Top companies are not just adopting AI tools, they are embedding AI into their finance workflows to drive better business strategies.

Here are examples of how leading companies are using AI for CFOs:

Automated close cycles : AI streamlines the process of data gathering, validation, and adjustment, helping finance teams close books faster and more accurately.
Predictive cash-flow models : AI-powered models can predict cash flow needs based on payment history and other factors, enabling more precise liquidity planning.
Risk dashboards : AI highlights potential risks in real-time, providing finance leaders with early warnings and enabling quicker responses.
Driver-based planning : AI links key performance indicators to cost and revenue drivers, enabling CFOs to make more informed decisions about resource allocation.

By leveraging AI, finance teams can integrate real-time insights into their decision-making processes, moving away from reactive measures and towards a more proactive financial strategy.

Which AI-Driven Workflows Help CFOs Reduce Risk and Strengthen Controls?

Risk management is central to the CFO role. AI for CFOs can enhance risk management by identifying potential issues before they escalate.

AI-driven workflows that reduce risk include:

Anomaly detection : AI systems can flag transactions that deviate from typical patterns, identifying potential errors or fraud.
Continuous audit monitoring : Unlike manual audits, AI can analyze every transaction, ensuring compliance and uncovering discrepancies faster.
Compliance checks : AI keeps track of regulatory changes and cross-references them with company practices, ensuring adherence to the latest standards.
Fraud detection : AI models learn the normal behavior of transactions and can quickly alert finance teams to suspicious activity.

CFOs can leverage these workflows to not only detect risks early but also to create more reliable systems of internal control. With clear data definitions and continuous monitoring, AI helps mitigate financial and compliance risks.

What AI Skills and Tools Should Every CFO Develop to Stay Competitive?

As AI for CFOs becomes more central to finance operations, CFOs must develop certain skills and capabilities to make the most of these technologies.

Key skills to cultivate include:

Data literacy : Understanding data analysis tools and being able to interpret outputs is crucial for CFOs to make informed decisions.
Model interpretation : CFOs should understand how AI models work and the data they rely on, ensuring they can explain AI-driven insights clearly.
Tool selection : CFOs need to assess different AI tools to ensure they align with their company’s needs and existing workflows.
Vendor management : Strong vendor relationships ensure smooth integration and ongoing support.
Change management : Managing the transition to AI tools is essential to get buy-in from the team and minimize resistance to new technologies.

By building these capabilities within their teams , CFOs can stay competitive as AI continues to shape the future of finance. With the right combination of skills and tools, finance leaders can create data-driven strategies that drive business growth.

Need Help Building Your AI for CFO Roadmap?

Adopting AI for CFO tasks is a transformative step that requires a structured approach. To successfully integrate AI into your finance operations, you need a roadmap that aligns with your business goals. At WSI Digital Boost, we specialize in helping finance leaders like you design and implement a tailored AI strategy that drives real results.

Here’s a simple AI for CFO roadmap to guide you:

1. Evaluate Your Data Readiness

Before implementing AI, review your current data sources and quality. A solid data foundation is essential for AI to produce accurate insights. If your data is fragmented or unreliable, AI models may not yield the desired results. Ensuring your data is clean, consistent, and accessible will set the stage for successful AI adoption.

2. Choose Priority Workflows

Identify the high-impact areas where AI can deliver the most value. For CFOs, these typically include forecasting, financial close automation, and risk management. Starting with one or two key workflows will allow you to see the benefits quickly without overwhelming your team.

3. Set Clear Goals

Establish measurable outcomes for your AI initiatives. For example, you may aim to improve forecast accuracy by 20% or reduce the financial close cycle by 30%. Having clear goals ensures that you can track the success of your AI implementation and make adjustments as needed.

4. Select the Right Tools and Partners

Choosing the right AI tools and partners is crucial for the success of your AI strategy. Working with an experienced AI Consulting Company ensures that you select the best tools that integrate seamlessly into your existing systems. At WSI Digital Boost, we specialize in ng serviceAI consultis for CFOs, providing tailored solutions that align with your finance team’s specific needs.

5. Run Pilots

Start with pilot projects to test AI models and workflows in real-world conditions. Pilots allow you to minimize risk, adjust your strategy, and gain valuable insights before scaling AI implementation across the entire organization.

6. Train Your Team

Implementing AI requires a shift in how your finance team works. Providing training on interpreting and using AI-generated insights is essential for maximizing the value of your new systems. We offer hands-on training that empowers your team to harness the full potential of AI, improving their decision-making and productivity.

7. Measure and Adjust

AI is a continuous process. Once you’ve implemented your AI solutions, regularly measure the results to ensure they align with your initial goals. Fine-tune models and workflows based on performance data to optimize outcomes and keep improving your processes.

8. Scale Gradually

Once you’ve achieved positive results from pilot projects, it’s time to scale. Expand your AI implementation to other workflows, creating a broader impact on your organization. Scaling gradually ensures that your AI adoption remains manageable and sustainable.

If you need support in building your AI for CFO strategy, contact WSI Digital Boost . Our AI consulting services are designed to guide you through every step of the process—from evaluating data readiness to scaling AI solutions. With our expertise, you can confidently navigate the complexities of AI integration and unlock its full potential.

Additionally, if you’re looking for an AI keynote speaker in Atlanta to inspire and educate your team, we can help. We bring valuable insights into how AI is shaping the future of finance and how your team can stay ahead of the curve.

Implementing AI for CFO tasks is a step-by-step process, but with the right approach, the potential rewards are significant. AI helps you streamline workflows, improve accuracy, and drive better financial decisions. By partnering with WSI Digital Boost, you can transform your finance team into a strategic powerhouse, ready to meet the challenges of the future.

AI for CFO is not just a trend—it’s the future of finance. Start small, scale gradually, and experience the real business value AI can deliver to your organization.

AI Business Strategy for Private Equity & Mid-Market Growth

Tue, 02 Dec 2025 08:06:20 GMT

Let's be honest, "strategy" is one of those words that gets thrown around so much it can start to feel meaningless. It’s often a stand-in for a bunch of PowerPoints and vague promises that never quite materialize. So when we talk about building an AI business strategy, it’s fair to be a little skeptical. Is this just another buzzword to add to the pile? The short answer is no. Not if you do it right.

We know you worry about implementation time, cross-company scale, and tech complexity. These are valid concerns. But with the right roadmap, they can be addressed head-on. Our goal is to demystify the AI strategy conversation and provide clarity on how PE firms and portfolio companies can deploy it practically and profitably.

For private equity and mid-market companies, a real, practical AI strategy isn't about chasing the latest tech trend. It's about creating a clear roadmap for using artificial intelligence to drive post-acquisition efficiency and unlock new avenues for growth. It’s about moving beyond one-off projects and integrating AI into the very fabric of your operations and decision-making. This isn’t about creating a separate “AI department” that works in a silo. It’s about building a foundational capability that makes the entire organization smarter, faster, and more competitive. And in today's market, that’s not just a nice-to-have; it’s essential for survival and growth.

AI Strategy Development for Private Equity PortCos

For a private equity firm, AI strategy development isn't a one-size-fits-all exercise. The right approach for a manufacturing company in the portfolio will look very different from that of a SaaS business. The goal is to create a tailored strategy for each portfolio company (PortCo) that aligns with its unique business objectives. This process begins not with technology, but with a deep understanding of the business itself.

We help Operating Partners build replicable playbooks across 10+ PortCos to ensure scalable AI success. That means developing frameworks that can flex based on industry, but still follow core principles to reduce friction, enhance ROI, and compress transformation timelines.

According to Harvard Business Review , the core principles of business strategy still apply, even when affected by AI. The first step is to assess where each PortCo stands. An "AI-first scorecard" can be a useful tool here, evaluating the company's readiness across three key areas:

AI adoption
AI architecture
AI capability

This helps identify the gaps and prioritize actions:

Is the digital infrastructure ready for seamless data flow?
Does the team have the necessary skills, or will you need to upskill or hire new talent?
Are we generating a wide range of use cases, not just focusing on one shiny object?

From there, leadership can categorize initiatives by effort vs. impact and develop a phased approach to implementation. It’s not about doing everything at once — it’s about sequencing for momentum.

What Is an AI Strategy and Why Does It Matter Post-Acquisition

What is an AI strategy? At its core, it’s a plan that integrates artificial intelligence into a company’s operations, decision-making, and growth initiatives. It’s the bridge between the potential of AI and the practical realities of your business. Post-acquisition, this bridge is critical. The pressure to deliver returns means you don’t have time for science projects; you need initiatives that drive measurable results.

A well-defined AI strategy matters because it forces you to be intentional. Instead of deploying technology for technology's sake, it ensures every AI initiative is tied to a specific business outcome. Whether it's reducing operational costs, improving customer retention, or accelerating product development, the strategy provides a clear line of sight between the investment and the expected return.

It also addresses the messy, human side of change. As research shows, "culture eats strategy for breakfast". Without a plan for gaining employee buy-in and managing organizational change, even the best-laid technological plans will fail. A good AI strategy isn't just a technical document; it's a business transformation playbook. The cultural and leadership buy-in must be built from day one.

Aligning AI Strategy with Growth and Operational Metrics

An AI strategy that isn’t tied to metrics is just a wish list. To be effective, it must be directly aligned with the key performance indicators (KPIs) that matter most to the business. For a post-acquisition company, these metrics typically fall into two buckets: growth and operational efficiency. The beauty of AI is its ability to impact both simultaneously.

Operational Efficiency Metrics

Reduced processing times
Lower error rates
Decreased cost-per-transaction
Overcoming internal resistance and articulating clear ROI to financial stakeholders
Accelerated time-to-insight for decision-making

AI can optimize workflows and increase output without additional headcount. For example, a financial institution that deploys an AI-based risk assessment platform can measure its success by a reduction in risk exposure and an improvement in financial performance.

Growth Metrics

Customer acquisition cost
Customer lifetime value
Market share
Cross-sell and upsell conversion rates
Time-to-market for new offerings

The key is to establish a baseline before implementing any AI solution and then continuously monitor these metrics to gauge progress. This data-driven approach not only proves the ROI of your AI investments but also provides the feedback loop needed to refine and improve your strategy over time.

AI in Strategic Planning: A Portfolio Optimization Playbook

AI in strategic planning is about making smarter, faster, and more data-driven decisions for your portfolio. It’s about moving beyond gut feelings and historical trends to a more predictive and proactive approach. AI offers a powerful set of tools for each stage of the strategic planning process.

Development Phase AI can analyze massive datasets to identify market trends, customer behaviors, and competitive threats that might be invisible to the human eye. It can also run scenario planning simulations to help you prepare for a range of possible futures.
Execution Phase AI dashboards can provide real-time monitoring of KPIs, allowing for dynamic adjustments to resource allocation and proactive responses to potential roadblocks. By keeping strategy execution agile, teams stay responsive in fast-moving markets.
Evaluation Phase AI can provide a comprehensive analysis of performance, identifying the causal relationships between actions and outcomes to determine what really worked and why. This insight enables iterative improvement — not just review.

This creates a continuous learning loop, where insights from each strategic cycle feed into the next, making your entire portfolio smarter and more agile. It’s a playbook for optimization that leverages data to de-risk decisions and maximize returns across every company you own.

AI in Strategic Management: Driving Scalable Efficiency

While strategic planning sets the direction, AI in strategic management is about the day-to-day execution and driving scalable efficiency. This is where AI transitions from a planning tool to an operational powerhouse. By automating repetitive, rule-based tasks, AI frees up your most valuable resource—your people—to focus on more complex, creative, and strategic work.

Consider the impact on a typical mid-market company. An AI-powered natural language processing (NLP) tool can analyze thousands of customer feedback comments or social media posts to distill sentiment and identify emerging issues in minutes, a task that would take a team of analysts days. Robotic process automation (RPA) can handle everything from data entry and invoice processing to generating standard reports, all with a higher degree of accuracy than manual methods.

This not only drives down costs but also increases the speed and agility of the entire organization. AI becomes a force multiplier across departments — from finance and customer service to HR and logistics. When you scale these efficiencies across an entire portfolio of companies, the impact on your bottom line can be transformative.

Real AI Strategy Examples from Post-Acquisition Success Stories

Talk is cheap. Let's look at some real AI strategy examples to see how this works in practice. These aren't futuristic moonshots; they are practical applications delivering value today.

One leading retailer, after being acquired, leveraged an AI-driven strategy to tackle its inventory management. By using predictive analytics to forecast demand and optimize stock levels, they were able to significantly reduce carrying costs and minimize stockouts, directly improving both efficiency and customer satisfaction. This wasn't just a one-time fix; the AI system continuously learns from new sales data, making the supply chain smarter over time.

In another example, a global financial institution deployed an AI platform to enhance its risk assessment processes post-merger. The system analyzed vast streams of financial data, news, and regulatory filings to identify potential risks and opportunities that human analysts might miss. This AI-powered approach led to a significant reduction in the firm's overall risk exposure and a measurable improvement in financial performance.

In one portfolio company we achieved a 20% reduction in processing time within 9 months by implementing a machine learning-based reconciliation system that cut manual workloads by 80%.

These cases show that a well-executed AI strategy isn't just theoretical—it delivers tangible, bottom-line results that align with the goals of both Operating Partners and C-level leaders in the PortCos.

How Our AI Expert Can Help You Streamline Your AI Business Strategy

Developing and implementing a successful AI business strategy is a complex undertaking. It requires a unique blend of business acumen, technical expertise, and a deep understanding of organizational change. It’s easy to get lost in the hype or to make costly missteps. That’s where an expert guide can make all the difference.

At WSI Digital Boost, we are more than just an AI Consulting Company ; we are strategic partners to private equity and mid-market firms. Our AI consulting services are designed to help you cut through the noise and build a practical, results-driven AI roadmap. Whether you need help assessing opportunities across your portfolio, developing a custom strategy for a specific company, or training your team to lead the transformation, we have the expertise to guide you.

Our renowned AI keynote speaker can also inspire and educate your leadership teams, aligning everyone on a shared vision for an AI-powered future. We’ve delivered executive briefings and tactical workshops that create alignment, momentum, and measurable wins — fast.

Don’t leave your company’s future to chance. If you’re ready to build a powerful AI business strategy that drives real growth and efficiency, contact WSI Digital Boost today.

FAQs

AI in Business Operations: How Private Equity Firms Drive Portfolio Efficiency

Tue, 11 Nov 2025 08:33:39 GMT

Let’s be real. Post-acquisition, the real work begins. You’ve bought the company, and now you have to make it better, faster, and more profitable. It’s a tall order, and the old playbook of just cutting costs and hoping for the best isn’t going to cut it anymore. You need a smarter way to drive efficiency, and that’s where AI in business operations comes in. And no, we’re not talking about some far-off, futuristic dream. We’re talking about practical, real-world applications of AI that are transforming portfolio companies today.

It’s easy to be skeptical. The term “AI” gets thrown around a lot, and it’s often hard to separate the hype from the reality. But when you look past the buzzwords, you’ll find that AI is quietly revolutionizing everything from accounting and finance to sales and marketing. It’s helping companies automate tedious tasks, make smarter decisions, and unlock new sources of growth. This isn’t about replacing people; it’s about empowering them. It’s about giving your portfolio companies the tools they need to compete and win in a rapidly changing world. So, if you’re ready to learn how AI can help you drive real, measurable results, you’re in the right place.

Why AI in Business Operations Matters Post-Acquisition

Post-acquisition is all about creating value, and quickly. The pressure is on to deliver results, and that means finding new ways to improve efficiency and drive growth. That’s why AI in business operations is no longer a luxury; it’s a necessity. As one study found , 75% of executives believe AI will transform their companies within three years. For private equity firms, that transformation is happening now, and it’s happening at the portfolio company level.

But what does that transformation actually look like? It’s about using AI to streamline workflows, enhance resource allocation, and enable predictive maintenance, all of which can lead to substantial cost savings. It’s about elevating the quality of decision-making by complementing human intelligence with data-driven insights. And it’s about accelerating innovation by identifying new market opportunities and enabling the rapid development of new products and services.

Of course, it’s not just about plugging in a new piece of software and calling it a day. Successful AI implementation requires a strategic approach. You need to align your AI initiatives with your core business objectives, and you need to redesign your workflows to optimize the collaboration between humans and machines. But for firms that get it right, the rewards can be immense. We’re talking about a future where your portfolio companies are more efficient, more innovative, and more profitable than ever before.

AI in Accounting and Finance: Automating Accuracy and Compliance

Let’s face it: accounting and finance are not the most glamorous parts of a business. But they are absolutely critical. And they’re also two areas where AI in accounting and AI in finance can have a massive impact. For years, accounting and finance teams have been bogged down by manual, repetitive tasks like data entry, reconciliations, and compliance reporting. It’s slow, it’s tedious, and it’s prone to error.

But what if you could automate all of that? That’s the promise of AI-powered accounting platforms like Trullion and Nominal. These tools use AI to automate financial workflows, from lease accounting and revenue recognition to audit and compliance. They can extract data from contracts, invoices, and other documents with incredible accuracy, and they can automatically reconcile accounts in a fraction of the time it would take a human. This not only saves a huge amount of time and money, but it also reduces the risk of costly errors and ensures that your portfolio companies are always in compliance with the latest regulations.

But the benefits of AI in finance go beyond just automation. By analyzing vast amounts of financial data, AI can also help you identify trends, spot anomalies, and make more accurate forecasts. This can help you make better investment decisions and to more effectively manage the financial performance of your portfolio companies. It’s about transforming your finance function from a cost center into a strategic partner.

AI in Sales and Marketing: Smarter Pipelines and Revenue Growth

In today’s hyper-competitive market, a strong sales and marketing engine is essential for growth. But traditional sales and marketing tactics are becoming less and less effective. Customers are more informed than ever before, and they’re tired of being bombarded with generic, one-size-fits-all messages. To break through the noise, you need a smarter, more personalized approach. And that’s where AI in sales and marketing comes in.

AI is transforming every aspect of the sales and marketing process, from lead generation and customer segmentation to content creation and personalization. AI-powered tools can analyze customer data to identify patterns and predict future behavior, allowing you to tailor your marketing campaigns to the specific needs and interests of your target audience. They can also automate many of the tedious tasks involved in sales, like lead scoring and follow-up, freeing up your sales team to focus on what they do best: building relationships and closing deals.

For example, an AI tool could analyze a customer’s browsing history and purchase behavior to recommend products they’re likely to be interested in. Or it could automatically generate personalized email campaigns that are tailored to the specific needs of each individual customer. This not only leads to higher conversion rates and increased revenue, but it also creates a better, more relevant experience for your customers. It’s about using AI to build a smarter, more efficient, and more effective sales and marketing machine.

AI in HR and Workforce Planning: Aligning People with Growth

Your people are your most valuable asset. But in a rapidly changing world, it can be tough to make sure you have the right people with the right skills in the right roles. That’s where AI in HR and workforce planning can make a real difference. AI is helping companies to more effectively recruit, retain, and develop their talent, and to align their workforce with their strategic goals.

AI-powered tools can help you to identify the best candidates for a role by analyzing resumes and other data to predict which candidates are most likely to be successful. They can also help you to identify skills gaps in your existing workforce and to create personalized training and development plans to help your employees grow. And they can even help you to predict which employees are at risk of leaving, so you can take proactive steps to retain them.

But perhaps the most powerful application of AI in HR is in strategic workforce planning. By analyzing data on your current workforce, your future business goals, and external market trends, AI can help you to create a detailed plan for how to build the workforce you’ll need to succeed in the future. This can help you to make smarter decisions about hiring, training, and succession planning, and to ensure that you always have the right people in place to drive your business forward.

AI in Supply Chain Operations: Cutting Costs and Delays

For many businesses, the supply chain is a major source of cost and complexity. From managing inventory and forecasting demand to coordinating with suppliers and logistics providers, there are a million things that can go wrong. And when they do, it can lead to costly delays, stockouts, and unhappy customers. But what if you could use AI to make your supply chain smarter, more efficient, and more resilient? That’s the promise of AI in supply chain operations.

AI is transforming every aspect of the supply chain, from planning and procurement to logistics and delivery. AI-powered tools can analyze historical data to create more accurate demand forecasts, helping you to avoid stockouts and to reduce your inventory carrying costs. They can also help you to optimize your inventory levels by automatically reordering products when they get low. And they can even help you to identify the most efficient shipping routes and to track your shipments in real-time, so you always know where your products are and when they’ll arrive.

But the benefits of AI in the supply chain go beyond just cost savings. By providing you with greater visibility and control over your operations, AI can also help you to build a more resilient and agile supply chain. This can help you to better respond to disruptions, like natural disasters or geopolitical events, and to more quickly adapt to changes in customer demand. It’s about using AI to build a supply chain that’s not just efficient, but also smart.

AI in Business Operations Across the Portfolio: Case Examples

It’s one thing to talk about the potential of AI in business operations in the abstract. It’s another thing to see it in action. Here are a few real-world examples of how private equity firms are using AI to drive efficiency and growth across their portfolios:

A manufacturing company used AI-powered predictive maintenance to reduce machine downtime by 30% and to cut its maintenance costs by 15%. By analyzing data from sensors on its machines, the AI system was able to predict when a machine was likely to fail and to schedule maintenance before it did.
A retail company used AI to personalize its marketing campaigns and to increase its online sales by 20%. By analyzing customer data, the AI system was able to recommend products that each customer was likely to be interested in and to send them personalized offers and promotions.
A healthcare company used AI to automate its billing and coding processes, which reduced its administrative costs by 40% and improved its collection rate by 10%. The AI system was able to automatically extract the relevant information from patient records and to generate accurate bills and claims.

These are just a few examples of the many ways that private equity firms are using AI to create value across their portfolios. The possibilities are endless, and the firms that are embracing AI today are the ones that will be best positioned to succeed in the future.

Ready to Build Your AI Operations Playbook with WSI Digital Boost?

So, you’re convinced. You see the power of AI in business operations, and you’re ready to start putting it to work for your portfolio companies. But where do you start? The world of AI can be a confusing place, and it’s not always easy to know which tools and strategies are right for your specific needs. That’s where we come in. At WSI Digital Boost, we’re not just another AI Consulting Company . We’re a team of experienced professionals who can help you build a customized AI operations playbook that’s designed to deliver real, measurable results.

We offer a full range of AI consulting services , from initial opportunity assessments to full-scale implementation and ongoing support. We’ll work with you to understand your goals, identify the highest-impact opportunities, and develop a roadmap for success. We’re not here to sell you a pre-packaged solution. We’re here to be your trusted partner on your AI journey.

Ready to unlock the full potential of your portfolio? Contact WSI Digital Boost today to schedule a consultation and learn more about how our expertise in AI in business operations can help you drive post-acquisition efficiency and growth.

AI Tools for Private Equity: Unlocking Speed and Insight

Tue, 07 Oct 2025 11:51:52 GMT

Let’s be honest—the private equity world isn’t exactly known for moving at lightning speed. It’s a world of deep analysis, careful consideration, and, well, a lot of manual work. But what if it didn’t have to be that way? What if you could get to the insights faster, without sacrificing the diligence? That’s where AI tools for private equity come in. And no, we’re not talking about some far-off, futuristic concept. We’re talking about tools that are changing the game right now.

It’s easy to be skeptical. We’ve all seen the hype around AI, and a lot of it is just that—hype. But when you look past the noise, you’ll find that AI is quietly becoming a critical part of the modern private equity toolkit. It’s helping firms source deals more effectively, conduct due diligence with more confidence, and uncover market trends before they become common knowledge. This isn’t about replacing human expertise; it’s about augmenting it. It’s about giving your team the tools they need to make smarter, faster decisions. So, if you’re ready to move beyond the buzzwords and see what AI can actually do for your firm, you’re in the right place.

The Role of AI in Private Equity: Driving Strategic Transformation

The shift toward AI in private equity isn’t just a trend; it’s a fundamental transformation. A recent survey showed that 81% of PE and VC firms were actively using AI in late 2024, a huge jump from 47% the previous year . That tells you something. AI has moved from a “nice-to-have” to a must-have for firms that want to stay competitive.

But what does that actually mean? It means using AI to automate the repetitive, time-consuming tasks that bog down your team, so they can focus on what they do best: thinking strategically. It means using machine learning to analyze massive datasets and uncover patterns that would be impossible for a human to spot. And it means using natural language processing to make sense of unstructured data, like contracts and reports, in a fraction of the time it would normally take.

Of course, it’s not as simple as just flipping a switch. Integrating AI into your workflow requires careful planning and a clear understanding of your firm’s goals. You need to think about data standardization, talent acquisition, and how to redesign your processes to make the most of these new technologies. But for firms that are willing to put in the work, the payoff can be enormous. We’re talking about a future where you can source deals more efficiently, conduct due diligence with greater accuracy, and monitor your portfolio in real-time. It’s a future where you’re not just keeping up with the market; you’re staying ahead of it.

AI Tools for Due Diligence: Make Faster, More Confident Decisions

Due diligence is the bedrock of any sound investment. It’s also one of the most labor-intensive parts of the private equity process. Analysts spend countless hours poring over financial statements, legal documents, and market reports, trying to piece together a complete picture of a potential investment. It’s a process that’s ripe for disruption, and AI tools for due diligence are leading the charge.

Imagine being able to feed an investment memorandum into an AI platform and, within minutes, have all the key financial metrics extracted and organized into a structured format. That’s not science fiction; that’s what today’s AI document processing solutions can do. These tools can parse complex financial statements, identify regulatory red flags, and surface critical insights that might otherwise get buried in the footnotes. As Deloitte research has shown, AI automation doesn’t just reduce processing times for compliance and contract review; it also improves the depth and accuracy of the analysis .

Tools like Kira Systems and Evisort are designed to automate the review of legal and financial documents, using machine learning to quickly identify and extract key information from contracts. This not only saves a massive amount of time but also reduces the risk of human error. Instead of spending their days on manual data extraction, your analysts can focus on the higher-level strategic thinking that leads to better investment decisions. It’s about making your due diligence process not just faster, but smarter.

Deal Sourcing with AI: Identifying the Right Opportunities

In a competitive market, finding the right deals is half the battle. Traditional deal sourcing methods, like networking and cold calling, are still important, but they’re no longer enough. To get an edge, you need to be able to identify promising companies before they’re on everyone else’s radar. And that’s where deal sourcing AI comes in.

AI-powered platforms like Capix, PitchBook, and Grata are changing the way firms find and evaluate potential investments. These tools aggregate and analyze data from a huge range of sources—from company websites and investor reports to patent filings and social media trends—to give you a comprehensive view of the market. They can help you identify emerging companies, track market dynamics, and even pinpoint industries that are poised for disruption.

For example, an AI platform might notice a sudden increase in patent filings in a particular niche, or a surge in social media chatter around a new technology. By flagging these trends early, these tools can help you get in on the ground floor of the next big thing. It’s like having a team of analysts working around the clock, constantly scanning the horizon for new opportunities. And in a world where speed is everything, that’s a powerful advantage.

AI Market Intelligence Tools: Stay Ahead of Sector Trends

Staying ahead of market trends is crucial for any private equity firm. You need to know what’s happening in your target sectors, who the key players are, and where the market is headed. But with the sheer volume of information available today, it’s impossible to keep up with everything. That’s where AI market intelligence tools can make a real difference.

Platforms like CB Insights and Kensho use AI to analyze vast amounts of data and provide you with actionable insights. They can help you forecast market trends, identify high-growth companies, and track innovation activity in real-time. Instead of relying on outdated reports and gut feelings, you can make decisions based on hard data.

For example, an AI market intelligence tool could help you identify a new competitor in one of your portfolio company’s markets, or alert you to a new technology that could disrupt the industry. This allows you to be proactive, rather than reactive, and to make strategic adjustments before it’s too late. It’s about having a crystal ball that’s actually based on data, not just speculation.

AI Tools for Financial Analysis: Make Forecasts Without the Guesswork

Financial analysis is at the heart of private equity. But traditional methods of financial modeling and forecasting can be slow, cumbersome, and prone to error. You’re often working with incomplete data, and you’re forced to make a lot of assumptions. But what if you could take some of the guesswork out of the equation? That’s the promise of AI tools for financial analysis.

Tools like ZBrain and Nosible are using AI to bring a new level of sophistication to financial analysis. These platforms can automate many of the tedious tasks involved in financial modeling, freeing up your analysts to focus on more strategic work. They can also analyze historical data to identify patterns and trends that can be used to create more accurate forecasts.

For example, an AI tool could analyze a company’s past performance and identify the key drivers of its revenue growth. It could then use that information to create a more accurate forecast of its future performance, taking into account a wide range of variables. This can help you make more informed investment decisions and to better manage the performance of your portfolio companies. It’s about bringing the power of data science to the art of financial analysis.

Choosing the Right AI Tools for Private Equity Success

With so many AI tools on the market, it can be tough to know where to start. The key is to focus on your firm’s specific needs and to choose tools that will help you achieve your strategic goals. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

Data Integration: Make sure the tool can seamlessly integrate with your existing data systems, like your CRM and financial databases.
Scalability: Choose a tool that can grow with your firm and handle increasing volumes of data.
User Interface: The best tool in the world is useless if no one on your team can figure out how to use it. Look for a tool with an intuitive interface that’s easy to learn and use.
Cost-Benefit Analysis: Do a thorough analysis of the tool’s potential return on investment. How much time will it save your team? How will it help you make better decisions? Will it give you a competitive edge?
Human-AI Collaboration: Remember that AI is a tool, not a replacement for human expertise. Look for a tool that will augment your team’s capabilities and help them do their jobs better.

By carefully considering these factors, you can choose the right AI tools for private equity and set your firm up for success in the years to come.

Build Your Firm’s AI Toolkit With Digital Boost

Look, we get it. The world of AI can be overwhelming. There are a lot of tools out there, and it’s not always easy to know which ones are right for your firm. That’s where we come in. At WSI Digital Boost, we’re not just another AI Consulting Company . We’re a team of experienced professionals who can help you navigate the complex world of AI and build a toolkit that’s tailored to your firm’s specific needs.

Whether you’re just starting to explore the possibilities of AI or you’re looking to take your existing capabilities to the next level, we can help. We offer a range of AI consulting services , from strategy development to implementation and training. We’ll work with you to understand your goals, identify the right tools, and help you integrate them into your workflow. We’re not here to sell you a one-size-fits-all solution. We’re here to be your partner in innovation.

Ready to future-proof your firm? Contact WSI Digital Boost today to learn more about how our AI tools for private equity can help you unlock new levels of speed and insight.

Successful AI Implementation in Business

Fri, 03 Oct 2025 07:14:06 GMT

AI implementation in business is keeping decision-makers up at night, not because artificial intelligence lacks promise, but because too many initiatives stall after pilot success. Right, let's talk about something that's been keeping business leaders awake: AI that turns into an expensive science experiment everyone pretends was meant to be a “learning experience.”

You've heard the success stories, but here's what they don’t tell you: 78% of organizations use AI in at least one business function , yet only 26% have developed the capabilities to scale beyond proof of concept and deliver real business value .

This is where most companies get stuck. They launch promising pilots, hire data scientists, and invest in AI platforms, only to realize that the barrier isn’t technical. It's organizational.

Why Companies are Implementing AI Now

The urgency is rising. Companies implementing AI are already gaining a competitive edge. The benefits of AI for business extend beyond automation, into real-time fraud detection, predictive analytics, and customer experience that competitors can’t match.

The advantages of AI in business are now measurable:

92% of adopters report positive ROI from AI investments
Use of generative AI models rose from 33% in 2023 to 71% in 2024
AI is shifting business strategy, not just processes

Mid-market firms are under pressure. They can’t afford delays, but they also can't risk the wrong AI business implementation. It's not about selecting AI tools; it's about organizational capability to deploy the right AI solution at scale.

Phased AI Implementation Plan for Mid-Market Firms

Most AI initiatives fail because they try to do everything at once. A successful AI implementation plan requires a phased approach that builds capability systematically while delivering value at each stage.

Phase One: Foundation and Quick Wins (Months 1-6)

Start with repeatable AI use cases like customer service chatbots or document handling
Build trust in machine learning algorithms through measurable, low-risk projects
Set governance and create an AI council to align AI with your business goals

Quick wins show that artificial intelligence can be used to solve real business problems without disruption. Lay the groundwork with the right AI governance, and identify clean data sources early.

Phase Two: Scaling and Integration (Months 6-18)

Integrate AI into core workflows like supply chain management or financial forecasting
Tackle data quality challenges that slow model training and AI adoption
Train teams to support AI systems across departments

Cross-functional AI teams improve success rates. Without integration, volumes of data go unused, and AI development stalls.

Phase Three: Transformation and Innovation (Months 18+)

Leverage AI to create new service models or pricing structures
Use machine learning to optimize workflows, improve business outcomes, and unlock strategic positioning
Shift from isolated pilots to AI-driven decision-making across the org

This phase moves AI from a side project to core business operations. AI becomes integral to how companies make business decisions and generate value.

Setting AI Goals for Portfolio Company Success

Portfolio companies need clear, aligned AI implementation goals:

Operational Goals : Use AI to reduce costs and automate tasks (6–12 months)
Revenue Goals : Improve sales and retention through predictive AI models (12–18 months)
Strategic Goals : Use artificial intelligence to transform market positioning (18+ months)

Align AI objectives with financially material business problems. Example: “Reduce service costs 25% using natural language AI models while keeping CSAT above 85%.”

Laying the Groundwork with AI Governance and Vision

High-impact organizations focus on AI governance first, not just model performance.

Creating a Business-Aligned AI Vision

Start with how artificial intelligence will support your business strategy. Ensure leadership understands the long-term impact of AI and how it aligns with business transformation goals.

Establishing Policies for Financial Firms

For financial services, the implementation of AI in business requires strict attention to risk and regulatory expectations. This includes:

Model governance
Data privacy compliance
AI ethics
Model monitoring

Forming an AI Council for Oversight

Create a cross-functional AI council with authority to resolve conflicts between business units, prioritize use cases, allocate AI talent, and support AI deployment with consistent frameworks.

Understanding AI Technology and Governance in PE

Private equity firms need to evaluate AI readiness during due diligence. Look for:

Clean, connected data sources
Business operations that benefit from automation
Teams open to change and AI adoption

AI readiness isn’t just technical. It’s cultural, structural, and strategic.

Assessing AI Readiness Across the Org: Skills, Systems, and Data

Firms overestimate AI readiness. Key checkpoints:

Data : Are volumes of data clean, labeled, and accessible?
Infrastructure : Can your architecture support AI model training?
Organization : Do you have AI specialists or cross-functional teams to implement AI in your organization?

Success requires more than machine learning engineers. You need a clear data strategy, organizational readiness, and aligned goals.

WSI's AI Capabilities Drive Innovation for PE Firms in Atlanta

At WSI Digital Boost , we specialize in AI implementation in business. We support PE firms by:

Assessing AI readiness across portfolios
Building governance frameworks
Deploying AI solutions aligned with business goals

Our approach helps companies use artificial intelligence effectively, through structured frameworks, not vendor dependency.

Contact WSI Digital Boost today to discuss how we can help you develop an AI strategy that delivers real value for your portfolio companies.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Do You Start Implementing AI in Business?

For a successful AI implementation strategy, start by identifying use cases that align with your business problems. Focus on clean data sources, quick wins, and measurable results. Build governance from day one.

What Are the Benefits of AI for Business?

Benefits include process automation, cost savings, improved forecasting, real-time decision-making, and better customer experience via AI solutions like natural language processing.

How Can AI Be Used in Business Operations?

AI can be used in supply chain management, fraud detection, customer service, demand forecasting, and internal operations through machine learning models and automation to align with your business objectives.

What Is the Best Way to Scale AI Across an Organization?

Start with a phased roadmap. Build internal AI talent, support AI with clear governance, and ensure systems can handle the computational load of scaling AI tools.

What Are Common Mistakes in AI Business Implementation?

Skipping governance, underestimating data issues, unclear business goals, and treating AI as an IT project instead of a digital transformation are common causes of failure.

AI for Business Growth: Unlocking Efficiency and Expansion

Tue, 02 Sep 2025 10:00:12 GMT

Let's talk about something most AI consultants won't tell you upfront: implementing AI for business growth isn't just hard—it's expensive, time-consuming, and most companies are doing it wrong. While everyone's rushing to slap "AI-powered" labels on their services, the reality is that only 20-25% of companies have any production AI applications in place , and only 10% of tech leaders have achieved significant ROI from their AI investments.

The gap between AI hype and AI reality is creating this weird situation where executives feel pressure to "do something with AI" while simultaneously watching high-profile AI failures make headlines. The result? A lot of expensive pilot projects that never see production and a growing sense that maybe AI isn't the silver bullet everyone thought it would be.

But the companies getting it right are different. They're not starting with the technology and hoping for the best. They're starting with clear business objectives and building the capabilities—technical, organizational, and cultural—needed to achieve sustainable AI-driven growth.

Business Planning AI for Private Equity Growth

Business planning AI isn't just about crunching numbers faster—it's about fundamentally changing how private equity firms identify, evaluate, and create value in their portfolio companies. Private equity firms representing $3.2 trillion in assets under management report that nearly 20% of their portfolio companies have operationalized generative AI use cases and are seeing concrete results.

The most successful PE firms are implementing what Harvard Business Review calls a "flywheel" approach to AI-driven business planning. This includes AI governance and compliance, talent recruitment, use case identification aligned with deal thesis, curated technology partnerships, implementation partners, and systematic adoption and value realization processes.

Vista Equity Partners has gone all-in on this approach. They're convinced that AI's impact on software company performance will rewrite the traditional Rule of 40, with the new standard for revenue growth plus margin reaching 50% or even 60%. That's backed by an internal army of professionals dedicated to helping their 85+ portfolio companies apply AI across product innovation, research and development, go-to-market strategies, talent management, and operations.

The results speak for themselves: costs down 40% in select content production processes, 15-20% reduction via automated lead generation, 15% reduction in customer care costs, and 10-15% reduction in software development costs.

AI in Business Strategy to Scale Post-Acquisition

Post-acquisition scaling is where AI strategy either proves its worth or becomes an expensive distraction. The first 100 days after an acquisition are critical, and the companies that get AI right during this period approach it with surgical precision rather than broad enthusiasm.

Successful post-acquisition AI strategies start with what one industry expert calls "data first" culture that begins at the top with the CEO and board involvement. Private equity boards are developing a data-first approach to guiding their CEOs and management teams , treating data as both a latent asset and a potential liability that needs active management.

The firms that excel at post-acquisition AI scaling avoid "unfocused dabbling." Instead, they challenge portfolio company management teams to identify a short list of top business priorities and then systematically determine how AI could accelerate those specific initiatives.

Individual productivity applications of generative AI are unlikely to appeal to buyers unless there are carefully measured productivity gains. By 2025, both limited partner investors and potential buyers require evidence of actual AI-driven business impact, not just promises of future potential.

AI Decision Making for Operational Efficiency

AI decision making for operational efficiency is where the rubber meets the road in business growth initiatives. The companies succeeding here have learned that AI-powered systems can analyze vast amounts of data to enable real-time decision-making and optimization of business processes .

The numbers tell the story: AI-powered tools can reduce forecasting errors by up to 50% and reduce lost sales due to inventory shortages by up to 65%. When IBM applied its AI-driven supply chain solutions to its own operations, the result was $160 million in savings and a 100% order fulfillment rate even during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Consider predictive maintenance, where AI algorithms analyze sensor data and historical maintenance records to predict equipment failure. A mining company using AI-driven solutions reduced production downtime by up to 30% by scheduling maintenance proactively rather than reactively.

Quality control represents another area where AI decision making creates measurable operational efficiency gains. An automobile manufacturer found that an AI-based visual inspection system identified defects with up to 97% accuracy, compared to 70% for human inspectors.

Aligning Technology, Teams, and KPIs with AI Strategy

Aligning technology, teams, and KPIs with AI strategy is where most AI initiatives either gain momentum or quietly die. Companies that succeed at this alignment have learned that AI integration is essential in corporate strategy , with CFOs ensuring positive return on investments from AI, and interdisciplinary teams cultivating AI expertise.

The challenge is that traditional KPIs weren't designed to measure AI impact. Smart organizations need smarter KPIs that can create and capture value from AI initiatives. This means moving beyond simple productivity metrics to measure things like decision quality, prediction accuracy, and time-to-insight.

Team alignment requires understanding that every leader, including CFOs, must champion A I and understand the systemic risks of generative AI in finance. The most successful companies are creating interdisciplinary teams that cultivate AI expertise rather than trying to centralize all AI knowledge in a single department.

AI-powered KPIs can not only measure success better but also help redefine what success is for your company. This isn't just about tracking AI performance—it's about using AI to improve how the entire organization measures and manages performance.

Scaling AI Adoption with Governance and Training Systems

Scaling AI adoption with governance and training systems is where the difference between successful AI transformation and expensive AI theater becomes most apparent. Private equity firms are investing in tech capabilities, adding AI talent, setting up governance protocols, and assembling experts and advisers to help both the firm and portfolio companies stay attuned to what's on the horizon.

Effective AI governance starts with understanding that AI systems behave differently than traditional software. They learn, adapt, and sometimes produce unexpected results. This means governance frameworks need to account for model drift, bias detection, explainability requirements, and ongoing monitoring.

Centers of excellence run regular workshops with portfolio company management teams to demonstrate the art of the possible and lay out what's getting results. These workshops begin with tangible AI success stories generating meaningful returns and end with homework assignments for portfolio company leaders.

AI Business Opportunities for CFOs and COOs in Post-Acquisition Environments

AI business opportunities for CFOs and COOs in post-acquisition environments represent some of the most immediate and measurable returns on AI investment. CFOs have evolved to be not only financial stewards, but also strategic drivers of sustainable, financial and digital transformation.

The numbers are compelling: 79% of CFOs surveyed indicate that their AI budget will increase in 2025, and 94% indicate that generative AI can strongly benefit at least one activity area. CFOs are focusing on strategic initiatives like strategic planning (52%) and investment analysis (48%).

For CFOs in post-acquisition environments, AI opportunities include sophisticated financial planning and analysis when AI can process multiple data sources simultaneously, identifying patterns and anomalies that might indicate integration challenges or value creation opportunities.

COOs face different but equally compelling AI opportunities. Their focus on operational efficiency aligns perfectly with AI's strengths in process optimization, predictive maintenance, and supply chain management. AI-powered systems can analyze vast amounts of data to enable real-time decision-making and optimization of business processes.

The practical reality is that 27% of CFO job postings now require AI-related expertise , reflecting the increasing demand for financial leaders who can navigate AI opportunities effectively.

Schedule a Call with WSI to Discuss AI Opportunities

The reality of AI for business growth is that it's not a DIY project. The companies succeeding with AI aren't just buying software and hoping for the best—they're working with partners who understand both the technology and the business challenges that come with implementing AI at scale.

WSI Digital Boost, an AI Consulting Company , takes a different approach to AI implementation. We don't start with the technology and work backward to find use cases. We start with your business objectives and work forward to identify where AI can create measurable value.

We understand that successful AI implementation requires building organizational resilience for complex adoption challenges. Our AI consulting services address technical security, privacy compliance, bias detection, and capability development—all the critical work that determines whether AI creates lasting value.

Our AI resilience methodology builds lasting competencies rather than creating external dependency. We work with CFOs and COOs to identify AI opportunities that align with business priorities, develop implementation roadmaps that account for organizational readiness, and establish governance frameworks that enable innovation while managing risk.

Contact WSI Digital Boost today to discuss building resilience and capabilities for successful AI implementation. Don't let AI challenges become AI failures. Let's talk about how AI can actually drive business growth in your organization—not just in theory, but in practice.

AI Challenges in Business, Executive Guide to Risk and Trust

kenji@wsioms.co.za (Kenji Suwanthong) — Mon, 28 Jul 2025 09:12:36 GMT

Let's be honest about something most AI vendors won't tell you: implementing AI in business is really hard, and most companies are screwing it up. 74% of companies struggle to achieve and scale value from AI , and 42% abandon the majority of their AI initiatives before reaching production .

Here's what's actually happening: while everyone's rushing to slap "AI-powered" on their marketing materials, the actual work of making AI usefull, not just functional, but genuinely valuable, is turning out to be way harder than anyone expected. The companies succeeding with AI aren't necessarily those with the fanciest technology or the biggest budgets. They're the ones that have learned to navigate AI challenges in business environments, manage AI risk systematically, and build sustainable trust with stakeholders who are getting increasingly skeptical of AI promises.

The gap between AI hype and AI reality is creating this weird situation. Executives are under pressure to "do something with AI" while simultaneously watching high-profile AI failures make headlines. Meanwhile, their teams are dealing with the unglamorous reality of data quality issues, integration nightmares, and the discovery that their "AI-ready" infrastructure is anything but ready.

The result? A lot of expensive pilot projects that never see the light of day, and a growing sense that maybe AI isn't the silver bullet everyone thought it would be. But here's the thing: AI can deliver transformative value. The companies getting it right are just approaching it differently. They're not starting with the technology and hoping for the best. They're starting with the problems they need to solve and building the capabilities, technical, organizational, and cultural, needed to solve them sustainably.

The Core AI Challenges Facing Businesses Today

Most organizations struggle with AI not because of the technology itself, but because they underestimate the operational and organizational challenges that emerge at scale. The most common AI challenges in business include:

AI security and model risk
Data privacy and regulatory exposure
Governance and accountability gaps
Explainability and trust in AI decisions
Bias, ethics, and workforce adoption

These challenges rarely appear in isolation, and they intensify as AI moves from pilots into core business operations.

AI Security Concerns Affecting Business Operations

Security isn't just another checkbox on your AI implementation checklist, it's the foundation that determines whether AI creates value or becomes an expensive liability. Nearly 40% of IT professionals cite cybersecurity or privacy concerns as their top AI challenge , and AI incidents jumped by 56.4% in a single year .

AI security concerns are fundamentally different from traditional cybersecurity challenges. Data poisoning attacks corrupt training data to influence model behavior in subtle but devastating ways. A financial services firm might train a fraud detection model on data that's been carefully manipulated to create blind spots for specific types of fraudulent transactions.

Model inversion attacks use AI outputs to reverse-engineer sensitive information from training data. An attacker might query a customer service chatbot in specific ways to extract personally identifiable information about customers, even though the model was never designed to reveal such information directly.

Adversarial attacks exploit how AI processes information by making tiny changes to inputs that cause dramatic misclassifications. In business contexts, this might mean manipulating invoice data to bypass automated approval systems or altering product images to fool quality control algorithms.

For business leaders, AI security failures rarely remain isolated technical incidents. They can directly impact customer trust, regulatory compliance, and operational continuity across the organization.

Managing AI Data Privacy Challenges in Mid-Market and PE Portfolio Companies

AI data privacy challenges go way beyond traditional data protection frameworks. The problem isn't just that AI systems process large amounts of data, t's that they can infer sensitive information from seemingly harmless data in ways that traditional privacy controls can't anticipate.

Take a mid-market retailer using AI to optimize inventory management. The system analyzes purchase patterns, weather data, and demographic information to predict demand. Sounds harmless enough, right? But that same system might inadvertently learn to identify customers with specific health conditions based on their purchasing patterns, creating privacy risks that weren't obvious when the system was designed.

For PE portfolio companies operating across multiple jurisdictions, privacy challenges are compounded by different regulatory requirements. A portfolio company with operations in California, Texas, and the EU faces different privacy requirements in each location. California's CCPA gives consumers the right to know what personal information is being collected. The EU's GDPR requires explicit consent for processing and gives individuals the right to an explanation for automated decision-making.

For PE firms, these challenges are compounded by data sharing needs across portfolios for benchmarking and value creation. Effective privacy protection requires data minimization principles, anonymization techniques, and robust access controls with automated monitoring.

What makes AI privacy a distinct business challenge is the difficulty of tracking how data is transformed, reused, and embedded into models over time. As AI systems scale, unmanaged privacy risk scales with them.

Navigating Governance and Legal Issues with AI for PE

PE firms face a governance nightmare that most don't see coming: implementing AI across portfolio companies with wildly different regulatory environments and industry requirements. Legal issues with AI that seemed theoretical are now creating real compliance obligations affecting valuations and exit strategies.

Consider a PE firm with portfolio companies in healthcare, financial services, and manufacturing. The healthcare company faces FDA regulations for AI-powered medical devices and HIPAA requirements. The financial services company deals with SEC requirements for algorithmic trading and GDPR for European customers. The manufacturing company navigates OSHA requirements for AI-powered safety systems and product liability issues.

Successful PE firms develop flexible governance frameworks adaptable to different regulatory environments while maintaining consistent core principles. This includes comprehensive risk assessment frameworks, specialized legal counsel relationships, and insurance strategies that account for AI-specific risks.

The legal landscape is evolving rapidly, with new AI regulations emerging at the federal, state, and international levels. PE firms need governance frameworks that can adapt without requiring complete overhauls every time new regulations emerge.

AI Explainability's Role in Building Trust and Lowering Risk

AI explainability often determines whether AI systems create value or gather dust while everyone goes back to doing things the old way. Business users who don't understand AI recommendations are less likely to act on them, particularly when the stakes are high.

Here's a scenario that plays out daily: an AI system recommends rejecting a loan application that looks reasonable to an experienced underwriter. The system can't explain why it flagged this application as high-risk. Without explainability, the AI system becomes a source of conflict rather than a decision-making tool.

The regulatory environment increasingly demands explainable AI, especially in financial services and healthcare. But explainability isn't just about external requirements, it's about building internal confidence and capability.

The challenge is that explainability often comes at the cost of performance. The most accurate AI models are often the least explainable. Balancing explainability with performance requires matching requirements to business needs and implementing advanced techniques like LIME and SHAP for complex models.

Addressing Bias in AI and Ethical Concerns in AI with Guidance

Bias in AI isn't just a social justice issue, it's a business risk that can perpetuate discrimination in subtle but devastating ways. AI systems often amplify existing biases in ways that are harder to detect and correct than human bias.

AI bias emerges from multiple sources. Historical training data often reflects past discrimination. Representation gaps occur when training data doesn't adequately represent all populations the AI system will serve. Measurement bias happens when metrics used to train AI systems don't accurately capture intended outcomes.

Consider a hiring AI system trained on historical data from a company with a predominantly male engineering workforce. The system learns that successful engineers tend to be male and begins systematically downgrading resumes from female candidates, even when their qualifications are identical or superior.

Bias and ethics challenges persist because they are rarely solved by technology alone. They require leadership alignment, governance, and ongoing oversight.

Upskilling Teams and Removing Barriers to AI Adoption

The biggest barriers to AI success aren't technical, they're human. 71% of employees are concerned about adopting AI , with 48% more concerned now than in 2023 . That growing concern isn't irrational fear, it's a reasonable response to watching AI implementations fail and jobs change unpredictably.

Effective AI training requires multi-layered approaches addressing different learning needs. Technical teams need deep AI expertise, business users need practical AI literacy, and leaders need strategic AI governance understanding.

Practical AI Training for Business Teams

AI training for business teams starts with practical applications directly relevant to participants' work, using case studies and hands-on exercises with actual AI tools in safe environments.

Creating cultural change for AI acceptance requires leadership modeling, recognition systems that reward effective AI use, and communication emphasizing human-AI collaboration rather than replacement.

When AI Challenges Compound at Scale

Individually, each of these AI challenges is manageable. Collectively, they can stall AI initiatives, increase risk exposure, and limit long-term value creation. Organizations that fail to address challenges early often find themselves scaling complexity instead of capability.

Work With WSI to Build AI Resilience

WSI Digital Boost, an AI consulting company , understands that successful AI implementation requires building organizational resilience for complex adoption challenges. Our comprehensive approach addresses technical security, privacy compliance, bias detection, and capability development.

We do not just implement AI, we help you implement AI safely and sustainably while addressing AI challenges in business. Our AI resilience methodology builds lasting competencies rather than creating external dependency.

Our training and capability development programs address different skill levels and roles, while establishing governance frameworks and measurement systems to track AI performance and business impact.

Contact WSI Digital Boost today to discuss building resilience and capabilities for successful AI implementation with our AI consulting services . Don't let AI challenges become AI failures.

Fractional CMO for Private Equity Explained

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 19 Dec 2023 23:56:15 GMT

Strategic Marketing Leadership in Portfolio Companies

Private Equity (PE) firms face the challenge of not only identifying promising investment opportunities but also ensuring these ventures realize their full potential after acquisition. This is where a Fractional CMO for private equity becomes increasingly relevant. As a hybrid model that combines strategic vision with a hands-on approach, FCMOs offer a pathway to drive substantial value in PE investments. In this article, we will explore how FCMOs are revolutionizing marketing strategies within the PE sector and why they are becoming an indispensable asset for portfolio companies.

The Evolving Role of Marketing in Private Equity:

Traditionally, PE firms focused primarily on financial restructuring and operational improvements. However, in an increasingly competitive market, these strategies alone are no longer sufficient. The digital era demands a strong online presence, brand recognition, and customer engagement, areas where marketing plays a pivotal role. FCMOs bring a wealth of experience and specialized skills to craft and execute marketing strategies that align with the unique objectives and challenges of PE investments. Their role extends beyond conventional marketing; it's about integrating marketing into the overall value creation plan of each portfolio company.

Fractional CMO vs Full-Time CMO in PE-Backed Companies

For PE-backed businesses, the decision between fractional and full-time marketing leadership often comes down to timing and flexibility. Full-time CMOs typically require longer ramp-up periods and represent a high fixed cost, which may not align with early post-acquisition priorities. A fractional CMO offers immediate access to senior-level expertise while remaining adaptable as business needs evolve. This approach allows firms to stabilize and scale marketing operations before committing to a permanent leadership structure.

Why the Fractional CMO Model Works in Private Equity

Cost-Effectiveness: Hiring a full-time CMO can be a significant financial commitment, especially for mid-sized or emerging companies within a PE portfolio. FCMOs provide the same level of expertise on a part-time or contract basis, offering a more financially viable option.
Flexibility and Scalability: The needs of portfolio companies can vary greatly. FCMOs offer the flexibility to scale up or down their involvement based on the company’s growth stage, market conditions, and specific challenges.
Diverse Experience: FCMOs typically have a breadth of experience across various industries and market segments. This diversity allows them to bring fresh perspectives and innovative strategies tailored to each portfolio company’s needs.
Speed to Market: In the fast-paced PE environment, speed is crucial. FCMOs can quickly assess the marketing landscape, identify opportunities, and implement strategies, ensuring portfolio companies stay ahead of the curve.

Marketing Challenges Post-Acquisition

Following an acquisition, portfolio companies often face disruption that directly impacts marketing performance. Leadership changes, evolving growth targets, and integration priorities can create gaps in ownership and execution. In many cases, marketing efforts that were previously founder-led or agency-driven struggle to scale within a more structured operating environment. Without clear direction, teams may default to tactical activity rather than executing against defined growth objectives, slowing momentum during a critical transition period.

How FCMOs Drive Value in PE Investments:

Strategic Brand Positioning: FCMOs help portfolio companies identify their unique value proposition and effectively communicate it to their target audience, enhancing brand recognition and equity.
Digital Transformation: Many PE investments require a digital overhaul. FCMOs lead this transformation, leveraging digital channels to optimize customer engagement and drive growth.
Data-Driven Decision Making: Utilizing analytics and market data, FCMOs ensure marketing strategies are aligned with measurable business outcomes, maximizing ROI.
Stakeholder Alignment: FCMOs work closely with company leadership and investors to ensure marketing strategies are in sync with broader business goals, facilitating cohesive growth and value creation.

When a Fractional CMO Makes Sense for Private Equity

The fractional model is particularly effective during periods of transition and acceleration. Many private equity firms turn to fractional marketing leadership in the first six to twelve months post-acquisition, when strategic clarity and execution discipline are most needed. It is also well-suited for founder-led companies adjusting to institutional ownership, organizations preparing for aggressive growth targets, or portfolio groups seeking greater consistency across multiple investments. In these scenarios, fractional leadership provides guidance and structure without introducing unnecessary long-term complexity

What a Fractional CMO for Private Equity Enables

The adoption of a fractional CMO for private equity reflects a broader shift in how portfolio companies approach growth and value creation. As post-acquisition execution becomes more complex, this model enables PE firms to introduce experienced marketing leadership, improve alignment between strategy and execution, and support scalable growth initiatives without adding long-term overhead.

As the business landscape evolves, so does the need for adaptable, expert-driven marketing strategies, especially in the realm of private equity. At WSI Digital Boost , we specialize in providing fractional CMO services tailored to meet the unique demands of PE firms and their portfolio companies. Our team of seasoned marketing professionals is equipped to deliver the strategic guidance and innovative solutions needed to drive growth and success. To learn more about how our Fractional CMO services can transform your investment outcomes, visit our Fractional CMO services page and discover the difference strategic marketing leadership can make.

3 Cost-Effective Marketing Strategies for Startups

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 05 Sep 2023 08:00:01 GMT

Startups' success depends heavily on their ability to develop their brand identity, engage customers, and spur growth. Although startups frequently have limited marketing budgets, there are cost-effective approaches that can produce remarkable results. Here are three distinctive marketing techniques that are also reasonably priced for entrepreneurs.

Utilize Promotional Products

Promo items are a potent and noticeable way to advertise your startup. You can raise brand awareness and leave a lasting impression on potential customers by providing handy goods like branded pens, notebooks, or tote bags. Consider promotional products that fit the hobbies and lifestyle of your target audience. This economical tactic expands your reach by keeping your brand top-of-mind and encouraging word-of-mouth recommendations.

Forums

A cost-effective strategy to showcase your knowledge and connect with potential consumers is to participate in internet forums pertinent to your industry or niche. Engage in conversations, respond to inquiries, and offer insightful commentary to establish oneself as a respected authority. Ensure your forum profile contains a link to your website or landing page to drive traffic and potential prospects. Actively participating in forums increases brand recognition and enables you to understand your target demographic better and hone your marketing strategies accordingly.

Hashtag Marketing

Use hashtag marketing to leverage social media's power. Hashtags categorize content to make it easier for users interested in particular topics to find. Incorporate relevant hashtags for your business or target market into your social media postings by researching and finding them. This tactic broadens your audience and makes your material more visible. Developing distinctive hashtags for your startup may encourage users to share their content and interact with your brand.

Web Seminars

A low-cost method of showcasing your knowledge, offering insightful commentary, and interacting with your target audience is through webinars. Provide informative webinars that address recurring issues or answer problems your target audience is facing. You can promote your webinars through collaborations with influential people in the business, email marketing , and social media. By producing top-notch content, you may establish your startup as a market authority and win business.

Need help with your startup’s marketing strategies ? Then contact WSI Digital Boost today.

4 Ways to Use TikTok to Generate Leads

Tue, 08 Aug 2023 08:45:00 GMT

The social media site TikTok, well-known for its short videos, has swiftly emerged as a potent tool for companies looking to create leads and connect with their target market. TikTok presents exceptional prospects for lead generation and brand recognition thanks to its large user base and strong engagement rates. Here are four efficient methods for utilizing TikTok's power for lead creation.

Use TikTok Ads

Businesses can access a powerful advertising platform with TikTok Ads to market their goods or services. You may produce exciting and dynamic content to draw in your target audience with the help of the numerous ad formats available, including in-feed advertisements, brand takeovers, and branded hashtag challenges. To persuade people to do the desired action, such as visiting your website or submitting a lead form, utilize appealing imagery, clever descriptions, and a powerful call-to-action (CTA).

Improve Your Landing Pages

It's crucial to optimize your landing pages for lead conversion if you want your TikTok ads to be as effective as possible. Ensure your landing pages are responsive to mobile devices, load quickly, and are consistent with the TikTok ad content. By keeping your messaging and design aspects the same from your TikTok ad to your landing page, you can create a seamless user experience. To persuade visitors to take the desired action, whether purchasing or providing their contact information, use persuasive writing, attractive images, and apparent CTAs.

Collaborate With Influencers on TikTok

Influencer marketing has become a potent tool for brands to connect with their target audience authentically. Working with well-known TikTok influencers who support your business can significantly expand your audience and boost engagement. Collaborate on sponsored content or product placements with influencers whose content appeals to your target audience. You may create leads, raise brand awareness, and improve traffic to your website by taking advantage of their current following and impact.

Create a Content Strategy

The secret to developing a solid presence on TikTok and luring potential customers is consistently producing and sharing helpful content. Create a content plan compatible with your brand's personality and target market. Make exciting and fun videos that inspire, educate, or amuse your audience. To increase engagement and virality, incorporate trending challenges, use well-liked hashtags, and promote user-generated content. Utilize the duet and stitch capabilities on TikTok to work with other producers and increase your audience.

Learn the Fundamentals of Social Selling

Utilizing social media platforms to forge connections, create a sense of trust, and ultimately convert leads into consumers is known as social selling. Focus on building a believable and relatable brand identity for TikTok. Respond to comments, participate in discussions, and interact with your audience by resolving their issues. Creatively and tastefully highlight your goods or services in your article. Use CTAs to link viewers to your website or lead generation forms in your videos, descriptions, and profile bio.

You can use TikTok's enormous potential for lead creation, brand exposure, and engagement by implementing these concepts. With the help of our knowledgeable digital marketing consultants at WSI Digital Marketing Boost, you can use TikTok and other social media platforms to produce high-quality leads for your company. Take the first step towards maximizing your lead generation efforts on TikTok and elsewhere by scheduling a consultation with us.

Web Design Tips For Small Businesses

Fri, 30 Jun 2023 12:12:22 GMT

A well-designed website is essential for small businesses to build a robust online presence and draw potential consumers. Your brand message can be communicated, conversions can be increased, and business growth can be accelerated with the help of an attractive and user-friendly website. Here are some crucial web design suggestions to consider when building or updating your small company website.

Don't Forget About Mobile Users

Making your website mobile-friendly is now a need due to the rise in popularity of smartphones and tablets. With responsive design, you can ensure your website will work perfectly on all devices and automatically adjust to changing screen sizes. As search engines prefer mobile-friendly websites in their results, mobile-friendly websites increase customer satisfaction and improve your search engine rankings.

Optimize for Search Engines

It's critical to optimize your website for search engines to increase user discovery. Include keywords in your website's headings, meta tags, and picture captions. Conduct keyword research to find the phrases your target audience uses to find websites, then naturally include those phrases in your website's material. Additionally, concentrate on producing helpful, high-quality content that benefits your visitors. Your search engine rankings can also be raised by consistently adding new material to your website.

Make Sure Pages Load Quickly

High bounce rates and disgruntled users can result from a slow-loading website. Slow loading pages can make or break the success of a digital marketing strategy. By reducing HTTP requests, optimizing image compression, and utilizing browser caching, you may improve the performance of your website. To distribute the content of your website across numerous servers and decrease load times for customers in various areas, think about employing a reputable hosting company and putting content delivery networks (CDNs) in place.

Use Effective CTAs

Your call-to-action (CTA) must be clear and engaging in directing website visitors to take the appropriate steps. Whether it's making a purchase, signing up for a subscription, or contacting your company, carefully positioned CTAs can significantly impact conversion rates. Create buttons or banners that are visually appealing and distinct from the rest of the website. Create a sense of urgency using clear, action-oriented language to persuade visitors to perform the desired action.

Invest in Expert Assistance

Although DIY website builders can be used to develop a website, hiring a professional web designer can help your small company website advance. A skilled web designer can ensure your website reflects your brand , is aesthetically pleasing, and offers a top-notch user experience. Additionally, they may take care of technical issues like website security and updates and search engine optimization for your website. By delegating the design and development of your website to experts, you can concentrate on your primary line of business.

A robust site design is essential for small companies to develop an online presence and draw clients. You can create a visually appealing and user-friendly website that increases conversions and aids in the expansion of your business by taking into account these web design suggestions, including optimizing for mobile users, implementing search engine optimization techniques, ensuring quick page speeds, using compelling CTAs, and investing in expert help.

Our expertise at WSI Digital Marketing Boost assists small businesses in achieving their digital marketing objectives. Create a great website that accurately represents your business and achieves outstanding results with the help of our team of talented web designers and digital marketers. Get in touch with us right now to learn more about our web design services and how we can improve the online presence of your small business.

The Future of Marketing: 5 Top Trends to Look Out For

Tue, 06 Jun 2023 08:00:00 GMT

Digital marketing is constantly evolving. Inside this guide, explore the five top marketing trends that are currently popular among online marketers and stay ahead of the pack - and your competitors.

Long-Form LinkedIn Content

Are you ready to take your content marketing game to the next level? Look no further than LinkedIn - the world's leading professional networking platform with over 850 million members across 200+ countries. The best part? 40% of those members are actively engaging with pages every single week.

But that's not all! This year LinkedIn has taken the content game up a notch with a surge in long-form content. Forget the traditional 500-character limit, it's time to dive deep into those insights and share your expertise. By establishing yourself as a thought leader in your field, you'll not only increase your brand's recognition but also create a loyal customer base.

Short-Form Video Content

Video marketing boosts understanding of your product or service by 95% .

That’s great for engaging those already interested in what you have to offer. But what about those still in the early stages of the customer journey? For them, you need something that's

Concise
visually appealing
authentic

Short-form videos (ranging between 15 seconds and one minute in length) are perfect for this purpose! They are used to grab the audience's attention, deliver a message quickly and effectively, and leave a lasting impression. Moreover, 68% of consumers are happy to watch a business video that’s < one minute long.

Chatbots and AI

Have you noticed how chatbots are becoming more and more advanced these days? It's truly amazing how far they've come! You can now use them to supercharge your digital marketing efforts in so many ways:

By engaging with visitors on your website, chatbots can qualify leads, collect contact information, and even schedule meetings with sales teams.
With the help of AI, chatbots can analyze user data and behavior for personalization of recommendations and content for tailored customer experiences.
Say goodbye to time-consuming marketing tasks. Use automation of marketing tasks such as sending personalized emails, creating social media posts, and even running targeted ad campaigns.
Want to improve your marketing strategies? AI data analytics can sift through vast amounts of customer data to identify patterns and insights, helping you make data-driven decisions and boost your ROI.

Rise of Social Media Marketing

Social media has become an essential part of internet marketing in recent years, and its power is set to continue into 2023 and beyond. Here are some exciting ways to make your social media strategy really pop:

Influencer marketing is a must-have in your toolkit. With the power to reach targeted audiences, increase brand recognition, and sway purchasing decisions, it's a game-changer. Plus, who doesn't love authentic and compelling content from their favorite influencers?
Don't stop there! From polls and surveys to quizzes, contests, and even augmented reality experiences, interactive content is a certain way to drive engagement, traffic, and leads.
Let's not forget the power of user-generated content. When your followers are creating and sharing content around your brand, it creates a sense of community and authenticity that can't be beat.

So, what are you waiting for? It's time to take your digital marketing game to the next level with these top marketing trends! Contact the team at WSI Digital Boost today for help putting these ideas into practice.

SEO Hacks That Actually Work

Tue, 02 May 2023 09:27:19 GMT

Getting your high-volume keyword to the top of page 1 cannot be accomplished solely through SEO hacks.

But there are clever strategies that can make a big difference in your digital marketing results.

Create Branded Keywords

Develop a branded search term that is unique to your business and/or includes your brand’s name.

Using these long-tail keywords helps search engines better understand your brand and its relevance to specific search queries. This results in being seen by more prospects.
Because they have lower competition compared to non-branded keywords, it is easier to rank higher with them. Higher rankings improve brand awareness and recognition.
Consistently using your branded keywords in your content and on social media platforms, you establish a strong online presence and improve the authority of your organization with your audience. This leads to valuable backlinks, shares, mentions, and other organic traffic.

After Publishing, Change The Target Keywords

Changing your target keywords after publishing can help you stay relevant and competitive in the ever-changing world of SEO!

If your original keywords aren’t cutting it, don’t hesitate to slightly change the copy, update your heading tags, and adjust your click-worthy meta descriptions to fit in with the best ranking keywords related to your message.

Make Use Of Multimedia

The most popular sites are visually appealing and engaging thanks to their use of multimedia.

Using infographics, videos, and interactive content enhances the user experience, leading to longer on-site visit times, reduced bounce rates, and higher engagement metrics.

What’s more, people are more likely to share and link to content that includes multimedia - attracting more backlinks and social shares.

Get New Links

Any piece of content that generates buzz and drives traffic to your website has the potential to improve its search engine rankings.

When an article, blog post, infographic, or video is specifically designed to attract quality backlinks from other websites, it is called link-bait content. To work, though, it must be created with the goal of providing value to the reader:

Unique and original.
Well-researched, citing authoritative sources and providing data to back up its claims.
Visually appealing and easy to consume.
Shareable on platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

External links can help improve your website's authority and credibility in the eyes of search engines. But low-quality or spammy external links will harm its rankings and reputation. Carefully vet and monitor external links to ensure they are high-quality and relevant to your website's content.

Without search engine optimization , you could be missing out on building relationships with thousands of potential customers. Let our SEO experts develop a marketing strategy that will help you succeed online with tried and tested SEO hacks that actually work. Contact WSI Digital Boost today for more information.

Targeting Gen Z Through Social Media Marketing

Tue, 04 Apr 2023 12:23:10 GMT

To reach the 72 million Gen Zers, born between 1997 and 2012, social media marketing is essential.

With 95% of US teens accessing social media on their smartphones and 45% admitting they are online " almost constantly ", your marketing message for this age range can be just a few clicks away – i.o.w. on their favorite platforms like Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube.

Use FOMO as a Tool

Generation Z uses social media to:

Consume news/entertainment
Discover new products/services
Express themselves, share their opinions, and engage with others who share similar interests.

Child clinical psychologist, Marion Underwood , points out that this generation is “… addicted to the peer connection and affirmation they’re able to get via social media .”

Tap into their fear of missing out with a social strategy that converts those feelings into commercial results with:

Time-sensitive marketing strategies like coupon codes, free delivery, and rewards
Real-time offers
Conversational commerce integration.

Be Creative

Social media marketing is like throwing a party for your brand, and everyone is invited! It's a chance to showcase your offerings in a fun and engaging way that resonates with your target audience.

Gen Zers are “ the most digitally creative generation to date .” At the same time, they value authenticity and transparency – so avoid using overly salesy or pushy tactics. Try including video content because:

This one-third of the world’s population spend their free time watching videos on social media.
They spend an average of 45 minutes at a time watching short-form video content on TikTok.
Video is considered a richer type of content than text/ photos, and 91% of people (of all ages!) want more online videos in 2023.

Make Use of Influencers

Influencer marketing is a powerful way to reach Gen Z consumers via sponsored posts, product reviews, giveaways, etc.

Partner with social media influencers whose following aligns with your brand's target audience and values. Leverage their credibility to promote your business.

User-Generated Content is Your Friend

To encourage UGC, use tactics such as social media contests, branded hashtags, user reviews.

Gen Z is motivated by humor, entertainment, and social causes. They tend to create and share content for these reasons.

Because ±50% of US Gen Z users buy directly on social media, your business must adapt its marketing efforts accordingly.

But if, instead of trying to get into the mind of Zoomers, you want a full-service digital marketing agency to take care of it, contact WSI Digital Boost today. We are ready and able to knock your social media marketing out of the park!

How to Run a Content Audit for Your Marketing Strategy

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Wed, 01 Mar 2023 12:21:10 GMT

The goal of a content audit is to ensure the content quality on your website - accurate, useful, engaging, and supportive of your business goals.

Are you dissatisfied with the ROI of your website?
Have you been considering other options such as redesigning the website, hiring a new agency, or even shutting down the website altogether?
Worried about how the low website performance will impact your brand reputation and the perception of your company?

Fear not! The content audit process scrutinizes all your content to assess its effectiveness and identify areas for improvement.

Make Decisions Based on Data

Content audit tools provide data about the performance of your content. Let these facts inform your content strategy:

Analyze the SEO performance of keywords and phrases used in your content to improve the search rankings of your content marketing efforts.
Identify technical issues, such as broken links, missing alt tags, and slow loading pages. This can help you to improve the user experience, increase search engine visibility, and make the website more accessible.

Understand More About Your Audience

You want your content to resonate with your target audience, right? Well, a content audit provides details about their behavior, interests, and preferences. Use a content audit for insight into how they interact with and respond to your content by studying:

Metrics like page views, click-through rates, and bounce rates to get a sense of which content is most popular and engaging with your audience.
User feedback, reviews, comments, and social shares to discover what your audience likes and dislikes about your content, and what they would like to see more of.

With this, you can create content that is more aligned with your audience's interests and needs.

You Can Discover Content to Repurpose

Once you have identified what content is resonating well with your audience, you can repurpose it in two ways:

Use it as a foundation for new blog posts, webinars, infographics, videos, podcasts, and more.
Update it with new information, rewrite it, or republish it to reach a new buyer persona.

Repurposing saves you time and resources needed for an effective online presence.

Additionally, a content audit helps you identify content that is no longer relevant or useful. By removing or archiving it, your website gets a spring clean and a decluttered site is more user-friendly.

A Complete Inventory of Your Content Makes Future Strategies Easier

Your content inventory provides a comprehensive view of all the content that exists on your website or other digital platforms. Make sure it includes information such as the title, date created, date last updated, author, and content types of each piece, as well as content performance metrics.

Effective content management makes future content marketing strategies easier because you can spot:

Patterns and trends in your content
Duplicate content or outdated content
Content gaps.

While content audit templates are available online, you will get the best results with the expert input of our digital marketing team at WSI . Contact us for more about a professional content audit.

What to Avoid When Creating Content

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 06:30:10 GMT

Start your journey to unique and high-quality engagement with clients and prospects by looking at what not to do when creating content!

Doing so will help your brand , website, and digital marketing efforts outshine your competitors.

Not Using a Content Calendar

A content calendar is a plan for organizing and scheduling the creation and publication of your digital marketing content, such as blog topics, social media posts , and email campaigns. Using a content calendar will improve your digital marketing in several ways:

Organize and plan every type of content in advance. This will save you time and ensure that quality content is published consistently.
Align your content strategy with your overall business objectives and marketing goals. Doing so ensures accordance with your brand's messaging and target audience.
Track the performance of your content and identify which achieve the greatest audience engagement.
Coordinate the efforts of multiple content marketers, ensuring that all your team members are working towards the same goals.

Duplicating Content

Don’t sabotage your digital marketing efforts by repeating content.

Search engines like Google use algorithms to determine the relevance and quality of a webpage. If they find that a webpage has duplicate content, they may not rank it as highly as other pages with unique content – making it harder for people to find your website when they search for related keywords. (Search engines may even penalize websites that engage in duplicating content.)

On the human side of things, if you have multiple pages with the same content, it can be confusing for visitors and dilute your brand. Aim for a clear and consistent brand message

Putting Quantity Over Quality

Focus on producing high-quality content that provides value to your readers, rather than just trying to increase the quantity you produce.

Poor quality content dilutes your overall body of work and decreases the perceived value of your brand. Content filled with error after error will damage your reputation and make it harder for you to gain the trust of your audience.

Low-quality content is less engaging and interesting to readers which can lead to a decrease in traffic and engagement on your site.

Creating Too Much Time-Sensitive Content

Find a balance between time-sensitive and evergreen content to provide value to your readers in the long term.

Too much time-sensitive content can be counterproductive because it can be:

Quickly outdated and thus less useful or irrelevant to readers
Overwhelming to keep up with, especially when you have a lack of time
Difficult to promote, making it harder to get traction and reach a wider audience.

If, instead of avoiding these common mistakes when creating content, you want a full-service marketing agency to take care of your digital marketing and communication, contact WSI Digital Boost .

Why an Unsubscribe Option Is Critical in Email Marketing

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 03 Jan 2023 08:57:01 GMT

Email marketing is a powerful marketing channel for promoting your business, and while you want a high subscription rate as a KPI, giving your customers the option to leave your mailing list is just as important.

Many marketers are under the misconception that, as the goal of email marketing isn’t to lose subscribers, they shouldn’t make it easy for people to stop receiving their future emails. However, unsubscribes don’t need to have negative connotations all the time.

Here are three reasons why an unsubscribe option is critical in email marketing.

Uninterested Clients Can Unsubscribe

Marketers work hard on their email campaigns with the hopes of attracting new clients. So, why not give those who are not interested in the services you are offering the opportunity to leave your mailing list?

You can even send a confirmation email to customers who have unsubscribed to get a bit more information as to why, and then you can adjust your campaign accordingly.

Your Email Will Not Be Put In The Spam Folder

The most common reasons that people unsubscribe or mark emails as spam are irrelevance and frequency (sending too many emails too often).

As a general rule, your spam complaints should be kept to a minimum. While someone leaving your mailing list won’t necessarily affect your reputation, being classified and flagged as spam can ruin it. If you don’t include an unsubscribe link on your emails, the potential that people will mark your campaigns as spam heightens exponentially.

You can improve your chances of getting your emails into someone’s inbox rather than the spam folder simply by letting them adjust their email preferences.

You Won't Have Angry Clients

It’s the digital age, and while that has many benefits, it is also rife with unwanted emails and spam. We usually want our inboxes filled with mail that we actually want to see or need to see, so when it's overflowing with marketing campaigns, it's easy to become frustrated.

If you don’t like it, why put your clients through it? If you’re marketing campaigns don’t include an unsubscribe option, it’s likely that you’ll end up with frustrated clients – especially if they open your email looking for an unsubscribe link and it isn’t there.

Let WSI Digital Boost Help You Get the Most Out of Your Email Marketing

An email marketing campaign that is put together correctly can be highly effective for nurturing and engaging your target audience throughout the buyer's journey while staying in line with the tough privacy regulations that are being put in place globally.

Need help with your email marketing campaign? Contact WSI Digital Boost today!

New Features to Boost WhatsApp for Your Business

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 20 Dec 2022 04:00:03 GMT

Found in 180 countries and boasting over 2 billion users, WhatsApp is the messaging market leader in 133 countries. Especially in countries such as India, Brazil, The Netherlands, Spain, and Italy, the most popular messaging app is WhatsApp. South Africans will not be surprised to learn that Africa is so dominated by WhatsApp that it has increased the continent’s internet usage. (WhatsApp is responsible for 50% of data usage in Zimbabwe!)

It is no wonder, then, that businesses have wanted to get in on the action as part of their digital marketing strategy and social media marketing.

WhatsApp for Business

Launched just over two years ago, in 2018, WhatsApp Business is a marketing tool and social networking platform which is:

Highly targeted . The WhatsApp Filter Tool can filter one million numbers in a just few minutes.
Accessible . A perfect example of “mobile-first” design. The WhatsApp location service allows you to send a map with your location to people on the go.
Media rich . The mobile marketing application supports videos, images, GIFs, text documents like a portfolio, and vCards. WhatsApp technology creates customer-centric experiences.
Free. While the API version has additional features which come at a price, the basic WhatsApp for Business is ideal for small business owners who have a tighter budget. Despite being free, it still offers a verified WhatsApp Account, text modules, product catalogue, opening hours, and tools to automate, sort, and quickly respond to messages. It’s also a great tool for community management services.

Latest Features in WhatsApp

In recent months, WhatsApp has yet again upped its game. Some noteworthy new features include:

Animated stickers . With Facebook’s eye on merging their messaging apps, this quick way of communicating will already be familiar to Messenger and Facebook users.
Video focus. The advent of COVID-19 bumped WhatsApp’s video call capacity to eight participants. To focus on someone, press and hold to maximise their video to full screen.
QR codes . Avoid the pressure of fumbling with your keypad, and add new contacts using QR codes instead.

Award-Winning Solutions

When it comes to lead generation services for your business, WSI is the team you need. We provide award-winning social networking solutions and website services to help you to attract and engage with your target audience.

For help with your WhatsApp digital marketing efforts, including social media marketing campaigns, and internet marketing strategy, contact WSI Digital Boost for more information.

5 SEO Tips to Drive Organic Blog Traffic

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 04:00:03 GMT

Blogs and SEO go hand in hand in the digital marketing industry. If you’ve been neglecting your SEO strategy, you could spend a lot of time on creating content for your blog without seeing the organic traffic you’re aiming for. We’ve rounded up 5 SEO tips to help you drive organic traffic to your blog.

Driving Organic Traffic To Your Blog With Our SEO Tips

1. Don’t write blindly

The most common mistake made by bloggers and writers is to think that trending topics will drive massive amounts of traffic to a blog. While a trending topic may be a great way to grab attention, you’ll need to be an established, trusted name in the industry you’re writing for (with lots of followers) to benefit from writing about a trending topic. If you’re not a well-known expert in the industry, you won’t be the go-to resource, and the interest in the trending topic you just wrote about will die off long before a large number of readers find your article or post.

You can remedy this by writing what we call “evergreen content” that will keep attracting the attention of readers for a long time. Evergreen content is not time-sensitive, and stays relevant for long after it has been published, driving traffic to your blog over several months or (even better) years. Evergreen content does not rely on a specific event or trend to remain relevant, instead it remains valuable for readers over a long time and does not need to be updated often to remain factual and correct.

Research is key to understanding if your topic is trending or evergreen. You can research topics by using lead generation services such as search engines, keyword research tools (to determine traffic) and by looking at what your competitors and other writers in your industry or niche are ranking for. Another great tool to determine if your content is evergreen is to use search engine optimisation tools such as Google Trends . Do a quick search for your topic and you’ll be able to see if your topic has a notable “spike”. If there is a spike, it means that your topic could be trendy (or possibly seasonal) which makes it less applicable in your search for evergreen content. If the line is more or less straight (with spikes and dips), it might be an evergreen topic. Try searching for “Christmas” and “social media” for a demonstration of how this tool works.

2. Understand why people are searching for a specific term

If you want to rank better on SERP, then you need to have an understanding of why someone could be searching for a specific topic so you can write content that answers the question. Google wants to deliver the best search results to its users, so if you miss the “why” of the search, then your content will not be aligned in a way that will get you to rank.

When someone searches for “coffee” they’re most likely looking for a place nearby that sells coffee. So, if you’re writing about the history of coffee, you won’t rank above the results that provide direct, relevant information. If you’re in the coffee industry, think about answering some more pertinent questions such as “where can I buy a vegan latte” or “summer coffee recipes”.

3. Write deep, not long

Many resources about SEO and blog writing will tell you that your content needs to be over 2000 words in length or some other number. Instead of trying to hit an arbitrary number or writing for adaptive SEO, rather take a look at what is typical for your industry and write enough content to answer a specific search query.

You need to focus more on covering your topic in depth so that your reader gets all the information they might need in one place. Google wants to provide its audience with great results, and that includes giving them results that answer their questions comprehensively.

Use the search engine results page (SERP) to ensure that you cover the most important aspects of your topic by reviewing the results that already rank and checking that you’re covering what your audience may want to know from a search query.

4. Earn links by creating valuable content

Google will know that your content is relevant and valuable to others if your content is linked to by others. While it seems simple, it is incredibly powerful to have other bloggers, writers and online or social networking sources to link to your content. It shows Google that you know what you’re talking about and that you are a trustworthy source of information.

Whatever you do, don’t be tempted to buy links or gain them through similar schemes. This goes against Google’s user policy and can get your page(s), or entire website removed from rankings altogether.

There are ways to create link-worthy content, including sharing unique insights and personal experiences that people will genuinely be interested in. You could also curate information into a definitive guide and provide an insider look at the information that people would typically not have access to (data that you’ve gathered or research that you’ve done). The key here is to be ethical about how you provide information- be sure that you’re allowed to share information, credit your sources and don’t plagiarise information from other writers.

5. Spend time on your title and description (H3) title tag meta description

This is where you need to get a little creative without crossing the limits of what is displayed. Because Google truncates your title tag and meta descriptions, you need to keep them short and sweet while using your chosen keywords and attracting attention with powerful terms, also called power words.

Keep your title under 50-60 characters and your meta description under 160 characters. Put your keywords first (or as close to the beginning as possible) and create something that will get the reader to stop scrolling and click on your post.

If your SEO strategy needs a revamp, contact WSI Digital Boost to find out how we can help you to drive organic traffic to your blog with an improved SEO strategy.

What Is The Difference Between Content Marketing and Inbound Marketing?

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Mon, 21 Nov 2022 07:54:22 GMT

Content marketing and inbound marketing are often terms used interchangeably amongst marketers. Neither method is better than the other, and both approaches, when used together, can create fantastic results. In this blog, we go into detail below to examine the differences between them:

Content Marketing

Content marketing provides valuable information that will attract and retain customers through social media (lead generation services), Search Engine Optimisation (adaptive SEO), and PPC (pay per click). Here are some reasons why businesses should focus on content marketing as part of their digital marketing and social media marketing strategy:

Almost 30% of all internet users use ad blockers, which means that your organic and paid content needs to be specific and target your audience to be effective.
Content marketing drives six times higher conversion rates.
Content marketing costs 62% less compared to traditional marketing plans, while the return is almost three times as high.

Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing refers to the methods used to convert customers by using content marketing, social media marketing, SEO, and branding. This methodology is applied in three ways:

Attract: Draw in the target audience with content that establishes you as trustworthy.
Engage: The goal of inbound marketing is to convert visitors into customers by using tools like landing pages, calls to action, etc.
Delight: Support your customers that have purchased to retain them.

There is tremendous value when combining inbound and content marketing tactics. Inbound marketing is needed because it will make your website great by using methods to compel visitors to take action and convert into customers. Meanwhile, content marketing will make your site attractive to visitors and provide valuable content that optimises SEO for better ranking. By using both, your brand is more likely to succeed online and have great brand reputation management.

WSI Digital Boost offers content marketing and website design services. Contact us today for a content marketing strategy, website services, or inbound marketing strategy!

Reaching Out On YouTube Just Got a Lot Easier

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Mon, 21 Nov 2022 07:43:19 GMT

When it comes to digital marketing, social media marketing, and social networking, sales departments, business owners, corporate companies, and new business start-ups need to stay on top of the latest trends. YouTube is an ever-popular part of internet marketing strategy and lead generation services.

YouTube Fulfils Social Media Marketing Requirements

Because videos can convey emotions that connect with those of your audience, they leave a more lasting impression. With over 2 billion active users, YouTube is a valuable marketing tool to promote your brand and drive conversions to your business page or portfolio.

YouTube makes branding a breeze, as you can choose your own channel name and customise the banner with images and colours that identify, promote, and link back to your website.

Interacting with your audience is made easier with the addition of links to your social network pages and website on your channel art. You can guide your viewers with playlists, analyse their reactions to your videos, add pay per click ads, and even embed your videos into your website.

Save Time with YouTube’s Smart Replies

As with all content marketing replying to your fans as their base grows (community management services) is crucial. Touching base used to be rather time-consuming. But, thanks to Google’s “ cross-lingual and character byte-based SmartReply model built for YouTube and implemented in YouTube Studio ”, it is much quicker now. (Users of Gmail will be familiar with this time-saving gem.)

Currently available in English and Spanish, Smart Replies scans your video comments – taking into consideration the text, lack of punctuation, abbreviations, slang, and emojis – and then prompts you with suggested replies which you can use with just one tap!

To align with your brand, Smart Replies takes it a step further by incorporating your conversational style and tone as it learns that over time.

Award-Winning Solutions

WSI Digital Boost will support you and your business if you want your social media marketing for the rest of the year to knock it out of the park! Contact us , and we will manage your YouTube community with you.

Content Marketing Strategy: The Hub & Spoke Model

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 15 Nov 2022 07:53:30 GMT

The hub & spoke content model is incredibly powerful and simple enough to implement in your content marketing strategy. Take a look at how this model works:

What Is The Hub & Spoke Content Marketing Model?

Simply speaking, the hub & spoke model refers to the way that your content can be organised to create the maximum value for your audience (and brand reputation management). You will have hubs and spokes for different topics that you’re covering, but for now, let’s look at the two distinct parts:

The Hub

This is the overview of the topic that you’ve chosen to write about. It needs to cover most aspects that your audience may be interested in without going into too much detail about each of these aspects. For example, if you’re a personal trainer, you might have hubs that cover the following topics: strength training, injury prevention, and weight management.

Your hub should have informative content as the body and needs to provide links to the spokes that apply to the hub and your portfolio if applicable. This can be done through embedded links in the text, link building services, or by providing a table of contents or list at the end of the hub content that makes it easy to find the relevant information. Make this piece of content as valuable, relevant and thorough as possible so that your audience will want to bookmark it and use it as the starting point of their reading journey. You want to show Google that your hub helps people to discover a topic and navigate it.

The Spokes

While your hub gives your audience an overview of the topic, your spokes will address the different aspects within that topic that are relevant and useful to your audience. Using the example of a personal trainer again: the hub will be weight management, and possible spokes can be training for weight management, nutrition for weight loss or gain, common myths about weight management, how to identify your issues with weight management and so on.

Your content needs to address each of the spokes in detail, providing an in-depth look at the topic, referring to other relevant sources of content that you’ve created including videos, podcast episodes, digital marketing seminars, and other blog posts that relate to the topic.

As you create detailed spokes, you need to update your hub content to include links to the new content. This will strengthen your entire content model and simplify navigation for your audience. Your spokes should also link back to your main post.

Why Is This Model Effective

The hub & spoke model helps you to establish your writing as authoritative on your chosen subject. By creating content that is linkable, focussed and relevant, and that satisfies the user intent, you’re going to be able to climb the rankings in SERP. Because the model makes smart use of links, it will guide audiences from one piece of content to another on your website or blog without letting them leave to find another source somewhere else. All of these factors indicate to Google that you’re creating good content that will be relevant for a specific set of search queries.

The WSI team provides website services, including content marketing, adaptive SEO , and lead generation services for your blog. If you need help with creating your hub & spoke content marketing strategy, contact our digital marketing team today.

Writing Tactics To Get Into Your Audience's Mind

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Wed, 09 Nov 2022 12:28:06 GMT

If you are looking for writing tactics that pack a punch, then you’re in the right place!

Neuro copywriting is not a hack involving just the use of active verbs and personal experiences. It is a scientific approach to creating content that stimulates the storytelling trio of neurochemicals that influence engagement and motivation:

Cortisol for attention
Oxytocin for empathy and prosocial behavior
Dopamine for pleasure.

Use Numbers In Your Headings

Even from infanthood, most humans can swiftly and accurately differentiate different quantities of things. This numerosity perception is not related to counting and makes the human brain neurologically hardwired for numbers.

Numbers set out information in a way that is easy to summarize. Because of that, we believe that numbered content is more beneficial, e.g., the discrete sections of listicles.

Moreover, the feel-good chemical, dopamine, is released when we recognize a project as completed. Reaching the final number in a piece of content triggers this rewarding neurotransmitter.

Define Difficult Terms

A difficult term is a word or phrase that can include jargon, industry terms, and other uncommon words. Defining pertinent terms is most important when you want to make sure your intended audience understands your key message. For example, if you have a lot of technical jargon in your copy and there are readers who may not be familiar with it, it's a good idea to define these terms so that they aren't confused by what you're saying.

The best approach to writing definitions is keeping them short and simple — no more than two sentences at most. Make sure each example sentence uses the same tense as the rest of its paragraph.

Think Like The Reader

Effective communication, not just online writing, always pivots around audience awareness.

For that, you need a thorough understanding of your ideal reader. A detailed buyer persona helps you keep your audience in mind so that your writing feels like a personal story for them.

Use Attractive Adjectives

Utilizing beneficial adjectives - such as new, free, and exclusive – in main and subheadings signposts that content is attention-worthy.

Unfortunately, though, so many of these words have been done to death. Readers have become immune to their gravitas. It’s up to you to come up with more powerful phrases or to grab attention with a combination of seemingly contrary words.

If, instead of applying these writing tactics yourself, you want a full-service marketing agency to take care of your digital communication, contact WSI Digital Boost .

How Web Design Expanded The World of Online Shopping

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 08 Nov 2022 08:45:03 GMT

Web design has changed online shopping forever. There’s no doubt that the coronavirus has changed the way we do things. In particular, the online shopping world is booming thanks to its instant, no contact concept. The ever-changing world of website design and development is to thank for this solution, but just how big of a role do website services is playing in today’s world?

With everything from groceries and beauty essentials, to other items like books and even children’s inflatable pools, online shopping seems to be the answer to the pandemic’s clampdown on social distancing.

Even more interesting than that is the fact that online shopping has been around for years, yet social media marketing and online shopping have only recently become mainstream. A great example is Amazon, an online shopping company that’s been around since 1994. In 2010, online shopping in the US made up just 6% of retail sales.

Now, online sales as a total percentage of sales in the UK jumped from 2.8% in November 2006 to 18.9% in February 2020 and skyrocketed again to 30% in April 2020 due to the pandemic. In May 2020, sales from online retailers in the US went to 30.8% from the same time last year.

What once was a novelty has now become an increasingly popular way to get your goods without the hassle of leaving your house. So, how did we get to this point?

Where It Began

The first person to buy anything online was a 72-year-old grandmother named Jane Snowball from Gateshead, England in 1984 from the comfort of her couch via her TV remote; buying margarine, cornflakes and eggs. This was done via the Videotex system developed by English inventor Michael Aldrich, according to Jonathan Reynolds, associate professor in retail marketing and deputy dean of Oxford University’s Saïd Business School.

The technology was used to generate a shopping list on Snowball’s computer which was phoned into her local Tesco, and the items sent to her door. According to Reynolds, the service was created for the elderly and disadvantaged but gained momentum.

The next milestone took place in 1994 when a 21-year-old web development wizard called Daniel M Kohn created an online marketplace called NetMarket. This was the first digitally secure transaction, with the first buy being a Sting CD that cost $12.48 (£10). After that, the early internet became more and more common in households.

At this early stage in what we now know as e-commerce, only a handful of companies were involved in what was considered cutting-edge technology at the time. Pizza Hut was one of those companies. In 1994 the US franchise sold pizzas online via their PizzaNet portal. It was basic, with a grey colour scheme and fields only for a customer’s address and phone number. 1994 was also the same year Amazon began, and at the time sold mostly books. eBay launched soon after in 1995. Japan’s major e-commerce site Rakuten launched in 1997 followed by China’s Alibaba in 1999. These companies were trailblazers in the online shopping space and took web design and social networking to new heights. Globalisation and a more connected world are also to thank for this major jump in the web development world.

Gaining Momentum

2017 was also a landmark time in e-commerce. Smartphone ownership reached 80% globally , which has been a useful tool in how easily we shop online nowadays. Data from 2019 shows e-commerce makes up for 16% of sales in the US – that represents a staggering $601.75bn (£489bn) of spending! Global e-commerce giant Shopify also reported that globally, online sales reached $3.5tn (£2.8tn) the same year.

Those numbers rose more than 14% in the first quarter of 2020 from the same period of 2019 (before the pandemic, surprisingly). However, the pandemic has accelerated online shopping’s natural growth, with marketing professor Barbara Kahn from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business stating that the pandemic accelerated online shopping adaptation by two to three years.

The main items were, unsurprisingly, groceries. In the US, between March 2020 and April 2020, e-commerce sales jumped 49%, and online grocery shopping led with a 110% boost in daily sales.

Is e-Commerce Here To Stay?

Although the natural flow of adaptation and search engine optimization to e-commerce and the need to shop from our own homes due to the pandemic has shown massive growth in e-commerce and web development in general, it’s also jumped due to how quick and easy it is to simply shop online. It’s also important to note that consumers are trying to spend less money due to money worries brought on by the pandemic, even with the necessity of online shopping in current times.

We could also see more hybrid shops like Amazon, which offers both online shopping and storefront options with Amazon Go. The company tracks your online buying patterns and has groceries ready for you to pick up at a physical shop.

Keeping Up With The Times Via e-Commerce and Web Development

Although online shopping and community management services became necessary for social distancing measures, the nature of online shopping identified a gap in the market long before and has steadily grown since it first began. It seems likely that we will continue to see steady growth in the use of e-commerce and adaptive SEO for both companies adapting to change and consumers embracing change.

If you’re looking to take your company to the next level via e-commerce and lead generation services, contact WSI Digital Boost for cutting-edge web design and development services.

What to Do If Your Target Audience Isn’t on Social Media

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 08 Nov 2022 07:43:40 GMT

Social media marketing is the most popular way to reach potential clients since everyone has a smartphone in their hands. What do you do when your target audience isn’t on social media, though?

Although social media and social networking are at the forefront of marketing, there are other ways to reach your target audience without social media marketing. Here are some useful tips that will help you connect to potential clients and your brand reputation management:

Keep Your Social Media Accounts Active

Even if your target audience isn’t on social media, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you should abandon your social media platforms altogether. Once somebody has heard of you, they will usually check out your company’s social media platforms to make sure that your company is legit. Hold their interest and establish your company as an authoritative figure by constantly sharing relevant content that lets them know you are passionate and knowledgeable about your field.

Standout By Establishing Yourself As An Industry Expert

Establishing yourself as an expert in your field will allow more potential customers to come across your brand when doing their research. To do this, you need to create helpful resources for your target audience to use. A great example would be a blog that discusses the core issues and questions people may have when using your product or service or digital marketing seminars. HappyFox is a useful example of the above.

Start a Podcast

Podcasts are a great way to share knowledge and connect with your audience. A podcast is part of lead generation services. With millions of people tuning in weekly to listen to podcasts, you are sure to tap into your target market at some point. Providing a podcast that is both informative and entertaining will ensure that listeners keep coming back for more, as it’s both helpful and a great way to keep people entertained on their way to work, or even at work. Check out the Marketing Speak podcast as a good reference in terms of how you can approach it.

Conduct Research and Compile White Papers

By conducting original research on your industry and putting together an in-depth report on a key topic, you will easily manage to connect with and inform your target audience. Giving people useful statistics and data will help you establish your brand as an industry leader and you will, in turn, be quoted by other key individuals and organisations. You can also provide the information via a white paper or portfolio, which highlights the problem and gives solutions.

Contact WSI OMS for Help With Social Media Marketing

By trying out the above-mentioned methods as a way of connecting with your target audience, you will be able to easily connect with them in a user-friendly way, without having to break the bank either on fancy marketing tools.

Looking for some extra help with your social media marketing or community management services - Contact WSI Digital Boost today!

Things You Need To Know About On-page SEO

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 01 Nov 2022 07:52:17 GMT

If you want to learn more about (search engine optimisation) SEO for your digital marketing journey, a good place to start is on-page SEO. In this guide, we’ll cover what it is, why it is essential and how you can optimise your content for SEO.

What Exactly Is On-page SEO?

On-page SEO simply means optimising your website (and each page on your site) for search engines to ensure a higher ranking and drive organic traffic to your website. Optimising your website for SEO (adaptive SEO) makes it easier for a search engine to find out what your content is about. In doing so, a search engine can easily recommend your content to its users, which is exactly what you want to achieve with your digital marketing strategy and lead generation services.

The on-page part of SEO refers to the aspects on your website that you can optimise, including the content (text or images), HTML tags (title tag, meta tag and header tag), internal links and addresses or URLs. It does not include external links (link building services) and other signals that point to your website to drive traffic.

Why Is On-page SEO Important?

On-page SEO is crucial for driving organic traffic (that is unpaid traffic) to your website. As search engines and their algorithms evolve, they look for more specific indicators that will tell them if your content is relevant and valuable to their audience. Because search engines are competitive businesses, they want to outshine their fellow search engines by giving users the best possible experience. If your on-page SEO factors indicate that your content is a good match for a search query, your content will get shared by search engines and more people will find your pay per click content.

Ways in Which You Can Optimise Your Content for SEO

By optimising your content on every page, you’ll have the best chance at ranking highly in search engine results, which is precisely what you want to achieve with your SEO strategy. Here are some ways in which you can use keywords to optimise your content on every page.

Use Your Target Keywords

Once you’ve picked your target keywords, use them at the start of your content (or as close to the beginning as possible) and use them frequently without being unnatural about it. While your keywords are incredibly important to signal what your content is about, you shouldn’t stuff them into every sentence. Overuse of keywords will make your content useless for humans, and that will not improve your ranking. Remember to include your keywords in your headings and sub-headings (at least one of your sub-headings).

Tag Headings and Subheadings

Use (H1) for your main heading and (H2) to tag subheadings. These tags help search engines to understand the structure of your content, which makes it easier to categorise and recommend it to users. If you leave out these tags, your entire strategy won’t crash and burn, but it can help you to make incremental improvements in your rankings by giving search engines just another factor to signal useful content.

Need help with your on-page SEO strategy? WSI Digital Boost offers a range of SEO and website services to help your audience to find you.

Visit our website or contact us today to find out about WSI Digital Boost ’ digital marketing services.

How a Digital Marketing Agency Helps Grow Your Social Media Following

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 25 Oct 2022 07:50:51 GMT

A digital marketing agency is vital to businesses. The importance of having a social media marketing presence in business is increasing. With an estimated 3.6 billion people currently on social networking platforms and using them regularly and efficiently, every business needs to have a social media marketing strategy. Using a digital marketing agency for your community management services and to manage your social media will help you successfully promote your business’ brand across social media channels more efficiently in less time. Here are the services that a digital marketing agency will utilise to grow your social media following:

Social Media Optimisation

Social media optimisation (also known as adaptive SEO or search engine optimisation) is the digital marketing strategy of creating and improving your social media plan to get measurable results by:

Using inbound marketing attract customers to your social media profiles, portfolio, and website services
Staying up to date and capitalising on current trends
Building relationships with current and potential customers
Encouraging page interactions by using like, share, tags, etc.
Driving relevant traffic to your website ( lead generation services )

Online Community Management

Outsourcing your community management to a digital marketing agency is beneficial to your business for the following reasons:

Community managers are up to date on social media channels with what they can offer and how they can potentially work best for your brand ( brand reputation management )
Offering a new perspective and fresh ideas to make your brand stand out in the evolving social media world
Your social media is consistent by always being updated and that someone is responding to questions and comments

Use a digital marketing agency to manage your social media marketing and don’t join the thousands of dormant accounts that are embarrassing and that were supposed to be populated.

Contact our digital marketing agency today to help you with your social media strategy & other digital marketing services we offer.

Soft Skills SEO Specialists Must Develop

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 07:48:11 GMT

As a digital marketer, the terms soft skills + SEO don’t necessarily merge in your visualization of a search engine optimization specialist.

If you're in the business of search engine optimization , you know that the field is always evolving. What worked to optimize a website last year may not work this year. As an SEO specialist, it's important to be proactive and adapt to change. But it's not just technical skills that are important in SEO strategy; soft skills are essential for success as well. Here are four soft skills that every SEO specialist should develop.

1. Clear Communication

An important part of an SEO specialist's job is client communications. You need to be able to explain what you're doing in a way that is understandable and relatable, without using too much technical jargon. Improving your communication skills will help build trust and rapport with clients, which is essential for a successful working relationship.

2. Proactive Listening

A key communication skill is active listening. You must listen to your clients' needs and concerns and address them accordingly.

Pivotal to better listening is using critical thinking skills to ask pertinent questions. Keep digging until you have a clear perspective of the big picture.

3. Prioritization Skills

As an SEO specialist, you likely have multiple projects going on at any given time. That's why organizational skills are so important; they help you keep track of all your different tasks and deadlines, so nothing falls through the cracks.

Being able to manage your time well will help ensure that projects are completed on time and within budget. It will also reduce stress levels and improve your overall quality of life.

The ability to prioritize works to simplify both these essential skills.

4. Social Skills

Having people skills means being able to interact with clients and co-workers effectively, as well as having basic knowledge of other marketing disciplines. With good people skills, you will be better able to understand the needs of your clients and work collaboratively with other members of your team. Additionally, social skills will help you build relationships with people in your industry, which can lead to valuable collaborations and insights.

When it comes to soft skills, SEO specialists at New Media Marketing come up tops. Contact us to put us to the test – we’ll even throw in a killer SEO strategy!

Influencer Marketing For Baby Boomers

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 18 Oct 2022 07:50:05 GMT

The idea that influencer marketing and social media marketing only works on the younger generation is being disproved, with baby boomers increasingly becoming more of a target.

The perception that social media marketing and social networking should be aimed exclusively at young people is one that has been challenged, particularly given that Americans over 55 contribute 41.6% of consumer spending.

Influencer Marketing During a Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced those in the digital marketing space to reassess their strategies and lead generation services , given the changes to our daily routines and ways of engaging with brands. People are using more data at home and 80% of consumers in the U.S. and UK say they consume more content than they did before the pandemic.

Baby boomers had embraced social media and were using social networking platforms before the pandemic; since 2012 there has been a 17% increase in the number of baby boomers who use Facebook and a 43% increase in the number who own smartphones. Those that have them are on their smartphones five hours a day, which is almost as much as millennials.

Given that the older generation is more vulnerable to COVID-19, their resulting isolation has also caused certain changes in their behaviour online. More baby boomers are using online shopping or communication tools such as Zoom or Facetime to stay in touch with loved ones.

This means that brands have a unique opportunity to reach this generation, which has more money and time on their hands than younger people, through strategic content marketing and website services.

A great way to achieve this is through influencer marketing, although the selection of the right influencer is key. The right ambassador with the right message which resonates with either the baby boomer generation or their children has the potential to reap major digital marketing rewards (such as good brand reputation management ) given the resources at their disposal and increased time spent engaging with technology.

You can find out more about our influencer marketing and community management services by attending our digital marketing seminars.

Contact WSI Digital Boost for more insights into how influencer marketing for baby boomers can help your brand grow.

The Secret To Tracking Your LinkedIn Marketing

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 11 Oct 2022 07:49:03 GMT

LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network for social media marketing, offers a variety of features to help you reach your ideal customers – LinkedIn Pages, LinkedIn SlideShare, LinkedIn Groups, Publishing on LinkedIn, LinkedIn Sponsored Content and Direct Sponsored Content, LinkedIn Sponsored InMail, LinkedIn Text Ads. But, as with all social media marketing and social networking platforms aimed to drive brand awareness, improve brand reputation management, and revenue, you need to test and measure your results. Only through actively testing, measuring, and refining can you reach the level of success your input deserves.

LinkedIn has built-in features that are designed to filter your audience, measure campaign results, and help improve your ROI.

LinkedIn Website Demographics

To maximise the impact of your LinkedIn marketing efforts, target your strongest prospects. Use the free Website Demographics tool for useful audience insights and lead generation services – industry, job title and seniority company name, size, and location. Use this data to customise and share content that resonates with those most likely to become leads and customers.

LinkedIn Audience Network

You want your portfolio, sponsored content, and ads to reach more professionals on LinkedIn and all over the web, right?

Get in front of the right people, block the bad matches, and still stay on budget using the LinkedIn Audience Network (LAN – not to be confused with the lawn dressing or a local area network!)

LinkedIn Conversion Tracking

Having used the tools above to make sure you reach your ideal prospects and influencers, you will want to measure the impact of your LinkedIn Sponsored Content and Text Ads.

LinkedIn Conversion Tracking – part of Campaign Manager:

Records conversions on your website or landing page.
Measures leads and sign-ups, purchases and page views, installs and content downloads.
Identifies the demographics (industry, company location and size, job function and seniority) of people who are becoming leads.

WSI

WSI Digital Boost offers award-winning solutions to all your digital marketing challenges. Contact us for more information on how to use LinkedIn in your networking and marketing campaigns.

How to Get Faster SEO Results

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 04 Oct 2022 06:40:17 GMT

Use image SEO to boost your ranking on search engines.

If you’ve spent a lot of time optimizing your website for Google, you’re probably already familiar with its search engine algorithm, which is constantly being updated to provide users with the most relevant results. Discover how to add text to pictures for SEO image optimization.

What is Image SEO?

When you optimize images for online visibility and SEO, you are engaging in image SEO. SEO-friendly images can help improve website visibility and rankings by providing additional information, such as the title, author, and keyword(s) that the page is about, as well as the site's URL and description. This allows search engines to better match images with searches performed by their users.

What is Alt text?

Alt text is the alternative text supplied to a visually impaired user when an image cannot be displayed correctly. If a visually impaired user cannot see a graphic on your webpage, the alt text will be read out loud by the screen reader which the user uses to navigate the web.

Additionally, and pertinent to this article, alt text also improves SEO because it helps search engine bots understand what the image represents.

SEO alt text contains the same information as the Title tag (e.g. title and description). These tags help search engines index your images appropriately, while also providing users with a preview of what the page is about before they visit it. By including these tags in each image on your website, you increase the visibility of your website in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Bear in mind these image alt text best practices:

Use descriptive filenames including keywords and hyphens and underscores between words.
Only use one version of an alt tag for a specific image.
Before uploading the image to your website, resize it so that it loads faster while still looking good on different devices.
Optimize image file formats and compression
Use a sitemap dedicated to image URLs to guide the search engines
On the technical side, ensure your website developer uses a content delivery network for faster download speed; leverages browser caching to store files in a visitor’s browser; and adds structured data for your images.

Why are Images so Important?

Images are a valuable asset for any website. They can be used to show off your content, help customers understand what you’re selling, and make your website look more professional.

But they are also becoming increasingly powerful tools for on-page SEO. In fact, 22.6% of all searches are attributed to Google Image Search.

WSI Digital Boost is a group of digital marketing experts that specialize in search engine optimization, social media marketing, website design, content marketing, and mobile marketing. Contact us today to find out how to develop a get faster SEO results using Alt tags and image SEO.

Should You Add TikTok To Your B2B Digital Marketing Arsenal?

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 27 Sep 2022 07:46:56 GMT

With over 800 million active users worldwide, billions of downloads, and a highly engaged audience, TikTok is a digital marketing and social networking dream. It’s interactive, collaborative, and undeniably addictive. Recently, TikTok also outshined the social media marketing channels of Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Snapchat in the App Store and Google Play downloads.

Does this mean B2B marketers should be taking note? Possibly yes, considering the enormous success seen by the World Economic Forum. The WEF recently garnered over 3.5 billion views of one of their TikTok hashtags at this year’s Annual Meeting and has amassed over 1,5 million followers on the platform.

Based on the demographics alone, TikTok does not seem like the most intuitive choice for B2B marketing or lead generation services. We continue to see growth in the popularity of TikTok with B2C brands as they look to reach their audiences in new ways but as the majority of the audience on TikTok is Gen Z, this means that it may not provide the results a B2B brand would hope to expect. Although, we do need to take into consideration that B2C and B2B buyers both want to experience content that is inspiring, engaging, or helpful that adds value to their lives. After all, much like your B2C buyers, B2B buyers are just regular people too with many studies indicating that B2B purchasing decisions aren’t as rationally driven as we might have previously thought.

When you think about it that way, TikTok’s ability to deliver bite-sized entertaining pieces of content makes it a great tool for brand reputation management for B2B businesses. It has allowed B2B brands to have a more flexible and engaging approach to video as an additional way to educate their audiences.

Digital Marketing Advice: Is TikTok Good for B2B?

It appears that TikTok could be an interesting new opportunity for B2B brands and businesses. That’s not to say that TikTok will replace LinkedIn, adaptive SEO, or email marketing as the B2B marketers go to, and for many, it probably won’t be a good fit. But whether or not you should try TikTok has less to do with the platform itself and more to do with your brand, portfolio, the demographic your looking to reach and your resources available to create content.

Learn more about the TikTok phenomenon and find out whether or not you should include it in your digital marketing strategy. Need help with your digital marketing and social media? Then contact WSI Digital Boost today.

What You Need To Know About Using LinkedIn for Marketing

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 20 Sep 2022 07:44:35 GMT

As a social media marketing and social networking platform, LinkedIn is not necessarily the first to come to mind. It has a reputation (unfairly assigned) as a tad stuffy and conservative. However, LinkedIn marketing is a powerful means of driving awareness of your brand and increasing your revenue precisely because the content on LinkedIn is more professional and industry-related. When it comes to digital marketing and social media marketing, 80% of B2B leads come from LinkedIn.

LinkedIn’s Seven Marketing Opportunities

Whether your goal is to increase your brand awareness , improve your brand reputation management, or generate fruitful leads, there is a range of features built into LinkedIn to drive these results.

Pages – Engage with prospects and existing customers using text, links, videos, and images relating to company news, blogs and vlogs, industry news, research, case studies, portfolio, etc.
For every promotional-type post, you should share four pieces of relevant content.
SlideShare – Presentations such as webinars, digital marketing seminars, product how-tos and tips, and infographics can be shared with over 70 million monthly unique visitors to SlideShare.
Link your SlideShare presentations to your website to create credible inbound links.
Groups – Network and boost your standing as a thought leader in your industry by contributing to conversations in Groups.
Publishing – Stand out as a trustworthy source in your field by publishing your expertise, experiences, and lessons learned as well as pieces on industry trends.
Publishing is available in 20 languages!
Sponsored Content and Direct Sponsored Content – While both types of ads may be a single image, carousel, or video formats that appear in the feed of targeted LinkedIn members, Sponsored Content Created is visible on your organization’s LinkedIn Page or Showcase Page; and Direct Sponsored Content is not.
Sponsored InMail – Used to send personalised content marketing material to your target audiences via LinkedIn Messenger.
Text Ads – These ads appear on the right-hand side or top of the LinkedIn desktop feed and are charged as PPC (pay per click) or CPM (cost per impression).

WSI

Contact WSI Digital Boost for more information on lead generation services and how to use LinkedIn in your networking and marketing campaigns.

How to Master The Art of a Well-Planned LinkedIn Profile

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 13 Sep 2022 07:43:07 GMT

A well-planned LinkedIn profile is more important than you think! The ultimate goal of your social media marketing and social networking strategy is your bottom line. So who better to take advice from that Warren Buffet: “ An idiot with a plan can beat a genius without a plan !” LinkedIn themselves share that marketing with a documented plan results in greater overall content marketing success than working from a verbal plan only or even no strategy at all.

LinkedIn marketing is no different despite 43% of marketers agreeing that they have sourced a client from LinkedIn. Can you imagine how much higher that percentage would be with proper planning?

Let The Planning Begin – 4 Easy Steps

Set up an editorial calendar. Based on your ideal target audience, create a list of topics, events, product launches, and digital marketing seminars that will help them reach their goals or overcome their struggle. Organise your content into categories or themes and start filling in the dates with content.
Create and adhere to brand guidelines. To maintain a consistent look, voice, and tone, use content guidelines and communicate them to your team.
Delegate . Assign someone (or a group of people) to be responsible for each of your social media marketing channels. Using the standards set above, empower them to monitor and respond to engagement from your readers.
Look further afield to source content. With a dedicated curator of content, you can gain good brand reputation management and encourage the regions and verticals in your organisation to submit content.

Consider enlisting the services of a digital marketing agency with community management services and lead generation services to add credibility to your profile with powerful content, craft strong headlines and a summary that motivates people to read your entire profile, and include visuals and multimedia to illustrate your expertise.

Award-Winning Solutions

Leveraging LinkedIn for business purposes is easy once you have compelling and bullet-proof content. For more information on how WSI can help you with your LinkedIn marketing, social media marketing, and website services , contact us today.

4 Ways to Create Engaging Social Media Posts

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 06 Sep 2022 06:32:52 GMT

Engaging social media posts are an important component of any business' marketing strategy. It can help you interact with your customers and share content that keeps them engaged.

But not knowing how to create engaging social media content can result in boring text that gets lost in people's feeds. So, if you're tired of clicking " Publish " and hoping for the best, here are four strategies to make sure you are creating engaging content.

1. Tell a Story

Storytelling is a way of communicating that helps to engross your audience. It’s about telling a story related to your brand and how it relates to your target audience. A good story will help you connect with your audience and build trust, which in turn can lead to increased engagement and sales.

When you tell stories on social media, be sure to make them personal. For instance, if you sell clothing for runners then talk about running as much as possible in your posts. Don't be afraid of telling real-life stories or asking questions that might seem odd at first glance — these are opportunities to show off the human side of your brand, making it all the more relatable.

2. Make It Relevant

Engaging social media content must be relevant to your target audience. Whether your aim is to educate, entertain, or enrich your readers, make sure that the content you're sharing is going to grab their attention as something they want to stop scrolling for.

Social media can be a great place to share your content, but it's also important that it is suitable for the channel you're using (e.g. Instagram vs LinkedIn) and germane to your brand as well.

3. Use Employee-Generated Content

Employee-Generated Content (EGC) is one of the most effective ways to curate engaging posts for social media and increase traffic on your social channels.

Employees are your brand's best ambassadors because they have insider knowledge about what makes your company special, what goes into making a product, and how customers benefit from using it. They can create content that is relevant to your target audience, which can help you connect with them on a personal level.

4. Share Customer Testimonials

Customer testimonials are a great way to show off your products and give potential customers more reasons to choose you. Because they create a human connection between your business and its audience, reviews and testimonials can be especially useful when the product itself is intangible.

Include the name of the person who said it (or at least their first initial) as well as their city/state/country if it’s relevant. This will help build credibility for both parties involved - yours and theirs!

WSI Digital Boost is a full-service digital agency that can help you with all aspects of your digital marketing, including engaging social media posts. Contact us for more information.

How to Repurpose Your Content and the Importance of a Plan

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 23 Aug 2022 06:24:10 GMT

Repurposing content involves taking one piece of content and turning it into something different in order to reach your audience. It’s a great way to make your content more accessible, relevant, and shareable. When done correctly, repurposing allows you to increase engagement with your target audience while saving time and money on production costs.

But what is repurposing content?

Content repurposing is taking the same content and using it in different formats. It can be done in several ways, such as:

Repurposing content for social media.
Repurposing content for SEO.
Repurposing content for marketing purposes.

How to Reuse Your Content

Content repurposing ideas include:

Repurpose for different channels: If you have a blog, consider creating an infographic or video that uses some of the same data from your article. Or perhaps an email course that teaches readers how to apply these ideas in their everyday lives would work!
Repurpose for different platforms: If you have an ebook or other resource, consider turning it into a podcast episode and including links back to the original material (and then create more resources like this one).
Repurpose for different devices: Do people use their tablets more than phones? Then maybe make videos that they can watch while stuck in traffic (or standing in line somewhere). What about those who still prefer print? Create an ebook version so they don't have to scroll through their Twitter feed looking for interesting posts anymore!

How to Split Your Content by Channel

If you want to repurpose content, it's important that you understand your audience and how they consume content.

Who is your audience?
How are they consuming content?
What kinds of things do they prefer to read/watch/listen to?
Where do they consume content most often (e.g., on a phone, tablet, or computer)?
How do they engage with the information provided by the post? Do they like to watch videos, read articles, or listen to podcasts?

Let's say you've got a blog post that you want to repurpose. Look at it from different angles—think about how the same content could be used on each of your channels.

How Do You Create a Great Marketing Plan?

The easiest and most effective way to repurpose content is to start with a marketing plan based on a handful of content pillars that represent the themes central to your brand.

Use this as a skeleton from which you can attach smaller bites of content. This gives you direction, but also flexibility to switch elements up and reuse content for upcoming key dates or newsworthy happenings.

For all your digital marketing needs – including repurposing content – get in touch with WSI Digital Boost today!

Ideas To Refresh Your Content Marketing Strategy

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 16 Aug 2022 12:16:59 GMT

Running out of content marketing ideas for your blog? The good news is that you don’t have to search far and wide for fresh, informative content. Your blog should be focused on telling the story of your business in a compelling way, so the ongoing development of your business has limitless potential for content marketing topics.

Armed with this ever-developing story, creating engaging blogs and adaptive SEO is then a matter of fitting the content into pre-existing paradigms and formats. These have already proven themselves reliable vehicles for marketing content, and offer you inspiration and a structure to help you organise and present your information. They are frameworks and general outlines, into which the story of your business can be molded. There is a saying among musicians that there are only 12 notes but thousands of ways of playing them. The same goes for blogs: there are only so many kinds of blogs, and the key to their substance, variety and level of engagement is your content. Here are four of the most popular blog post concepts or formats into which any business can fit its stories with lead generation services.

Content Marketing Ideas and Topics For Your Business Blog

Your business story, the day to day activities, your industry and latest trends should give you plenty of inspiration to create relevant, exciting content for your audience. Let’s take a look at some of the topics that you can use to tell your business story:

Share Your Successes

There’s nothing wrong with taking a moment to brag a little – provided you do it with style, of course! A well-chosen success story allows you to demonstrate how your products or services work in a real-world scenario and is great brand reputation management. Pick an example, describe the salient details and use the moment to show, rather than tell your readers why they should buy your products.

Delve deep with a series of posts

Sometimes a single blog, consisting of a few hundred words, is not enough to communicate the information you want to get across. You may want to explore the background of your industry, analyse complex market trends, or expound on the many uses and benefits of a particular product line. The best thing to do – both for your sake and your customers’ – is to break it up into shorter pieces that you can publish over several weeks or months. It would help if you didn’t let this run on for too long, however. Strike a balance between detail and sustained engagement.

Guide your audience through common mistakes in your industry

This is a very popular choice for almost all industries. Listicles that expound on the various ‘what not to dos’ of your industry enable direct and honest engagement with your readership, as well as the chance to present your business as a solution provider. You draw readers in with questions of how they could be doing things better – and then you provide the answers.

Showcase The Latest Trends

This is one of the simplest options. All industries and social media marketing channels are constantly shifting and evolving. If you take the initiative and use a blog to highlight your industry’s condition at any given moment, you present yourself as a business that has its fingers on the pulse. You can use the opportunity to tell readers how your products and services exemplify, take advantage of, or provide solutions for the current trends.

Creating your blogging strategy with search engine optimization can be a daunting task; why not let us set you up for content marketing success? At WSI Digital Boost we have worked with clients in a multitude of industries, providing them with expertise and quality digital marketing, including SEO optimisation , website services, and social media marketing among many others. Get in touch for more information on our content marketing services for your business.

2 Ways To Maximise The Impact Of Your E-mail Marketing

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 09 Aug 2022 12:03:32 GMT

Email marketing can be so effective that it can generate a US$38 ROI for every one dollar spent. Not everyone manages to realise that kind of return, however. Failure to reap rewards like this from your email marketing is not a question of your content (or website services), nor is it a matter of the size and quality of your mailing list. If you are not maximising the potential of your email campaigns, it is probably because of a lack of focus or coherent strategy. While you may get some returns from just hitting ‘send’ and hoping for the best, the only way to get the most from your carefully thought out email content, is to take a managed and strategic approach to your mailing list. Here are two tips that can help you turn your email marketing into the ROI machine it is capable of being.

Focus Your Emails by Segmenting Your Contact List

One of the most common mistakes in email marketing is assuming that you can get results or perform lead generation services by sending the same message to your entire mailing list at the same time. However, you cannot treat all members of your audience as if their needs are the same. To maximise the impact of your emails, it is better to carefully segment your contact database so that you send the right message to the right people.

On the flipside of that, segmentation will also stop you sending the wrong messages to the wrong people. It may seem as if this is stating the obvious, but it is worth emphasising that sending the wrong message can damage your brand and your audience engagement. The only result you normally get from a misdirected email is an ‘unsubscribe.’ The segmentation of your contact list, therefore, becomes about more than just creating conversions in the short term and brand reputation management. It is a matter of long-term audience engagement, community management services and nurturing trust.

You should be very careful about how you segment your database, however. First make sure that the segments you create properly represent your company’s aims and the business sectors that it serves. Then be sure that you fit the right contacts into the right segments. That will take a bit of scrupulous data gathering and analysis before you drop all your audience members into the right segments.

Sets Goals, Devise Strategies and Send Emails Tactically

As with any tool in marketing, social networking, or any other field for that matter, emails should be used in a carefully planned way, in the service of specific goals, and as part of strategies devised to meet those goals. Before sending out an email, decide why you are doing so. Set a SMART (specific, measurable, attainable and timebound) goal for each mail, and make sure that the mail is drafted and sent accordingly.

Part of this is ensuring that you always send the right message to the right recipients at the right time. Make sure that the context and content of the message is appropriate for the specific market segment at the time of sending. This requires full knowledge and careful monitoring of your segmented contact list, or attending digital marketing seminars.

For expert help in segmenting your contact list and getting the most out of your email marketing campaigns , contact WSI Digital Boost .

How The Work-From-Home Trend Has Opened The Digital Marketing Floodgates

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 02 Aug 2022 11:55:16 GMT

The digital marketing world has evolved. As the world adjusts to a new normal brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, more companies are allowing employees to work remotely. Others have had to adapt by going full e-commerce.

Nobody knows what the future holds, but telecommuting looks like it’s here to stay even after companies start reopening, as the digital marketing and social media marketing world have been changed forever.

How Has Working Remotely Changed Consumer Spending?

Three areas have seen a major shift in consumer spending thanks to remote work. The first is the space and physical surroundings of a home office. Interior design firm Storey Design told Recode that people are already starting to think about redesigning their homes in a way that better accommodates working remotely. Overstock.com has said that home office furniture sales have doubled . There’s been a drastic increase in the demand for laptops , monitors and webcams too for website services and social networking platforms.

The next category is the goods and services that support remote workers. Spending has shifted in this area as people don’t buy coffee on their way to work anymore for their colleagues, and no longer hit their local gym. Now, people stock up on their snacks beforehand and buy home gym equipment.

The third way that remote work has changed spending is the shift towards more convenient shopping methods. Grocery delivery has taken centre stage and is a convenient way to shop while also social distancing. On top of that, it takes extra stress away from someone who may already be juggling working from home and taking care of kids at the same time.

What Factors Are Relevant To The Remote Working Movement?

In specific, these products and services have made a world of difference in the working remotely trend:

Home office goods. This helps people comfortably work from home with an environment that gives off a work feel for ultimate concentration.
Technology/tech gadgets. Technology is essential in making sure work is done efficiently and communication flows as it should.
Food delivery apps. People don’t want the dreaded grocery run to add to their stresses, and it supports social distancing efforts. Healthy snacks have also become popular.
At-home training equipment has become popular due to gyms closing, as people still want to keep up with their fitness and stick to a routine as much as possible.

How Can Your Brand Connect With The Working Remotely Crowd?

Companies that align with the work-from-home trend are set to benefit massively. Here’s what you can do to tap into this exploding market:

Grow a loyal base of support

Growing brand relationships will give you repeat shoppers. Focus on growing customer loyalty with brand reputation management and you’ll create a flowing pipeline with happy customers becoming brand advocates. They tell their friends, rave about you on social media and improve brand awareness.

Build an online community

The isolation of working remotely has created a need for more human interaction and building an online community will fulfil that need. There are lots of ways you can do this, including hosting live stream webinars or highlighting customer product photos on your newsfeed. It’s also helpful to give customers a platform so that they can connect.

Use technology to ace e-commerce

There’s no doubt that online shopping is a trend that’s here to stay. Embracing e-commerce, search engine optimization, and community management services will give you a competitive edge. Reviews, ratings and user-generated content can give your company everlasting business growth and establish online credibility. Customers that see this will want to learn more about you and this can lead to potential sales.

Using Digital Marketing To Your Advantage During The Working Remotely Trend

The tips mentioned above are great ways to take advantage of the unique digital marketing methods during these times. If you’re looking for a helping hand with your online credibility, lead generation services , social media or copywriting, get in touch with us today.

Contact our team for more info on how to create effective digital marketing strategies.

Three Types of Social Media Marketing You Shouldn’t Ignore

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 08:36:25 GMT

As part of your social media marketing strategy , you should include paid social media, dark social media and social networking, and influencer marketing. Here’s why:

Paid Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing has progressed to a point where sharing the odd post – no matter how well-crafted – with your followers and expecting them to do the rest is no longer effective.

To target your ideal customer, nurture their buyer journey, and ultimately get them to purchase from your website, you need to take advantage of the fact that all social networks now offer post promotion. Not only does paid social media and pay per click put your message in front of far more users, not using this tool actually puts you on the back foot. According to a 2018 survey , 92% of small businesses are increasing their investment in social media.

Even though advertising on social media gives immediate visibility to your brand and great brand reputation management, don’t give in to the temptation to spend, spend, spend! From elementary user demographics to psychographics such as values and attitudes, interests and lifestyles, and personality, social media platforms have parameters to enhance your targeting.

But first, you need to determine whether Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, or Instagram is the best fit for your ideal client. It’s all about utilizing the appropriate platform and lead generation services to target the right audience with engaging content.

Facebook is by far the biggest of all the social networks with 2.41 billion monthly active users . An average Facebook user clicks on 11 ads per month . Their advertising costs vary depending on many factors like your industry, location, and objectives, but the average price for an advert decreased 4% in Q2 2019 . Facebook is therefore a good place to start.

Dark Social Traffic

Not to be confused with marketing on the dark web, dark social media refers to the sharing of your content without your knowledge. Although you cannot track the impact of dark social media with your regular analytics, more than 80% of sharing from marketing websites happens “invisibly”.

If you think of it as a digital word of mouth, it makes sense that this is even more powerful amid COVID-19 social distancing, working from home, and digital communities.

So how do you get in on this action? Make sure that you include buttons on all your output that encourages sharing through email, text message, or direct social messaging. Moreover, include a strong call to action to go to a landing page, read another post, or sign up to your email list.

Having a prominent, respected trendsetter in your niche share your content in this intimate way will drive mass traffic. That’s where the next category comes in.

Influencer Marketing

As consumers are bombarded with ever more marketing messages, so they tend to filter out an increasing amount. One way to catch the attention of prospects is to leverage the power of humans in your digital marketing.

Marketing guru Seth Godin notes that “People do not buy goods and services. They buy relations, stories, and magic.”

From published authors in serious fields to mainstream celebrities for younger audiences, influencer marketing uses the trust they have established with their large following to punt your product by supporting or endorsing your brand or co-creating content.

Community management services are not an overnight strategy, as you need to build a relationship with influencers in your niche. Engage with them to the point where they value your expertise, and portfolio, and enjoy your content. Slow and steady is the name of this game, but the results are well worth the wait.

If you are looking for a world-class social media marketing agency to keep you current and competitive, then contact WSI Digital Boost today.

What Makes a Leading Social Media Strategy?

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 12 Jul 2022 13:27:32 GMT

Social media is an important tool for any business. Find out how to lead the way with a winning social media marketing strategy.

What is a Social Media Marketing Strategy?

Before you start creating a social media strategy, it helps to clarify what it is.

Social media marketing uses networks like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn to interact with customers and prospects. Whether done organically or with paid-for campaigns, compiling and sharing images, text, and videos can be great fun!

But without a social media marketing strategy , having fun might be the only return on your investment. For the greatest chance of SMM success, you need to follow a blueprint.

How to Create a Social Media Marketing Strategy

1. Set goals

Even if you are only doing this because your digital marketing agency pointed out that 55% of consumers discover new brands on social, you must know what you are hoping to achieve by using SMM:

Increase brand awareness by increasing your online presence and using SM as a distribution channel for your content.
Leverage social proof to improve your search engine rankings, thereby driving traffic to your website.
Generate leads with greater visibility of your gated content (ebooks, whitepapers, checklists).
Nurture leads using insights gleaned from conversations your target audience are having about industry keywords.
Provide social customer service by openly and honestly responding to complaints, compliments, and queries.

2. Identify your audience and/or create personas

The type of content you share , the language you utilize, and the platforms you post on will vary depending on:

Who your typical customer is
What their interests are
When they are most likely to be online
Why your audience uses social media
What type of content they like to see on social media

3. Establish a realistic budget

Are you using an agency to run your campaigns, or will you need someone inhouse to dedicate their time to SM?

Will you be using paid ads?

Do you have the time and tools to create your posts?

4. Detail your social media content strategy

Your content must resonate with your target audience . Design a content plan that fulfills their desires.

Now you know how to build a social media strategy!

Finally, How are You Going to Execute This Strategy?

Once you have a social media strategy plan in place, it is time for action. Following on from the list above:

5. Initiate the campaign

This includes setting up your profile, reviewing and interacting online, offering appropriate incentives, and creating relevant landing pages .

6. Measure and analyze results

Use analytics and other tools to understand the performance of your campaigns. Test, measure, and tweak your SMM efforts.

WSI Digital Boost is a group of digital marketing experts that specialize in social media marketing, website design , content marketing, and mobile marketing. Contact us today to find out how to develop a social media strategy that puts you ahead of your competitors.

Optimise YouTube videos: SEO Services & Local SEO

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 05 Jul 2022 07:59:55 GMT

SEO services and local SEO (search engine optimization) can lead consumers to your business by helping them to find your website, YouTube channel and other social media profiles. Over 2 billion people watch content on YouTube, every month, so this platform can give you fantastic exposure as long as you optimise your YouTube marketing videos and social media marketing strategies.

How to Optimise your YouTube Marketing Videos with SEO Services & Local SEO

Keep your brand consistent with your overall branding strategy

The branding of your YouTube channel must be consistent with that of your website services and other social media accounts.

Use keywords in the title of your videos: The title is what makes people want to click on your video, and adding keywords and adaptive SEO to the video title ensures the audience and SEO algorithms will find it.
Put keywords at the beginning of your video description: Only the first three lines of a description are displayed before you must click ‘see more’, so include the keyword in the first three lines.
Use keywords in the video file: The YouTube algorithm will find your video more easily if you include the keyword in the video file.
Use thumbnails to attract attention and show the video’s topic: Customise thumbnails to be eye-catching and accurately reflect the content of your business video.
Use relevant tags: Tags tell consumers and YouTube what your video is about. Keep your tags relevant and use keywords to promote content and context.
Pick the right category: For the best ranking, do thorough research and find a category the reflects your audience, style and content.

Search engine optimisation is not the only way to optimise your YouTube marketing videos. Post videos regularly, make them mobile friendly and easy to share on all social networking platforms, include a call-to-action in every video and create playlists that feature your videos with others.

Need more SEO marketing tips or community management services? Contact WSI Digital Boost your local SEO and SEO services experts, for help with keyword research, brand reputation management , and SEO integration that will help your audience to find your carefully created content.

Tips To Use PPC In An Inbound Marketing Campaign

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 21 Jun 2022 07:32:29 GMT

Pay-per-click advertising (PPC) should form part of any inbound marketing strategy to maximize the reach of the content being promoted. The two should work together to complement and enhance one another. Once pay-per-click, search engine optimization, and inbound marketing strategies are pushing in the same direction with the same goals, your business will reap significant rewards.

Aligning PPC and Inbound Marketing

While it is common to think of pay per click advertising and inbound marketing as separate strategies, the two can complement one another if used correctly. Paid advertising increases the prominence of your content and sends more people to your website (lead generation services) where they can engage further with your inbound marketing content.

In order to run an effective pay per click advertising campaign, you should know who you are targeting, which keywords you would like to focus on and make use of data from testing and analytics to back those decisions up.

Rather than running general ads promoting your brand visibility in a pay per click campaign, use it to promote your strongest content instead and brand reputation management, so that consumers are more likely to engage with it. This works best on social media and social media marketing where people are looking for interesting content rather than just information.

Paid adverts have been proven to work even once the customer knows what they are looking for, as long as the content is linked directly to a commercial opportunity . Make sure that your pay per click landing page is aligned to the content of the advert.

Any good digital marketing strategy should look to integrate pay per click and inbound marketing devices to make the most of the money you are investing in paid advertising and the organic SEO content you are creating to represent your brand.

Whether you need PPC, link-building services, or adaptive SEO , the WSI team can help your business to grow.

Get in touch with WSI Digital Boost today to get more insights into how to integrate PPC with your inbound marketing strategy.

Why You Need To Start Using Pillar Content Marketing Strategies

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 14 Jun 2022 07:16:49 GMT

Why should you care about pillar content? The way we search for things on search engines like Google has changed and seemingly, the world of content marketing and search engine optimization has changed too. We ask our machines human questions and we expect a human reply. For example, it’s considered normal to ask your computer: “where should I go for dinner tonight?” and we expect our computer to reply to us in a people-friendly manner. This is the future of search and it will continue to evolve. This means we will have to adapt to the new world of digital marketing and social media marketing with human-like machines.

What Is Pillar Content?

Pillar content is substantive and informative content on a specific topic that can be broken into different sections. Guides and reports are good examples of pillar content. Pillar content needs a pillar page and cluster topics. Your pillar page unites all the topics that belong to your central theme.

Topic clusters focus on narrow topics found on your pillar page. For example, your pillar page could discuss digital marketing and that same page contains a link to a cluster article that discusses email marketing or lead generation services as a digital marketing technique. Topic cluster content helps Google realise you’re an authority on a particular subject matter. Hence, the more you write about a single topic on your website, the higher Google will rank you for that topic. Pillar content can be thought of as an ebook with many hyperlinks.

Why Should You Use Pillar Content?

Google has become more people-friendly and this means your digital marketing strategy should also evolve. The way people search for things has evolved and people’s questions have grown more complex in nature. We’ve also gotten used to asking our search engines questions that are conversational – we speak to Google as if it’s a human. So it is no surprise that the way we think about content creation and the way we structure content needs to change.

Pillar content also increases the level of organisation in your content – people can navigate easily through your website services, blogs, infographics, portfolio and videos – a legitimate SEO benefit. You can also include a download option at the top of your pillar content so that you can turn your visitors into leads. The information you gain from the visitor who chooses to download your content can be used for further content marketing. In addition, creating a comprehensive guide or infographic that is educational and useful will also sell the content itself. In order to do this, you need to identify your target audience and what they want to read about. You also need to consider what questions they will ask and what problem they are trying to solve.

Pillar content can act as a multi-purpose, traffic-driving, brand reputation management, and lead-converting content marketing tool. There is no escaping the future of search so it would be a wise decision to start reading comprehensive guides on pillar content now – see what I did there?

Find out more about creating pillar content by contacting our adaptive SEO team today!

The Top 3 Current Content Marketing Trends You Need to Know

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 07 Jun 2022 06:00:00 GMT

Moving towards the second half of the year, let’s unpack the content marketing trends for 2022 that have emerged thus far.

Trend #1: Focus on Creating Personalized, Humanized Content

This is less one of the latest trends in content marketing, and more something top content marketing agencies have long appreciated. As much as search engines and their algorithms play a pivotal role in getting your message out there, always remember to speak directly to the real people who buy your product or service.

The fact that this has been forgotten by much of the content marketing world is regrettable. It also gives customer-centric firms like yours an upper hand. By focusing your content marketing plan on personalized, humanized interactions, you will stand out from your competition – and the ever-increasing competition for users’ attention.

The golden rule is: “ It’s not about you, it’s about them ”. Do what it takes to create detailed buyer personas and address an audience of one (at a time). Avoid clichés and buzzwords to create a unique and authentic voice for your brand. Being true to your values and purpose will provide inspiration for your digital content marketing.

Trend #2: Keep Track of Your Audience’s Shifting Needs

Having embraced the content marketing strategy outlined above, don’t rest on your laurels! As far back as 500 B.C., Heraclitus noted that, “ Nothing is permanent except change ”. Fast-forward 2,500+ years, and content marketing specialists will tell you the same thing.

Keep up to date with the fluid needs and behaviors of your target audience. Charles Darwin observed that “ It’s not the strongest of the species… nor the most intelligent that survives. It’s the one that is most adaptable to change .”

From hot new content marketing platforms to innovative types of content marketing, staying informed is key to the success of your efforts. Examples of content marketing trends to watch include: podcasts, voice-to-text optimization, shoppable links, even more user-generated and user-directed content.

Be willing to change up your content marketing calendar at the drop of a hat to stay on top.

Trend #3: Embrace Empathy, Research, and Storytelling

While the technology may shift, one of our most powerful content marketing tips is to adopt storytelling. Because it helps audiences to understand how your organization operates and what it stands for, brand storytelling is an impactful way to connect.

When combined with comprehensive research into what motivates your prospects and customers, your empathy can shine through and spark deeper unity and relationships. Ultimately, you will see the effects on your bottom line.

B2B content marketing is not to be excluded. Research who the decision-makers are and tell a story that relates to them, rather than a vague notion of their business.

For all your digital marketing needs – including additional content marketing trends – get in touch with WSI Digital Boost today !

Online Reputation Management – What Can You Do?

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 17 May 2022 06:00:05 GMT

Online reputation management (ORM) is a concern for any business with a growing online presence. Digital marketing requires constant effort. Managing negative publicity is just another part of the puzzle.

Despite the best intentions and all the SEO know-how in the world, your brand could be suffering from negative publicity. You may stumble upon a negative review or a complaint which you need to manage to avert long-term damage.

Let’s explore how you can detect, prevent, and take action against brand-harm.

Online Reputation Management – Prevention is Better Than Cure

While not all-encompassing, preventing negative publicity should be your first order of business.

Businesses with noble intentions and good ethics will mitigate most damage. The key is keeping track of information given by the company. Make sure it’s factual. Make sure to keep tabs on staff and how they conduct themselves online and respond to queries in a timeous fashion.

How to Detect Reputational Damage

Apart from social media, you can set up Google Alerts for brand-specific keywords or keyphrases. Google will alert you daily of any new content that pops up online mentioning your brand.

This way, you’re sure to be kept abreast of other people mentioning your brand online.

Of course, you want to keep an eye on all the major social media channels and hashtags or @mentions.

Not only are these good ways to detect reputational damage, but they can help you engage with your customers. You’ll also be able to see good things written about your business or brand. It’s much better than Googling your keyword every once in a while.

It may even help you present new solutions to existing problems.

Tools you can use to monitor your online presence include:

Furthermore, there are tools to outsource or automate social media monitoring:

If you follow this procedure religiously, it’s unlikely something will slip under the radar.

Taking Action Against Negative Publicity

Once you’ve identified anything that causes your business or brand reputational harm, it’s time to take action.

Some things to look out for could be defamation, fake news, brand abuse, or abuse of trademarks or copyrights. Should you find any of these on a web page, you may attempt to have it removed.

While it may not be easy to have a page removed without concrete evidence of incorrect information, you can attempt removal based on the following:

Laws (both local and international)
ISP terms
Search engine terms and quality guidelines
Hosting site terms of use

You may need to look at precedent as well and the author of the content’s motivations. Businesses have legal avenues to pursue in case of libel, such as consulting an experienced defamation lawyer.

Sometimes it’s better to try and bury the defamatory content by creating pages that rank higher for the search term.

The Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) can be used to file what is known as a DMCA take-down. It’s one avenue a business can use to fight copyright infringement by sending a notice to the web host or ISP.

If the DMCA notice doesn’t work, the company has other legal resources to consider. The appropriate action will depend on the laws of the land and may require expert help.

Conclusion

While online reputation management can be a chore, it shouldn’t be if your business is proactive and conducts itself with good ethics.

WSI Digital Boost is a full-service digital agency that can help you with all aspects of your digital marketing, including online reputation management. Contact us for more information.

Check out the rest of our blog for more pro tips.

How to Include Reddit in Your Marketing Strategy

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Wed, 11 May 2022 11:59:09 GMT

If you would like approximately 164 million unique monthly visitors to see your content marketing , Reddit is the platform for you!

How Reddit Works

The social platform of Reddit is made up of an abundance of S ubreddits , each a community of users that share a niche interest, e.g., humor, gaming, technology, politics, music. The company itself explains how Reddit works, “ Every day, millions of people around the world post, vote, and comment in communities organized around their interests .”

Content is generated by users, or Redditors , in the form of stories, images, links, and/or videos. Members in the group upvote or downvote the submissions, with the most interesting content climbing to the top.

Who Are the Users of Reddit

When it comes to social media marketing , Reddit prides itself in “ authentic human connection ”. As such, Redditors have a strict code of conduct, or reddiquette , and are vigilant about rooting out pushy marketing. Bearing that in mind, the typical profile of Reddit users is as follows:

71% are male
59% are aged 18 through 29
47% identify as liberal
47% are online almost all the time.

Why Should You Include Reddit in Your Marketing Strategy?

Being a platform of micro-niches, Reddit content marketing lets you address the needs of a highly specific target market. Chances are that whatever your business offers, there is a group of users discussing exactly that!

Thanks to these endless conversations, Reddit is regarded as the social media network that is (at least) one step ahead of the rest. Trends and news get to Reddit first.

Is Reddit the Right Platform for Your Business?

Because 62% of U.S. users feel that the network protects their privacy and data, “ how to use Reddit for marketing ” can be answered in one word: subtly . Luckily, the most common reason for members of the 100K+ active communities to check in on Reddit is for entertainment . Reddit social media marketing must, therefore, add value above all else.

Reddit digital marketing that is really entertaining or seriously informative is the only way that you will be well-received. Focus on building a following based on the personality, values, and motivation behind your brand, and leave the promotional stuff to other channels.

WSI Digital Boost is a group of digital marketing experts that specialize in content marketing, mobile marketing , social media marketing, and website design . Contact us today to stay ahead of your competitors with content marketing on Reddit and so much more.

The Perfect Paid Search Advertising Campaign

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 10 May 2022 06:00:04 GMT

How can you get more out of paid search advertising ? Let’s discuss ad conception, creation & how that ties in with your landing page.

The Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Model

Pay-Per-Click, or PPC for short, is the model used by Google and other advertising services. The model charges the user’s account for every click on an ad. The amount charged is dependent on the competition for a specific keyword and the user’s budget for the ad campaign.

You can gauge competition for a keyword by using the Google Ads Keyword Planner .

Make sure you have a Google account so you can use the feature. If you have a Gmail account, you can link that to any other Google services.

The keyword “digital marketing” has average monthly searches of 1K to 10K and medium competition. At the time of writing the top of page bid low range is R9.55 and the high range is R41.81.

What this means is to be guaranteed of outbidding the competition for the keyword, you need to bid R42 or higher. Generally, the bidding process is fair by giving all bids within the low and high range a fair chance. The number of impressions your ad receives will depend on your budget.

Please note the information above pertains to the South African market. Targeting different territories will impact on the competitiveness, search volume, and cost.

Keyword research is the cornerstone of any copywriting . If you find a keyword with a high search volume and low competition, you’re well on your way to success.

Creating The Paid Search Advertising Campaign

Okay, you have the perfect keyword. What now?

Decide on your budget, both Google ads and Microsoft Advertising allows different ways to set your budget. The most common method is setting a daily budget. Both engines will then aim to keep your spend within your daily limit.

For this article, we’ll be focusing more on Google Adsense.

Choose a budget of at least R100 a day. If your daily budget is too low, you might only get one click per day. That makes it hard to gauge success. You can set up a maximum cost-per-click (CPC).

Setting up a maximum CPC will help you gauge over time whether your bid is sufficient for your industry.

Great, you have a budget in mind.

Consider Your Goal

Placing your first ad is a lot like starting a new blog. Be prepared to make some mistakes and don’t expect overnight success. Since the platforms allow for various ad types, you’ll have to consider your end-goal.

Some of the types of campaigns to consider are:

Generating sales
Leads
Website traffic
Product and brand consideration
Brand awareness and reach
App promotion

Whatever you decide on, remember the benefits of split testing or A/B testing . You may want to generate sales, but you can run the same ad to get website traffic. Sometimes one ad type will outperform the other.

The most experienced digital marketers know this, and they always split test. It’s essential for blog headlines, email subject lines, and ads. In time you will get better at it.

The simplest and most common in the beginning is targeting website traffic with search-based ads.

Continue Creating Your Campaign

Name your campaign (for example, men’s watches) and continue setting up. You’ll need to choose the network for the ad to run on. Google will display ads in search or across other relevant sites for your niche.

In the case of the latter, that approach has become less successful over the years. In part due to ad blockers, and part because fewer webmasters are using Google ads on their sites.

Set up your start date and end date. Without an end date, Google will continue running your campaign indefinitely.

Now you need to choose your target location. If you’re only selling in the South African market, or your business is based here, you may only want to promote ads in South Africa. Similarly, if you own a furniture business in Cape Town, you can (and should) narrow down even further.

Narrowing down your target demographic can end up costing you more money. So again, consider A/B testing here to see what works for you.

Creating The Ad Group

After setting up your campaign, you can now create the ad group. Your keyword planning from earlier comes into play here. Hopefully, you have done your research by now.

Some other planners to consider are Neil Patel’s Ubersuggest or Keywordtool.io .

Using brackets around the keyword will tell Google to look for an exact match instead of a broad match. Google ads describe them like this:

Keyword = broad match
“keyword” = phrase match
[keyword] = exact match

Creating The Ad Itself

After setting up the ad group, you can now create the ad itself. You can create multiple different ads within the same ad group. Remember, your daily budget covers one or multiple ads. So, if you plan on running more than one ad, consider raising your daily budget.

At this point, you’ll be able to see which ad performs best. You can either tweak the others or remove them and focus the budget on the best performing ad.

Google will allow you to create multiple headlines and will display a preview of your ad on the side. Keep tweaking and keep your keyword and goal in mind when creating headlines.

Add a description for your ad. Now you’re ready to publish.

The Landing Page Can Make or Break Your Ad Campaign

There’s a couple of things that make a landing page successful. The first is brevity and a focused approach. Great design helps, of course. You want to entice the customer to take action by offering the value of your product or service as succinctly as possible.

Secondly, make the visitor understand what you’re selling immediately. Make sure your headline urges the visitor to read on.

A landing page with a simple design and direct message increases your conversion rate.

Your entire campaign will fall flat if you don’t optimise the page load time. Make sure it’s quick to load.

Ensure the ad matches up with the landing page’s message. If you have a message mismatch, you will immediately lose visitor trust. Combine it with a strong call-to-action.

Don’t lose the message by showcasing too many features. Instead, show people why they should trust you with testimonials and real solutions to real problems.

Conclusion

Paid search advertising is only as effective as the landing page. Be sure to master both and make them the best they can be. WSI Digital Boost is a full-service digital marketing agency and we can help you design paid search advertising campaigns that will boost your leads and sales . Contact us for more information.

The Rise Of Video Marketing

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Thu, 21 Apr 2022 14:57:28 GMT

Let’s take a minute and think about the video marketing you’ve seen recently. Whether you get most of your video content on Facebook or YouTube, it’s safe to assume that most of the video ads you’ve seen represent huge brands.

You can think about that from two different angles.

First, those big companies are winning this “king of the hill” battle for ad space because they have the budget for it. Second, they are fighting for that ad space because it’s so valuable .

Small businesses can learn a lot from international corporations. Of course, you won’t be able to replicate their marketing strategies. (Production value and market penetration are often locked behind budget limitations.) But what you can do is look for ways to scale down their strategies, fine tune a few of the details, and then turn it into a resource that does fit your unique company.

Video marketing is one of the areas where you can still receive the benefits without trying to match the budget of Apple, Google, or Coca-Cola.

And since video marketing generates 66% more qualified leads (as well as a 54% increase in brand awareness), you really can’t afford to not take advantage of this channel — especially as a small business.

A Value Proposition For Video Ads

At face value, it’s easy to be intimidated by the thought of video creation. You can watch top ads from last year and get caught up in the famous actors, the expensive equipment, and the need for a full production team. But all of those things are completely scalable to your budget.

Making good video content means taking advantage of the tools available to small businesses. That might mean using an online resource (like a shot list template ) instead of hiring a production assistant. Or maybe you use an online video editing site to avoid paying for high-end software.

These tools can help you get that big-budget feel without, you know, a big budget. Because the truth is that video content is in high demand, no matter your industry.

Let’s look at four video marketing-centric stats from HubSpot:

People spend one-third of their “online time” watching video content.
Two-thirds of people are more likely to buy something after seeing a video about it.
90% of customers list product videos as a major influencer in their buying habits.
One-third of all online ad spend goes toward video ads.

Those numbers build up a pretty clear narrative. People watch a lot of video content. And the videos they watch play a major role in the sort of products they buy and businesses they support. As a result, a big chunk of the global advertising budget goes toward video ads.

And really, that value proposition really solidifies the worth of video marketing for your business.

Building A Video Marketing Strategy

Now that you can see just how valuable video marketing is, the next step is figuring out how to fit that into your existing strategy for 2021 and beyond.

A huge part of that is understanding what goes into video production and how you can streamline and simplify that process. Which means looking for affordable (and often multi-purpose) online apps or services that will make video marketing a realistic goal for your business.

Thankfully, you can recycle a lot of the research you’ve put into your existing marketing strategies. Video content may need extra resources or tools, but your grasp of your audience and target keywords can — and should — influence the sort of videos you create.

Start by setting goals. Are you interested in building a video channel (either on YouTube or Facebook) that generates brand awareness? Is your main focus a series of videos for an upcoming product launch? Do you want to increase web traffic through paid video ads? These are the things you’ll have to ask because they will determine your video marketing strategy.
Think about your presentation. When we hear “presentation” in terms of video, our minds jump to camera angles or animations, or even color choices. But marketing videos take many different shapes , and each presentation style has some inherent qualities. (Whiteboard videos work best for educational content, interview videos are great for testimonial content, and so on.) Take that into consideration when you build your strategy in order to remain efficient.
Build content within your sales funnel. You could dedicate half of your marketing budget to video content and fail if those videos don’t have a clear focus/objective. Like with any new project, think about which segment of your audience you want to reach and how the videos can best encourage them to take action.
Keep your platform in mind. Viewers expect different things on different channels. A YouTube video looks different than an Instagram video, and your audience will expect you to follow those standards. (That can also determine how visible your videos are on those platforms!)

As you begin to explore different video styles and build out a video marketing calendar, always remember that there is a lot of flexibility in video. You should be testing content to see what works, and using that information to shape future projects.

Maybe you want to create a channel where you share stories from inside the company, introducing employees to customers and building relationships with the audience. You can pair that with how-to videos where those “familiar faces” become educators, leveraging that familiarity to establish trust with customers.

This is where video marketing gets exciting. You get to find a sweet spot for your business, that balance between engaging content (that attracts new leads) and educational content (that supports your existing customers).

Once you create a pipeline for video content, you can start thinking about topics like YouTube SEO, video ads on social media , and other avenues for future opportunities. And all of those benefits can support the targets your business is already chasing, like Google search rankings and higher website conversions .

Yes, video marketing is a powerful tool, with untapped potential that only expands over time. But it’s also a gateway to a lot of other things, from connecting with your audience to exploring new corners of your existing industry.

At the end of the day, that makes video marketing an invaluable tool for small businesses, no matter your budget, team size, or production skills.

Drew Gula is the copywriter at Soundstripe, a royalty free company that provides creators and businesses with radio-quality uncopyrighted music .

WSI Digital Boost is a digital marketing agency offering a full range of digital marketing services , including video marketing, social media marketing, among others. For help creating effective online marketing campaigns, contact us today.

A Guide on How To Do Keyword Research For SEO

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 19 Apr 2022 07:49:33 GMT

Keywords are the key to increasing traffic to your website and improving your SEO ranking. If you don’t include terms that people are using in their searches, then no one will visit your website. Keyword research is a key component of any successful content marketing strategy. Here’s a quick guide on keywords and SEO .

What Are Keywords?

Keywords are terms people commonly type into search engines like Google. Using keywords is a clever digital marketing strategy because it can lead to increased website engagement, more time spent on your website and sales leads.

What Is Keyword Research?

Keyword research involves researching the words that potential consumers and customers are going to use when they use search engines. This also means that you need to compare and choose the best keywords to use. Keyword research ensures that your content is relevant and marketable.

How To Do Keyword Research

Firstly, you need to identify the seed keywords of your content . You can do this by using keyword tools. For example, Google Keyword Planner is a free keyword tool and it can be used for both advertising and SEO. You can also identify keywords by thinking about what potential customers would type into Google when searching for your product or service. Secondly, you need to investigate what keywords your competitors rank for. You can do this by typing in your list of seed keywords into Google and checking who ranks on the front page.

If you don’t know who your competitors are , then a bit of market research is needed before doing this. Next, you need to know your target market – their problems and questions. Industry forums, groups and Q&A sites are good places to look, as potential customers usually express their concerns and questions on these platforms. Your customers offer great insight into what specific keywords you need to include. Here are other ways to determine keywords:

Chat with your customers face to face
Go through past emails with customers and look for commonly used words
Look through customer support tickets
Think about the questions that were asked in past conversations

So there you have it – a complete guide on how to do keyword research to improve your SEO ranking. It’s never too late to do your research, so start today! If you need help with your SEO strategy and other areas of your digital marketing, contact WSI Digital Boost .

The Best Platforms for PPC Marketing

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 12 Apr 2022 07:43:22 GMT

We all know that feeling when you login to your various ad dashboards to see how your Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads are doing and seeing a sudden spike in CTR and a drop in ad spend. This is part of why we run these ads, isn’t it? To feel that smile stretching across your face as you see the first results – even if they might only start paying off in a few days’ time since launching an ad campaign. It’s become an effective tool for inbound marketing, but with so many platforms popping up and changing ad choices, which ones are considered to yield the best results?

Our List of Top PPC Platforms

Google Ads: Since Google is the most popular search engine, it only makes sense that this platform will remain one of the top options for online advertising.
Amazon: Your distinguishing advantage with Amazon is that you have an audience that is already intent on buying.
Bing Ads: Not as powerful as Google AdWords, but keep in mind that Microsoft installs Bing as its default browser on Windows 10, so its reach is wider than you might assume.
Facebook Ads: Being the most popular social media network in the world, Facebook is still one of the top places for targeted ads.
Twitter Ads: Perfect for concise and powerful ad copy, with various campaign types.
LinkedIn Ads: If you’re hoping to get your content in front of industry professionals or for B2B connections, this is the answer.

As a side-note, PPC trends for 2020 suggest that using video content in advertising will continue to dominate, simply because it has the ability to retain attention and elevate brand identity.

If you would like to consult with a digital marketing agency on the perfect PPC strategy for your business, contact WSI Digital Boost today.

Is Social Media Marketing Better for B2C or B2B businesses?

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Mon, 11 Apr 2022 13:41:26 GMT

Social networks are becoming a critical part of marketing strategies. Social media marketing for B2C or B2B businesses is essential to growing your business. Learn about the different social media marketing strategies for B2C and B2B businesses here.

What are B2C and B2B?

B2C refers to business-to-consumer and B2B refers to business-to-business. B2C businesses sell products and services to consumers, while B2B businesses sell directly to businesses alone. For example, a hardware store selling goods directly to customers would be a B2C company, while a business selling raw materials to construction companies would be a B2B company.

B2C and B2B social media differences

The social media strategy of a B2B and B2C company are quite similar. However, there are certain factors that need to be taken into account to create a successful marketing strategy. These factors include:

Social media channels

B2C businesses will gain more leads from marketing to channels that consumers are more likely to use, such as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. B2B on the other hand benefits more from professional channels such as LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook business pages.

Social media content

The types of content businesses use will differ based on their target audience. B2C businesses mainly focus on creative videos and pictures (visual content) to grab the attention of a consumer, while B2B businesses will focus more on professional content such as infographics and webinars that appeal to businesses.

Engagement tactics

Engagement on social networking channels is needed for lead generation. To engage with consumers, B2C will have a focus on sale tactics that appeal to them such as competitions on social media for vouchers or free services. B2C businesses can create engagement by giving businesses promotional products or a trial service period, or discounts for referrals.

B2B/B2C presence on social media

Even though there are differences in the marketing strategy of a B2B and B2C company, social media has many benefits for all businesses. There are many social media platforms either type can use to gain leads. These include:

LinkedIn
Youtube
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
TikTok

Social media marketing will help your business to build brand awareness , increase customer service, and bring in more web traffic for your site. A social media presence is essential but it is not enough. Your business needs to create a social media strategy for each social media platform you are on, and your social media activity needs to be regular and consistent. If this sounds overwhelming, WSI can help. We have a team of expert B2B marketers and B2C marketers who can take your social media marketing to a new level.

Ten Tips for Aligning SEO and PPC for Better eCommerce Results

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 05 Apr 2022 07:28:01 GMT

The change in lifestyle brought about by COVID-19 has highlighted the need for SEO services more than ever. Even demographics who would previously not have been big e-commerce shoppers have been persuaded to go online as the pandemic has kept them indoors. This makes logical sense, and the stats prove it:

Compared to the same period last year, U.S. e-commerce sales in July increased a whopping 55% .
As a total of retail sales in the U.S., e-commerce more than doubled from Q1 2020 to Q2. “ That’s over a decade of growth in the space of just a few months as reported by the U.S. Department of Commerce .”
Year on year, Amazon sales rose by 40% for Q2 2020 to $88.9 billion .

SEO and PPC Tips for e-Commerce Success

1. Create a strategy for SEO and PPC synergy

Google Shopping has reintroduced free listings that are generated by the Google Merchant Center. Maximize your holiday shopping campaign by aligning your organic search (SEO) and paid search (PPC) .

Use your PPC spend to target high-value queries on channels where paid listings lead the results. Seek out opportunities to use SEO to rank for searches that attract a high click-through rate.

2. Analyze Search Trends

Take note of the top search queries in your category. Utilize the results to keep SEO core to your strategy, influence your marketing messaging, and inspire your paid search.

3. Plug Fresh Content

Use SEO analysis as a guideline to create current, pandemic-related content that develops trust with your readers by showing your understanding and support.

PPC can then be used to attract some immediate traffic and fill in any gaps. The best part? Informational queries are generally cheaper per click – extending your budget.

4. Test with PPC

Paid search provides feedback on what type of message and imagery works best – almost immediately. Use PPC to test various new ideas and tweak your SEO accordingly.

5. Lengthen Your Marketing Funnel

The more familiar people are becoming with using search engines, the more diverse their reasons for doing so. Take time to nurture prospects during the consideration stage of the buyer’s journey using an appropriate blend of SEO and PPC efforts.

6. Draw your audience a picture

As part of your search plan, make sure to include images and videos to keep up with the increasingly visual nature of Google. Keep your visual content consistent in SEO and PPC.

7. Leverage Ad Extensions

Take advantage of callouts, structured snippets, and other ad extensions – such as Google’s beta “Curbside pickup” badge – to share extra information about your products and services.

8. Add to Google

As Amazon and Walmart’s advertising improves, you may want to spread your e-commerce budget across all retailers and search engines – adjusting as their ROI becomes evident.

9. Avoid Google

Consider how you can optimize your PPC spend and SEO efforts with alternatives to Google. Specialist search engines are slightly less competitive as they already have built-in customer intent. Video search engines are increasingly gaining popularity – an exciting way to showcase what you have to offer.

10. Make the Most of Automation

Wouldn’t it be awesome to get real-time insights in the face of such an unsure time? Automated rules and AI smart bidding for PPC does just that with a flexible solution to boost your SEO and PPC strategy .

If you are looking for a holistic approach to increase online leads and sales, WSI Digital Boost can help. Contact us for more information today.

Killing The Myth That Link Building is Dead

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 29 Mar 2022 10:03:37 GMT

Building good links is not easy, but definitely still worthwhile. We all remember the days before Google started to clamp down on link building in 2012, when generating traffic off other websites could be done without too much effort. But being in an era where customers are sensitive to brand endorsement, link building is now more vital than ever before and certainly not dead.

Why Link Building Still Matters

Link building is still crucial to any SEO strategy . If you want to create valuable backlinks, white hat SEO is the way to go. You will rank higher on SERPs if you curate backlinks from sites that are considered to be credible, as domain authority is vital to ranking in Google’s algorithm.

Social media marketing has become a mecca for link building, as one influential person sharing your content could lead to thousands of impressions and traffic. But you’ll strike the jackpot if you’re getting that content published or mentioned in other articles – because just like that, you have the potential of creating a valuable backlink to your site. If you’re generating highly engaging content or speaking to your identified audience, thousands of people could be sharing your links, and in turn, be doing the link building for you.

When it comes to content marketing , always ask yourself what you can do to be different or better. Hundreds of people could already have created content on your topic, so look at theirs and improve on it. By being better and different in your approach, your content will be considered to be fresh and more likely to be picked up when pitching your ideas. You can create and achieve backlinks through simple (albeit somewhat time-consuming) tactics, such as manual outreach to others in your industry to see whether they would want to feature your content, or by being a guest on a podcast, or even by getting in touch with website owners with broken links.

If you want more advice from a digital marketing agency on effective link building strategies, contact WSI OMS today.

5 Common PPC Mistakes To Avoid In Your Business

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 22 Mar 2022 09:58:53 GMT

If you want to benefit from pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, you need to have clarity and intent when integrating it as a digital marketing tool. The most challenging aspect of PPC advertising is that it is by no means an exact science. There is a lot of experimenting involved in getting the correct formula for your business and budget. The rewards, however, can be substantial with Google reporting up to double revenue for the budget spent in some cases. Let’s take a closer look.

5 Mistakes To Avoid To Fast-Track Success in PPC Sdvertising

If you’re set on success in PPC advertising, here are the most common mistakes that business owners tend to make (and suggestions to help you fix them).

1. Neglecting The Data

Before making any hard and fast decisions about how your campaign is doing, and which ads and keywords to target, carefully analyze all the available data . You may find that you are doing well overall, with plenty of clicks and conversions , and so you might decide to keep your current spread of ads as it is. However, parts of your campaign may be working well, while others are not working at all. One or two of your ads may be carrying your entire campaign. Analyzing the data allows you to shift your strategy and spending to maximize your results.

2. Avoiding Negative Keywords

Many marketers either forget, neglect, or choose to ignore negative keywords. This can be a big mistake. While it may seem counterintuitive to target keywords that are meant to keep people away from your website, it is actually one of the best ways to establish your niche and make sure that you attract only visitors who are most likely to become paying clients. You would be doing both yourself and internet users a favour by establishing these limits at the very beginning. Yes, negative keywords will lead to less traffic, but they will eliminate only the non-converting visitors and ensure that you get the right traffic.

3. Forgetting About Ad Extensions

Ad extensions can increase your click-through-rate by 10-20% – and they don’t cost any extra – yet many people forget to include them in their campaigns. Ad extensions can increase your ad’s reach, they can provide better value for money, and they offer more ways to reach you while increasing your online visibility. They may include contact details, site links, invitations to download an app (if you have one) or testimonials from your customers , among other things. Be sure to include as many of them as you can.

4. Not Bidding on Your Own Brand’s Keywords

You should always run at least one campaign that is dedicated to your own brand keywords. The main advantages of doing so are that brand keywords are generally much cheaper, yield higher search scores and convert much better than generic keywords. By neglecting to set up brand keyword PPC campaigns, you miss out on opportunities to capture your market.

5. Incorrect Keyword Targeting

Sub-optimum keyword selection is a mistake that many companies make in their search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. It can be particularly costly when it comes to PPC, as choosing the wrong keywords can result in either no hits at all or hits that don’t convert to sales, but which you still have to pay for. One of the best ways to target your PPC ads is with long-tail keywords. The main characteristic that distinguishes long-tail keywords from short-tail ones is that they usually consist of two or more words that resemble detailed queries. In contrast, short-tail keywords generally consist of single words or phrases without context. Using long-tail keywords will narrow your traffic considerably and help ensure that your PPC costs are worthwhile.

As with SEO marketing and content marketing , your PPC advertising strategy can command a large part of your budget, and you need to be sure that you’re getting an optimal ROI. If you want to ensure the best results, connect with WSI Digital Boost for professional assistance. We will help you to improve your PPC strategy and get the best return for your budget.

Why SEO is Important for Online Success

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 15 Mar 2022 09:51:24 GMT

It’s easy to say that SEO has the ability to distinguish your product or service. But it’s all about keeping your finger on the pulse to know all there is to know about the latest nuances and strategies that might give you the edge to get onto people’s radar.

How do you improve your SEO?

First things first, go and look at your competition to see what they’re doing. Now that you know what’s out there and what has ranked in the SERP – improve on it or create a fresh angle that might be more relevant. Also, take time to put extra effort into your content design before you consider content marketing (nobody likes spending time on an ugly site or browsing content that isn’t visually appealing). Try to think of the search intent of a person who you want to come across your content – the closer the match between your content and their intent, the higher your rankings will be.

A link-building strategy will definitely benefit SEO, as you’ll be guaranteed to get extra hits on your content. You want to create high-quality backlinks through your content marketing, which can be done through being a guest on a podcast or a guest blogger – get yourself associated with credible platforms. Roundups have become a valuable backlink for organic traffic, so search for roundups in your industry and pitch your content to see whether you can be included in one of these lists.

Do keep your site’s on-page SEO streamlined. Shorten your URLs to get higher rankings on Google and spend some time to link internally between pages on your site. If you’re looking for a digital marketing agency to optimize your SEO for your online success, contact WSI Digital Boost today.

Does my Company Really Need a Blog?

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 08 Mar 2022 14:00:28 GMT

The simple answer is an emphatic yes! Blogs are an essential part of any content marketing strategy, and every business website should have one. A blog adds value to your online presence and drives more engagement on your website and social media. Why is it so important? Here are four reasons why a blog is indispensable.

It Establishes Expertise in your Industry

Your blog is your online voice. It is a platform on which you can expound in detail on practices, trends and developments in your industry. In doing so, you expand your online presence, while also setting yourself up as an authority within your sector. When your audience recognizes you as an expert in your field, they will be more inclined to become loyal customers and recommend you to others. This is the main benefit of high-quality blog content.

It Does Wonders for your SEO

The main thing that search engines spiders look for, as they analyze and rank web pages, is high-quality content that is fresh, engaging, and provides value for its target market. The more well-crafted content you create, the more Google crawls your pages and moves you up in the rankings. This is not merely a question of incorporating relevant keywords - although that is vital as well. It is more important to create valuable content that engages your target market. The search engines will reward you for your efforts.

It Drives Traffic to your Website

As your search engine results page (SERP) rankings increase, and your pages turn up higher and higher in people’s searches, you will naturally find that traffic to your website also starts to rise. Your blog acts as a gateway to your site, ushering potential customers in without putting any sales pressure on them. People search for specific keywords, find blog posts related to them, read the content, and then click through to your service pages or e-commerce platform.

It Creates Long-Term Results

Once posted, your blogs don’t go anywhere. They are there for people to read months, even years, after they are posted. Engaging content that you posted a year ago can still draw customers to your site today. This is referred to as “compounding” posts. According to HubSpot , compounding blog posts make up about 10% of all blog posts and generate 38% of overall traffic. Provided you create your content mindfully, and do a little curating and updating along the way, your blog will still have value to offer far into future.

WSI Digital Boost is a full-service digital marketing agency. If you want help creating a content marketing strategy that adds value and draws traffic to your site, including an industry-leading blog, contact us today.

Content Marketing: Write Better Meta Descriptions Or Make Improvements

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 22 Feb 2022 09:31:24 GMT

Meta descriptions are important for content marketing because when customers or consumers type your brand name into Google, they are getting an impression of your company whether you like it or not. In this way, you can use meta descriptions as a digital marketing tool. A good meta description will also increase your SEO rankings on search engines like Google.

A meta description can be thought of as the first impression you make during an interview – it can either make or break you.

How To Write A Good Meta Description

Ever hear how marketers go on about using storytelling as a content marketing tool? The same goes for meta descriptions. You need to make your customer the hero of the story. This means that your digital marketing strategy needs to focus on the customer and their needs and wants. Another way to ensure your meta description is successful is by making sure that it matches your brand image and brand message. The description should also make sense when used on different content marketing platforms. Lastly, meta descriptions should just sound good and make potential customers feel good, while also maintaining your brand’s identity.

Three Important Factors To Consider When Writing Meta Descriptions

Your customer’s problem: You need to show your customers that you are aware of and understand their problems – their pain. You can do this by describing the specific challenges that your customers face. Showing emotion and offering a solution to their problem are also effective ways to show that you care. If you are unsure about your customer’s needs then you need to ask them, so that your content marketing strategy can really pull at their heartstrings.

Your business’ solution: This is your opportunity to state how your products or services can alleviate their pain and problems.

The outcome – both in results and emotion: This final step will act as the differentiator between a good and great meta description. It’s important to show your customers the result of your solution, including how it will feel and what their life will look like. It’s a great idea to use emotion and discuss your brand’s beliefs when doing this.

Even though meta descriptions are just a few characters, they make a huge difference to your SEO rankings. They show your customers that you are caring and relatable; while also making a great first impression. Meta descriptions are a great digital marketing tool and if you can spend hours writing blogs for your brand’s content marketing strategy, then a short meta description won’t hurt!

WSI Digital Boost is a full-service digital marketing agency. Contact us for more information on how to create excellent content marketing material for your business.

Key Lessons for Marketing To Multicultural Audiences

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 15 Feb 2022 17:50:18 GMT

There is really no business or industry today that does not serve a heterogeneous market. The composition of your audience will vary broadly depending on your location and industry, but it undoubtedly consists of people from a range of cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Your marketing approach should be sensitive to the diversity of your audience. Steps you take to adopt multicultural marketing into your branding and lead generation strategies are sure to pay off in the form of a large, loyal audience that accurately reflects the demographic make-up of your target market. Here are some lessons to help you effectively target multicultural populations.

Driving Diversity and Inclusion

Today’s consumers actively seek out brands that are in touch with the world’s many cultures, and that actively strive to find a place in this diverse cultural landscape. Brands should recognize and embrace this movement. In doing so, they will attract and retain more customers, and perhaps reach new audiences.

Give and Take

If you have been targeting only one or two specific demographics, your first step is to decide on which new group you would like to reach. Focus at least part of your marketing strategy on reaching that demographic. Draw them in with an effective inbound marketing strategy, including content that they will find compelling. You can start actively marketing to them once you have their attention.

Mobile First

Many underserved demographics, including the black and Hispanic communities, are highly active on mobile. It stands to reason, then, that you would need to boost your mobile marketing tactics to reach them. Focus on creating high-quality mobile experiences from the top of your funnel to the point of purchase.

But Really, It's Always Family First

Common to all demographics, to varying extents, is a focus on family. Individuals in the Hispanic community, in particular, identify as members of nuclear families first, and as members of extended families of cousins, aunts, and uncles, second. Advertisers would do well to take a family-first approach in making their brands attractive to buyers in these communities.

To learn more about our digital marketing services, such as mobile marketing, PPC and SEO, and how you can develop effective multicultural marketing strategies, contact us at WSI Digital Boost today.

How to Use LinkedIn for Social Media Marketing

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 15 Feb 2022 09:25:05 GMT

How do you get your social media marketing to work for you on LinkedIn in 2020? Times are uncertain across the world at the moment and LinkedIn has recently published a guide on how to reassess your business’s digital marketing strategy in the midst of Covid-19. The greatest concern marketers are facing at the moment, has been found to be budget cuts. So, let’s look at an optimized inbound marketing strategy that will decrease your spend and allow you to take advantage of connecting with the estimated 700 million users on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn Social Media Marketing Strategy in 2020

Post visually appealing content: As with any marketing strategy, rich content is a distinguishing factor. But good visuals become great visuals when there is useful and engaging information attached to it. (Also, LinkedIn says that visual content can increase comments by up to 98% ).
Optimize your page: Ensure your LinkedIn has all of your details and that it reflects your brand story. Impress people who are visiting your page.
Don’t disregard the LinkedIn “search” feature: Apply filters in the advanced search section to find specific influential people or companies to target in your marketing
Engage in LinkedIn Groups: This is an opportunity to interact with others in your sector and to get onto the radar of your target audience. Think about what other professionals might be interested in reading or hearing from you, and post relevant content. Be sure to participate in discussions and to be interactive.
Time your posts wisely: Just as with other social media platforms, LinkedIn also has suggested times for peak performance of your posts.

If Social Media Marketing Budget Cuts are Not a Concern

LinkedIn Ads: Look at sponsored content, sponsored InMail, or Text Ads. Sponsored content could be a good way to capitalize on content that is already performing well. The sponsored InMail option delivers your ad directly to your targeted audience’s inbox, resembling a message. Text Ads are more traditional, appearing to the side of a user’s news feed.

Lastly, if you have a company page and you’re one of the admins, remember to take advantage of LinkedIn Analytics. Here you can assess your page performance and keep track of post metrics to see what content is resonating with your audience.

Need help with your social media marketing strategy? WSI Digital Boost is the perfect digital marketing agency for you! For more information, contact us today.

Social Media Marketing Image Size Best Practices

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 08 Feb 2022 09:03:03 GMT

To be effective in digital marketing and social media marketing , you’ll want to use the correct image sizes when posting to these platforms.

Here at WSI Digital Boost , we’ve researched the optimal image sizes for all the major social media platforms. Follow this guide to get the most out of your social media marketing efforts.

The Social Media Platforms Covered In This Article

Facebook
Instagram
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Snapchat
Twitter
YouTube

Facebook – The Social Media Marketing Behemoth

Facebook is the world’s largest social media platform with well over 2 billion active users in any given month. This number is fast approaching 3 billion . What’s important to remember is that these are the recommended image sizes. Anything smaller and Facebook will scale your images, making them look poor!

Facebook Cover Image: The recommended dimensions for the cover image is 820 x 312 pixels. Remember, if you’re using a logo, it’s always preferable to use Portable Network Graphic (PNG) images. While JPEG is fine for photos, their lossy compression is not suitable for flat graphics with steep transitions between colors.

PNG images give you the added benefit of transparent backgrounds – so keep that in mind.

Facebook Profile Image: The profile image will scale differently depending on the device from which you’re viewing. This image must be at least 180 x 180 pixels and will render at 170 x 170 on your desktop, 128 x 128 on smartphones, and 36 x 36 on feature phones.

Facebook Event Cover Image: Event cover images are stock-standard 1980 x 1080 pixels in dimension. They will display as 470 x 174 in your feed.

Facebook Highlighted Image: Your upload size here should be 1200 x 717 pixels. It’s going to display at 843 x 504 pixels in your feed.

Facebook Shared Image: The recommended size for Facebook shared images is 1200 x 630 even though they will scale to a 1:1 aspect ratio. They will display at a max width of 470 pixels in your feed and 504 pixels on a page.

Facebook Shared Link Image: Similar (but not identical) in size to the shared image, you’ll want to aim for 1200 x 628 pixels when uploading. Not coincidentally, this is the recommended featured image size for WordPress blog posts . The shared link image minimum for square images in feed is 154 x 154 pixels and 116 x 116 for your page. Rectangular images have minimum display sizes of 470 x 246 in feed and 484 x 252 on a page.

Instagram

Visual and effective at communicating your brand, Instagram is a great digital marketing medium for connecting with your followers.

Instagram Stories Image

Upload a minimum resolution image of 600 x 1067 pixels. It’s advisable, however, to use 1080 x 1920 pixel images instead.

All Other Instagram Images

Instagram portrait image: 1080 x 1350 pixels.
Instagram square image: 1080 x 1080 pixels.
Instagram landscape image: 1080 x 566 pixels.
Instagram profile image: 110 x 100 pixels.
Instagram thumbnail image: 161 x 161 pixels.

LinkedIn – Digital Marketing Targetted at Professionals

Social media marketing via LinkedIn can be a rewarding exercise. Due to the professional nature of the platform, conversion rates are often higher than on other social platforms. At 6.1% for ads, there’s no reason to believe standard digital marketing results are not equally impressive.

Additionally, LinkedIn accounts for 80% of B2B leads . Because of this, you must place high-quality images when using this medium.

LinkedIn Profile Background Images: Often noticed even before the profile picture, LinkedIn background images should be 1548 x 396 pixels and no larger than 8MB in size.

LinkedIn Article Cover Images: Writing LinkedIn articles can seriously boost your influence in your niche. The ideal size for article covers is 2000 x 600 pixels. Images added to the article itself have the same limitations.

LinkedIn Profile Photo Images: Profile photos should be between 400 x 400 and 7680 x 4320 pixels and are limited to 8MB. LinkedIn profile photos should be headshots.

LinkedIn company logo images: 300 x 300 pixels.
LinkedIn company cover images: 1744 x 444 pixels.
LinkedIn shared images and link posts: 1104 x 736 pixels.

Pinterest is a source of inspiration for many. Every Pin is an image that can also link back to websites, making Pinterest a great traffic source.

Pinterest Board Display Images

The board display images are thumbnails posted to a Pinterest board. A minimum of 55 x 55 for small images. Large board posts should be 222 x 150 pixels.

Pinterest profile photo images: At least 165 x 165 pixels.
Pin images: A fixed width of 236 pixels, although the height is variable, depending on where the image is displayed.

Snapchat

Snapchat has 200 million+ users, which you can direct to your site by placing a link at the bottom of your story. Both the Snapchat “Geofilter” image as well as the Snapchat image ads should be 1080 x 1920 pixels.

Twitter

From tweeting during peak hours to @mentions, to harness Twitter’s full potential, you’ll have to get the image sizes right. It’s a worthwhile effort since Twitter boasts over 330 million users.

Twitter Header Photo: The recommended image size is 1500 x 500 pixels for the header photo.

Twitter Profile Image: Similar to LinkedIn, your profile picture will be cropped and displayed as a circular image. It will display at 200 x 200 pixels, but the recommended upload size is 400 x 400 pixels.

Twitter Instream Photo: The recommended aspect ratio is 16:9. Take this into consideration since the minimum image dimensions are 600 x 375, but larger images will look better when users click on the image.

YouTube – The World’s Second Largest Search Engine

Yep, you read that right. The guys over at Alphabet must be doing something right to own positions one and two in this space. The video giant processes more than 3 billion searches a month !

You ought to seriously consider harnessing the power of this beast in your social media marketing campaign if you’re not doing so already.

YouTube Channel Profile Photo: While YouTube will only display at 98 x 98, you should upload an image of size 800 x 800 pixels for your channel profile photo.

YouTube Channel Cover Photo: Also known as channel art, the upload size is a recommended 2560 x 1140 pixels with a max file size of 4MB.

YouTube Video Thumbnail: The minimum width for the YouTube video thumbnail is 640 pixels. The recommended image size is 1280 x 720 pixels with a max file size of 2MB.

Conclusion

While none of the above is strict guidelines, remember, if you can’t match the dimensions exactly, it’s safer to go with larger images rather than smaller.

For more social media marketing material, see the rest of our blog .

WSI Digital Boost is a full-service digital marketing agency. If you want help creating a social media marketing strategy that adds value and draws traffic to your site, as well as related services such as content marketing and video marketing, contact us today.

Google Personalizes Search Results and Gets The Industry All Hot and Bothered

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 25 Jan 2022 07:42:58 GMT

On 10 January 2012, Google announced a few tweaks to its search engine that will give users more personalized results. These tweaks mean that you will be seeing more personalized content – whether it’s comments from people you follow on the web or information right from your social media accounts, instead of thousands of search results that may (or may not) be applicable to what you were looking for. It is important that digital marketers, particularly those who specialize in search-engine optimization , understand these changes and their implications.

This is all part of Google’s ultimate goal: knowing enough about each search engine user to tailor its results to fit your unique interests. So basically – different people will be seeing different search results, even if they’re searching for exactly the same thing. This is huge (almost as huge as the Universal Search feature that Google announced in 2007 which brought video thumbnails , news and blog posts and images into our search results).

Does Google Plus Get Preference in Personalized search?

Google’s 6-month-old social network, which offers features similar to those offered by Facebook and Twitter, is being cautiously eyed with some people wondering whether Google is now favoring their own content. For some people, it will make life easier – you search for something and then get asked to “Search Plus Your World” (where you can find privately shared content from friends, colleagues and so forth). One worrisome feature is that this privately shared content can be mistaken for public content in search results (it’s not public for everyone to see, but we’re not used to seeing personal information at the top of our Google pages).

Personal and Social Content are Now “one” With Public Content

While you’re going to be able to see search results based on your online behavior and from your social connections, you’re still going to see the normal public content (it’s just going to be presented as “Other results”).

Amit Singhal, who oversees Google’s ranking algorithms, told Search Engine Land “The social search algorithm, and the personal search algorithm, and the personalized search algorithm are actually one algorithm now, and we are merging it in a way that is very pleasant and useful,” said Singhal.

We’re looking forward to the changes this will bring to the world of Digital Marketing . Interacting with your target audience online means being connected, and ultimately that’s what we’re trying to achieve at WSI – building new avenues and platforms to connect with audiences on a more personal level. Keep an eye out for more updates about this new feature coming soon!

Social Media Marketing: LinkedIn Sponsored Content

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 18 Jan 2022 07:30:43 GMT

Sponsored content on LinkedIn is a sure-fire way of getting your social media marketing aimed at the correct audience. Use this guide to help you create LinkedIn sponsored content.

Get Picky With Your Promoted Content

The first step is to choose what content you want to promote. It may be a blog post or a web page featuring a promotion. Copy the URL, go to your company page on LinkedIn and paste the URL into the update box where it reads: “Share an article or photo” and post the article, photo or link.

The post will now appear in your timeline. Above the post, you will see a grey arrow with the words “Sponsor now”. When you click on the link, you will be taken to your LinkedIn campaign manager.

Work the LinkedIn Campaign Manager

Once you are in your LinkedIn campaign manager, you can go through all the processes you need to in order to promote your content. LinkedIn’s campaign manager is very similar to Facebook’s campaign manager. Click on the article link that you want to promote and click on “create a campaign” in the top right corner.

You can choose whether you want to promote your content with targeted native advertising, drive traffic from the desktop with ads, or send targeted messages directly to people. If you want to sponsor the content, click on the top option that reads: “Promote your content with targeted native advertising”.

Next, you will name your campaign, choose your objectives, select your audiences, the location you want to target, and how you want to target them. You can target people by fields of study, member groups, job titles, job function, years of experience, and a host of other options that aren’t available to you with Facebook ads.

If you’re looking for ways to improve your social media marketing strategy and content marketing , contact WSI Digital Boost today for a consultation.

Digital tools for sales, efficiency, and growth

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 11 Jan 2022 12:54:04 GMT

There’s never been a better time to get your sales team in order. The sales industry is ever changing, especially now in this ever increasingly complex world. Some of the most prominent online marketing tools still include ads and content marketing on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. Although social media marketing tactics can be valuable for sales boosting and brand awareness, it is not always that easy.

There are many other types of software for sales that can help you eliminate any unnecessary tasks, such as replying to cold emails one by one, so that you have the time to focus on more critical tasks. Entrepreneurs and startups must think of elements such as search engine optimization (SEO) and task automation to help them drive sales. Our top 3 picks for digital tools that can boost your sales include:

Top 3 digital tools for sales

Hubspot

With the benefits of HubSpot’s Sales Hub, your sales team will be able to prioritize their activities, analyze their potential customer base, automate repetitive work, and spend more time on buyer engagement. Their top features include:

Email templates for email marketing campaigns.
Sequences made out of email templates and tasks.
Task queues.
Sales automation.
Smart notifications.
Video content.
Chatbots.
Calendar integration.
Automated email logging.
Custom reports and dashboards.
Interactive playbooks.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator

LinkedIn, which has long been the most popular platform for building professional networks and relationships, offers a wide range of sales solutions. It is one of the best mediums for finding and nurturing sales leads. One of the great LinkedIn features at your disposal is the LinkedIn Sales Navigator. Depending on your sales navigator plan, top features can include:

InMail messages.
Saved leads and automated lead generation.
Advanced lead and company search.
Custom lists.
Lead and account alerts.
Notes and tags.
TeamLink features for teams.
CRM integrations. (To integrate with other popular sales apps, like Hubspot.)
Access to out-of-network connections.
Powerful sales insights.

InsideSales.com

This tool is perfect if you are looking for a lead management solution. They provide teams with the data, insights, resources, and solutions they need to get real results. With the insights from this tool, you can better understand how your leads are interacting with your business to empower your marketing strategy and team for future sales. Their top features include:

Call recording.
Click-to-call.
Location generation.
Contact information locator.
Prospect data recording.
Insights.
Automated voicemails.
Automated email.
Task management.
Email tracking.

Using the best tools for your digital marketing strategy can be a make or break for your big and small businesses alike. Let us help you stay ahead of competitors! WSI Digital Boost is a group of digital marketing experts that specialize in content marketing, mobile marketing, social media marketing, and website design . To learn more, feel free to contact us today.

Digital Marketing Tips: Grow Your e-Commerce Business Over The Festive Season

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 04 Jan 2022 07:16:30 GMT

“Festive season” – the other f-word ! While the period is supposed to be cheerful and jovial, it can often lead to significant stress, family feuds, and financial pressure. Add to that the anxiety of business year-end functions and the awareness of politically-correct greetings, and it is no wonder that more and more consumers are turning to online shopping to ease at least one aspect of this jolly time of the year. Make sure that your e-commerce business maximizes this opportunity to grow by making smart use of digital marketing tactics.

How Do I Increase My e-Commerce Conversion Through Digital Marketing?

Start by measuring the volume of your visitor traffic, the source, and the relevance of the traffic. To improve these factors, you need to boost your search engine optimization to gain popularity for your website.

Visitors to your site move through an online sales funnel that starts with browsing, then onto shopping, and finally making a purchase. So, bearing in mind that your traffic is driven by your SEO efforts, the best place to start is with your website design . It needs to be appealing, easy to navigate, and able to offer your prospects exactly what they want – a simple way to buy their festive season supplies.

Put yourself in your customers’ shoes: they are also worried about where they are spending their money. To positively impact your e-commerce conversion, establish trust with your potential buyers. Link building with authoritative sites that have a large and loyal online readership will increase your credibility.

Using content marketing to share valuable information with your audience helps to nurture the trust you have built with your customers. Another key driver of your e-commerce store is the use of social media marketing to boost traffic with seasonal promotional campaigns.

Whether you are new to the world of digital marketing or simply want to improve your results, using cutting-edge, and measurable digital marketing solutions will increase your exposure, brand awareness , leads, and sales . For more information on e-commerce business growth, please contact the WSI team today.

A Look at Facebook Insights on Shopping Online

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 28 Dec 2021 09:45:02 GMT

Digital marketing is a wonderful medium for showcasing fashion and new insights from Facebook paint a picture of how online marketing is shaping how consumers find and purchase products. According to a survey done with 1 729 participants in the US, consumers want a personal touch, they are convinced by individualised engagements with brands both online and in-store, and they seek authentic interactions.

How Digital Marketing Is Shaping the Shopping Experience

Speaking to Individuals

Targeting specific audiences with tailored content is the way to earn loyalty when it comes to the fashion-conscious buyer. 72% of US fashion shoppers say that some form of personalisation in the process increases their chance of purchasing an item. 43% of 18 to 34-year olds react positively when brands speak to consumers through similar values and morals.

In societies that encourage self-expression, shoppers want to feel like individuals, and they will reward brands who oblige them in this search.

Mobile Inspiration

Although many shoppers still make purchases in-store, their mobile devices are always at the ready, inspiring and informing their choices. 23% of surveyed shoppers compare products using their mobile devices, and 28% of shoppers use their devices to look for discount codes. The key take-away for marketers should be to use digital marketing to create a seamless experience that starts with showcasing a product and ends with purchasing of said product. To get ahead, retailers should fast-track online purchasing processes to meet shoppers when they are ready to make a purchase.

Authentic Interactions

The age of the influencer is here and according to the survey, almost one in three people are influenced by people they follow on social media. These interactions need to be authentic, and influencers need to be relatable to earn trust. Over half of the surveyed shoppers who follow influencers say they have made purchases based on the recommendation of an influencer.

The important part of authentic interactions is the give and take of the exchange. Consumers follow influencers not only for their recommendations on purchases, but also because they are entertaining, they teach their followers tips and tricks as well as inspire their followers.

The future use of digital marketing in the fashion industry seems secure, but marketers need to understand that the impact of social media marketing, influencers and quality content marketing cannot be underestimated. Shoppers are seeking a deeper, more integrated experience that translates from ‘want’ to ‘have’ seamlessly and digital marketing can facilitate this process as long as the individual shopper is kept front of mind.

WSI Digital Boost offers top-quality digital marketing services. Contact us for more information today.

How to get your customers to review your business

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 09:30:02 GMT

Every prudent, forward-thinking business owner understands the importance of an aggressive digital marketing strategy by now. We often forget, however, that a healthy and truly productive online presence involves more than just the marketing material we put out there.

Think about it: When looking to purchase a product or service, the first thing most people do is go online and find out more about what’s available out there. Now, with a good, user-friendly website and digital marketing strategy, most businesses have that covered. However, once they’ve decided on a make or model and have a pretty good idea of the costs involved, they start looking for reviews and there’s nothing like a few good reviews to tip the scales in your favour.

Still, getting even your most loyal customers to review your business or product online can be extremely challenging.

Here are two not-so-obvious tips to get you started:

Let them know you care: When you ask your customers to review your business, let them know that you’re not just after good reviews. If they know that you take what they say about you seriously, whether it be good or bad, they are more likely to give a positive review anyway because they feel that they matter. Furthermore, if they had reported on a bad experience before and you resolved the problem, you’re probably in for a really nice public ‘thank you’.
Don’t push under 30s too far. Asking under 30s for a review has no place in a digital marketing strategy. Just inform them that you have Facebook, Twitter or any other accounts and engage them in this way. Remember, many under 30s post statuses several times a day as a matter of course, so they will probably comment on their experience of your product/service in any case.

Good reviews have been the deciding factor in many purchases, so remember to include inspiring online reviews in your digital marketing campaign. WSI Digital Boost offers top-quality content writing and marketing services. Contact us for more information today.

What’s the best content length and how does it affect SEO?

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 14 Dec 2021 06:15:02 GMT

When it comes to content marketing , it’s hard to know how long your blog posts and articles should be. The short and confusing answer is: it depends on what the user is searching for. If the user is looking for something that requires a comprehensive and long answer, then they will be expecting a longer article. If they are looking for a quick solution, they wouldn’t want to read thousands of words of text. The length of the content that someone is looking for when they want to book their car for a repair or hire an accountant, for example, will be much shorter than when they are looking for a bespoke solution.

When it comes to sharing opinions and showing people how to achieve things, Google loves long form content. Google wants to know that the person will get all the information they need in the form of a full walk-through so that they thoroughly understand the subject. The person writing the article also has to demonstrate that they have the subject matter knowledge by giving the reader a comprehensive and long answer. Long form content is very important in this scenario.

In an article by serpIQ, the researchers show that the average search length is 2400 words. In an article by Quick Sprout by Neil Patel, he explains how content length affects ranking and conversion. Neil realised that longer form content converts 30% more than shorter forms of the same content. According to a recent study, the average length of content on page 1 of Google is 1900 words.

Regardless of the content length, you should always focus on delivering high quality content. WSI OMS offers top quality content writing and marketing services. Contact us for more information today.

Can you Run a Business without Digital Marketing?

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 07 Dec 2021 09:00:04 GMT

Companies in every sector are spending more time, money and energy on digital marketing in a bid to expand their businesses. Many would argue that digital marketing is essential in today’s business environment. However, not everyone is comfortable with the ins and outs of web design , social media marketing and content marketing, and may well wonder if they can promote their businesses without any digital marketing campaigns.

How to Promote your Business without Digital Marketing

Technically, yes, it is possible to promote your business without digital marketing. Traditional marketing methods still have some efficacy: you can use TV or radio advertising, hand out printed promotional materials, attend trade shows, and more. The problem with these methods is that some of them can be relatively expensive and offer highly variable results. It is also very difficult to gauge your return on investment with these old-fashioned approaches.

Can you survive without it?

Survive? Perhaps. Grow and thrive? Probably not. People are increasingly using online platforms, particularly search engines and social media, to make their purchase decisions. If you are not promoting yourself on these platforms, you miss out on a great deal of exposure and opportunities to expand your customer base. You can still use traditional methods by all means, but once you make the move into digital marketing, you will soon see benefits.

Execution

Regardless of the marketing method you choose, your success will always be determined by your intentions and approach. Digital media tactics may be quite effective in their own right, but they are even more so when they are used as part of an overarching strategy. In turn, that strategy should serve some carefully considered goals. Don’t just think about how social media can grow your customer base. Instead, think first about what you wish to accomplish as a company, how your products can benefit customers, how you can help - and then devise and execute a marketing strategy that will serve your plan.

Even if you are not comfortable with the world of digital marketing, you can still enjoy its benefits by allowing the experts to handle it for you. WSI Digital Boost is a team of digital marketing specialists offering a full range of services, including content marketing, mobile marketing, social media marketing, and website development. Contact us now to learn more.

A Simple 5-minute Edit that will give Instant Appeal to your LinkedIn Profile

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 23 Nov 2021 08:30:05 GMT

If you’re looking to revamp your personal brand, show up higher on LinkedIn search results and get more (hiring) visitors, the process may not be as hard as you think it is. Just like in digital marketing , your LinkedIn headline has the power to revamp your entire profile image.

Let go of the default

If you don’t have a LinkedIn headline, the platform uses your current employer and job title as your headline and many people choose to stick with this. However “ Email Marketing Specialist at XYZ Advertising” is a very boring headline to have. It doesn’t offer the audience new information that can’t be gleaned from your profile.

Why you should have a real headline

Sure, your headline can certainly include what you do and where, but it should also communicate your field, expertise and what makes you different. This should be done in a way that grabs attention. Regardless of your goal for your LinkedIn profile – getting hired, networking, recruiting or building credibility – you need to stand out. And it’s as simple as doing the following.

1. Include your speciality

Instead of just writing “Freelance writer” if that’s what you do, include your speciality area e.g. lifestyle, personal finance etc. Programmers, for instance, could also include programming languages they are proficient in.

2. Integrate your future

Include your future interests/goals for a future career. For instance, if as a freelance writer you hope to go into mobile or social media marketing in future but have no real experience in it as yet, you can say “ Mobile Marketing enthusiast.” This lays the work for your job search, and it will also allow you to rank for searches related to your field of interest i.e. the jobs you want in addition to the job you have.

3. Say what you do

This does not mean add your job title. Instead, highlight the value you add by virtue of the work that you do e.g. as an Account Manager for Example Bank. Your work may be to improve customer experience. So say “Improving customer experience as Account Manager for Example Bank.”

4. Display any accolades and features

If you have appeared in, been mentioned by or written for some noteworthy source, including it in your headline boosts your credibility instantly. People will want to know more about you if your headline features a big name. Just don’t make it up.

3 Reasons Why You Should Include Instagram For Your Business

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 16 Nov 2021 08:15:02 GMT

Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are now all commonplace in any quality digital marketing strategy . Unfortunately, there are countless businesses out there that are missing out on the many benefits associated with using another popular social media platform as a marketing tool. Yes, we’re talking about Instagram. Digital marketers must be able to master Instagram marketing to connect with Millennials, Gen Z, and Boomers alike, tell their brands' visual stories, and stake out a presence on visual media. Here are 3 reasons why you should include Instagram in YOUR digital marketing strategy going forward:

1. Visual is better

It is safe to say that content marketing in the form of blogs is a huge dominating force in the world of digital right now. But, as the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words – and this is the reason why Instagram is so very popular. Of course, if you want to build an Instagram marketing strategy that really resonates with your target audience, you first need to understand how the Instagram algorithm works. It will give you the opportunity to communicate with your audience, and connect with them, in a more visual way. Plus, it’s sure to prove to be lots of fun when you start getting creative with your ideas!

2. Your audience is there

While Facebook is still considered to be the social media platform on which people spend most of their free time, many of you will be surprised to learn that Instagram comes in second place. According to Forbes, and research done by comScore, US internet users spend approximately 12 billion minutes on Instagram each month. Along with this, Instagram is also constantly growing. If recent stats are to be believed, the platform’s rate of engagement per post has increased by 53% year after year. You can find when your followers are most active in Instagram Insights, so your best days and times to post might be a bit different depending on your specific audience.

3. Your competition is there

Yes, your competition has also realised that Instagram is a wonderful opportunity to do something different and is sure to be making its mark as we speak. Do you want to fall behind? If not, it’s time to get moving!

Need some help getting it right? You can turn to WSI Digital Boost for assistance when it comes to social media marketing . We will create a fool-proof digital marketing strategy for you! Contact us today to learn more.

3 Types of Videos You Need to Include in Your Social Media Marketing Strategy

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 09 Nov 2021 07:33:24 GMT

Video marketing is quickly becoming key to social media success for brands big and small. However, not all video content is created equal. Below, we examine the top three types of videos to include in your social media marketing strategy to ensure improved engagement and reputation for your business going forward.

Live Video

Live streaming is so hot right now. According to recent statistics, 80% of people would rather watch live video from a brand than read a blog, and 82% would prefer live video from a brand to social posts. Do your brand a favour and start experimenting with Facebook Live and YouTube Live to get a feel for the trend and watch how quickly your audience starts to grow. Just remember to promote your live streams on your social media profiles well ahead of time to generate hype and increase turn-out.

Tutorial Videos

Did you know that tutorial videos are some of the most commonly shared types of videos on social media? The great news is that they are easy to film and are a fantastic opportunity to promote your product. Do your best to keep them short, sweet and witty.

Behind-the-Scenes Videos

One of the most important things for a brand to do when it comes to digital and social media marketing is to ensure that people can relate to it. One way in which to do this is to introduce your followers to your team and processes as authentically as possible. Behind-the-scenes videos at an event or filming an ad are a great opportunity to give this a go. Just remember to avoid any scripts and heavy editing.

Build your social media marketing strategy with a team of experts in your corner to guide you every step of the way. Enter WSI Digital Boost OMS, video content specialists offering digital marketing services including content marketing , mobile marketing, social media marketing, website design, and website development. Contact us now to learn more.

Is your Digital Marketing Influential?

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 02 Nov 2021 12:30:04 GMT

How much impact is your digital marketing having on your target market? Effective digital marketing is about much more than regular blog posts and building a presence on social media. You don’t want your digital marketing simply to exist; you want it to be influential. One of your primary objectives, as you develop your marketing strategies, is to increase your digital marketing influence.

Why is Digital Marketing so Important?

Establishing an online presence is only the beginning of your digital marketing efforts. An ongoing digital marketing strategy will not only boost brand awareness and grow your audience. It will also expand your client base, and generate leads and sales. By investing in digital marketing, you are investing in the growth of your business.

You Reach People where they Spend their Time

With the growth of the internet, people are spending more and more time online, for both business and leisure. Especially considering the massive growth in remote work since March 2020, almost everyone is online, via some or other device, for most of the day. What does this mean for you and your company? Your customers and potential customers are online. They are browsing the web, looking for products and services like yours. With well-planned digital marketing strategies, you can reach them easily, exactly where they are spending the majority of their time.

Is your Marketing Making a Difference?

Digital marketing has immense potential to expand your market, boost your sales and help you grow your business, but its effectiveness depends on how you plan and implement it. It is important to analyze your digital marketing campaigns and the results they are achieving. Are you reaching your audience? Are you achieving your goals? Are your efforts making a difference? The beauty of digital marketing is that you can always see how effective it is and change your approach to improve your results.

To increase your digital marketing influence, you need a team of experts in your corner. Enter WSI Digital Boost, digital marketing specialists offering a full range of services, including content marketing, mobile marketing, social media marketing, and website development. Contact us now to learn more.

Your Guide To Creating More Meaningful Thought Leadership Content For LinkedIn

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 19 Oct 2021 08:45:02 GMT

With an increasing number of brands and business people trying to show their thought leadership online, the internet has become flooded with content . The result is that LinkedIn especially is flooded with content pieces and thought leadership pieces that get lost in cyberspace.

Generating compelling content for LinkedIn

To cut through the clutter and get your content under the eyes of potential clients, you need to make sure you have something meaningful to say. People are becoming increasingly disappointed in the quality of thought leadership content being published, with authors rehashing old ideas, opinions and research instead of contributing something new.

One way to do this is to know what type of content is the most popular on LinkedIn . Industry trends, news, best practices and jobs are known to be the types of LinkedIn content that are clicked on the most. Understand your company’s place in the market, your target audience and your skills when you start drafting a thought leadership piece on these topics. If there is a new trends report or statistics that you want to do a thought leadership piece on, look for a unique angle on the topic within the constraints of your unique position and perspective in the market.

Instead of trying to push out more content to increase your engagement, it is often better to post less and spend your time focusing on creating high-impact content for your followers. You can also consider spending money on media placement to get your thought leadership pieces seen by more people instead of creating more content.

Need help with your LinkedIn marketing or social media marketing ? Then contact WSI Digital Boost today.

The Online Fake Scare: Your brand needs Online Credibility, now more than ever

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Wed, 13 Oct 2021 08:08:38 GMT

Does your business have the online credibility it needs to do business in the Web 2.0 era? How do you know if your brand, products or services are reputable, believable and credible online?

Now, more than ever, a company needs to make it easy to do business with them. One of the best ways to do this is by giving your potential customer all the information they need online. These are only a few reasons why your business needs online credibility :

People no longer trust “your message”

If you’re investing in one-way communication, you might be missing out on a lot of business. Today’s consumers are interested in peer-reviewed products and services. They want to do business with people they can trust, not with people who keep cold-calling them or steam-rolling them with one-sided marketing messages.

When it comes to trying out a new product or services, many people hop onto Google to find out how others have rated the company’s solutions. They learn about new products on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook – and they trust what their friends have to say about the product. If you’re not engaging with your target audience in a way that lets them give you feedback and share your message with their networks, you’re missing out on a lot of business.

Online complaints are powerful

Whether it’s an unflattering post on Hellopeter.com from a disgruntled employee or a 600 word blog post by a prominent blogger or journalist – this type of content can get a lot of attention online. Not only do well-written reviews (whether they’re unflattering or not) go viral on social media sites, but they often rank well in search engine search results if they’re posted on large, popular websites.

If a person types in your name, your company’s name or your product’s name, you need to be sure that the search engine user is reading information that you’ve put out into the cyber sphere (and not malicious content that was written by others).

One of the ways to make sure your business has online credibility and that your target audience is getting information directly from you is to employ a team of social media managers, copywriters and digital strategists. Contact WSI Digital Boost for more information.

The most effective way of getting your message out there via social media

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 12 Oct 2021 07:51:54 GMT

TED (Technology, Education, Design) began in 1984, far away from the world of social media, as a conference designed to bring industry leaders together to discuss fascinating ideas. In 2014, TED is as successful as ever and, with the help of social media, the conference is able to reach people around the world and share its speakers’ talks with millions of viewers.

Why you should include TED in your digital marketing strategy

Via its Facebook, Twitter and YouTube pages, TED shares links, videos, information and more about each of its speakers and all TED talks are available for free on the main website. In the past, the TED conference was only accessible to attendees and the incredible speakers could only be heard by those in the room, but today’s world of TED, which includes TEDWomen, Tedx, TEDGlobal, TEDActive and more is available to anyone with an Internet connection and all TED conferences are widely publicised via social media .

TED talks are viewed by thousands of people each month from all around the world and the talks have been translated into 40 languages. One of TED’s goals is to be accessible to as many people as possible and combining translation with the power of social media, it will be able to reach more people than ever before.

Speakers can use their own social media pages in a similar way to TED, posting links to videos featuring their talks, links to their websites and other relevant industry information. It’s an excellent way to make a name for yourself and build a substantial social media following.

For more information about how a strong social media presence can benefit your company or to learn more about WSI Digital Boost ’s social media services, please contact us today. We look forward to hearing from you!

4 Ways to improve your content marketing strategy

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 12 Oct 2021 07:09:21 GMT

Content marketing has the power to generate excellent results, growing your audience and boosting your sales. However, it can sometimes take a lot of content, and a lot of research and work, before you start to see the benefits. It is essential to have a well-planned content marketing strategy if you want to see results. Here are four things you can (and should) do to improve your strategy.

Determine objectives for content marketing

If you try to play it by ear and generate content in a haphazard way, you could get lucky and achieve good results, but it is more likely that you will miss the mark completely - mainly because you don’t even know what you are aiming at. Before you start creating content, get clear on what you want to achieve. What are your business goals? Once you can answer that question, you can set marketing goals that help you reach them. Your content marketing should then be developed with those goals in mind.

Focus on building an audience

Your content should be tailored to reach the largest possible audience - but also a specific audience that is appropriate to your industry. Your audience is determined by your objectives. Use personas to help you model audiences and create content that will reach them.

Curate and update content

Content can quickly go out of date, and this will always reflect poorly on your brand. Once you have posted content, you should review it regularly to ensure that it is still up to date and saying what you intend it to say. Check any audience feedback and incorporate it into your updates, as well as upcoming content. You should also pay close attention to how your content performs from an SEO point of view and make whatever edits are necessary to optimise it.

Streamline your workflow

Once you have a great content marketing strategy in place, the next step is to generate the content itself. You need a continuous flow of good content, which means you need to set up an efficient schedule and workflow and stick to it. A better handle on your workflow corresponds directly to higher performance in content marketing.

WSI Digital Boost offers a full range of digital marketing services , including content marketing. If you need help developing or improving your content marketing strategy, contact us today.

Tips on Building an Engaged Instagram Following

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 21 Sep 2021 08:30:04 GMT

How to Get More Engagements on Instagram

Does your company make use of Instagram as part of its social media marketing campaign? If you want to drive more engagement via your Instagram account, there is quite a bit that you can do. Increasing your company’s visibility and earning more likes, comments and followers is not as hard as you think. Consider the following points:

Make sure that you have a clear call to action in the caption or on the image.
Use location for your calls to action. Do this by uploading an image and sharing the post. Select the “edit” feature on the photo. Now a keyboard with “add location” as an option.
Ensure greater content discovery for your intended audience by making use of hashtags. Only use hashtags that are relevant to your specific intended audience.
Promote someone else’s account via your own followers by participating in Shout-outs for Shout-outs. You might have already seen the “S4S” comments in some of your photos. For the most success, look for pages with a similar audience to your own. You can ask other users to do Shout-outs for Shout-outs by sending them a public message via commenting on their photos or by sending them a private message.
Don’t be scared to add text. All images allow up to 2000 characters for text. While not all of your photos will have such long characters, try to include some more relevant details on some of your posts. A unique caption will grab more attention and will be the cherry on the top of a great eye catching image.
Participate and interact with other Instagram users. Comment on photos, like photos, add hashtags to posts. Generally have a good and active presence on Instagram for the best results and to get your content and presence more noticed.
Don’t be shy to promote your Instagram account on other social media platforms. That way you can recruit new followers and create more awareness of your account.

Social Media Marketing Services Offered by WSI

At WSI we offer professional social media marketing advice and services, as well as content marketing and a complete range of other digital marketing services. With our assistance you can enjoy a greater online presence that is strategically planned and implemented. Our team of friendly and professional consultants will ensure that your company’s Instagram and other online marketing campaigns are correctly managed.

To learn more about our social media marketing services and how to understand the benefits of online and digital marketing, contact us at WSI today.

4 Ways To Improve Your Content Marketing Strategy

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Thu, 16 Sep 2021 15:17:55 GMT

Many content marketing failures are preventable. Improving your content marketing strategy will help you to get the most out of your online advertising and promotion. Whether you are a new or already booming business, you can use these 4 ways to improve your content marketing strategy:

Determine Objectives for Content Marketing

Before you publish your content marketing, you need to create a content marketing strategy. Content marketing plans ensure that content marketing efforts don’t go to waste. Your content strategy should include the topic you want to focus on in a given month, the types of content you want to share (video, images, etc.), draft blog posts, your brand persona, and necessary SEO keywords you want to include.

Focus on building an audience

The best content is content that focuses on building an audience and engagement with that audience. Firstly, you need to ensure that you are reaching the right target audience with tools such as Google Analytics to monitor your website traffic. You can also use competitor analysis to analyze the behavior of customers and their preferences. Once you build your audience, you will establish trust with them by matching their persona.

Curate and Update Content

A successful content marketing strategy ensures your content is relevant and fits your audience or buyer personas. You should update and post only your best content regularly on social media platforms or update your existing content to fit your business goals. Remember that even with the best content creation, establishing a relationship with your audience and finding your voice takes time. Be consistent with your publishing content.

Streamline your workflow

You need to create a streamlined workflow for improving your content creation. You can do this by taking on a good team on content markets and freelancers if needed to help with your process. Your content marketing team should be creating a content marketing campaign monthly to match your mission and create lead generation. Try including a content calendar and checklist of your business goals.

Improve your content marketing strategy with WSI

With offices across the world and more than two decades of digital marketing experience, your WSI Consultant brings deep expertise and insights directly to your marketing strategy.

For a successful content marketing strategy for your business, contact us today !

Here are 5 tips on where to find web design inspiration!

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 14 Sep 2021 07:45:02 GMT

Every web designer will experience designer’s block at some stage – whether they are uninspired by the work they’ve been contracted to do, or simply have no idea where to start. Luckily, the Internet is awash with inspirational resources that can help inspire and challenge you. Here is a list from a professional web design company of the top 5 sources of inspiration:

The internet’s five best sources for web design ideas

CSS galleries. This is essentially a showroom for the most attractive, high quality website designs. Getting your website published here increases your brand visibility, and browsing other designer’s expertly crafted websites can be a great source of inspiration.
Social news communities. These news aggregators will help you to condense all the information you are searching for into a well-organised stream. While some news communities concentrate on technical issues that include programming and development, there are many that have useful design information. Here, you can find everything from free source code to inspirational blogs.
Dribbble. This highly effective marketing network has a “popular section” that is packed with innovative design, website and mobile information that should give you the inspiration you are looking for. You can even use this tool to meet with other talented artists to share ideas and tips!
Premium Pixels. This website is a useful site for sourcing free pattern files, PDSs and brushes. It is easy to navigate and the range of available resources is enormous, allowing you to get creative without costing you a cent.
Awwwards. This site has a great gallery that showcases the best in modern web design trends. These websites are carefully evaluated to ensure that they are of the best quality, making them a very useful resource.

Your designer’s block should vanish with these resources at your fingertips, leaving you brimming with exciting new design concepts!

For more advice on web design , contact WSI today.

4 Marketing Automation Mistakes to Avoid

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Thu, 09 Sep 2021 07:20:42 GMT

Setting up marketing automation? Avoid these four marketing automation mistakes to get the most out of your system.

4 Marketing automation mistakes

Market automation is important to promote and expand your business or brand. If you don’t follow an effective marketing automation solution , you will risk your relevancy and engagement with your readers or customer base. Here are mistakes to avoid when working on your automation solutions.

Starting without a plan

Your team won’t know which direction your content marketing is heading and you won’t have a good workflow without a plan. Content marketing is important when it comes to automation and it requires a marketing strategy and its own marketing automation campaign. Before you start using your automation system, be sure to create a plan and marketing automation strategy that your team should follow. A marketing strategy will streamline the automation process and ensure everyone’s on track with your business marketing goals.

Failing to integrate technology

Are you using the latest marketing automation platforms ? Not using marketing automation tools and databases such as CRM systems reduces your chances of connecting with systems to form an engagement with customers. Businesses should use marketing automation systems and data management software technologies for effective communication.

Setting it and forgetting it

Setting up and forgetting about your automation databases is one of the biggest marketing mistakes. Marketing teams should be paying attention to the automation marketing campaign, and monitoring the automation platform. This includes checking up on your interactions, prospects, lead generation, and customer experiences. There are marketing tools to assist you with your automation, such as Hubspot, Pardot, Activecampaign, Vbout, etc.

Not testing or optimizing

Have you tested your automation content and capabilities? You should be testing and optimizing your content to improve your engagement with your target audiences. Test your email marketing by sending out “test emails”, and optimize your emails to work on mobile-friendly devices.

WSI Digital Marketing solutions - for marketing automation that works!

We don't believe in the "one-size-fits-all" approach to digital marketing. Instead, we take the time to understand your organization and customers so we can recommend a strategy based on your individual business needs. When you invest in any of WSI’s digital marketing solutions , you’ll have some of the top minds in the industry contributing to your goals and vision.

To avoid or fix marketing automation mistakes, contact us today!

Questions to Ask When Choosing a Digital Marketing Agency for Your B2B Company

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 31 Aug 2021 16:54:17 GMT

Finding a quality, reliable digital marketing agency is difficult at the best of times. However, many will agree that finding a digital marketing agency with a special focus on providing online marketing services to B2B companies is close to impossible! In order to ensure that you make the best decision possible for the future growth of your establishment, here are a few questions that you should ask before making a final selection.

What Are Your Specialties?

Ultimately, you will want to hire a digital marketing agency that can offer you a variety of services from social media marketing and content marketing to SEO and PPC advertising. It is also always helpful if they can assist you in terms of optimising your website design.

What Are Some of the Agency’s Success Stories

This will give you a good indication of the types of businesses that the agency is used to servicing. If their success stories are based on a variety of different B2B clients, the chances are high that you have struck gold!

When it Comes to Social Media Marketing, Which Platforms Will You Focus On?

If the potential digital marketing agency neglects to mention dedicating time to LinkedIn, it would be wise to continue your search. Any B2B-focused digital marketing agency should be able to offer LinkedIn marketing related services.

Can I Meet the Team?

Before hiring the agency, it is important to meet the team that will be working on your account. See how you feel when you meet each individual and don’t be afraid to ask them questions, too!

Here at WSI Digital Boost, we specialise in offering a full digital marketing solution to B2B companies from far and wide. For more information about how we can assist you, please do not hesitate to get in touch .

Online Marketing Advice: How to Add YouTube Video Cards to Your YouTube Videos

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 24 Aug 2021 16:34:33 GMT

Online marketing advice: Using YouTube Video Cards with YouTube videos is a great way to grow your online presence and boost engagement with your target audience. These can be used to drive more traffic to your website or even raise money for a project that you are working on. This is done by making your YouTube videos more interactive with YouTube Video Cards. These cards work very similarly to annotations and you can include up to 5 cards in each video, making it convenient to offer a variety of call-to-action annotations depending on where the viewer is in the video. If you have used annotations before you might have been frustrated that they don’t work on mobile devices – the great news about video cards is that they do.

Using YouTube video cards with your marketing videos

There are five types of video cards to choose from as follows: associated website, fundraising, merchandise, video, playlist and fan funding. You can quite easily track how well your cards are performing within the YouTube analytics section. Below you will learn how to add these video cards to your YouTube videos:

· Sign in to your YouTube account.

· Open the Video Manager page.

· Select a video you would like to add video cards to and click “edit.”

· You will find a tab at the top of your video called “cards,” – click on this tab.

· Click on “add card.”

· Select the type of video card you would like to add to your video and then click “create”.

· Now you can insert the URL that you want to direct your viewers to when they click on the video card.

· Click “create card” and you’re done.

· Images can be added to the card – these must have the following dimensions: 150 x 150 px.

Once your card is created you can edit it by adding a start time to it (the option for this will be found at the bottom of the screen) and also making changes or deleting it by clicking on the pencil icon next to the card.

Obtain More Online Marketing Advice from WSI Digital Boost

At WSI Digital Boost we specialise in content marketing and social media marketing . We can take your online marketing efforts and achievements to the next level.

To learn more about our online marketing services and how to use YouTube Video Cards to your advantage, contact us at WSI Digital Boost today.

Keep your digital marketing strategy up-to-date with these new sites and tools

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 17 Aug 2021 16:15:32 GMT

The online universe is expanding on a daily basis and as a business it pays to keep your digital marketing strategy up to speed. Consumers that drive most businesses are techno-savvy, 21st Century individuals who are constantly finding new ways to engage, chat and share their interests and information.

By staying clued up on all the latest websites, tools and social media networking platforms, you open up valuable channels for direct contact with your target audience that will help develop loyal and trustworthy relationships as well as provide valuable information on what your consumers are interested in so that you can structure your content marketing accordingly.

Five new sites and tools for digital marketing

Mirage . When you sign up for this app, all your contacts are immediately added. This messaging app allows you to send video, photo, text and voice messages which can only be viewed once. After they have been seen, they disappear, much like a real mirage.
Movli . This is a site which takes its information directly from your personal preferences. Movie suggestions, celebrity information and more is shared according to the personal tastes of your friends and contacts.
Tox . This is an instant messaging service with video conferencing features. What makes this unique is that all messages are encrypted and video calls secure, guaranteeing the privacy of the participants.
Mitproxy . This console can be very valuable to businesses that deal directly with customer queries. This programme allows you to save and replay HTTP conversations as well as intercept, inspect and edit traffic flows.
Scribbleton . This is a great way to keep personal records of anything you like without having it sent to any outside servers.

At WSI Digital Boost, we will help you equip your staff with all the necessary knowledge and tools to propel your digital marketing strategy into the stratosphere. We can help your business tap into the full potential of social media marketing , mobile marketing and much, much more by developing a unique plan that is directly applicable to you.

For more information on what WSI Digital Boost can do for your digital marketing strategy, contact us today.

PPC: Why your ads aren't showing in search results

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 10 Aug 2021 11:40:30 GMT

Pay-per-click (PPC) ads are usually highly effective tools for boosting your rankings in the search results. However, many people have experienced the frustration of launching a PPC campaign, only to find that they are not achieving the results they expected. If you have been faced with this frustration, the good news is that the problem can easily be fixed once you have identified the cause. Let’s take a look at the five most common reasons for ineffective PPC ads.

Campaign is paused

This probably seems too obvious, but it is worth checking: it could be that your ads - or the ad groups or campaigns that house them - have been paused. You may set an end date that has already been reached. Campaigns can also be automatically paused if their performance is low.

No/low search volume

You may be using long-tail keywords to target a specific niche - and that is generally a great idea. However, sometimes you may have chosen a keyword that is so specific that not many searchers are using it. As a result, your search volume may be extremely low. If Google identifies your ad as targeting a very low-volume keyword, it will make it temporarily inactive. You will then need to rethink your keyword and reactivated your ad.

Not bidding enough

If your keyword bids are too low compared to those of your competitors, this is another reason why Google might deactivate it. Try going to the keywords section of your Google Ads account and use the bid simulator to get an indication of where your bids stand in comparison to other advertisers. You can also see by how much you will need to raise your bid in order to get your search rankings where you want them.

Ad is not approved

If your ad is not showing, try checking its approval status in your account. It takes about a day for Google to approve a new ad. It could be that the approval is still in process. If it has been longer than a day and the ad is still not approved, it could be that Google has rejected it. You will then need to find out why and make the necessary adjustments.

Ranking is too low

It could be that your click-through rate (CTR) is so low that Google has simply stopped showing the ad. If not enough people click on your ad, Google will determine that it is not relevant for its intended audience and will stop showing it. You may need to relook your content and keywords and make them more relevant and more compelling.

To learn more about our online marketing services, such as PPC and SEO, and how to improve your search result rankings, contact us at WSI Digital Boost today.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or Paid Search (PPC): What Should You Choose?

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 09:57:15 GMT

As an Internet Marketing Consultant with a Search Engine Marketing (SEM) company , I am often asked by clients and prospects whether there’s a basic philosophy regarding whether to choose organic (SEO) or PPC paid search advertising:

“Is one more favorable than another? How do I know which channel will work better? Should I do both?”

Only after a hard look at your company’s goals and unique situation can you arrive at a concrete answer to those questions. The true test of pursuing either an SEO campaign or pay-per-click (PPC) advertising (or both) is knowing that it all boils down to your company philosophy, return on investment (ROI) objectives, budget, and numerous other monetary and marketing factors.

To determine which, or what combination of both, might offer the most bang for your buck, let’s examine five “models” that my company often deals with.

1. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Only

Some clients are strictly interested in kicking off an SEO campaign, usually for a few basic reasons. They have tried PPC and decided it didn’t work, so they aren’t interested in trying it again in the foreseeable future. (Whether the initial campaign was set up effectively and the channel should be revisited is a subject for future discussion.)

They also often feel that since they themselves often ignore PPC ads on the right-hand side of the page, everyone else must do the same. Although there’s nothing inherently wrong with pursuing SEO exclusively, it normally will take a while to achieve rankings for competitive, profitable key phrases placed within your page content, and there’s no way for your SEM company to accurately predict (as it probably can with some degree of accuracy with PPC advertising) what the initial results will be and when they will occur. However, for companies that do not have an immediate sense of urgency in their online-marketing initiatives and do not want to pursue PPC, organic SEO still offers a great, albeit slightly delayed, ROI.

2.Pay Per Click ( PPC) Only

Alternatively, a SEM company may encounter clients who are primarily interested in PPC—and nothing else. Even with a limited spend, clients can turn their campaigns on and off as needed, making market segments easier to control than with an SEO campaign.

PPC also allows clients to achieve a somewhat predictable ROI if the campaign is managed effectively: “If I spend X, I’ll get back Y.” The clients that fall within the “PPC advertising only” category may have worked with an SEM company before, pursued SEO exclusively, and achieved less-than-stellar results.

Despite all the positive press hyping what SEO can do for website visibility in recent years, it’s still viewed as more voodoo than science by most companies pursuing online marketing for the first time. With such companies, organic SEO is usually a topic we broach after achieving success with PPC.

3. SEO With PPC Stopgap

The first and most common question that an SEM company may hear concerning an SEO campaign is how long it will take to achieve results. Naturally, clients want to be able to see the investment almost immediately. That is where the PPC stopgap approach comes in.

Though a client’s budget is usually fixed, the client is often willing to spend a little more on the front end to see immediate results. Once positive results are evident, PPC spending is scaled back as SEO takes hold. An advantage of that approach for clients with limited budgets is that it can be managed on a very granular level. When top organic results are achieved for a given key phrase, PPC bidding for that term can cease. Over time, PPC expenditures can theoretically be eliminated entirely. PPC stopgap appeals to those who want a wide range of coverage and immediate results but have a fixed monthly budget that they do not control.

4. Hybrid Model

A hybrid model is similar to a stopgap model, except that the client has no intention of eventually leaving the PPC arena entirely. Rather, the client has its SEM company do a full optimization and paid-search campaign at the outset, with the expectation that PPC costs will be reduced but not eliminated as the organic campaign takes hold.

In the hybrid model, clients recognizes that in an organic SEO campaign they will be limited in the number of keyword phrases that they can target with the amount of real estate on their website. With a PPC campaign, however, there is no downside to targeting thousands of relevant long-tail keyword phrases, or search terms that consist of longer strings of words.

Using the hybrid model, a company removes keyword phrases from the PPC campaign on a granular level as it achieves top organic results for those phrases, but it continues to bid on keyword phrases that the site does not yet target.

5. Full-Out SEM

This approach calls for both SEO and PPC initiatives running at full speed. Clients wanting this approach are generally those that consider the two efforts as separate “beasts” and believe that showing up highly in both channels is a good thing… as long as the return justifies the spend.

Those clients are happy to spend as much as possible with their SEM company and do not usually have a set marketing budget—just strict ROI objectives. As long as each channel is performing within acceptable ranges, the clients are happy to reap the benefits. Generally, they treat the two disciplines as unique channels and monitor the results independently.

Choosing the Right Model Which approach is right?

It depends. (You weren’t expecting a definitive answer, right?) The decision between SEO efforts vs. PPC advertising depends on means, goals, budget, comfort level, corporate restrictions, and many other elements. Keep in mind that the models in this article are only five of the many that we often encounter.

Many clients do not fit neatly into any of the scenarios described in this article. Some clients may start out with one option and evolve into another. Some switch back and forth depending on their own ever-changing situation. The most important thing is to be aware of your options and pursue a path that fits your current goals and partnering with a SEM company to help you will achieve results quicker and more cost effectively.

For more information on how to decide between SEO or PPC, or to balance the two, or to find out more about any of our digital marketing services, contact us today.

How Does Marketing Automation Improve Customer Retention?

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 13 Jul 2021 13:49:53 GMT

It costs a significant amount of money and time to gain a new customer than it does to retain an existing one. Additionally, you are much more likely to sell a product to an existing customer rather than a new customer. As such, it is crucial to invest a significant part of your marketing budget in customer retention and encouraging them to continue purchasing your products. Marketing automation is an effective strategy to improve customer retention and saving time by automating routine analysis and data gathering. Here are some effective marketing automation strategies.

Create Customized Loyalty Reward Programs

A successful strategy for customer retention is through the use of loyalty programs. Use automation software to track what products or services individual customers use the most. Armed with this information, you can create customized rewards based on their purchasing patterns and needs. You can even provide customers that have the highest engagement in the loyalty program with even greater benefits. These are just some of the uses of automation that can improve customer retention through loyalty reward programs.

Automate Follow-ups For Fast Response

Having a fast response time to support tickets is an important metric for customer retention. Every customer will want their problems addressed as quickly as possible. Automate follow-ups when customers submit a support ticket to lower their stress and inform them that you are looking into their situation. Make sure your responses are personalized with your customer’s name and other details.

Use Automation to Collect and Act on Customer Information

Many customers will leave because they have the impression that you don’t care about them. Change this by using automation to collect information and feedback from your customers and act on them. For example, ask loyal customers why they are choosing your business over others or inquire why one-time customers are not returning. Automation can assign customers a score based on their engagement with the company and automatically send out customer feedback e-mails to gather valuable information you can act on in your marketing strategy .

WSI has been helping businesses improve their marketing for almost 25 years. Helping business across the globe gives us a unique perspective on marketing. We take the time to understand your organization and customers and design strategies based on your individual business needs. We have won over 100 Web Marketing Association Awards for industry-leading website projects and have been recognized as an Outstanding Developer for the last five years. Contact WSI on 404.827.8749 or mail info@wsidigitalboost.com for more information.

What Is The Difference Between Content Marketing And Inbound Marketing?

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 29 Jun 2021 09:10:18 GMT

Content marketing and inbound marketing are not the same thing, even though many confuse them to be. Both are excellent marketing channels that can produce great results for your business in Atlanta. They work even better when you use them together. If you don’t know what both of them entail, this blog is for you.

How Content Marketing Works

Content marketing provides valuable information that will attract and retain customers through social media, Search Engine Optimisation, and PPC. Here are some reasons why businesses should focus on content marketing as part of their digital marketing strategy:

Almost 30% of all internet users use ad blockers, which means that your organic and paid content needs to be specific and target your audience to be effective.
Content marketing drives six times higher conversion rates.
Content marketing costs 62% less compared to traditional marketing plans, while the return is almost three times as high.

What Is Inbound Marketing?

Inbound marketing refers to the methods used to convert customers by using content marketing, social media marketing, SEO, and branding. This methodology is applied in three ways:

Attract: Draw in the target audience with content that establishes you as trustworthy.
Engage: The goal of inbound marketing is to convert visitors into customers by using tools like landing pages, calls to action, etc.
Delight: Support your customers that have purchased to retain them.

There is tremendous value when combining inbound and content marketing tactics. Inbound marketing is needed because it will make your website great by using methods to compel visitors to take action and convert into customers. Meanwhile, content marketing will make your site attractive to visitors and provide valuable content that optimizes SEO for better ranking. By using both, your brand is more likely to succeed online.

WSI Digital Boost offers content marketing services to businesses in Atlanta. If you aren’t sure how to combine content marketing and inbound marketing into one agile strategy, we can help. Contact us here for more information!

Ten Tips for Aligning SEO & PPC for Better Ecommerce Results

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 14:29:00 GMT

The Covid-19 pandemic and all the stay-at-home orders it necessitated has forced people who would otherwise instinctively drive to the mall to give online shopping a try. Those new shoppers don’t necessarily use the language we are accustomed to when they search for products online. That has elevated the importance of SEO services. The stats below show the rapid shift to online shopping and prove why you need to take your e-commerce SEO seriously:

Compared to the same period last year, U.S. e-commerce sales in July increased a whopping 55% .
As a total of retail sales in the U.S., e-commerce more than doubled from Q1 2020 to Q2. “ That’s over a decade of growth in the space of just a few months as reported by the U.S. Department of Commerce. ”
Year on year, Amazon sales rose by 40% for Q2 2020 to $88.9 billion .

10 Tips For Using SEO and PPC For E-commerce Success

1. Harmonize Your SEO and PPC Strategies

Google Shopping has reintroduced free listings that are generated by the Google Merchant Center. Maximize your holiday shopping campaign by aligning your organic search (SEO) and paid search (PPC).

Use your PPC spend to target high-value queries on channels where paid listings lead the results.

Seek out opportunities to use SEO to rank for searches that attract a high click-through rate.

2. Pay Attention To Search Trends

Take note of the top search queries in your category. Utilize the results to keep SEO core to your strategy, influence your marketing messaging, and inspire your paid search.

3. Publish More Fresh Content

Use SEO analysis as a guideline to create current, pandemic-related content that develops trust with your readers by showing your understanding and support. PPC can then be used to attract some immediate traffic and fill in any gaps. The best part? Informational queries are generally cheaper per click – extending your budget.

4. Use To Test And Tweak New Ideas

Paid search provides feedback on what type of message and imagery works best – almost immediately. Use PPC to test various new ideas and tweak your SEO accordingly.

5. Lengthen Your Marketing Funnel

6. Publish More Visual Content

As part of your search plan, make sure to include images and videos to keep up with the increasingly visual nature of Google. Keep your visual content consistent in SEO and PPC.

7. Take Advantage Of Google’s New Ad Extensions

Take advantage of callouts, structured snippets, and other ad extensions – such as Google’s beta “Curbside pickup” badge – to share extra information about your products and services.

8. Spread Your Efforts Outside The Google Ecosystem

As Amazon and Walmart’s advertising improves, you may want to spread your e-commerce budget across all retailers and search engines – adjusting as their ROI becomes evident.

9. Consider Alternatives To Google

10. Automate Your Marketing

The current growth of e-commerce is not showing signs of reversing. If you feel your like you aren’t in the best position to take advantage of this current shift and increases sales for your business in Atlanta, WSI Digital Boost would like to help. Contact us for more information on how we can help.

How Do You Improve SEO For Your Business In Atlanta?

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 12:46:34 GMT

Like many things in digital marketing, SEO is ever-evolving. Unless you stay current with how your target customers in Atlanta are using search engines, your SEO efforts may not return the results you are expecting.

How To Improve Your SEO

Also, put extra effort into your content design before you consider content marketing (nobody likes to spend time on an ugly site or browsing content that isn’t visually appealing). Try to think of the search intent of a person who you want to come across your content – the closer the match between your content and their intent, the higher your rankings will be.

A link-building strategy will definitely benefit your SEO, as you’ll be guaranteed to get extra hits on your content. You want to create high-quality backlinks through your content marketing, which can be done through being a guest on a podcast or a guest blogger – get yourself associated with credible platforms.

Roundups have become a valuable backlink for organic traffic, so search for roundups in your industry and pitch your content to see whether you can be included in one of these lists.

Do keep your site’s on-page SEO streamlined. Shorten your URLs to get higher rankings

on Google and spend some time to link internally between pages on your site.

WSI Digital Boost is the leading digital marketing agency in Atlanta. Now is the time to revamp your SEO and we are best placed to help with that. We have specialist skills to help you develop an SEO strategy that evolves as your business grows. Contact us here for more information on our services.

Three Types of Social Media Marketing You Shouldn’t Ignore In Atlanta

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 12:14:04 GMT

A good guess is you are already using social media to promote your business in Atlanta. To get the most out of your social media marketing , we suggest you break it down into its individual parts. Yes, there are different types of social media marketing. Below we discuss the three you should not ignore.

Paid Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing has progressed to a point where sharing the odd post – no matter how well-crafted – with your followers and expecting them to do the rest is no longer effective.

To target your ideal customer, nurture their buyer journey, and ultimately get them to purchase from your website, you need to take advantage of the fact that all social networks now offer post promotion. Not only does paid social media put your message in front of far more users, not using this tool actually puts you on the back foot. According to a 2018 survey , 92% of small businesses are increasing their investment in social media.

Even though advertising on social media gives immediate visibility to your brand, don’t give in to the temptation to spend, spend, spend! From elementary user demographics to psychographics such as values and attitudes, interests and lifestyles, and personality, social media platforms have parameters to enhance your targeting.

But first, you need to determine whether Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, or Instagram is the best fit for your ideal client. It’s all about utilizing the appropriate platform to target the right audience with engaging content.

Facebook is by far the biggest of all the social networks, with 2.41 billion monthly active users . An average Facebook user clicks on 11 ads per month . Their advertising costs vary depending on many factors like your industry, location, and objectives, but the average price for an advert decreased 4% in Q2 2019 . Facebook is therefore a good place to start.

Dark Social Traffic

If you think of it as digital word of mouth, it makes sense that this is even more powerful amid COVID-19 social distancing, working from home, and digital communities.

Having a prominent, respected trendsetter in your niche share your content in this intimate way will drive mass traffic. That’s where the next category comes in.

Influencer Marketing

Marketing guru Seth Godin notes that “People do not buy goods and services. They buy relations, stories, and magic.”

This is not an overnight strategy, as you need to build a relationship with influencers in your niche. Engage with them to the point where they value your expertise and enjoy your content. Slow and steady is the name of this game, but the results are well worth the wait.

While social media is still a place people go to hang out and share stories, for businesses of all sizes it has grown into a serious platform for digital marketing. WSI Digital Boost can help you use social media to promote your business in Atlanta. Get in touch with us to learn how we can help.

How to Use LinkedIn for Social Media Marketing

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 15 Jun 2021 08:49:14 GMT

LinkedIn remains an effective channel for social media marketing. But if evolution is not your strongest suit, it’s going to be tough going for you. The Covid-19 pandemic, which has stubbornly persisted into 2021 has forced us to devise cheaper, more adaptive ways to use social media for promoting our businesses.

The smart folks at LinkedIn recognize the struggles marketers in Atlanta and the world over are facing. They have published a guide on how to get through these uncertain times.

The greatest concern marketers are facing at the moment, has been found to be budget cuts. So, let’s look at an optimized inbound marketing strategy that will decrease your spend and allow you to take advantage of connecting with the estimated 700 million users on LinkedIn. LinkedIn social media marketing strategy in 2020

Post better quality visual content

As with any marketing strategy, rich content is a distinguishing factor. But good visuals become great visuals when there is useful and engaging information attached to them. (Also, LinkedIn says that visual content can increase comments by up to 98% ).

Update your page to better reflect your brand promise

Ensure your LinkedIn has all of your details and that it reflects your brand story. Impress people who are visiting your page.

Use LinkedIn’s “search” feature to expand your network

Apply filters in the advanced search section to find specific influential people or companies to target in your marketing

Participate in LinkedIn Group discussions

This is an opportunity to interact with others in your sector and to get onto the radar of your target audience. Think about what other professionals might be interested in reading or hearing from you, and post relevant content. Be sure to participate in discussions and to be interactive.

Optimize your posting schedule

Just as with other social media platforms, LinkedIn also has suggested times for peak performance of your posts.

If social media marketing budget cuts are not a concern:

Consider investing in LinkedIn Ads

Look at sponsored content, sponsored InMail, or Text Ads. Sponsored content could be a good way to capitalize on content that is already performing well. The sponsored InMail option delivers your ad directly to your targeted audience’s inbox, resembling a message. Text Ads are more traditional, appearing to the side of a user’s news feed.

To succed in a marketing landscape disrupted by Covid, your social media marketing strategy will need some adjusting? WSI Digital Boost , the leading digital marketing agency in Atlanta, is here to help. Contact us here to get started.

What to Do If Your Target Audience Isn’t on Social Media

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 13:58:57 GMT

Everywhere you go in Atlanta everyone seems to have a smartphone in hand. Given that and the ever-growing popularity of social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, it is hard to imagine that a significant proportion of your target customers may not be social media. If that’s the case for you, how can you reach those consumers with your marketing messages?

Although social media is at the forefront of marketing, there are other ways to reach your target audience without social media marketing. Here are some useful tips that will help you connect to potential clients:

Don’t abandon your social media strategy

Establish Yourself As An Expert In Your Industry

Establishing yourself as an expert in your field will allow for more potential customers to come across your brand when doing their research. To do this, you need to create helpful resources for your target audience to use. A great example would be a blog that discusses the core issues and questions people may have when using your product or service. HappyFox is a useful example of the above.

Start a Podcast To Share Your Knowledge

Podcasts are a great way to share knowledge and connect with your audience. With millions of people tuning in weekly to listen to podcasts, you are sure to tap into your target market at some point.

Providing a podcast that is both informative and entertaining will ensure that listeners keep coming back for more, as it’s both helpful and a great way to keep people entertained on their way to work, or even at work. Check out the Marketing Speak podcast as a good reference in terms of how you can approach it.

Conduct And Publish Original Research

By conducting original research on your industry and putting together an in-depth report on a key topic, you will easily connect with and inform your target audience.

Giving people useful statistics and data will help you establish your brand as an industry leader and you will, in turn, be quoted by other key individuals and organizations. You can also provide the information via a white paper, which highlights the problem and gives solutions.

Let WSI Digital Boost Help With Your Social Media Marketing

Looking for ways to get more out of your social media marketing? WSI Digital Boost can help. Contact us here for more information.

5 reasons why your SEO campaign isn't working

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 01 Jun 2021 10:43:18 GMT

Is your SEO campaign failing to put out good results? We know how frustrating it is to spend time and money building and promoting your website but not see any results. Thankfully, there are solutions but to solve all of your SEO problems, you need to get to the bottom of the underlying cause. Here are 5 reasons your SEO campaign might not be working.

Why your SEO campaign isn't getting you results

1. You didn't write your site for humans, you wrote it for search engines

If your website content includes random search engine optimization words for results, you’re probably not going to see any results. Your entire website needs to be focused on the people you want to engage with or the content you want to promote or sell. SEO keywords stuffed together will lead to your site looking impersonal, reducing your chances of targeting your customers or readers and even risking a Google Penalty.

2. Your site is too crowded

Do you have tons of graphics, widgets, and codes? All of these impact your search engine ranking and can also lead to slower loading time for pages. Work on moving redundant or heavy objects to make your website lighter and improve your search ranking.

3. You don't have any quality content

Quality content matters. There is nothing that hurts your website visits more than bad content. If your website has bad copy, content that is not original, or language that is tough to understand, these can all hurt your SEO search engine ranking. Update your content to ensure that it is attractive, unique, and relatable to your website visitors.

4. Misleading, deceptive, and spammy links

Deceptive or spammy links are easily detected by Google and lead to you being pushed down Google’s ranking list. It is also a violation of webmaster guidelines. To fix this, you need to log into Search Console and check for spamming links. Remove all of these links to start seeing better results.

5. Over optimisation

If you made too many SEO changes or improvements at one time, this leads to Google being suspicious of your website activity. This can lead to an over-optimization penalty of being downgraded or removed from search engines. The best solution to this is to focus more on content, than the technical areas of SEO and avoid making too many changes at a time.

WSI is focused on saving and improving your SEO strategy . We have an expert team to build and maintain an effective SEO campaign for your website. Power up your Google search engine ranking by calling us today !

Why You Need To Start Using Pillar Content Marketing Strategies

Tue, 18 May 2021 10:31:22 GMT

We have come a long way since the early days of Google. Along the way, consumers in Atlanta and other markets have changed the ways they search for products and information on the world wide web. With it, content marketing has also changed. To better understand queries and serve relevant content to users in their different locations, search engines are constantly updating their algorithms.

As its engineers figure out better ways the search engine can understand the intent behind user queries, Google has become more human-like. That is where search and digital marketing as a whole is evolving to and as a marketer or business owner you need to adapt your content accordingly. Your pillar content must reflect this shift.

Understanding Pillar Content

Topic clusters focus on narrow topics found on your pillar page. For example, your pillar page could discuss digital marketing and that same page contains a link to a cluster article that discusses email marketing as a digital marketing technique. Topic cluster content helps Google realize you’re an authority on a particular subject matter. Hence, the more you write about a single topic on your website, the higher Google will rank you for that topic. Pillar content can be thought of as an ebook with many hyperlinks.

Why It’s Important To Use Pillar Content?

We’ve also gotten used to asking our search engines questions that are conversational – we speak to Google as if it’s a human. So it is no surprise that the way we think about content creation and the way we structure content needs to change.

Pillar content also increases the level of organization in your content – people can navigate easily through your website, blogs, infographics and videos – a legitimate SEO benefit. You can also include a download option at the top of your pillar content so that you can turn your visitors into leads.

The information you gain from the visitor who chooses to download your content can be used for further content marketing. In addition, creating a comprehensive guide or infographic that is educational and useful will also sell the content itself. In order to do this, you need to identify your target audience and what they want to read about. You also need to consider what questions they will ask and what problem they are trying to solve.

Pillar content can help search engines understand the topic your content is covering. It convinces search engines that your content is valuable and can be served to users. That helps drive more traffic to your website and helps you convert more leads.

The businesses that invest in pillar content will find it easier to attract the right traffic to the website. If you want to try this strategy for your business in Atlanta but aren’t where to start, WSI Digital Boost is here to help. Contact us here to explore all your options with pillar content.

Tips To Use PPC In An Inbound Marketing Campaign

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 11 May 2021 10:32:01 GMT

The goal for every inbound marketing strategy is to drive relevant organic traffic to your website and, ultimately, to attract more customers to your business in Atlanta. But it can take a while to establish enough authority and trust for Google to rank your content for your target keywords.

Pay-Per-Click advertising can give your inbound marketing strategy a headstart while your webpages climb up the rankings. But it’s important that your PPC ads and inbound marketing strategy target the same goals.

How To Align Your PPC and Inbound Marketing Strategies

While it is common to think of pay-per-click advertising and inbound marketing as separate strategies, the two can complement one another if used correctly. Paid advertising increases the prominence of your content and sends more people to your website where they can engage further with your inbound marketing content.

In order to run an effective pay-per-click advertising campaign, you should know who you are targeting, which keywords you would like to focus on, and make use of data from testing and analytics to back those decisions up.

Rather than running general ads promoting your brand visibility in a pay-per-click campaign, use it to promote your strongest content instead, so that consumers are more likely to engage with it. This works best on social media where people are looking for interesting content rather than just information.

Paid adverts have been proven to work even once the customer knows what they are looking for, as long as the content is linked directly to a commercial opportunity . Make sure that your pay-per-click landing page is aligned to the content of the advert.

Any good digital marketing strategy should look to integrate pay-per-click and inbound marketing devices to make the most of the money you are investing in paid advertising and the organic SEO content you are creating to represent your brand.

When combined into one overall strategy and targeted at the same goals, PPC advertising and inbound marketing can change the fortunes of your Atlanta-based business. Contact WSI Digital Boost to explore ways you can use PPC ads to compliment your inbound marketing efforts.

How Your Business Can Succeed In Digital Transformation

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Mon, 10 May 2021 09:48:14 GMT

Digital transformation is a cultural, organizations, or operational change of a company through digital technologies and processes. Companies looking to become more competitive in the marketplace use digital transformations to increase their online presence and update their systems with new technology or software.

However, successfully implementing these transformations can be challenging, notably when transforming your digital marketing strategies. Here we look at three key areas to consider to implement a digital transformation successfully.

Keys to succeeding in digital transformation

Innovation

To provide customers with a personalized journey on your digital platform, whether browsing your website or utilizing your eCommerce platform, innovation is required to transform their experience successfully. Technology-innovation managers have the business experience to implement digital technologies to improve business potential successfully.

Tools

You may have the best personnel in the world, but without the best tools available, your digital transformation will be less effective. Whether you are looking at transforming your web design or adaptive search engine optimization , make sure your experts have the best digital tools at their disposal. Consider consulting with digital marketing experts if your business lacks the expertise necessary.

Culture

A common factor with digital transformations involves leaders familiar with new digital technologies. Having a leader who can engage and bring together your team is a key component of a successful digital transformation. These leaders can help shape the workplace culture, redefining roles and responsibilities to align with the goals of a transformation.

A Guide on How To Do Keyword Research For SEO

Tue, 04 May 2021 09:03:59 GMT

Keywords are the lifeblood of search marketing. They are your key to the conversations your target prospects in Atlanta are having as they research products and discuss topics relevant to your business.

To drive relevant traffic to your web pages and gain more customers, you need to optimize your content around the right keywords. Here is a quick introduction to keywords and SEO

What Are Keywords And Why Do They Matter?

What Does Keyword Research Entail?

How To Perform Keyword Research

Secondly, you need to investigate what keywords your competitors rank for. You can do this by typing in your list of seed keywords into Google and checking who ranks on the front page. If you don’t know who your competitors are, then a bit of market research is needed before doing this. Next, you need to know your target market – their problems and questions. Industry forums, groups, and Q&A sites are good places to look, as potential customers usually express their concerns and questions on these platforms. Your customers offer great insight into what specific keywords you need to include. Here are other ways to determine keywords:

Chat with your customers face to face
Go through past emails with customers and look for commonly used words
Look through customer support tickets
Think about the questions that were asked in past conversations

That’s our quick primer on keywords and why they matter for SEO. If you would like to drive more traffic to your website and boost sales for your business, WSI Digital Boost is the digital marketing agency to hire in Atlanta. Contact us here to discuss how we can help with your SEO.

How To Attract More Qualified Leads Online

Sat, 10 Apr 2021 14:30:15 GMT

Leads are the lifeblood of a business . But too often, businesses focus on lead quantity and not enough on lead quality. And while having a full lead funnel is important, you want to make sure you generate leads that have a higher likelihood of becoming your customer. So how do you successfully attract these types of leads?

An effective online lead generation strategy is more than having a website, some content, and running a few ads. Generating qualified leads requires a plan and starts by understanding who your ideal target audience is and then using key messages, high-value content , and offers to engage with them at the right time and in a way that will result in them becoming a sales-ready lead for your business.

Delve into this webinar to learn the essential building blocks of attracting more qualified leads online. In this 45-minute session, we'll share 7 essential steps that will help you maximize your online lead generation efforts.

Here is a look at what we'll be discussing:

a) A blueprint for attracting more qualified leads to your website in a more strategic and planful manner

b) How to leverage what you know about your ideal customers to deliver more targeted messaging and high-value content

c) Best practices for reaching your audience based on where they are in the buying process and nurturing them until they're ready to become paying customers

d) Recommendations on which digital marketing tactics to use and when depending on your lead generation goals and KPIs

Our Certified Digital Marketing Consultants are experts in their field and would love to sit down with you (for free) to discuss your current marketing activities – what’s working, what isn’t, and what you could be doing better!

Increasing the effectiveness of your website and increase your revenue now!

Tue, 27 Oct 2020 14:57:52 GMT

With the shift to digital, your website has to be aligned with your advertising messages. All too often websites are focused on what the advertiser wants to say and not on what the visitor needs to make a buying decision.

Listen Gerardo Kerik and Marty Greif as they walk you through the steps needed to increase the revenue generated by your website. With a commitment of just one hour of your time, you will learn how to increase the revenue generated from your website by 10% to 25%.Increase the effectiveness of your advertising and drive more revenue online now!

With the shift to digital, your website has to be aligned with your advertising messages. All too often websites are focused on what the advertiser wants to say and not on what the visitor needs to make a buying decision.

Listen Gerardo Kerik and Marty Greif as they walk you through the steps needed to increase the revenue generated by your website. With a commitment of just one hour of your time, you will learn how to increase the revenue generated from your website by 10% to 25%.

Get in touch with us to learn how Conversion Rate Optimization can help your business.

The Key Components of a Digital Strategy and its Impact on your Business

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 20 Oct 2020 08:53:49 GMT

Technology is always evolving, and often businesses dive into digital trends without being prepared or aware of the actual outcome and impact it will have on the company. Digital marketing strategy is not a trend. Business and Digital strategy must be associated with each other. Adapting to a digital system isn't the only option; but a critical element to help your business grow and succeed in the existing, versatile digital world.

Most organizations evolve from a digital viewpoint. WSI recommends identifying your business's vision, objectives, goals, priorities, and, most importantly, discovering how digital transformation can support these goals. This helps focus on the strategies that matter most.

What are the critical components of a digital strategy?

Digital marketing strategies are powerful , and when combined in a careful plan, it can take your business to new heights. Usually, digital marketing components include the following:

1. Search engine optimization (SEO)

The base for successful digital marketing is search engine optimization (SEO) ; it refers to several strategies to boost online search engines' rankings.

Why does a business want to achieve top rankings? A recent report states that 80 percent of people don't look beyond the first-page search results. You may have the best-designed website, but if it doesn't rank on the first page or if people don't even notice it, how will it help you grow the business?

2. Pay-per-click advertising

(PPC) Pay-per-click advertising is a strategy for sustaining search results on a browsing site while establishing organic rankings with SEO. This option is available for businesses looking to boost rankings swiftly. PPC starts driving eligible leads to your site the minute the ads go live. It is an affordable option for businesses in most industries. The best advantage of PPC advertising is that a company only pays when people click on the ads, which means that a firm avoids wasting money trying to get in touch with people who are not interested in their products or services.

3. Content marketing

Looking for opportunities to earn more leads and revenue can get taxing. Content marketing is a great strategy , considering that it generates three times more leads than traditional marketing. Quality content is a critical component of content marketing. Good content allows you to target keywords related to your business and address questions, which helps a firm achieve higher rankings. To boost search rankings and help potential customers learn more about your business, you need to incorporate quality content into your digital transformation strategy.

4. Social media marketing

Social media is a customer service tool . Today approximately three billion people use social media, making it an essential digital marketing component. The platform allows connecting and developing a business relationship with existing and potential customers. If customers have queries about products and services, they can directly connect over social media platforms and answer their questions.

Additionally, social media marketing allows firms to discover key trends and insights into consumers' thoughts and opinions related to the brand, industry, products, services, and even competitors. This information can be included while constructing digital strategies.

5. Email marketing

An additional element of successful digital marketing is email marketing . An effective lead generation strategy, it allows firms to follow up with potential customers and send customized information about products or services that interest them. When customers opt to receive a company's emails, it indicates their interest in its products and services. It's a great way to make your marketing work smarter.

Most organizations do not have access to the right advice when it comes to implementing a digital strategy. WSI offers a unique methodology and marketing services that can enhance business strategy effectively. To sum up, a digital system's real impact improves when the business and digital strategies align together.

5 Ways of Understanding How E-commerce Marketing can drive Online Sales

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Thu, 01 Oct 2020 12:33:00 GMT

We can safely assume that every online store should want to increase traffic and conversions, but achieving it is easier said than done. Even after you've put together a simple strategy, it can still be challenging to settle on which marketing tactics to implement.

In this article we will explore the concept of e-commerce marketing and the key steps to implement a successful e-commerce strategy.

What is e-commerce marketing?

In simple terms, electronic commerce or e-commerce is a business model that allows organizations and individuals to buy and sell things/products/services over the internet. E-commerce operates in all four major market segments: Business to business [b2b], Business to consumer [b2c], Consumer to consumer [c2c], Consumer to business [c2b]

Ecommerce marketing is the practice of using different promotional strategies to drive traffic to online stores, converting traffic into paying customers and also maintaining those customers post-purchase.

Now that we've understood what e-commerce is, let us know how it can help drive online sales:

1. Define your Goals

Do you want to increase sales, grow your traffic, or expand your audience? Different goals require different approaches and can only be achieved faster and better via various channels. For example, providing customers service with relevant information, branding the company or its products, generating revenue through advertisements, or improving business processes, whatever the goal may be, it is always better to have a clear picture in front of you.

2. Make sure you have a clear vision of your Buyer Persona

A target market is anyone who might be interested in your products or services. A buyer persona is a fictional representation of your ideal customer. Understanding your personas, their challenges, what pains they are trying to solve, what motivates them to purchase, are essential elements in order to increase the effectiveness of your communication. You can also narrow down your target audience by conducting informal market analysis; segment the audience into groups etc.

3. Draft a Basic SEO Plan

Search engine optimization is vital as it affects how search engines rank your e-commerce website. If you want to reach a wider audience, it's crucial to get the hang of the latest trends in the market; this is also a way to set your business apart from others. Your plan should include proper keywords, titles, product descriptions, etc.

4. Write High-quality Content

As the saying goes, ‘Content is King’ and is critical when communicating with your audience. A well written and drafted content gets your message across the customers quickly the very first time. It displays information about your work and shows your expertise, and informs customers. You can write blogs, whitepapers, articles or any other format for future buyers of your services.

5. Enhance your Online presence

Today the internet is the talk of the town. Registering your company on a few social media platforms will benefit you in every way. There are millions of visitors across the world active every day on social media. Engaging in a conversation with customers about your services, answering their queries, studying their responses, etc., helps you promote your brand via word-of-mouth.

The world of e-commerce is changing rapidly and will continue to grow in the coming years. It is important that all businesses, regardless of size, have an e-commerce strategy in order to continue growing in the future.

Want to learn more, call one of our WSI Digital Marketing Experts today!

The Ultimate Guide on Digital Transformation to Beat Your Competitors

gkerik@wsidigitalboost.com (Gerardo Kerik) — Tue, 29 Sep 2020 11:03:12 GMT

Digital transformation has a new meaning in recent times, looking forward to seeing how the possibilities unfold for the world-. at-large.

What is Digital Transformation?

Digital Transformation refers to a cultural, organizational, or operational change of an organization, industry, or ecosystem through smart integration of digital technologies, processes, and competencies across all levels and functions in a planned and strategic way.

The Digital transformation terminology is mainly used in a business perspective; it impacts organizations such as governments, public sector agencies, and businesses that involve undertaking organizational challenges and solving them with emerging technologies. Recent events have delivered a loud and clear message to the business world: the markets can change in the blink of an eye. A new, long-term approach will be needed to solve deep-rooted problems and form human connections in a digital world.

Digital transformation vs Business Transformation

Business Transformation brings in fundamental changes to an organization and how it conducts business. When companies undertake business transformation, the scale is usually broad and involves all areas of the organization: finance, corporate culture, values, and its underlying processes. On the other side, digital transformations focus is on using brand-new technology to make the business digital-first, so that it can become more competitive in the marketplace. Digital transformations usually are led by the CMO, in partnership with an executive team.

How to avoid common risks?

As the old saying goes "wise people learn from other people's mistakes".It is always helpful to learn from mistakes whenever is possible. At WSI, we understand what it takes to embark on a digital transformation journey and what it's like to face and overcome the most common challenges. Some of the most common are:

• Lack of alignment: CMO play a key role in transformations but cannot achieve it on their own. Alignment over the entire C-Suite is critical, right from start to finish.

• Creating a custom approach: If you try to replicate what other organizations do to personalize the customer experience, you almost certainly will fail. Of course, you must learn from best practices and industry standards, but organizations need to create customized approach that make sense to their business, industry and their unique goals.

• Personalize the buyer’s journey: Captivating digital experiences are increasingly personalized and relevant to each buyer own journey. In order to be successful, these digital approaches require not only an avid amount of content, but also the use of marketing automation tools to gain efficiency and prioritize the most important channels to make the customer experience unique.

What are Digital Transformation Technologies and Services?

Digital experience platform is the foundation of your digital transformation, and it needs to allow businesses to collect data at every touch point throughout the buyer’s journey and apply it to create rewarding customer experiences. Here are some essential pointers:

• eCommerce experience: Driving conversions online is a top priority for your business transformation; you will require the means to facilitate personalized shopping experiences. The right eCommerce solutions help you continue in a competitive marketplace.

• A digital experience platform: To create rare and unique experiences for the digital world, you most certainly need technology that helps you understand customer behavior and in return, deliver relevant content. A platform that provides content management, digital marketing, and eCommerce solutions all under one the platform is critical.

• Content hub: Efficiency should be part of all digital transformation initiatives. A platform that comprises of all integrated product content management (PCM), marketing resource management (MRM), digital asset management (DAM), and a content marketing platform (CMP) will streamline content operations for the business's marketing team.

• Services, Solutions, and Consulting: Consulting practices, agency partners, and cloud hosting can assist customers in speeding up their digital business transformations, with sophisticated personalization and marketing strategies.

Hopefully, the pointers above help you understand how digital transformation can help your business.

Contact WSI on 404.827.8749 or mail info@wsidigitalboost.com for more information.

7 Strategies for Optimizing Your Digital Presence During COVID-19

Fri, 07 Aug 2020 19:14:58 GMT

Summary: A quick recap, plus the recording from our Ahead of the Curve webinar on How to Optimize Your Digital Presence During COVID-19.

Due to popular demand, our digital marketing educational webinar series, Ahead of the Curve, has been extended until the end of May. This past Wednesday, we hosted our 7th webinar and covered the topic of search engine optimization (SEO), and specifically How to Optimize Your Digital Presence During COVID-19.

During this session, WSI Digital Marketing Consultant, Mark Jaimeson, based out of Ottawa, Canada, shared his seven SEO recommendations and strategies for thriving in this new "normal".

We’ve included a quick recap of Mark's seven tips below, along with the full webinar recording at the end of this blog post, so you can hear Mark speak to each of them firsthand.

1. Monitor Consumer Patterns, Behaviors & Channel Preferences

You must be monitoring consumer conversations right now. You should develop a clear understanding of how their habits are evolving, how their interactions with your brand are shifting, and where your brand can meet them to change these needs.

So, as lock-down protocols ease up and you can reopen your storefronts and allow customers to come back in, keep a close ear to the ground. Listen to what they're saying. Understand their needs. Part of doing this may mean that you have to enable these conversations online (on your website via a chatbot, on your social channels, or via a customer feedback survey).

2. Strive for Expertise, Authoritativeness, & Trust (E.A.T)

You can nurture your brand by building your expertise, authority, and trust, or what Google refers to as the E.A.T Principle.

Google doesn't want to serve up results to searches that take them to pages that are uneducated, that are opinion based or potentially fraudulent, or that actually can harm somebody.

So, what Google is asking business owners to do, especially now because of the high demand for traffic on the Internet, is:

Demonstrate your expertise (this begins with proper keyword research)

Show some authority (having backlinks from high authority sites)

Showcase you are trustworthy (positive user reviews, and ensuring your site is secure)

If you concentrate on these three things, you will have a better chance of improving your website's optimization.

3. Manage Your Web Presence’s Media: Owned, Earned & Paid

When it comes to having a strong SEO strategy, one that can help you drive more traffic to your website, you need to be managing and controlling your brand narrative on all of your marketing channels. There are three types of marketing channels:

Owned (website, social profiles, blog)

Paid (third party channels, display ads, PPC)

Earned (shared content, word-of-mouth reviews)

By taking stock of your media right now, you can ensure that you are speaking the right message, that your message is hitting people at the right time in the buying process, and that you're monitoring what is being said about your brand online.

4. Audit Your Upcoming Content & Campaigns

If you had crafted any campaigns (PPC, content, social, etc.) before COVID, it’s good to re-evaluate the messaging and topics you are using before you keep developing content or launch anything. Buying patterns and trends are changing. Digital marketing is still one of your best choices to reach your audience, but messaging that may have worked in the first quarter of the year, definitely won’t work now or even in the upcoming months. We highly recommend you take a look at your campaigns and audit them. Make sure they have pivoted and are aligned to the new normal.

5. Take Stock of Keywords You Are Currently Targeting

You also need to take stock of the keywords you're currently targeting. Your products and services, and the way you deliver them possibly have changed. Which means, some of the search terms that people are searching for to find your products and services could have changed as well.

What's essential for marketers to understand as well is that some of the keywords that you should be going after right now may not yet exist in Google's database. Even if they do, they may have small search volumes associated with them. Search terms like "virtual showrooms for X vertical" could be keywords that start trending. Today, they may have little to no search volume, but 6-8 months from now, it could be a different story.

When it comes to keywords being used today, we need to be putting ourselves into the consumers' minds and start foreseeing new search terms and going after them today.

6. Ensure Your Mobile Presence is Exceptional

Today's consumer wants a seamless and fast mobile experience. Knowing this, on July 1, 2019, Google moved to a mobile-first indexing strategy. This means that Google indexes the mobile version of your website to determine your search engine ranking. So if you're not providing an excellent mobile experience to your website visitors, you aren't going to rank well from an SEO perspective.

We recommend that you take a look at your mobile site experience from your customers' perspective. Go on your phone, and navigate through your mobile site and make sure it's exceptional.

7. Focus on User Experience - it's Everything!

When it comes to user experience online, we often talk about a website's navigation, clear calls-to-actions, or accessible forms that can help improve conversions. Although this is all still applicable today, we need to consider the current state of affairs and consider a different type of user experience.

We recommend that you narrow your focus and think about what your customers need right now and speak directly to those needs front and center on your website. Move from the hard sell to the soft sell, and focus less on the products and services you're offering and focus more on what you can do for your customers today. Make your customer service easily accessible. Ensure that your phone numbers, email addresses, new hours of operations, or instructions for pick-up and delivery are easy to find on your website.

A Digital Marketing Guide to Getting Online: Part Three - Audience

Tue, 28 Jul 2020 16:22:00 GMT

So you have an Online Store – now what? The adage “Build it and they will come” doesn’t work when talking about websites, as we talked in part one and two of our blog series.

So you will have to invest at the correct level to drive traffic and for many brands or retailers that translates to maybe 8-15% of revenue – it depends on the market, product, and how established the business is. The trick will be to develop a marketing blueprint that builds your organic traffic, forms your loyal customer base while also funding new customer acquisition through paid advertising.

Assuming that you have correctly set up your analytics, then the starting point for this process is to understand the value of every sale. That means looking at both revenue and margin, or the lifetime value of every new customer, as that tells you what you can afford to spend to acquire that sale. When you know the cost per acquisition, you can determine what sort of return you need from each of your marketing investments. For eCommerce sites with large catalogs, you need to understand this at least at the product-category level but preferably at the individual product level.

I frequently meet clients who have then put all their advertising activity into one channel, either Facebook or Google Paid Search, for example. For smaller clients, that might be ok due to limits on the available budget to invest, but for most cases, it takes a mix of different channels – to arrive at the most optimized solution. When you have multiple campaigns in the market, then it is increasingly important to understand how they interact with each other, this is called attribution. Up until recently, most analytics gave all the credit to the channel that created the last click before the customer purchased. In reality, a customer might have seen a Facebook ad after opening an email and then did a Google search before purchasing. So it’s essential to understand attribution modeling and how to use it between your different channels. But don’t make it over-complicated good enough will do in this case.

Those familiar with the traditional marketing funnel will tell you that people go through three phases

Awareness where they learn about your Brand/Store
Consideration – where they engage with your Brand/Store
Conversion – They purchase from your Brand/Store

So your campaign planning should account for these three stages. Each business will have a different set of priorities at different times, and the campaign plan or marketing blueprint needs to adapt to those priorities.

Here are some general guidelines and thoughts:

Make sure you are at least capturing any business that already exists out there for you.
Ensure your site is optimized for Generic Search engine traffic because, in almost every case, I have seen this is the best converting traffic you can get. This optimization is always a long-running project, but this cannot be overlooked.

SEO takes time to build traffic, so in the short term, to drive immediate traffic, you should use Google Paid Search. However, this can be expensive in the early days of a store – so your first objective should be to develop a campaign that at least breaks even in terms of cost versus revenue generated. Once you have achieved that, then you can start to expand it out and scale it up. Initially, you will need to decide a budget that you can afford to invest as a two to three-month discovery project. It needs to be big enough to deliver you at least 1000 clicks. If you cannot get to that breakeven point in the first three months, then pause it to return to it at a later stage. You may need to address the conversion rate of your site to improve the return, but at least you will have more information about what people are searching for. Alternatively, you may need to use Google Search and Specific landing pages to focus your effort on selling a particular product or category at the right time – especially if there is some element of seasonality to some of your product sales.

Quick Tip – for seasonal campaigns, build SEO friendly Campaign pages and never take them down (you can remove them from your general site navigation) once the campaign is finished. Update and refresh them so next year they will have built up additional SEO equity and traffic.

Email marketing is the next priority, and there are three things to ensure:

Make sure that you are growing your subscriber list through unobtrusive eMail capture like exit intent forms.
Build a content plan that engages your audience and is not just a series of promotions and discounts.
Segment your list to send the right content to people who have not bought from you versus those that have.

To grow your business, you either need to find new customers, have your existing customers buy more frequently, or increase the average amount that they spend. Finding new customers tends to be more expensive than nurturing those you already have – which is why email is so important.

Exit intent banners are critical to growing your email subscriber list. Don’t annoy customers by presenting them with a popup when they reach your site, but rather when they are ready to leave and have not bought something. Use that time to capture their emails in return for some content of value or interest to them. It costs you money to get them to your site, so don’t let them leave empty-handed if you can avoid it. Make sure someone in the team has responsibility for driving this cadence.

Once you are capturing those customers who already know you and are most likely to purchase from you, your attention can move to how to build awareness of your store and brand. Here the KPIs are slightly different. You want to reach as many people as possible in as affordable a way as possible. You have to remember that generally, people need to see between 4 to 8 ads before they will engage at all with your store. This is where we would typically use Facebook, Youtube, or Programmatic Display to grow the visibility of your brand. Your Facebook campaigns should start with the mission to introduce yourself to your audience. The creative needs to be ‘thumb-stopping’ and educational. This is where the short-form video is essential. It gives you the ability to talk about what you do and, more importantly, why you do it and why the person watching this should buy from you - selling a specific product comes later.

YouTube is another generally underutilized platform, especially as viewing habits change among younger demographics. Platforms like Adroll will also help in terms of prospecting for new audiences that are of similar intent to your currently converting customers (but it does need a reasonable amount of data to perform successfully and, of course, another pixel installed).

Retargeting campaigns become vital as you begin to grow your audience – this is how you get a return for the awareness building activity you are doing. You can retarget your Facebook traffic and your website traffic - form an eCommerce perspective. Build out creative based on product categories that you can then use to convert customers, or you can show to segments that purchased one type but not another. You should also consider how you are going to remove purchasers from your retargeting audience. There is nothing more irritating than an ad following you around for a product that you have already bought. With a little bit of work with your audience definitions, you can avoid that happening.

Conclusion

So there are two things you need to take away. Firstly, if you are running an eCommerce store, then you have to invest at the right level in demand generation activity to be successful. Secondly, there are always more things to do than you or your team can reasonably take on in one go. You need to develop the right Digital Marketing blueprint that recognizes your ability to invest in these tactics. Generally, this is a balance between time/speed and money. The more budget you have available to spend then the faster you can go.

If you start by understanding the required economics of your campaigns in terms of where your breakeven point is, then you have an excellent starting point. That way, you know you are never wasting budget.

Having a blueprint to follow and a partner who can look over your entire spectrum of digital activities and help you develop that blueprint is essential. Growing and scaling an eCommerce business is something that has to improve every day. Just when you think you have it cracked, something will change in the environment - a new competitor will emerge, someone with insanely aggressive pricing will try to buy market share, the product tastes will change, and so on. You are open to more outside influences more quickly in the online world. Understanding your roadmap, interpreting what your data is telling you, and making the right changes are all part of the journey. It is an exciting space, exhausting at times, but exhilarating when you see the successes.

What is a Landing Page & Why is it Important?

Thu, 16 Jul 2020 05:21:00 GMT

As you dive into the world of digital marketing, you’ll likely encounter a whole new vocabulary and set of concepts. If you haven’t already, you're bound to have questions about how landing pages fit into your digital marketing strategy. Developing a landing page sounds like a simple task, and it can be, but we want to stress that landing pages are vitally important to lead conversion .

What is a Landing Page?

A landing page is any web page that a consumer can land on, but in the marketing realm, it’s usually a standalone page, distinct from your homepage or any other page, that serves a single and focused purpose. A landing page is a follow up to any promises that you’ve made in your content. Essentially, it’s the next step toward a visitor becoming a customer. Your landing page lets you make a trade, some sort of special offer, piece of information or a deal, in return for providing contact information.

Landing pages can be click through, leading to another page such as your e-commerce site, or lead generation based. Lead generation landing pages typically offer items like an eBook, free trial, contest entry or webinar registration in return for the submission of contact information. A good landing page will do its job by convincing a potential customer that it’s worth it to provide personal details in return in exchange for whatever you have to offer. Landing pages can be found through a general search or via your company website, increasing the likelihood that a potential customer will end up there.

There’s no need to have just one landing page, or even just one landing page at a time. In fact, experts in the marketing would probably suggest that you maintain multiple landing pages, targeted toward segmented customer populations.

Why Use Landing Pages?

You’ve done a great job building your brand and creating a website that represents it. Now you have to make sure that all of that hard work translates into sales. If you are looking for an effective lead conversion tool, landing pages are definitely the way to go.

A landing page is a great way to drive traffic, improve your SEO and build your brand. Approximately 68% of B2B businesses use landing pages Accessible PDF to generate leads for future conversion. Fortunately for you, 44% of these clicks are directed toward home pages , which, as we’ll discuss, is not a good strategy. Landing pages lead customers to a specific product, service or offer and encourage them to take action. This is your opportunity to create conversions and build your customer base.

If landing pages are so important, why isn’t every business using them? Well, there is a misconception that they are hard to create and maintain. Fortunately, that simply isn’t true. Building an effective landing page is less about flashiness and more about getting the consumer what they’re after.

What Makes a Good Landing Page?

First off, your home page should not be your landing page . You need to send prospective customers to a page that will let them take advantage of whatever special offer you’ve promised them. Since they are tied to something specific, your landing pages have a better chance of capturing attention for a longer period of time. Good landing pages do several things:

1. They zero-in on the offer, not the company. Your future customers are clicking for a reason, and duping them by not giving them what you’ve promised is not going to form a good first impression. Now is not the time to give a detailed history of your company. This isn’t to say that the landing page should not be tied to your company brand. Just the opposite. They should serve a separate function, yet it should still be an extension of your brand.

2. They are focused and free of distractions. The content on your landing page should have the end-goal of getting the user what they want while completing the registration process.

3. The forms are not intimidating. Lengthy forms can be daunting to visitors and may encourage them to move on, rather than take advantage of whatever opportunity you are offering. If you simply can’t shorten your form, break it into steps, and let the user see exactly where they are in the process. For example, listing their name and address may be step one of four.

4. They speak to a specific audience. Segmenting your customer base helps you to target specific consumers through customized campaigns. If you have a base that’s drawn to a particular offer, such as an eBook or discount, your landing page can serve as a built-in segmentation device, allowing you to nurture these leads effectively going forward.

5. They collect specific information about your prospective customers. Speaking of specific audiences, even if you draw the right crowd, they can’t be converted if you don’t collect the right information. The collection of demographic data should include more than simply a name and email address. It should also give you some idea of why a person clicked and what their long-term connection to your company might be.

6. They provide your special offers with a home. Unless they are tied to landing pages, your online special offers will do nothing to benefit your business. Creating landing pages provides a place for your offers to reside.

7. They provide a thank you. Your landing page should always be followed up with a thank you . This is not only polite but assures the consumer that they have completed the registration process.

8. They allow users access to other marketing channels. A customer likes what you’ve just offered. Now you can provide links to other offers, your social media profiles or an email list sign up.

There is no doubt about it, we are certainly living in a digitally connected world. Moving boldly forward with a digital marketing campaign can easily be one of the best investments that you make for your business. As you build your digital marketing toolbox, including landing pages is a smart move, and both you and your customers will reap the benefits.

If you would like to learn more about the importance of landing pages, or want to get in touch with an expert who can improve your landing page strategy, we'd love to chat with you right now!

Content Marketing: The Lifeblood of Digital Marketing

Fri, 03 Jul 2020 16:52:00 GMT

A long time ago, marketing involved a lot of interruption. To get the word out about a product, service, or brand, marketers, and advertisers would place ads in newspapers, between TV shows and songs on the radio, on building and billboards – hoping to catch a consumer’s attention during some other activity.

Some efforts were more subtle: paying a celebrity to wear a particular brand, or showing a beloved character in a movie using one specific type of dish soap. Others even more closely resembled today’s content marketing, like educational brochures on a front desk, free checklists mailed to your house, or a sponsored article placed in a popular magazine.

The Rise and Fall of the Content Farm

Then came the internet, a breeding ground for cheap and fast content production. Businesses realized they could attract new customers by answering their questions rather than creating expensive printed materials or interrupting their media, so they commissioned content farms to produce cheap, low-quality content en masse.

Many businesses used shady SEO practices to “hack” the system so their unhelpful content would rise in the search results page.

Fortunately, Google caught on and began rewarding high-quality content and penalizing the junk. Today, marketers face a unique challenge that also presents an opportunity. Consumers have access to more information than ever. They can choose which media they want to consume, and which they wish to ignore.

The solution? Content marketing.

What Is Content Marketing?

Content marketing strives to be the media that customers want to consume. Instead of interrupting a TV show, for example, content marketing is the TV show.

Content marketing isn’t limited to one type of media, either; it spans many formats and channels, with more being invented every day.

Content marketing can be a:

Blog
Loose-leaf printed material
Movie, TV show, or YouTube episode
Podcast
Video game
Book
Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn post
Quiz or other interactive content

Your Content Marketing Strategy

Your content marketing strategy, like any marketing strategy, should be tied to your broader business goals. Are you launching a new product, expanding into a new target market, or focusing on client retention and increasing customer lifetime value? Define your business goal, and then you can lay the framework for your content marketing strategy.

Next, consider the topics related to your business line that you want to be known for – and connect those back to your more prominent business goal. If you’re a plant nursery hoping to increase brand awareness, your broad topics might be “landscaping,” “vegetable gardening,” “annuals,” and “perennials,” for example.

Before you get into the nitty-gritty of what you’ll create, you’ll want to spend a good chunk of effort identifying and getting to know your target audience. Remember – content marketing is all about the people consuming your content, not about you. If what you create isn’t entertaining, informative, or educational, it isn’t effective content marketing.

Getting to Know Your Target Audience

Defining your audience, and catering your content to them, is one of the hardest parts of good content marketing – but possibly the most essential. There are many different ways to garner information about your target audience’s interests, beliefs, and problems:

Talk to the sales team. Your sales teams, no matter how big or small, interacts with prospects more regularly than anyone else. They’ll be privy to common objections, questions, and concerns your leads are facing – and they’ll have insights into what’s driving customers to make a purchase.
Study the data. Get a Google Analytics account for your website to learn about what people are doing on your site, which pages they prefer, and which search terms are leading people to you. Use Google Search Console to conduct basic keyword research for free, or opt for a paid service like SEMrush or Moz for more in-depth functionality.
Conduct primary research online. Consumer behavior on social media, review sites, and forums can tell you a lot about your audience's issues. It can also serve as an excellent tool for brainstorming content ideas.
Talk to them directly. Content Marketing Institute states that while only 43% of B2B content marketers talk to customers directly, and open conversation is one of the most effective ways to get accurate, updated information. Conduct a panel, survey, focus group, or reach out to individual customers directly for feedback.

Once you’ve gathered data about your target market, create customer persona documents for your content team to reference. Your writers and designers will be thankful for this, but a clear definition of personas will guide the next step in your content marketing efforts: choosing which types of content to produce.

Content Planning for Content Marketing

The biggest mistake you can make, as a marketer, is to create a whole bunch of disparate content pieces and publish them at random.

Even if they’re all related by subject matter, they won’t have any impact on the business if they don’t relate to one another and work together to move customers down your sales funnel.

To get the most out of your strategy, let your marketing funnel guide your content production. Some types of content work better as top-funnel lead magnets, while others are superior for helping you close a sale.

Middle Funnel Content

Middle-funnel customers are aware of your brand but haven’t purchased yet. They may not fully understand your product or service or see how it will make their lives easier.

Your job as a content marketer is to help mid-funnel prospects weigh their options while providing a deeper understanding of your offerings. The best content for the middle of the funnel includes:

Infographics
Events
One-pagers and flyers
Webinars
Software downloads
Educational resources
Discount or coupon club emails
Whitepapers

Bottom Funnel Content

Bottom-funnel customers have their credit card in-hand and are ready to buy – but haven’t pulled the trigger. They may also be previous customers who are thinking of buying again.

Bottom-funnel content should focus on landing the sale . It should show why you’re trusted, the most exceptional value, or the best at what you do. It should inspire existing customers to come back for more.

Company newsletters
Case studies
Classes
Landing pages
Demo videos
Rewards programs
Free trials
Direct mail and letters

Writing Creative Briefs: The Nitty-Gritty

Once you’ve identified the types of content you need for each stage of your funnel, it’s time to get down to the details and write your creative briefs. A brief can be anything from a single paragraph to a full page (or two), as long as it clarifies to your writers, designers, video editors, and other professionals as to what you’re looking to receive. Here are some things to include:

Title or Headline: Plan your headlines, video titles, lead magnet titles, and more based on the topics you want to cover, or the keywords you want to be on focus. It should be descriptive and compelling; even if you create great content, your prospects will never consume it if the title does not hook them.

Final format: What will the final piece look like? Is it a blog post, PDF, or printed eBook? Is it video content or social media image? For design content, specify whether you need final files, design files, or both.

Distribution channels: Where will this content be distributed? It could be your website, a guest post on a popular media site, YouTube, or a podcast platform, for example. An organic Facebook post has different technical requirements and best practices than an Instagram post, so lay out your expectations.

Length or word count: If it’s a written piece of content, how long should it be? A blog post may be in the 800 to 1500-word range, while a long-form piece of content might vary from 2,000 words to tens of thousands.

Purpose and description: What will the content be about? What questions should it answer, and what should the viewer or reader feel after consuming it?

Call to action: What do you want the prospect to do after checking out your content – click a button, send an email, make a phone call, or buy something?

References: If you have transcriptions of SME calls, reference URLs, images on Pinterest or Shutterstock (for design projects), or anything else that will help your creative team see your vision, include it.

How to Create High-Quality Content Marketing

Since the key to content marketing success in 2019 (and beyond, we’re willing to wager) is quality over quantity, you will get the best return on your investment if you focus on creating top-tier content.

Here are a few tips for creating content that wins:

Remember that you get what you pay for. There are still many content farms racing to the bottom, charging very little for content creation. But this comes at a high price for you. If what you’ve created is unclear or poorly designed, your content may hurt others’ perception of your business or brand.

Look for specialists rather than generalists. It’s easier than ever to find someone with the exact experience and skill you’re looking for. Use freelance platforms like PeoplePerHour, Upwork, and Hubstaff Talent to find the perfect contractor for the job.

Measure and improve. Don’t release your content into the world and move on to the next thing: use the tools you have

Don’t be promotional. Content marketing isn’t about promotion. That’s what ads are for, and even they’re shifting toward a customer-centric approach. When you write about your customer’s world and take the ego out of your content , you’ll produce something worth reading and sharing.

Do what only you can do. As more information becomes readily available for free online, merely having answers isn’t enough to compel prospects anymore. If you have a unique perspective or story, share it – nobody else has that same gift to give.

A Digital Marketing Guide to Getting Online: Part Two - Technology

Fri, 19 Jun 2020 15:06:00 GMT

In this second post in the series about getting online (you can find the first part here !), I am taking a look at the technology platforms and decisions you will need to make as part of that process.

You might be surprised that I didn’t look at this first, but in truth, you want to run a business, not become an IT or digital marketing expert . IT will become a more significant part of your world as an eCommerce operator, but if you don’t get your strategy and mission correct first, and have good content, then no platform will save your enterprise.

Thankfully, the technology part has become a lot more comfortable in the past couple of years, with the advent of several cloud-based services that take away the hosting, security, and maintenance headaches for you. In truth, any of the platforms mentioned in the graphic above will do the job for you. I’ve also just started to help a small operator whose store is built on WIX, and while it might be restricted in some ways, it was more than fine to get up and running.Your eCommerce platform needs to do the following things for you:

Content management, including product and non-product content
Product search (Amazon has taught us to use the search box, not the navigation)
Provide shopping cart capability
Product and Inventory management
Pricing Tools (including discounts, offers, and promotions)
Payment Systems Integration
Order Management
Integration with shipping and other providers

If you have invested a lot in your current website design and content, and it is on WordPress, then WooCommerce is a plug-in works very well. There are lots of developers and add-ons out there that will help you get that integrated, and up and running quickly.

However, my preference at this time is for a SaaS-based solution for the simple reason that it should remove a lot of the hosting, backup, and maintenance headaches for you. Hosting performance and page speed is one of the critical things impacting your conversion rate.

So I would typically recommend either Shopify or BigCommerce as a platform choice. There are plenty of reviews on the web comparing both platforms, so I won’t go into all the details here. Still, the differences and advantages of either platform are minor enough that in the end, it may come down to what your Web Developer partner is familiar with or indeed your personal preferences.

Be careful when looking at the pricing differences as there are differences in transaction fees, sales limits, and what functionality comes included at each pricing tier for both platforms – some due diligence is required.

A couple of reasons you might go with BigCommerce instead of Shopify:

Slightly more out of the box features included in BigCommerce
More SEO friendly especially the ability to generate short URLs
Slightly better GDPR compliance capabilities and Multi-currency options

A couple of reasons you might go with Shopify:

With 200,000 or so stores, it’s the largest eCommerce ecosystem around at the moment. There are lots of add-ons and integrations that solve many of the business requirements you will have down the road
No Sales limits
Integrates into the social media space (this is where it started from)
Probably the cheapest entry point if that is important to you

Email Platform

It might seem strange to elevate email to the same level as the platform decision, but I do count eMail as one of the core decisions you need to get right from the start. The reason this is important is, to build relationships with customers, you need to interact with them regularly, and while social media has its place in this, you will be sending a lot of emails.

The first mistake is to think of email as pushing discounts and offers. Think about it, if a shop assistant followed you around a real-world shop saying nothing other than having 5% of that or 10% off that, you would be irritated, and chances are, you would leave. Email is the mechanism to send content that builds trust and empathy with your store or brand. Emails need to be useful, engaging, and interesting to your audience – which means that your email platform has to have specific capabilities. Done right, email as a channel, can/should drive up to 30% of the revenue in your eCommerce store. It is still the most affordable and scalable marketing channel available to you.

In order to create effective email campaigns, your platform needs to do the following:

Provide contact tagging so you can create dynamic lists and move people between those lists automatically based on the actions they have taken.
Smart automation of emails and triggers, which sends specific emails when individual pages are visited on your website.
Provide a good email template collection and builder, as well as the ability to test different versions of an email.
eCommerce data integration so the two platforms can talk and allow you to execute the right actions based on data.
Helpdesk integration. Customers expect a seamless experience. Everyone needs to be able to see the entire customer communication context. Customers hate having to repeat information a second time.
Smart send and scheduling options. Different times in the future, for example.

You will also probably need to manage multiple lists and sequences:

Master list of all subscribers
Pre-purchase subscribers
Post-purchase subscribers
Abandoned carts sequence
Lists for offers that users have opted into
Dynamic lists based on audiences from your website

To engage and nurture your customer base, they likely will be getting one or more emails a week. Never overdo it, and make sure the emails are tailored and relevant. To manage that, you are going to need a little help from your platform. While there are tons of them out there, and things like MailChimp work well in a variety of situations, the two that I would recommend are Klaviyo and Active Campaign.

Klaviyo was designed as an email platform to support eCommerce. Still, I also use Active Campaign with several clients as a very affordable platform that is really feature-rich (for transparency, I am an affiliate partner for Active Campaign). As an added benefit, their support team is excellent and now generally based in Dublin (again some local bias!).

Good content shared correctly via email will have a dramatic impact on your sales performance.

Analytics

The reason eCommerce is different from a traditional business is the level of data and understanding you can develop about your customers. What content do they find engaging? Where do they exit your site? What are the demographics of your visitors? To have this data, you must have Analytics installed, and more importantly, configured correctly. Depending on your eCommerce platform, that can be easy or difficult.

For most people, there is only one game in town, which is Google Analytics. There is no need to look at anything else. While it is frightening for some people, I am still surprised by the number of people I meet with websites and online stores who do not have a good grasp of what their data is, or what it is telling them.

Anyone can get up to speed with analytics and reporting , but be prepared to invest time (and get some outside help where needed) to learn them thoroughly. Being able to pick the right performance metrics, and to make sure you make the right decisions based on reliable data (I talk about the correct KPIs in a different post) makes all of the difference. At a minimum, you will need to build the right goals and funnels in your analytics application to understand where people are starting their shopping journey, and where they are exiting before completing a purchase. That way, you will understand what parts of your content are not working and what needs to be improved, including the relevant sections of your site.

Conclusion

There are many other add-ons and apps that we will look at in the Digital Marketing and Demand Generation. Still, these are the core elements and platforms that you will need to become familiar with to be successful, and the decisions you make on these core elements are essential because there will be significant effort invested into getting this set up correctly and running well.

It is difficult to outsource the operation of these elements to a third party as you have the best product and customer knowledge and, therefore, should be best positioned to make the right operational decisions. Your eCommerce partner should be able to help you interpret the data, help identify the right business priorities, and look after the technical elements for you to help you grow and scale your eCommerce setup.

A Digital Marketing Guide to Getting Online: Part One - Strategy

Fri, 29 May 2020 12:04:00 GMT

There is no doubt that these are unprecedented times, and while my grandmother might have remembered the ‘Spanish Flu’ living through a pandemic like this is a new and scary experience. However, if we look at the impact of SARS on consumer behavior in China and AP, then we can get an inkling of what might happen post-COVID 19 – SARS catapulted China forward to be the leading online economy.

eCommerce has been growing quickly and steadily for the last 10 to 15 years as the data from Statistica shows. Still, I believe one of the significant impacts of COVID-19 will be to accelerate that acceptance and growth. We see new groups of people being introduced to doing new things online that they may not have considered everything previously from working from home to online gym sessions to grocery click and collect – and finding that they like the experience.

So how should a business owner approach the transition online?

To me, the questions fall into three areas needed for success:

Business Strategy – Why am I doing this?
The Technology – What platforms and technology are needed?
Driving the Business - How do I get the traffic (customers) I need to be successful?

I’ll return to the 2nd and 3rd areas in later posts, but for now, let us look at the strategy question.

The Business Strategy – How Will You Compete?

As Jack Welch famously said, ‘If you don’t have a competitive advantage, don’t compete.'

Just because you build a website, customers will not just come and buy from it – if only things were that simple and if you are thinking about pivoting towards eCommerce as a short term fix, my best advice is don’t do it.

eCommerce is a strategic shift of behavior, so think about it that way. Traditional retail will recover, but your customers will have different expectations, and what gave you a competitive advantage in the past may no longer be accurate. Conventional benefits like geographic location or pricing are much harder to sustain online than in the real world.

Pricing is very transparent (and expected to be) online, so if your business model is all about hidden discounts or rebates, you might be in trouble. Being the cheapest is not always desirable or necessary, but you do need to be competitive. You need to think differently about what you bring to the table that will encourage people to buy from you if you are an expert in sourcing niche products that is good. If you can use your expertise to help people make the right choices, that is great because often the problem online is too much choice and knowing who to trust. If you provide a niche or specialized product, then even better-this is the channel for you.

Local can still be a good reason to differentiate, but that does limit the audience you are addressing. Your store must talk about who you are as a brand or retailer, what your mission is, what you believe in, and why people should buy from you. If you can’t articulate this, then you will be at a disadvantage. Your thinking needs to change not to where am I located in terms of footfall but who is my audience, what are the problems I can solve for them, and how do I connect to them digitally.

To compete, you must also harness the two-way nature of the Web. Online tools such as social media gives you a different (and sometimes deeper) connection to your customers. A means to connect with them digitally and to understand what they are looking for and what solutions you can provide for them. The best online merchants know that this is a two-way street and use their connected customers to guide their direction and decisions in a way that is much more difficult to do in the bricks and mortar world. Your customer list and the consent you have collected to engage that audience is a real measure of the value of your business into the future. This is important to focus on this in your strategy because it is the only way to counter the reduced loyalty people generally feel online and the fact that there is a world of competition only a click away.

The world is not going to be completely online - so how does your online presence support your Bricks and Mortar store or your sales team in the field? This can be a real concern for businesses and brands. My experience is making sure everyone is in on a standard set of incentives, and pricing is transparent in all channels goes a long way to solving any concerns. Multi-channel works well today.

How Can I Help, Sir?

No successful salesperson ever started a conversation in a shop with – What can I sell you? People want help, and they will return to the brands, owners, and retailers that help them the most. The difference in eCommerce is that your digital assets and content are what will help your customers now, not your sales assistants. You have to focus on the problems you solve and the needs you satisfy for your customers and how to do that digitally.

So whether you like it or not, you are now in the content marketing business – for many, this is a new skill set that needs to be learned or acquired.

If you are selling products, you need great product descriptions, features, but also benefits. If you have content showing the product in use, that’s great. If you don’t, consider creating it for your top 20 products.

There are no ifs, buts, or maybes with this. Nothing will sabotage your online eCommerce business quicker than poor product images and descriptions. You, as the business owner, must think about how your team will provide this content and, by the way, increasingly that should be in video format. Some stores report that conversion rate (the ratio of people who purchase a product) can increase by 174% if they watch a product video. I guess maybe those late-night TV shopping channels did sell some stuff!

Business Strategy – The Team

First and foremost, online is still a business, so all of the fundamental business skills around operations, finance, customer service, etc. remain the same, but there are some new ones you need.

It certainly helps to have access to someone who has broad digital experience. Who can help you put all the pieces together? Just like you don’t expect your shopfitter to be an expert in marketing, your web developer may not be the right person to help you drive the business forward. (Don’t get me wrong your web developer is a crucial member of the team – just don’t ask them to do things that are outside their skill range) A highly focused SEO agency will not be able to help with customer proposition or email communications, for example.

As you grow, you can undoubtedly bring specific skills to your team. In the beginning, you probably should engage some consulting help to build the broader roadmap and plan in how you are going to grow and sustain the business. You do need as a core skill a Marketeer or merchandiser who understands your business but don’t expect them to be able to put together and execute the broad range of tactics needed to make this a success.

Analytics and understanding your data will be crucial to success. You can outsource in the beginning to have it set up correctly, but you can not be successful without understanding your data and what it is telling you. So start learning on the job or working with someone that can help you find your feet quickly.

Business Strategy – The Economics of Your New Business

Analytics brings me neatly to the final leg of your business strategy. You have to understand the new economics of what you are doing. It used to be the case that people believed that you got a lower price on the internet because businesses did not have all the traditional costs of real estate, staff assistants, or multiple partner margins. While that is partly true, there are a whole set of other expenses you need to consider, logistics/delivery, returns, payments and charge-backs, digital infrastructure costs, and, most importantly, demand generation and marketing costs.

While you may not be paying high street rents and rates for your online store, you are going to have to re-invest a significant proportion of your online revenue into generating quality and converting traffic. So make sure you build out a proper financial plan and P&L that accounts for these elements before you start. Make sure you understand the margins behind each product and how that allows you to scale your marketing correctly. Nothing worse than a nasty financial surprise.

Conclusion

I believe that almost every business needs to plan for at least 15-20% of its revenue to come from Online sources as you simply cannot concede that space to your competition anymore. COVID simply increases the imperative to do this.

But there is no magic here. Start by articulating your overall business strategy, how you will compete, how you will build the right team around you for success, and how to finance this correctly. You can start small and slow and grow from there – just make sure you have considered the road ahead.

Impacts of COVID-19 on the Advertising Television industry

Tue, 28 Apr 2020 13:09:22 GMT

With many communities in lockdown, people’s behavior toward's TV has changed. There are numerous studies that show that Television viewing has sky-rocketed during this crisis, including among young people and across services and genres. In this conversation we discuss how marketeers should consider how their TV and social strategies complement each other to maximize their voice in the conversation. In the current environment, programmers, social platforms and artists are quickly pivoting from in-person engagements to virtual or televised events offering marketers new opportunities

The COVID-19 pandemic has shaken world markets, having a profound effect on the media and advertising ecosystems. Global advertisers are scrambling to manage the major disruptions to their media spending caused by the spread of the virus.

Recent analyses around the world have revealed that TV & Video consumption is experiencing a rapid shift, evidence of the strong relationship between the medium and audiences looking for reliable information and entertainment.

Advertisers, on the other hand, are changing their on-screen messages to be more empathetic and offer helpful information to consumers.

Join us as we discuss global perspectives and insights on the impacts of COVID-19 to Advertising Television and the wider media industry.

Topics:

I. Opportunities: The Role of TV and advertising in times of uncertainty

II. Impacts to TV advertising sales and business strategies to retain clients

III. Consumer behavior trends

IV. Insights, perspectives, and recommendations from around the world

Panelists:

LOUIS BOSWELL

Chief Executive Officer at AVIA

Asia Video Industry Association

KATTY ROBERFROID

Director General at EGTA

International Association of TV and Radio Ad Sales Companies

ENRIQUE R. MARTÍNEZ

Chairman of the Board of Directors at LAMAC

Latin American Media Advertising Council

SEAN CUNNINGHAM

President & CEO at VAB

Video Advertising Bureau

Some key insights from the conversation are:

1. Short-term update of your brand messages

2. Long-term focus on brand building

3. Embracing of addressable TV and multiscreen TV opportunities

All those who will change and align their brands will be prepared for further turmoils that inevitably will come. The old world order seem to be destroyed. Welcome the new one.

VIDEO - Optimizing through COVID-19 for higher revenue

Tue, 14 Apr 2020 19:10:41 GMT

With the COVID-19 everyone is staying at home which is making your website more crucial for your business. Providing visitors with an optimal user experience is more important now than ever, so instead of just cutting marketing spend, businesses should focus on how they can better convert the traffic they’re already receiving.

Online and LinkedIn strategies to continue prospecting digitally

Tue, 14 Apr 2020 17:12:08 GMT

The current health crisis has forced many businesses to stay home. In this conversation, Gerardo and Francois discuss online strategies to continue prospecting and lead generation during the COVID-19 crisis. In particular, they discuss how to use LinkedIn for developing warmer connections to leads and prospects.

VIDEO - Selling effectively in a remote world

Tue, 31 Mar 2020 14:47:52 GMT

The current health crisis has forced many businesses to stay home. In this conversation, Kevin and Gerardo discuss the most successful strategies and techniques to continue your prospecting and lead generation activities remotely.

Here is my fireside chat with Kevin Halinnan, a fantastic sales coach and trainer, where we discussed how to continue selling and business development activities during COVID-19. Two guys just trying to help the community. Key points discussed were:

1) Have a positive mindset

2) Be disciplined

3) Set a schedule

4) Establish or adapt your goals

5) Establish new behaviors and activities

6) Keep prospecting

Top 10 Tips to survive a COVID-19 Crisis

Thu, 26 Mar 2020 22:41:00 GMT

In this conversation, Gerardo and Armando talk about what different industries are doing to survive the COVID-19 crisis, and what are the 10 tips we can learn that we can adapt to our business.

Key points touched during the discussion are:

1) Traditional Marketing Budgets Reinvested in Digital

2) Online Media buying

3) Industries thriving (Gaming, Distance Education, Online Based Businesses)

4) E-Commerce

5) Increase in Webinar Based Lead Generation Programs

6) Refresh your website

7) Using the downtime to invest in Digital Marketing Maintenance Activities

8) Email Marketing & Email Automation

9) Continue the path of SEO

10) Don't Cut Back on Marketing

VIDEO -Pivoting, Surviving & Thriving - an open conversation to help your business deal with COVID-19 - A conversation with Jack Porter-Smith

Thu, 26 Mar 2020 21:46:28 GMT

In this conversation, Gerardo and Jack discuss the COVID-19 crisis and what businesses of all sizes should be doing to navigate successfully through it

In this conversation, Gerardo Kerik and Jack Porter Smith discuss insights and learnings to help businesses navigate the COVID-19 crisis. Topics include:

- How to continue your lead generation activities?

- Should you pivot to digital? How?

- How is COVID-19 affecting the ad markets and bid prices?

- When is the right time to invest?

- What industries are poised to growth?

Click here for more resources on COVID-19 crisis

Important Lessons for Marketing Your Business in a Post-Coronavirus World

Thu, 19 Mar 2020 11:59:19 GMT

Summary : While nobody was necessarily prepared for a crisis of this magnitude, you are - believe it or not - already equipped to continue marketing your brand in a post-Coronavirus world.

Like many of you reading this, I’m writing this blog post in self-isolation. Not because of any viral symptoms - thankfully - but because this is the new reality for both our personal and professional lives. At least for the time being. And on behalf of our WSI family, I hope you are staying healthy and continue to take the recommended precautions.

From sporting events to conferences and even air travel, cancellations were announced in droves over the course of the last several weeks. COVID-19 has sparked turmoil around the globe and as we all adjust, businesses everywhere - ours included - are navigating unfamiliar territory.

Sure, working remotely (for those businesses that can) was one of the first precautionary actions that businesses enforced. We, too, have made the decision to support social distancing. But the fear for business owners everywhere stems deeper than ensuring employees are washing their hands and limiting their social interactions. Small businesses especially, are struggling with how to maintain brand visibility, revenue, traffic (both physical and digital) and relevance during a time when their audience is preoccupied with stockpiling hand sanitizer and toilet paper.

In spite of the overwhelming fears and uncertainties, now is not the time to market your business with your head in the sand. And while, nobody was necessarily prepared for a crisis of this magnitude, you are - believe it or not - already equipped to continue marketing your brand in a post-Coronavirus world.

Let’s discuss some best practices for your customer communications, your marketing mix, and your growth. We’ll even take a look at some great - and other not-so-great - examples of how some businesses are choosing to deal with the pandemic.

1. Refrain From Denial Marketing

Like I said earlier: it is not the time to market your business with your head in the sand. While some of us might be craving a little normalcy, pretending like nothing is happening is simply tone-deaf and possibly irresponsible. Pause and review your scheduled social media updates; analyze your pre-written content and previously scheduled campaigns. Performing a 360 on your content strategy and reflection is important in this digital environment. Posts that may have seemed fine a few weeks ago, may seem insensitive now.

2. Avoid Marketing Tactics That Exploit Customers’ Emotional State of Mind

Perhaps slightly more controversial than denial marketing, is fear-based marketing. Cheap marketing ploys to attract customers to your business is risky in this environment. An unfortunate example of late are the recent reports of price gouging by both offline and online retailers. Last week this ad ( source ) by a third-party dealer on Amazon was found to promote a couple of 236-ml bottles of hand sanitizer selling for $99.99.

Needless to say, profiting by artificially raising prices on basic needs during a global pandemic is simply poor business ethics. And thankfully, both government bodies and retailers like Amazon , have been suspending such accounts and, in some cases, issuing steep fines. People will remember how you handle your marketing during this time. Negative brand association can cause irreparable damage to your reputation and business operations. Tread lightly.

3. Review and Revise Your Advertising Spend

In any crisis situation - particularly one with global quarantine recommendations - it’s especially important to reduce unnecessary expenses. The instinct is to keep your budget trim without causing any long-term damage to your customer base. That said, it’s imperative that businesses make strategic marketing decisions and maintain a Coronavirus marketing plan. Review your ad campaign spend and adapt accordingly.

For example, a restaurant owner who is worried about being required to temporarily close their dining areas might want to increase targeted ad spend on social platforms to promote their delivery service (or association with third-party apps). Your business needs, the desired outcome, and a proper gauge on your audience’s motivations are vital to managing your overhead during a pandemic.

A wonderful example of ad spend used wisely is this St. Patrick’s Day ad from Guinness. Naturally, St. Paddy’s day revelry has been muted this year due to the pandemic. Guinness, however, sensibly chose to use this time as an opportunity to promote an optimistic and unifying message: “Whether you are planning to safely celebrate at the pub, or hosting at home, if you can call the people around you friends or family, you’ve already won. When you raise a pint of Guinness, also remember to raise each other up.” Watch the commercial in full below.

4. Maintain Your SEO Strategies and Competitive Research

Even when there is no crisis situation to contend with, this is generally always good advice for businesses. Maintain the basics of search engine optimization and aim to boost your site’s organic reach: update website page titles, headers and meta tags. Refresh outdated content with new information and relevant backlinks.

It’s also important to also use this time to keep a close eye on your competitors. Aim to uncover services they might be lacking, which could be important to customers who are self-isolating. This information could be used for your competitive ad retargeting efforts.

5. Ramp Up Customer Service Through Social Media and Alternative Technologies

Naturally, the widespread anxiety is causing disruptions to brand communications and messaging. It was recently reported that WestJet was experiencing 10 hour call center wait times amid the panic . This is an important lesson in anticipating changes in your customers’ behaviors and recognizing how they potentially impact your service level agreements. Leverage a mix of social media channels to supplement your customer service. JetBlue, for instance, has used Twitter to communicate relevant policy changes in line with their customers’ evolving needs.

Of course, this expands to other platforms as well. Depending on your business, you may require the use of video calls for conferences and sales pitches. Show your customer base that you’re working hard to provide the services they rely on, while proactively protecting their health as well as your own.

6. Consider New Platforms to Expand Your Reach

With much of the population self-isolating at home, it’s expected that services that make a quarantine more bearable will be in much higher demand. Streaming services like Netflix, cable providers and gaming companies might see a boost in subscribers. Podcast producers, YouTube and Instagram content creators will likely have more viewers at home, ready and eager to be entertained by new content.

Use this time to brainstorm how your brand can create content for platforms you haven’t leveraged before. Uploading Insta-stories, sharing photos, creating informative articles or videos will help expand your organic reach and stay top of mind among an audience that is actively seeking new media.

7. Whatever You Choose to Do, Do NOT Cut Back on Digital

Unfortunately, businesses who choose to cut back on digital marketing in fear of the economic impact of COVID-19, are likely to suffer the most. Yes - meeting the needs of those customers stuck in quarantine won’t be easy. But it is possible to get strategic with your marketing budget and minimize the negative effects on your business. The right mix of SEO strategies, new media engagement initiatives and targeted ad spend will help your business create invaluable customer relationships that will outlast any pandemic.

How WSI is Working Through COVID-19

Similar to many of our clients’ businesses, our own team is embracing social distancing and working remotely in order to assist in flattening the curve . WSI is continuing to conduct network-wide virtual meetings over the course of the next few days in an effort to ensure minimal service disruptions to our clients.

Ultimately our goal to provide best in class digital solutions to your unique business needs remains the same. And we’re committed to helping your business adapt in a post-coronavirus world as efficiently and as safely as possible.

If you have any questions about the appropriate marketing strategies to help your business withstand the pandemic, don’t hesitate to reach out to your local WSI Consultant.

Until then, take care of yourselves and of each other.