William Exchange

It's time we revisit our policies and take into account the risk of not being there for our customers on social media. Social media by its very nature is fast, bi-directional communication, but many companies are plagued with social media policies that hinder agility. Is your social media policy agile? If not, it’s time to jump into modern marketing and have your brand be part of a conversation, not a pushed message. An agile marketing company uses social media to have one-on-one conversations with customers, and social media policies must encourage, not discourage this type of rapport. Social media turnaround times are critical A recent client I worked with reported that before starting agile marketing, its social media policy requires at least 10 separate approvers and 10 to 12 revisions on messaging for any social media campaign to go live. They soon realized by the time they got their social messages approved, it was too late. Messages were outdated, ...

An ideal agency has expertise up and down the chain that can help demonstrate the skillset of the agency as a whole. As of this article’s publishing date, 17,353 agencies offer SEO services across the globe according to Clutch. In one of the most saturated service markets, how does a buyer like you find the right SEO agency? If you know what to look for, it’s easier than you think – and can be the difference in making the right or wrong decision for this critical marketing channel. What does your ideal agency look like – and what should you avoid? Here are four easy takeaways. Their sales team are SEO experts The sales process is a perfect time to uncover the expertise (or lack thereof) of a potential agency. It’s your personal red carpet treatment. As such, you can use the sales process to benchmark an agency’s skillset. Beware of: The CEO sale. Speaking with the agency’s CEO is always compelling. They’re the most knowledgeable and charismatic asset of the agen...

Move beyond a siloed approach to marketing to improve the return on investment while evolving your organization. As a marketer today, you’re responsible for a more significant portion of the buyer journey — and for demonstrating the ROI of your efforts. You’re charged not merely with generating leads and funneling them into the sales cycle. Your role is to engage critical decision-makers before, during and after the conversion. This modern approach to marketing requires that you work hand-in-hand with sales. Businesses see measurably better results when the two teams are orchestrated — 36 percent higher customer retention rates, 38 percent higher win rates and 208 percent more revenue from marketing efforts, according to Wheelhouse Advisors. This research reflects trends we see on LinkedIn; for instance, prospects are 1.38 times more likely to respond to direct sales messages on LinkedIn if marketing has first influenced them. Even so, most marketing and sales orga...

In today’s world of search engine optimization (or SEO), Google’s search ranking algorithm is comprised of hundreds or even thousands of ranking factors. Foundational SEO once only included tactics such as keyword optimization and populating the more popular elements like title tags and headers. To truly set the stage for long term success in SEO and provide search engines with the data they expect, experts today should not sleep on the lesser-known library of Schema.org’s structured data. This article will introduce the concept of structured data, highlight its ever-increasing role in SEO, and provide a few tricks to get started. What is Structured Data? Simply put, structured data is code crafted to better define for search engines: the format or use case of specific of web content (product, eBook) the purpose of a webpage (blog article, Service page) the type of data displayed on a page (phone number, address, event date) or the type of business being condu...

In the first quarter of 2019, Instagram made headlines by announcing the roll out of a native checkout experience for a limited number of U.S. brands, with plans to expand the offering in the months that followed. The new feature allows users to purchase products directly from their feed, finally bridging the gap between exploration and purchase. In this article we explore what checkout on Instagram means for brands and how it could impact the ecommerce landscape as a whole. A natural progression Instagram’s move to bring checkout capabilities to brands is a natural step for a brand discovery and engagement platform. Instagram’s brand discovery utility is well-documented: According to Facebook , 83% of users say Instagram helps them discover new products or services. Beyond discovery and brand awareness, Instagram boasts high levels of user engagement and influences user behavior beyond the social interaction. Facebook reports that 87% of users take an action ...

Google Ads, previously known as Google AdWords, is a digital marketing platform created by Google in the year 2000. At its launch, only 350 advertisers were using the service to build brand awareness. Today, Google Ads has more than 1 million marketers and is a multi-billion dollar extension of the company. With so many marketers using the advertising service to increase traffic and ROI, Google Ads has become a highly-competitive landscape. Those who don’t use every resource available to their advantage are less likely to succeed. One of the ways Google determines your importance to the consumer audience is through your quality score. The quality score multiplied by the pay per click bid equals the Google Ad rank. This is an important equation to remember throughout your marketing journey. Throughout this guide, we’ll dig deeper into: The true definition of a Google Ads quality score The various types of scores to focus on Why they matter How you can change yours ...

Brands that constructively feed off each others ideas, perspectives, and resources can effectively expand both audience and reach through collaboration. Hence, successful brand partnerships can optimize brand loyalty through maximum exposure. While consulting metrics about media engagement proves useful in mapping future campaigns, deeper rapport is built when your brand’s message is integrated into every step of the customer experience. Not only does developing a PR partnership with another brand offer potential for domestic and global expansion, it offers both brands a chance to refine their target audiences and capitalize on SEO. When Buzzfeed agreed to work with Shopify and its 400,000 online retailers, the fashion network benefitted majorly from the backlinked product promotions embedded in Buzzfeed’s content, while the media network profited from the resulting Shopify sales. An innovative, interconnected partnership at the crossover between media and manufa...