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Have you talked to Siri, Alexa or Cortana lately? You probably have, and you wouldn’t be alone. According to Google, more than half of teens and 41% of adults are using voice search daily. For users, voice search is basically the best thing since sliced bread and now marketers are racing to optimize their content for it.
Why is voice search hailed as the next big opportunity? Let’s break down what voice search is, how it’s impacting search, and some quick tips on how to optimize for these new types of queries.
What is Voice Search?
People tend to use voice search when they are multi-tasking, like asking for directions, dictating texts, and getting quick information. And because voice search is a drastic new medium to perform searches, the types of queries and ways in which people are searching are changing immensely.
What’s Its Impact?
Voice search is making long tail, colloquial keywords more relevant. People are now having conversations with their devices, whether it’s a smartphone or voice assistant, so preparing for longer, more descriptive terms is imperative. Also, searchers are using more interrogative words within their searches. Imagine you’re driving around town, jamming to your favorite song and realize that your gas light just turned on – chances are you might quickly ask Siri, “Where’s the closest gas station?”, and voila! In a couple of minutes your tank is full, you’re back on the road downing a Dr. Pepper and pretending to be Britney Spears.
How Do I Optimize For It?
An easy way to begin optimizing your site’s pages is making sure you’re tracking voice terms, which include long tail keywords and searches with question terms attached – like who, what, where, when and so on. Once you have a benchmark, you’ll be able to track your improvements.
Next, create or update an existing FAZ page predicting relevant voice searches. This page can include questions like, “How much is shipping?” or “How does it work?” so when people are searching questions that might relate to your business, you have a page ready for them to land on.
And lastly, make sure your site passes the mobile-friendliness test. People using voice search want quick answers to their pressing questions, so if your landing page doesn’t load fast enough, your user might bounce right off your site and get answers from elsewhere.
Author: Stephanie May
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Marketing Trends for 2018
Phillip Long - CISSP, CEO of BIS Technology Group, along with his team of marketing and information technology experts, will walk you through an overview of what your business should be doing to protect your data and plan your digital marketing strategies.
About BIS Technology Group
BIS Technology Group is the technology leader on the Gulf Coast and is comprised of four divisions: Information Technology, Web Design & Digital Marketing, Office Equipment and Business Consulting. Together these divisions help local businesses exceed expectations and allow them to group to their full potential while minimizing risks. To learn more about BIS Technology Group, visit bistechnologygroup.com.
You may reach out to us at: Phone: 251-405-2527 Email: plong@askbis.com
Facebook is continually using updating their algorithm to help their users see more relative content and less of what they don’t like. If you have a Facebook business page, you have probably noticed that it is more difficult to get engagement than it does on your personal Facebook page.
Why? Facebook sees your business page as a business. Essentially, you’re a business so you should pay for exposure. Before you start running Facebook ads, try these 5 Facebook marketing tips:
Share images of real people. As a social network, people want to see people, especially people they know, like, and trust. Lose the sales pitch. People are turned off by continuous product images.
People want to win free swag, free product, or free/discounted services. Contests with the right prize will organically boost your traffic. You’ll increase your fan base, page likes, and grow your email list. You’ll increase your chances of going viral with the right product and right response.
Facebook is very proud of this feature. It took quite a long time for this to roll out to all of their users, so those that Go Live – get seen! Going Live allows you to interact with your audience, increase your overall reach, and increase your page likes. A lot of people are afraid to go live, but the ones that do are heavily rewarded.
You’ve probably seen the response time to messages on your Facebook page or another page. The better your response time, the more Facebook will show your posts to your followers/fans. Engagement is key. When you have a private chat with one of your Facebook friends, you’ll start to see them more in your newsfeed, and vice versa.
When you are consistent, your audience will expect it. They will look forward to your engaging posts and Facebook live videos. Make sure you are posting 3-5 high quality posts per week. Create a hashtag, not only for fun, but for tracking purposes. Eventually, your followers will start using your hashtag. Be consistent, but remember, to have fun! Facebook is meant for socializing and having fun. Re-evaluate your social media plan and determine what it is your audience responds to the most. Use the tips we suggested and just remember to lose the sales pitch and stay consistent! If you need assistance with creating a social media plan, contact BIS Designs at 251.405.2542.
BIS Designs is an internet marketing company serving the Mobile, Alabama area. Our content, development, social media marketing and search engine optimization specialists have years of experience in targeting custom audiences for the B2B community and would welcome the opportunity to help your business grow.
Phillip Long, CEO
With 87% of Americans using the internet and 80% of people online owning a smart phone, a mobile marketing strategy for businesses shouldn’t be ignored. However, there’s more to an effective mobile strategy than a mobile-friendly website. As the digital universe expands, so do marketing strategies, and that’s one reason why many businesses are seeing tremendous results through customizing their own mobile app.
You may be thinking mobile apps are only useful for the big time players, brands like Amazon and Target, but have you not noticed that even your local coffee shop now has an app for its customers? Why do they bother, you might ask? Because they’ve recognized the value that mobile apps can bring to the table. Mobile apps have become very affordable for small businesses, and the advantages of incorporating a mobile app into your marketing arsenal are very enticing.
Imagine you run a golf course in Gulf Shores, Alabama. How awesome would it be to allow your golfers to record their scores and see the golf range through a map in the mobile app?
What if you’re in the mortgage business and you develop a free app that has a mortgage calculator on it for real estate agents and potential homebuyers to use? That would certainly get people talking about your company.
A company can incentivize those who have downloaded the app to share it with their friends on social media in order to get referral points. Our minds have a way of gravitating towards the familiar, so the more the catchy icon is seen on a user’s phone as they scroll past it or in the App Store or Google Play, the more likely they will be to choose you when the need arises.
Do your competitors offer apps to help their customers? If they do, then it’s time for you to take it up a notch! If they don’t, then this is an excellent time for you to stand out by offering such a service.
By providing a personalized experience, businesses can interact with their customers efficiently which effectively generates repeat business. You can drive repeat business through rewarding customers for their patronage. Apps allow you to send push notifications to remind customers of deals, specials and events. Loyalty solutions can also consist of having digital stamp cards, digital coupons, and other loyalty reward programs. No more paper stamp cards (which everyone loses)!
Depending on your industry, certain businesses see a big increase through in-app purchases by offering revenue generating solutions such as mobile food ordering, shopping carts or a reservation system.
Apps allow you to set up push notifications that can target specific user demographics, even based on their location. For example, customers will receive a coupon if they’re near your business. Additionally, you can send in-app messages to those who have the app.
People are using their phones all day long and the customer relationship is becoming more and more digital in nature. Self-service technologies through the internet are becoming how businesses interact with their customers, and a mobile app is essentially the path of least resistance.
Mobile apps used to only be reserved for the type of businesses that could fork out $50,000 to have one developed. Those days are gone. Now every business can have one through advances in app development technology.
• Promoting Events: Showcasing key info on events & promotions, tracking attendees, and posting comments. • Ordering Food: Seamless ordering with in-app payments. • Geo-targeting Customers with GPS Coupons: Allowing users to check in at your location to unlock coupons or use geo-fencing when they’re in your area. • Rewarding Loyalty: Providing highly customizable mobile stamp cards. • Selling Merchandise: Selling products and taking payments right through the app. • Taking Reservations: Offering mobile booking features which allow users to set up appointments through the app. • Referring Friends: Incentivizing easy app-sharing by email, social media, or text.
BIS Designs, a local marketing company, now offers mobile apps for small to medium sized businesses all along the Gulf Coast, from Pensacola, Florida to Biloxi, Mississippi. We believe a multi-channel marketing platform is needed for businesses to effectively market themselves to get positive results. Our mobile apps can provide your customers with a wide range of services that can generate more revenue and increase your brand visibility. Contact us today for a free marketing consultation to see how a mobile app can benefit your business!
At the end of each year, we like to pull together the marketing community’s top digital marketing trends to look out for in the upcoming year. By keeping our finger on the pulse, we hope to be able to provide our clients with valuable insights that will sustain their growth and keep them ahead of the curve.
Beacons are another hot new trend that is expected in increase heavily in 2017. BLE Beacons are used within brick-and-mortar stores to “hypertarget” customers through new levels of proximity awareness. They are low-cost transmitters that use Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) to provide smart devices with valuable location-based information. Beacons can be installed throughout entire buildings and can be used in a variety of ways. These include:
• Sending coupons and notifications when someone is near a specific retail display. • Serving as a store guide by providing a virtual map of a store. • Educating visitors on specific exhibits as they tour a museum. • Alerting people of the arrival and departure times of specific bus routes or plane delays.
Beacons are already being used by 85% of the top US retailers, and it’s estimated that 500 million beacons will be in use by 2021.
With all of the fascinating advancements in technology and the pervasive infiltration of the IoT lifestyles, 2017 looks to be a year that will go down in history as marketing tactics take a giant leap forward and hit their stride.
If you’re ready to explore what makes your target audience tick, give us a call and let’s talk. Our web designers and analysts will work with you to create intriguing and conversion-inducing websites that will be consistently monitored and optimized for the best possible outcomes. Our goal at BIS Designs is your success. Let’s get you back on track! Schedule your free consultation & quote today.
In today's world of smartphones, internet browser usage is now dominated by mobile devices and not the desktop. With more and more individuals surfing the web on their smartphone, the requirement of having a mobile friendly website has reached the point to where Google is now strongly influencing website rankings based on whether or not a site is mobile friendly. Here are few more key points on why a mobile friendly website is so crucial: