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Increasing In-Store Visits In A Growing Online World

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Physical Store|Increasing In-Store Visits In A Growing Online WorldOnline shopping has become a massive new market in just the past twenty years. So much so, that now many businesses are purely online, with no physical stores.

But for those who balance both online and physical stores, how can you convince people to visit in-person? Surely, with the ease of access and greater range associated with online shopping, the prospect of coming in-store would seem unnecessary.

Yet your physical store or stores are great investments of capital and staff and can be a great source of revenue. To dismiss them could bring greater losses.

So how can you increase in-store visits in the online world we find ourselves?

Promotion

Customers aren’t going to come to your store if they don’t know where it is, and even if it exists! Depending on the location of your store, you might have to do more or less promotion.

If you find yourself on a busy high street, less promotion will be needed compared to if your store lies out of the way. But in both cases, a little promotion can’t hurt.

Window displays are a great way to catch passer-bys’ eyes. You can get really creative with these, so do some research into the kind of window display that will tempt the right demographic into your store.

Consider making yourself known within your community. Sponsoring community activities – like this company sponsoring the local football team – to promote goodwill, and advertise both place and purpose of your business.

Website

On a similar track to physical promotion, consider the promotion of your physical store on your website. This is a great place to promote, as you already have customers who are considering buying with you there.

Tactical SEO can actually bring customers into physical stores, so signing up for live SEO sessions will help.

The question lies around how to convince those already on your online store to shop physically. There are several options available to you in regards to this:

Quality and Price of Products

When customers shop with you, you want them to shop again—basic business strategy. To even consider tempting customers into your physical store, you first need them to want to shop again.

Therefore, focusing on both affordability (in relation to your target demographic) and quality across all products is necessary.

StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Physical Store|Increasing In-Store Visits In A Growing Online WorldRewards & Incentives

Another option for bringing customers to a physical store is to implement incentives. Physical stores can’t offer the range or ease of access that online stores can, so they must offer something else exclusive.

Try using offers like 3 for 2, or discounts on products that cannot be achieved online. Advertising these incentives on your online store has the potential to move customers away from online shopping and into the physical store.

By making these offers bright and eye-catching, it will be impossible for buyers to miss.

Presentation

So you have customers into your store with your promotions and incentives. How do you make them want to come back? The answer is simple: their shopping experience must be excellent.

Focusing the presentation of your store – from basics like wall colour to key details like store layout – can massively impact the shopping experience for consumers. You want everything to be clear and understandable, whilst also being a pleasant place to be.

Presentation isn’t just physical attributes, however. Your store is also presented either positively or negatively. Top-quality customer service is key to incentivising customers to return to your store to buy again.

Health & Safety

Right now, there is an extra level of importance when it comes to in-person stores. With the pandemic, fewer people are shopping in-store than ever before.

When people do come to shop in-store, they need to know that they will be safe. Depending on your location, there will be different regulations, but the inclusion of some general safety precautions can only serve to help you.

Safety precautions to follow:

  • Hand sanitiser upon entry to the store
  • Workers in masks or visors
  • Limited capacity depending on store size
  • One way systems

By following these safety precautions, customers are likely to feel much safer, and return to your store, as they know they will be protected.

Given the increasingly online world business must operate in now, it can seem like physical stores are growing to become dead weight. But a flourishing physical store can boost a business. All it takes is a willingness to focus resources onto enticing people into the store.

Local SEO on Steroids: What Is Schema and How Will It Help You Get More Traffic?

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Schema|Local SEO on Steroids: What Is Schema and How Will It Help You Get More Traffic?If a business or website owner is searching for a way to improve organic rankings and SEO, something to look into is schema markup. While it may sound like some type of jargon that only industry pros use, what many people do not realize is schema markup is not that hard to understand or take advantage of.

Schema markup is an important part of Local SEO efforts. It is also easier than it may sound to implement. With a free online tool, it is possible to mark up all website pages without having to learn any new code. Also, schema markup can provide an immediate boost to organic traffic coming to a website. Keep reading to learn more about schema markup and how to use it to benefit any business and grow traffic.

Schema Markup Defined

Put simply, schema is a type of microdata that provides search engines with a better understanding of what a website is about. Remember, search engines such as Bing, Yahoo, and Google cannot actually read and understand the content on a web page. While it recognizes phrases and words, the web browsers do not know what the words mean.

This is why markup is used. For example, if a website contains the word “apple,” it is possible to use schema markup to tell the search engines if the word refers to the technology company Apple, or the fruit. This has a significant impact on what results are shown.

When search engines have more information about a page, it makes it easier to display content that is relevant to the user’s search. It also allows a website to display additional information on SERPs, which will help the site stand out from the others.

How Schema Markup Works

When used properly, schema markup allows individuals to add more information and new functionality to organic results in the top search engines. It is possible to use schema markup for all types of topics and items. Some of the most common ways that schema markup is used include reviews, organizations, recipes, events, creative works, events, videos, articles, videos, people, products, places, and people. There are full lists related to schema markup online.

By adding schema to the HTML on a web page, web crawlers have a much easier time finding it. This is something to keep in mind when trying to decide if schema markup should be used.

Creating Schema Markup

To begin the process in Google, open the Structured Data Markup Helper. The second step is to select the type of data to be marked up from the given list. Enter the URL of the page where the information should be added and then highlight an element on the left side of the page. Next, it is necessary to select the type of the highlighted item and repeat the steps until everything has the proper schema markup on the page.

Getting Help with Schema Markup

Schema markup is going to help ensure people who are interested in what you offer find your page. While it can seem confusing at first, there are professional services that can help ensure the desired results are achieved. For some busy business owners, allowing the pros to handle this process is best.

Can You Do SEO on Your Website Without an SEO Audit?

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |SEO Audit|Can You Do SEO on Your Website Without an SEO Audit?What Is an SEO Audit?

It does not matter if you want to SEO your own website, or if you want to use the services of an SEO agency. In both cases, you will need a thorough SEO audit. But what is that? Well, it is a method used to get as much SEO information about a website as possible. The more information you get from the SEO audit report, the higher the quality of results you will get in the future from the SEO methods. There are several types of information that you should expect to get from this method.

  • Technical audit. On the internet, you will find agencies that provide different types of audits. But most of them are incomplete, and they provide you with information about only one part of your website’s SEO. The technical audit checks the technical parameters of your website. The main parts that need to be checked are the links on your website, its loading speed, and the device compatibility with other websites.
  • On-site audit. The on-site part of the SEO audit must offer you information about the content used on the website. Several factors must be verified. The first one is the originality of the content. Every piece of duplicate or plagiarized content will be penalized by search engines. The second factor is the relevancy of the content. It must be relevant to your industry. And the last factor that must be verified is the engagement level. The more engaging the content is, the better the results that it will produce.
  • Off-site audit. The last part of SEO is for off-site. A reliable audit must check the authority of your website in the industry as well as the renown that it has. To have high authority, you need to have backlinks placed on other websites in the industry. If your articles and links can be found on high-authority websites, then your authority will rise as well. As for your website’s renown is based on the number of backlinks and websites where they can be found.
  • Business assessment. The last part that needs to be found in the SEO audit report is the business assessment part. Nowadays, SEO strategies must be personalized. So, the agency must learn as much information about your business as possible. And it must also research your competition and the best keywords that you should use. All the information obtained from the audit can be used to create an SEO plan that will take care of every SEO related task for your website.

What Benefits Can You Expect from an SEO Audit?

Now that you have a general idea about what an SEO audit is, you need to know the benefits that you can expect from it. It provides a large number of benefits. But only a few of them are notable and easily seen.

  • Solve the problems. The first benefit that you can expect from an SEO audit report are solutions for every problem that was detected. Without it, even if you use a top SEO strategy, the results will be mediocre. Why? Because all the problems will drag your website down, and it will not be able to rise even with the best strategy.
  • Optimized strategy. The second benefit is an optimized and personalized strategy for your website. As mentioned above, every business is unique. And a reliable SEO agency must be able to detect al the unique parts that can be used in the strategy to increase the results that it produces.
  • Increased traffic. The third benefit will come after the problems are solved, and the strategy is being implemented. Your website ranks in search engine page results will start to rise, and you will get more and more traffic for your website. And the more people are visiting, the higher your chances of getting new clients are.
  • Increased conversion rate. And lastly, a good SEO strategy combined with high-quality content will also increase the conversion rate of your website. This means that a higher percentage of your visitors will become leads or customers. This is the final goal of SEO. And only an audit can be used to ensure that all the content on your website is optimized. And it produces these types of results.

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |SEO Audit|Can You Do SEO on Your Website Without an SEO Audit? How to Choose a Reliable Agency Based on the SEO Audit!

Probably the most important use of an SEO audit is to find a reliable SEO agency. Keep in mind that SEO is a long-term process. So, you must find a reliable partner that can take care of it for you. So, you can use the audit of an agency and deduce its skill levels from the SEO audit report. But before you do that, you should follow 3 steps to narrow down the options that you have.

  • Find all the options. The first thing that you must do is to find all the options that you have. So, you can use a search engine like Google to look for all the SEO agencies that you can find on the market. The more options you have, the higher your chance to find a reliable partner at a reasonable price.
  • Check the results. Next, you need to verify the results produced by the agencies. Most of the time, you can find them on the agency’s website. And you can use the search engine to check the credibility of the results. Also, you should only verify the newer ones. If they are older than 6 months, then they are not relevant anymore. And you can keep in mind only the agencies that produced the best results.
  • Get some first-hand reviews. The last step is to find the contact information of the agency’s clients. You need to communicate with them and get some first-hand reviews about the agency. This is the best method that you can use to find out how the collaboration with the agency will end. If the clients of an agency are happy, then you will most likely be the same.

Boost Your Social Media Presence For Future Success

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article, Boost Your Social Media Presence For Future Success

A profitable Social Media Marketing Strategy should help you achieve the objectives you have penned out for your business. For this, it has to be dynamic to adjust to the variations that occur in the media every day. And of course, you must contemplate every novelty and detail in terms of Social Networks in order to get the most out of them. Use these strategies across the board with your website to ultimately boost your SEO.

Use data from last year to inform this year’s strategy.

See the success (or failure) of the social media campaigns you created last year, as well as the activity and engagement across all of your platforms. What type of content resonated the most with your audience? What social media website seems to be growing faster? You can do this by conducting a social media audit. An audit keeps you informed of your social presence to see what works and what doesn’t. Based on the data reports from the previous year, you may want to change your publication time to reach your target audience more and get more engagement. Or, you may want to focus on Facebook more than Instagram due to a more consistent return on investment (ROI) on one platform versus the other. The point is to allow the data from last year to give you a better orientation for the new year. For a comprehensive overview of all your social media metrics in one place, you can visit Hootsuite Analytics.

StrategyDriven's Social Media Publication Timing Whitepaper

Look for inspiration in unconventional places.

We’ve already said it: a big part of social media marketing is keeping moving forward and coming up with new ideas to keep your channels up to date. The right way for creativity to flow is to look to others for inspiration. If your brand works significantly with imagery and innovative graphic solutions, you may want to look at a virtual photo booth that would translate well to your web page.

Take note of thought leaders and industry giants, but also strive to look outside of these grounds. Retailers generally have a large budget for social media and creative purposes, which allows them to try new things and push the boundaries. These brands also have a tangible product that they can showcase on their social channels. Brands like Everlane and Urban Outfitters are among the favorites. As of 2020, the top five social media trends are:

  1. Paid social networks
  2. Ambassador employee
  3. Training for social networks
  4. CEOs on social media
  5. Sales on social networks

Of course, not all of them will be the objectives of your company or brand. For example, social media sales work well in the financial industry, where advisors need to build long-term relationships with clients. But it may not work very well in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry, which is less reliant on relationships between leads and sales professionals. However, these are ideas that you can use and rework to ensure that your brand is hitting the social targets that you dreamed of when you began.

Why Should You Start Your Collaboration with an Agency Through an SEO Quote?

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article, Why Should You Start Your Collaboration with an Agency Through an SEO Quote?

An SEO Quote Must Offer You Free Information About Your Website’s Future!

An SEO quote is a free service offered by an SEO agency. Most agencies are using this method to attract and qualify their potential customers. It is an opportunity for the agency to showcase their capabilities and gain the trust of their potential customers. Of course, there are differences between the quotes provided by different agencies. And you can find a reliable of the agency based on the quality of their quote.

Another use for a quote is to make the potential clients of the agency to subscribe. And get e-mails that contain SEO-related information from the agency. So, it is a method to convert visitors into leads. But not only the agency will benefit from the quote. You, as a potential customer, will benefit as well. Not only will you get free knowledge about SEO. But you can also find out a lot of essential information about your website’s SEO. And you can also use this method to find the best agency for your website.

Advantages of a quote!

The first thing that you need to know is what advantages you can get from a SEO quote. Depending on the agency, you will be able to get a different amount of information about the SEO state of your website. Sometimes, you may even get some solution that you can implement yourself. If you have enough SEO knowledge, then you can do it yourself. If you don’t, then you can let the agency implement the solutions for you. There are several types of information that you can expect to get.

  • Rank Checking. One of the most common benefits that you will get is a complete rank checking of your website on search engine result pages. Most agencies will use paid tools to gain this information and provide you with free. So, this will save you from buying the tools yourself. But you can’t choose what type of information you will get. It depends on the agency that it wants to offer. You can also search for more agencies that provide this type of information to get the results from different agencies and compare them.
  • Keyword Analysis. You can also get a full keywords analysis from a quote. The agency will find out all the keywords for which your site ranks in Google. And what the potential of these keywords is. This means that you will find out what expectations you can have from your SEO efforts in the future. Some agencies will also make recommendations based on the level of your company to change or introduce some keywords that will produce better results for you.
  • Technical Audit. SEO can be separated into three parts. The technical part is only one of them. A technical audit will only offer you information about a third of your website’s SEO. A reliable agency will compensate this fact by doing a thorough audit for you. This means that you will find out all the technical errors and problems that drag the ranks your website down.
  • Full General Audit. Some agencies will even perform a full audit for you in their quote. Of course, it will not be complete but will touch the essential points without giving you a detailed report. But this should be enough to understand the SEO state of your website. If you have enough SEO knowledge, then you will know what your site will need in the future. And you will also have an idea about the abilities of the agency.
  • SEO Plan. Most of the time, this information comes with the results of the audit. The agency will create a personalized SEO plan for your website. It may not be a detailed plan, but it will give you an idea about what you need to do in the future. The agency will also make you an offer to collaborate together. And you can let it take care of the task for you.

The Best SEO Quote on the Market Is Similar to Low-Level an Audit!

From all the alternatives, the best SEO quote is the one that offers the general SEO audit together with the SEO strategy. There are three pieces of information about the agency that you can infer from their quote. And this information should be enough to convince you that the agency is the best alternative for your website. The pieces of information are:

  • Generous. The first information that you can infer is the generosity of the agency. The more value you get from the quote, the more generous the agency is. This means that if you collaborate with it in the future, then you can expect the same generosity. So, the agency truly values its customers, and it is not focused on profits. It places its clients before the money. You should try your best and find this type of agency because the biggest winner will be you.
  • Trustworthy. From the quote, you can also infer if the agency is trustworthy. To do that, you can check if the information that you got contains everything promised by the agency. You can also see if the agency explained the results obtained from the quote to help you better understand the SEO state of your website. By doing this, you will be able to find out if the agency kept its promise and how much it wants to help its clients.
  • Skilled. Even if you do not know anything about SEO, it is an easy task to find out from the SEO quote if the agency is good enough or if it isn’t. All you need to do is a little research to be able to understand as much information as possible from the reports. And then, you can check the credibility of the results using free tools from the internet. Doing this will help you find the perfect agency for your website needs.

Other Methods to Test the Agency Besides the SEO Quote!

The SEO quote is not the only method through which you can test an SEO agency. There several other strategies that will reveal a lot of information about the agency. Information that you can use to decide if the agency is good enough for your website. Keep in mind that the more time you spend finding the best agency, the better the results of your website will be in the future.

  • Money-back Guarantee. One of the safest methods that you can use to test an agency is to see if it provides a money-back guarantee. This means that if you do not get the results promised in the guarantee, then you will get your money back. Not every SEO agency can provide one. Why? Because it must be sure that it is good enough to always produce the results promised. If the SEO experts of the agency are not skilled enough, then it will be too risky for the agency to make such a promise. So, you will always be able to trust an agency that offers a guarantee, more than you could trust another agency that does not do the same.
  • Recent Results. Another method through which you can get a glimpse at the abilities of the agency is through the results that it was able to produce in the recent period. Some agencies post them on the website where you can check them. All you need to do is to check the results and ensure that they are not older than six months. Why? Because you will not be able to check their credibility anymore. And because the SEO evolves too much in that period. And the skills needed to produce the results must improve at the same pace. But if these conditions are met, then you can form your expectations from the agency based on the results posted on their website.
  • On-page Content. Most agencies also have blogs of specific sections where they post articles on the SEO topic. You can read these articles and find out the quality of the content produced by the agency. If the quality of the content is high, then you can expect to get content as good as the one posted on the agency’s website. Otherwise, you should consider another agency because the content quality is an essential factor in SEO. Never use an agency that is not able to create high-quality content.
  • Reviews. The last method that you can use to test an agency is through its reviews. Most agencies have reviews from their past clients posted on their website. But you should also try and contact these clients personally. The reviews on the website may not be real, or they may not be made earnestly. So, by speaking with the agency’s clients personally, you will be able to get a first-hand review of the agency. Doing this will give you an idea about how the collaboration between you and the agency will be. If most of the clients are happy with the results, then you will most likely be the same.