Tips & Tricks

Higher Education: Virtual Events

Rene W July 19, 2023 Blog, Higher Education, Marketing, Tips & Tricks

Events have always been a valuable tool for effective higher education marketing strategies. With an endless number of possibilities, events range from conferences, workshops, and demonstrations, to product launches, contests, and leadership/team-building summits.

Virtual events, since the pandemic especially, have become an increasingly popular format of event marketing. When the world was encouraged to stay socially distanced, schools, businesses, and individuals had to get creative to keep themselves connected. Virtual events quickly became a major marketing focal point.

Not only did virtual events help keep gatherings to a minimum, but they proved to be great for so many other reasons! Keep reading to find out how virtual events make event marketing so effective and why you should start incorporating them into your marketing strategy if you haven’t already!

Virtual events are great for schools seeking to promote brand awareness and increase engagement and enrollment while being cost-effective.

Additionally, virtual events come with analytic options and the capability of helping promote community involvement with events like fundraisers, new programs and research, and even staffing.

Brand Awareness

One of the biggest advantages of virtual events is that they are so easy to share online. These events can be easily broadcasted on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram – allowing higher education institutions to promote their brand and increase awareness by reaching a wider audience immediately and with minimal effort.

Reach and Engagement

Used correctly, virtual events can increase the reach of a message and encourage more engagement with your institution. Virtual events can reach a larger audience simply due to the nature of the internet. Since these events are held online, they often have extended reach beyond geographical boundaries and can be watched and interacted with by people in different countries.

Additionally, virtual events make it easier to customize the presentation for remote attendees. When it comes to live presentations, students can choose which events they are interested in and are able to attend. Live events can also be recorded and made available for viewing at any time of day or night. This can be especially useful for students in different time zones or with busy schedules. Making virtual events available at various times inevitably increases engagement opportunities.

Bonus points for being interactive! Virtual events in which the participants can actively interact create a more personal connection between a college and its current and prospective students.

Adaptive and Accommodating

It’s important to remember that not all people have the same learning style. Some people are visual learners and prefer to see information in the form of lists or video demonstrations, whereas some retain information better auditorily, or when they hear it, such as with podcasts. Providing different format options from which students are able to obtain content expands the reach of a school’s message because students are more likely to engage with something familiar to them.

Providing virtual events in multiple mediums and at various access points allows students to view the events on whichever device and platform they are most comfortable with. Some students prefer attending virtual events on their cellular devices, while others will choose their laptops or computers. Offering virtual events on multiple channels such as Zoom, Facebook, Instagram, and your higher education institution’s website, increases the chances of your event being seen and attended.

Accessibility

In-person events can pose accessibility issues for students who do not have the available time or money to spend on travel and accommodation. Virtual events, on the other hand, eliminate traditional barriers by allowing everyone with an internet connection to participate in the event from almost any location. This not only expands the reach of the school’s message but also makes it easier for students from different backgrounds and locations to attend these events.

Cost Effective

In-person events generally take a lot more time and money to coordinate than virtual events. Once the costs of necessary supplies and staff required are factored in, in-person events can become very expensive. Virtual events provide a much more cost-effective alternative to their in-person counterparts due to the reduced expenses associated with hosting virtual events.

Requiring minimal resources and staff to execute successful events, virtual events are a great option for higher education institutions that need to save on cost. Furthermore, since these types of events can be shared widely on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, marketing expenses may also be reduced drastically.

Data Collection and Analytics

Virtual events provide higher education institutions with data that can be used for analyzing trends and collecting valuable insights. Through analysis of the data collected from these events, schools will be able to understand which topics interest students the most as well as what time of day is best for hosting events. This information can then help them plan and adjust future virtual events to ensure better engagement and more successful events.

Community Involvement

Virtual events create greater opportunities for faculty, staff, and students to engage with each other and their community on collaborative projects such as fundraisers. Hosting engaging virtual events that promote good causes helps foster a sense of community within and surrounding the student body.

For schools looking to stay up-to-date, virtual events are an excellent way to do so without sacrificing the quality of their events. Virtual events offer many benefits and by taking advantage of these benefits, colleges can increase student engagement and ultimately help advance their mission of providing a valuable education to students.

In conclusion, virtual events provide higher education institutions with a great way to engage with current and prospective students without the exorbitant costs associated with in-person events. Through the use of interactive mediums such as video conferencing platforms, podcasts, and webinars, schools can reach a larger audience while also collecting valuable data and insights. Additionally, virtual events are more accessible than in-person events, making them an attractive option for higher education institutions looking to engage with their students.

By offering virtual events that are interactive, adaptive, and accommodating, higher education institutions can ensure that their message reaches more students and that their events are engaging and successful.

Looking for help with a marketing strategy for your higher education institution? Contact us today and let our experienced team of digital marketers help you create a powerful campaign!

About Rene | Spherical Strategies – Senior Marketing Strategist

Rene works with Spherical Strategies as a Senior Marketing Strategist. She brings a love of business building and decades of marketing experience to every project she works on. Over the past several years she has worked with companies of all sizes developing custom marketing strategies focused on business development and growth.

Outside of her work as a marketing strategist, Rene loves to travel and experience food from around the world while encouraging those around her to get outside of their comfort zones.

Blog-HigherEd-SEO-Optimizing-Voice-Search

Higher Ed Marketing: SEO, Optimizing for Voice Search

Rene W July 5, 2023 Advertising, Higher Education, Marketing, Tips & Tricks

In today’s digital age, ranking high on search engines is crucial for every business, including colleges and universities. Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing your website to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs), which can increase website traffic and leads. In this blog post, we’ll explore the importance of SEO in boosting higher ed marketing efforts and how optimizing for voice search can take it to the next level.

What is SEO and why should colleges invest in higher ed marketing efforts towards it?

SEO, or search engine optimization, refers to the methods used to increase the quantity and quality of organic, non-paid traffic to a website through search engine results. In the case of colleges and universities, SEO can be used to increase enrollment, attract prospective students, and improve brand awareness. Investing in SEO means optimizing your website for the keywords and phrases that potential students are searching for, making it easier for them to find your institution and increasing your visibility online.

How to implement SEO strategies in higher education marketing plans?

There are several ways to implement SEO strategies in your higher education marketing plan. First, conduct keyword research to identify the most relevant and commonly searched terms in your industry. Then, optimize your website’s content, titles, and meta descriptions with those keywords. Make sure your website is mobile-friendly, as a responsive design is crucial for SEO in today’s mobile-first culture. Additionally, ensure that your site has high-quality content that is optimized for voice search.

Voice search optimization is the new game-changer for universities.

Voice search is the fastest-growing search method and is becoming a game-changing SEO tactic for universities. As consumers increasingly rely on voice assistants like Siri or Alexa to find information, optimizing content for voice searches is essential. Colleges and universities that adapt to this shift early can gain a competitive advantage. To optimize for voice search, use long-tail keywords, structure content to answer questions, and aim for featured snippets on search engine results pages.

The importance of having a mobile-friendly website for colleges and universities.

Having a mobile-friendly website is crucial for higher ed SEO efforts. According to recent studies, mobile internet usage has surpassed desktop usage, and Google now considers mobile-friendliness a significant ranking factor. A responsive website design ensures that your website fits the screen of any device and is easy to navigate. This provides a better user experience, which can increase dwell time and reduce bounce rate, helping your website to rank higher in SERPs.

What are the tools and techniques for optimizing content for voice search results?

There are several tools and techniques for optimizing content for voice search results, including long-tail keywords, question-and-answer format, structured data markup, and featured snippets. Long-tail keywords are longer and more specific queries that typically target voice search terms. Question and answer format helps Google understand the content of your website and improves the chances of ranking high in SERPs. Structured data markup helps Google understand the context of your website, while featured snippets can help you secure the top-ranking position in SERPs, increasing visibility and driving traffic.

In conclusion, optimization for SEO and voice search is crucial for universities to attract prospective students and improve brand awareness. Higher ed administrators should incorporate best practices for SEO, including mobile-friendliness and optimization for voice search, into their marketing plans to maximize reach and engagement. The right mix of keyword research, high-quality content, and technical optimization can help colleges and universities outperform their competitors and rank higher in search engine results pages. Keeping up with the latest trends and leveraging emerging technologies should be a priority for administrators seeking to stay ahead of the curve.

Looking for help with your SEO? Contact us today and let our experienced team of digital marketers help you create a powerful campaign!

About Rene | Spherical Strategies – Senior Marketing Strategist

Outside of her work as a marketing strategist, Rene loves to travel and experience food from around the world while encouraging those around her to get outside of their comfort zones.

How to Optimize Your Instagram Videos & Images (2023 CHEATSHEET)

Rene W March 15, 2023 Graphics, , Tips & Tricks

It’s no secret that in today’s digital world, having the correct size of images for social media is essential. Statistics show that 46% of users are less likely to interact with an image if it looks pixelated or distorted, while 32% of users said they won’t even click on a link if the image isn’t up to their standards. Knowing and understanding the various guidelines for different platforms can help you ensure your images look great across the board. Let’s dive into some specific tips for optimizing your social media images.

The Basics

Before we get into specifics, let’s go over some basic guidelines for designing your images. Generally speaking, most platforms recommend using JPEG files for photographs, and PNG files for graphics or illustrations with transparent backgrounds. The file size should be kept as small as possible without sacrificing quality; this means avoiding large resolutions and high-quality settings if not necessary. As a rule of thumb, you should aim to keep file sizes under 1 MB whenever possible.

Instagram Specific Guidelines

Each platform has its own guidelines when it comes to sizing images correctly—let’s take a quick look at Instagram:

While Instagram was initially known for its square images (which it still has) it now also supports both vertically and horizontally oriented images as well. This gives you more options, but also can make figuring out the right dimensions for your post a little more difficult. Here are some guidelines to help you get it right, every time:

Instagram Profile Picture Size: 320×320 pixels

While the profile pictures are actually displayed at 110×110 pixels, the images are stored at 320×320 pixels which means you want your upload to be at least that size (or bigger).

Pro Tip: Even though the dimensions for upload are square the image is displayed as a circle which means if you don’t plan ahead you may lose a portion of your image inadvertently. Keep the elements you want centered in your image and if you need to, crop wider with extra white space (or any color)!

Instagram post sizes (photos in your feed):

Landscape: 1080 x 566 pixels
Portrait: 1080 x 1350 pixels
Square: 1080 x 1080 pixels
Supported aspect ratios: Anywhere between 1.91:1 and 4:5
Recommended image size: Width of 1080 pixels, height between 566 and 1350 pixels (depending on whether the image is landscape or portrait)

Pro Tip: Aim to have your uploaded images on Instagram at 1080 pixels wide for best results. If they are larger than that, Instagram will size them down. Alternatively, if your image is under 320 pixels Instagram will size it up. Finally, if your images doesn’t fall between a ratio of 1.9:1 or 4:5 it will automatically be cropped. To future proof your Instagram uploads be sure to make them at the 1080 pixel width with a good resolution!

Instagram Stories/Reels Size: 1080×1920 pixels

Pro Tip: 1080×1920 pixels is an aspect ratio of 9:16, when possible maintain this ratio but utilize a smaller pixel size to increase the speed at which your Story will buffer. If you stray away from this aspect ratio, your story may end up oddly cropped, zoomed or have sections of the screen blank. If you upload an independent image for your Reels Cover it should also be at the 1080×1920 sizing, but keep in mind that if you are sharing your reel to your feed it will be cropped to a 1:1 ratio – so place any pertinent elements within that zone.

Instagram Carousel Image Sizes:

Landscape: 1080 x 566 pixels
Portrait: 1080 x 1350 pixels
Square: 1080 x 1080 pixels
Aspect ratio: landscape (1.91:1), square (1:1), vertical (4:5)
Recommended image size: Width of 1080 pixels, height between 566 and 1350 pixels (depending on whether the image is landscape or portrait)

Instagram Ads Image Sizes:

Landscape: 1080 x 566 pixels
Square: 1080 x 1080 pixels
Minimum width: 320 pixels
Maximum width: 1080 pixels
Supported aspect ratios: Anywhere between 1.91:1 and 4:5

Pro Tip: Your Instagram ads cannot have more than 30 hashtags and there are other text recommendations to consider. Your headline should be 40 characters and the primary text for your ad should not exceed 125 characters.

Instagram Stories Ads Size: 1080×1920 pixels

Pro Tip: To prevent your logo and text from being blocked, Instagram recommends making sure you don’t place these items in the 250 pixels at the top and bottom of your image or video. Also, you don’t have to worry about having more than 20% of your ad space covered in text as this regulation was removed back in September of 2020.

Each platform has its own set of guidelines when it comes to sizing images correctly—and these aren’t set in stone! As social media evolves so too do the standards around how we share our content visually online. Keeping up with all the changes can be daunting but it doesn’t have to be difficult! With these tips in mind you’ll have all the tools you need to optimize your social media images like a pro! Now go forth and create beautiful visuals!

Looking for help with your social media marketing strategy? Contact us today and let our experienced team of digital marketers help you create a powerful campaign!

About Rene | Spherical Strategies – Senior Marketing Strategist

Outside of her work as a marketing strategist, Rene loves to travel and experience food from around the world while encouraging those around her to get outside of their comfort zones.

Creating A Buyer Persona

Lisa Trevelyan November 1, 2022 Advertising, Marketing, Tips & Tricks

You will not be able to plan workable business strategies if you do not know about your targeted audience. To understand your customers and to meet their needs, you need to create a buyer persona. A buyer persona helps you make the right business strategies, including planning product production, business campaigns, services, offers, and website content.

Create a detailed buyer persona to fully understand the interests and needs of your ideal buyers. There are several ways to get insight into your targeted customer’s mind, but nothing is possible without market research. To get some valuable information you need to conduct interviews, surveys, etc., to know the demands and interests of the targeted customer base. The number of buyer personas depends on your business; you can have more than one business persona, but make sure that it represents your ideal customer. Be careful about negative personas because it will attract the audience that you do not want as customers.

What is Buyer Persona?

A buyer persona is a model made after in-depth market research to represent the ideal customer from a wide audience range. If you think your brand can serve different people who can use your products for various reasons, it will help you design more than one or two personas. Make sure that each of your buyer personas includes buying patterns, demographics details, goals, and behaviors. The sole purpose of a buyer persona is to craft marketing messages for targeted customers by making an ideal buyer’s profile. The tone of your marketing messages should be appropriate to address customers’ desires and needs. Keep in mind your buyer persona, think of the customers as real people, and plan your business strategy according to your hypothetical customer’s wants. There are several steps that you need to follow in order to create a buyer persona. These steps are listed below.

1. Gather your Customers Information.

The basic thing you need to do is collect all the relevant information from your targeted customer base. Collect information about your customers’ buying behavior, age, gender, income, location, activities, and interests. As mentioned above, this information can be collected through online surveys, customer interviews, or asking key questions over the phone. It will help you to develop some descriptive buzzwords for your buyer persona.

2. Use Online Analytic Tools.

Another way to gain insight into your customer’s details is to use online web analytic tools, e.g., Google Analytics. Google Analytics provides valuable and detailed customer information, including who visited your website and from which region of the world. In addition to this, it reveals if the person has found the desired product or not. Google Analytics will help you a lot in developing your buyer persona.

3. Recognize Customer Goals.

Try to find the source of motivation for your customers. Know what they want to achieve, and what their aspirations are. Knowing your customers’ goals will help you change products to give customers what they want. Create a buyer persona that seeks the same goals and aspirations.

4. Recognize Customer Pain Points.

You have taken information about your customers’ goals, now find out what is holding them back. What are the problems that your customers are trying to solve? To get an idea of this, engage yourself in social listening by conducting sentiment analysis. Learn what is going right, and what needs improvement according to the customers.

5. Provide Help to the Customers.

Since you know your customer goals and pain points, think about how you can help your customers or what benefits you can offer them. This stage of thinking is the buyer’s point of view, where you start to think about your customers and stop thinking about your product features. The question of how your services will benefit your customers will help you realize an important point for your marketing message.

6. Narrow down the Information.

It is time to narrow down the data that you have collected through research. Go through your research and find out the vital details that will help you know how to deal with the audience’s demands. Identify the most common answers given by the customers.

7. Develop a Buyer Persona.

Create different buyer personas that will represent customers with a variety of goals and demands. For example, if you are a nutritionist, you will probably have clients who want your guidance on enhancing their skin glow; on the other hand, you might have customers who want to stabilize their sugar level through a healthy diet. So, create personas accordingly.

8. Name Your Personas.

To give life to your buyer persona, provide them with a name. This will remind you that you are thinking about and talking to a real person. Furthermore, it will help you to create personalized content while writing an email. Besides giving a name to your personas, find pictures for them to represent your real customers. Doing so will allow you to think about your personas humanly rather than considering them just research points.

9. Create Marketing Messages.

This is the last step in creating business personas. You have already developed your persona with a name, face, and identity, but now is the time to use them for marketing purposes. Start crafting marketing messages by keeping in mind the buyer personas you have just made. Construct marketing messages that show you are willing to help your customers with their goals and interests. You will write this while creating content for each buyer persona.

Above all, creating a buyer persona gives you a chance to know whether or not your brand is capable of meeting the demands of your customers. A significant part of your business success depends on your targeted audience, so it is important to think about the buyer persona while deciding your company’s business strategy.

About Lisa | Spherical Strategies Content Creator & Copywriter

Lisa works with Spherical Strategies as a content creator and copywriter. She brings a deep understanding of human motivation to her mastery of writing by utilizing her education in market psychology. She has worked over the past several years as a private contractor, providing industry-specific content and editing for companies of all sizes.

Outside of her work as a content creator, Lisa is passionate about caring for her young son and is only slightly obsessed with gardening.

If you’re interested in discovering more, take a look at our website and connect with us to help you fulfill your branding goals. Visit https://sphericalstrategies.com today.

The Benefits of a Site Audit

Lisa Trevelyan October 11, 2022 Blog, Marketing, SEO, Tips & Tricks

The Benefits of a Site Audit (Technical SEO) for a Business

Site Audit: An Overview

Technical SEO is a broad term used to cover a wide variety of elements ranging from server configuration to on-page design elements. It also helps in determining the overall performance of a website. In the continually evolving world, it is vital to align your website with modern-day practices and standards. The technical site audit aims to evaluate the current standing of your website, analyze its architecture, and recommend ways to make your website aligned with current practices and standards. This will eventually help yield the growth of your website’s organic traffic, unveil blockages to conversions, and achieve quick wins. A technical site audit will enable you to identify problems that could become a hindrance to future SEO projects.

As the world evolves, various significant elements have changed with it. For instance, your website now needs to display correctly and load quickly on mobile devices; it should not consist of links to external sites and should be secure. Technical SEO is an efficient method to apply deep expertise and experience to site audits to identify issues that may arise. It can help to optimize and improve site content and structure for better performance.

Do Businesses Need Site Audit?

What is the ultimate site goal of any business? To create a website that is technically sound and can provide content that can be found by consumers in organic search. A site audit can be applied to your website without causing any harm to your search engine ranking. If we consider basic SEO campaigns, they usually emphasize factors like keywords, headings, meta-tags, titles, etc. A site audit will enable the business to analyze external factors such as third-party hyperlinks to your website, server configurations, page loading speed, and so on. In every aspect, your website will be benefiting from these insights. After the technical site audit is complete, you will be provided with recommendations to improve your SEO with recognized and proven strategies.

Benefits of Site Audit

1. Enhanced Visibility of Organic Search

To elevate your search engine ranking, you first need to have a clear understanding of what you want to rank for. An excellent keyword strategy is a path that leads to a high organic search ranking. Knowing your competitor and market will allow you to create an on-page SEO code for your website. A site audit will involve discovering keywords and doing in-depth research that links to your on-page SEO.

2. It Improves Usability

Your website design and its functionality can only be restricted by your SEO team or your imagination. A website that is loaded with information, has busy webpages, slow-loading time, and is complicated will not work well for your business. Your website needs to be precise and clear; otherwise, the customer will not think once before leaving your site. A site audit helps you identify areas that need improvement to enhance the overall user experience and make it simpler. It is how you’ll be able to identify the function, content, and structure best suited for your users.

3. Detailed Analysis of Competitors

SERP tools and keyword research help analyze your website’s keywords and rank them against competitors. Through research and analysis, organizations can understand what SEO strategies are being used by successful leaders in the market to attract customers. Your business can also adopt similar keyword tactics and strategies for better results.

4. Better Content

A technical site audit will be analyzing the technicalities of a website, such as the bounce rate, time spent on the site, page views, etc. These areas will require work to guarantee an enhanced search engine indexing. The quality of your content impacts how many search engines or people, continuously visit your website. When you audit your content, you’ll be able to identify the content people like, such as videos, text, or images. Furthermore, with a site audit, you can easily develop a strong content strategy for your website and blog. This will result in better organic rankings on search engines.

5. Better SEO

Search engine optimization has seen a drastic change in recent years. This is a clear indication that what works for your business at this moment, might not work for you in the coming months. The aim of a good SEO for your website should be to consider user experience as the priority and search engines as the second priority. With the help of a site audit, your SEO will be assessed, and professionals will determine its impact on the user experience. When this happens, you will be presented with recommendations and strategies to enhance user experience and search engine ranking.

6. Enhance Distribution of Keywords

Distribution of keywords has been a simple task in the past. The best way to elevate the ranking of your website on organic SERPS is through the natural and strategic use of keywords. Furthermore, technical site audit professionals will be able to identify areas of your website that need to be improved. They can then recommend strategies that need to be adopted to attract more traffic to your website and enhance the overall user experience.

A site audit is a comprehensive analysis of your website, which will help your business get a clear view of where your website stands at the moment. It is an in-depth analysis that focuses on everything that has been overlooked by the company, ranging from page views to bounce rate. Hence, you will be able to determine the overall performance of your website. A site audit will enable you to enjoy more traffic, enhanced growth, increased sales, and increased organic search ratings.

About Lisa | Spherical Strategies Content Creator & Copywriter

Outside of her work as a content creator, Lisa is passionate about caring for her young son and is only slightly obsessed with gardening.

If you’re interested in discovering more, take a look at our website and connect with us to help you fulfill your branding goals. Visit https://sphericalstrategies.com today.

Why Should You Link Your Google Ads Account to Search Console?

Lisa Trevelyan August 30, 2022 Advertising, Marketing, SEO, Tips & Tricks

The internet did not only come as a source of entertainment for most of us but also as a source of income for many. Within the internet, many platforms work towards the well-being of online businesses. And when we talk about these, we cannot skip Google as it is a superhero for every business relying on the internet.

Google Ads has been of immense importance to everyone.

Back in 2013, Google dropped exciting news for all those interested in online marketing. The announcement was something like this:

“You can now link Google search console in Google Ads Account.”

It left many digital marketers amazed as it was a milestone and offered considerable opportunity to bloom their businesses by trying out something totally new. It was also great for their businesses to expand their reach and improve marketing and advertising processes.

However, it raised many questions for some, as they were clueless about its purpose and benefits. Today, new online business owners are also confused about why they should link Google search console and Google ads account.

But it’s all good as it’s never too late to learn about new stuff going around. If you don’t know about it yet, then you can learn it now.

We are here to talk about the entire Google Ads Account and Google Search Console matter!

First, the question is, what is a search console?

Google offers a free service that goes by the name of Google Search Console. Through this service, you get to maintain, monitor and troubleshoot your site’s presence in the search results. This very tool helps you get a better idea of how Google views your site.

Search Console helps with the following:

· Confirming that Google can search and crawl your site.

· Recover indexing problems

· Checking google search traffic data

· Get alerts for suspicious activities

· Troubleshoot issues

The search console is generally used by:

· Business owners

· SEO specialists or marketers

· Site administrators

· Web developers

Now, let’s get to the real talk ‘Why should the Google Search Console and Google Ads be linked together?’

Linking the two is quite harmless and takes your business to another level. Which business owner wouldn’t want to see their business reaching new heights by using modern techniques?

Linking Google Ads and Google Search Console, you get a reflection of organic vs. paid keywords. You get the relevant information at the Search Query, allowing you to figure out the incremental value of organic vs. paid terms.

Without a doubt, this is news for all paid advertisers out there. Moreover, it is great for SEO campaigns that are commonly carried out by nearly all businesses with an online presence.

What would be better than seeing new, organic opportunities along with paid search opportunities? By understanding where you are performing great organically, you can then make adjustments or changes to drop paid search bids or even pause keywords if your budget is tight.

This is a massive step taken by Google for those who own businesses and even those who work with advertising agencies offering services to various clients. It is excellent for clients who are using PPC and SEO services simultaneously.

Unfortunately, not many are aware of how to actually go about it despite knowing the benefits of linking Google Ads and Google Search Console.

For your convenience, here is a step-by-step guide. Once you get the hang of it, we recommend you do it right away and don’t miss out on any further benefits.

Step 1: Sign up to your Google Ads account. Having a functional Google Ads Account is necessary if you plan on linking it with Google Search Console.

Step 2: Click on the tool option available on the upper right corner of your Google Ads Account.

Step 3: Click on linked accounts

Step 4: You will see the option of search console when the drop-down menu appears. Click on the ‘details’ button to proceed further.

Step 5: You will be asked if you want to link Google Search Console and Google Ads Accounts. Click ‘link’ to continue.

Step 6: Add the URL of the website you want to link it with. Make sure to add the URL without ‘www’ and click continue.

And now you are good to go!

In case the process is unsuccessful, you will be notified immediately. You can click ‘claim’ to further look into and resolve this matter.

Google has revolutionized the domain of online marketing. It keeps giving businesses more opportunities to grow and reach audiences that are otherwise unreachable due to geographic distances.

The number of reporting features within Google is overwhelming, which has opened numerous avenues for business owners wherever they are in the world. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that the linking of Google Search Console and Google Ads Accounts has made it super easy to run an e-commerce platform.

To us, it seems like Google really wants business owners to access new frontiers and add versatility to their marketing processes. It’s like a one-stop-shop that has all the solutions to your needs.

What a time to be an online business owner!

It would be hard to believe, at least for us, if you tell us you haven’t been using Google tools religiously to grow your online presence.

Our advice would be to do so now. Most importantly, link your Google Ads Account and Google Search Console to see the magic it is going to bring to your business.

About Lisa | Spherical Strategies Content Creator & Copywriter

Outside of her work as a content creator, Lisa is passionate about caring for her young son and is only slightly obsessed with gardening.

If you’re interested in discovering more, take a look at our website and connect with us to help you fulfill your branding goals. Visit https://sphericalstrategies.com today.

Ten Ad Networks to Consider

Lisa Trevelyan August 2, 2022 Advertising, Marketing, Tips & Tricks

There is no doubt that opening new growth channels requires you to have some type of medium that serves your product in front of the world. You might be wondering what medium is capable of providing you with such a golden opportunity. You don’t have to worry since there are plenty of existing advertising mediums to serve this purpose. These advertising channels allow you to promote your brand, product, and services on their platforms.

These ad networks are essential monetization variables for the business world. They act as technical and marketable intermediaries between publishers and suppliers. On the marketing level, the ad networks encourage transactions and payments where the supply side provides their stock, and the demand side monitors the campaigns on a technical level. Both the supply and demand-side work in close collaboration to run the business through ad networks.

What is an ad network?

Before looking for the right publishing ad network, you first need to understand exactly what an ad network is? An ad network is no less than a broker between the publishers and suppliers. Ad networks help suppliers find and buy advertising slots in various publishers. The term ‘ad network’ basically refers to online advertisements where the unsold advertising slots from various publishers are collected by the ad network and provided to the supplier at an extremely low cost.

If you are a supplier and looking for reliable ad networks, listed below are the top steadfast ad networks. These networks are ideal for online advertisement for your products and services. They not only offer you the slot at low costs, but they also give you full control over the targeting and placement options.

1. Airpush

This is a mobile advertising network that runs your offers over 15,000 mobile applications. This ad network allows the supplier to showcase their services and products to a wide range of customers. Airpush is known for its transparency and authentic content. The customers of this advertising network are more responsive to the ads than other ad networks’ customers.

2. Yahoo

By using this advertising network, you can reach over one billion customers because Yahoo is considered the sixth most visited social site. If you endorse your brand here, your products are advertised through video and native ads. Moreover, Yahoo has promoted brands for years; therefore, it is a reliable and experienced ad networking site.

3. YouTube

It is not a debatable fact that YouTube is the second biggest search engine and video sharing site since it is one of the most influential advertising networks. YouTube advertises products in videos that pop-out at the start or in between the videos. Investing in this online social and ad networking site will help you get targeted audiences from different countries.

4. Instagram

Instagram is another social networking site that advertises products in between stories and posts. Here, your products will be promoted through videos and pictures to reach its 600 million monthly users. This advertising network is the best platform to engage customers by showing them visual content.

5. SiteScout

It is the first media buying network that runs almost 31 billion advertisements on 70,000 online networking sites per day. SiteScout also enables suppliers to closely analyze the ad campaigns and optimize their ads to reach out to customers using different search engines, e.g., AdTech, Google, and Appnexus.

6. Conversant Media

Conversant Media is a famous advertising network that gives suppliers a chance to advertise their offer using several available options. They have developed some publications (Vice and Foxtel) with slots that you can buy for ads. On the other hand, Conversant media also offers advertising services, such as Outbrain and Largetail.

7. Advertising.com

As the name indicates, this network is specifically for advertising purposes. It is the oldest advertising network that offers modern features, including re-targeting, which is responsible for sending ads to every viewer. Besides this, it permits you to connect with a wide range of consumers on every device.

8. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is an online networking site for professional business users; therefore, it is best suitable for business to business suppliers. The advertisement can be targeted through Industry, Job function, geography, and seniority on LinkedIn. One exciting benefit of advertising on LinkedIn is that it reports to you about your advertisements’ progress response. It is one of those social networking sites that permits suppliers to find the desired customers through their job titles and roles in an organization and industry.

9. Taptica

Taptica is a mobile ad network that reaches out to 220 million mobile users. At this advertising site, you will find various options for your advertisements. Your offer can be advertised in the form of a banner, video, text, and interstitial. In addition to this, you will be given an option to target the audience yourself. This ad network gains new users and gets benefits from their investments.

10. Epom

It is an advertising network with many ad options. Using this networking site, you can advertise your offer at a low rate. The advertisements will be shown on different mobile apps, either in the form of videos or display. This site also offers its ad marketplace free for 30 days. During the 30 days’ trial, you can gain almost one billion expressions that will later help you gain more customers.

When it comes to online advertising networks, you have plenty of options other than those mentioned above. Before going for any of these advertising networks, consider asking yourself a few questions. You may want to know which ad network suits your business, which site has the most users, and which ad network provides ad slots at lower rates. Determine whether you want these networks to work for you as a publisher or an advertiser and then invest wisely.

About Lisa | Spherical Strategies Content Creator & Copywriter

Outside of her work as a content creator, Lisa is passionate about caring for her young son and is only slightly obsessed with gardening.

If you’re interested in discovering more, take a look at our website and connect with us to help you fulfill your branding goals. Visit https://sphericalstrategies.com today.

Why Are Digital Marketing Blogs Important for A Business’s Success?

Lisa Trevelyan June 27, 2022 Blog, Marketing, SEO, Tips & Tricks

Nowadays, it’s all about having a digital presence of your brand. It’s about showcasing your business on the internet. Regardless of the type of business you are running, digital media has a big role to play in increasing your popularity and reach.

Business owners now understand the power and science of digital marketing and how it can influence their image in the minds of the audience. The blog page on a website today serves as the foundation pillar for attracting new clients and customers towards one’s business. With the help of inbound links in blog articles, it is now easy to drive traffic towards the landing pages of a company’s website.

Whether your business is a small-scale, or you are running a multinational company, a digital marketing blog is an integral part of your marketing strategy. Customers can get access to information from any place and any time they need or want it. Thanks to globalization and the Internet, people can access information via mobiles, computers, or tablets.

Why is Digital Marketing Important?

This is the age of technology where a business simply cannot survive without digital marketing. Social media channels have given customers the freedom to post their comments and opinions about their experience with the company’s product or business. It allows customers to give their ratings and recommendations on various online platforms. This is an opportunity for businesses to bank on and make the most of. By providing top-notch services, companies can ensure positive comments and feedback from their customers.

Here are some ways how digital marketing blogs can contribute to the success of a business:

1. Drives Traffic on Your Website

One of the ways to attract new customers towards your website is through your blogs. This gives you the opportunity to create relevant and interesting content for your clients. Most companies will post just about anything on their blog thinking that this marketing tactic will help them gain new customers. On the contrary, it will only drive the reader away from your blog and website. So, make sure you post relevant, thought-provoking, and engaging content for your customers. Something a person would want to read about.

2. Helps Increase Your SERP/SEO

When you regularly post fresh content on your website, you have a better chance to beat your competitors and land on the first page results of the search engine. Digital marketing blogs are a way to increase your SEO. When you make use of relevant keywords in your blogs and articles, your website has a higher chance of being found. List the category keywords, and topics you want your company to be discovered with. When writing your blog posts, incorporate the keywords and related expressions into your posts.

3. Positions Your Business As a Front-runner in The Industry

Well-written articles and blogs demonstrate that your business must be at the top of the totem pole. When you post blogs with interesting and intriguing topics that the reader cannot help but click on, you show yourself that you are worthy to be called a market leader in your industry. Your topics also help market your abilities for your business, product, or service.

For example, if you run a retail store and you post a blog about your products, you will be able to give your customers the chance to get to know you as the source of knowledge for the items they want to purchase.

If you are working in a B2B sector, post well researched and articulate blogs about your service. Your readers will be able to tell that you know your stuff and are well aware of what you are talking about.

4. Allows You To Build A Level Of Trust In Your Readers

Many company websites have blogs just for the sake of it. If the topic of the blog is irrelevant or overstuffed with keywords, that may put the reader off. A reader will not learn anything of value from those blogs and may find them to be a waste of their time.

However, when you go through a well-researched and well-written blog, you can tell that the writer of the company is well-versed in the field. This helps the reader build trust in you and your company. It proves to them that you are the best in the industry and you are more likely to provide the best service.

With reliable and credible content and blog posts on your site, you will be in the good books of your current and potential customers. It will help you gain their trust and create a long-term relationship with your clients.

5. Allows You To Develop A Better Customer Relationship

A company can deepen their connection and bond with the customers through their blogs. It provides an extra pathway to connecting with the consumers. Your digital marketing blogs allow engagement with new clients through digital media. When your clients are diverted to your website, they can learn all about your business or the product or service you offer.

Also, just like you respond to your customers on your other social sites, you must interact and respond to the comments of your consumers. You can answer back right on your website if they ask questions about the products that you may have mentioned in your blogs.

6. It Is Cost-Effective

It is simple and most often inexpensive. It only requires you to spend time reviewing the content and posting it on the blog page along with other digital marketing blogs. The end result is priceless compared to the cost spent on digital marketing in general.

About Lisa | Spherical Strategies Content Creator & Copywriter

Outside of her work as a content creator, Lisa is passionate about caring for her young son and is only slightly obsessed with gardening.

If you’re interested in discovering more, take a look at our website and connect with us to help you fulfill your marketing goals. Visit sphericalstrategies.com today.

10 Strategies for Applying Conversational Advertising to Your Marketing Campaign

Lisa Trevelyan May 10, 2022 Advertising, Marketing, Tips & Tricks

A relatively new form of marketing that is growing in popularity and doing great things for businesses: conversational advertising! What is conversational advertising? Just from its name, I’m sure you can take a pretty good guess.

In this blog post, we will discuss what conversational advertising is, why it is good for your business, and 10 strategies for applying it to your marketing campaign!

What is Conversational Advertising?

Conversational advertising is a kind of marketing in which businesses typically use chatbots to interact with customers. The goal of conversational advertising is to provide an experience for the customer that feels personal and natural. With the help of chatbots, businesses can simulate real conversations with their customers. This allows prospective and current customers to ask questions, make orders, and even make complaints while giving business owners the ability to immediately respond to their customers’ concerns.

Why is Conversational Advertising Good for Your Business?

Conversational advertising allows you to communicate with your customers in real-time and at any hour of the day. Meaning your business will always be available to answer questions, provide advice, make orders, or complete sales.

Conversational advertising provides an opportunity for businesses of all kinds to improve customer service by giving people a way to access information whenever they need it. One of the greatest benefits of this type of marketing strategy is that once it is set up correctly, there isn’t much work to be done because everything happens automatically. This doesn’t mean that monitoring isn’t important. You still want to make sure nothing goes wrong. We all know stuff happens.

The most significant way businesses can benefit from conversational advertising is that it can improve customer retention rates. By providing an excellent customer experience, you are much more likely to keep customers coming back to your business again and again.

Now that we know why it is good for your business, here are 10 strategies for applying conversational advertising to your marketing campaigns.

Customer-Timed Conversations

The first strategy on our list comes with a major reminder: conversational marketing is an inbound type of advertising, meaning the conversations happen on the customers’ time. They happen only when the customer chooses to engage with your company, and that can be at any time. This is why it’s important to make sure your conversational advertising campaigns are prepared for customer interaction at any time of day, any day of the week. That is simply the nature of this customer-timed marketing.

Conversation Starters

With so much information on the web and most likely on your website, your customers will find “conversation starters” helpful. Conversation starters are usually small boxes that pop up in the corner of a page and ask questions like, “How May I Help You?” or “Have a Question? I’m here to help!” These usually show up after a user has remained on the page for a specified period.

Conversation starters give customers easy access to help if they are struggling to find what they’re looking for. The conversations that ensue are typically assisted by artificial intelligence in the form of chatbots.

Use Helpful Chatbots to Answer Questions

As we’ve mentioned already, the goal of conversational advertising is to provide a natural experience for customers, and you can do this by using chatbots. Bots are a type of software that mimics human conversation. They take many different forms, but more often than not, they appear as small chat icons.

The major purposes of chatbots are to communicate with and guide users through their customer journey and answer any questions or concerns. By providing your customers a place to ask their questions, you are also helping yourself build a database of frequently asked questions (FAQs) which you can then use to enhance your website or product manuals.

Your bots should also be polite and engaging and should include information such as product/service features (strategy 7), social proof (strategy 8), and feedback surveys (strategy 10).

Use Lead-Capture Tools

After someone clicks on a conversation starter, a chatbot can proceed to ask them a series of qualifying questions. These questions steer bots in the right direction to better understand the customer’s needs and act as lead-capturing tools. The buyer’s information captured by the customer’s answers can then be used to contact them in the future with more details about what they are interested in.

Use Personalized Messaging

Personalize messages by using the data collected from your customers, such as their name, location, or previous purchases. This allows you to provide the most relevant content based on who’s viewing it. It gives you an opportunity to show off what makes your brand unique – which will help your business stand out from its competitors.

This ability to perfectly tailor communications toward any given target audience member is why conversational advertising offers so many opportunities for marketers today.

A/B Test Different Messages and Greetings

When setting up your chatbots, it’s important to test different messages and greetings. You can also A/B test your chatbot responses by using data from previous campaigns (those FAQs you collected) to see which ones worked best with customers in the past. Testing different messages and comparing their effectiveness against each other allows you to optimize your strategy by focussing on the ones that are producing the best effect.

Highlight Product Features and Benefits

When developing the conversations your chatbots will engage in, it is a good idea to include a list of the features and benefits that each of your products offers. If there’s one thing consumers love more than anything else in this world, it’s a good deal. So when they’re shopping online with their hard-earned money, there is a good chance they may inquire about the features of one of your products. People want to know what makes your product better than others which is why including this information as possible chatbot responses will prove to be beneficial.

Use Social Proof

Social proof is a psychological phenomenon that occurs when people are influenced by the actions of others. In essence, it’s a way of proving that something is worth taking notice of. You can use social proof on your website, in your ads, and of course, in your chatbots!

There are a few different types of social proof you can use for your business, including testimonials from customers, case studies about how others have benefited from using your services, or endorsements made by influencers and celebrities.

Provide Customer Support

The biggest benefit of conversational marketing is that it allows you to provide your clientele with 24/7 customer support through live chat. This feature can be especially helpful when potential customers have questions during their decision-making process because if not resolved immediately, it could result in lost revenue.

Immediate responses make your business look good! So even if it is an artificial bot that is always ready with an answer, an immediate response to a customer’s inquiry makes your business look prompt, professional, and knowledgeable.

Ask for Feedback

When a customer has had a satisfactory interaction with your brand, you can apply conversational advertising and ask them what they liked about their experience. This feedback will help you improve future interactions and build trust among clients who may not have been satisfied by another brand.

The Takeaway

The personalized experience customers feel when interacting directly through text messaging, or phone calls is why conversational marketing is such an effective tool. Not only does conversational marketing make it easier for customers to find the information they need, but it also makes your business appear more professional and knowledgeable, and it’s a great way to show off your customer service skills.

About Lisa | Spherical Strategies Content Creator & Copywriter

Outside of her work as a content creator, Lisa is passionate about caring for her young son and is only slightly obsessed with gardening.

If you’re looking for more ideas on how to use digital marketing and nonfungible tokens for your business in 2022, be sure to check out our website! Not only do we have information about new digital trends and NFTs, but we also offer free consultations to see how Spherical Strategies can help you achieve your digital marketing goals in 2022!

10 Strategies to Optimize for Voice Search

Lisa Trevelyan April 26, 2022 SEO, Tips & Tricks

The digital marketing world is evolving yet again and requiring the style in which we present our information to evolve too. Over the last few years, voice search has become increasingly popular all around the world – and for a good reason. Voice search technology gives people a quicker and easier way to find the information they are looking for.

Voice recognition devices like Google Assistant, Alexa, and Echo are giving users answers to their daily questions without ever having to type a thing. To stay ahead of the competition and get your brand in front of the right eyes at the right time, now more than ever, you need to optimize your website for the conversational nature of voice search.

What is Voice Search Optimization (VSO)?

For those not familiar with voice search optimization (VSO), the first thing you need to know is that it’s different from regular search engine optimization (SEO). With voice search technology, a user speaks directly into a device, and Google (or another search engine) finds the most relevant answers on the web. It doesn’t require a keyboard-based search and is, therefore, faster than typing.

Voice search is more convenient for users but is giving marketers a new challenge to adjust to. Keep reading for 10 strategies to optimize for voice search!

Use Conversational Titles

Voice searches are shorter and more conversational. The title on your site should be written in a way that allows people to naturally ask their questions. You can achieve this by using simple, short titles with subconscious trigger words like “where,” “how,” “what,” and “why.”

Optimize for Conversational Queries

Direct questions are unlike keyboard searches because people are asking them in their natural language. The key to optimizing for conversational queries is writing content that sounds like someone is talking to you rather than giving information. This includes using “you” statements and creating lengthy question-based content.

Google’s algorithm acknowledges conversational qualities to retrieve the most relevant information possible. A website that’s not optimized for these could find it very difficult to rank well on search engines simply because it won’t show up for naturally-spoken questions.

Do Your Voice-Specific Keyword Research

As is the case with optimizing for keywords, it’s important to dive deeper into your keyword research and do so specifically for voice searches. For question-based keywords, you want to think about the questions that your content provides answers to and include those as keywords as well. Rather than thinking about broad terms like “marketing,” think of more specific and conversational questions such as, “Which marketing agency has the best return on investment?”

There are resources available that can be used to help with this process: you can hire a digital marketing firm and leave it to the professionals, or you can do it yourself using tools such as Answer the Public and BuzzSumo’s Content Discover. They both provide a list of keywords related to a specific topic. Answer the Public gives a list of questions, while Buzzsumo provides a list of the most shared content on social media under certain keywords.

However you choose to perform your research, you mustn’t skip over this pivotal step.

Use Long-Tail Keywords

Long-tail keywords are very specific strings of commonly-searched terms. “What is the best digital marketing agency in Miami” is longer and more specific than just “digital marketing agency.” It’s important to have long-tail keywords associated with every different type of content on your website because Google will prioritize it more. Longer queries can be broken up into smaller ones to return better results if on the first page.

Optimize Content for Voice Interactions

While long-tail keywords are important for ranking, it’s necessary to make sure the words are pronounced correctly if you want to be found on voice platforms. Keywords that contain multiple syllables especially need to be enunciated.

In addition, Google’s voice search algorithm not only looks for specific keywords that are related to the query but also tries to understand the meaning of the content. It does this by analyzing the words that appear throughout the page as well as how they relate to each other. For example, if someone is asking, “what time does Starbucks open?” Google bots will look for the words “Starbucks” and “time” on your page. It will assess the context of these words and their proximity to each other so it can determine if the information it has collected from your site answers the inquiry.

For Google and other search engines like Bing and Ask.com, the number of voice searches is increasing exponentially. Because of this, you need to ensure your website gives users a better experience when they’re asking their questions aloud as opposed to typing them in on the web. Part of optimizing for voice interactions includes ensuring that your content is conversational and your website is mobile-friendly.

Mobile Friendly

More than 50% of voice searches are performed on smartphones. To give people the best experience possible, not only does your website have to be easy to read and navigate on a desktop, but it also needs to be just as good on a small screen device like a phone or tablet.

Google’s voice bot receives inquiries from mobile devices and, therefore, returns answers to users on the same mobile devices. This information needs to be adaptive for whatever mobile device it is being viewed on. Since Google is heavily involved with voice search, it only makes sense that mobile-friendliness plays a big role in how well a website ranks.

Local Search

People are looking for local businesses more often than they’re trying to find information on the web, which makes it especially important to include your business’s location for voice search retrieval. Over the last two years, voice searches for a “restaurant near me” have increased by over 150%.

Not only will people be searching with their location in mind, but Google’s algorithm prioritizes results that are tailored to the user’s area or city. If your information isn’t literally in the right place at the right time, Google won’t be able to provide your content as an option to local inquiries, no matter how hard it tries. Ensure your content contains the words “near me” in it, as well as the city you are in.

Featured Snippets

Snippets are usually around 30-word answers, a lot of which are pulled from the first and FAQ pages of a website. Google picks its snippets based on the first page it finds that matches the query. You can help Google choose your company’s information by putting key content at the top of your first page and by having a short FAQ section with the most commonly asked questions and answers.

If you have a question answered on your FAQ section but not anywhere else on the website, Google won’t be able to find it.

If you have a great snippet, it can be what Google audibly responds with to a voice search. It’s important to have a complete sentence in a naturally-spoken tone so Google knows it’s the information being searched for and it can immediately speak it back to the user as a result.

Content Length

While Google’s voice search may have started with questions being the only thing that it looked at to answer a query, it now looks through your entire page.

Voice bots do this with the help of AI. This means that content length does matter for your website ranking on voice search, making it important to have detailed answers and internal links.

Site Speed

Google has introduced a speed update that uses site speed as a ranking factor. The faster your website loads, the better results you will have. This means that having a great hosting service with minimal scripts and images is very important.

It takes around 3 seconds for Google bots to crawl your site for mobile devices. The more optimized your website is, the faster it will be for Google’s bot, and in return, you will rank higher. Not only does site speed play a role in your website’s rankings, but it also affects the user experience.

The Takeaway

Voice search is more relevant than ever and is looking to increase over the foreseeable future. With the shift towards people using their phones and devices more, for your site to be successful, your content must be accessible through voice search channels. This means creating shorter, conversational sentences with lots of information that can be easily accessed through mobile devices.

Having an organized website will go a long way to help increase your voice search rankings and organic results as well. The easier it is for your customers to find what they want on your site, the better you’ll do with both of these types of searches.

About Lisa | Spherical Strategies Content Creator & Copywriter

Outside of her work as a content creator, Lisa is passionate about caring for her young son and is only slightly obsessed with gardening.

1 2 3