Friday, 20 October 2017

Basics of Online Brand Reputation Management

There are 286,942,362 internet users in the United States. Of that group, users who are online shoppers spent an estimated $1,804 per person on ecommerce purchases in 2015. Consider the same data for 2016, and you will find that we nearly surpassed $100 Million in retail ecommerce for the second quarter alone. There’s no question that you need to keep your business in front of the right audience in order to drive sales, which makes it mandatory to cultivate a strong online presence. However, regardless of what you may have heard, not all publicity is good publicity. A basic understanding of online brand reputation management can help preserve your company’s image, as well as its bottom line.
Research Your Existing Online Reputation
The first step in understanding your online presence is to find out if one already exists. Yelp averages 73 million unique monthly visitors to their desktop site and another 92 million on mobile platforms. There is a very good chance that your business has a Yelp page, whether you created it or not.
It’s important to remember that not everyone will have a positive experience, and others may perceive negativity even if they’ve received stellar service. Don’t be discouraged by negative reviews; there will almost always be at least one.
Respond to Criticism
We live in a world where 67 percent of consumers are influenced by online reviews. Some reviews are fair, and others are profane, but you need to give all of them equal attention.
An eloquent and sincere response to a bad review can positively influence potential customers’ perception of your business. Respond with remorse and thanks if a legitimate complaint or constructive criticism is shared. Customers need to know that you’re concerned about their experience and take responsibility for mistakes.
On the other hand, if a negative review is based on lies, don’t be afraid to respond and explain the situation to other customers. Be cautious when you do this, though. Never attack a customer or belittle their opinion. Instead, explain why their review is unreasonable and unjustified. Also leave an email address or phone number where you can be reached and offer them an opportunity to talk to you one-on-one. When you offer a naysayer the chance to respond in person, it adds credibility to your perspective.
Stay Engaged on Social Media
If you have any doubt that a strong social media presence is crucial to your brand’s public image, check out our articles on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Youtube, Snapchat, and Twitter. The more involved your business becomes with its social media following, the more opportunities you’ll have to advertise and connect with your audience. This is especially important if you target millennials.
Transparency is also a huge benefit of utilizing social media.
It was found that more than two thirds of consumers in the US, UK, and China rated honesty and transparency as important in deciding which businesses to support.
Social media platforms can help you create an open dialogue between your business and consumers. They like you on Facebook, follow you on Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat, and subscribe to your channel on YouTube. It’s a way of monitoring your online reputation in real time and a channel that can be used to connect with individual customers on a personal level.
The influence of the internet over our daily lives is only growing stronger. Instant access to information and the ability to transfer it instantaneously across the globe can spell disaster for a brand without a solid plan for online reputation management. We’ve spent years perfecting our practices for reputation management, and we hope you found our beginner’s guide useful.
If you’re in need of an online brand reputation management team and would like to learn more than just the basics, contact us here. We’ll ensure that your current and future customers view your business in the best possible light.

For more details on our products and services, please feel free to visit us at Social Media Marketing India, Internet Marketing India, Search engine marketing India, Search engine marketing & Internet Marketing Company

WordPress vs. Drupal

Building a website, blog, or web application with a content management system (CMS) can have big advantages: you have visibility into your site’s content, can control how often it’s updated, and basic administrative tasks typically require little to no programming experience. However, when it comes to customizing and extending a CMS-powered site, a developer’s expertise can turn a basic, out-of-the-box site into a totally unique, powerful solution.
WordPress grew in popularity from a blogging platform to a full-blown site framework that’s powered by PHP, HTML, JavaScript, AJAX, CSS and plenty of plugins, themes, and widgets. Theme customization, installation, and more complex builds and setups require the help of skilled WordPress developers, who will also make sure your site’s maintained through software version updates, plugin updates, and more.
With WordPress, you get what you put in—and the possibilities can be endless. Learn more about how to customize a WordPress site, the Genesis framework, and WordPress plugins. The Advanced Custom Fields plugin gives admins even more control over how content and data is displayed, adding complexity where you need it to WordPress’s famously user-friendly admin panel.
Drupal is a majorly powerful CMS, referring to itself as a “content management framework” that lets users launch, manage and scale more “ambitious” sites and applications. Think larger, enterprise-level projects. It’s powered by PHP (and the Symfony PHP framework) and also requires little to no programming experience to set up low-level functionality. Drupal’s extended functionality comes from modules that build off of its Core package (which includes basic things like blogging, forums, contact forms, and other community-style functionality). To take advantage of all those high-powered extras, however, you’ll need help from a skilled Drupal developer—it gets pretty complicated customizing the back-end of a Drupal-powered site.
Similarities:
•             Both have powerful developer APIs. Drupal’s API offers access to numerous UI components, data functions, and more. The WordPress APIs also cover everything from metadata and HTTP to databases, theme customization and plugins.
•             Both extend core functionality with add-ons. For Drupal, that’s modules—36,000+ libraries of code, APIs, and tokens that add functionality in categories like ecommerce, SEO, mobile, spam prevention, and third-party integrations. In WordPress, 37,000+ plugins and themes are how developers can customize and add functionality.
•             Both are free and open-source. With WordPress.org, you will need to arrange your own hosting and domain, but the software is free. Premium themes and plugins can cost more, too. Drupal is free, too, with similar back-end requirements.
•             Both require installation, setup, and hosting. Unlike a cloud-based site builders like Wix and Squarespace, both these require you to download the CMS, install it, and set up hosting and purchase a domain.
•             Both offer mobile responsive themes. Drupal mobile sites can perform better when run on a subdomain (which may affect your SEO) while a mobile WordPress site can be easily run on the same domain. Just an extra step to take into account.
•             Both have excellent SEO. This isn’t platform-specific; it’s more developer specific. Since we’ve mentioned Drupal can be more complex, it’s going to be easier to to miss out on SEO if it’s not handled properly, which WordPress makes a bit easier to do. Overall, WordPress’ technical SEO aspects are hard to beat. A top-rated plugin/module like Yoast SEO is available for both platforms.
Differences
•             Drupal has a more complex build under the hood. It can take longer to get used to and has a steeper learning curve, but it’s definitely a good option for larger projects and enterprise-grade sites. WordPress is easier to learn and use—and it doesn’t lack in options to ramp up admin capabilities if you need them.
•             Version updates are handled differently. WordPress code is upgradable, and this happens in tandem with database updates pretty seamlessly in the background. Because WordPress updates are released every few months, this is a great feature for non-developers. Plugins do need to be regularly updated, though. Drupal updates are more comprehensive overhauls and because they don’t include a code update, the process is more labor intensive. In some cases, you may have to redesign the whole site for an update.
•             Plugins present security vulnerabilities. Drupal is known for its tight security and security reporting, which are valuable for larger enterprise sites (and government sites) that have more moving parts. Certain third-party services offer WordPress security measures, but note that you’ll be more open to hacks if you’re not updating plugins regularly.
•             Mobile apps for admins. WordPress has a native app for updating your site on mobile; Drupal does not, but it has a responsive mobile admin dashboard.
•             Drupal has testing and reporting built in. This helps you see what is working on your site and where there’s room to improve. You can get similar services for WordPress through a plugin like Optimizely that allows you to run split, multivariate, and A/B testing on your site.
•             WordPress theme building is easier for DIYers. Both platforms have great starter themes you can purchase, but Drupal themes tend to require more work to get customization. There are also fewer options for free Drupal starter themes, so customization by a developer is almost a given. WordPress has tons of options.

Google My Business

Add And Claim Your Business On Google My Business
Google pretty much dominates local search at the moment. When that works in your favor, you’ll see your company sitting atop the search results for many a local phrase. But if you’re not ranking high in local search, or not appearing at all, it can seriously impact your business. If people can’t find you, how can they buy what you’re selling? It’s a big problem with a multitude of solutions. For some, it’s as simple as getting listed. For others, it’s a bit more complicated. Though local search has specific requirements, it’s still search and requires SEO. Bearing that in mind, let’s look at some reasons a company might fail to appear in Google Local and what can be done to remedy the situation.
Why Should You Claim Your Google My Business Listing?
So why should you claim your Google My Business listing anyway? What makes it so important? According to Google, 97% of consumers search for local products and services, but only 37% of businesses have claimed a local business listing on a search engine. This is an opportunity for you to beat your competition if they haven’t taken advantage and claimed their GMB listing – yet! Claiming your Google My Business can help with your local search rankings.
To claim your business listing on Google, you must personally interact with your customers during the business hours you include in your GMB listing. You can work with your customers at your physical place of business or at the customer’s location. That means that even service businesses, like digital marketers, freelancers, landscapers or plumbers, can also claim their Google business listing.
Most businesses can claim a Google My Business listing, but there are a few exceptions.
How Does Google Decide What Businesses to Show in Search Results?
Google uses a variety of factors (i.e. an algorithm) to determine what sites show up in local search results. There are hundreds of factors that are considered in Google’s search algorithm. When it comes to local search, here are just a few of the main ones:
•             Distance: how close is the business to the searcher or the area where the searcher is located?
•             Prominence: measured by how well-known or popular the business/website is based on information Google finds about it on the internet.
Google is the most popular search engine in the world. They are interested in being the most useful and informative one as well. It is simple to provide Google with accurate information regarding your business. This information will be provided to people looking for what you have to offer. Free. You can also offer coupons, directions, post your hours, list your telephone number and more. The best part is that doing so is completely free.

Wednesday, 11 October 2017

Reputation Management Basics Part - I

Whether you know it or not, people are talking about you online. From blog posts and social media comments to user generated reviews, your business’ online reputation can directly influence customer satisfaction and loyalty. And having a not-so-great reputation can mean the difference between a customer choosing you or your competitor.  Master these six reputation management basics to build a stellar online reputation.
1. Know What’s Being Said about You
First, you need to know where consumers are talking –and what they are saying about your business. Search for “your business name] reviews”, or “[your business name] complaints” on top search engines and review sites. You can also use tools like Google Alerts, Twitter, and Social Search to monitor your business name, and don’t forget check them regularly – at least once a day.
2. Respond to (Some) Reviews
Some reviews—even negative ones—can work in your favor if you respond the right way. Negative reviews can’t be deleted, but you can apologize for the customer’s poor experience and ask them to contact you offline to resolve their complaint. Don’t just respond to the negative reviews, though. Genuinely thanking customers publicly for a positive review can also encourage repeat business and elicit positive reviews from other happy customers. Yelp offers these tips for responding to reviews.
3. Ask for Positive Reviews
Want more positive reviews? Ask for them. You can send loyal customers a postcard or email, or simply ask them after a store visit or service call to go online and leave a review of their experience on a site such as Yelp or Google Places. Give it a try – chances are pretty good your customers will respond with a positive review.
4. Join the Social Conversation
Once you know where consumers are talking about your business, you can join the conversation. Add new consumers to your network by following them on social media. Then reply to, comment on, or share their content – in addition to creating your own. Don’t just use this as an opportunity to push your products or services; also share helpful tips, interesting stories, photos, videos, and more to engage your consumers. Sometimes people are more interested in what you have to say than what you have to sell.
5. Claim your Local Listings
What do local online listings have to do with your reputation? A lot! Claiming your listings on local directories and review sites ensures consumers find accurate and consistent information about your business. You can even use your listings to highlight customer reviews, special offers, or photos and videos of your products and services. Doing so will increase the amount of positive content people see about your business when they search for you online.
6. Turn the Tables on Customer Complaints
Customers aren’t just complaining – they’re giving you valuable information. So take action! Use the feedback you get from online comments and reviews to improve your product offerings, customer service, and other business operations. For instance, if you see a lot of negative comments about the long lines at your store on Saturday mornings, you might increase the number of employees working that shift. Let your customers know you’re listening, and you care about what they have to say!


Google AdWords Tips

Campaign Strategy – It’s a great idea to understand the strategy of your campaign from the start. Make sure you know how you want to target your audience and consider: devices your audience is using, areas that they are looking in/are in and what you want as a result of them visiting your website. Will your strategy include Call-only campaigns? Will it include remarketing? IF you know all of this from the get go then that’s step one complete.
Competitor Research – Look at what your competitors are doing. Use tools such as SEMrush to understand what keywords your competitors are bidding for, what their ads look like and how much they’re spending. This gives you knowledge on where to better their campaigns with your own.
Budgeting – Be realistic with your budget. If you’re running your account yourself, speak to Google’s help team and ask for some statistics on your industry.
Search Ads – These adverts are generally the most effective for your budget and strategy. Consider how much of your daily budget should go towards this particular campaign type.
Call-only Ads – Call-only can be a great addition to your account and strategy. They allow you to target users only using a mobile device to search. If you offer an emergency or distressed purchase service within your business, use Call-only campaigns to target these searches. It’ll result in an instant phone call.
Campaign Goals – Realise your campaign goals. What are you looking for? Calls? Enquiry forms? General website traffic? Purchases? When looking at your goals, mirror this in your ad copy, bidding strategy, max CPC and landing pages. If you want purchases, have an ad that lands on a product page and use striking ad copy to stand out from the competition.
Campaign Structure – Structure is one of the biggest factors within AdWords. A poorly structured campaign can be the main reason to bad performance. You should structure your account as follows:
·          Campaigns – Set different campaigns up for different products & services. Different products & services will have different margins. This means that you will want different strategies for each campaign or product & service.
·          Ad Groups – Split your campaign into Ad Groups. Ad Groups can be split into different match types. Set up one ad group for each match type and include correlating keywords inside them. You could call your Ad Groups ‘Broad Match’ ‘Exact Match’ & ‘Phrase Match’.
·          Ads – Considering that your campaign and keywords are all focussing on the same product & service, you can create one set of ads and simply copy and paste these ads into the different Ad Groups.

Networks – Decide which networks you want your ads to appear on. Generally, at Level Up Marketing, we only allow our ads to show on a Google search result. We believe that Google Search Partners Network offers lower quality traffic and also reduces headline stat performance.
Promotional Codes – Use promotional codes effectively. If you get a voucher (which you do for a brand new account that hasn’t done AdWords before) don’t use it to save money. Add it to your current budget over a one month period. 


Google AdWords Settings

Location Targeting – This is a big one. When considering your targeted locations, look at how many impressions you’ll look at generating and bear in mind existing statistics. A campaign that has a modest budget shouldn’t target nationwide searches. The campaign will become too diluted and the budget could run out in a matter of a couple of hours. Your budget should reflect targeting.
Advanced Location Targeting – Do you want to target users who are physically in your location or do you want to target users that are searching for your location? To simplify ‘Electrician in Bedford’ this user is looking for an electrician in Bedford and they live in Bedford. ‘Electrician in Bedford’ this user is looking for an electrician in Bedford but lives in London. The saying goes ‘not all business is good business. The latter example could have a lower chance of conversion.
Bid Strategy – There are different types of bid strategy to consider. Take a look below at what they all mean.
Manual CPC – With this option, you are in control. You decide how much you want to pay for a click.
Enhanced CPC – Google will look at previous conversion history for you. You set a manual max CPC, and if Google thinks it’ll likely result in a conversion, during that search query it’ll increase your bid by up to 30%.
Automatic CPC – This strategy enables you to maximise clicks. You’ll get the most clicks possible out of your budget. Bear in mind, however, that not all traffic is beneficial. You may want to be clicked on before anyone else. This will be unlikely with a position below 3 or 4.
Ad Delivery – How are your ads performing? Are you getting a low CTR but not a great impression share? In this case, choose accelerated ad delivery so that Google can show your ads more frequently.
Ad Schedule – look at competition and likelihood of conversion. For example, if you’re a mobile tyre fitter in London, you may want to consider scheduling your ads to show only during the night and early morning. At this point, your competitors will likely have turned off their ads. This will result in lower CPC but also higher conversion rates.
Mobile Bid Enhancement – How important is a click from a mobile device? Smart insights wrote a great article on mobile device conversions. Consider increasing mobile clicks by at least 25% to ensure you’re at the top for these queries.

Conversion Tracking


Conversion Calls From Ads – When someone looks at your advert on any device, if you have extensions set up, they’ll see a phone number.
Google can track the number of calls from these adverts for you. You can set up conversions at account level.
Conversion Calls From Websites – In this event, Google can place a unique forwarding number to display where your phone numbers usually display. Only if your website is visited as a result of an ad click, the new number will display. Google can then track the number of calls that come from the website as a result of Google AdWords.
Conversion Purchases From Website – If you run an e-commerce site, you’ll want to know how effective AdWords is. Use this conversion tracking to see how many purchases you are generating.
Conversion Enquiry Form Submissions – Enquiry forms can be a powerful tool. A fantastic call to action which provides you with lead data in a few taps and clicks. Differentiate the ones coming through Google AdWords by adding this conversion tracking.

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