Happy Tuesday!
This week we're covering Instagram's news brief about how its algorithm works, ways a business can engage with exisiting customers to cross-sell/up-sell, and how to create link-worthy content to share. We also look at ten under-utilized tactics to boost SEO and five common User Interface mistakes to avoid.
Instagram Explains How its Algorithm Works in New Briefing
Instagram has given us insight into just how their algorithm works and how these three factors are taken into account: Interest, Timeliness and Relationship.
With Interest, the platform will take into account how likely a user is to engage with a post given past engagement with recent similar content. With Timeliness, it factors when a post is published. And lastly, it factors in the Relationship a user has a publisher and how much they have engaged with them through likes, comments, tags, and direct messages.
These factoring elements are very similar to that of Facebook’s however, what make it stand out are Instagram’s image recognition tools. As the ability to recognize objects in visual content becomes more sophisticated, so will recommended content. This could spell a change in how marketers will choose images for posts, since more emphasis will be placed on the actual image instead of just hashtags and captions. Interesting to note from the news brief is the clarification of a few algorithm myths. One of which is that its algorithm does not favour image or video posts and that there is no penalty for posting too often.
10 Ignored SEO Tasks That Can Boost Your Rankings
More and more businesses are realizing the importance of content marketing and how something like a blog can be an essential asset in their marketing efforts. Lenny Johnson looks at several overlooked SEO tasks to help with SERP. A few tips include creating rich cards. “Rich cards use schema.org structured markup to display content in an even more engaging and visual format, with a focus on providing a better mobile user experience.” Rich cards stand out from plain text results and can boost CTR. They are inexpensive and effective. Take time to research what your customers are searching for and what content will display as rich cards. Then, replicate the content and optimize it for rich cards.
Another tip is to create skyscraper content. This technique involves finding high performing content within your industry or area of expertise and then creating something better and promoting it. Use tools such as Buzzsumo to research trending existing piece of content and turn them into something objectively better. Once you’ve done that, reach out the people that linked to similar content and get your piece on their radar. Remember that once you have great content, start promoting it! For more overlooked SEO tactics, read on.
8 Ways to Cross-Sell/Up-Sell Customers with Search & Social Ads
According to RJMetrics, 32% of customers will order again from the same company within their first year of being a customer. It can be easy to forget these folks as your business focuses on generating more leads and acquiring new customers but as Margot da Cunha explains, there can be a real value in targeting existing customers. So how can your business turn a first-time customer into a lifelong one? Da Cunha lists 8 ways you can cross-sell and up-sell your previous customers and increase their lifetime value, the chances of repeat purchases, and brand loyalty.
Spend time digging through data to find about a customer’s buying persona and appeal to their specific needs, wants, and desires. An example da Cunha uses is if your customer purchases shampoo and conditioner from your online store; consider how long it’ll be before they have to replace them. Segment your customer list to ensure the right offer is being targeted based on the buyer’s persona. Create a remarketing campaign to target each group of buyers across different social networks and Google. Run an RLSA campaign (Remarketing List for Search Ads). This type of campaign works a bit different than remarketing because they appear on the search network, rather than the display network, when specific users type in specific keywords. Read on for more ways you can re-engage with your current list of customers.
Want Links? Here’s How to Create Link-Worthy Content
Natural links are the kind of links that Google wants you to build but first you need to ensure that your content is link-worthy! Quality content is informational, inspirational, educational, and entertaining. Ultimately, you want it to be the best answer to a question from your audience. Anna Crowe offers 11 ideas to help you create content that you’ll be able to market and approach an influencer (social media, blogger, or journalist) with about linking.
The first piece of advice is to focus on Evergreen content. This is the kind of content that will remain relevant and useful after it’s first published. Evergreen content can come in many forms such as guides, EBooks, lists, checklists or how-to posts. Another way to make your content more attractive is to focus on thought leadership. Stand out in your field as expert and make your audience take note. Remember to ask yourself what sets your content apart from the rest. If it doesn’t have a competitive edge to make it unique, re-work your content until it does. Read on for more tips!
5 User Interface Mistakes That Drive Customers Away
You have a small window of time to convince a potential customer to stay on your site or mobile app. Kaya Ismail covers five common mistakes of User Interface to avoid in order to increase the chances of a visitor interacting with you online.
The first mistake your business can make is using too many fonts. Limit the number of fonts used on your page and ensure that they complement one another. Not only will it help implement a clean design, but also it will help deliver a strong brand and identity.
Another common UI mistake is designing one app for all OS. Any application designed today must be designed with portability in mind. Examples of this are screen sizes for iOS and Android devices and how content needs to adjust to each. Not all phones are created (or designed) equally! Read on for more of Ismail’s errors to avoid.
Check out these additional articles for more internet marketing news!
Mary Meeker’s Report 2018: the Internet Trends to Watch Out For
Why You Should Use Chatbots for Facebook Messenger Marketing
Where's Video Going? 10 Trends Streaming Across the Online Video Landscape
