The Evolution of Internet Search and its Future

The Evolution of Internet Search and its Future

by Digital Marketing

One of the only things you can count on with technology is that it will change. No matter how refined or detail-oriented your website will be, there’s always room for improvement. This is especially true when you consider how people search for websites and content related to their interests.

Most of our online experiences begin and end with a search engine. If you open a browser, visit Google, and type in something like the local Chinese restaurant you’ve always wanted to try or what the latest celebrity gossip might be from last night’s award show, the information you receive with be highly relevant.

Google has 84.08% of the search engine market while Bing accounted for almost 9% and Yahoo was 2.55% as of December 2022.

 

Even with all the social media, messaging, and email systems in place, it is ingrained in our society to use a search engine first or follow the latest Google search trends to find the information we want the most. So, how do we leverage this instinctual activity to bring in more visitors to our websites if that is the case? How do you account for the future of internet searching that is happening right now and affecting conversion rates?

The Evolution of a Search Query

Long ago, in a time before smartphones, everyone had to rely on old-fashioned search engines like Altavista or Ask Jeeves. We would connect to our dial tones and hear that robotic melodic stream that most younger users today have never heard of in their lifetimes, all in the hopes that the information we were looking for wouldn’t have too many images or take an hour to download.

Today performing a user search is almost synonymous with the word Google. That search engine has become so ingrained into our everyday usage that it’s like Kleenex to tissues or Band-Aid when you get a cut on your finger. As a result, the brand has become more significant than the activity that you will perform on its website.

That is because Google has become more refined in generating results for online searches. Any website that wants to be ranked high on the search engine results page of Google or any other provider needs to follow some basics to get recognized.

The point is that search engines are putting people first, and constantly evolving, so the services they provide have the highest demand. After all, everybody wants to make money online, and being the best search engine is a great way to do it.

To rank well on Google, you must have some critical factors that include:

    • Quality backlinks
    • Content that is relevant to the user
    • A solid SEO strategy with suitable keywords and phrases
    • A fast-loading website
    • Relevant images, videos, and written content
    • Clean UI/UX for clear navigation

If you contribute to the internet ecosystem, you will rank well on Google. All that is left now is that you are following the latest updates on how Google enforces its internet search requirements.

The Effect of Google Search Trends & Updates

For years, Google has been providing updates to its system. These updates’ overall goal is to ensure the content delivered to users performing an online search meets their expectations.

If you operate a website that relies heavily on organic search, you need to be aligned with any of these updates. That means you need to follow Google’s advice on creating people-first content. Things like prioritizing short-form videos, integrating social media, and having a convenient and intuitive layout ensure that you will rank high regardless of what update has been initiated.

It also means staying abreast of any recent Google search trends. Google is the most visited website in the world, with more than 89 billion hits every month. That gives it massive control over the search engine market, with as much as 90% of its market share. If you want a helpful website that gains traction with your target audience, you need to adhere to Google’s updates and search trends to appear at the top of your niche market.

What Boosts a Website to the Top of a Search Page?

Trying to figure out the precise algorithm Google uses is a full-time job. People with three different doctorates, from computer science to sociology, spend all their waking hours trying to solve this massive equation.

The easier way to figure out why one type of market searching for a website based on different topics has more to do with the basics you need to have on your website. Getting on the front page of Google results in a massive boost in your click-through rate. To do this, you need some critical things in place, including:

1. Fixing On-Page SEO

This means integrating a solid keyword strategy into your landing pages, image alt-tags, descriptions, and anything else without keyword stuffing or violating Google’s updates.

2. Using LSI Keywords

LSI keywords are anything related to your specific lead keyword or phrase. For example, if you have something like “baseball games in North America” as your key phrase, you may also want to have LSI keywords on your webpage like:

    • Baseball mitt
    • The best baseball bat
    • Habits of baseball players
    • Best baseball teams in the USA
    • And similar options

3. Match Content to Your Audience

Get into the mind of someone who would be searching for your content. Are they asking questions? Or is there a general statement related to your keywords? Then, deliver the content that provides them with the resources they need to move forward. Not only is it better for Google search trends, but it will improve your overall user engagement.

4. Develop a Backlink Strategy

One of the best ways to improve your SERP is to have backlinks from reputable websites and sources. People who link to your webpage show that you are in authority on that topic. The more quality backlinks you have, the higher your page will rank with Google because the search engine will recognize you as delivering the best content based on the initial online search.

5. Don’t Forget Internal Linking

Google wants to view your website as a series of interconnected pages. So you need a link from page to page to page on your own website with relevant topics or keywords. This also makes it easier for your visitors to navigate your site.

6. Boost Your Loading Speed

Another critical tip is to improve your user experience by making your site load as quickly as possible. This includes being mobile responsive with images, content, and video that loads fast regardless of platform. Google will see this as you going the extra mile to improve a user experience and will reward you with a higher page rank.

What is Changing for a User Search Right Now?

There are tons of incredible changes happening in the search page world. Probably the most important is the use of artificial intelligence within a search engine ecosystem.

For example, Microsoft is using ChatGPT as part of their Bing search engine, and Google is using a competitor called Bard. Both of these will drastically change how we search for things and the information that will be plugged into search engines in the future.

However, there are a lot of bugs to fix in those two systems. In the meantime, here are some other things to keep in mind when considering the latest Google search trends in the future of Internet searching.

1. Augmented Reality on Mobile Devices

Over 1.7 billion mobile users are already taking advantage of AR, otherwise known as augmented reality. They are systems that enable interactive applications like virtual dressing rooms when you’re online shopping for clothing or Pokémon Go that uses the gaming world to capture different creatures in real-life settings. It is the idea of crafting a reality that combines your personal views with the latest technology. This is going to become even more prominent as the years progress.

2. AI Writing

While AI has been integrated into content creation for years, the release of ChatGPT has exploded across the internet. People suddenly found a way to generate all kinds of articles without the need to hire teams and teams of writers.

ChatGPT crossed the 100 million users milestone in January 2023. In the first month of its launch, ChatGPT had more than 57 million monthly users.

Most businesses operate on the idea of automation. So when you can automate your content creation, you save money and time while boosting the quality of information you’re providing in your user search. The only thing to watch out for here is that AI text generation is imperfect. You still need someone to go over the content to humanize it, add some comedy, and make sure that it is SEO optimized for your website.

3. SEO & Branding (Be a Destination)

SEO is constantly evolving, especially in the online search world. Being ranked well for one keyboard is no longer enough. You need to build a brand related to your target keyphrase so that when a user lands on your website, they spend some time looking around at the other content available.

The best way to stand out from your competition is to expand your SEO strategy so that you become a destination instead of just a one-hit wonder when it comes to a search page result.

4. Long-Tail Strategies 

Niching down is not a bad idea. Finding those rare long-tail keywords that don’t have much competition but have a high interest is still the most reliable way to increase your organic search results. Any time that you can organically drive a massive amount of traffic to your website is going to be a boost in your potential revenue. This is especially true for those in e-commerce or running a blog.

5. Google Analytics 4

GA4 stands to change the entire search website industry again. That is because this new system’s predictive insights will include user behavior. When you better understand your target audience’s behavior, you can adapt your website to their specific needs.

That will give you a massive competitive advantage over those who do not account for this new system. The better you can understand your talking market, the better you can deliver quality content, and the higher you will rank on Google search trends.

6. Quality Over Quantity

Let’s say it again for all the kids in the back of the bus – you cannot win with Google and any search engine unless you have quality content.

The days of keyboard stuffing and generating fly-by-night information for users are gone. Everybody wants personalized information that is highly relevant and easy to verify. The best way to rank high on Google is to be an authority on your target niche market with keywords and phrases to back it up.

The information era is pretty much over. We are now moving into the augmented era, where technologies and integrative tools will become an everyday activity. That includes things related to Google search trends and how we conduct a search query. In addition, wearable technology and augmented reality applications will result in a more inclusive search engine environment.

While you do your best to maintain your branding, SEO strategies, and short-form videos for your target audience, you also need to keep a close eye on how this industry is evolving. Staying on the cutting edge of internet searching is one of the best ways to develop your online brand and become a leading provider of whatever niche service, product, or idea you want to get across to your target market.

Automation Tools to Make Your Business More Efficient

Automation Tools to Make Your Business More Efficient

by Artificial Intelligence

In the age of digital transformation, it can be difficult to keep up with all the new technology and tools available. AI and marketing automation are two of the most powerful tools that businesses can use to increase efficiency and generate more leads. Let’s take a look at some of the best AI and marketing automation tools on the market today.

Marketing Automation Tools

Marketing automation tools are designed to streamline common marketing tasks so you can focus your time on higher-value activities. Popular marketing automation tools include MailChimp, Hootsuite, and HubSpot. These platforms help you create, schedule, and track campaigns; manage social media accounts; capture leads; and optimize content for search engine optimization (SEO). They also provide detailed analytics reports so you can measure the success of your campaigns.

The latest marketing automation statistics show that the global market is projected to grow from $4,438.7 million in 2020 to $14,180.6 million in 2030 (Research and Markets, 2021).

MailChimp

MailChimp is a great option when it comes to automated email campaigns. It offers a wide range of features, including email list segmentation, automated emails based on user behavior, and tracking of open rates. MailChimp also provides detailed analytics so you can monitor how successful your campaigns are. Finally, it integrates with other platforms like Shopify and WordPress for an even more streamlined experience.

Crowdfire

Crowdfire is another great tool for automating your marketing efforts. It helps manage all of your social media accounts from one place and allows you to schedule posts in advance. Crowdfire also helps you track various metrics such as followers and engagement rate so you can see what content people are responding to best. Additionally, it has powerful features such as hashtag research and competitor analysis that will give you an edge over other marketers in your field.

HubSpot

HubSpot is a comprehensive platform that allows businesses to automate their entire customer lifecycle—from lead generation through sales conversion and post-purchase retention. Its Visual Workflows feature allows users to set up triggers that respond automatically when certain conditions are met—for example, sending an automated welcome email when someone signs up for a newsletter or offering discounts after a certain amount of time has passed since a purchase was made. HubSpot also provides detailed analytics so you can monitor how successful your campaigns are over time.

AI-Powered Chatbots

Chatbots powered by artificial intelligence (AI) are becoming increasingly popular in customer service departments, as they provide customers with instant answers to their questions without requiring human intervention. There are many different types of chatbot software available, such as Flow XO, MobileMonkey, and Botsify. These platforms allow you to create custom chatbots with natural language processing capabilities to engage customers in conversations or provide quick answers to their inquiries.

ChatGPT

This is a powerful dialogue system developed by OpenAI that can generate natural-sounding conversations. It has been used for a variety of applications, from customer service chatbots to creative conversation experiences like in virtual assistants and voice-based games.

The primary benefit of ChatGPT is its ability to generate human-like conversations with minimal user input. By leveraging the power of natural language processing, ChatGPT can create conversations between two or more people on a wide range of topics – from mundane everyday chit-chat to complex philosophical debates.

Another major use case for ChatGPT is creating automated customer service agents. By automating customer support functions, companies can save time and money while improving the overall customer experience.

ChatGPT can effectively understand user queries and provide answers quickly and accurately, allowing companies to increase their efficiency while providing better services to their customers. This technology also has potential uses in various other fields such as education, healthcare, e-commerce, legal advice, etc., where it could be used to improve the accuracy and speed of responses given by professionals in these industries.

 

Cloud Storage Solutions

Cloud storage solutions such as Dropbox and Google Drive make it easy for teams to collaborate on projects from any location in the world. They offer secure data storage options with scalability so you don’t have to worry about running out of disk space or dealing with hardware failures. Plus, their integrations with other cloud services allow users to access their data from any device with an internet connection.

AI and marketing automation tools can be incredibly useful for businesses looking to increase efficiency and generate more leads. From automated email campaigns to AI-powered chatbots, there are plenty of options available depending on what your business needs are. Investing in these types of solutions will help you save time while maximizing your ROI—so why not give them a try?

How To Find the Right Digital Marketing Agency for Your Business

How To Find the Right Digital Marketing Agency for Your Business

by with No Comment Digital Marketing

If you own a business, then you know that digital marketing is integral to your success. After all, without digital marketing, it can be hard to reach new customers and build brand recognition. But with so many digital marketing agencies out there, how do you choose the right one? Don’t worry—we’ve got some tips to help make sure you find the best digital marketing agency for your business.

The global digital advertising and marketing market was estimated at $350 billion in 2020 and is projected to reach $786.2 billion by 2026.

Understand Your Needs

Before you even begin looking at different agencies, it’s important to understand what your exact needs are. What kind of services are you looking for? Do you need help managing social media accounts? Are you looking for assistance with SEO strategy or content development? Knowing exactly what services will best benefit your business will make finding an agency much easier.

Scope & Specialty

The next step is to consider what type of digital marketing your business requires and which agency specializes in that particular area. Different agencies may specialize in SEO, PPC campaigns, content creation or social media management. You should also consider whether a full-service digital marketing agency would be better suited for your needs than one which specializes in a single service or tactic. Make sure that whatever agency you choose has experience working with businesses similar to yours so that they can bring their expertise and knowledge to your project.

72% of overall marketing budgets get put towards digital marketing channels.

Evaluate Performance Metrics

When considering which digital marketing agency to use, it is essential to evaluate their performance metrics. Look at their past successes and review how they achieved them so that you can get an idea of how they approach projects similar to yours. It is also useful to ask potential agencies how they measure success and if they are able to provide data that demonstrates their results over time. This helps ensure that you get a clear understanding of their capabilities before committing to them as a partner for your business’s digital marketing efforts.

Budget & Value

Finally, it’s essential that you come up with a budget before selecting an agency and make sure that they are willing to work within it. Don’t forget to factor in any additional costs such as software licenses, hosting fees etc., as this could add significantly to the cost of an agency’s services over time. It’s important to remember that while cost should be taken into account when searching for an agency, value should always be prioritized over price—you want quality results from your chosen partner and those don’t come cheap!

The average local business puts 5-10% of its revenue towards its digital marketing budget, but for larger businesses, that number can climb to about 14%.

Choosing the right digital marketing agency can be overwhelming—but if done right, it can be incredibly beneficial for your business! Making sure that the agency understands your needs and has experience working with similar businesses is key when picking the perfect one for your company. With these steps in mind, we hope this guide helps make navigating the sea of available digital marketing agencies a bit simpler! Good luck!

How to Diversify the Marketing Tactics for Your E-Commerce Business?

How to Diversify the Marketing Tactics for Your E-Commerce Business?

by Digital Marketing

The e-commerce industry is a highly competitive one. It’s not just about providing the best product or service. You need to stand out from the crowd by promoting your brand and engaging with customers in the most effective way possible.

To achieve this, you need to diversify your e-commerce marketing tactics. There are several ways that you can do this:

Redefine Your Target Audience

The first step to diversifying your marketing tactics is to redefine your target audience. A target audience is a group of individuals with similar characteristics and interests and, therefore, would be interested in the same product or service.

For example, if you are selling men’s shoes online, a good strategy would be to segment your audience into different categories:

    • Men aged 25-35 who work as software engineers
    • Men aged 35-45 who work as doctors or lawyers

Develop a Social Media Presence

Social media is a great way to reach your target audience. You can use social media to engage with your customers and fans, as well as build your brand. Social media can help you find new customers, grow your business, and boost SEO.

The trick is finding one or two social media platforms that fit the branding and style of your online business. This e-commerce marketing strategy takes consistency and solving your clients’ problems through visual media.

Use Email Marketing

Email marketing is a great way to get in touch with your customers and stay in touch with them over time. It’s a great way to promote products, but it can also be used as a way to build relationships by sending customers information that they’ll find useful or interesting.

Many online sellers overlook the high value of this e-commerce marketing option, which has stood the test of time compared to other methods. A vibrant email list will sustain your business.

Content Marketing

Content marketing is a great way to reach existing and potential customers. It can be used to generate leads, increase brand awareness, and increase sales. Content marketing can also be used to build trust with your audience. This is especially important because people are more likely to buy from companies that they trust.

Build Brand Partnerships

Another way to diversify your e-commerce marketing tactics is by partnering with other brands in the same niche as you. This can be anything from offering complementary discounts on similar products that enhance your features to building an affiliate program that strengthens your e-commerce marketing efforts.

Lean into Influencer & User Generated Content

User-generated content (UGC) is any form of content your buyers create that can be used to promote your brand. It includes photos, videos, and reviews.

Influencer marketing is a strategy where you work with an influencer to promote your brand or product on social media by sharing their story with the audience.

In both cases, you are using highly relevant e-commerce marketing by leveraging people who naturally promote trust in your brand without having to be the actual spokesperson.

How can we help?

These are just a few ways to diversify your marketing tactics for your e-commerce business. As you can see, there are many different options to choose from out there, and they all have their own benefits and drawbacks.

It’s up to you as an entrepreneur to decide which one is right for your brand based on what kind of message or product you want to convey.

That is where we can help. Our experienced team at Griffon Webstudios has spent years cultivating powerful e-commerce marketing strategies to boost your potential market penetration and sales. Give us a call today to schedule a consultation.

Essential Ecommerce Website Optimization Tips to Boost Holiday Sales

Essential Ecommerce Website Optimization Tips to Boost Holiday Sales

by Digital Marketing

The holidays are a crucial time for e-commerce sites to enhance conversion rates and spice up their revenue. To make sure your site is optimized to attract holiday shoppers, here are seven essential e-commerce website optimization tips that you need to have in place to boost holiday sales.

Why Holiday Sales Matter

When it comes to e-commerce, the holiday season is a big deal. Sales during this period account for as much as 30% of annual revenue for some companies—and thanks to the shopping habits of our customers, it’s also one of the most predictable times of the year.

But if you’re not seeing those big numbers this year, don’t worry there are plenty of ways you can boost holiday sales without making significant changes or investing in additional inventory. The holiday season is an excellent opportunity to build your brand and attract new customers, so long as you optimize your website for maximum conversion potential first.

1. Offer Free Shipping

If you want to boost sales this holiday season, it’s essential that you offer free shipping. Not only is it a great benefit for customers, but it will also make them more likely to shop with you.

Free shipping can be achieved in multiple ways. Try offering free shipping on all orders or raising the minimum order amount required for free shipping.

If neither of these options works for your business, consider offering discounted rates on shipping instead—this will help offset the cost of providing this service without significantly impacting your bottom line.

2. Use Nostalgic Holiday Marketing

The holidays are a time for celebration, and nostalgia is a wonderful way to make your site stand out. Shoppers want to capture that feeling of when they were kids and unwrapped a much-desired gift next to the tree. Tap into that nostalgic mindset, and you will see your holiday sales skyrocket.

3. Holiday Themed Promotions

Promotions are a terrific way to add value for your customers and increase sales. But, like the rest of your website, you want them to be relevant and personalized.

Make sure it’s seasonal! Promotions should be relevant to the time of year. For example, if it’s December and you’re selling snow shovels and ice melt, then a winter promotion would make sense (like 30% off). Or maybe you sell summer swimsuits—a Memorial Day sale might get more interest. Never lose sight of the seasons when creating promotions, or they won’t work.

Personalize each promotion based on customer behavior. Leverage your ecommerce website analytics to study the behavior of visitors concerning your online promotions.

4. Inform Affiliates of Promotions

If you have an affiliate program, now is the time to get it onto your website. This will allow you to reach out to affiliates who are promoting related products and offer them the opportunity to earn some extra cash by referring customers to your store.

5. Start Early

Starting early gives you more time to evaluate and refine various aspects of your site before they go live. Starting early also allows for unexpected delays that might come up along the way (like traffic spikes in November).

Finally, starting early will help prevent last-minute rush work that could potentially cause mistakes or errors on your website during its busiest time of year: holiday shopping.

6. Leverage Social Media & Email

If you’re not already using social media to promote your holiday sales, now is the time to start. Facebook ads are a wonderful way to reach new customers and increase your reach on the platform, and other platforms like Instagram and TikTok help build a great audience.

Implement email marketing campaigns that include a link to your website so users can purchase products from there directly rather than having them leave your site to place an order. Make sure you personalize these emails based on how customers have engaged with your brand. They’ll be more likely to open messages when they feel like they’re being treated as individuals.

7. Frame Products/Services as Gifts

It’s time to start thinking of your products and services in a different light. Start by using words like “gift” and “gift card.”

Consider adding the option for customers to select gift wrapping and/or a box for their purchase, especially if you sell more expensive items. If you don’t offer these options, you can always suggest it at checkout or include a small card that says “Happy Holidays from us! We hope you enjoy this gift from us to you!” with your package.

We’ve seen that there are a lot of ways you can use e-commerce website optimization to boost your holiday sales. One of the most effective ways is to build a personalized experience with products and services suited to each customer, which will make them feel confident in spending money on your site.

There are so many other methods, and our expert marketing team at Griffon Webstudios is here to help. We know how critical the holiday seasons are to your bottom line. We can help you unify your promotional material across your web presence so that when people land on any of your brand identifiers, they will be sure to make a purchase.

Let’s schedule a time to discuss your upcoming holiday promotion and marketing strategies!

Google Rolled Out a Spam Update Is Your Website Affected?

Google Rolled Out a Spam Update: Is Your Website Affected?

by with No Comment Digital Marketing

It’s been a tumultuous few months for the world of search engine optimization (SEO). Google made significant changes to its algorithm, and many websites were negatively impacted. Most notably, sites that had previously ranked well for specific keywords were now falling in rankings due to these changes.

But there are also other ways this update has affected sites and how you can get your website back on track if it was affected by the latest Google update. In this post, we’ll cover what happened with the October 2022 updates and what it means for your business.

October 2022 Updates

You may have heard a lot about Google’s October updates, which rolled out recently. These updates are relatively common and usually occur every few months or so. They are made to ensure that Google provides the best search results for their users and constantly refine how they rank websites.

This update was more of a spam-reduction update than anything else, though, so if you’re running into issues with your website rankings after this update, then we’d recommend doing a few fixes.

The search engine giant will seek to lower the rank of websites that “trick” users into providing personal information or installing malware. These are phishing scams and support bad actors on the web. When these sites get ranked high on Google, users get made and move to other search engines instead.

To put it simply – spam is bad for Google’s business.

How Will This Affect Your Website?

If your website is affected by this recent Google update, it may be time to take action. The good news is that your site will not be deleted entirely from the search results (unless you are spamming).

Instead, it will likely have a lower rank or may even appear lower in the search results pages than before. Google has said it will continue to work on improving its algorithms in order to detect and penalize websites that violate its rules and guidelines.

You should be fine if you provide quality content directly related to your purpose that doesn’t seek to trick users.

Why Google Wants to Reduce Spam

Google has been working hard to improve the quality of search results and reduce spam over the last few years. It wants to give users the best results, so it’s constantly testing new ways to achieve this.

The company has taken several steps in this direction:

-Improving its algorithm

-Removing low-quality websites from their index

-Removing bad ads from its platform

Google didn’t release specific information as to link baiting or what it defines as spam. However, most SEO pros agree upon two critical areas: thin sites and keyword stuffers.

Thin sites don’t have the unique content users want. They only slightly adhere to SEO practices and generally do not offer insights.

Keyword stuffing is filling a website with tags and meta information that repeats the same keywords or phrases to rank high. This is a flawed strategy, as most search engines will dock your rank if you do this.

What You Should Do

If you have yet to notice the update, that doesn’t mean your website is not affected by it. This update’s roll-out is gradual; not everyone will see it immediately.

You can use a tool like MozBar to check if your website is affected by the Google spam update or not.

If you want to keep your traffic steady and consistent, make sure to run SEO audits regularly (we recommend every 3 months) and fix any issues that may cause problems on search engines, such as:

-Duplicate content

-Broken links (404 error pages)

-Broken image links

The Google update is a big deal, but only some of your website’s traffic will be affected. It’s important to know if your site is being hit by this spam update so you can take steps to correct any issues before they get worse.

Our team at Griffon Webstudios can help you avoid getting hit by the recent Google Spam Update. We have SEO experts on staff who understand the nuance of rebuilding or fixing your site, so it is more compliant with Google. Let’s schedule a time to talk about how our professional team can elevate your web presence.

Our Pick of Creative Ad Campaigns

Our Pick of Creative Ad Campaigns

by Digital Marketing

Advertising is a powerful medium. It can make you laugh, cry and make you run to the store. It can grab your attention with just a few words or inspire you to change the world. There are many great creative ad campaigns that have done just that over the years and here are some of our favorites!

1. Dove’s “Real Beauty”

Dove is a personal care brand that produces body washes, hair products, and other skincare items. In 2004, the brand launched its “Real Beauty” campaign to encourage women to feel good about themselves. The campaign has been very successful and has won numerous awards for its positive message. It featured women of all shapes and sizes showing skin in ways that were directly contradictory to the accepted beauty styles of the time.

It may seem odd now with so much more acceptance in today’s world, but in 2004, this was both controversial and empowering.

The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty is a worldwide marketing campaign launched by Unilever in 2004 aiming to build self-confidence in women and young children. Dove’s partners in the campaign included Ogilvy, Edelman Public Relations, and Harbinger Communications along with other consultants. Wikipedia

2. Skittles “Taste the Rainbow”

Skittles is a brand of fruit-flavored, colored sugar-coated candy manufactured by the Wrigley Company. Skittles’ advertising is often colorful and whimsical. The unique part of this campaign is that the slogan is what sticks in people’s minds. No matter the content of each individual commercial, everyone thinks of tasting a rainbow when they share or eat the candy treat.

In 1994, the slogan “Taste the Rainbow” was introduced and became one of the longest running advertising campaigns in history. The entire theme of the Skittles company was created by D’Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles, a New York advertising agency. Today, Skittles are loved in over 65 countries.

 

Budweiser “Wassup”

Super Bowl XXXIV in 2000 featured a new commercial from the beer giant where friends were calling one another with a simple question – Wassup? This ridiculous way of talking to one another has been repeated in movies, TV shows, and podcasts ever since, becoming a cultural phenomenon attached to the brand, and growing its market recognition.

Whassup? (also known as Wazzup) was a commercial campaign for Anheuser-Busch Budweiser beer from 1999 to 2002. The first spot aired during Monday Night Football on December 20, 1999. The ad campaign ran in much of the world and became a pop culture catchphrase, comically slurring “what’s up?”.

Always “Like a Girl”

This was an ad campaign meant to change how girls are perceived. It’s a movement that encourages girls to be strong, brave, and confident.

In this particular ad, the narrator asks you to describe what you think of when someone uses the phrase “like a girl.” Most people say something mean like “weak” or “stupid,” but then she shows that it’s actually insulting when you’re in your own mind and body, as well as other women who don’t fit into society’s idea of what an attractive woman should look like. This is another campaign that bucked social norms and forced us to rethink how we talk about each other.

the hashtag #likeagirl became a trending topic and women all over the world wrote about their habits and the things they do like girls! So it does look like “Always” succeeded in making a small change and raising awareness on how wrongly society sometimes treats women.

 

Six Flags “Dancing Man”

From 2004 to 2010, Six Flags theme parks used Mr. Six, an elderly man wearing a tuxedo with thick-framed glasses, as their brand mascot. That may seem an odd choice for a park mostly populated with a younger audience, but you have to remember the advertisements.

When a multicolored bus pulls up in front of a suburban neighborhood, and a bald old man in a tux starts a high-energy dance routine to “We Like to Party” playing in the background – you take notice.

Volvo “The Epic Split”

Van Damme’s commercial is a creative masterpiece. Not only does he use his famous martial arts moves, but also he manages to add humor and some great choreography. The piece was so popular that it went viral on YouTube and was talked about for months later. When you consider this was a B2B ad and not for the general public to promote Volvo trucks, it is pretty impressive.

Creative Ad Campaigns Create Memories

Creative ad campaigns can be fun and memorable. They can also be a great way to build brand equity, help a company stand out from the competition, promote a new product or service, or promote a cause.

No matter what you’re trying to accomplish—and whether or not you have the budget for an expensive campaign—creative thinking will take your advertising efforts to new heights. That is exactly what we promote at Griffon Webstudios. We love to introduce a bit of fun into our ad campaigns and designs to ensure your brands get better recognition and remembrance with your target audience. Set up a consultation today, and let’s start brainstorming!

How to Keep Your Email Marketing Strategy Effective

How to Keep Your Email Marketing Strategy Effective

by with No Comment Digital Marketing

Email marketing is a great way to reach consumers, but it’s not always an easy strategy to maintain. Fortunately, there are several steps you can take to ensure that your email marketing stays effective and continues to bring in new customers.

The goal is to have a continuous lifeline of communication between you and your clients so they stay engaged with your brand at all times. A few essential tips to ensure your email marketing strategy is on point include:

 

1. Personalization

Personalizing your emails is the most effective way to build relationships with your customers. If you want your message to get opened and clicked, then it needs to be relevant to those who receive it. By tracking user behavior and collecting data about the recipient, you can create personalized campaigns that are more likely than generic messages to get opened.

 

Emails with personalized subject lines get a 26% boost in open rates.

 

2. Short Targeted Subject Lines

When writing your subject line, keep it short and sweet. The longer your subject line gets, the less likely someone will click on it. A good rule of thumb is to keep your email subject lines between 12 and 15 words.

 

3. Send at the Best Times

You want to make sure you’re sending emails at the right time. This is especially important if you’re sending a lot of marketing emails, as it impacts how your customers perceive your brand.

This seems obvious enough, but it’s actually one of the most common mistakes brands make when they’re trying to increase their open rates and click-through rates. If your client is a working professional with a 9-5, then sending an email at 10:30 am in the morning may not be helpful.

 

99% of email users check their email every day, some as much as 20 times a day!

 

4. Use Freebies

Give away something valuable, something your customers are interested in, and something that will help them. Your freebie should be something you can use to promote your business and build trust. This could be a discount code, training opportunity, or digital download.

 

5. Make Everything Mobile Friendly

You can reduce your bounce rate by ensuring your emails are readable on mobile devices. Be sure to use a responsive email template so your email marketing strategy will automatically adjust to fit the screen size of the device they’re being viewed on.

42.3% of people will delete an email if it’s not optimized for mobile. So, if your email marketing campaigns aren’t mobile-friendly, all of your hard work will go to waste.

6. Differentiate Your Subscribers

Segmentation divides your subscribers into groups that are more likely to respond to a particular message. For example, if you’re targeting people in different countries, it would be helpful to know what language they speak and where they live. This allows you to target those with their own interests and preferences for receiving emails from businesses like yours.

 

7. Don’t Forget Inactive Leads

You should also use email to re-engage with inactive customers. This can be a great way of reminding them about your brand or offering them a discount or freebie. For example, you can send an email that offers 10% off as a promotional offer.

 

8. Use Metrics and Analytics

Analytics are essential to succeeding in today’s marketplace. For example, Apple recently released a new Mail Privacy Protection system that allows users to hide their IP addresses. This can negatively affect your email marketing strategy because it makes it harder to see the demographics of your readers.

However, if you use up-to-date analytics and email metrics, you can still get enough segmentation to work around these new tools.

Shoppers spend 138% more when marketed through email, as compared to those who do not receive email offers.

 

Wrapping it Up

The best way to keep your email marketing strategy effective is to always look for ways to improve it. This means staying up to date on what your customers want and need, testing different approaches, and then figuring out what works best for your business.

Don’t forget that even though the internet has changed so much in recent years, people still respond well when they feel like they are being spoken directly to by someone who cares about them as an individual.

That is precisely what our team at Griffon Webstudios does to help. We design email marketing strategies that speak directly to your high-value target markets so you can get the highest ROI from your messaging. Schedule a consultation with our team today, and let’s help improve your email marketing.

Google has announced helpful content update. What's new?

Google has announced “helpful content update”. What’s new?

by with No Comment Digital Marketing

On August 25, 2022, Google released a new update to its massive search engine algorithm. In this new edition, the focus of content marketing has changed from information explicitly written for search engines to a “people first” kind of slant. If you want to grow in search engine results, you need to cater your content to better serve the average consumer.

This update rollout aims to boost the rankings of engaging and well-written content designed for human consumption instead of helping those with blog posts that seem stuffed with keywords and intended for web crawlers.

The “helpful content update” will help the average search find highly relevant, high-quality content that speaks directly to their needs. So how do you change your content to adapt to this new update from Google?

1. Stick to the Main Topic

You want to ensure you don’t stray too far from your main topic. If a reader comes to your blog or website looking for information on one thing and sees something completely unrelated, they may not return. Try to keep a universal brand identity on your site that involves your content marketing strategy.

2. Showcase Your First-Hand Knowledge

To overcome the challenge of not having enough content, you need to provide examples of your experience in the form of stories that demonstrate how you have solved a problem for a customer or solved an issue in your industry. These stories should include real-life examples and capture attention by showing readers how they can benefit from your expertise.

If a hunter gives advice on underwater basket weaving, you may sound inauthentic to Google’s new update.

3. Avoid Multiple Topics in a Single Site

If you’re creating a site that has multiple purposes and topics, then this is fine. For example, if you have a site where the main focus is selling products but also offers information about how to care for those products, then combining both topics into one site isn’t an issue.

However, if your entire purpose is to provide information on one topic or niche—which most people do—then combining multiple topics into one site won’t help with SEO and can hurt it in some cases.

4. Give Quality Answers to Questions

You’re going to want to provide the answer. But don’t just give a partial solution. You want to make sure that everything you write is relevant to the searcher’s question and that it can be verified by someone other than yourself (like an expert). Again, you are trying to build authority and trust.

5. Create an Engaging Experience

The most important piece of content you can publish is everything that supports your reader’s experience. From the title to the tags, images, and links, you want to provide an engaging experience where readers want to spend time on your site.

6. Avoid Unanswerable Questions

Giving a single response to how best to lose weight will not help. We all know there are multiple different methods that people of different beliefs, backgrounds, and body types can utilize to lose weight. Google doesn’t want definitive answers to open-ended questions. Instead, they want helpful content marketing designed to help users find the different information relative to who they are as a user.

7. Stay Updated with Other Updates

Google is constantly updating its search engine algorithms. In fact, it releases a new major update every year or two. You can find out more about these updates at Google’s official blog. You want to know if there is a future update that will affect your business.

Getting Proactive About Your Content Marketing

If your site is starting to downgrade in rankings, it could be because you are caught up in the new Google algorithm update. In that case, your best option is to find a team of professional SEO experts who understands how to reformat your content to better fit this new change.

That is where our team at Griffon Webstudios can help. We keep a close watch on any changes from Google and immediately integrate those changes into our own content as well as our clients. Schedule a consultation with our team today, and let’s help boost your search engine rank.

How Is Artificial Intelligence Transforming Digital Marketing

How is Artificial Intelligence Transforming Digital Marketing

by Artificial IntelligenceDigital Marketing

Marketing has transformed dramatically with the advent of artificial intelligence (AI). From an era of straightforward billboards or newspaper ads, marketers are now using AI to learn about customer behavior and predict their potential actions. This new level of insight allows them to be more responsive than ever before—and also helps them develop better strategies for reaching customers in the first place. But why is this happening now? And how can you take advantage?

AI can be used to improve the customer experience and target the right people at the right time, increasing conversions and reducing costs. AI is also helping improve data analysis tools, so marketers can make better decisions with more information at their fingertips. This is all to understand customer behavior and build stronger relationships in an era where personalization is the key to higher sales.

Automation in AI

AI can be used to automate repetitive tasks. For example, a machine learning algorithm could be trained to do it if a company needs to send out hundreds of emails. This makes sense since most people don’t enjoy repetitive tasks and would rather spend their time doing something else.

A similar argument can be made for data analysis, customer service and retention, satisfaction, and acquisition. AI in digital marketing also has the potential to help with sales by finding new customers based on essential characteristics such as age group or income level through targeted ad sales that effectively analyze and categorizes demographics from massive data dumps available on search engines, social media, and the landing pages of businesses everywhere.

Machine Learning and AI

Machine learning is a subset of artificial intelligence, but one that has specific uses in digital marketing. This type of data analysis can be used to make predictions about future behavior or outcomes, which helps improve the effectiveness and optimization of processes. It can also be used to make decisions (for example, by analyzing the results of previous campaigns) and recommendations based on user preferences.

This revolution is evidenced by advances like chatbots. These are useful tools for answering commonly asked questions. Businesses can use chatbots to answer simple questions and provide quick responses, like product information or store hours.

AI in Digital Marketing Enhances Outreach

Artificial intelligence can help businesses target the right people at the right time, increasing conversions and reducing costs. By better understanding your audience, you can deliver a more relevant message to them. AI also helps you understand what your customers want by analyzing their data. This enables you to create personalized experiences that improve engagement and boost sales.

The best part about AI is that it’s still evolving. A small advancement in something as minimal as delivering pop-up ads at the right moment could mean drastic sales differences for any business. Streamlining these AI processes is not a passion of the future. It is a critical part of any modern marketer’s bag of tricks.

Wrapping it Up

AI is an exciting and powerful tool that can help businesses of all sizes reap the benefits of digital marketing. This allows businesses of all sizes to engage customers in more high-value locations with the critical products and services they want the most. The more things can be personalized to the individual lead, the better the response rate and sales growth.

That is precisely what our team at Griffon Webstudios can do for your business. We have years of experience leveraging the latest advances with AI in digital marketing and can apply these innovations to your advertising, marketing, engagement, and messaging so you grow a more involved and loyal customer base. Reach out today, and let’s have a discussion about how AI can transform your operations.