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Top Digital Marketing Agency in Houston

Digital Marketing Consulting in Houston

Digital Marketing can be extremely overwhelming. It’s a lot to keep track of! Ads are not just something you can “turn on.” Digital Marketing is multi-faceted and complex. The Digital Marketing space is ever-changing and with constant growth comes new platforms, best practices, and an insane number of trends. If all this seems like a lot, you’ve come to the right place. Brand Ranch Media is here to help you understand the ins and outs of digital marketing and how it specifically ties into your industry. Whether it’s awareness, revenue, or loyalty you are after, we take a strategic approach to getting you there.

How does Digital Marketing apply to your Business?

Let’s say you’ve bought a billboard on a prime location of I-45 where there always seems to be a surge of traffic. The billboard does what it should and provokes the thought of a consumer needing your product or service. When the person pulls up their phone to search, enters your company’s name, there are ten other companies listed above yours in their search results.

If you were to think back to all the times you have Googled something, when is the last time you went to the second page to find specifically what you were looking for? For most people, they click on the first few links. Now your lead (revenue) has gone to your biggest competitor (the company that put time into a comprehensive digital marketing strategy).

This is where we come in!

Digital Marketing is Dynamic, Complex, and Ever-Changing

The goal is to put a great ad in front of people who need your business. It’s easy to say, “I want more leads”. However, let’s talk about the magic that happens behind the scenes to get you there.

You can’t just start running a Search ad, for example. Things like branding, strategy, and a detailed plan need to be established first. There’s a method to the madness. Here’s a first look at where to get started. Research is so important and often overlooked. Customer behavior and demographics, market research, and competitor strategy need to be fully reviewed to create a successful advertising campaign.

Staying on top of trends can be daunting and time-consuming. It’s imperative to know what works, what doesn’t work, what is new and evolving, and how it can give you a competitive advantage.

As Digital Marketing popularity continues to skyrocket, we have seen an influx of ads everywhere we look. Consumers are leery about spending their money. An offer is not enough to close the deal. They want a personalized approach for their needs to be met.

Lots of planning goes into a successful campaign. There needs to be a deep dive into your business goals and what you want your campaign strategy to look like. Once your plan has been established, applying those goals and strategies to your creative process is essential. This will come in the form of branding, tone, voice, etc. It is also critical to understand customer behavior.

In a sea of ads, you must stand out or the viewer’s eyes will continue to gloss over and keep scrolling. A creative team that knows what they’re doing is crucial. Every ad platform is ever-changing. Having a team that is up to date on best practices for each platform is essential to your success rate.

The success of any campaign is dependent on the ability to target the right audience. With proper execution, ads can target very detailed audiences based on demographics, interests, locations, types of products and services they are currently in-market for, and websites or topics they have previously browsed.

It’s important to measure the success rate of your ads to ensure a high return on investment. Using the right media platforms and performing ongoing data analysis is pivotal to your campaigns overall. It is also important to utilize tracking software to monitor where your leads come from, qualify them, and measure your return on ad spend.

What are the benefits of hiring an Advertising Agency?

Your business is your baby. Don’t be risky with it. If you put all your eggs in one basket, there is risk involved. You need experts who are deliberate with your ad dollars. When hiring an ad agency, such as Brand Ranch Media, we create cohesive ad campaigns across platforms to maximize your return on investment. This will bring in leads, revenue, and growth for your business.

Agencies have in-depth experience across all digital platforms. There are many platforms to consider. Business owners wonder whether to place ads on Google, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Meta (Facebook), Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, to name a few. There are also a multitude of different ad types to consider. The decision on where to place the ads and what ad types to use depends on the budget, campaign goals, and the best strategy to help achieve those goals. You will need to work with a partner who can create a comprehensive and cohesive campaign that will consider Local SEO, Conversion Rate Optimization, Website SEO, and various digital ad platforms and formats to best suite your business needs.

Another consideration is to look for a partner that has experience across various industries. At Brand Ranch Media, we have experience working with HVAC, a multitude of Home Services Companies, Healthcare, Law Firms, Government Agencies, Automotive Companies, Real Estate Firms, and Political Organizations just to name a few. You will want to select a partner who understands the challenges and ins and outs of your industry as well as your business.

If you are curious about a digital marketing consulting agency who can help you create a winning digital marketing strategy, we can help. Don’t have the time or expertise to figure all of this out on your own? Contact us today at 713-309-6380 or send us your information via our contact form.

Does Website Speed Affect SEO?

If you’re a business owner, chief marketing officer, website designer or developer, or have a general interest in learning more about how website speed affects SEO – this article is for you! It’s crucial to understand how website speed plays a role in SEO. Without a firm understanding of the ways in which different website elements affect site speed, stakeholders are at risk of inadvertently causing more headaches down the road with decreased site performance and costly adjustments.

If you haven’t already guessed, the quick answer as to whether website speed affects SEO is, “Yes!”. To understand how it affects SEO, let’s set the stage using a real-life scenario.

Mistakes Were Made

XYZ Company hired a web design team to build them a new website to replace their old, outdated one. The site will feature the business’s services and will facilitate lead generation through calls-to-action such as forms fills and phone calls. XYZ Company has some great new video and image assets they want to utilize on the site to help drive sales. The owners of the XYZ Company want something flashy! They have had their current website for almost 8 years and are eager for a drastic change. They want the site to be way cooler and more awesome than any of their competitors’.

The design team gets to work and are excited to show off their skills. They create a visually amazing website using video content, imagery, and flashy design elements. The XYZ Company owners are blown away at how great the site looks! With their vision achieved through a cool looking website design, they see dollar signs ahead and forecast great sales numbers for the first year with the new site.

Once the site goes live, the marketing team starts to run paid search, email marketing, and content marketing campaigns. They team up with a local TV station to run a few commercial spots on cable. All these efforts are expected to bring a ton of visitor traffic to their website. After the first year, however, sales numbers fall WAY short of company goals.

How could this have happened?

Hiring the Experts

XYZ Company hires a marketing consultant (ahem…. Brand Ranch Media, maybe???) to help pinpoint what went wrong and provide them with the steps needed to fix any marketing-related issues they may have overlooked during the past year. After running a full analysis, the consultant presents the following:

Mobile Website Bounce Rate is 90%
87% of Google Ads traffic is on mobile devices
Organic Traffic is only 15% of total web traffic
The website only ranks organically for its own brand name and close variants
Average page load speed is 25 seconds on mobile devices and 15 seconds on desktops

Each of these performance indicators illustrate a clear problem with website speed!

The consultant then makes the following recommendations:

Our research and reports show that slow page load speeds can be improved by:

Utilizing next generation image files
Consolidating and eliminating unnecessary JavaScript and CSS
Limiting the number of scripts that must fire before the page becomes fully interactive
Utilize a 3^rd party website to host video files

Fixing these issues have their associated costs. Combined with the costs associated with the flashy website design/build, a years’ worth of marketing costs, and the analysis to find the cause of the failed marketing initiatives as well as the solution – not understanding how website speed affects SEO can cost a company hundreds of thousands over the course of a year!

So, how does website speed affect SEO?

In our example above, the different elements of XYZ’s flashy new website caused the site to load extremely slow. When a website takes a long time to load, the overall perception of the quality of the website by search engines decreases. The search engine wants to provide its users with the best quality results and the best quality websites. When a website has slow load times, the search engine perceives this as a quality issue related to user experience and will therefore rank the website much lower in comparison to others within the same industry and geographic location. A similar ranking system applies for search engine ads. Essentially, if a website is slow to load, a visitor is more likely to exit out of the website upon entry rather than wait until it completely loads. Therefore, when approaching a web project, you should design for aesthetics but develop for performance. You really can’t afford to learn this lesson the hard way, like XYZ Company did.

Don’t be like XYZ. Call Brand Ranch Media before you get involved in a costly web design and marketing plan. We design and build with performance and conversions top of mind. If you’ve already made a costly mistake, don’t be embarrassed. We can help steer you back in the right direction! Hit us up at 713-309-6380 or send us your information via our contact form.

Best Practices for Social Media Posts

Spring is in the air! It’s the season of new beginnings, and maybe a good time to renew some of your marketing efforts! Do you have a strong social media presence? If not, keep reading. And even if you do, the information below could help you with some decisions about supplementing your paid social media efforts with regular, intentional, organic social media posts to bring your customers even closer to your brand.

Connect with Social Media Posts

Regularly posting to social media keeps your message in front of your customers and allows them to gain more trust in your business. Consistency is key! Organic posts of relevant content to your social media apps will increase your community of loyal followers and allow customers to interact with your brand. Once a customer is a follower on social media, it is important to show them your business is happy and healthy with regularly scheduled posts. While paid ads are also a great marketing strategy, it is always a good idea to supplement your paid efforts with organic posts. If your page is filled with sales-heavy messaging, the consumer may gloss over your posts while scrolling. Posting content that differs from ads are crucial for viewer retention. Happy holiday posts, current events or posts trending within your demographic will help your company’s brand awareness and help bring traffic to your site!

Consumers and Your Online Presence

Your online presence is highly important. Often, Social Media profiles are some of the first online destinations a consumer visits when researching a business online. Engaging with your social media audience through organic messaging such as page posts enables a potential customer to relate to your business on a personal level. It is important to keep track of your online ratings as well. If a consumer Google’s your business, what type of reviews are they going to find? According to Brightlocal, 81% of consumers use reviews to evaluate a business, and only 3% say they would consider doing business with a company with a two-star or worse rating. It is also important to respond to online reviews as this promotes a positive brand perception among consumers. Being responsive and punctual can help your review ratings increase in no time.

Combining Paid and Organic Social Media Marketing Efforts

Paid marketing can offer many benefits such as boosting awareness, growing your followers, and reaching your target audience. Organic social media posts can increase engagement with your existing loyal follower base; however, it will not reach a large percentage of your followers simply because it was posted. The more your followers engage with your post, the more of your followers will be served your post. Additionally, if you get a large amount of engagement on a post, it can easily spread outside of your existing follower base. Supplementing your paid efforts with organic posts is a great strategy to attract new customers, while keeping current followers engaged with your brand. Engaging with your audience on a regular basis will increase trust, build confidence, and facilitate longer-lasting relationships. The best organic posts contain anything relevant to your business or brand, that will captivate your audience with creative, attention-grabbing content! So next time you’re writing a new organic post, try asking an open-ended question. It could be about what’s going on in your industry, or even plans for upcoming current events.

Cost Effective Marketing

The nice thing about social media posting is that you don’t need a huge budget! Organic posting is free, and it brings long lasting results if you maintain it. So next time, start up a conversation, ask questions, or simply respond to feedback on your social media profile to start building long-lasting relationships with your customers. It’s a sign you’re an active member and your business is doing well. It’s never too late to start – but if you don’t have a strong social media presence, you will want to start soon. According to Social Media Today, 65 million businesses are active on Facebook and 91% of brands are active on one or more social media platforms.

Plant the seeds today for deep-rooted relationships and long-term results!

Combining paid and organic marketing efforts is the best strategy to maximize your budget. If you are questioning the strategy and performance of your brand’s social media presence, Brand Ranch Media can help by taking the guesswork out and providing data-driven decision-making. Give us a call at 713-309-6380 to discuss or shoot us a message via our contact form today.

Buying Your Brand Keyword: 4 Scenarios to Consider

Are you thinking about buying your brand keyword for a search ad campaign? If you (or the digital marketing agency that manages your ads) is bidding on your brand keyword, you might want to consider if this is a good strategy for your business. What are the benefits of this strategy and are there any potential drawbacks? What is the reasoning as to why you think you should buy your brand keyword? Ok, wait. We’ll help you out! Just keep reading and we will guide you through 4 scenarios when buying your brand keyword might make sense. We will also point out things you should consider before moving forward with this strategy.

A Competitor Is Buying Your Keyword

Many business owners Google their own brand name (sometimes a little too often) to see how they appear in searches. This can be helpful when you have a lot of competition in your market, and it can also let you know if a competitor is bidding on your brand keyword in their search ad campaigns. Google does not allow the use of trademarked brand names in the ad copy of other brand accounts unless prior authorization for use is given by the trademark owner. However, anyone can include competitor brands as keywords in their digital ad campaigns. If a competitor is buying your brand keyword you should probably start to bid heavily on it as well as get a little creative with your ad copy so that your ad stands out above the rest when people search.

You Want to Own the Market

Perhaps competitors are NOT bidding on your brand name, your website has great SEO so it appears at the number one spot on search results pages, but you want to absolutely OWN all branded website traffic and don’t care what it might cost to do so. A brand with deep pockets might consider this an option. Brands on a budget might want to consider holding off on paying for branded clicks.

Your Brand is a New Business

New businesses might want to consider a few different options when trying to decide if paying for branded search traffic is a solid strategy. If your website is properly optimized for local searches, it will bring in branded traffic organically allowing you to focus on paid search keywords for the specific products or services your brand offers. Since all competitors will be bidding on these specific keywords, the average cost for each of them will be much higher and you will want every bit of your budget available to outperform the competition.

You Recently Rebranded

If your company recently went through a rebrand, especially one where the brand name changed, you might want to consider buying the related keywords for both the new and old brands. Similar to buying keywords for a new business, buying your brand keyword after changing the name of the brand can help supplement branded traffic while search engines “catch up” with the name changes across the internet. In a previous article we wrote about rebranding, we provided a checklist that helps to keep track of the various places across the internet where you will want to make name changes. It can take a few months for search engines to realize that your old brand is now your new brand and buying both keywords can ensure that there is no lapse in online lead generation.

Like any business decision, it’s good practice to consider the pros and cons before moving forward with a plan. Not every situation is the same and when trying to decide upon buying your brand keyword, the answer is, “It depends.” It is best to dive into the data and make educated decisions based on facts rather than emotion and gut feelings.

Choosing and tracking keyword performance during marketing campaigns is crucial for optimal performance. If you are questioning the strategy and performance of your brand’s search campaign, Brand Ranch Media can help by taking the guesswork out and providing data-driven decision-making. Give us a call at 713-309-6380 to discuss or shoot us a message via our contact form today.

How to Rebrand for Growth in 2022: Rebranding Checklist

How to Rebrand - Rebranding Checklist

Could your company benefit from a rebrand? Our team at Brand Ranch Media would like to briefly look at why a rebrand may benefit your company, discuss a few differences in rebranding strategy and approach, as well as share a high-level checklist for some things most companies commonly need to address as they go through the rebranding process.

There are many reasons to make a change to your brand and identity. Have your services or products evolved or changed? Do you have a new mission statement and core values? Maybe you are targeting a different demographic or entering a new market and could simply benefit from a refreshed brand to help stand out from the competition. And of course, there is always the “clean slate” approach to help put a troublesome association or negative past behind you.

Rebranding something as important as your company certainly is not as simple as turning the page and swapping out the name and logo. The timing and adjustments required for rebranding success are unique and varied for every company and situation.

Types of Rebranding

There are three basic types of rebranding used to adjust how people identify or perceive a company or product:

Brand Refresh – Changing minor details such as small aspects of your logo like color hues and fonts.
Partial Rebrand – Creating a new logo and slogan but maintaining the same mission.
Full Rebrand – Everything is new. Nothing is carried over from the past brand. It’s like you’re an entirely different company with a new name, new voice, new fonts, new logo, new jingle, new colors, a new slogan, or mission.

Rebranding Process

The rebranding process needs to be planned and thought out. The initial time investment to analyze your current brand’s space and effectiveness in the marketplace can be what makes your rebranding a success or a flop. Take time to analyze what is and isn’t working for your current brand, as well as what is working for your competitors or within other industries attempting to influence your target consumers. This analysis can help point the way for your rebranding efforts and determine which aspects of your brand need to be adjusted to achieve the greatest success.

It takes time to complete many rebranding tasks and finalize the assets that will make your new brand shine. Set up a timeline or planner that allows you and your team to complete all the needed tasks with an official date to launch the new or refreshed brand.

Look at your business cycle and determine if there is a time where the benefits of a re-invigorated brand will give your company the greatest benefit. Nobody wants to be doing deep market and brand analysis during their busiest time of the year, when their organization should be running at full speed and maximum productivity. If your current brand is facing challenges during the busy season, you may need to complete the rebrand before the season ends. An energized and well-targeted rebranding message can deliver more than just positive brand awareness, it can also lead to a spike in sales which will help maximize revenues for that particular timeframe as well as in the future.

Use the rebrand as an opportunity to build some hype. If your current brand has significant positive recognition and recall, tell the world why you’re making the change. We all grow throughout life, so the story of your brand growth and evolution will help personalize it while helping your audience identify and remember you. It’s perfectly fine to go big and show off why you love your new brand, how your company has evolved, and how that growth helps your consumers and target audience! You’ll also want to let your existing customers know about the change so they don’t have issues contacting you for future business needs.

Rebranding Risks

It’s worth mentioning, there are risks to rebranding as well as risks to not rebrand. There are costs to consider: graphics, audio, signs, and marketing campaigns add up, not to mention the investment of time. Time takes its toll on all things and a brand will not keep its “pop” and fresh look forever. Updating to keep up with the times can help your brand stay relevant and top of mind, however if not executed properly, a failed rebrand attempt could lead to getting lost in the market and outpaced by your competition.

If you’re starting your rebrand journey, here’s a high-level checklist to help you along your path. (Please keep in mind that each rebrand is unique and may have additional steps to consider.)

Click to Download Our Rebranding Checklist for FREE

If you’re ready to turn the page and refresh your brand, tackle a partial rebrand, or strategize for a full rebrand we are here to guide you along the way. Brand Ranch Media has successfully helped many brands evolve and grow. Call us today at 713-309-6380 a reach out via our contact form and we can help ensure your rebrand is a success.

2022 Marketing Goals and Resolutions

Happy New Year, folks! For many, a new year is a time for new beginnings and a chance to start things off on the right foot. A “resolution” is a firm decision to do or not to do something. Last year, we shared a few marketing goals and resolutions to practice in 2021. In today’s discussion, we will outline some new marketing initiatives that every company should definitely do in 2022.

Teach First, Sell Later

The marketing playing field is changing as are the rules of the game. Consumers don’t want to be sold a bill of goods but rather they want a more personalized experience where they can have their needs met. Brands need to take a “teach, don’t sell” approach to marketing and effectively communicate their value to the consumer. This can be effectively achieved by becoming a resource for the customer as a provider of expert knowledge related to the goods and services provided. For example, an HVAC company could create a video about tips on changing home air filters and promote it though social media and YouTube. Avoid pitching a product or service and instead, show how it benefits a customer utilizing a compelling story.

Invest in CTV and Video Content

Digital video content is becoming much more relevant with increasing usage and viewership on multiple platforms including ad-based connected TV (CTV) streaming services such as Hulu, YouTube, and Paramount+ as well as on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. In addition, video and animated ads are replacing static image display ads that show on websites and smartphone apps as users are more likely to interact with eye-catching content. Brands should invest in the creation and placement of quality video content on CTV and social media. The videos should tell a story that is relatable to the intended audience. Advertising messages must shift to storytelling in order to gain and keep the attention of an already over-stimulated viewer population. Consumers are bombarded non-stop, all day with an assortment of messaging in our hyper-digital world. To win their attention, video content must be compelling, creative, and relatable. A great example is Progressive Insurance and their latest video campaign featuring “Dr. Rick” who consults adults in their 30s and 40s on how to not become like their parents in everyday life situations.

Use First-Party Data

We’ve discussed this topic in the past and must reiterate that brands MUST start to utilize first-party data collection to use in their digital ad targeting. Six months ago, Apple updated its operating system causing the targeting abilities of advertisers to decline. In the time since, the decrease in user insights has become largely apparent. Companies must learn to utilize their contact and customer lists for different marketing goals on digital ad platforms such as search engines and social media. Retargeting customers is a great way for brands to keep reaching an audience that they know has already purchased their product or service. Companies can utilize different messaging based on the goal of each campaign whether it’s driving sales of every-day goods or the purchase of a maintenance plan on a newly purchased HVAC system.

As a full-service marketing agency, Brand Ranch Media develops and manages diverse marketing strategies that can propel your business into solid year-over-year revenue growth. Our experienced marketing experts bring diverse skillsets and understand all components of successful marketing campaigns. There is always time to adjust your marketing goals and that’s where we come in! Call us at 713-309-6380 or contact us to discuss!

Thankful, Grateful, Blessed at Brand Ranch Media

Tis the season to give thanks and reflect upon the reasons we should be grateful. There are 3 signs on the wall in one of our offices and they read “So very Thankful”, “Unbelievably Blessed”, “Forever Grateful”. It is not really all that hard to maintain a grateful heart when we indeed have a lot to be thankful for. Here at Brand Ranch Media, our blessings are plenty and we wish to express a sincere thanks for all that we are grateful for this holiday season.

It’s All About the People and the Relationships We Build

The reason we have so much to be thankful for is simple… it is the people we work with every day. Our staff who is made up of a true team of dedicated professionals, our clients who are amazing, our vendors who help us deliver high quality marketing solutions to each of our clients, and everyone else that we cross paths with along the journey. At the end of the day, it really is all about the people and the relationships we build along the way.

Our Dedicated Team

We are a small, local, family-owned business with the most amazing and dedicated employees! They work every day to give all that they have to our company and our clients. Each one works hard, plays hard, and they are quite honestly the reason we are successful. We do it together and we depend on each other. Every day is a unique and challenging day in the world of advertising. However, there is no problem too large or complicated for our team. They are solution-oriented and always make time for the things we need to do (and even with a smile, most of the time). 😊 We are so grateful for them and the values they help us uphold and carry out as a small business. To say we are blessed is an understatement. The BRM team is simply incredible.

Our Customers

Our clients at Brand Ranch Media are truly the best partners we could ask for. We work together as a team to help their businesses grow. Our success is dependent upon their success, and that motivates us to always do the best job we can and help them grow and succeed. We are so grateful for our loyal customers, appreciate their business, and look forward to growing together in this journey. Working isn’t really work when you enjoy who you do it for and with. So, we would like to thank you for your partnerships throughout the years. You help make our jobs fun, challenging, always interesting, and we find joy in watching you succeed.

Our Vendors

The account reps that work tirelessly with us to ensure that we only deliver the highest quality media to our clients are seen as an important extension of our business. We value the relationships we have made and appreciate the partnerships we have established. They always help to ensure everything is done with precision and they work with us to ensure we always get ROI for our advertising efforts. These relationships are essential, and we appreciate the work they do. Not to mention our vendors put up with us when we can sometimes be demanding and, of course, we are thankful for that!

Blessed in Multiple Ways

Although it is mainly people that make up the reason are so thankful, there are plenty of other things to be grateful for as well. We live in the wonderful state of Texas and in a free country where we can have freedom and liberty. We can operate our business with our guiding principles and values instead of someone else’s agenda and keep our client’s best interests in mind. We have freedom to be creative and use our God given talents to help each other succeed. We are blessed! Even on the toughest days, there is always something to be grateful for here at Brand Ranch Media. Wishing you and yours a delightfully blessed holiday season. Thanks for reading and hope you leave this message with a grateful heart!

Improve Campaign Performance with Conversion Rate Optimization

Talk to any business owner about their marketing goals and you will likely hear the same thing: they all want to increase their sales. The process to achieve this goal, however, can involve different actions depending upon your marketing strategy. You can spend a great deal of money on advertising to reach your target audience, but wouldn’t it be fantastic to close more sales with the least number of customers? Don’t threaten me with a good time!

Conversion rate optimization (CRO) can be defined as the practice of increasing the percentage of people who perform specific actions on a website, or those who “convert”, based on the goals of your campaign. A conversion can be a purchase, phone call, or form fill among others. An increased conversion rate can yield a greater return on your marketing investment but how does one go about running a successful conversion rate optimization plan?

It’s All About the User

In order to increase the conversion rate, we must understand our customers (website users) and the things that drive them to convert. Without this understanding, we are not able to make data-driven optimizations to ad campaigns or websites and changes made would be baseless. Once we understand our users and their behaviors, we can adjust ads and websites to influence more conversions.

The CRO Toolbox

There are a number of different applications that can help identify user pain points on websites, track user behavior, and provide insights on your audience profile. Hotjar is a website analytics tool that tracks and records user behavior including clicks, scrolling, pageviews, and cursor hover. By viewing recorded web sessions, you can identify areas for improvement in design or functionality and make changes that improve the user experience (UX). Google Optimize is a tool that allows you to easily set up and measure the results of A/B tests of different landing pages. Google’s Analytics tool can help you identify your audience by providing user information such as demographics, interests, and other products that interest them. This can be crucial to helping you form proper messaging within your website and ad copy.

Winning CRO Strategies

Now that you have the tools to help you understand the behaviors and interests of your audience, you can analyze the data and get to work on making and testing website and ad adjustments. The goal of conversion rate optimization is obviously to improve the conversion rate of your campaigns. There are a number of different methods you can practice in order to drive a winning CRO strategy. Since every business and customer profile is different, figuring out which methods work the best is a natural part of the process. Here are some questions you may want to consider:

Does the customer fully understand my product/service and the value it provides?
Does my web page contain too much industry jargon?
Is there a way to convey a sense of urgency that could drive more conversions?
Is the customer left with too many unanswered questions that may cause them to choose to buy from a competitor?

Through an evaluation of your website content using CRO tools, adjusting your web pages might be simple. If you hypothesize that a change might work better than the current content, it’s important to test the hypothesis using methods such as A/B testing (one of the CRO tools). Keep in mind that conversion rate optimization is a cyclical process of collecting data, analyzing data, adjusting content, and testing. Understanding your customers’ interests and behaviors can make a huge difference in revenue.

Improving ad campaign performance through conversion rate optimization is 2^nd nature to us and we love collaborating with businesses and their owners in order to drive campaign success. Give us a call at 713-309-6380 or reach out through our contact form on the website.

Human to Human: How to Personalize Your Marketing

Consumers are getting personal! And they want businesses to treat them like people, too. Personalizing your marketing strategies will go a long way in connecting your business to your customer. We are social animals and need to feel connected to each other. According to Salesforce data, an average of 84% of consumers say being treated like a person is key to winning their business. And over 95% say that they will stay loyal to a company that they trust. Relationships are key to winning and maintaining customers, especially in this day and time where a lot of marketing is done by machines or artificial intelligence. By using the tools available to us today, you can tailor your marketing to reach consumers on a more personal level by leveraging information that is uniquely relevant to them. It’s important to make a strong first impression and follow through with personalized notifications and messaging to make the entire interaction with your ad a personal experience for the consumer. Salesforce suggests there are some important questions you need to ask when preparing your marketing campaign to make sure it focuses on the person you are trying to reach.

Instead of “what do we want to show”, ask “what do they want to see?”
Instead of “what do we want to sell”, ask “how can we show value?”
Ask “what makes us better than everyone else?”
Ask “how will this make our customer feel?”

Focus On Value and Relationships

Don’t assume people care about you or your product! When you focus more on value and relationships, you begin to recognize how your products fit into the lifestyle of your customer. Knowing your audience can help you tailor your marketing efforts to fit their interests, lifestyle, family situation, socioeconomic status, etc. And when you can tap into their trust sensors and understand the emotional impact of your marketing efforts, then you connect the human value. When your customers know you value their business, the relationship will naturally grow.

Marketing to Emotions

Marketing to emotions must be realistic! For instance, when you see ads with people working out – they’re always smiling. That’s not exactly how it works in real life! People working out usually aren’t smiling. The six primary emotions are love, joy, surprise, anger, sadness, and fear. When planning a campaign, stop and ask how your ad might make your customer feel or what it might make them believe about your company and/or product.

Audio can affect emotions too! In a recent article, Spotify and Neuro-Insight studies show that sound can impact our brain by effecting the emotional, memory, and engagement centers. Using four metrics, Spotify explains that through Engagement (relatability & relevance), Emotional Intensity (emotions), Long-Term Memory (memories, feelings, and themes), and Long-Term Memory for Details (specific message), we can create a pretty good picture of how the consumer will connect with the ad and remember it.

Make your Social Content Personal

Most of us share content on social media daily. Is your social media content more personal or more social? Get Response explains LinkedIn data shows how content with a quote will yield a higher click through rate by approximately 30%. LinkedIn also studied social posts comparing images with people vs. objects and the images with people had higher CTR and conversion rates!

*LinkedIn Marketing Solutions/Orbit Media

Keeping your message consistent and authentic can build your brand and increase visibility.

Know Your Audience

Marketing campaigns usually put groups of people into one large demographic (i.e. W 18-34). However, the interests, motivations, and lifestyle within that group could be very different! An 18–20-year-old woman may be single, enjoys going out with friends and partying, and is probably on a fairly tight budget. A woman 30-34 is most likely married, probably with kids, doesn’t go out partying much, and has a little more wiggle room in her budget. Knowing your audience and marketing to those who will find value in your service is key to a successful campaign. People may live in the same city, work in the same industry, or be the same age and/or gender, but that doesn’t mean they will all be interested in the same things.

Tell A Story

Finally, you can make your campaign more memorable by telling a story! People may not always understand your ideas or know all about your product, but they will remember a story – which ties back to the emotions we talked about earlier. Telling your story can take the consumer from the world that is to the world that could be with your brand tying the two together.

Personalizing your marketing strategies will help your customers feel more connected to you and your business. It doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive – it just has to be real.

Achieve your marketing goals and increase brand awareness by personalizing your advertising efforts and focusing on value and relationships.

At Brand Ranch Media, we love helping clients just like you come up with creative ways to utilize available tools to meet your marketing goals. To speak with an expert, give us a call at 713-309-6380 or send us a message on our website.

Marketing Trends in 2022

It’s that time of year again. The final three months of the year are marked with back-to-back-to-back holiday celebrations and most companies already have their holiday marketing plans set. Business owners and marketing professionals alike start setting up marketing initiatives and budgets for the new year. At the end of 2020, we made a few prophetic insights into marketing trends to expect during their 2021 campaigns. Now, we shuffle and flip our tarot cards of advertising and read into the marketing trends to look for in 2022.

Digital marketing automation will continue to evolve.

Google has slowly introduced automated ads into their search and display ad types. These responsive ads take different ad copy and creative input in the platform by the advertiser and use machine learning to show the best performing combinations of the ad assets available to users based on the individual’s preferences. Budget strategies have also become fully automated and are aimed to get the best results based on the goal of each campaign within specific budget parameters. Other digital ad platforms such as Microsoft Ads, Facebook, and LinkedIn utilize similar automation concepts. Expect to see marketing automation continue to improve with new features and better results allowing marketers to focus on other ad management aspects while the automated systems provide support in some of the ad optimization work.

Google’s search algorithms will continue to get smarter which will change website SEO.

In June 2021, Google released an algorithm update it calls, “MUM”. MUM has the ability to translate user searches into different languages as well as go beyond providing results that only answer the original search query. One practical use is utilizing search when in different countries. An English-speaking user on vacation in Italy might want to find fun places to visit in Rome. MUM will bring up local results and translate them from Italian into English so that the user receives localized web results rather than results from an English-language website. MUM can also serve web results that go beyond the initial search query. Using the same travel scenario, when the user is planning a trip, they usually have many questions such as air travel, where to stay, things to do, and how to get around. The MUM update seeks to show results that can answer all of these related questions through only one query. The bottom line for content creators is that keyword placement within content is going to become less and less relevant while focusing on providing well-rounded, quality, and informative content is going to be much more sustainable in the long run.

Image optimization is going to become more vital for SEO.

Image optimization has evolved. Not only do images need to have a descriptive file name and a descriptive alt img tag, they also should be uploaded to websites using proper image formatting and file sizes. Without proper image formatting, websites can load much more slowly which can cause ranking issues. Some companies may have to go back and reformat their website images in order to keep SEO compliant. It might be an expensive process but well worth it considering the amount of business you may lose because of a slow-loading website and a drop in search engine rankings.

Core Web Vitals will find a happy medium.

Launched this past Summer, though announced in 2020, Google provided ample time for website owners to prepare for their Core Web Vitals update. The update added some additional ranking factors to the search algorithm regarding website performance related to site speed in three categories: loading, interactivity, and visual stability. Google also provided a tool to indicate and troubleshoot Core Web Vitals issues through its Chrome Browser called, “Lighthouse”. Our experience working with optimizing for Core Web Vitals and utilizing Lighthouse has shown that the ranking signal is evolving and will likely continue to do so until Google finds a happy medium on just how much ranks will be affected.

Small and medium-sized businesses will invest more into First-Party Data collection and usage.

This one is not only a prediction but also a suggestion. With the almost near extinction of 3^rd party cookie tracking, it is going to be much more difficult (if not nearly impossible) to retarget website visitors in digital marketing campaigns. Facebook’s ads platform is even saying don’t bother with trying to retarget, and if you do, don’t expect to gather very accurate results data (but more on that next). Instead, focusing on collecting first-party data from users is the best method for targeting audiences specifically interested in the services a business provides. The easiest way to start a first-party marketing list is to download and format your customer list so that you can upload to various marketing platforms. There are many different target audiences you can create using this list. If you haven’t already worked this strategy into your marketing plans, do so now.

Facebook ads tracking will get better in a world without third-party cookies.

With the rollouts of iOS14.5 and iOS15 this year, Apple has officially changed the digital advertising game revolving around 3^rd party cookie tracking. With this type of cookie tracking eliminated on iOS devices (or rather, the ability to opt out of this method of tracking), Facebook has been racing to figure out alternative tracking methods to keep their revenue stream, Facebook Ads, relevant and effective. Working within Facebook’s Marketing Expert program, we gain first-hand, direct access to the newest updates within Facebooks ad platform. Thus far, Facebook has done a good job adapting to a cookie-less world and they will continue to improve upon their systems moving forward.

Advertising spend on connected TV will increase.

The 2020 pandemic helped cause a shift in consumer behavior. One of those shifts was viewership of ad supported YouTube video content. Stuck at home, many viewers switched from the smaller phone and tablet versions and started to watch videos on connected TVs. More than half of all YouTube viewers now watch YouTube on TV screens. The cost of advertising on YouTube is much cheaper than cable or broadcast TV and you can still reach a massive audience with better targeting capabilities. Advertising on connected TV is a great marketing strategy that businesses should not ignore.

Email marketing strategy will need to evolve.

Changes in cookie-based tracking has also brought upon changes in the way that email platforms will allow reporting data. Email providers will no longer allow for email marketing platforms to utilize custom tracking code to record click data that occurs within the email itself. Marketers will have to become more creative in bringing users to their website through emails in order to record activity data. Expect marketing emails to be a little more vague while they try to lure you to learn more on their website.