New Guide: How to Choose a Marketing Agency in 2023

New Guide: How to Choose a Marketing Agency

With various marketing agency options, especially in Houston, it can be overwhelming to select whom to work with.

At Brand Ranch Media, our experience as a boutique marketing agency for various types of businesses has given us insight into what topics you should talk about when interviewing marketing consultants to work with.

Let’s jump right into the 5 topics to discuss with your marketing consultants:

Tell your Marketing Agency Your Goals
Discuss Your Budget
Ask about their Services
Find out their Specializations
Get a Feel for their Culture

First thing, what does a marketing agency do? The best marketing agencies analyze data and build the best marketing strategy for superior business growth. Read more on how the marketing experts at Brand Ranch Media educate business owners and advise on best marketing practices.

01. Tell your Marketing Agency your Goals

When interviewing marketing agencies to hire, it’s important to have a defined goal to share with them. Having a defined goal gives the agency the best view of the vision to implement the best strategy. We talk about setting your goals in this article. Marketing agencies can also assist with streamlining marketing goals to align with your business goals.

If a marketing agency is eager to have you sign a contract before defining and agreeing on a target goal, take it as a red flag. A good marketing agency will not move forward without knowing what they are trying to achieve for its clients.

02. Discuss Your Budget

There’s no question your marketing budget is important not only for you but to your marketing agency. It’s best practice to come prepared to talk to them about your allotted budget range. Your marketing agency will be all up in your business, literally. Being transparent about your budget upfront gives the relationship between you and your marketing agency a solid foundation.

Marketing agencies typically have a minimum marketing budget they require from clients they work with. It’s normal to start with an agency that is within your budget and grow from there. Asking the correct questions when interviewing different marketing agencies, such as budget, can tell you whether a marketing agency is a good fit.

03. Ask About Their Services

Marketing agencies are diverse in the services they provide. Some marketing agencies are heavy in digital media, while others may focus on public relations efforts or media buying, etc. When interviewing marketing agencies to hire, it’s essential to ask what their experience is with the services you are requesting.

The best marketing agencies will also advise and educate company leaders on which services they see as the best fit for the marketing strategy.

04. Find out their Specialization

Many experienced marketing agencies have their own specific specialty. Whether it be the types of businesses they work with, the knowledge of a market, or a certain service they excel in. Open the conversation when interviewing marketing agencies to find out if their superpowers align with the goals you want to achieve.

05. What’s the Culture of the Marketing Company

Another important factor in selecting marketing agencies to work with is getting an insight into their company culture. One way to get a grasp of the culture is to take a visit to their office. While there, take note of how their office looks, feels, and most importantly, how their employees interact with one another.

If your organization is very casual and the marketing agency is an uber-cold-laboratory-of-robots, the two may struggle in communication. A great marketing company will support your vision, mission & goal and seek ways to serve you and your customers with integrity as an extension of your brand.

At Brand Ranch Media, we use the golden rule – “If we wouldn’t do it with our money, we won’t do it with yours.”

Jump back to one of the sections:

Tell your Marketing Consultant Your Goals
Discuss Your Budget
Ask about their Services
Find out their Specializations
Get a Feel for their Culture

Having these types of open discussions with your marketing agency will give you clarity in selecting the right marketing agecny for your business.

At Brand Ranch Media, we have helped our clients scale their businesses to become industry leaders. We have the experience and foresight to help you reach your business goals. Give us a call at 713-309-6380 or use our contact form to start the conversation today!

Are 2023 Consumer Privacy Laws Crippling Your Lead Generation?

Consumer Privacy Laws in Texas in 2023

After the news of Sephora getting hit with a $1.2M fine from the Attorney General for violation of California’s consumer privacy laws, businesses and consumers alike are becoming more conscious of consumer data privacy laws. In the United States, there is a lack of federal consumer privacy laws which has left consumers’ information at the mercy of the WWW (wild, wild, West) – the internet. Texas is not yet implementing new consumer privacy laws meaning the new consumer data privacy laws will not directly affect your privacy policy.

What is it that you should consider as a Texas business owner? As with any new law, it started as a Bill that was written with the intent of being the voice of the people. The new consumer data privacy laws that are coming online next year are a result of hearing consumers’ cries for companies to keep their private information, well, private.

Consumer Privacy Laws Are Changing Consumer’s Mindset

There likely have been several times you noticed an advertisement for a product you were searching for on Google. Or the creepiest, when you were simply talking about a product and open your phone and see an ad for it. Consumers are taking note of this and losing trust, becoming suspicious, and are less willing to hand over their information.

While you are likely not a multi-billion-dollar tech corporation stockpiling data to sell to your multi-national corporation friends, consumers are still paranoid and could be less willing to fill out your contact forms or join your mailing list.

Trust should be at the forefront of your company’s online presence if your business survives on online lead generation, retargeting, or email marketing. Texas business owners can use the provisions stated in these new data privacy protection laws and begin to implement protections for their consumers to build online trust.

So, while many will say, ‘there may not be a direct effect from these new privacy laws’, we are going to see a connection between the level of trust in consumers and the number of leads you will receive on your site.

As tracking has become more apparent, consumers are beginning to become more protective of their personal information and mindful of the information they share with any given business website. Building consumers’ trust level will assist in allowing the consumer to feel comfortable in sharing their personal information with your business.

Keeping your company ahead of the consumer privacy laws

One solution to position your company as a brand that consumers can trust is to update your privacy policy. If you are still using the vague default privacy policy that came with your web template, take this as an opportunity to begin building trust on your website.

Learn from the new laws that are going into effect starting in 2023 and use those laws as a baseline for your new privacy policy. Begin to look at and implement some of the rules regarding consumer privacy. Each state’s legal terms within the new privacy laws slightly vary, but they have serval provisions in common. Such as:

· The users’ right to access and delete personal information; and

· The users’ right to opt out of the sale of their personal information.

Under the new privacy laws, these websites are required to honor the consumers’ request to opt-out of having their data shared. These new data privacy laws state that websites must let the consumer know the following:

· What personal data is being collected by the website,

· If their data is being shared; and

· To whom their data is being shared with.

Giving consumers control of their personal information provides the consumer with a sense of control and builds trust in that business.

Getting ahead with the new privacy laws (Building Trust With Potential Leads)

All of your marketing efforts converge to build an overall level of trust in your prospects that will lead them to the steps to becoming your customer. This has been the focus of our efforts at Brand Ranch Media from the beginning. If you’re like us, you are too busy providing quality service to your clients to ever consider selling their information.

We want to help you grow by cultivating trust in your customer throughout your entire marketing system from start to finish. If you are not sure if your privacy policy needs a refresh, reach out to us.

Brand Ranch Media has digital marketing consultants to assist with understanding the changes in consumer privacy laws. Our dedicated team strives to serve our clients with expert knowledge, thorough guidance and explanation, and the necessary tools to keep your website’s privacy policy up to date. Give us a call at 713-309-6380 or send us a message today to open a discussion.

Marketing During a Recession

Marketing During a Recession - Brand Ranch Media

Businesses and consumers have been eyeing several slumping economic indicators throughout 2022. Navigating persistently growing inflation, higher interest rates, and a declining stock market has been difficult for many. As marketers, we are faced with inquisitions from business owners who are seeking advice on how they should approach marketing during a recession, especially when the volume of leads decreases and/or revenue decreases. In this situation, we investigate many different factors which help us determine and address the most likely causes of these decreases. Internal factors, such as an ineffective marketing message, are typically simple to resolve. External factors, such as a looming recession, can be a bit tricky.

What is a Recession?

The historical definition of a recession is when the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) declines in growth for two consecutive quarters. In the first two quarters of 2022, real GDP growth in the US was in the negative. There are other financial indicators that signal a recession including an inverted yield curve on government bonds, a rising unemployment rate, and declines in the stock market. After a quick search (yield curve, unemployment rate, and stock market) you will find that as of Q3 in 2022, the figures all indicate that the economy is in recession. However, a recession does not necessarily have to mean doom and gloom for all!

The Good and the Bad

Some businesses actually thrive during recessions and are sometimes called, “recession-proof”. Examples of these types of businesses include grocery stores, healthcare providers, discount stores, auto repair, home maintenance stores, and accountants/financial services professionals. Any business that provides goods or services that fall under the category of mandatory or non-discretionary expenses will tend to fare well during recessions. Businesses that provide goods and services considered discretionary are at greater risk as consumers are forced to delay their plans of making larger purchases or spending their income on things such as dining out, vacation travel, and entertainment.

Marketing During a Recession

In the event of a recession, many companies cut spending on special projects, technology such as electronics and software purchases, shipping, and unfortunately, workers. In addition, marketing budgets are typically cut or altered in some way. Part of our job as a marketing firm is to advise our partners on how to best allocate their marketing spend. During the COVID-induced economic recession in 2020, our overall client sales grew 26% (2020 vs 2019 sales) for all industries. For our clients in the home services industry, we saw sales growth of 300% over the previous year!

So, what do we recommend when marketing during a recession?

Create a Plan

The most important thing you can do when marketing during a recession is to already have a plan in place long before a recession hits. All businesses should create a contingency plan for external economic events that may impact the company’s bottom line. Without a plan, you could be left scrambling for a solution causing additional stress and potentially missing opportunities.

Know Your Top Performing Channels

Marketing attribution can help you distinguish your top performing marketing channels from your lower performing channels. Understanding which marketing tactics are contributing the most to sales and conversions is crucial because it can help identify where you are able to cut spending as well as how much you should cut. Cut back on underperforming channels and either shift budget to the better performing channels or keep the savings.

A caveat to temporarily cutting marketing budgets is that it can be difficult to recover market share once the economy improves. This gives your competitors an opportunity to swoop in and take what you left behind. We rarely advise a business to completely cut out a channel and we don’t suggest going “all in” on one channel. The goal is to continue to hit all the touchpoints with the right message throughout the different stages in the marketing funnel.

Personalization and Brand Trust

Customers in today’s marketing landscape want a more personalized marketing experience. The ability to understand your customer and relate to them and their needs is how you can stand out against your competitors. In addition, businesses and brands need to connect with their customers and provide them with relevant messaging. During a recession, the messaging should try to invoke feelings of sentiment and also show empathy. A “hard sell” approach is going to give off the vibe that the company doesn’t have the customer’s needs in their best interests. Brands will come across as out of touch and can lose consumer trust. The best approach is to try and think like your typical customer and craft your messaging based on that mindset.

Stay the Course

Overall, the best plan of action for marketing during a recession is to stay the course, don’t make any drastic changes, and understand that recessions eventually end. Assess if your business is recession-proof and if you can afford to keep all your marketing efforts alive. You will find benefit from going above and beyond your customer’s expectations. Providing quality customer service should already be a standard for your business and won’t cost you anything extra. Lastly, remember that most everyone is feeling financial stress. Figuring how you can help ease the stress of your customers will send a positive message and strengthen those relationships long after the recession is over.

At Brand Ranch Media, we have helped our clients navigate through both busy and slow seasons as well as stronger and weaker economies. We have the experience and foresight to help you reach your business goals. Give us a call at 713-309-6380 or use our contact form to start the conversation today!

Best Home Services SEM and PPC Strategies

After providing an overview of home services marketing tactics in our last article, it’s time to dig a little deeper and talk some specifics regarding some of the best home services SEM and PPC strategies. One of the most cost-effective marketing strategies for a home services business are digital marketing campaigns. Digital campaigns allow you to reach a highly specific targeted audience at a cost point that it much less expensive than traditional marketing channels such as radio, TV, and print. In addition, it’s much easier to track the overall success and performance of digital marketing campaigns versus its traditional counterparts. Digital marketing encompasses a broad range of different marketing channels. Today, we want to hyperfocus on search engines and how a home services business can utilize search engine marketing (SEM) to reach its target customers with highly focused messaging that will convert at a high rate, low-cost ratio.

Is it SEM or PPC?

If you’re a home services business owner, you are likely familiar with one of the following marketing terms: search engine marketing (SEM) or pay-per-click marketing (PPC). Essentially, they refer to the same thing (though, not exactly). SEM implies paid advertising tactics done via a search engine such as Google or Microsoft (Bing). PPC is an SEM tactic where you, quite literally, pay for each click your ad receives. Not all SEM is PPC as there are multiple ad types and different bidding strategies you can choose that don’t charge you for each individual click. When working with a digital marketing professional, they will ultimately make the best decision as far as what bidding strategy to utilize based on the goal of the individual campaign. However, arguably the most effective search engine ad type is a search ad, which happens to follow the pay-per-click model.

What are Search Ads?

If you’re a home services provider and you want to reach potential customers at the exact time they are searching for your service type online, then you need to invest in a search ad marketing strategy. Search ads are highly effective because the customer is actively looking for a specific product or service in the exact moment when the search occurs. In addition, the buyer is typically in the mid to late funnel stages of the buying process and therefore search ads tend to have higher conversion rates for qualified leads. When users search online for a service, search ads will appear on the SERP (search engine results page) as some of the first results (see image).

The main components of a search ad are headlines and a description. Headlines should consist of the main product/service that you are advertising as well as short, supporting phrases that would entice users to click the ad. The description should include verbiage to further support the services provided. Additional components of a search ad are called “extensions”. Different types of extensions can be included with a search ad and provide unique bits of information including, but not limited to, a phone number, sitelinks to different web pages, service types, locations served, deals, short callouts, and more. Since the goal of the search ad is to get the user to perform some sort of measurable action, the ad copy and extensions are quite important and should be optimized over time for best performance. Since search ads tend to target customers at later stages in the marketing funnel, another digital ad type can be utilized to reach more early-stage buyers: display ads.

What are Display Ads?

Display ads provide visually appealing ad content (shown below) to users who have shown online signals of actively researching specific products or services, however, they can also raise brand awareness for users that may have interests in related products or services.

A home service provider can also use display ads to retarget previous customers or website visitors which helps keep them top of mind and consistently in front of previously engaged audiences. Since they can reach buyers in different stages of the buying process, display ads should be designed with specific messaging intended for each specific audience. Depending on the messaging, when users click the ad, the landing page content should closely match to maximize the desired outcome.

Landing Pages and Digital Ads

No matter what type of digital ad you are running, the landing page (the web page where users will land upon clicking an ad) plays a pivotal role as to whether the potential customer will take the desired action towards converting into an actual lead. Like ads, a landing page should entice users into taking a pre-defined action. For home services, these action types are typically customer contact via phone calls or a form fill. The messaging on a landing page should closely align with the messaging of the ad so that when users click the ad, the landing page further supports everything that the ad claims. In addition, the page content should minimize any doubts a potential customer may have, convincing them that they should definitely use your services. Finally, there should be a clear call-to-action on how the customer can contact you to schedule service. Combined with compelling ads, this landing page formula will help drive leads. Landing pages should be optimized over time to find the highest converting content.

If you’re a home services business owner, having a great digital marketing team is going to be crucial for your success. Whether the strategy is PPC only or a more balanced SEM approach, you will want those who are experienced in home services marketing to drive your strategy and execute the plan.

Brand Ranch Media is Houston’s most experienced home services marketing agency. We have helped countless home services providers grow their businesses exponentially, consistently driving record-high revenues for our business partners. Get on the path of exponential growth today. Call us at 713-309-6380 or send us a contact form and let us know how we can help you!

Home Services Marketing in Houston

There are many different advertising platforms and strategies one can use for home services marketing. Brand Ranch Media has proven that a balanced advertising plan can lead to great success in the home services industry. It is important to utilize both traditional and modern marketing methods. We use omni-channel strategies to provide consumers with a seamless experience across multiple channels. Staying consistent across channels will take customers through a high-quality experience. You may be reading this article because you want to generate outbound and inbound leads for your home services business. Let’s take a bird’s eye view at some of the different ways to advertise for home services companies.

Traditional Advertising vs Digital Marketing

Traditional advertising is served on different platforms such as print, radio, TV, and streaming. This method of advertising is great for brand recognition and can help to get the message about your products or services to your target consumer. We will do a deeper dive into traditional advertising later in this blog series, but for now, let’s discuss one of the difficult aspects of traditional marketing: tracking its success.

Return on Investment (ROI) is one way that an advertising agency, such as Brand Ranch Media, measures the success of marketing campaigns. It tends to be more difficult to track the ROI of traditional advertising campaigns because the attribution is sometimes clouded. For example, a radio ad for lawn maintenance plays. The listener drives home and looks at the current state of their yard. She decides she needs the service, searches the company’s name online, and calls the phone number listed on their website. The call is attributed to an organic search result instead of the original advertising source, a radio ad. Therefore, the radio ad is less likely to receive credit for this lead.

In contrast, digital marketing is served across the internet on various platforms including websites, search engines, social media, and email. Over the past few decades, digital marketing platforms have evolved and improved the way advertising professionals can market home services. Using digital platforms, we can better target a specific audience, optimize the performance of campaigns, and track campaign success by using website and performance analytics. The ability to attribute a conversion goal or purchase directly from a digital ad source makes it much easier to determine the ROI of a digital campaign over a traditional advertising campaign.

Digital Marketing Strategies

There are multiple digital marketing platforms and strategies advertising professionals use in the home services industry. Each of them works together and complements each other, ultimately driving the most amount of leads possible. We will discuss this at greater length later in this blog series but here are some quick insights into each method.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a strategy designed to increase the volume of website visitors by improving a website’s positioning in an unpaid (or “organic”) way on search engines. This is performed through a combination of keyword usage throughout a website, content optimization, and website best practices. However, SEO is much easier said than done and can be quite time consuming.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM, commonly known as PPC), allows marketers to target people who fall within a typical customer profile based on a combination of demographics, interests, and in-market audience segments. Campaigns utilize different types of ads including search, display, and video. SEM is a great way to reach people who are searching online for home services providers.

Social media platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram, can be utilized by marketers through paid and organic approaches. By using paid advertising on social media, advertising agencies can use targeting capabilities to reach extremely specific audiences. This puts your ads in front of people that are likely to need your services (homeowners in your target demographic, for example). Social media campaigns can also help further your reach and broaden your audience. Additionally, utilizing organic social media is a great way for you to work on brand recognition while humanizing your business. It’s a place to showcase examples of your work, who you are, and could even stir up conversation or “engagement” around your business. Users can also write genuine testimonials about the services they received. Ultimately, an active social media page can generate more traffic and result in more leads for your business.

Home Services Marketing with an Experienced Ad Agency

It’s important for your brand to use best practices to comply with industry standards. As marketing platforms continuously modernize, it’s important to keep in mind the standards your business needs to maintain to keep up with changes. Advertising agencies make themselves industry experts to keep up with the trends that are everchanging. Keeping up to date on trends in the market and the industry itself will significantly impact your results for the better.

One example of how an experienced agency can help is by utilizing home services software tools such as a Customer Relationship Management system (CRM). By utilizing a customer’s existing CRM, we can work together to track leads, customer acquisition, sales, types of services performed and more – all for the benefit of improving marketing campaigns. By tracking leads all the way through to a completed sale, we can capture which ads drive the greatest revenue to maximize profit. Then, we are able to focus advertising efforts on the most successful platforms. This will help maximize ROI!

Additionally, using an omni-channel marketing strategy can optimize the customer experience. This marketing strategy provides users across multiple marketing channels with a consistent brand experience. It is meant to be a seamless transition for your customer as they navigate your brand from channel to channel. Staying consistent across channels will provide your customers with a cohesive experience that will help conversions.

At Brand Ranch Media, we have a wealth of experience in the home services marketing industry. Our experienced team will lead you in the right direction. We will customize your marketing plan, budget allocations, and strategies for growth and performance. Our goal is to help you expand your business. Some of the different types of home services providers we have worked closely with include Exterior Cleaning, Electricians, HVAC, Pool Cleaning, Pest Control, Plumbers, Concrete Services, Lawn Care, Landscape Design, and Cleaning Services.

If you are looking for Home Services Marketing, Brand Ranch Media develops and manages marketing strategies that will lead your business to the success you are worthy of. Our experienced marketing experts bring diverse skillsets and understand all components of successful marketing campaigns. Call us at 713-309-6380 or contact us to discuss how we can grow your business together!

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.

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!