Gotta keep up!

Digital is still growing by leaps and bounds will continue to impact how we reach and interact with customers.

Forrester Research has a new report on how fast the digital space is growing.  You can download it here.

And, Mobile Marketer recently opined that a study from Zenith sees that Mobile Ads will exceed 30% of Market Share by 2020!  They caution however, that mobile awareness for ads is not very good and should probably not be relied on as a single channel of advertising.

September will be an important month for websites.  October will be even more important.  Why?

In September of this year the most recent version of Google browsers will no longer mark as "secure" those websites that are not secure.  A secure website will always have an S after the http in the address bar.

And in October those websites that are not secure will say so!  Imagine the message that sends to potential customers!

An unsecure website means that the website is talking to your browser using the regular ‘unsecure’ language. In other words, it is possible for someone to “eavesdrop” on your computer’s conversation with the website. If you fill out a form on the website, someone might see the information you send to that site.

Reminder:  NEVER enter credit card information on a website that is NOT secure!

For more information see any of these informative articles:

• Search Engine Land
• The Verge
• Google  

You are NOT imagining things!  EVERYBODY has a cellphone.  Pew research shows us that 95% of adults have cellphones; just think of how many kids have them!  

This is important to know when thinking about you company website.  Is it optimized to render correctly on any cellphone?  Do you have a "Link To Call" button so mobile users can contact you immediately?   

Google is pursuing a Mobile First approach to search.  This means that they first look at your mobile site and this may result in a marginally better rank in search results.  

Check out your site here:  Google Tester

More Things To Know are Here!

Fun Facts about those Super Bowl Ads!  

This chart looks at the Top 10 Super Bowl ads of 2018 by total views online as of the Monday after the game.  The following list highlights top advertising brands across various metrics – with sources and links provided. Following that list is another with more audience-focused data. It’s worth noting that there’s no clear-cut winner by way of the following metrics – some seemed to do better in some areas than others…

• Most-viewed ad online: Australia’s “Tourism Australia Dundee” (more than 58 million views across top video platforms and websites as of the Monday after the game). The Tourism Australia spot was followed by Amazon’s “Alexa Loses Her Voice” (53.2 million) and Doritos and Mountain Dew’s “DORITOS BLAZE vs. MTN DEW ICE” (51.1 million). Source: Visible Measures.
• Top ad on YouTube: Amazon: “Alexa Loses Her Voice”. This ad topped the charts on YouTube’s AdBlitz (a hub where fans can watch ads), ahead of Bud Light’s “The Bud Knight” and Groupon’s ” Who Wouldn’t.” Amazon’s commercial also was the most-viewed on YouTube on the day of the game, as reported by Variety. Source: YouTube.
• Most effective ad: Toyota: “Good Odds” (EQ score of 6.1/10). The EQ score is used by Unruly to rank ads on their likely emotional, social and business impact, with “the intensity of emotions viewers felt while watching, brand favorability, authenticity and purchase intent” all also contributing. Toyota’s ad scored well for both authenticity and credibility, with 82% of viewers saying the content came across as authentic and credible. Toyota’s spot also achieved a brand recall of 70%. Budweiser’s “Stand By You” was the 2nd-most effective by EQ score (5.8), closely followed by “DORITOS BLAZE vs. MTN DEW ICE” (5.7). Unruly notes that brand recall for this year’s ads was higher than last year, with viewers tending to also find the ads authentic, credible and relatable. Source: Unruly.
• Best overall ad, per marketers: Amazon: “Alexa Loses Her Voice”. AdAge and Morning Consult teamed up to survey almost 4,000 marketing and advertising industry professionals, who gave the top overall rating to Amazon’s spot. Amazon’s commercial was deemed both the most “entertaining” and the most “effective,” though it only very narrowly beat out Budweiser’s “Stand By You” in the effectiveness rankings. Source: AdAge/Morning Consult.
• Top ad by digital share of voice: Doritos & Mountain Dew: Battle. This spot captured almost one-fifth (17.3%) share of digital voice on game day, with almost 73 million TV ad impressions, more than 1 million earned online views, and more than 78 million social impressions. It was followed in the rankings – which exclude movie trailers and show promos – by Amazon’s “Alexa Loses Her Voice” (12.5% share of voice) and NFL’s “Touchdown Celebrations” (11.3%). Source: iSpot.tv.
• Top brands by offline brand metrics lift: Netflix, Hulu, and Jeep. These were the only 3 brands among Super Bowl advertisers to place among the top 10 gainers in positive buzz (people who have heard positive things about the brand), word-of-mouth (brands that people have talked about with friends) and purchase consideration. Hulu was the top brand for lift in positive buzz, while the NFL led all with its increase in word-of-mouth, and Netflix emerged victorious in purchase consideration gains. Source: YouGov.
• USA Today Ad Meter Winner: Amazon: “Alexa Loses Her Voice”. The ad took the top ranking with an average rating of 7.18 out of 10, with the commercial proving particularly appealing to women (7.32), people with income of $100-150k (7.28) and those ages 50-64 (7.48). The NFL’s “Touchdown Celebrations to Come” ranked second in a virtual tie (7.18) with Amazon’s spot, favored again by women but finding more appeal among lower-income and older viewers. Source: USA Today.
• Brand with the most social mentions during the game: Tide. Tide easily generated the most online mentions in this report, with almost 164k social mentions during the Super Bowl, of which only 11k related to the #TidePodChallenge. The Mountain Dew and Doritos collaboration was second with 115.1k mentions. Source: Talkwalker.

Facebook or Website....

What to do!

Small Business owners are increasingly turning to Social Media to establish their presence on the internet.  Why not?  Facebook is essentially free and everybody uses it.  Right?  Why would I possible need an expensive website when I have Facebook???

You very well may need BOTH!

Facebook does an amazing job of communicating with your customers (once they have found and followed you).  Immediacy and community are a couple of the unique benefits of a social media platform.  Think about it.  Look around you.  A great many of the folks you see glued to their devices are checking Facebook!  Clearly this is a good tool to keep your customers engaged with your business.

But, what about customers that you don't already have and who may not know much about you?  A website gives you control on your content and a platform that helps convey your features and benefits in a very professional way.  Tracking who is visiting your site, when and what pages they look at are key pieces of information that are readily available with a website. 

Consider that the top 10 local organic factors for SEO are related to websites.  Google gives preference to those websites that demonstrate "authority" which is nearly impossible to achieve with a Facebook page alone. 

A website is a critical tool for you to attract NEW customers!  And Facebook is an effective method to continue to engage your existing customers. 

SMB Website Expectations 

Gotta Meet or Exceed them!

A recent study by Google, commissioned by VistaPrint, shows what many of us already know.  A lousy, hard to use, ugly website does nothing to help business and in 60% of cases, users said "I would be less likely to make a purchase." when asked about a bad impression of a website.

Read the full report Here.

Most users expect a website to have been updated within 6 months.

Poorly designed websites impact how likely a user is to visit or purchase from a company; to the tune of 49% .  For me, and hopefully for you, the prospect of losing nearly half my customers because I let my nephew build me a free website somewhere, is not acceptable!

Top of the list of things folks are looking for when they visit a SMB website is product/service information.  This is the part of the purchase path where it is VERY important to make a compelling case for what you are selling.   Next are the business hours and contact information.

Almost 70% of users said that "Up-to-date and accurate website content" is the MOST important factor in a SMB website experience.  

So, take a look at your website through the eyes of a potential consumer.  Do you make the grade??

72% of Consumers Turn to Digital When Ready to Buy 

You gotta be there!

The path to purchase is a varied one.  Consumers now do research using a variety of tools to make the decision to buy.  Being online has never been more important.

The data come from the LSA's latest
Local Media Tracking Study 2016
 which surveyed over 8,000 U.S. consumers. 

Company Websites, Search Engines and Ratings & Reviews Sites are the top methods folks ready to buy use.  Think about it.  Don't you do the same?  No?  Ask around and I think you will find that most of the folks you know do!

Let's look at an example.  I'm ready to hire a carpet cleaner.  Lots of rain, mud and four paws have finally motivated me!

First, I google carpet cleaners to see who services my area.  Like many folks I note those ads at the top, but generally go directly to the Organic Search Results area just below them.  I'm a small business and know that this may save another small business the cost of the ad.  Quirk maybe.  Next, I am looking at the Google Places results.  I look at each of them and click on a few that have websites.  I hope to learn more about them.  What the website looks like is important to me.  Somehow it reflects what kind of company they are.  Next I start looking for reviews and discounts (don't we all!).  

The search may take several days between distractions, work and play.  Ready to make my decision I return to the company that stands out overall.  And book!  It would be great to book an appointment online, but I know this is not very widespread.  Yet.

Without having an online presence of some sort, I will never consider a company.  I am not alone!  And the trend has no end in sight.