Digital Marketing

Before 2014, when you logged into Google Analytics, you were given the category names “visits” & “unique visitors” to describe the website traffic you were receiving, which made sense. Then Google decided to quietly change that terminology to “sessions” and “users” which really makes a lot less sense unless you take the time to understand GA (sigh). The Gist of What Users Vs. Sessions in Google Analytics Means: Users = “Unique visitors”, or a person…

Unlike e-commerce sites that rely on hard and fast revenue numbers, B2B websites pose a challenge when trying to determine how to measure and track positive user behavior. B2B sites tend to have longer sales cycles than their e-commerce counterparts and the final sale may require many touches or micro conversions over a long-time period before you get a prospect to request a quote. An analytics measurement plan can help you identify and build in conversion…

  Get Rid of Your Preconceived Notions About Channel Performance I have worked with a lot of companies that have preconceived notions about different marketing channels. From these companies, you tend to hear opinions that are founded more in conjecture and less in hard data. I have heard executives in such companies spout off broad generalizations about specific marketing channels like “Social media just doesn’t show ROI” or “organic search is a great traffic driver…

Anyone who works in online marketing knows the value of using personas. They drive your content strategy, fine tune your Facebook and PPC ads, and can reshape your product offerings. You always end up with better campaign results if you can identify and customize your content and advertising to a highly targeted segment of your user base. Without good data, creating a persona can be difficult—and even risky. If you don’t end up identifying the…

Did you catch wind of one of the latest Google product releases? In May, Google announced Data Studio – their free, data visualization product (free version of Data Studio 360). And we are in love! What is Google Data Studio and what can I use it for? Simply stated, Google Data Studio is Google’s latest product release of their reporting and data visualization tool. No, it’s not part of the Google Analytics evolution. Instead, it’s…

As Digital Marketers, we know that metrics and data are the heart of our strategies. I think about when I started my career in marketing – we were reliant on really fluffy metrics for data (article placements, direct mail distribution size, phone calls, surveys & website “hits”). Now we’ve got a ton of data at our fingertips for free through Google Analytics. However, Google Analytics has gotten a little more complicated over the years, and…

If you have an eCommerce site, you probably have mixed feelings about selling on Amazon.com. Amazon can undercut prices and it can be hard to compete, but it can also be used as a marketing tool. Trust us. Read on. Online shoppers go through 3 stages in their buying journey:  Awareness, Consideration, and Decision. Amazon is most effective to users who are in the Decision making phase.  They have already decided what they want and…

Millennials. Ugh. The worst, amirite*? (Scroll down to learn more about this term). Okay, maybe we’re not the worst – but we do have some high expectations when it comes to communication. If you’re going to market to us, it has to be on our level. Brand messaging has to be real and authentic – if you sound like us, we’re more likely to become brand advocates. So, if your business’ target audience contains Millennials…

Small Business Saturday is almost here – are you ready? After the shopping madness that is Black Friday, it’s time for small businesses to get some well-deserved love. Small Business Saturday, happening this year on November 28, is a day when consumers go out and support their favorite local businesses. The event was started by American Express in 2010, in support of local independent businesses, and participation has only grown each year. In 2014, for…

Cyber Monday has become as big a deal (often bigger) than Black Friday. While brick-and-mortar retailers require employees and customers to cut Thanksgiving festivities short in order to fight crowds for Black Friday deals, online retailers use automated tools to attract holiday shoppers while enjoying their time off. Retailers are reporting Cyber Monday savings as being much better than the deals offered on Black Friday for toys, travel, entertainment, and clothing. And with Monday being…