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Are You Accurately Tracking Your Marketing Efforts and ROI?

Are you accurately measuring your marketing ROI?

Whether you’re working with Rosewood or another marketing agency, you should read this blog from beginning to end.  We’re probably one of the only marketing agencies that will say this but, marketing is not something you should just keep dumping money into. Are you doing your part to measure your marketing ROI?

Most small businesses are running marketing strategies in some capacity.

  • Google Ads or BING Ads (Search Engine Marketing SEM),
  • Social Media Ads (Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, LinkedIn Ads),
  • Organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO),
  • Video Marketing,
  • Backlinking campaigns,
  • PR Campaigns,
  • Radio,
  • Newspaper,
  • Periodicals,
  • Seminars,
  • Workshops,
  • etc.

No matter which one, you NEED to be tracking your ROI.

Online marketing makes it easy to measure TRAFFIC, but not necessarily CONVERSIONS.

Unless you are selling products via an online store, you can lose track of what happens from when someone visits your website or sees your ad, to if/when they actually convert into a customer.

The Solution? Get Back to Basics

This is where the onus is on you, the business owner.  We absolutely recommend that you have a client onboarding process in place that requires new clients to specify how they found you, or what made them ultimately convert. It’s as simple as asking them how they found you or having a short online survey that’s sent after initial contact or the first meeting.

Scenarios:

More than likely, it is a combination of marketing mediums:

  • Maybe their colleague mentioned you to them, they started doing some research about you, and then a few days/weeks later they see an ad and that’s what convinces them to call/visit you.
    • ROI came from Referrals x Google Ads (SEM)

 

  • Maybe they simply needed a quick solution, Googled you and saw your convincing Google Ad. They then went on your website and it established trust with them to reach out to you.
    • ROI came from Google Ads (SEM) x Website Content

 

  • Maybe it was solely a referral from a friend they trusted because of your excellent work.
    • ROI came from Referrals, Customer Retention & Nurturing

 

  • Perhaps they Googled a specific question, which your most recent article answered and showed up organically on the front page in Google Search Results.
    • ROI came from Organic SEO

Are You Using These Results to Improve Your Marketing Efforts and ROI?

Depending on what these results show, you should be tweaking your Marketing Campaigns to reflect them.

If your business is 90% referral based, think about how you can:

  • Improve your customer’s experience so they continue to refer you
  • Instate a referral program that rewards clients for their referrals
  • Create a Customer Retention and Nurturing campaign that keeps you top of mind and educates your existing clients on other services you provide. They may not need them but may know someone who does

In the coming weeks we’ll expand on the different marketing mediums that are available to small/medium businesses with Rosewood as your marketing partner. The great thing about us is that our plans are flexible. We meet with business owners quarterly to adjust their marketing strategy and make sure it reflects the data results and projections.

For more info & #inspo you can follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. And don’t forget to sign up for our monthly newsletter as well!

Deanna

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The Importance of Google Analytics

importance of google analytics roseewood va deanna simone

If you are a business owner or entrepreneur – chances are you heavily rely on the strength of your online presence and the traffic on your website to acquire clients and build your brand. Which is why it is with your best interest in mind that Rosewood recommends taking full advantage of Google Analytics! Google’s free web analytics service not only allows you to analyze in-depth detail about the visitors on your site, but it also provides valuable insights that can help you optimize the online strategy of your business.

Regardless of whether you run an e-commerce website or an informative blog, every business should understand and study the behaviour of their visitors to deliver better results. Keep reading for our reasons on why you should be regularly using Google Analytics to measure the success of your website – and by extension, your business as a whole.

Conversion Tracking

There is a feature which illustrates how many website conversions you have obtained by visitors on your site. It’s always great to know how many people have visited your site, and where they came from, but how do you know if those users are actually converting?

Google Analytics allows you to set up goals to track when a user completes a certain action on your site. Regardless of how many users each channel is driving to your site, it is essential to confirm that this traffic is actually converting.

Customer Engagement

Engagement metrics such as the bounce rate and average session duration can do wonders to show how well your website is performing. Google Analytics has a number of features that allow you to review how well users are interacting with your website and content. These metrics monitor different aspects of the customer journey, showing how the customer has interacted.

You can also view these statistics against individual pages, giving you a better idea as to what pages are doing well, and which may need optimizing to improve their user experience. Perhaps a page is taking too long to load, or there is too much text and not enough images – leaving the visitor impatient and uninterested. There may be hidden clues to these types of issues in the customer engagement metrics of your site.

Our Top Metrics to Keep an Eye on

  1. # of visitors on website
  2. Average visit length
  3. # of number of pages viewed
  4. Average time on page
  5. Most popular pages on your website
  6. Visitor demographics such as – gender, age, city location, etc.

Converting Data into Business Goals 

Google Analytics data on its own can tell you a lot about website performance. And this information can be very crucial to devising and improving your business plan moving forward. However, you must have a goal in mind for the data to be of use.

True performance tracking and improvement comes from comparisons on current results against previously set goals. Do you want people to get in touch? Download your how-to guide? Use specific goals to target what areas of your website you want to work on.

How Rosewood Can Help

Now that you’re sold on the many business benefits of Google Analytics – feel free to get in touch with us to see how your metrics can skyrocket with our support and training services. If you are new to the analytics world, fear not! We can happily show you the ins and outs of how to use and track the analytics metrics of your website.

And to briefly summarize, Google Analytics can monitor the effectiveness of your online marketing strategies, content, user experience, and functionality on your website. Once you identify any issues your site may have, Rosewood can help you create a solution. Google Analytics provides you with the information needed to improve your website, and we strategize to make it happen!

Questions or Comments? Get in Touch!

Until Next Time,

Ananta

Content Coordinator

Rosewood Inc.

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Instagram Video Marketing for Beginners: Rosewood’s Top 4 Tips for Success

Happy Monday friends! Today’s topic is all about the ins and outs of video marketing on Instagram and how it can take your brand’s online presence to new heights! As you may or may not know – Rosewood loves Instagram, and we also just launched our new videography services for clients (check out our recent blog – LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION – WHY YOU NEED VIDEO MARKETING to learn more).

Let’s face it – Instagram has completely taken the social media world by storm and has forever changed the way businesses and clients interact with each other. Instagram is unique in that it thrives on an entirely distinctive visual approach to content dissemination. And in 2019, it is undoubtedly one of the most important platforms to include in your social marketing strategy.

And don’t worry if you’re an Instagram newbie, the application is known for being incredibly user-friendly, and with Rosewood to guide you through the learning process, you’ll be sharing top-quality videos faster than you think! Keep reading for our top 4 Instagram video marketing tips to help your business thrive.

#1. Understanding Instagram Culture

Instagram is the social media platform where brands show their audience who they are; it’s about shaping perceptions about a brand’s personality. And you only have 60 seconds to explain your product or message and grab the attention of your audience. Writing super long captions can backfire because the inherent appeal of the platform is its focus on visual aesthetics.

For example – Starbucks, a top brand on Instagram, clearly understands insta-culture. In curating their brand story, they’re definitely playing the role of your fun, artsy BFF. Virtually every video and photo are clearly branded in some way – whether it’s a shot of a paper cup elaborately embellished by a fan, or just a distinctive green straw poking through a mountain of whipped cream.

The main idea behind Instagram is sharing videos and images to build your own credibility on the platform. You can ask popular brands and/or influencers to give you shout-outs. Additionally, you can get your clients to create fun testimonial videos as a part of a give-away or contest.

#2. Create Compelling Videos That are Worth Watching

Instagram gives you the unique chance to tell great stories through captivating visual content. So, don’t be afraid to get super creative by showcasing your brand or services in a new light. You don’t need to completely rebrand yourself, but instead, try to show your brand’s versatility. And the best part is that since Instagram videos are bite-sized, people are much more likely to watch them.

Create simple how-to videos. Do a fun contest or give-away to thank your audience for their support. Offer behind-the-scenes glimpses. Give followers sneak peeks of upcoming products or services. Be relevant to their interests and stay up-to-date on current events. Show off your personal style.

#3. Take Advantage of Stories and IGTV Features

According to Instagram, around 70% of its users watch video content in the form of stories on a daily basis. And out of this number, there seems to be a marked preference (roughly 50%) towards those videos that make them laugh. Even more important than that is about one in four Gen Z and Millennials actively seek stories of products, services, and brands they are considering buying.

So, as you begin to chart out your upcoming plans for video marketing content on Instagram, keep an eye on these insights and try to make the most use out of them. These statistics represent clear trends on user preferences for the types of content users look for on the app, so they provide an ideal starting point to start developing video content that will help you reach the people you want.

And remember – there is always the new and flourishing IGTV option which is similar to YouTube in that you can post full length videos without time constraints. For example, you could provide a preview for your new how-to video on your feed and stories which will then direct followers to watch the full video on your IGTV channel if they wish – without being overly pushy. Brilliant!

#4. Don’t Dismiss the Importance of Instagram Analytics

Identifying where you stand among your competitors can have serious payoffs for optimizing your social media strategy.

Some beneficial analytics metrics to consider:

  • tracking post performance
  • monitoring Instagram trends
  • monitoring impressions and views
  • tracking comments and hashtag usage
  • measuring audience engagement
  • identifying influencers in your industry

Analytics can tell you what’s working and what needs to change. And over time, you can build a large scope of data to track and measure performance. It is incredibly valuable to know when and how your audience is engaging with your Instagram content, and how you can improve your performance moving forward.

Final Thoughts

There you have it folks! Rosewood’s top 4 tips for video marketing success on Instagram! And remember – our goal is to help you create and share visual content (videos and images) that help your brand build credibility and familiarity within your target market. These 4 strategies will ensure that you are not only interacting with your audience in a meaningful way, but that you are also taking full advantage of Instagram’s lucrative video marketing tools. And remember – as the popularity and importance of Instagram videos continue to grow and develop, the opportunities for businesses to reach their desired audiences will increase as well.

Of course, we are always happy to help! Rosewood offers both videography services and social media training. If you have any questions on how to get started, feel free to contact us directly.

Happy filming!

“Don’t deliver a product, deliver an experience” 

Questions? Get in Touch!

Until Next Time,

Ananta

Content Coordinator

Rosewood Inc.

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