The legal industry has been slow to adopt digital marketing strategies compared to other sectors, but the trend is changing rapidly.

With the increasing competition and the need to reach a wider audience, law firms realize the importance of having a strong online presence. Digital marketing can help law firms reach potential clients, increase brand awareness, and improve their reputation.

This article will discuss the different digital marketing strategies that law firms can use to grow their business.

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Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) the process of optimizing a website to rank higher in search engine results for specific keywords. Law firms can use SEO to improve their visibility and attract more potential clients searching for legal services online.

Some of the best practices for law firm SEO include:

• Conducting keyword research to find the right keywords to target
• Creating high-quality, relevant content that provides value to users
• Optimizing website structure and meta tags to make the site easier for search engines to crawl
• Building high-quality backlinks from other relevant websites

SEO is crucial for law firms because it can help them reach the right audience at the right time. With more and more people searching for legal services online, having a strong SEO strategy can make all the difference in attracting new clients and outperforming the competition. 

This is integral to law firms’ successful online marketing strategy. SEO helps increase visibility in search engine results pages, allowing lawyers and law firms to reach potential clients actively looking for their services. SEO is also important for building trust and credibility with these potential clients and helping establish a solid online presence.

The SEO process for law firms begins with competitive keyword research.

[smgquote author=”Eric Sachs, CEO”]
You need to understand what your competitors are doing in order to rise above them. [/smgquote]

SEO experts analyze search data and trends to determine the most common search terms potential clients may use when seeking legal services. This helps identify which keywords should be targeted in SEO campaigns so that law firm websites can appear at the top of search engine results for these terms. Once the keywords have been identified, SEO experts optimize website content, meta tags, and page titles to ensure that search engine crawlers can easily identify and index the web pages associated with specific keywords. 

In addition to SEO-optimized content, SEO for law firms also involves building up a strong backlink profile. This is important because it helps show search engines that a website is credible and relevant. SEO experts can submit articles, blog posts, and other web pages with backlinks pointing to the law firm’s website. Quality backlinks not only help to improve SEO rankings but also help to increase visibility in search engine results on pages.

Finally, SEO for law firms involves tracking and analyzing SEO performance metrics to ensure that SEO campaigns are effective and meet desired goals. SEO experts use a variety of SEO tools and analytics software to monitor website traffic and rankings, as well as to identify areas for improvement. By using the data collected from SEO performance metrics, SEO experts can adjust SEO strategies to ensure that SEO campaigns remain successful.

SEO for law firms is an effective and powerful way for lawyers to reach potential clients who are actively seeking legal assistance. With careful keyword research, SEO-optimized content, a strong backlink profile, and frequent tracking of SEO performance metrics, law firm websites can achieve higher rankings in search engine results pages and attract more clients. SEO should be a key part of any effective online marketing strategy for law firms, helping them to build trust and reach potential clients. 

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising allows law firms to place ads in search engine results for specific keywords. When a user clicks on the ad, the law firm pays a fee to the search engine. PPC advertising can be an effective way to reach potential clients who are actively searching for legal services.

Some of the benefits of PPC advertising for law firms include:

• Immediate visibility in search engine results
• Ability to target specific keywords and locations
• Ability to track and measure the success of campaigns
• Ability to adjust campaigns based on performance

PPC is becoming increasingly popular for law firms looking to promote their services and acquire new clients. PPC campaigns provide a cost-effective way to target potential clients and generate leads from qualified sources. By utilizing PPC, law firms can quickly reach out to audiences that are in need of legal services and have a better chance of being seen by them.

PPC campaigns offer law firms incredibly precise targeting options, allowing them to reach potential clients at exactly the right time with the most relevant message. PPC allows law firms to create tailored ads for each target market, ensuring maximum exposure and higher return on investment (ROI). PPC also provides a great way to test different approaches, as it is easy to adjust ad campaigns and make changes on the fly.

To ensure PPC success, law firms should employ an experienced PPC team that understands their target market and can create effective campaign strategies. PPC teams should be knowledgeable in keyword research and optimization and PPC bid management to ensure that the campaigns reach their intended audiences. PPC teams should also be able to track and measure performance to fully understand which ads are successful and which ones need adjustment.

Law firms must consider PPC advertising when looking for effective strategies to promote their services and acquire new clients. PPC campaigns offer a cost-effective and highly targeted way to reach potential customers and generate leads from qualified sources. PPC teams are key in ensuring PPC success, and law firms should ensure that they employ experienced professionals who understand their target market and are knowledgeable in keyword research, optimization, and PPC bid management. With PPC campaigns, law firms can effectively promote their services and reach out to potential clients at the right time with the most relevant message. 

Overall, PPC effectively allows law firms to advertise their services and acquire new clients. PPC campaigns offer a cost-effective and targeted advertising solution that can provide higher ROI than other marketing strategies. PPC teams are key in ensuring PPC success, and law firms should ensure that they employ experienced professionals who understand their target market and PPC bid management. With PPC, law firms can reach out to potential clients at the right time with the most relevant message, leading to higher lead generation and better ROI. 

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is one of the best ways to stay top-of-mind among potential clients.

Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn can be powerful tools for law firms to connect with potential clients and build their brands. Social media marketing involves creating and sharing content on social media platforms to engage with users and build relationships.

Some of the benefits of social media marketing for law firms include:

• Ability to reach a large audience and build brand awareness
• Ability to interact with potential clients and build relationships
• Ability to showcase expertise and thought leadership in the industry
• Ability to drive traffic to the firm’s website and generate leads

Social media is a powerful tool for law firms and their clients. It allows them to create connections, increase visibility and build trust between the firm and its clients. By leveraging social media, law firms can establish a presence with potential clients who are already familiar with social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. 

Law firms can use social media to create a positive presence in the market and reach potential clients. Through social media, they can showcase their expertise and give insights into their services. They can also position themselves as an industry thought leaders by sharing helpful articles and legal advice on social networks that are tailored to relevant topics for their target audience. 

Social media is also a great way for law firms to foster relationships with existing clients. By engaging with them through social media and responding quickly to their comments and questions, the firm can create a positive reputation and show that it values its clients’ feedback. It also allows the firm to share updates on relevant legal developments and share news about upcoming events or promotions they are offering. 

By harnessing social media, law firms can boost their search engine rankings and visibility in organic searches. By regularly posting relevant content on social media networks, the firm can increase its chances of appearing in the top search results for queries related to its services. Additionally, social media campaigns are a great way to generate leads and reach people who may not be aware of the firm’s services. 

By strategically using social media, law firms can create meaningful relationships with potential and existing clients and build trust in the marketplace. Law firms must take advantage of social media to ensure they remain competitive in the legal industry and continue to grow their business. By leveraging social media, law firms can create a social presence that will help them reach more people and build relationships with clients. 

Content Marketing

Content marketing involves creating and sharing valuable content, such as blog posts, articles, and videos, to attract and engage potential clients. Content marketing can help law firms establish themselves as thought leaders in the industry and provide valuable information to potential clients.

Some of the benefits of content marketing for law firms include:

• Ability to attract potential clients and establish the firm as a thought leader in the industry
• Ability to provide valuable information to potential clients and educate them about legal services
• Ability to improve SEO by creating high-quality, relevant content that provides value to users
• Ability to generate leads and conversions through calls to action in content

Content marketing is becoming increasingly essential for law firms. It enables them to increase their visibility, gain more leads and conversions, and build relationships with potential and existing clients. In content marketing for law firms, content creation should be seen as a long-term strategy to share expertise, build trust and boost brand recognition in the legal industry. 

Content can be tailored to meet the specific needs of law firms and their clients. It should provide content that is informative, entertaining or educational, as well as content that offers value to potential and existing clients. This content should be regularly updated to encourage repeat visits from audience members. Content can come from blogs, podcasts, videos, eBooks, white papers, infographics, webinars, and case studies.

Content created specifically for law firms should be optimized to ensure that content is tailored to the legal industry. To optimize content marketing for law firms, content creators should: 

• Research keywords and topics relevant to the legal industry 
• Understand the content that law firms and their clients are searching for 
• Create content that resonates with a law firm’s unique voice and brand identity 
• Utilize content promotion tactics such as social media, email marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) 
• Analyze content performance to identify areas for improvement

Content marketing for law firms should also focus on content that is helpful, engaging and relevant to their target audience. Content should be easy to understand, authoritative and informative. Content can also provide updates on legal news and rulings and offer advice and guidance for legal-related issues. The content should be tailored to meet the needs of different audiences, such as potential clients and existing clients. 

Content marketing for law firms can also be used to promote content that is related to a firm’s practice areas, such as family law, business litigation or estate planning. Content should provide comprehensive information about the content in question and should be optimized for SEO purposes so that it is easier for content to be found through search engine queries.

Content marketing for law firms should be distributed regularly on multiple channels to reach the desired audience. This can include content posted on social media networks, content sent via email newsletters, and content shared online through press releases or blogging platforms. Content promotion techniques should also be utilized so that content is more easily found, shared, and linked to the content creators.

Content marketing for law firms can effectively build relationships with potential and existing clients and boost a law firm’s visibility in the legal industry. By producing informative and engaging content, content creators can create content that resonates with their target audience and helps build trust and loyalty. Content should also be optimized for SEO purposes to ensure content is efficiently found by the right people. The content should also be regularly distributed on multiple channels, as well as promoted so that content reaches the maximum number of audience members possible. With content marketing, law firms can successfully engage their target audiences and build relationships that will lead to more business. 

Ultimately, content marketing can be an invaluable tool for law firms, and content creators should take the time to craft content with the target audience in mind. By understanding what content is relevant and engaging, content creators can create content that resonates with their audience, builds trust, and boosts brand recognition in the legal industry. With content marketing, law firms can successfully build relationships with their target audience and boost visibility in the industry. 

Conclusion

Digital marketing is becoming increasingly important for law firms to reach a wider audience, increase brand awareness, and improve their reputation. Law firms can effectively reach potential clients and grow their businesses by using SEO, PPC advertising, social media marketing, and content marketing. It is important for law firms to have a well-rounded digital marketing strategy that includes a combination of these tactics to achieve the best results.

In conclusion, digital marketing can be a powerful tool for law firms to reach their target audience and create meaningful connections. It is important for attorneys to understand the nuances of digital marketing and work with an experienced provider to develop effective campaigns. By utilizing the various channels available, such as content creation, SEO optimization, and social media outreach, law firms can build trust with existing and potential clients and ultimately increase their business. Digital marketing is an efficient way to develop a successful online presence for law firms, leading to long-term growth and success. 

Overall, digital marketing provides many advantages for law firms regarding visibility, reach, engagement, and impact. With the right strategies and knowledgeable expertise, law firms can maximize their results from digital marketing and generate greater profits. Digital marketing is essential in the modern business world and should be taken seriously by any law firm wishing to remain competitive. 

Therefore, digital marketing should not only be considered one of the options available for promoting a law firm; it should be embraced and taken advantage of to ensure its success. With commitment and careful planning, law firms can use digital marketing to their benefit, creating a successful online presence that reaches the right people with the right message. 

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Implementing Thanksgiving marketing ideas online can significantly boost a small business’s visibility and sales. It capitalizes on the festive spirit, encouraging customer engagement and loyalty through themed promotions and content. This strategy also taps into the increased holiday shopping traffic, potentially attracting new customers and enhancing brand recognition during a key retail period.

It’s that time again, and Thanksgiving is just around the corner.

This time of year is all about spending time with family and friends and enjoying great food, but it’s also a great opportunity for businesses to attract more customers. Black Friday and Cyber Monday have become huge shopping events, and Thanksgiving marketing is a great way to take advantage of all that hype.

People often wait for these events to maximize their savings and get the best deals, so if you can stand out from other businesses by offering special opportunities that are unique and exciting, you’re sure to attract new customers.

This article has gathered eight Thanksgiving marketing ideas that attract more customers.

Thanksgiving Marketing Ideas

Whether you offer products or services, deploying a Thanksgiving marketing campaign can make all the difference between customers finding you and customers finding your competition.

We recommend A/B testing several ideas and analyzing the results for the best results. It’s an ongoing process, but it’s sure to illuminate what works and doesn’t work for your business. This is critical because it helps provide insight regarding where you should spend your marketing budget. It also helps reveal which channels will provide the best results during this time of year.

For example, if you sell products on your website, you might find that running Google ads for ecommerce produces more sales than running Facebook ads for ecommerce.

If, however, you’re an addiction treatment center, you may find that focusing on the social media aspects of your drug rehab marketing may provide a better way to share a warm message with your audience than focusing on your local SEO efforts.

It’s all about testing the market from your position and honing your marketing efforts during the holiday season.

Here are eight Thanksgiving marketing ideas to help you get started.

1. Send Personalized Deals to Customers via Email

It’s Thanksgiving – so give thanks! Especially to your best customers, or any of your customers on a mailing list. Use the opportunity to send them personalized messages and notify them of your current and upcoming catalog, as well as ongoing promotions. 

Larger businesses can utilize mail management software like Mailchimp to send out thousands and thousands of personalized messages during Thanksgiving, so you don’t have to go through the legwork of writing each one yourself. 

2. Create a Thanksgiving Promo

Keep it simple – in most cases, the best bang for your buck will be a promo code, sale, or discount themed around Thanksgiving, with Thanksgiving-related messages, visual branding, social media posts, and lots of little cartoon turkeys. Or, you can use the opportunity to…

3. Prepare Your Audience for Black Friday (and Cyber Monday!)

Outside of turkeys and cranberry sauce, Thanksgiving is known for one particular thing, and that’s the Friday right after Thanksgiving – also known as Black Friday. Black Friday (and the ensuing Cyber Monday) is a massive shopping event, and one both retailers and shoppers wait all year for. That means you’ll need to be ready – and so should your customers. 

If you’re a retailer in any capacity, consider taking the time around Thanksgiving to pump out updated Buyer’s Guides and blogs dedicated to providing customers with information surrounding items in your niche and industry. 

An electronics store might want to release an updated guide to buying and selecting the right GPU for a new computer in a post-crypto marketplace or draw traffic by creating a PS5 live ticker that updates to notify subscribed readers as to when and where the hotly-anticipated console is available. 

4. Create Relevant Thanksgiving Content (Based on Your Business)

Not every business is in the market for Thanksgiving-themed content – but you can get creative with it and see where you end up. For example, an auto-detailing shop might want to think about making a TikTok about Thanksgiving- or even Holiday-themed joke cars, or a blog post about simple tricks to deck out your ride for this year’s fall season. 

Other than silly or potentially relevant Thanksgiving content (like writing about keto-friendly or low-calorie Thanksgiving recipes as a fitness app), you can also use the opportunity to produce content geared towards preparing your readers or viewers for the upcoming winter season – because it’s late November, that can mean anything from making your pool winterproof to a homeowner’s guide to winter pest control. The possibilities are endless!

5. Create a Limited Thanksgiving-themed Product

Are you a custom ceramics business? Why not a special Thanksgiving-themed pumpkin bowl or vase? Or a skull mug? 

Event-limited products are a great way to drive sales, especially among returning customers who have a bit of a collector’s bone in their body. Die-hard fans of your brand or product will want to get their hands on items that are guaranteed to go away (so be sure to develop a new Thanksgiving-themed item each year!) and it’s a new way to introduce your product to a fresh audience. 

6. Plan a Giveaway Campaign

Another way to highlight the spirit of generosity is to plan a giveaway. Giveaways are a classic in marketing – pick a few items your audience might be interested in (including some of your own, but with an extra incentive for the Grand Prize, like a new TV or a smart kitchen appliance), create a giveaway campaign based around online engagement (like retweeting, subscribing to the YouTube page, and leaving a comment on Facebook), and pick the winners from a pool of participating contestants. 

While this is little more than a ploy to drive engagement artificially by dangling a carrot on a stick, it does work to get people interested in your products and services if they were already in the market for them – and the extra engagement leads to more traffic on your social media pages and online links, which translates into more eyeballs on your products, and a higher likelihood of landing on a potential lead’s radar. In other words, it’s all about getting the foot in the door. 

Utilizing YouTube subscriptions or page likes as a requirement to join is another way to land a future customer, even if they aren’t interested in your content or services/products at the moment. 

7. Give Thanks to Your Great Staff

Why not highlight the people who make it all possible? Consumers love a company that puts its workers first, and one great way to show that you care about your people is by singing their praises and showing customers how they’re contributing to your business. 

You could even turn it into a long-form campaign, highlighting a different co-worker each day (with their permission) via a dedicated social media post, or a heartfelt public thank-you note. 

The point of this marketing campaign is to elicit good will and garner sympathy, but it’s also to take the time to genuinely let your colleagues know how much you appreciate them, particularly if you’re a smaller branch, or a small business altogether. 

Smaller businesses not only have the luxury of having fewer people to thank, but it goes without saying that each of those people and the contributions they make to the business matter even more. 

8. Host a Thanksgiving Event

This last option might not be relevant to every business, but if it’s something you can do, consider hosting a local (or online!) Thanksgiving event, perhaps as a fundraiser for a local charity (i.e., all donations and X percent of every sale goes towards an animal shelter or local organization), and host a Thanksgiving event around the themes of gratitude and partnership – perhaps highlighting your own business’ growth and impact on the community, or just giving a platform to local activists and event guests. 

Online events are particularly interesting for businesses that already have a significant online following, and some experience hosting streams or web events online. A gym that has been offering online classes might be able to host a Thanksgiving workout-along while raising funds for a Thanksgiving-themed charity run, for example. 

Smaller businesses or businesses with no physical location or large online following might not have the audience needed to host a Thanksgiving event on their own. 

Need Help with Your Digital Marketing?

Creating a digital marketing strategy based on research and results requires time and attention most business owners simply don’t have. This can lead to frustration and missed opportunities to reach new customers.

Fortunately, Sachs Marketing Group is here to help. As a full-service digital marketing agency, we offer a wide range of digital marketing services, including everything from PPC advertising management and search engine optimization to social media marketing and even web design and development.

We handle everything from crafting and deploying your digital marketing strategy to measuring results and providing monthly reporting, so you can rest assured you’re in good hands with our team.

Contact us today! We’d love to discuss your business and share how we can help, so you can focus on running your business.

Conclusion

Thanksgiving is a time for family, friends, and food. But it’s also an important time in retail and business, as it’s building up to the anticipation of the holidays and introduces the holiday shopping spree. Global ecommerce is expected to represent over 21.5% of total retail sales in 2023, equating to approximately $6.15 trillion. Take advantage of growing traffic and an increased interest in local and online deals by amping up your marketing and ad campaigns, updating your catalogs on Google and various shopping platforms like Shopify, and alerting customers to oncoming deals and promotions.

With these Thanksgiving marketing ideas, your business can attract more customers during the holiday season and beyond! Whether you’re hosting an online Thanksgiving event or highlighting your great staff, there are plenty of ways to show customers how much you appreciate them.

So why not try these Thanksgiving marketing ideas and start reaping the benefits today?

In 1984, Dr. Robert Cialdini wrote a book on the art of persuasion and how it relates to sales. Titled Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, the book went on to sell over two million copies and be translated into over two dozen different languages. 

While the book ends on a note of the personal computer’s potential to push users towards faster decision-making, its advice remains salient even in the digital era and the days of eCommerce, landing pages, CRMs, CROs, bounce rates, and Amazon. 

The gist of the book can be crystalized in its six primary principles of influence – each of these six remains relevant in the field of modern digital marketing, and learning to harness all of them can help you improve your conversion rates and gain better revenue. 

A Primer on the 6 Principles and Conversion Optimization

First, let’s understand what conversion is in the context of modern digital marketing. Let’s say you sell a product online. You have a website that sells this product. Let’s say a user comes around and visits your website for the first time. Maybe they snoop around and look through your product pages. But they don’t buy anything. They do, however, sign up for your newsletter. That’s a micro-conversion. 

Let’s say that you published an interesting blog, and the email they received about it helped remind them of your business. They visit again, only this time, they finally make a purchase. You’ve now made a macro-conversion.

Meanwhile, you can use this per-user data to establish that you’ve had a 50 percent conversion rate for this unique visitor – two sessions, one purchase. In the grand scheme of things, you can extrapolate that information to determine your actual conversion rate – a hundred purchases out of a thousand user sessions means a 10 percent conversion rate. 

Optimizing your conversion rate simply means getting more sales per visit. Certain best practices help improve conversion rates. For example, a good landing page will often lead potential users to the item they were looking for, or at least improve the rate at which you achieve a micro-conversion, like a newsletter subscription, to later net a macro-conversion. 

There are hundreds of volumes written on the art of improving conversion rates online, yet most of the advice you’ll find ultimately boils down to the same six principles that Dr. Cialdini mentioned in his 1984 bestseller. 

[smgquote author=”Tyson Crandall, COO”]
As marketers, we work in the art of persuasion, and these six principles are critical to utilize as much as possible. If you haven’t heard your agency mention these in their strategy, you should consider if they know what they’re doing.
[/smgquote]

1. Reciprocity

To give a little context, Dr. Cialdini is a social psychologist. This means that his advice on influence in the context of business, sales, and marketing stems from his experience researching human behavior, both as individuals and within a group. 

He begins his list of principles by bridging the gap between tribes and civilizations throughout human history through the primal urge within us all to fulfill social obligations and settle our debts.

According to Dr. Cialdini, reciprocity is the first principle because if we give a little, we are much more likely to get a lot back. Reciprocity is effective for multiple reasons. First, if it appears to us that we’ve been given special treatment – anything from inordinate attention to a personal gift – we feel compelled to reciprocate and return the favor in kind. In marketing, this relates to the age-old trick of providing something for free to entice people to make a purchase later. 

Some examples are much more effective than others. A coupon for a significant discount on your first purchase might encourage users to take that plunge, thinking they might only need one thing. A free sample at the grocery store might convince someone to take a whole bottle. And so on. 

Online, the principle of reciprocity can be applied to information, as well as discounts. First-time buyers might receive a better deal. Or they might feel compelled to buy from you as a long-term reader or viewer of your free content.

2. Commitment

Where reciprocity centers on the human need to reduce the imbalance of power between two people when a debt is created, commitment centers on the idea that a person’s self-image must maintain consistency between beliefs and actions. There are multiple facets to this principle.  

If we convince ourselves to buy one item in a set, then the urge to buy the whole set grows stronger. Committing to something makes us more likely to go through with the rest of the process. Marketing campaigns that capitalize on this feeling include those that utilize the mailing list not just as a way to get information out to a user but to help them identify as a customer, as part of the group, or as a member of an exclusive club. 

Second, the idea that we construct our self-image, we feel the need to confirm that self-image with our actions, including our purchases and allegiances. If you identify as a coffee snob, you might feel obligated to own certain coffee-making tools and accessories. 

3. Social Proof

The internet has validated this principle of influence more than nearly any other. The principle of social proof centers around the idea that popular things are popular for a reason, usually because they’re good. In other words, it speaks to our own inner urge toward conformity. 

Sure, hipsters exist. But even they are compelled by the popularity of the anti-mainstream and the image of pushing against the wave as an aesthetic. Punk can and has been commodified, time and time again, and demonstrates the power of social proof in a different way.

Capitalizing on this principle is simple. Reviews, recommendations, product “likes”, sorting by Most Popular, a Trending tab on your products or content, and so on and so forth. There are countless ways to drive sales by showing people what’s in, and what’s hot. 

4. Authority

We feel compelled to buy into things that have certain names attached to them. The power of a name is undeniable, as demonstrated time and time again in fashion and beauty industries. 

And as we live in the golden age of digital influencers, there’s no better time to demonstrate just how overwhelmingly profitable the principle of authority can be. A simple way to capitalize on this principle to improve your conversion rates is to partner with a popular influencer in your niche. 

5. Liking

Social proof is about conforming to the opinions of the majority. Authority is about conforming to the opinions of an influential figure. The principle of liking, however, is about recognizing superficial similarities in the person we’re being influenced by – or in digital marketing terms, being likable. 

This is where transparency is important. People may be more likely to purchase something from you when they’ve got a name, face, and story to attach to you. A good About Us page can help you establish your personal mission and vision and your business and build a personal rapport with the user through a simple piece of content. 

6. Scarcity

Perhaps the most famous principle is the final one: scarcity, or the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) in more modern parlance. FOMO is an overwhelming force in marketing and sales and one that continues to work despite the bad rap it’s gotten over time. People don’t like to be held hostage, and they really don’t like when scarcity is used artificially (in fact, that practice can backfire tremendously). 

But when used right, scarcity is a powerful motivator for conversions. Classic examples of scarcity in digital marketing include limited-time offers, limited edition products, annual or seasonal waves of goods and merchandise, limited slots on teaching or consulting opportunities, and so on. 

The Seventh Principle

Dr. Cialdini went into great detail on all six principles nearly forty years ago, but he’s written many books since. In one of his more recent publications, Pre-suasion, he continued elaborating on his principles by introducing a seventh one, perhaps more relevant in today’s hyper-connected online world than ever before. That is the principle of unity. 

Forums, message boards, chatrooms, and social media have led to the creation and proliferation of thousands of small, yet incredibly devoted and dedicated communities throughout the Internet. 

While the concept of the in-group versus the out-group is ancient, perhaps even primal, the fragmentation of the Internet has made it more important than ever for marketers to capitalize on the different in-groups that they may be catering to. 

This means theming your messaging and marketing more heavily around inside jokes, dropping greater benefits for long-term loyal customers, and incentivizing making your product a part of the customer’s personal identity, as just a few simple examples. 

Dr. Cialdini’s principles of persuasion are a great start to understanding the motivation behind each of the different ways in which conversion rates can be optimized. However, there are still hundreds of specific techniques to review before implementing them for your business. Some work best for certain industries and business models and less for others. If you want to learn more about creating a tailored conversion optimization plan for your business, contact us today. 

Developing influence can require time and energy in addition to running your business. If you’d like to strive for the best results, consider working with a professional team of digital marketers specializing in social media marketing and reputation management.

Most businesses these days are using multichannel marketing to get their products and services in front of more potential customers. But what are the benefits of multichannel marketing, and why is it so effective?

In this article, we’ll explore the benefits of multichannel marketing and how you can combine search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising to reach more customers and increase sales for your business.

What is Multichannel Marketing?

Multichannel marketing is the use of multiple channels to promote and sell products or services. This can include using search engines, social media, paid ads, and other online avenues. Multichannel marketing allows you to reach more potential customers and increase sales for your business.

There are a number of benefits to launching a multichannel marketing campaign. Whether you’re an online store or a small home services business looking for marketing help, combining multiple channels to deliver your message can help your business.

Some of the most common benefits of multichannel marketing include the following:

• Increased Reach: By using multiple channels, you can reach more potential customers than you would with a single channel.
• Greater Engagement: When you use multiple channels, you can create a more engaging experience for your customers, which can lead to increased loyalty and conversion rates.
• Smarter Marketing: Multichannel marketing allows you to target your advertising more effectively, which means you’re spending your marketing dollars in the most effective way possible.
• Greater Efficiency: With multichannel marketing, you can manage all your campaigns from a single dashboard, making it easier to track and analyze results.

How Can You Use Multichannel Marketing?

There are many ways that you can use multichannel marketing to reach more potential customers and boost sales for your business. Some of the most common channels include:

1. Search engines: You can use SEO to improve your website’s ranking in search results and get more organic traffic.
2. Social media: By creating engaging content and using social media advertising, you can reach more people on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
3. Paid ads: Reach potential customers who are searching for products or services like yours.

No matter what kind of business you have, there’s a multichannel marketing strategy that can work for you. By combining SEO, PPC, and social media marketing, you can reach more people and boost the visibility of your business.

Which Channels Are Right for Your Business?

The answer to this question depends on your business and your goals. If you’re a small business, you might not have the budget for a paid advertising campaign. In this case, focus on SEO and social media. If you’re an ecommerce store, you might want to invest in paid ads to reach more potential customers who are searching for products like yours.

Let’s take a closer look at the individual benefits of each channel.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of optimizing a website for Google and other search engines. The main goal of SEO is to improve a website’s rank in search results, which can lead to more organic traffic.

There are a number of benefits to improving your website’s SEO, including the following:

• Increased Visibility: When a website ranks higher in search results, it receives more attention from potential customers.
• Better ROI: SEO is one of the most cost-effective ways to generate leads and sales for your business.
• Increased Traffic: By improving your SEO, you can increase the number of visitors who visit your website.
• More Leads: A higher ranking in search results means more people will see your website, which can lead to more leads and sales.
• Improved Conversion Rates: When people find your website through organic search, they’re already interested in what you have to offer. This means they’re more likely to convert into a customer.

Search engine optimization is all about increasing organic visibility over time. This requires ongoing time and energy, which is why many companies opt to work with a professional digital marketing agency that offers SEO services.

[smgquote author=”Chris Rice, SEO Manager”]
Optimizing your website can help increase your visibility and attract new customers to your products, services, and brand.
[/smgquote]

Increasing the visibility of your website will attract more attention to your brand, products, or services. As your website increases its rankings for the keywords your customers use, more visitors will visit your website month after month. This can mean all the difference between receiving a few visitors and receiving thousands.

Social Media (Organic and Paid)

Social media marketing is an effective way to reach more potential customers and stay connected. By creating engaging content and using social media to share your content, you can attract a following around your brand. The special benefit social media offers business owners is the ability to stay on top of mind among their followers. The more active you are, the more likely your follower will think of you when they need help from a business like yours.

According to the Datareportal July 2022 global overview, 4.70 billion people around the world now use social media.

Managing several social media profiles, responding to your following, and ensuring your messaging is consistent requires time and energy. For this reason, many companies hire a professional that offers social media development services. This allows the business owner to focus on the business with the confidence that their social media is in great hands.

Whether you’re an addiction treatment center or selling products from an online store, your digital content marketing strategy will allow you to share content your potential customers may be interested in seeing.

Social media also allows business owners to interact with future customers in a way that demonstrates professionalism, which can turn future customers into current customers.

Here are a few benefits social media can provide small businesses:

• Reach a Wider Audience: Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter have billions of users. That’s a lot of potential customers that businesses can reach with the right marketing strategy.
• Cost-Effective Marketing: Advertising on social media is much cheaper than traditional marketing methods like TV, radio, and print ads.
• Increase Brand Awareness and Equity: Social media platforms are a great way to build brand awareness and equity. When done right, social media can help businesses connect with their target audience and create a strong connection.
• Generate Leads and Sales: Social media can be used to generate leads and sales. By creating valuable content and running ads, businesses can drive traffic to their website and convert leads into customers.
• Improve Customer Service: Social media platforms can be used to improve customer service. By monitoring social media channels, businesses can quickly respond to customer questions and complaints.
• Increase Website Traffic: Social media can be used to drive traffic to a business website. By sharing valuable content and running ads, businesses can increase their website traffic and reach their target audience.
• Get Feedback from Customers: Social media platforms are a great way to get feedback from customers. Businesses can use social media to learn about customer needs and wants. This information can be used to improve products and services.
• Stay Competitive: Social media can help businesses stay competitive. By monitoring what other businesses are doing on social media, businesses can stay up-to-date on industry trends and news.
• Reach Mobile Customers: Many social media platforms are accessed through mobile devices. This gives businesses the opportunity to reach mobile customers.
• Connect with Other Businesses: Social media can be used to connect with other businesses. This can be helpful for networking and building relationships.

Pay-per-click (PPC) Advertising

Paid advertising is a form of online marketing that allows you to place ads on search engines, websites, and social media platforms. Paid ads are typically displayed as sponsored results at the top or bottom of a search engine results page (SERP), or as banner ads on websites.

Launching a PPC campaign requires a budget, so you will need to be able to manage your advertising spending on an ongoing basis. For this reason, many companies turn to an agency for PPC campaign management. An experienced professional will have the skills needed to optimize PPC campaigns for the best results.

The benefits of paid advertising include the ability to reach a wider audience, improve brand awareness, and generate leads and sales.

One of the most powerful benefits of PPC advertising is you can target a specific audience. You can target people based on their location, age, gender, interests, and other factors. This allows you to reach the right people with your ads.

Another benefit of PPC advertising is that it can help improve brand awareness. When people see your ad multiple times, they may be more likely to remember your brand and visit your website.

Finally, PPC advertising can help generate leads and sales for your business. When people click on your ad, they may be more likely to purchase your product or service.

Here are a few benefits paid advertising can provide your business:

• Reach a Wider Audience: Paid advertising allows you to reach a wider audience with your message. You can target people based on their location, age, gender, interests, and other factors.
• Improve Brand Awareness: Paid advertising can help improve brand awareness by increasing the number of times people see your ad.
• Generate Leads and Sales: Paid advertising can help generate leads and sales for your business. When people click on your ad, they may be more likely to purchase your product or service.
• Get Feedback from Customers: Paid advertising can be used to get feedback from customers. You can use the data from your ads to improve your products and services.

Why is Multichannel Marketing Important?

Why is it important for business owners to create a multichannel marketing strategy?

Multichannel marketing is important because it allows businesses to reach their target audience through multiple channels. This means that businesses can connect with potential and current customers on multiple platforms, including search engines, social media, and websites.

Businesses can use multichannel marketing to increase brand awareness, generate leads and sales, and improve customer service.

By using multiple channels, businesses can reach a wider audience with their message. They can also target specific audiences and track the performance of their marketing campaigns. Additionally, multichannel marketing can help businesses save time and money by reaching customers through multiple channels at once.

Related: Why Online Reputation Management is Important

Conclusion

No matter what channels you use, the important thing is to create a cohesive campaign that delivers your message across all channels. This means creating consistent branding, messaging, and design elements that customers can recognize no matter where they see your business.

As a business owner or marketing manager, it’s important to understand the benefits of multichannel marketing in order to make the most out of your marketing budget and efforts. Implementing a combination of SEO, PPC, and social media into your marketing strategy can help you reach more potential customers, generate leads and sales, and improve your customer service.

Have you tried multichannel marketing? What’s been your experience? Let us know in the comments below.

If you’re interested in driving more attention to your business website, you may be interested in the advantages of running pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns. PPC is a type of online marketing in which businesses display ads on search engines and social media platforms. When someone clicks on one of these ads, the business pays a fee to the advertising platform.

PPC can be an effective way to drive traffic to your website and generate leads. However, it’s important to optimize your PPC campaigns to ensure that you’re getting the most out of your investment.

In this article, we will discuss several PPC optimization strategies that will help you increase the effectiveness of your advertising campaign.

Why PPC Optimization Matters for ROI

A pay-per-click ad campaign guarantees you a certain number of eyeballs on your product pages and landing pages. But it does not guarantee that these are the kind of eyeballs that go on to become paying customers. 

PPC campaigns are only as successful as their return on investment, and to optimize that return on investment, you must formulate your ad campaigns in such a way that the people most drawn to your ads are also the people most likely to buy your products and services. 

This does not happen overnight. Even expert ad agencies spend a lot of time and resources investing in data acquisition and analysis, to ensure that their client’s ads are optimized for lead generation. Here are a few tips on how you can make the most of your PPC campaigns and get the largest return on your investments. 

1. Research and Revision

The backbone of any given ad campaign is the target keyword or keywords. Do not let these stay static over time. Trends change, audiences grow, customer interest wanes or moves on, and you need to be on top of it all. That means keeping up with the flow of the internet and keeping an eye on the way the keywords in your niche or industry continue to evolve over time. 

Countless free and paid keyword research tools can help you analyze the specific long-tail keywords and phrases that best apply to your paid audience. Remember, you don’t just want high-traffic keywords – you want to attract the kind of people who tend to buy your products to begin with. Set up and review your customer profiles and use them as a basis for your ongoing monthly keyword research. Revise your campaigns to keep up with growing trends and swap out keywords that are becoming ineffective or inefficient. 

Negative keywords are just as important. These help you exclude customers who might be looking for something similar to what you offer, but not quite your niche or specialty. It ensures that your ads are focused more on paying customers. 

Another important aspect of increasing your keyword research is that it allows you to swap to manual bidding. Ad campaign managers like Google help you automate your bidding, but this isn’t as efficient as choosing your own bids and budget allocation, even if it is easier. If you decide to begin manual bidding, consider working with an experienced digital marketing firm instead. They can ensure that your budget is allocated effectively among high-traffic, low-conversion and low-traffic, high-conversion keywords, without springing the budget. 

2. Effective Copywriting is Key

PPC ads have very little real estate. That is why every word counts. A generic header or piece of copy won’t be as effective as something attention-grabbing, intriguing, albeit informative enough to entice a purchase, rather than pushing away potential leads. 

When optimizing your ad copy, include the keyword in your headline and description. It sounds like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised how often it’s forgotten.

[smgquote author=”Rigoberto Flores, Google Ads Specialist”]
When optimizing your ad copy, include the keyword in your headline and description. It sounds like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised how often it’s forgotten.[/smgquote]

3. Keep An Eye on Your Core Web Vitals

It’s one thing to entice potential customers to click on your ads. But optimizing your page itself is also part of PPC optimization. 

Core Web Vitals entail three major metrics for user engagement and user experience, including page loading speeds, the rate at which your page reacts to user interaction (such as a click), and the rate at which your page’s content shifts in response to different loading times (which may result in unexpected user errors, such as clicking on the wrong button because it shifted in place). 

Minimizing loading times, shifting errors, and speeding up the rate at which users can interact with your pages can greatly improve your SEO and the effectiveness of your PPC campaigns. 

4. Use HTTPS, Not HTTP

While a minor point, SSL encryption and safety is a plus point in SEO, user safety, and PPC optimization. Invest in an SSL certificate for your website, so your content is safer for users to visit. 

5. Make the Most of Ad Extensions on Google

When Google or any other search engine serves you a promoted search result or PPC ad in its first page, chances are that ad will have a bit more meat to it than most other search results. This is due to so-called ad extensions. 

These are optional extensions marketers can add to their ad campaigns to provide users with more information to entice a click, and to help filter out unlikely conversions by providing more specific details for potential customers. 

For example, you can use your ad extensions to highlight the specific products or services you provide, add a call-us button to your ad, or a chat-with-us-today button. You can even highlight a number of specific products related to the user’s search and display them alongside their respective price tags. Different PPC extensions will net you different results, so be sure to experiment with them (by running them for a few weeks at a time) to determine which extensions bring in the most leads, and the most conversions. 

6. Expand Your PPC Campaign

It’s not just Google. While most search engines are dwarfed by the tech giant, there are other PPC ad campaigns you should consider investing in, including Facebook, Microsoft Ads, and Amazon Ads in particular. 

While running multiple campaigns at once might be somewhat straining for your budget, note that you can reduce your investment in each individual campaign by improving your keyword efficiency and implementing manual bidding, meaning you have more room to spread the budget across multiple platforms. This might be worth doing if your customer profile tends to do a lot of online shopping on Amazon, or spends a lot of time on Microsoft products. 

7. Consider Turning Off Facebook’s Audience Network

The Facebook Audience Network is an ad network that Facebook created for other websites and apps to opt into for more revenue, expanding the reach of Facebook advertisers by spreading their ads onto all participating platforms of the network. 

In effect, this means that if you have a PPC campaign on Facebook and have opted into the Facebook Audience Network (by default), your ad will likely show up anywhere from the corner or top row of a free camera app to low-traffic, less-than-trustworthy websites.

This will attract mostly unwanted traffic, traffic you can’t properly test for, and traffic that might just land onto your product by complete accident. In other words, low-quality traffic. 

Save yourself the headache by turning this feature off entirely and shutting your ads out of the Facebook Audience Network. This ensures Facebook will only show your ads to potential customers on the platform, most of whom are real people, with a much better chance of being interested in your product. 

Conclusion

PPC optimization is a process by which you can improve the effectiveness of your PPC campaigns. There are numerous ways to optimize your PPC campaigns, and by employing some or all of these strategies, you can see a significant increase in conversions.

As competition on the Internet continues to get stiffer and stiffer across all industries, it’s more important than ever to focus on optimizing your PPC campaigns and ensuring that your money is going towards as many paid conversions as possible, rather than useless traffic. Work with us to help ensure that your PPC campaigns are lean and effective. 

Are you looking for home services marketing tips that will help you get more customers? If so, you’re in the right place.

The market is more competitive than ever, which means home services companies need to be competitive. If you’re not marketing your home services company, you’re missing out on potential customers.

Customers have a lot of options when it comes to home services, which is why marketing is so important.

There are a lot of different marketing channels you can use to reach potential customers. The most important thing is to identify your target market and figure out where they spend their time. Once you know that, you can start creating content that will reach them.

In this article, we’ve gathered seven helpful home services marketing tips to help busy business owners get more customers.

If you find this content helpful, please share it with your team or join the discussion by adding a question or comment below.

Home Services Marketing Tips for the Busy Business Owner

The past few years have not been easy on home service businesses, as supply chain issues have forced countless companies to up their prices, and continue to seek better revenue to contend with growing costs. 

On the bright side, we know homeowners intend to continue spending more on home improvement coming out of the crisis, meaning now is the perfect time to capitalize on a potentially growing market and invest in customer acquisition. 

Building the right marketing plan for your home service business depends on several factors, including your existing web presence and local marketing plans, your established reputation, and what the competition is up to. Building a strong marketing plan requires specific knowledge about what you need, and what you’re working with. However, there are tips and tricks that are near universal when it comes to advertising home services. Here are a few simple tips any home services business can use to grow their customer base this year.  

Here are six home services marketing tips to get more customers.

1. Focus Your Messaging

Home services marketing is most effective when it directly addresses a customer’s common pain points. 

Emphasize the importance and convenience of home services over DIY, and place special emphasis on the time and money saved investing in a professional repair and maintenance company over the liabilities and risks of addressing common household problems with no experience. 

Offer advice and information on taking care of certain repairs and problems yourself, but make note of the dangers and risks involved, from further damage to personal injury. Customers like it when you’re upfront and honest – and the honest truth is that few homeowners are equipped with the tools or the experience needed to completely redo a roof, install new insulating windows, or remodel a kitchen from scratch.  

2. Leverage Local SEO

Home services are an indisputably local industry. To that end, it is doubly important to invest in local SEO.

Local SEO involves targeting key phrases that utilize your location and ensuring that local searchers are more likely to be directed towards your business than the neighborhood competition. Search results often vary depending on the searcher’s location, search history, and device. To maximize the visibility of your company, it’s important that you optimize your website for the keywords your target customer is using to search for information.

In addition to optimizing your website, it’s important that business owners optimize their local listings and attract reviews across the various review platforms. The more positive reviews you receive to your local listing on Google, Yelp, or other review platforms, the more likely people are to reach out to you for your help. This is word-of-mouth on the web, and it can make or break a home services business.

[smgquote author=”Chris Rice, SEO Manager”]
Optimizing your Google Business Profile can dramatically boost the visibility of your brand and services to local customers.
[/smgquote]

Optimizing your Google Business Profile is critical to ranking well in home services-related searches. The more complete and active your Google Business Profile is, the more likely it is to appear in searches related to home services. To make sure your profile is as complete as possible, include the following:

• Your business name, address, and phone number (NAP)
• An optimized description of your business
• Hours of operation
• A link to your website
• High-quality photos
• Recent posts

The more you share and the more you’re active, including attracting reviews from recent customers, the more likely your Google Business Profile is to attract attention from your local communicty. The more you increase the visibility of your brand and services, the more customers will interact with your profile (click to your website, call your phone number, ask for directions, or message you directly.

Getting reviews from past customers is also important. Google uses customer reviews as a ranking factor, so the more positive reviews you have, the better. You can encourage customers to leave reviews by asking them directly or by providing an incentive, such as a discount on their next service.

Quick tip: Follow up with your customers via email after you’ve completed the job and ask them how many stars they would rate your service.

For the best results, ask them three different questions to inspire their review. This takes the guesswork out of the review and provides them with several directions they might consider during the review.

The easier you make it on your customer to review your service, the more likely your customers are to review your service.

3. Do Not Underestimate Paid Online Advertising

Organic SEO goes a long way – when people look up home services closest to them, Google will make recommendations based largely on the relevance and authority of applicable businesses and websites. 

Paid advertising is another way to land on the first page of Google, often before any other results. Promoted search results, or pay-per-click ads, can massively increase your traffic.

In addition, Google offers local home service providers the opportunity to be Google Guaranteed. This program is exclusive to local businesses interested in advertising to their local community. The program features local advertisements from local businesses along with the Google Guantee badge at the top of search results.

This captures the attention of potential customers and offers ease of mind. The guarantee provides customers who came to your business through Local Service Ads the comfort of knowing they will be reimbursed by Google if they’re not satisfied with your service. To qualify, local business owners must pass a Google screening and verification process.

Making the most of that traffic is another thing. 

4. Showcase Your Knowledge Online

A solid digital content strategy can set you apart from the competition, help improve your local SEO, and help turn visitors into customers. Posting frequent and useful information, from DIY tips to full-blown tutorials, also helps draw in potential customers who might start out looking for a way to address a problem at home alone, only to turn to your help after finding out how involved the process can get. 

Video content is another avenue you might want to pursue. Of course, for this strategy, charisma goes a long way. It’s one thing to post dry content – it’s another to create an engaging and entertaining tutorial or video that remains entirely informative from start to finish, respects the viewers’ time, and improves your brand awareness through the sheer quality of the work. 

If you’re feeling adventurous and your showmanship skills are up for the task, you can even consider getting into a gimmick such as an advertising mascot. However, these little touches should always play second fiddle to the quality of the information and content you are providing, completely for free. 

5. Create A Modern Website

The home service provider’s website is one of the most important digital marketing tools today. It’s critical to have a website that’s aesthetically pleasing, informative, and easy to navigate. Potential customers should be able to quickly and easily find the information they need to make a decision regarding who to call for help.

[smgquote author=”Becky Wisniowiecki, UX/UI Visual Designer”]
Clients will form an opinion about your website that determines whether they stay or leave in 0.05 seconds. So a modern, appealing design is vital and needs to be comprehensive, navigate seamlessly and be intuitive. Great design and usability go hand in hand and cannot be successful without each other.
[/smgquote]

Creating a website that turns visitors into clients requires modern web design that’s responsive to mobile devices, provides helpful information, and offers accessibility options for all abilities.

The great thing about these requirements is that they often coincide with ideal SEO guidelines, meaning you get to hit two birds with one stone – create a webpage that visitors and search engine crawlers alike can enjoy.  

[smgquote author=”Becky Wisniowiecki, UX/UI Visual Designer”]
It takes 2.6 seconds for the visitor’s eye to land on the area that will have the most influence on their impression. Research has shown that the eye will first go to items like the menu, logo, and social media. When you create a good first impression in these areas, a user is more likely to stay on the website.
[/smgquote]

Don’t be afraid to orient yourself towards a tech digital marketing company that specializes in competitive SEO. Modern SEO requires top-notch UX, which means that your website should be intuitive and a joy to use. They can help you convert your existing content and branding into something that will blow the competition away. 

6. Stay Connected with Social Media

Social media development is a great way to reach potential customers. You can use it to create awareness about your home services company and build relationships with potential customers.

Make sure you’re active on the social media platforms your target market uses. Post interesting content that will help you get noticed, and interact with other users to build relationships. If you’re not sure what to share, consider sharing your work in progress. Social platforms, such as Instagram and Facebook, are visual platforms, so sharing images tends to capture attention more than text posts.

With that being said, you will need to receive the homeowner’s permission before taking pictures in their home and sharing those pictures online. If you do receive permission, be sure to avoid specifics pertaining to the house.

If you have an office, share images of the exterior and interior of your workspace. If you have a team, share images of your team members. The more personable you make your business, the easier it is for other locals to connect with you.

Sharing your work is one of the best ways to attract attention via social media. The more you share, the more attention your home services business will receive in your local community.

7. Word Of Mouth

Perhaps unsurprisingly, word of mouth remains the most effective way to get new customers in the home services industry. Advertising is a great way to reach new customers within a local community, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore the importance of online reputation management and word-of-mouth from happy customers.

Let’s not forget that 8 out of 10 people will call a professional for home improvement and maintenance tasks – for countless potential customers, the first place to look for a professional would be through a friend or relative who just had their own maintenance or repairs done. 

Every customer your business satisfies is not just money in the bank, or a chance at repeat business – it’s a potential fresh lead or even multiple leads. 

Can you improve your referral rates? Simply asking satisfied customers to provide referrals for your services in the future can make them more likely to recommend you to their friends and family members.

There are two simple ways you can do this: 

• Ask for a referral during the initial conversation with the client but make it conditional. It’s a simple way of promoting confidence in the quality of your work – tell your client that your service will go above and beyond, and in return, they’ll spread the word. This sets up the expectation that your services are a cut above the rest – and if they prove to be, the client will keep up their simple end of the bargain and recommend a service they were already impressed. 
• The other way to ask for a referral is to do a great job, and then ask for one at the point of billing, or right after the customer delivers their final notes and praise for your work (“I’m glad you like it! Would you be kind enough to let others know about us if they’re in need of any work around the house?”)

While most businesses understand the importance of word of mouth and are entirely aware of the effectiveness of a good referral, very few ask customers to consider making one. While it’s true that good service can speak for itself, a simple reminder can go a long way – it’s call-of-action 101.

Conclusion

There are a lot of different marketing channels you can use to reach potential customers. The most important thing is to identify your target market and figure out where they spend their time. Once you know that, you can start creating content that will reach them.

Home services companies need to be competitive in order to attract new customers. Digital marketing is one of the most important aspects of any home services company, and there are a lot of different marketing channels you can use to reach potential customers. The most important thing is to identify your target market and figure out where they spend their time. Once you know that, you can start creating content that will reach them.

Marketing your home services business online can be difficult – especially if you’re facing stiff competition locally. If you need help, consider scheduling a consultation with Sachs Marketing Group – our team has years of experience helping home service professionals reach their local customers.

Have you explored any of these digital marketing tips for your home services business? If not, what’s holding you back?

 

 

Providing equal opportunity is one of the hallmarks of a just and free society. Despite the occasional shortcomings of the law, there are still plenty of hoops for businesses to jump through to make that dream a reality. One of the more overlooked ones is ADA compliance. 

The Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law in 1990 with the aim of making all areas of public life accessible to individuals with disabilities – later in 2010, the Americans with Disabilities Act Standards for Accessible Design included all electronic and information technology under that umbrella, requiring that people with disabilities, such as hearing loss or a visual impairment, could access public information online. 

That means businesses that are non-ADA-compliant might find themselves on the wrong end of a lawsuit due to discriminatory practices. But what does ADA compliance look like, and why does it matter beyond avoiding potential litigation? 

How ADA Compliance is Applied Online

Accessibility is an important and ongoing discussion in the world of modern web design and user interfacing. We take our eyes and ears for granted too often, and forget about the importance of alt text, text-to-speech compatibility, and other methods of accessibility for the deaf, blind, and differently-abled. 

In the context of the law, ADA compliance helps avoid lawsuits. The ADA ensures that Americans with disabilities share the same civil rights afforded to their abled peers. 

[smgquote author=”Eric Sachs”]
While we are NOT a law firm and do not offer legal advice to our clients, we are always very vested in the success of our clients’ campaigns. ADA compliance issues, as they relate to web design, can be confusing and we always recommend consulting with an attorney who is well-versed in this topic.
[/smgquote]

In the context of modern SEO and digital marketing, a compliant user interface is often one that has had more thought and care put into it than a non-compliant one, resulting in an improved user experience for all customers, while ensuring that your business is not inadvertently excluding over 10 percent of Americans who live with hearing and/or vision-related disabilities, not to mention other conditions such as epilepsy and cognitive disability.   

The ADA requires all businesses who qualify for “public accommodation” to adhere to ADA compliance guidelines. This refers to any and all businesses that operate for at least 20 weeks out of the year, and employ at least 15 full-time employees, as well as businesses that are public-facing, such as banks, public transportation, museums, hotels, swimming pools, and so on. 

Sadly, there is a clear lack of information on what standards must be upheld exactly for online content. In more concrete terms, we know that multiple businesses have been sued for failing to uphold the ADA on their websites, which sets an important precedent. 

For any public-facing business with an online presence, ensuring your content and services online are available to everyone is important. Many businesses have turned to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines for a concrete example of what to do. The WCAG was established as far back as 1999 and has been updated multiple times since. Here are a few things the WCAG emphasizes in its 2.1 guidelines, last updated in June 2018: 

Perceivable

This is perhaps the biggest guideline. Does your content offer accessibility options such as alt text on images and videos, audio alternatives to visual content, compatibility with various assistive technologies that translate content into a different language, or allow for easier access of information to visual- or hearing-impaired visitors? Is your content seizure-friendly?

Operability

Is your content easily navigable? Are links and headers easily identifiable, even with assistive devices? Do you have keyboard navigation? 

Understandability

Is your content easily readable? Is it presented in a way that is plain to follow, and predictable? Is your formatting inobtrusive?

Robustness

This basically translates to device accessibility. How does your media translate across different devices, different browsers, different screens, and different technology? Does your website play nice with different forms of assistive technologies?

The WCAG helps provide a rudimentary set of standards for websites online to better serve all people with disabilities, globally. They attempt to set standards that may help not just the visually or hearing impaired, but those with neurological disabilities, learning conditions, language disabilities, and cognitive disabilities. However, as the guidelines themselves explain, these recommendations are not comprehensive enough to account for the needs and requirements of all potential disabilities. 

There are many common technologies that a website should prepare for, in general. These include text-to-speech screen readers and braille touch devices. Your web developers can test your content for keyboard navigation and compatibility with these technologies. If users report having problems accessing the information on your website, take care to acknowledge and review these issues, to avoid future complications. 

If you are interested in going the extra mile to develop a user interface that best serves your customers without compromising on accessibility, you may want to consider a consultation with an accessibility expert. 

It’s Not Just About Accessibility

Going one step further to help provide a seamless or enjoyable browsing experience to disabled visitors requires a significant investment in your overall UI and user experience. 

It means better testing, quality control of your content, and the creation of a uniform, legible web layout and formatting system that displays information accurately and consistently across various devices, resolutions, screen sizes, and more. 

It means better fonts, bigger texts, better contrast, sensible button placement, a simple menu, competent search functions, alt text and text transcripts for all visual media, as well as title tags and meta tags for language. 

These things all have their uses in SEO, as well as adhering to the law. 

Usability as a Key SEO Target

ADA compliance itself does not factor into Google or Bing’s opinions of your content. But most of the effort going into creating an ADA-compliant website almost immediately translates into better SEO, as well. 

Alt text, proper title tags, readable headers, consistent formatting, a better layout, simple navigation tools, linked anchor text, video transcriptions, and high contrast design are all positive website traits and can go a long way towards differentiating your content from your competitors in search engine rankings. 

In other words, great website design reflects positively on your business – and design that takes accessibility into account is often going to be good design. Furthermore, while ADA compliance itself does not factor into your ranking immediately, Google is continuing to place a growing emphasis on usability and user experiences – including recently highlighting the importance of conforming to the three Core Web Vitals. If you want your content to shine brightest, it’s high time to pay attention to UX. 

On a large scale, digital marketing did not change much in 2022. You want your website to rank well, have an interesting social media presence, dominate the local competition for your respective niche or industry, and look into the benefits of promoting and selling your products or services through e-commerce.

But on a more granular level, businesses should beware of the way the landscape is changing to favor online and offline interaction, a shift in SEO strategy towards prioritizing UX, better integration for e-commerce platforms on search engines and search ad campaigns, as well as the near-future battlefields of augmented and virtual reality through concrete new features like the AR try-on feature on Instagram and multiple e-commerce platforms, and the looming Metaverse. Let’s take a look at some of the most bang-for-your-buck digital marketing trends in 2022.

What Determines Profitability?

When we say “maximize profit,” we’re talking about digital marketing trends that translate as directly as possible into more leads and more sales. The presupposition, whenever you’re investing in digital marketing, is that your product or service isn’t just good, it’s great.

Digital marketing doesn’t fix or change the way your offering works. It simply addressed the common problem many businesses, particularly smaller businesses, face today: they’re drowning in a sea of online and offline competitors, unable to stand out in a crowd and get people to pay attention.

If your product or service is robust and well worth the price, good marketing will be able to turn interested onlookers and eager visitors into paying (and hopefully repeating!) customers. To that end, these trends should still be your top priorities when aiming to gather leads and convert them into sales.

[smgquote author=”Dominique Hall, SEO – Junior Account Executive”]
Suppose you’re not taking advantage of digital marketing and its current trends. In that case, you’re missing out on prospective customers, unlimited reach for advertising, valuable feedback, and getting FREE insight into what your competitors are up to!
[/smgquote]

Why Search Is Still a Priority

Search engines, particularly Google, continue to be a cornerstone in the daily use of nearly every Internet user. Need to know something? Just “google it”!

Google dominates search, with a market share of 85 percent on desktop. Mobile is a landscape in and of itself, and a growing one at that – since 2019, more than half of all web traffic in the world comes from mobile users. In the US alone, Google enjoys a 89 percent share of the mobile search market.

For this reason, it’s more important than ever to work with a professional digital marketing team specializing in search engine optimization services.

But the way into Google’s heart has changed over the years. There used to be “white-hat” and “black-hat” methods for worming one’s way to the top search results for any given target query. But Google continues to update the way search works on a daily basis, to the point where there are well over a thousand annual changes made to Google’s search algorithm in any given year.

While we might not know the exact inner workings of how algorithms like Bing and Google work, we do have a very good idea. To that end, SEO remains central to good digital marketing. Want to draw in more traffic? Then improve your search rankings and draw in the crowd that your data tells you is most likely to buy into your product or service!

To that end, keyword research is also becoming more and more important. Rather than just try to rank for industry-relevant search terms, investing your money in keywords that your most important customers are more likely to use is important.

Related: 10 Common SEO Mistakes that Cost You Customers

It’s About Good User Experiences

SEO in recent years has shifted towards making websites accountable for having a good user experience on both desktop and mobile – especially mobile. As the global share of web traffic tipped towards mobile in 2019, search engines like Google and Bing want companies and individuals to pay closer attention to how their content scales and presents itself across all important screen resolutions and aspect ratios.

Email Going Strong

We’re living in the year 2022, but email marketing remains an important part of a solid digital marketing strategy. However, it’s also easy to waste your time and money investing in an email campaign with poor results.

The key? You need to ensure your leads are interested before including them in your mailing lists and promo offers. Exclusivity is the name of the game. Instead of trying to farm emails to spam, email campaigns become more valuable (and are less penalized) if your recipients regularly open your messages and check their contents.

Social Media (Still) Matters

Yes, yes, we’ve all heard that Facebook is dead, but it and other social media networks continue to provide a list of growing features and a steadily growing user base. Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook have expressed continued interest in implementing in-house e-commerce features for businesses and expanding their usability for companies through business-specific perks like item listings and customer chats.

In addition to these newer features, social media marketing still remains one of the easiest ways to gather customer feedback, directly engage with customer complaints, highlight positive customer experiences, and give your business a personalized online touch.

The Metaverse Is Young

One of the biggest changes in the world of big tech was Facebook’s name change and pivoting towards virtual reality’s future. The Metaverse is still more of a concept than a working online community. Still, these things tend to grow exponentially nowadays – meaning early investment is both prudent and important.

But don’t expect a significant ROI just yet. There are more than a few detractors of the idea of a Meta-centric Metaverse, and they might not be wrong. While the idea of the metaverse is inevitable and has already existed for years, the marketing potential for these environments isn’t quite clear.

Remember the 80-20 Rule

While this list looks suspiciously like a list that could apply to 2021 or nearly any other of the last five years (save for the inclusion of Meta’s new project), the most successful digital marketing trends are generally evergreen. Digital marketing, and your overall online business strategy, should always keep in mind the 80-20 rule, also known as the Pareto Principle – to sum it up, 80 percent of all outcomes are the result of 20 percent of all causes in a business or event.

Trend chasing is not a viable business strategy if your fundamentals are poor. Sticking to your guns and improving the areas in which your business can stand to gain the most – such as beating the competition in local searches, coming up first on social media, growing your platform through offline interactions with your customers, and getting your name out there organically by creating experiences that are worth the word-of-mouth needed to break past the barrier every small business faces – will be your best bet at seeing a real profit from your everyday online input.

However, it’s all easier said than done. Digital marketing can be a minefield for the uninitiated. It’s easy to walk into your first SEO campaign and waste money trying fruitlessly to promote your website through “tricks”, or dump cash into a pay-per-click ad campaign while your site remains unoptimized and thin on meaningful content or useful information. Knowing what trends to keep in mind helps, but you need a concrete plan of action to string this information together and turn it into a steady stream of real leads and sales.

Work with us to boost your online presence and turn your website into a powerful resource for your business.

 

Mobile Site Optimization If you have been keeping up with Google’s SEO changes – which is a full-time job in and of itself – then you might have caught wind of the company’s plans to continue prioritizing mobile accessibility and design when considering search engine results, otherwise known as mobile-first indexing. In summary, Google will pay not just an equal amount of attention to how your website appears on phones; it will pay more attention to mobile-friendly pages than outdated desktop-only sites. What does that mean for you and your company? It means paying close attention to your mobile site optimization, not only to enable an ideal browsing experience for over half of the Internet’s total traffic, but to also keep up with Google’s growing standards and best practices for SEO purposes, and the benefits to be reaped therein. This is one of the most common SEO mistakes you can make, even today. The Importance of Mobile Site Optimization Mobile traffic has grown consistently since the introduction of web-browsing on mobile platforms, from relatively ancient tech like the iconic Nokia 9000 (aptly dubbed the “Communicator”), to the modern iPhone or Android devices. Today, more than half of all Internet traffic comes from mobile devices, and as much as 96 percent of Americans aged 18-29 own a smartphone. There will be a projected 4.3 billion smartphone users worldwide in 2023, and crucially, Google accounts for 93.22 percent of the mobile search market in the US. This positions the platform in an ideal place to make the most out of this market dominance, and that is what they plan on doing – galvanizing their ability to dictate best practices to push businesses towards developing websites and web content with a mobile first approach. That doesn’t mean Google is abandoning what websites are supposed to look like on a bigger monitor screen – in fact, they’ve recently rolled out an update for their guidelines on the desktop page experience. But it does mean that web designers and content creators should be conscientious about how their content is appearing on the small screen, and how that experience then scales up to larger devices. Optimizing for mobile in 2022 means more than just making a mobile-compatible website, or an m-dot URL. The modern website will strive for uniformity across web and desktop content, creating a site experience that is mobile-first, but still enjoyable on larger desktop screens. Uniformity Across Mobile and Desktop Web Content Uniformity across mobile and desktop web content means utilizing responsive design to turn a single URL web experience into an enjoyable and variable experience offering the same content across all screen types and resolutions. That means doing away with mobile-only designs and instead utilizing media queries to dictate to a site how it should reorganize itself and present its content in an enjoyable way on different devices and resolutions. High-quality CSS and scalable vector graphics (.SVG) are key to this, taking stiff and inflexible designs and graphic elements, and turning them into guidelines for a uniform experience that adapts to whatever the user is utilizing, scaling up and down instantly while utilizing code, rather than a hosted image file, massively cutting down on load times and data requirements. An important part of responsive design is copious amounts of testing, as well as a mobile-first philosophy that begins in the early stages of development. When you begin creating your design by optimizing for a small screen, you get to get out in front of most of the problems that arise from creating a rich desktop environment, and then discovering bugs and problems when it’s adapted to a palm-sized device. Focus on Your Core Web Vitals Core Web Vitals are another set of guidelines Google uses to help webmasters prioritize website performance and user experience. Good Core Web Vitals are not just good UX, but are now key to good SEO, which means better traffic and higher rankings. Your Core Web Vitals are summarized as a set of three different factors Google evaluates: Largest contentful paint (LCP) this is the time period needed for a website to display the majority of its content, specifically the largest content element visible in the viewport. This is usually either a large block of text, a large image, or a video. More time, worse score. First input delay (FID) this is the time period between when a user first interacts with your page, and the browser’s response to that interaction. It measures interactivity. More time, worse score. Cumulative layout shift (CLS) this is any instance of “page shift”, wherein elements of the website move around as it loads, causing errors such as clicking on the wrong button because it moved. Any instance of layout shift can result in a poor score. Improving your user experience by prioritizing these Core Web Vitals is an important step towards an optimized mobile experience. Minimize Page Load, Minimize Image Use The heavier a website is, the longer it takes to load. Interactive and visually heavy websites can understandably take longer to load than a text-based page, but that doesn’t mean there is no room for optimization. Use better image file formats (such as .WEBP instead of .JPEG), utilize code wherever possible (prioritizing vector images and CSS/HTML), and compress your images. There’s no need for a user to load the full resolution graphic of your company logo on every page. Smart image compression can drastically cut down on what a user needs to load without compromising quality in any meaningful way. For e-commerce platforms where high-quality pictures are important, many e-commerce platforms use responsive resolutions to change the resolution of an image only when a user interacts with it. [smgquote author=”Eric Sachs, CEO”] Anything that takes more than three or four seconds to load is too slow. [/smgquote] Cut Out the Pop-Ups Google penalizes websites for different practices, including paid backlinks, spamming your URL across countless platforms, comment spam, and plagiarism. One important practice to avoid both for the sake of your ranking and for the sake of your users is unwanted pop-up ads or intrusive interstitial ad design. This is especially important on mobile, where it might be harder to click that “x” in the corner without accidentally clicking on the ad. Review Your Content on Multiple Platforms An easy way to do this is through emulators and testing tools. BrowserStack, for example, lets you test your design across thousands of platforms and multiple different browsers, so you can instantly check for errors and differences between devices in terms of load times, functionality, and user experience. If possible, test on your own native devices in the office for a more authentic experience. Emulators can approximate the experience, but it isn’t always 100 percent accurate. Note that even between the same manufacturers, there can be differences in the way one phone’s OS and browser handles a website versus another. Make Use of Schema to Identify Your Content Online Schema markup creates a description of the webpage it is added to for browsers to use while indexing content, called a rich snippet. Schema is the result of a collaboration between top search engines back in 2011, and continues to be relevant today, if not more than ever. What Schema does is create a more intelligent and descriptive snippet for search engines to categorize and sort content on the World Wide Web. Utilizing this to your advantage is a general SEO tip, one that is relevant to both web and mobile pages. Don’t Wait! The last and most important mobile site optimization tip is to get to it! Mobile-first web development has been the best practice for a few years now and staying behind means missing out providing an optimal experience for the majority of web traffic on the net, which can cost you dearly.

For more information on optimizing your content for mobile devices, or a consultation, be sure to Contact Us!

Google has been making strides to position its Google Ads Performance Max campaigns as the next big thing, replacing Smart Shopping and Local ad campaigns later this year. This means advertisers will need to get comfortable with the relatively new Performance Max features, including the new updates Google plans to roll out throughout the rest of the month.

Explaining the New Features

Despite rolling out Performance Max quite recently (November 2021), Google has already made announcements for three new features, namely a new customer acquisition goal type, new insight tools, and a new one-click upgrade tool for existing campaigns.

Delving Into New Insights

Customer Interest Insights are a new metric of insights being added to the Insights page on Google Ads. As implied, the idea here is to provide advertisers more actionable data on similar or relevant searches that are leading to conversions by customers or target audiences in your goal group.

Google is also adding Asset Audience Insights. These will be focused on providing you with data on how well your images and videos are performing. The best way to improve your Performance Max ad campaigns, at this point, is to improve the quality of your images, video, and text assets – this new insight should help with that.

Finally, Google will be adding Diagnostic Insights to Performance Max campaigns. These should help identify any problems that are keeping ads from being shown to users.

[smgquote author=”Rigoberto Flores, Google Ads Specialist”]
We’re excited that Performance Max takes advantage of Google’s machine learning capabilities to serve your content across Google’s entire network.
[/smgquote]

Setting a New Goal Type

Goal types are an important way to establish what Google Ads Performance Max should be doing to serve ads to users. Existing campaign objectives include higher website traffic, generating leads, driving sales, promoting local store visits, or creating brand awareness, for example.

The goal type Google is adding next is actually a migration from Smart Shopping: the customer acquisition goal type. This goal type helps advertisers look for customers who are similar in profile to existing customers, and focus on obtaining new customers only, rather than trying to entice repeat business.

Upgrade Tool

Since Google Ads Performance Max will be taking over Local and Smart Shopping campaigns, Google will be rolling out an upgrade tool to help convert campaigns in just one click. The rollout for the one-click upgrade tool is starting with Smart Shopping campaigns and will be available for Local ad campaigns in June.

What are Google Ads Performance Max Campaigns?

Google Ads’ new Performance Max campaigns are smart campaigns generated by Google based on your target audience or campaign goals, and asset groups established and provided by you through image and video material.

In other words, Performance Max is Google’s latest in a line of automated ad tools, alongside Responsive Search Ads and Smart Bidding.

What sets Performance Max apart from previous iterations is that it’s incredibly versatile and works really well. Rather than limit itself to a handful of ad types during testing, Performance Max takes the assets given to it and distributes ads to users across all Google platforms, including YouTube, Search, Gmail, Maps, Display, and Discovery, all from a single campaign.

[smgquote author=”Tyson Crandall, COO”]
Performance Max is the future and will be the standard of Google Ads. For example, Google’s Smart Shopping and Local campaigns will automatically upgrade to Performance Max in late 2022.
[/smgquote]

Google Ads Performance Max utilizes user cookies to match your campaign material to any relevant user’s current search experience, creating customized ads that are context-sensitive and appear differently on YouTube than they might on Google Maps or Google Search – while taking away all the leg work involved in personally handcrafting each ad per platform.

No more individualizing your campaigns and putting different teams in charge of different Google channels. No more headaches deciding what graphic to use for what campaign. Simply feed Google what you’ve got, and it will decide how to use your material optimally.

While Performance Max is still a relatively new feature, Google has shared a lot about how it works, and how to make the most out of it.

Performance Max Does Not Let You Choose Channels

First and foremost, it is important to note that Performance Max will match what is given to the type of content it can provide users. This means you cannot choose whether your ads will appear on YouTube, Search, and Maps, or only YouTube and Search.

However, you can artificially limit and control how and when your ads show up based on what assets you feed Performance Max. If you do not want to run any ads aside from shopping ads, for example, you can “manipulate” Performance Max into displaying shopping ads by connecting your merchant feed to it and providing no other text, video, or image assets.

On the topic of shopping ads, Performance Max is taking over and effectively cannibalizing your shopping campaigns. This means if you are running a Performance Max campaign in addition to a shopping/Smart Shopping campaign, Performance Max will take precedence.

Users have made note of this as soon as the new campaign started rolling out, but Google has clarified that this is intentional. It also means that your shopping ads will be rolled out onto other Google channels whenever they are relevant to any given user’s search query or browsing experience.

[smgquote author=”Rigoberto Flores, Google Ads Specialist”]
Performance Max is a game changer for any business looking to get ahead of the competition because it’s so new.
[/smgquote]

Performance Max and Search Campaigns

Performance Max is designed to be run alongside existing search, display, and YouTube campaigns. So, while Performance Max will be used as an adjacent upgrade or straight upgrade from the shopping/Smart Shopping campaigns, and will take precedence over those, it will not take precedence over other campaigns.

This means, that if all things are equal, keywords targeted via your search campaigns will take priority over Performance Max campaigns.

Google Ads Performance Max is Data Sensitive

Because Performance Max relies on the data being fed into it, Google has been making note that advertisers need to be careful about distinguishing between leads and conversions, as well as providing further context for the value of a conversion by adding data for repeat customers and returning sales (especially in an eCommerce context).

Accurately reporting conversion data helps Performance Max determine better, more accurate goals, and target users that are far more likely to turn into conversions, rather than just leads. This means less money wasted, a greater ROI, and greater user satisfaction (for both potential conversions and advertisers alike).

What This Means for You

Performance Max represents a new kind of automated ad campaign, and a push away from individually crafted ad campaigns per channel towards goal-oriented fine-tuning to create the kind of campaign you want.

Because the tool is still relatively new, it will take a little longer to establish best practices and identify ways to improve effectiveness. Google will be eager to please with its new feature, however, so it is highly encouraged to give it a try for your campaigns, with your existing or new video and image material.

If you need help navigating this, or any Google Ads features, please reach-out to Sachs Marketing Group and our team of Google Ads experts will be happy to assist you.

In late October, Microsoft announced Microsoft’s partnership with Shopify, marking a strategic collaboration between these tech giants. This alliance aims to expand e-commerce capabilities by integrating Shopify’s extensive merchant network with Microsoft’s vast consumer base. This partnership promises to enhance online shopping experiences, offering greater reach and efficiency for businesses and a more seamless experience for consumers navigating the digital marketplace.

Microsoft announced a partnership with Shopify in late October, stating that they are “always looking for ways to help connect brands with consumers”.

This new partnership comes in the form of simplified integration for Shopify merchants with Microsoft Search Network, Microsoft Audience Network, and a number of other Microsoft products. The adoption of Shopify as a partner in the ecommerce space closely follows Google’s Shopify and WooCommerce integration across its own search products.

Exploring the New Partnership

Primarily, Microsoft’s new partnership with Shopify takes on the form of integrated services in search results and interactive elements on Microsoft Edge (the company’s web browser) and Microsoft Bing (the company’s search engine). Shopify is also being integrated into Microsoft Start, as well as the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central service. According to a blog post announcing the partnership:

“Using the Shopping tab on Microsoft Bing, and Microsoft Edge, you will now see more diverse products, better prices, and improved discovery of deals. You will also be able to simply check out via the Shopping tab on Microsoft Bing quickly and securely.”

More concretely, Shopify merchants can begin adding their products to Microsoft Search Network and the updated Microsoft Start via the new and improved Microsoft Channel app in Shopify. Merchants will need to create or use an existing Microsoft Advertising account to get started.

Once they’ve logged themselves into the app, merchants will be able to review and amend their ad campaigns via Shopify and check performance metrics on Bing and other Microsoft products.

So far, Microsoft has confirmed that all product listings are automatically able to be shown on the Microsoft Start Shopping tab, and the Microsoft Bing Shopping tab.

Other announced features that are still in the works include quick checkout via product listings and ads on Bing and other Microsoft products.

Getting started with the Microsoft Channel is quite easy. Once you have your Microsoft Advertising account, you can select the Microsoft Channel app on Shopify and log in with the account of your choosing. Unlike the Microsoft Advertising app previously providing Shopify integration, you will no longer need to fill out a form to create a Microsoft Merchant Center.

One of the major identifiable differences between the Microsoft Advertising app on Shopify and the new partnership is the availability of free listings. Microsoft came to the same conclusion as Google, in the sense that you need people to find shopping on Microsoft products like Bing, Edge, and Start easy and convenient, and have a wide variety of listings available. Google revealed last year that switching to mostly free listings on the Shopping tab led to an 80 percent increase in merchants on Google, with most of them being small to medium businesses.

You could previously only launch new ad campaigns by filling out the relevant information and setting a daily budget under Shopify. But with Microsoft Channel, you can automatically include your product listings and ads as free listings, by oping in under Microsoft > Sales Channels > Get started > Free listings. You can also continue to manage and review paid ad campaigns launched on Microsoft products via Shopify. You can learn more about installing apps on Shopify via their help desk.

In addition to expanding the functionality of Microsoft apps on the Shopify platform, Shopify has teamed up with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central to provide business management tools for Shopify merchants utilizing the Shopify Global ERP Program, which allows Shopify merchants to utilize Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP) products for more functionality on the Shopify App Store. More information can be found on Shopify’s news page.

Shopify and Microsoft Start

Microsoft’s new partnership with Shopify will allow merchants to integrate their ad listings on Microsoft Start, in addition to Microsoft Edge and Bing.

Microsoft Start is a rebranded version of Microsoft News, and is available on mobile devices (both Android and iOS), the News and Interests service widget on Windows 10 and 11, the Microsoft Edge new tab page, and the web.

It functions as a personalized news feed and was released earlier in September. According to Microsoft, Microsoft Start is utilizing “enhanced AI and machine learning paired with human moderation” to pick and choose content for users.

Microsoft Start is best seen as Microsoft’s efforts to consolidate the features and changes they’ve implemented over the years to MSN, Microsoft News, and the News and Interests service widget.

However, while Microsoft Start will provide content and information users might be interested in, Shopify ads are currently confined to the Shopping tab on the Microsoft Start page.

Other Shopify Integrations

While Google and Microsoft are notable examples, Shopify has been collaborating with big names throughout the tech market and retail business, including Facebook, Walmart, and even TikTok.

Each of these integrations point towards an ever-growing culture of corporate collaboration and data-sharing in the ecommerce space, empowering merchants to grow their business online through a variety of avenues and platforms, all without ever needing to leave the Shopify app.

Microsoft Teases More to Come

During its announcement, Microsoft went on to clarify that this is just the beginning. The company plans on introducing “some great new shopping enhancements we will be rolling out to provide thoughtful, convenient, and more secure experiences for shoppers.”

What exactly this means, however, remains to be seen. As we’ve mentioned, the new Shopify integration is following suit in Google’s similar partnership with both Shopify and WooCommerce this year, and both companies seem to be banking on an ecommerce boom in the second Black Friday of the pandemic.

Whatever might be in store for us, Shopify merchants and users of other common ecommerce platforms will want to keep an eye out for new partnerships, app integrations, special deals, and other news to come. Ecommerce was one of the fastest growing industries over the last two years, and it’s clear that the pace isn’t slowing.