Posts By: Chris Wielinski

Every Where You Turn -There is an App For That! Is There an App For Your Business?

Posted by & filed under Uncategorized.

100 billion searches are done using Google every month, so you know as a business owner, you have to be able to be found, but do you think a website is enough? Before you make that call you need to consult with a professional app design company Fort Worth businesses turn to.

The fact is a website is a great jumping-off point to create your digital presence but even that has a few caveats and it is by far not the only experience you should be offering your audience. Digital marketing is most effective in layers.

The Layers

Your website is like the foundation of a building. You want it to be strong, powerful and ready to support the rest of your marketing activities. A weak outdated website cannot support all the other layers of your marketing and building a powerful online presence.

Ideally your website will be up to the date, modern, easy to navigate and engaging. Professional website design Fort Worth can help get your website up to speed so you can start working on the other layers.

Once your website is what it should be then you can start adding the other layers like:

  • Social media marketing
  • PPC services, SEO services
  • Launching your app

Each piece of the process can come together easily with the right support. Social media marketing, PPC services, SEO services and an app designed specifically for your business are like cogs in the wheel. Each part has an important job.

Do You Need an App?

A lot of business owners wonder if an app is a necessary part of their marketing kit. The fact is you do not need an app for your business but another fact is your competitors likely have one. There are an estimated 5 billion mobile users worldwide with around 76% using apps.

An experienced app design company Fort Worth can help you to customize your customer’s experience through an app developed specifically for your business. The use of apps has shown to increase loyalty, improve shoppers’ experiences and improve targeting for marketing campaigns.

Worldwide there were an estimated 194 billion app downloads. Consumers are using apps for everything from grocery shopping to finding a new pair of shoes to managing their banking needs. There is an endless list of apps available that businesses just like yours are using to endear themselves to customers.

Learning more from a trusted app design company Fort Worth about the options can help you to make an informed decision.

A Digital Marketing Guide For The Digitally Illiterate Business Owner

Posted by & filed under Uncategorized.

The world we live in today is changing at an incredible rate. Social media marketing and digital marketing services have exploded in popularity in the years since the first home computers were developed. A few decades ago, a new business was dependent on billboards, direct mail, and newspaper ads to reach their target audience. Now, entrepreneurs can leverage Google search results, Facebook ads, and Youtube videos to reach their target customers. Of course, while there are many new tools available to market your local business, not many business owners actually know how to take advantage of digital marketing tools such as SEO.

In fact, many business owners know next to nothing about search engine marketing — and that’s nothing to be ashamed of! Even the most successful small business owners will need digital marketing help.

If you don’t know the difference between search engine optimization and paid search advertising, then we’re here to help. Keep reading for a simple introduction to the exciting world of digital marketing.

What is digital marketing and how do I tap into this progressive industry?

Well, digital marketing lets your business use the internet to gain new customers. It’s an umbrella term that includes a variety of strategies.

Some popular digital marketing techniques include:

  • Search Engine Optimization (SEO): the practice of optimizing your website so that potential customers can find you on search engines like Google.
  • Social media marketing: using social media apps like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to attract new customers for your business (or to bring back existing customers).
  • Paid search engine marketing: This can be done on platforms such as Google, Facebook, and Instagram. It involves placing paid digital advertisements where your target audience spends their time online.

In addition, content marketing is a popular strategy. Content marketing can involve any type of creative content your business produces for the web. This can include blog posts, graphics and similar visual assets, and videos. Today, we get bored quickly. The average internet use and will stop scrolling after 10 seconds if their attention has not been grabbed. Compelling content can be a great way to attract new customers to your website, which is why content marketing is growing fast this year.

When producing videos, articles, or infographics for the web, be funny and humorous. The internet can be a silly place, and if it’s too serious, the public will lose interest quickly. No matter what type of content you produce, you need to consider SEO. Without an SEO strategy, the content you produce will be impossible to find in the vast ocean of content available online. If you are a tech-savvy person, then this will be a breeze. Of course, this blog post is for people who definitely aren’t tech-savvy.

Ultimately, if you want your business to succeed online, you’re going to need to ask for digital marketing help. While some small business owners do manage digital marketing themselves, most will turn to a local SEO company or digital marketing agency for assistance. In the same way, business owners in the past would turn to a local advertising agency for help designing and placing billboard ads or TV commercials. And, compared to traditional media, digital marketing is incredibly affordable.

We’ve discussed a lot of different digital marketing strategies in this post, and we haven’t even touched on data analytics, custom web design, or software development. The good news is that you don’t need to be an expert in any of these tools. You just need to know when to ask for digital marketing help. If you’re missing out on business because of a lackluster digital presence, then the time has come to ask for help. If you find the right partner, your business could soon be generating hundreds of new leads with the power of the internet.

3 Tips For Higher Search Rankings

Posted by & filed under Social Media.

When you market on social media, the use of SEO is an integral part of the overall process for client response and growth. Social media sites, of course, promote one’s brand and are the platforms used most today. SEO (search engine optimization) marketing gets you noticed more quickly and listed more prominently in the ever competitive search engine rankings.

For the naysayers, consider this statistic. According to SalesForce Marketing Cloud, more than four-fifths of customers “like” or “love” when a business communicates with them via social media. Maybe you are not as SEO or social media savvy as you’d like. Don’t be discouraged. Below are important social media practices that will increase your SEO performance.

  1. Increase followers. Your search rankings are influenced, in part, by the number of social media followers you have. A company, partnership, corporation, or a mom-and-pop shop will have higher rankings with 10,000 Twitter followers, or “likes” on Facebook, than if they have 50.
    • If you are a vigilant social media user, consistent in your message and in your voice, and post helpful blogs and answer questions, you’ll grow your online presence. Direct customer engagement is a key that will gain you return customers, which will increase the likelihood of new customers.
  2. Connect with external links. Social media relies on external links, if you want to be seen as a significant online presence in Google’s or Bing’s eyes.
    • Hashtags will make gain traction with an audience and connect them with links that support or reflect your brand. This is the quickest and easiest way to connect via external links.
  3. Social media sharing. Social media sharing adds street credibility to your brand in a similar fashion as external links.
    • Encourage followers to share your content with others. It’s a numbers game. The more shares, the higher your visibility and ranking. It has a snowball effect.

These are 3 easy and effective social media tips that will increase your social media SEO. When your brand awareness increases, so do your search rankings. Keep it simple. Think followers, external links, and sharing to get your brand out to more users.

At the same time, the major search engines will rank you higher, which will give you a social media SEO advantage and even more followers and customers.

Online Marketing Advice for New Business Owners

Posted by & filed under Pay Per Click.

In these technological days, starting a business is easier and easier. Many people are choosing to use the internet, especially social media as a tool to generate income. If you are considering this route, there are a few tricks you should know to help you get off to a good start.

Pay Per Click

Pay per click advertising, also known as PPC, is one of the methods businesses use to drive traffic to their site. Businesses place bids on specific placements with search engines and affiliate websites and then pay a small fee every time their ad is clicked. It is one of the ways businesses drive traffic to their site, but it is also an effective means as over 90% of a customer’s online experience starts with a search engine. A new business should almost always include PPC marketing as a part of their marketing plan. If done correctly, pay per click marketing can get your name and website in front of the right customers, and help bring in dollars, especially in the start-up phase.

Social Media Marketing

Social media ads and posts have become an integral part of marketing. Social media is a great way to build organic traffic for your brand. It is important to have a social media marketing plan in place before you embark on this phase of marketing. You should decide which social media channels you want to create accounts on, what is going to be your personality online, and who is going to manage the accounts. You also need to take some time to research what your competitor’s social media accounts look like. It is important to know how you can differentiate yourself from them.

Marketing Agency or DIY

Deciding if you want to manage your own marketing, or hire a marketing company depends on many different factors. A few of which include your launch budget, overall business budget, earning goals, and overall business goals. For example, if you are a sole proprietorship looking to earn some extra money, the DIY marketing route is probably for you. In that case, organic marketing and social media is your best bet.

Business owners that are looking to grow from a sole proprietorship or that rely heavily on commerce, marketing is a very important part of business development that is not to be ignored. For those entrepreneurs, marketing companies are a great resource. Marketing firms offer a wide array of services to help you launch and maintain a strong presence in your industry.

Starting a business can be a fun and interesting endeavor, especially if it leads to a successful business. Marketing is one of the most important components of starting and maintaining a successful business, it is not to be ignored. Luckily, the internet has made marketing much easier than it used to be. Online marketing has made it so that you can reach and connect with your customer base, no matter where they are in the world.

Using SEO and Social Media Marketing to Enhance Your Business

Posted by & filed under Uncategorized.

Data from a recent Global Digital Outlook Study in 2017/18 shows that 43% of marketers worldwide are increasing their digital marketing investment efforts. Currently, about 50% are spending half or more of their entire marketing budget on marketing intended for digital platforms. Don’t let your business be left behind by falling prey to the nostalgic pull of outdated marketing strategies. Look around you. Everyone carries a phone nowadays, and the advantages of digital marketing services are vast. Business data suggests this trend will only continue into the future. While there are many approaches to digital marketing, a few methods have proven to be most effective over the past few years. Among them, search engine optimization (SEO) and social media marketing lead the way.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO refers to the process of generating organic traffic on your website based off of the presence of keywords related to your specific industry. Search engines crawl millions of databases to rank a website in your users’ search results, and using SEO services will help your site get the attention it deserves. Keywords can be native within your website or published in site-wide content such as blog posts. The concepts behind good SEO are quite simple, but the execution can be complex. It’s best to hire a high quality SEO company to ensure you’re doing things the right way.

Social Media Marketing

The explosion of social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn present an enormous opportunity for digital marketers. Using these platforms is a fun way to engage with your audience and attract new clients. Some of the bedrock social media marketing practices include diversifying your output across many platforms, establishing a consistent brand voice, posting regularly, and interacting with your audience.

Any relevant marketing strategy should follow the public’s lead, capturing prime attention where it is in the present moment, not where it was in the past. While it may be tempting to continue to throw advertising dollars at print and television, the data shows us again and again that digital is the new business terrain. All precious longings for the ‘good ol days’ should be quickly abandoned to make way for newer, more engaging digital marketing services.

Designing an Excellent Organic Marketing Strategy

Posted by & filed under Inbound Marketing.

What is Organic Marketing?

Organic marketing is best defined by what it isn’t. It isn’t paid marketing. Paying for advertisements via Google or Facebook, for instance, are considered non-organic sources of traffic. Organic marketing is making it easy for your customers to find your business naturally. This might occur through a non paid google search via use of SEO best practices, or perhaps it is done on Instagram with the proper use of hashtags. Either way, organic traffic is great because once your organic marketing strategy is in place, it doesn’t cost nearly as much money to generate new leads.

Beyond that, traffic that is generated from organic marketing tends to close at a much higher rate. Statistically, inbound SEO leads will close at an average rate of 15%, whereas outbound leads from direct mail, PPC advertising, or other sources close at around 2%. That’s not a typo, it’s actually standard performance in many PPC campaigns. Beyond the close rate, there are a number of other advantages to developing a great social media and SEO strategy for your business. As more and more shopping is done online, having an organic marketing strategy is essential.

Top Tips for a Successful Organic Marketing Strategy

Pay Attention to SEO Titles: Though you may not be able to judge a book by its cover, that doesn’t stop people from doing so. Same goes for SEO titles. Strong titles for content generate clicks. Be sure that the most important keywords are included first in the title, followed by the next most important, and then the brand name should follow. Titles should generally only be 50 or so characters long and MUST be relevant to the content on the page. If you aren’t sure what keywords are most important for your SEO strategy, we would be happy to do a keyword analysis with you to find the optimal key terms for your business.

Implement Tracking and A/B Test: This is perhaps the most overlooked aspect of generating organic traffic via SEO and social media. In order to know if something you are doing is working, it is imperative that you identify the end result you are trying to achieve, and all of the steps along the way. Then find ways to track each o those steps. How many new visitors did your new article generate? Where did those visitors go after they finished reading the article? How many joined your mailing list? How many purchased a product? These are all vital pieces of information that you need to know. With information, you can also A/B test to find the most effective ways to market to your organic audience.

Optimize Social Media Platforms: Not every social media platform is needed for every business. Start by identifying where your ideal customers spend their time. Is it Instagram? Snapchat? LinkedIn? Where will they be most receptive to seeing your brand? Then, make sure your social presence on those platforms is optimized to generate new traffic and sales. A few key things to remember on social media: Have an easy to remember handle, recognizable photo or brand logo, and a trackable link back to your website.

Use “Evergreen” Content: As often as possible, post content that will stay relevant forever. For example, a review of the iPhone 3 is something that nobody cares about anymore. It is dead content. However posting an article about how to use an iPhone camera is great, because even as Apple comes out with new iPhones, the camera feature will remain relatively untouched. Keep content relevant and post content that will stay relevant for a long, long time.

Managing all aspects of an organic online marketing campaign can be time-consuming. There are so many facets that if you haven’t been specializing in the area, it can be easy to miss key aspects to generate leads. This is where most businesses give up on organic online marketing – because they aren’t aware of current best practices. Let us handle your SEO services and other online marketing strategies. This will let you focus on the things that are most important to keeping your business healthy and growing.

Five Reasons to Use a Digital Marketing Service

Posted by & filed under Uncategorized.

If you are in the marketing business, you know very well that every single day the competition is getting stronger. Success is always a matter of combining your efforts and your budget but also making sure that your online marketing strategy is effective. Here are five reasons why your online marketing strategy should include a digital marketing service.

1. Stay Competitive

It is imperative to not only be up-to-date with your competition these days. Even better, you want to be ahead of the curve. Using a digital market service will keep you relevant and keep you in touch with what your competitors are doing. 

2. Utilize Social Media

Marketing through social media is one of the best ways to benefit from your online marketing strategy. For instance, it has been proven that businesses who publish blog posts have an increase in traffic on their websites. Those businesses that do not publish a blog post at least once a month fall behind the competition of companies that publish monthly blog posts totally totaling 16 or more. Those companies have nearly 3.5 times more traffic on their site, compared to the competition. Social media is a great way to promote your blog posts and increase your reach. So, a digital marketing service that can execute a social media marketing plan for you will yield results.

3. Benefit from Experience 

There is no reason to reinvent the wheel, is there? Choosing a digital marketing service to help with your business makes a lot of sense. The expertise that a digital marketing service can bring to you as a business owner will prevent you from repeating mistakes others have made in the past and free you up to move forward with a content strategy that is much more profitable.

4. Exclusively Designed for You

A digital marketing service will look at your entire vision for your business and work with that, incorporating it into your marketing strategy. From web design services to visual assets, and more, a digital marketing service will provide you with a customized management strategy.

5. Effective Use of Resources

There are new advances being made in technology practically every day. A good professional digital marketing service will have the most up-to-date and effective tools to provide a marketing strategy that will get you a great return on your investment. Let’s face it, it is virtually impossible to stay on top of every new resource, especially when you are running a company. Or there may be a very effective resource in existence that you are not utilizing. However, a good digital marketing service will make using all resources a top priority. Ultimately, this approach may increase your profits, but you may also save time and money during the process.

Hiring a really is a very effective way to put your business model and business strategy in the hands of professionals. Much more than a website design company, businesses that offer a digital marketing service now provide many different types of professional services that all tie together to make your business more successful.

3 Signs It’s Time To Hire A Marketing Agency

Posted by & filed under Inbound Marketing.

When CEOs and business owners get overwhelmed by their workload over time, they often put other priorities like marketing on the back burner. Unfortunately, putting marketing on the table only results in decreased profitability and unmet goals.

If you’ve been struggling to keep up with your company’s marketing and you’ve been falling behind, it may be time to invest in a full service marketing agency. But, if you’re unsure, here are a few signs when it’s time to make that outsourcing decision.

  1. Your in-house team is as overwhelmed as you are. Overworked and overwhelmed employees is a problem not just because it increases your turnover rate but also because it stretches their talents and limits their productivity. Stress can manifest itself as underwhelming performances and half-hearted decision making. By transferring some of your in-house team’s responsibility to a marketing agency, you increase your team’s productivity and reduce stress for everyone.
  2. You can’t tell what’s working and what isn’t. It’s vital that your business is able to analyze your strengths and weaknesses as a company so you can achieve your goals. If you’re unable to figure out why you’re not maximizing your ROI or what inbound marketing initiative is best to drive leads, a marketing agency can find those answers for you.
  3. Your competitors use marketing agencies. Marketing agencies give you a leg up by taking some of the weight of responsibility off your shoulders and more hands on deck. When your competitor has a marketing agency and you don’t, it could cause your business to fall behind. New people bring fresh perspectives, especially when they’re working from the outside. Just be sure that the marketing agency you choose to hire understands your needs as a business and your company culture. You may be outsourcing your agency, but it’s important that you work together as a business partnership.

Ready to hire a full service marketing agency?

Google receives more than 100 billion searches every month. Without the proper content and marketing strategies, the customers making those searches won’t find your company’s website. That’s where Think Cre8tive comes in.

Think Cre8tive is a full service marketing agency that offers SEO services, PPC advertising, social media marketing, and web design all in one place. For more information about our services, contact Think Cre8tive today.

Your Crucial Questions About Keywords, Answered

Posted by & filed under Search Engine Optimization.

It’s common to see online articles talking about the death of keywords and how digital marketing is shifting away from the keyword-focused world of SEO. But keywords are still an important part of growing your company’s organic traffic.

Although SEO is slowly turning toward long-form keywords with the popularity of AI assistants, mastering keywords can still help your business’ content strategy if you use them correctly. That said, here are some of your most pressing questions about keywords and content strategy answered.

What are keywords in SEO?

SEO keywords don’t just refer to the words you type into a search engine. They also describe what a specific piece of content is about. Keywords are what allows search engines to rank your content properly and online users to find the answers to questions they have.

It’s important to remember that the power of the keyword isn’t in the word itself but in the context it’s used. This helps search engines deliver good content to online users and avoid keyword-stuffed nonsense.

What does keyword difficulty mean?

Keyword difficulty may sound like it refers to the complexity of the keyword used. But it actually refers to the keyword’s competitiveness. It’s also a measure of how challenging it is for a business to rank for that specific keyword.

Your domain authority and paid search volume factor both contribute to keyword difficulty. It’s easier to rank for a specific keyword if that keyword has a lower keyword difficulty. This is one of the reasons why it’s easier to rank for a keyword with a specific location (e.g. “cat food in Spokane”) than it is to rank for just the keyword (“cat food”).

How do I find the right keywords?

It can be a process to find the right keywords for your business. Start by clearly defining your target audience and then narrow your focus. Look into the competitiveness of specific keywords you would want to rank for.

From there, it’s all about collecting data, analyzing your results, and repeating as necessary. If you’re not competing as much as you’d like to for a specific keyword, consider switching marketing strategies or changing the keyword.

Looking for digital marketing services for your business?

It’s important to use the right keywords to boost organic traffic in your online marketing. Approximately 93% of all online experiences begin with search engines, which means the keywords you use have a direct impact on the success of your business.

The good news is the digital marketing services of Think Cre8tive can help. Think Cre8tive is a digital marketing agency and SEO company that offers a variety of services to boost your company’s SEO, web design, and social media marketing ads. To learn more about how our digital marketing services can help with your online marketing goals, contact Think Cre8tive today.

Top Ways to Build Organic Traffic Online

Posted by & filed under Inbound Marketing.

One of the functions of websites is to drive traffic to your services or products. In addition to providing information about your business or products, it ideally also entices potential customers to try it out for themselves. Hopefully, that traffic then converts into sales. However, one of the challenges for every business is figuring out how to build organic traffic online. We’ll break down some of the best ways to make this happen for your business in this article. The more traffic you get, the higher the chance that a percentage of those will convert into sales. For example, if say, 1% of your traffic turns into a sale, having 100,000 visitors to your site is way better than 1,000. So let’s jump into the wide world of figuring out how to build organic traffic online and bolster your business’s online presence. 

What Is Organic Traffic Exactly? 

There are two main types of “traffic” in the online world. One is paid traffic, which stems from visits to a site because of advertisements that the business pays for. Organic traffic is essentially “free” — people come to your site because they’ve done an online search for a specific set of keywords that directs them to your site. There’s no third-party referral via advertisements. 

Organic traffic is important because it gives you more control. Paid advertisements are an important piece of the pie, certainly, but by establishing a strong flow of organic traffic, you know that people coming to your website are doing so because of the keywords that have led them to you — keywords that describe your business, products, or services. It’s an important part of branding your business. 

How Do I Build Organic Traffic Online? 

One of the most important ways that you can boost organic traffic is by making good quality content and publishing it regularly. For example, businesses that release 16 or more blog posts a month see almost four times the traffic compared to companies who do four or fewer monthly posts. 

Social media is also an important aspect. It can really help to get your business out there, and with over 70% of adults using Facebook (according to the Pew Research Center), this is a step you can’t afford to miss. Indeed, 70% of online referrals are generated from what’s called “dark” social networking (that is, one user sharing with another), through messaging apps, e-mails, and private browsing. You want to take advantage of that and provide shareable links and interesting content to promote your brand. 

Being smart about your keywords is also important. When you’re building your content, you want to be sure to include keywords that are more geographically specific to your area and what you’re trying to promote. 

Paying attention to content marketing, making good relationships within the online community of your industry, and staying up to date on trends (and adjusting accordingly) can all also be key when it comes to starting to build organic traffic online. 

How Else Can I Strengthen My Business’s Online Presence? 

If this all sounds a bit daunting — or you’ve started to build, but aren’t sure where to go from here — contacting a digital marketing agency or full service marketing agency isn’t a bad idea. They can help with specific areas like SEO services or social media marketing, but can also help develop a more comprehensive plan for your business going forward. 

Having a good website is also important, so if you’re looking to revamp or update, hiring web design services can give your online profile a nice boost. Online users do judge a book by its cover, so to speak, so if your website is clunky to use or outdated, they’re much more likely to go elsewhere for the same information — something you don’t want! 

In our digital age, having a healthy online presence is crucial when it comes to building a customer base, maintaining it, and growing it. Seek out a marketing firm that can help you expand and deliver with confidence.