#buzz tips

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Google vs Facebook: Where Should I Run Ads?

You know your customers are online, but how do you reach them? Online advertising is a fantastic way to reach many people quickly, but where should you advertise online? And which is better: Google or Facebook?

What are the Differences Between Google Ads and Facebook Ads?

The main difference between Google AdWords and Facebook Ads is how ads are served up.

Google AdWords is a paid search platform, which means it relies on user intent to show ads. When a user types something into Google, ads appears above and below the search results that are related to that keyword. An advertiser selects the keywords they want to run ads for. 

Facebook is a social media platform that uses user interests to show ads. Instead of typing in a specific keyword, Facebook analyzes a user’s demographic information, their likes and their online activity to decide the relevant ads to show them. An advertiser selects the type of person they want to show their ads to (for example, women in their 20s who live near a metro area and like to shop online) and Facebook matches the ad to the user.

Another way to think of it is that Google ad viewers are active, Facebook ad viewers are passive. Google ads are only served to those who are searching, Facebook ads are only served to those who are browsing.

Which is Better: Google AdWords or Facebook Ads?

The simple truth is that neither one is “better” than the other, it just depends on your customer, your industry and desired end result. 

How to Choose Where to Advertise Online

The first step in deciding where to advertise is by looking at your audience personas. Where does your persona spend their time online? Are they active on social media? Do they already know what they’re looking for?

Generally speaking, Google Ads work best when your audience is in the consideration and decision stages of their buyer’s journey – they know what their problem/need is, and they’re actively searching online for solutions. In the example above, the person searching on Google knows they want to see cute sundresses. They’re more likely to click on the ads if they answer the question they have while searching Google.

Meanwhile Facebook Ads largely targets those earlier in the buyer’s journey in their awareness or consideration stages – they may or may not know what their problem/need is. In the example above, the person browsing Facebook is not actively searching for clothing. However, if they are interested in the clothes or had been searching for clothing online elsewhere before visiting Facebook, they may click on the ad.

Still not sure where to run ads? 

  Yep – sometimes the best way to figure out which platform is right for you is by diving in headfirst. If you’ve looked into your persona and goals and are still unsure of where you should advertise, try splitting your budget and running ads on both. Give your ads a few weeks to gain some traction and see what you find – that can help you make an informed decision on where to put your money. 

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Inbound + Online Advertising = 💖

Are you dotting your T’s and crossing your eyes? Getting a marketing campaign off the ground is a frustrating mess of trying to pull together disconnected tools and channels. Instead of relying on notes scribbled on a thousand different notepads, use our Free Inbound Marketing Checklist to make sure you’ve covered all your bases. This download goes more in-depth into inbound marketing and everything you need to get going.

Download the Checklist

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How to Use Instagram for B2B Marketing

Instagram is the land of selfies and food pics, but is there a place for B2B? It may seem like Instagram is only useful for consumer-oriented brands to post cute photos of their products, but B2B brands can also utilize Instagram to generate more business.

HubSpot’s team at their B2B Marketing Lab created a simple-to-follow guide on how to use Instagram for B2B Marketing:

1. Use authentic, real-time user-generated content.

Forget stock photography and staged promotional pictures — it’s time to go real-time. On Instagram, your prospects and leads want authentic content that offers a personal glimpse into your company’s culture and product offerings.

Real-time content, such as live video/live streaming, is unfiltered and 100% you. It adds a much-needed human element to B2B businesses, and helps you form a genuine connection with your audience and potential customers. Extremely professional-looking content can often feel cold and dispassionate — your customers want to know there are real people and real stories behind the branding.

2. Go fast, and mix it up.

Instagram makes it incredibly easy for you to post photos or videos on your phone directly through its application. Just fire the application up, press the add button and select the photo or video you want to upload — it’s that simple.

The advantage of this is that you don’t have to spend ages creating content. You can upload a variety of content wherever, whenever, without much pre-planning or editing required. Different types of content will not only attract and appeal to different members of your audience, but also show different sides to your business. No one wants to just look at images or just quotes on Instagram all day now, do they?

3. Get involved in your niche.

Stop looking through the window at what’s going on inside. Join the party.

Just like any other social media channel, it’s important that you not only post content to your feed, but also partake in the wider conversation. Don’t just post images and videos, reply to your community when they leave a response. Take the time to check out other Instagram profiles, have a browse, like some content and maybe leave a friendly comment here and there.

If you take the time to engage with others, they’re more likely to take the time to engage with you.

4. Make the most of the link in your bio.

While Instagram doesn’t let you link to websites within the captions of posts, you can include one in your bio. You can include up to 150 characters in your Instagram bio — including a link. Your bio is the perfect real estate for a link to your latest blog post or offers. You can also use tools such as Linktree to create a custom link that includes a page with more links, allowing you to share up to five links and get the most out of your bio link!

Alternatively, Instagram Stories are a great way of including links with your content. However, stories only last for 24 hours — this is a limitation, but also a fantastic tool for you to provide real-time offers and value.

5. Tell a story with every single post.

On Instagram, the businesses that tell the most interesting stories build the largest audiences. If you want to attract people to your business and get them to engage with you, you need consistent visual storytelling that cuts through all the noise on Instagram.

Don’t limit your focus to your general photo and video feed. Instagram’s Stories feature allows you to create a slideshow or montage of photo or video. When strung together, tell a story and provide your audience with a more personal experience.

6. Stay away from vanity metrics.

Vanity metrics don’t tell the whole story. While an increase in clicks and likes are beneficial, they don’t tell you if the right people are actually interested your content. Instead, look for indicators of real engagement, such as people commenting on your posts and new followers in your niche. These two metrics give a better indication of how well you are performing and how much exposure your business is actually getting.

Using these techniques, you can get the most out of Instagram for your B2B brand. Once you’ve built up a solid follower base, you can work Instagram into your other inbound or digital marketing strategies. 

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Use Instagram to Push Your Inbound Marketing Further

Instagram is another important tool in your inbound marketing toolbox. Are you dotting your T’s and crossing your eyes? Getting a marketing campaign off the ground is a frustrating mess of trying to pull together disconnected tools and channels. Instead of relying on notes scribbled on a thousand different notepads, use our Free Inbound Marketing Checklist to make sure you’ve covered all your bases. This download goes more in-depth into inbound marketing and everything you need to get going.

Download the Checklist

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Social Media: The Good, The Bad and the WTF

Ah social media…it’s a great way to procrastinate, catch up with old friends and watch companies self-destruct. As long as social media has been around there have been people doing it right…and doing it wrong. 

When businesses get caught up in drama online, it can get ugly, fast. Follow these tips and catch our Social Media Screwups Webinar on September 19 to avoid trouble.

The Good

The truth is that there’s no one-size-fits-all method when it comes to social media. However, there are a few general guidelines that you should keep in mind:

Keep it short

Be authentic

Make it engaging

When talking about successful social media campaigns, it’s pretty hard to ignore BuzzFeed’s massive success. 

This simple post show off all 3 of the how-tos for social media posting: the description is short, it’s authentic to their brand and it invites people to engage the subject matter by posting their take on the meme in the comments.

The Bad

Oftentimes, when business owners go bad on social media it’s in response to a negative review. It’s understandable to be upset when someone is tarnishing your reputation (especially when it’s untrue) but it’s important to reign in your anger unless you want to end up an internet laughing stock. Such was the case for the Radiator Doctor who landed himself and his business in hot water when he responded to a negative review.

If you find yourself in a sticky situation and aren’t sure how to react, we have an entire blog post dedicated on how (and how not) to respond to negative reviews.

The WTF

As long as brands continue to post on social media, horrible decisions will blow up in their face. As we discussed in our roundup of social media fails in 2016, it’s important to always have another person review any “risky” posts before you publish them. 

If you don’t, you’ll find yourself wading into WTF infamy, like this poorly thought out ad that stirred controversy.

Leave the raunchy humor for South Park.

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Sign Up For Our FREE Webinar: Social Media Screwups September 19, 2018

When businesses get caught up in an argument online, or say something that ignites outrage, the word spreads like wildfire, and all (ahem) heck breaks loose. Whether you’re a dentist in Minnesota or a jet-setting PR executive on Twitter, it seems nobody is safe when the Internet mob comes calling.

Sometimes the best medicine is a vaccination of examples (sorry). Let’s get you a shot of what not to do in your social media – both to protect yourself and to get a good laugh – and learn how to handle it when things go badly online.

Sign Up For the Webinar

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Tips for Ranking Locally in Minneapolis

Ranking locally is a struggle, no matter your location. Many of our clients provide services across the country, but want to rank locally in Minneapolis. Generally speaking, the rules for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) are the same whether you want to rank locally or nationally, but there are some location-specific tips.

Ranking Locally vs. Ranking Nationally

Let’s take a step back and talk about the difference between ranking locally and ranking nationally. As Google has grown in sophistication, it’s gotten better about giving people the content they want to see. That includes recommending businesses that are closest to them versus national companies.

A local search ranking is based on a specific area (like Minneapolis). If I’m sitting in a café in Uptown searching for, say, “florist near me”, I want to see Minneapolis florists first in my search results. This is mostly based on location, but you may also notice results for companies that are a few miles away (this means they’ve improved their SEO, which we’ll get to in a minute).

A national search ranking is showing up no matter where a user is searching. In the florist example, you’ll likely still see massive national companies like 1-800-Flowers.com® appearing in search, even though they’re not local. While it’s everyone’s pipe dream to rank top page for all of your keywords no matter where someone is searching, it’s unrealistic for most companies. Generally speaking, companies that rank on national searches are massive companies with very large and depthful websites.

How to Rank Locally in Minneapolis

Have a Google My Business Page

Google loves Google, and especially their tools. If you want to rank locally in Minneapolis, you’ll want to start by creating a Google My Business page if you don’t have one, or optimizing your existing page if you do have one.

Google My Business is vital for local searches. You may not have heard of it, but you’ve definitely seen it in action if you’ve ever searched online for a local business:

Getting your Google My Business up to speed will greatly improve your chances for showing up in Minneapolis searches.

Use Local Keywords

This might sound obvious, but many people overlook this step. If you want to rank in Minneapolis, you have to use the word Minneapolis on your website. Let’s say one of the keywords you want to rank for is “florist.” Simply making an effort to change some of your “florist”s into “Minneapolis Florist” or “Florist in Minneapolis” gives you more oomph in your local rankings.

Revisit Your Website

If all else fails, there may be a deeper problem with your website. If it’s been a few years since your last redesign, it might be time to start from the ground up. Instead of relying on traditional, outdated web design, build your site using User-Centered Web Design. User-Centered Web Design (UCD) is an ongoing process that keeps pace with visitor behavior and changing SEO trends to ensure that your website stays at the top if its game. You can learn all about UCD by downloading our eBook below.

Ranking locally in Minneapolis is easy if you follow these tips.

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Supercharge Your Marketing and Website with User-Centered Web Design – Free eBook

User-Centered Design is not only easier on your team and wallet- continuous updates and improvements to your website will keep your customers coming back for more. This free eBook goes over User-Centered Design and what you need to know to get started.

Download Our FREE User-Centered Design eBook

New Post has been published on https://bizzyweb.com/news/tips-for-ranking-locally-in-minneapolis/?utm_source=TR&utm_medium=news%20article&utm_campaign= Tips+for+Ranking+Locally+in+Minneapolis%20from%20BizzyWeb

Tips for Ranking Locally in Minneapolis

Ranking locally is a struggle, no matter your location. Many of our clients provide services across the country, but want to rank locally in Minneapolis. Generally speaking, the rules for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) are the same whether you want to rank locally or nationally, but there are some location-specific tips.

Ranking Locally vs. Ranking Nationally

Let’s take a step back and talk about the difference between ranking locally and ranking nationally. As Google has grown in sophistication, it’s gotten better about giving people the content they want to see. That includes recommending businesses that are closest to them versus national companies.

A local search ranking is based on a specific area (like Minneapolis). If I’m sitting in a café in Uptown searching for, say, “florist near me”, I want to see Minneapolis florists first in my search results. This is mostly based on location, but you may also notice results for companies that are a few miles away (this means they’ve improved their SEO, which we’ll get to in a minute).

A national search ranking is showing up no matter where a user is searching. In the florist example, you’ll likely still see massive national companies like 1-800-Flowers.com® appearing in search, even though they’re not local. While it’s everyone’s pipe dream to rank top page for all of your keywords no matter where someone is searching, it’s unrealistic for most companies. Generally speaking, companies that rank on national searches are massive companies with very large and depthful websites.

How to Rank Locally in Minneapolis

Have a Google My Business Page

Google loves Google, and especially their tools. If you want to rank locally in Minneapolis, you’ll want to start by creating a Google My Business page if you don’t have one, or optimizing your existing page if you do have one.

Google My Business is vital for local searches. You may not have heard of it, but you’ve definitely seen it in action if you’ve ever searched online for a local business:

Getting your Google My Business up to speed will greatly improve your chances for showing up in Minneapolis searches.

Use Local Keywords

This might sound obvious, but many people overlook this step. If you want to rank in Minneapolis, you have to use the word Minneapolis on your website. Let’s say one of the keywords you want to rank for is “florist.” Simply making an effort to change some of your “florist”s into “Minneapolis Florist” or “Florist in Minneapolis” gives you more oomph in your local rankings.

Revisit Your Website

If all else fails, there may be a deeper problem with your website. If it’s been a few years since your last redesign, it might be time to start from the ground up. Instead of relying on traditional, outdated web design, build your site using User-Centered Web Design. User-Centered Web Design (UCD) is an ongoing process that keeps pace with visitor behavior and changing SEO trends to ensure that your website stays at the top if its game. You can learn all about UCD by downloading our eBook below.

Ranking locally in Minneapolis is easy if you follow these tips.

* * *

Supercharge Your Marketing and Website with User-Centered Web Design – Free eBook

User-Centered Design is not only easier on your team and wallet- continuous updates and improvements to your website will keep your customers coming back for more. This free eBook goes over User-Centered Design and what you need to know to get started.

Download Our FREE User-Centered Design eBook

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How to Build a User-Optimized Website

It’s not about you. It’s about them. One of the fatal mistakes business owners make on their websites is focusing on what they want to see, and not what their potential customers want to see. Often, we fall back on phrases like “since 1975, we have….” or “we lead the industry in…” which, while impressive, don’t really matter to your visitors.

Just to be blunt: visitors don’t care about you. They care about how you can solve their problems.

With all the companies vying for attention online, you can set yourself apart from the crowd by building a user-optimized website using the User-Centered Web Design (UCD) process. 

Reach Out to Your Current Customers

Before you start redesigning your website, you can get an idea of what your ideal customer is looking for by talking to some of your current customers. Ask them meaningful questions like:

What type of services were you searching for when you were looking? (What was your problem you needed fixed?)

How did you find us? (Google, word of mouth, Facebook, etc.)

After you heard about our company did you look at our website? (Did you visit our website before choosing us?)

What were the most important pages on our website that you looked at?

What information on our website did you find most helpful?

What information on our website did you not find helpful?

What couldn’t you find on our site that you think should be there to help in the decision making process?

Why did you choose our company?

How many times have you visited our website since becoming a client?

Gathering information like this can help you find out what your customers are looking for – you might be surprised to find how different it is from what you thought they cared about.

Use Behavioral Data 

One of the core components of User-Centered Web Design is listening to feedback. Your visitors will tell you what they want to see – you just have to listen. You can start by gathering some information on your current site to help inform what you’ll make the focus on your new website – what pages do they visit the most? What are they clicking on? How many pages do they view before they exit your site? etc.

Once your new site launches, you can truly dive in with UCD and respond to their behavioral data to modify your website. 

Constantly Evolve

Another way that User-Centered Web Design helps you build a user-optimized website is by constantly evolving your website. Once you gather behavioral data, it’s important to actually put it into action. You need to keep pace with your visitors by having your website be flexible. Update your website regularly to deliver content that your users want to see. 

Here’s an example: Let’s say your biggest goal is for your clients to fill out a request a quote form. Currently, you have a small button on your homepage near the bottom of the page that says “request a quote.” You notice that visitors aren’t clicking on that button. Using the UCD process, you decide to try moving the button to the top of the page instead and making it larger, so it pops more. You start gathering data on this change and find a 20% increase in clicks on that button.

Building a website for your users will ultimately lead to more engagement and more leads. Give User-Centered Web design a try.

* * *

Supercharge Your Marketing and Website with User-Centered Web Design – Free eBook

User-Centered Design is not only easier on your team and wallet- continuous updates and improvements to your website will keep your customers coming back for more. This free eBook goes over User-Centered Design and what you need to know to get started.

Download Our FREE User-Centered Design eBook

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5 Ways to Streamline Your Marketing with HubSpot

The rumors are true. We’re in love. Apologies if you’re tired of hearing us wax on endlessly about HubSpot…but we’re smitten. BizzyWeb is the latest HubSpot agency based in Minneapolis, and we want to shout from the rooftops what we love about this powerful tool.

1. A Built-In CRM

You have contacts, but are you really organizing them, or do you just store them in system like QuickBooks™? With HubSpot’s CRM, you can manage your contacts without hassle. It’s easy to add new contacts as they come in and to ascribe any number of layers of detail to them. Not only can you track your contact’s stage in the buyer’s journey, but you can also track their activity, assign them to a persona, send them related content and more.

2. Execute Campaigns Flawlessly

One of the core features of HubSpot (and our favorite) is their campaign builder. Campaigns are the bread and butter of digital marketing, but typically it involves jumping between multiple websites and systems. You juggle your landing page on your website, your emails built in your email client, your blog posts, your social media marketing and your pay-per-click advertising. In HubSpot, you can build every step of the campaign right in one place. 

3. Robust Email Marketing

We’ve spent a lot of time hammering in just how important email marketing is, so we won’t try to convince you that you should be using it (but you really, really should be). Instead, we’ll focus on what HubSpot email marketing can do for your business. In addition to providing a legally compliant and visually pleasing way of sending out mass emails, HubSpot’s email marketing offers a unique level of personalization. Because their CRM is built into HubSpot, you can create personalized emails to target key demographics of your contacts.

4. Social Media Made Simple

While social media is important, it’s also a very time-consuming arm of your digital marketing. HubSpot’s social media interface streamlines your social media marketing to save you time. You can see at a glance the activity on all your social networks and respond from within HubSpot without having to leave. You can also plan and schedule social media posts in advance to save you time in the future.

5. Streamlined Blogging

It’s no secret that we prioritize blogging here at BizzyWeb (a blog about blogging – talk about going meta). HubSpot’s blogging tool seamlessly integrates with the look-and-feel of your website. Their blogging tool lets you plan your content marketing strategy and easily integrate it into your broader digital marketing strategy.

Have we piqued your interest in HubSpot? Let’s chat and see what it can do for your business.

* * *

Supercharge Your Marketing and Website with User-Centered Web Design – Free eBook

User-Centered Design is not only easier on your team and wallet- continuous updates and improvements to your website will keep your customers coming back for more. This free eBook goes over User-Centered Design and what you need to know to get started.

Download Our FREE User-Centered Design eBook

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How to Integrate Your Digital and Print Marketing Campaigns

Here’s a marketing story for you: let’s say you’re working in the digital marketing department of your company on a huge promotion and your friend Sarah is in charge of print and working on mailers for the same campaign. You both work tirelessly for a week and have a quick meeting on Friday to compare notes. Horror of horrors: you discover your campaigns have completely different themes.

Left hand, time to figure out what the right hand is doing. Digital and print are equally as important, and need to work together to deliver the best results. Here are some simple ways to integrate your digital and print marketing campaigns seamlessly.

1. Use Hashtags

This is one of the simplest (and most low-effort) ways to integrate print and digital. Create a unique hashtag for your campaigns that you can slap onto your print pieces to streamline your campaigns from print to social media organically.

2. Personalized URLs and Codes

Make it personal – use personalized URLs or codes in your print campaigns to easily promote certain campaigns and to gather data on your customers. For example, you can include a short, snappy link on a mailer inviting customers to go online for a special discount. You can also create discount codes that are print-only to track just how many people are engaging with your mailers.

3. Use Data

Digital marketing provides you with a wealth of information about your customers…why not bring that over to the print world as well? Your digital data tells you demographic information but more importantly it tells you: what your clients do and don’t like, their preferred method of communication, what causes resonate with them, etc. All of that is important info that can be leveraged in variable printing campaigns. 

Follow these tips and your digital and print campaigns will work together in harmony.

* * *

Supercharge Your Marketing and Website with User-Centered Design – Free eBook

User-Centered Design is not only easier on your team and wallet- continuous updates and improvements to your website will keep your customers coming back for more. This free eBook goes over User-Centered Design and what you need to know to get started.

Download Our FREE User-Centered Design eBook