When it comes to digital marketing, nobody does it better than Google and this is one of the vibrant courses that Google provides globally for free. So, we have simplified few instances from Google Garage for you so that you can get a step-by-step analysis. Let's get started.
So in the last blog, I have discussed the following
If you haven't read my previous blog, go and check out Google Digital Marketing- Part II
So let's get started with new elements and a detailed explanation.
Make your website easy to use
Hi. This is the video on website usability. That's digital speak for making it easy for visitors to find what they're looking for and accomplish what they want. We'll go over the best ways to improve usability from providing simple and clear navigation to the importance of consistent layout. We'll also explain how your writing can make your site more effective. Right, let's get stuck in. First, let's look at navigation the stuff that guides visitors around your site. Good navigation means arranging your site in a way that makes sense for your visitors. Let's say you have a physical shop, like a bakery. You need to think about how your goods are grouped there. Big items like cakes and pies might be in one area whilst individual treats like croissants and cupcakes might be in another. On your site, you can organize things in the same way and have the main menu navigation tell visitors what they'll find in each section. It's like signs on your shop. In spite of all of this, your site might not make perfect sense to everyone. That's why including a search box might be a good idea especially if your site has lots of pages or products. Put the search box in the same place on every page of your site so it's easy to find and visitors who are in a rush will always be able to find it, whatever they're looking for. One last thing to consider about navigation when people visit any site across the web they expect things to work a certain way. Say you're browsing a site and you want to get back to the homepage. What do you? You click on the logo, right? This is something visitors will expect and it's common to nearly every website so make sure your logo is clearly displayed on every page and that a click on it will take them home. Right, that's navigation sorted. Now let's talk about the style and the way your site looks and feels. Everyone has their own taste but there are some general guidelines to follow.
First, consider your page layout. Should be consistent across your site with similar fonts, images, and other design elements. When it comes to color you may be inclined to go bold and grab attention but online most people are used to reading the dark text over a light background. You've worked hard to create your content so make sure your visitors' eyes don't cross when they're trying to read it. You also need to be conscious of where on the page your content ends up. Don't make people scroll down too far to see all the important stuff. Use headers and bullet lists to help them quickly scan the pages to decide if it's worth their time to stay. Write for your audience. Are they a highly technical bunch? If so then jargon is a-ok, otherwise, write for the everyman. Another tip: encourage visitors to take any action when visiting your site. This is called...can you guess it? A call to action and can help them understand what to do next. If for example, you want them to pick up the telephone, tell them to "call now". If you're hoping that they'll pay you a visit in-store point them to "get directions". Or nudge them to make a purchase with a "buy now". When you're creating a website you need to make it easy to use. Give visitors a clear roadmap of your site's pages. Keep design consistent throughout. Write content that speaks their language and gives them an experience they're actually looking for.
Website design do's and dont's
Look, you've heard the expression, "You only get one chance to make a first impression," right? Well, it also holds true online as well. We're going to talk about avoiding the common mistakes in your website design that can actually drive visitors away. We'll cover how to make sure your pages load faster, making your site is more mobile-friendly, improving general accessibility, and also improving the quality of your content. Right, first you need speed. Internet users aren't famous for patience, and if your page takes too long to load, they'll probably leave. There are lots of technical things that you or whoever builds your website can do to speed things up, like choosing the right technologies or hosting solutions, but there are also some simple fixes. If you have images on your pages, use the smaller ones you need. Ditch large high-resolution files if they're only going to appear as thumbnails. Plenty of software programs can resize or actually compress images to make them smaller, and this translates to a faster loading time. Simplify your design. Generally, the more you limit what your visitor's browsers have to download and reuse, the faster the pages will load. Use the same background image across many pages, and ask whoever's building your website to be efficient with code and scripts. If you want to test how you're doing, try opening the site on your mobile, using a data connection and not Wi-Fi, just to see how quickly it loads.
You need to make sure your website is easy to use on a mobile. Let's be frank. More and more people are using their smartphones as their primary devices to browse the web, and if your site is challenging to use on these devices, you'll potentially lose customers. The easiest way for you to have a mobile-friendly site is to build it that way from the start. You can use an approach like responsive design, which automatically detects the type of screen being used and displays the site accordingly. It does things like stacking text and photos vertically on a smartphone when it's being held upright. if you want to get a sense of whether your site is mobile-friendly, try Google's mobile-friendly test tool. Keep in mind things like swiping or tapping, which are unique to touchscreens. Be sure the components of your website respond appropriately to these kinds of inputs. Use widely recognized icons. Making content clear and well-organized will help visitors using smaller screens actually find what they're looking for. You'll want to make it easy to find your address and phone number. Most devices are equipped with GPS and mapping features which can help visitors when they're actually on the go. And of course, when they're accessing your website from a mobile, it should be easy for visitors to give you a ring. You'll also want to remember that people are viewing your site on different browsers like Chrome or Firefox and also different platforms like Windows or Mac. Do a test run from as many computers, devices, and browsers as you can. Does your site look right in every case? Are you prompted to download plugins? This could be an extra step that may send visitors away. Lastly, remember that your website is not just for selling. It's also for solving. Imagine if you're a visitor-- ask yourself why am I here? What am I trying to do or what problem am I trying to solve? For example, if you own a bakery that makes custom cakes, someone is probably visiting your site because they need one. You could write pages about your decorating style and maybe even some inspirations, but a testimonial and photos from a real-life customer might be a better bet. Those are some common mistakes that trip up many websites. To avoid them, make sure your pages load quickly, look great and behave properly no matter what device and browser a visitor use. Think of your customers when you create content. Answer their needs and you'll have a better chance of bringing them in.
Email marketing basics
Hello. Nowadays we are all bombarded with product choices. If you want to stay top of mind with your customers, try email marketing. Email marketing is a great addition to your other digital marketing activities. Why? It builds customer loyalty and engagement without breaking the bank. And, it works on mobile too. In this video, we'll show you how to develop a contact list and how to speak to different audiences based on their interests. We'll also discuss how email marketing helps you build relationships with customers. As with any type of marketing your first step in email marketing should be to set goals. Do you want to use email to showcase products and services and bring more visitors to your website? Do you want to use email to drive business results like distributing a coupon that brings in at least 10 sales? No matter what your goals are, a good place to start is by building a list of people who've expressed an interest in your business. So, how do you find these people and get their email addresses? A great place to start is by asking them. Let's say you own a pet supply shop. When you chat with your customers offer to send them discounts and special offers, if they provide an email address. If you have a website you can include a form that encourages visitors to subscribe online. Keep in mind that people must give you permission to send commercial emails. And many countries have laws that require consent. Great, now you've started to build a list of people who want your emails. Let's think about other ways in which email marketing can help you achieve your business goals. Look, you don't want to overwhelm your customers with too much content in one email or too many emails in succession. Start with a friendly hello and an introduction Next, you might send information about your shop and the product lines that you sell. At this point, you can ask them one or two questions to narrow down their interest a bit. For example, you don't want to send dog lovers cat food coupons. Then, when you have information about your customers you can send them specific offers or content they might find interesting.
For example: if you know that a group of these customers recently purchased dog food, you might showcase your most popular toys, collars, and leads for dogs. Be sure to include useful information and relevant offers like tips for dog training or a coupon for dog treats. While you're educating your customers about your business, you can use marketing emails to learn more about them as well. Ask your subscribers if they're interested in receiving updates for other products or services. Then find out how often they prefer to hear from you. For example: do they want to receive emails weekly or monthly. Record what you learn in your email contact database for future email campaigns. How about people who have been on your contact list for a long time. These loyal customers are really important to your business. It's a good idea to build a positive lasting relationship with them. So, how might you go about this? Well, people appreciate it when you anticipate their needs. Let's say certain customers have ordered a flea and tick treatment through your website in the past. Summer is fast approaching and along with hot weather comes tiny pests, that can harm your furry friends. So you put together an email with tips for keeping your house and pets free of ticks and fleas. You might include an offer for 20% off a pre-season order of their preferred brand. Or, from time to time you might send your loyal cat owners a small gallery with some of the funniest cat videos on the Internet By making your content entertaining and useful your subscribers will enjoy and appreciate your emails and you'll likely remain their go-to choice when they're ready to buy. Finally, you can use email to request feedback from your contacts about their shopping and customer support experience and then respond directly to them. By knowing what went right or what went wrong you can offer solutions to their issues or simply thank them for being a customer. So that's it. Email marketing is a great way for you to develop relationships with both potential and existing customers. As you identify your different audiences you can customize your communications based on their particular interests. By offering useful and engaging content you can build loyalty over time. A strong customer base will help your business grow. If you want to learn more about email marketing, we've got lots coming up. We'll discuss the different email marketing services and their specific features. We'll also show you how to write an email that will connect with your customers.
Your email marketing options
Hi there. So, once you're ready to start using an email marketing campaign you'll need to know how to get started. An email marketing service can guide you through the process from start to finish. We're going to discuss the typical features and benefits of email marketing services. We'll talk about how these tools can give you insights into customer behavior so you can deliver more personalized content. While there are many options to choose from most email marketing tools share a few common features. The first is a contact database that stores all of your customer's information. At minimum, the database needs to include an email address for each contact. Most software services allow you to include additional information like name, mailing address, and other information. You should start building your email database by adding the customer data you already have. Most services allow you to upload data from a spreadsheet which is a handy feature if you have a lot of information to include. Next, you want to get people the ability to subscribe and unsubscribe themselves. Most email services provide an online form that you can add to your website by copying and pasting a little bit of code. Your website visitors can then submit the form and sign up for your emails. This data is then automatically transferred onto your contact database. One thing to keep in mind; these forms are usually customizable so you can ask for the specific customer information that you want but your online signup form should be short and easy to complete. You'll probably have more success growing your subscriber list if you don't require too much information. All you really need is their email address to get started. If you do have information about your customers you can use it to sort them into lists.
For example, let's say you own a pet supply shop. If you know that one set of customers owned cats, you can then group them into a cat list and send them cat food offers. Customers who own dogs would be on the dog list and they get different offers. The more information you have about your customers the more relevant your emails can be. Now you've got your database. Let's think about the actual emails. Email templates allow you to create a design that matches your brand. You can reuse your template again and again, for similar email campaigns. Keep in mind, that many people read email on their mobiles so be sure that yours are mobile-friendly. Many email marketing tools allow you to preview your email on different devices before you send it. Another great feature to know about is the ability to schedule when your emails actually go out. You can send the email immediately or choose a later day and time. An email marketing tool can even be used to track what people do when they receive it. You might find that most of your customers open their emails first thing on Monday mornings or during lunch on Fridays. You can then use your email service to record those preferences and send future emails at more relevant times. Email marketing services also track who clicks the links in your email. These links typically go to pages on your website. So you can then track what those people do once they're on your site. Like whether they read an article or make a purchase. As you learn more about your customer's behavior you can then deliver more personalized content. Many email marketing services offer a personalization feature that places relevant content into an email template based on the person's interests. You can use this feature to send specific messages to different people within your database. Remember those groups of cat owners and dog owners that you set up? While most of your email will contain general information that all pet owners will appreciate your email template can also include one or two fields of content that are tailored for each specific pet group. By targeting each group with a personalized email you increase the chances that they will not only read your email but also click through to visit your website. So, as you can see, email marketing tools make running a successful email program much easier. Not only will they save you time but you can track which recipients open and take action on your messages. The more you know about your contacts the more personalized content you can deliver. Next, we'll explore how to craft a compelling email and how to best manage your campaigns.
Crafting great marketing emails
Hello. So you've signed up for an email marketing service and you're ready to get started on your first campaign. Let's now talk about grabbing your customer's attention with strong subject lines, keeping their attention with concise and relevant content, and offering links for more information. Okay, let's say you own a pet supply shop. You've been collecting names and emails and pet types of both prospective and loyal customers, and now you're ready to launch your first email marketing campaign. You want to send an email announcement aimed at dog and cat owners, telling them all about the latest and greatest all-natural pet foods that you offer. But in order to get customers to read your newsletter, you first have to get them to open the email. It's all about making a good first impression here. Think about what your customers see when they glance at their inboxes. Will your email make them want to open it? The two things they'll see are your business name in the field and the subject line of your email. Be sure to use a name and email address from the field that clearly identifies your business. People are more likely to open an email from someone they recognize and trust. The subject line of your email can make or break your campaign. An effective subject line will compel people to open it. A poorly composed subject line might mean your email gets deleted or trapped in spam filters. Keep your subject line short and simple, ideally under ten words. Try to capture the most valuable and relevant information contained in the email. When possible, personalize or localize the subject line. For example "Gori is your pup the healthiest in London". It's best to avoid words like "free", "percent off", "reminder", and "specials", as well as pound symbols and exclamation points. These are all known to trigger spam filters.
Now you've captured your customer's attention and they've opened your email. Congratulations, that's half the battle. At this point keep in mind how busy your customers are and how many other emails they get every day. Even if you've crafted the most intriguing message possible they'll likely just scan it. So keep your content concise and get right to the point. Your paragraph should be short, maybe one to three sentences, and keep them focused on a single idea. You can always link to longer articles and additional information on your website. Make your writing as persuasive and engaging as possible, and use the right tone of voice for your audience. You want to have consistency across your brand, but email newsletters offer opportunities to be a bit more casual in tone. Links in your email should include calls to action. Encourage recipients to click through to offers on your website. For example, a link could say something like "Click here to save 25% off your next order of all-natural cat food". Or maybe, "Click here for free shipping on all orders over 50 pounds". Use bold text and design to highlight important offers and content. There's one last thing you'll want to include and that's some links at the bottom of the email that allow recipients to unsubscribe, change their email preferences, and update their contact information. Providing an easy way for users to opt-out of your newsletter is not only good customer service, but it's also required by law in many countries. So remember, take the time to craft a short but strong subject line. Write concise content with a fun and engaging tone, and include helpful links that will improve your customer experience and possibly lead to increased sales. Each email marketing campaign will teach you more about what works and what doesn't. Over time you can create better emails for your customers which in turn can build your business.
