Ziggy Kopetti

Ziggy Kopetti is an Affiliate Marketing Manager at Columbia Sportswear Brands. Ziggy has spent the last 3 years driving the affiliate and d…

from Affiliate Marketing http://ift.tt/2EuoVps via Affiliate Marketing

from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2DRSaFv

These Arc'teryx Veilance Pieces Exude Raw Style & Pure Function

Stealthy silhouettes, articulated design, and performance capabilities make Arc'teryx Veilance’s uncompromising apparel and accessories some of the very best to have in your closet once the wet and snowy weather rolls around. Sure, they’re somewhat of an investment, but these reliable pieces are …

from Affiliate Marketing http://ift.tt/2DT3mxm via Affiliate Marketing

from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2ntHCS3

How We'd Like To See PokerStars Give Away A $30000 Platinum Pass

Affiliate marketing sites posing as media outlets practically built online poker sites like PokerStars. It is time the sites say thank you. Don’t the sites that bring the poker community its daily dose of barely relevant news in an effort to fool Google’s spiders into thinking they’re legitimate media outlets instead …

from Affiliate Marketing http://ift.tt/2EsI0Iz via Affiliate Marketing

from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2DSOHXl

Trussell: Why business success can be dangerous

Andy Grove, Engineer. “I rode a wave of both good luck and good timing to generate a significant income via affiliate marketing. This sudden and dramatic success enshrined in me the belief that I was truly meant for grand things. In a space where my competitors evolved rapidly, I remained complacent.

from Affiliate Marketing http://ift.tt/2DQSZKB via Affiliate Marketing

from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2nvuXhv

Sous Beurre Kitchen Website New Owner Reviews Kitchen Products

The new owner used it for its affiliate marketing program. He writes reviews of products sold by Amazon and provides links for the readers to follow. To make the reviews reliable, the SBK new owner analyzes the reviews made by people who have bought the items. Using the information gathered, …

from Affiliate Marketing http://ift.tt/2EuhY7I via Affiliate Marketing

from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2DUaRIz

Wedbush Cuts Black Knight (BKI) To “Neutral” from “Outperform”; Pfsweb (PFSW)'s Sentiment Is 0.83

… and agency services, such as LiveArea, digital strategy, design, user experience, interactive development, SEO and paid search, affiliate marketing, conversion optimization, storefront management, email marketing, and digital analytics. Among 3 analysts covering Black Knight (BKI), 3 have Buy rating, …

from Affiliate Marketing http://ift.tt/2DR9AOD via Affiliate Marketing

from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2nvS23v

What is RefToken and should you invest in it?

Every other cryptocurrency emerging today is designed to give the end user something or is meant to solve something. Well, RefToken (REF) is a decentralized affiliate marketing platform. According to Reftoken, there are is an increasing number of people building apps and even future-based …

from Affiliate Marketing http://ift.tt/2EsHWZl via Affiliate Marketing

from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2DRO0gQ

Rakuten Marketing to Host the Premier Conference for Online Performance Marketing Leaders at ...

Rakuten Marketing, a leading technology company that enables brands to increase sales through data-driven performance marketing, announced its 2018 affiliate marketing premier event, Rakuten Marketing DealMaker – previously known as Rakuten Marketing Symposium. Taking place in Scottsdale, …

from Affiliate Marketing http://ift.tt/2DR0Bge via Affiliate Marketing

from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2ntRUBm

Finally! A Way To Free Women In Australia! -- Areti Goddess Events business owned by Tula Tzoras

(MENAFN Editorial) In News about to launch, the Areti Goddess Events are combining entertainment with accelerated learning and breakthrough results, empowering women. With half the middle aged population finding themselves with $8000 or less in Superannuation, 1 in 4 women abused in intimate …

from Affiliate Marketing http://ift.tt/2ErH8DN via Affiliate Marketing

from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2DO6TRI

Marketplaces 2018: Bol.com

… 7 million customers selling over 15 million products. Most of the products are brand new but secondhand sales are also possible. As a seller you can also enjoy benefits from internal advertising possibilities, get help in content optimisation from the Bol team and use the affiliate marketing programme to …

from Affiliate Marketing http://ift.tt/2DRS6lf via Affiliate Marketing

from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2nuMeap

The Integer Group announces SA affiliate

The Integer Group, a commerce agency and a member of Omnicom Group, has announced a partnership with Sandton-based shopper marketing agency, Hot Spot, as its South African affiliate. The new agency will be known as Integer\Hot Spot; its leadership team includes managing director Di Wilson, …

from Affiliate Marketing http://ift.tt/2Es7JAP via Affiliate Marketing

from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2DUaRbx

cleverbridge to Present at Affiliate Summit Europe 2018

cleverbridge, a provider of global ecommerce, billing and payment solutions, announces Senior Performance Marketing Manager Amy Carabini will present at Affiliate Summit Europe 2018 to be held February 6-7 at Intercontinental London – The O2. Carabini will present “5 Ways to Build Affiliate …

from Affiliate Marketing http://ift.tt/2DOrjWF via Affiliate Marketing

from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2nuMaaF

Cars.com and tronc Agree to Early Conversion of Affiliate Markets

CHICAGO, Jan. 30, 2018 /PRNewswire/ – Cars.com Inc. (NYSE: CARS) (“Cars.com”), a leading online automotive marketplace, and media company tronc, Inc. (NASDAQ: TRNC) (“tronc”) today announced an agreement to convert tronc’s eight affiliate markets into Cars.com'sect retail channel, effective …

from Affiliate Marketing http://ift.tt/2Etwxse via Affiliate Marketing

from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2DQDSVr

Cars.com and tronc Agree to Early Conversion of Affiliate Markets

The converting markets include Los Angeles and Chicago, the nation’s second and third largest markets for new vehicle sales in 2017, according to Cars.com’s data, which is aligned with Nielsen’s household DMA statistics. More than 2,000 dealer customers will convert from tronc’s affiliate network into …

from Affiliate Marketing http://ift.tt/2DTCJZr via Affiliate Marketing

from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2nuM6HX

Fact or Fiction? Social Media Signals Are a Search Engine Ranking Factor

For a while now, the Google search algorithm has been considering social media signals as one of its ranking factors.

However, many SEO experts argue that social media, whilst a ranking factor, doesn’t have any significant influence on your SEO performance.

So which one is it? Do social media signals influence your search ranking or not?

I believe the correlation is stronger than most people think… but it’s easy to be misled.

In 2014, Matt Cutts published a video saying that social metrics, such as Twitter followers and Facebook likes, which indicate a profile’s influence and authority, don’t directly affect search rankings.

However, if you dive a little deeper into what Cutts actually says in this statement, the answer isn’t so black and white.

The rest of this article will form a battle tested case for why SEO focused marketers should consider social media signals in their search strategy.

Let’s go back in time to be able to predict the future…

In a more recent statement than the above video, Cutts stated that social signals are among the ranking factors that Google consider. This was said during an interview with Danny Sullivan to learn how search engines consider social signals as a ranking factor.

During this talk, Cutts said that “who you are on Twitter can definitely impact how well your page ranks on a regular search page”. This somewhat confirms that social media signals are one of Google’s ranking factors.

To add to this statement, research by Searchmetrics found that social media signals have a strong correlation with articles that rank well. Is this just a coincidence?

Evidence that affirms this fact is an infographic published by Moz that indicates that social signals contribute almost 4% to the efforts of getting a web page to rank high in Google search results.

The best social media practices that will boost your SEO

SEO and Social media are two interwoven marketing strategies. Both are inbound and organic strategies that concentrate on building an appealing identity which, in turn attracts visitors naturally.

Since social media heavily relies on a strong, visible brand presence and high-quality content, the efforts you will spend on SEO will no doubt increase your social media reach and vice versa – your strong social media presence will greatly increase your search ranking.

Unfortunately, when asked how social media can directly influence your Google rankings, most marketers don’t mention the details.

Instead of discussing exactly why and how an increased social media presence can improve your SEO; it is always written off as a generality, leaving marketers to wonder whether or not their strategies are actually working.

To fix this, I have made a list of social media practices that will almost certainly improve your SEO.

Let’s take a closer look…

1. Develop a content marketing strategy

Content marketing is almost always the answer! Especially when it comes to SEO and social media, high-quality content is at the core of any strategy.

Developing a strong content marketing strategy will enable you to strengthen your social media presence, whilst simultaneously improving your rankings.

Why content marketing?

Content marketing is the link between what you want to say and what your users are interested in.

One of the most important things that search marketers should consider in order to improve their rankings is content optimization. If you can write well-optimized content on your website that answers users’ questions, meets their needs, and provides them with the value they are searching for, inevitably you will improve your performance on both social media and with search engines.

It’s not all about keywords, but also about understanding a user’s intent and creating content that solves their queries.

Publishing this style of content on your website, and then sharing it on social media, will work in collaboration to improve your online performance.

2. Increase your social following

It is not only about how many fans you have, it is also about how loyal they are to you. Growing your number of loyal followers is a slow yet effective process for influencing where you rank in search engines.

How do you increase your followers?

• Present your brand consistently and uniquely across your website, social channels and email
• Post helpful articles and useful tips on a regular cadence
• Post general discussion items to generate direct conversations with your customers

Providing value to your users will get them engaged with the greater cause of your business, and consequently increase website traffic in the process.

Imagine that you have a website that is brand new and not ranking at all in search engines. The only way for search engines to test the consumer behavior regarding this web page is through the traffic it gets from different online resources. Whether that is from social media platforms, email broadcasts or any other resource. So, the more qualified traffic you get, the more credibility your web pages will gain with search engines.

Increasing your social media following will naturally increase traffic to your website, which in itself will influence how credible search engines consider your content.

Side note: One of the most important ranking factors in the Google algorithm are behavioral signals which include the click-through-rate of your website in searches. The more credible and recognizable your brand is on social media, the more chance people will click on your site on a search page.

3. Entice people to share your content

It might seem like a vanity metric, but the number of social shares you have on your posts will contribute to the perception of your brand’s authority.

Search engines are looking for any sign of external sources that support your content and your website in order to improve your domain authority, and better rank your content. So, if you get 10 people to share your post this is good, but if you can get 10,000 people to share it, now you have some bargaining power!

Wrapping up

To sum up, “social is the way our work gets discovered. Content that is truly exceptional, unique, and useful can earn tremendous awareness through social media, and that social amplification often leads to generate links, which leads to great rankings.” Rand Fishkin CEO/Co-Founder, Moz

So, what do you think, do social media signals influence SEO?

Guest Author: Aya Abo Elsaoud is an SEO & Content Manager who holds a degree in linguistics and literature from a reputable university in Cairo.  She started her career as a professional copywriter in 2012 as part of Rocket Internet, then started her career in SEO in 2013 within the same organization. The thing that attracts her to SEO more than any other online marketing field is that in SEO you are actually working on what people need; every single time she tries to make a page rank higher is because actually, people want this information or this product, not because she wants to market it! Content and SEO for her are two sides of the same coin, one won’t stand without the other. Though, even though only few get this fact, she’s glad she’s one of them.

The post Fact or Fiction? Social Media Signals Are a Search Engine Ranking Factor appeared first on Jeffbullas’s Blog.

from Affiliate Marketing http://ift.tt/2nuE3uL via Affiliate Marketing
from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2Er7iXt

Best Practices for Email Marketing: Practical Tips for CAN-SPAM Act Compliance

Even a business that is using a third-party marketer, such as an affiliate marketer, has responsibilities under the CAN-SPAM Act. First, the engaging business (i.e., the company whose product or service is advertised) should ensure that the written contract with the service provider clearly sets out each …

from Affiliate Marketing http://ift.tt/2GzEpZU via Affiliate Marketing

from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2rRzxMa

mThink Blue Book Ranks Avangate #1 Digital Affiliate Network for Fourth Consecutive Year

Based on votes from hundreds of leading advertisers and publishers in the global performance marketing community, the mThink Blue Book survey ranks both Cost Per Sale (CPS) and Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) affiliate networks. For the past four years, the Avangate network has been ranked the top …

from Affiliate Marketing http://ift.tt/2GxjJl1 via Affiliate Marketing

from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2Gv1PPQ

Rakuten Marketing to Host the Premier Conference for Online Performance Marketing Leaders at ...

SAN MATEO, Calif., Jan. 30, 2018 /PRNewswire/ – Rakuten Marketing, a leading technology company that enables brands to increase sales through data-driven performance marketing, today announced its 2018 affiliate marketing premier event, Rakuten Marketing DealMaker – previously known as …

from Affiliate Marketing http://ift.tt/2rTZ9Ij via Affiliate Marketing

from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2nnosOu

An Introduction to Google Tag Manager

Posted by Angela_Petteys

Digital marketing thrives on data. No matter what type of site you have, whether it’s a large e-commerce site, a personal website, or a site for a small business, it’s essential to understand how people interact with your site. Google Analytics can provide a lot of the important insights you’re looking for, but when used alone, it does have its limitations. But by tagging your site and using Google Tag Manager in conjunction with Google Analytics, you’re able to collect much more data than you can otherwise.

Tags are snippets of code which are added to a site to collect information and send it to third parties. You can use tags for all sorts of purposes, including scroll tracking, monitoring form submissions, conducting surveys, generating heat maps, remarketing, or tracking how people arrive at your site. They’re also used to monitor specific events like file downloads, clicks on certain links, or items being removed from a shopping cart.

Sites commonly use several different tags and the amount of code needed to create them all can be pretty overwhelming, especially if you’re trying to add or edit tags by going directly into the site’s source code. Google Tag Manager is a tool with a user-friendly, web-based interface that simplifies the process of working with tags. With GTM, you’re able to add, edit, and disable tags without having to touch the source code.

While GTM is, obviously, a Google product, it’s hardly limited to just working with tags for other Google services like AdWords or Analytics. You can use it to manage many different third-party tags, including Twitter, Bing Ads, Crazy Egg, and Hotjar, just to name a few. If there’s another tag which doesn’t have a template in GTM, you can add your own custom code. There are only a few types of tags GTM doesn’t work well with.

---

The pros and cons of GTM

Lessens reliance on web devs

By far, the biggest benefit to Google Tag Manager is that it makes it easier for marketers to implement tags without having to rely on web developers to do it for them. Developers are usually busy with other high-priority projects, so tagging often ends up on the back burner. But since Google Tag Manager helps you avoid touching the source code, marketers can quickly add and make changes to tags on their own. This is a big advantage if, for example, you only need to use a tag to collect data for a very brief amount of time. Without GTM, there’s a good chance that it would take longer for the tag to be added than it would actually be live for.

Still requires some technical implementation

Although GTM helps reduce the reliance on developers, it doesn’t completely eliminate it. You’ll still need someone to add the container code to each page of your site. And while GTM has plenty of tag templates to choose from which are easy enough for a non-developer to work with, more complex customized tags will likely require the help of someone who really understands coding. If you have existing tags that were manually added to your site’s source code, those will need to be removed first so that you don’t end up with duplicate data.

Most businesses can benefit from using it

Businesses of any size can potentially benefit from GTM. Since GTM makes it so much easier to add and edit tags without a developer, it’s great for smaller businesses that might have limited access to technical support. And since sites for enterprise-level businesses can easily use dozens of tags, GTM makes it easier to manage them all and improves site speed by helping them load more efficiently.

Tags can slow down site speed if fired synchronously

One issue with traditional tracking tags is that if they fire synchronously, they can slow down site speeds. When tags fire synchronously, one tag being slow to load slows down all the other tags that are waiting on it. And the longer a site takes to load, the more likely it is that people will leave without converting. But tags created in GTM load asynchronously by default, meaning each tag can fire anytime it’s ready to. If you need to control the order in which your tags are fired, there is tag sequencing and firing priority functionality to let you do that.

Can be used for AMP sites and mobile apps, as well

You’re not even limited to just using GTM with standard websites. GTM can also be used to manage tags for AMP sites and mobile apps. In the case of mobile apps, GTM can be a huge help since it lets you add and edit your tags without having to issue an updated version of your app, which users might not be quick to actually download. In some respects, using GTM for AMP sites or mobile apps is pretty similar to using it for a regular website, but they do have their differences. In this guide, we’re going to focus on using GTM for web.

---

Components of tags & GTM

On the surface, tags and tag managers are pretty straightforward. But before you can start working with them, there are a few main concepts you’ll need to know about.

Containers

When you start working with GTM, the first thing you’ll need to do is create a container. A container essentially “holds” all the tags for your site.

After creating a new container, GTM gives you some code to add to your site. This is your container code and it will need to be added to the source code so it displays on each page of your site. Some CMSes, such as WordPress, have plugins to help add the container code for you, but you may need to contact your web developer to have it added. Once you’ve done that, you’ll be able to add, edit, disable, or remove your tags as needed through GTM.

Triggers

Each tag on a site needs to serve a specific purpose. Maybe you want to have a tag send information when someone downloads a file, when an outbound link is clicked, or when a form is submitted. These sorts of events are known as triggers and all tags need to have at least one trigger assigned to it; otherwise, it’s not going to do anything.

Triggers can be broken down into two main components: events and filters. When you go to configure a trigger in GTM, you’ll be given a long list of types of triggers to choose from. These are your events. Once you choose an event, you’ll be able to set up your filter.

Filters can be divided further down into three parts: variables, operators, and values. We’ll talk more about variables in just a minute, but in this case, it refers to the type of variable involved. The operator tells the tag whether an event needs to equal (or if it should be greater or less than a certain value, contain a certain value, etc.) And of course, the value is the condition which needs to be met. Even though the word “value” is typically used in reference to numbers and prices, remember that in this case, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a numerical value. In many cases, your value will be something like a URL or a keyword.

For example, let’s say I wanted to see how many people were reading the blog content on my site in depth. I could create a tag with a Scroll Depth event trigger that should fire when the vertical scroll depth reaches 75%. If I wanted this to fire on every page of my site, I could leave the “All Pages” option selected in the trigger configuration box and I wouldn’t have to create any further filters. But since I’m focusing on blog content, I’d choose “Some Pages” and create the filter “Page URL” “Contains” “fakewebsitename.com/blog.”

There might also be some circumstances when you don’t want a tag to fire. In this case, you can create a blocking trigger to prevent it from firing on those occasions. GTM prioritizes blocking triggers over other types of triggers, so if you have a blocking trigger that contradicts a condition set by another trigger, Google Tag Manager will follow what’s specified by the blocking trigger. For instance, if you have a tag that’s set to fire on all of your pages, but there are a few pages you’d like to have excluded from that, you can just use a blocking trigger to prevent it from firing on those few pages.

Variables & constants

While tags depend on triggers, triggers depend on variables. Variables contain the value a trigger needs to evaluate to know whether or not it should fire. The tag compares the value of the variable to the value defined in the trigger and if the variable meets the conditions of the trigger, the tag will fire.

Tags also use variables to collect information that can be passed onto the data layer as a user interacts with the site. A common example of this would be if a tag was set to fire when a person adds a certain amount of products to their shopping cart.

Variables can often be reused between tags. One of the most popular tips for using GTM is to create constant variables with the ID numbers or tracking codes you’ll need to use more than once. For example, if you’ll need to use your Google Analytics property ID number in multiple tags, you could just create a constant string variable with the value being your ID number. That way, instead of repeatedly having to look up and enter your ID number, you could just select the variable name.

When using GTM, you’ll be working with two different types of variables: built-in variables and user-defined variables. Built-in variables are some of the most commonly used types of variables, so Google went ahead and made them easy to access in GTM.

Once you select a built-in variable, you’ll be able to configure its settings however you’d like. Note that these are just a few of the built-in variables for regular web containers. You can find more built-in variables by clicking the “Configure” button. If you’re using GTM for AMP sites or mobile apps, you may see different options to choose from.

If you need another type of variable that’s not included as a built-in variable, you can create a user-defined variable. When you go to add a user-defined variable, you’ll be given a list of types of variables to choose from. For more information on each type of variables, Simo Ahava has a very helpful guide to different variable types.

Variables can be created from the GTM dashboard by clicking on the “Variable” option on the left side menu. You can also create them while you’re creating a tag by clicking on the button next to the field that looks like a Lego block with a plus sign on it.

Data layers

Tags need information to know whether or not they should fire, but how (or where) do they get that information? One way they could find it is by checking the page’s HTML structure, but that’s really not an ideal solution. When tags need to search through HTML to find what they’re looking for, it can take longer for them to fire. And if the site’s HTML structure changes over time, tags can break. Besides, there are certain types of information a tag might need which won’t be found in a page’s HTML, like a transaction total.

A data layer is a JavaScript object which keeps the information tags need separate from the rest of your site’s code. Since tags don’t have to spend time searching through the HTML to find the information they need, this is another way GTM can help improve site speed. Instead, everything they’re looking for can be found in one place and it’s readily available when the page loads.

Technically, data layers are optional. You don’t have to specifically define one yourself; GTM can initiate one for you. But if you want to use GTM to track specific events, you’ll need to have a data layer.

To start off with, a new data layer object will look like this:

When adding a data layer, the object needs to be placed before the GTM container code. If the data layer object is placed after the container code, GTM won’t be able to access the information in it and the data layer will basically reset after loading.

Once the data layer object has been added to a page’s code, the brackets in the second line can be populated with information, variables, and events. Some types of information can be written directly into the data layer, but other types of information can be pushed into the data layer dynamically as a user interacts with your site, such as if someone downloads a file or if they add a certain amount of products to their shopping cart.

---

Working with GTM

Creating accounts and containers

To get started, go to tagmanager.google.com and create an account. Under “Setup Account,” enter the name of the company whose site is being managed and hit “Continue.”

Next, you’ll set up your container. Enter your domain name as the container name, choose which type of page or app it will be used on, and click “Create.” If you choose iOS or Android, you’ll also have to specify whether you’re using Firebase SDK or a legacy SDK.

Note that I specifically said to use the company name as the account name and the site’s domain for the container name. In theory, you can name these anything you want. This is just how Google recommends naming them as a best practice. Generally speaking, one of the best things you can do when working with GTM is make sure everything is named very clearly. Otherwise, it’s very easy for mistakes to be made.

Multiple GTM accounts can be managed within a single GTM account, but Google advises creating one container per domain. You don’t have to create separate containers for each individual tag or for every individual page on a site; all tags can all be placed within one container.

For most companies and organizations, one container is all they’ll need. But in the case of a company that has subsidiaries or owns separate businesses, the website for each subsidiary/business should get its own container and all the containers can be managed from one main GTM account. If a site has a subdomain that is treated separately from the main domain, the subdomain should also be given its own container.

When a marketing agency is managing tags on behalf of a company, Google recommends that the company create their own GTM account, then add the agency’s Google account as a user. This way, the agency can access GTM, but it’s easy for the company to revoke access should they decide to change agencies.

After creating your container, accept the GTM terms of service and you’ll be given your container code.

Once the container code has been added, you’re able to start creating tags. But before you get started, it’s a good idea to take some time to figure out exactly which tags you want to add. Even though there aren’t any limits to the amount of tags you can put in a container, for best performance, Google advises keeping the amount of tags you use to a minimum. If you’re migrating your tags to GTM from another tag manager or are making the switch from tags coded in your source code, this is a good time to review the tags currently on your site. In many cases, sites have tags that are associated with services they’re no longer using or were used to track things that aren’t being monitored anymore, so this is a good opportunity to “clean house,” so to speak.

Creating a tag

When you create or select a container, the first thing you’ll see is the GTM dashboard. We’ll eventually get around to talking about almost everything you see here, but let’s begin by creating a tag. Click “Add a New Tag” to open up a window where you’ll be able to name and configure your tag.

Before we go any further into the process of creating tags, remember to name your tags very clearly. Since sites often use several different tags, you won’t want there to be any confusion about which tag does what. Google’s recommended tag naming convention is: Tag Type - Detail - Location. For example, a Google Analytics tag that tracks form submissions on a Contact Us page would be named “GA - Form Submission - Contact Us.” Including the location of a tag in its name is a good idea because it helps distinguish it from similar tags on other pages. So if I had other GA form submission tags on my site, specifying that this one is on the Contact Us page would help me avoid editing the wrong one by mistake.

Putting the tag type at the beginning of a tag name also helps keep your tags organized. GTM lists tags alphabetically, so if you’re creating multiple tags for the same service or tool, all of those tags will all be grouped together and easy to find.

Now, back to creating a tag. When you click “Add a new tag” on the dashboard, this is the window you’ll see. Choose “Tag Configuration” and you’ll be given a long list of tag templates, which includes many of the most commonly used types of tags. If any of these are what you’re looking for, click on it and enter the information requested. If you don’t see the type of tag you want to create listed, choose “Custom HTML” to add your own code.

Since the exact information you’ll need to provide will vary depending on which type of tag you’re working with, I can’t possibly go into how to make every single type of tag. But as an example, let’s say I wanted to notify Google Analytics anytime someone views my pricing page. After choosing Universal Analytics, this is what I’d see:

All I would need to do is choose “Page View” from the “Track Type” dropdown menu, then enter the variable with my Google Analytics account information. If I hadn’t created that variable ahead of time, I could make one now by clicking the dropdown menu under “Google Analytics Settings” and choosing “New Variable.”

If I wanted to make changes to the tag firing sequence or create a firing schedule, I could do that by clicking on the “Advanced Settings” option. Click outside the tag configuration window to go back to the previous screen.

Next, you’ll need to create at least one trigger. Click the “Triggering” box underneath “Tag Configuration” to get started. If you don’t have a previously created trigger to choose from in the list that opens up, click the + sign in the upper right corner of the window. This will bring up a new window where you’ll be asked to name your new trigger. Do that and click on the “Tag Configuration” box so see a list of trigger types. In my case, I’d choose “Page View.”

Since I only want my tag to fire on one page, I’d choose “Some Page Views,” then create a filter specifying that the page URL needs to equal the URL of my pricing page. If I had another filter to add, I could click the plus (+) button next to the filter to set one up. If I had created multiple filters for this tag and later decided to get rid of one of them, all I’d have to do is hit the subtract (–) button next to the filter in question. When you’re done, click outside the window to exit.

Once your tag and trigger have been configured, save it and you can either keep working by creating more tags or you can preview your tag and make sure it’s working correctly before publishing it.

---

Previewing, debugging, and publishing tags

GTM’s “Preview & Debug” mode lets you test tags before publication so that you can make sure everything is working correctly and that you won’t have any errors throwing off your data.

To enter “Preview & Debug,” click the “Preview” button in the upper right corner of the GTM dashboard and you’ll see an orange banner notifying you that you are now in “Preview” mode. Next, open the site you’re tagging. If you already have your site open in another tab, refresh the page and you should see a “Debug” panel at the bottom of your screen. (Don’t worry, visitors to your site won’t be able to see it.)

The “Debug” panel shows all sorts of detailed information about your tags, triggers, and data layer. On the left side of the panel is an event timeline summary, which outlines all the events that occur in the data layer. At a minimum, you should be seeing at least three events listed here: Page View, DOM Ready, and Window Loaded. It’s OK to see more than three events, but if any of those three are missing, there’s a problem that needs to be fixed.

When you click on any of the events in your timeline, you’ll see all the tags which are set to fire when that event occurs. Click on any of the tags to see more detailed information about its triggers, properties, and if there are any blocking triggers associated with it.

As you work in “Preview & Debug” mode, you’re the only one who can see the information about your tags. But let’s say you’re working as part of a team on a tagging project and you find an issue you want to bring to another person’s attention. There is a way to do that. Switch back over to your GTM dashboard and look at the orange banner. On the right, there’s a “Share Preview” button. Click on it and you’ll bring up a box where you can enter the URL of the page in question. This will generate a preview link you can use to send to another person.

If you’re having a hard time getting “Preview & Debug” to work correctly, Analytics Mania has a great guide to solving some of the most common reasons why this happens.

Even after a tag has been published, Google still makes it easy to go back and check to make sure there aren’t any problems. Google Tag Assistant is a free Chrome extension and once it’s installed, you can visit any page on your site and it will tell you if your tags are firing correctly or if there are any improvements that could be made. GTA uses a three color system to indicate its findings: green, blue, and red. Green means all of your tags are working, blue means GTA has suggestions for how a tag could be improved, and red means it’s not working.

Once it appears that all of your tags are firing correctly, you can go ahead and publish them. From the GTM dashboard, hit the “Submit” button in the upper right corner and you’ll be asked to review your changes. If everything looks OK, enter a name and description for your new container version and publish it.

When you publish changes in GTM, it creates a new version of your container. If there’s ever a problem and you have to revert to an earlier version of your container, all you have to do is click the “Versions” button at the top of the GTM dashboard, choose the version you’d like to revert to from the list, click “Action,” then “Publish.”

If you’re migrating your tags from another tag manager or from hard-coded tags on your site, Google advises setting up all of your tags in GTM, then removing your old tags all at once and publishing the GTM container with your new tags as quickly as possible. You might have a very small gap in your data collection, but there shouldn’t be any more issues after your new tags are live.

---

Workspaces, workspace changes, and activity history

If you have multiple people working on a tagging project at the same time, workspaces can help make life a little easier. Even if you’re not collaborating with others, sometimes having the option to create separate workspaces can still be very helpful.

In older versions of GTM, all edits had to be made in a common container draft. If one person or team finished adding tags before another person/team, they couldn’t publish their new tags without also publishing the other team’s tags-in-progress. But with workspaces, multiple users can work on tagging at the same time without interfering with each other’s work.

Each workspace uses the current published container version as a basis, but tags in each workspace can be edited, previewed, debugged, and even published independently from the tags in other workspaces. If you’re working with the free version of GTM, you can have up to three different workspaces, one default workspace and two others, but if you use Google Tag Manager 360, you can create an unlimited amount of workspaces.

When one workspace is published, it creates a new version of the container. If there are any other workspaces with unpublished changes saved in them, the user(s) working in those spaces will see a notice saying that they need to update the workspace. Updating the workspace syncs the changes in the container to their workspace. While it’s not required to do so to continue working, it’s generally best to stay on top of updates so that you’re not working with an outdated version of the container.

After syncing changes in a workspace, you’ll be notified if there are any conflicts which need to be resolved. If any conflicts exist, you’ll be asked to review them and either ignore the conflict or copy the change. When you copy the change, the field in question in your workspace will be overwritten with the information from the latest container version.

If necessary, you can set user permissions on workspaces to prevent users from making unwanted changes. For example, if you had a developer working on some really complicated custom tags, the developer might want to create a separate workspace to work in and limit the user permissions so that only they can make changes to it. This way, marketers will be able to go in and make changes without accidentally making changes to the custom tags.

Another great thing about GTM, particularly if you have more than one person working on tagging, is that it lets you see which changes were made, when they were made, and who made them. On the dashboard, you’ll see a Workspace Changes section, which outlines some of the most recent changes that have been made to tags and triggers. If mistakes any mistakes have been made, you can use the “Abandon Change” option to delete those changes. Beneath Workspace Changes, there’s Activity History, which shows all activity on a GTM account.

---

Additional resources

Google Tag Manager has a lot to offer, but learning how to use it in depth can be pretty overwhelming. This guide helped introduce you to the tool, but there’s still a lot more to learn if you want to use GTM to its full potential. LunaMetrics and Simo Ahava have written about GTM very extensively, so they’re excellent places to start if you have any questions or want to learn more. Of course, Google also has a lot of helpful information. Even if you’re not a developer, Google’s Tag Manager Guide for Developers is worth taking a look at since it does a great job of explaining some of the concepts related to GTM and has a lot of good information about how to use it. With all these resources, you should have all the information you need to get the most out of GTM.

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don’t have time to hunt down but want to read!

from Affiliate Marketing http://ift.tt/2BEt9HP via Affiliate Marketing
from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2rTmRo8

How To Use Coupon Marketing To Increase Conversion Rates in 2018

You probably already know that conversion rate optimization (CRO) remains the “number 1” objective for any digital marketer or online business.

When it comes to CRO, I’m sure you’re thinking about: Landing page optimization, call-to-action (CTA) placements and lead forms!

But here’s the challenge…

Do these conversion optimization strategies guarantee torrents of new customers to your site?

The answer is NO!

The bigger challenge is that these strategies alone won’t help you retain your existing customers so that they keep coming back.

If you’re serious about conversion optimization this year, you’ll need to add coupons to your CRO strategies.

Why?

Let me explain. 91% of customers prefer revisiting a retail site if offered a coupon. And users with coupons spend 24% more than regular shoppers.

This means that adding coupons to your CRO mix can instantly boost your conversions.

But, using coupons to boost your conversions isn’t as easy as it sounds.

In fact, according to Couponbuffer.com, 321 billion coupons were distributed in 2015, but only 2.5 billion were redeemed.

This means that the potential ROI of coupon marketing is low.

So does this mean you shouldn’t use coupons to optimize conversions?

The answer is a resounding NO!

Now, I’m sure you’re wondering:

“How do I use coupons without having to worry about low ROI?”

Turns out you’re in luck. Because today, I’m going to pull back the curtains and reveal a step-by-step guide to using coupons to boost your conversion rate.

Let’s do this.

Step 1: Determining who to target – new customers or existing ones

Okay! This isn’t new…

…but let me reiterate this again:

The success or failure of your coupon marketing strategy depends upon how well it resonates with your target audience.

This means that you’ll need to first figure out who you are going to target with your coupon campaign. Are you planning to target new customers? Or do you wish to attract existing customers to stick with your business?

If you’re looking to target new customers, you’ll need to go over and beyond what your competitors are offering.

Remember, 80% of buyers switch brands if offered better discounts and promotions.

On the other hand, if you’re looking to target your existing customers, you’ll need to carefully analyze their buying patterns and browsing behavior, and carefully come up with coupons that match their buying habits.

Let me explain this with an example.

Popular shoemaker Crocs were looking for ways to reconnect with their existing customers. The company decided to offer 15% discount coupons to lure in existing customers in the age group of 18 to 50 years to buy from its Crocslite range.

The results of the Crocs mobile coupon campaign were rather astonishing.

The company got 94,000 mobile coupon redemption requests in the first month.

What does this mean for you?

Tailoring your coupon campaign to suit the needs and buying habits of your target audience could be a great way to instantly boost your conversions.

But, don’t just let your customers leave you when they are done redeeming their coupons. Instead, retarget them with follow-up coupons.

It will help you keep your audiences’ interest in your business and products.

Now that you know who to target through your coupon marketing campaign, it’s time to know what to offer…

Step 2: Deciding what to offer

By now you already know that different customers have different buying preferences, and it makes sense to offer them coupons based on their preferences, and needs.

But here’s the deal. The sheer multiplicity of coupon marketing can easily lead to an overall confusion ruining your otherwise successful coupon campaign.

This means that you’ll need to be very careful when choosing the best type of coupons in order to target your audiences.

Here’s what you should do. Be careful when selecting coupons for your campaign. Make sure the type of coupons you’re selecting align with the buying habits of your target audiences.

Choose a dollar value discount coupon if your intended buyers love instant savings on their purchase. Drop in a text-based coupon if your buyers love shopping via their mobile phones. Or send digital coupons with “Abandoned Cart Email Notifications” to encourage buyers to complete their transactions.

Remember…

Thoughtfully opting for a coupon for your buyers can spell the difference between a good conversion rate and a bad one.

Here’s an example of how to do it right:

New York-based company, Birchbox, send a 20% off discount coupon with its “Abandoned Cart Email Notifications”.

As a result, the online beauty product company is able to reduce it’s cart abandonment rates; thereby, increasing its conversions.

Let’s move to the next step…

Step 3: Choosing where to market your coupons

By now you know who to target and what to offer through your coupon campaigns.

But here’s the BIG QUESTION:

How do you maximize the reach of your coupon campaigns in a bid to drive torrents of traffic and tons of sales-ready leads?

The answer:

By publishing your coupons on Online Coupon Directories!

Here’s why…

96% of buyers visit online coupon directories to look for discount coupons before making a purchase.

The bottom line?

Publishing your coupons on online coupon directories will help you connect with potential buyers who are already looking for discount deals for the services you’re offering or the products you’re selling.

You can also look to promote your coupons on social media sites and integrating them with your email marketing.

Why?

Because 71% of buyers follow brands on social media to get coupons.

And that’s not all…

58% of buyers want to get coupons via email.

The best part?

Buyers love to share discount coupons with their peers, family and friends.

In fact, 28% of buyers share coupons on social media platforms and 40% of buyers share email coupons.

What does this mean for you?

Free brand promotion, better brand recall value, positive social sentiments, lower marketing cost, maximized reach and awesome ROI.

Here’s an example:

Gap averaged turnover of over $10,000,000 in a single day with its 50% discount coupon.

This popular apparel and fashion accessories brand leveraged its social media sites and email to promote its coupon.

Best of all, its 50% coupon was liked by 606,000 Facebook users and was tweeted by over 30,000 Twitter users.

Step 4: Analyzing the performance of your coupon

Now that you know how to successfully launch a coupon marketing campaign, it’s time analyze the performance of your coupon campaign to understand if it is working well or not.

How?

Start by analyzing the traffic to your landing pages. This will help you understand if your coupon campaign is working well to attract traffic from coupon partners and affiliate sites or not.

Next, delve a little deeper and monitor your buyer’s journey to know at which stage of their journey they consume coupons.

But here’s the deal. Keep an eye out for ‘False Positives’ or it can point you in the wrong direction. Don’t work on assumptions.

Instead, carefully monitor all the conversion channels and keep an eye out for any noteworthy data. This will help you avoid any chances of randomness.

But don’t stop there…

Once you’re done with the process, repeat the process all over again.

Remember, constantly tracking, monitoring and optimizing your coupon marketing strategy will go a long way in ensuring optimum conversions.

Over to you!

So that’s how you can use coupons to increase your conversions in 2018 (and beyond).

Now I want to turn it over to you: How do you plan to optimize your conversion rates this year?

Are you still planning to optimize your landing pages, CTAs, lead forms (just like 2017)? Or do you plan to try out new strategies like coupon marketing campaigns to instantly boost conversions?

Let me know by leaving a quick comment below.

Guest Author: Ankit Roy has been a columnist, digital marketing expert, blogger and editor at Designhill. He specializes in digital marketing strategies, technical and international creative SEO, web analytics, and business development strategy. He provides ghost writing, coaching and ghost editing services. You can engage with him on Twitter , Facebook – and LinkedIn

The post How To Use Coupon Marketing To Increase Conversion Rates in 2018 appeared first on Jeffbullas’s Blog.

from Affiliate Marketing http://ift.tt/2rQxY19 via Affiliate Marketing
from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2rQrhMx

Affiliate Marketer From Bangladesh (BD) Opportunity to Earn $200 to $500 As a Commission.

Posted 1 day ago. Details. Needs to hire 3 Freelancers. Hi, I am looking for someone from Dhaka, Bangladesh. You know the basic Facebook or Adwords advertising and looking for a fulltime position. We will provide training for the position of the right candidate. We work with affiliate network and direct …

from Affiliate Marketing http://ift.tt/2E05lDm via Affiliate Marketing

from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2DMdRqx

Player Control – Game Lounge acquires Slottracker Solutions

Cherry AB affiliate marketing subsidiary unit Game Lounge has confirmed the acquisition of Slottracker Solutions (Slottracker.com) for a total consideration of €1 million. Slottracker.com is a software that allows online casino players to better monitor their playing habits, tracking gameplay information with …

from Affiliate Marketing http://ift.tt/2FtphM4 via Affiliate Marketing

from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2ntFMka

Long Island Marketing Agency Helps Small Businesses Master “Facebook Live”

… required for their online businesses to gain market share and remain competitive. Our specialties include, Email Services, Web Design, Web Development, Responsive Web Development, eCommerce Website Development, Pay-Per-Click, Affiliate Marketing, Remarketing, Programming, Social Media, …

from Affiliate Marketing http://ift.tt/2E0xBWM via Affiliate Marketing

from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2DR8iXC

Beware! Aggressive Israeli affiliate marketing scammers now switching from binary options leads to ...

We investigate the insidious shapeshifting of fraudulent affiliate marketers that are now aggressively targeting brokerages and website owners for crypto and ICO lead traffic that is effectively recycled binary options traffic, with revenues earned on losses of client deposits on schemes that never have any …

from Affiliate Marketing http://ift.tt/2Ft8ith via Affiliate Marketing

from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2nrHOAX

Business Director – Card Affiliate Marketing

Capital One is seeking a tenured leader as a Business Director (Partner Lead) for our Card Affiliate Marketing team. In this exciting role, the Partner Lead will develop and lead close relationships with our largest affiliate partners. The Partner Lead will have end-to-end ownership from strategic agenda to …

from Affiliate Marketing http://ift.tt/2E1ZHRc via Affiliate Marketing

from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2DMdRa1

Income Access to exhibit at ICE Totally Gaming & London Affiliate Conference

Income Access to Exhibit at ICE Totally Gaming & London Affiliate Conference Montreal, QC. 30th January 2018 – Income Access, Paysafe’s marketing technology and services provider, will exhibit at this year’s ICE Totally Gaming event and London Affiliate Conference (LAC), held at ExCeL London, UK …

from Affiliate Marketing http://ift.tt/2FqAYDp via Affiliate Marketing

from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2ntFF8e

Game Lounge, Catena Media, XLMedia and Gambling.com affiliate acquisition spree

game-lounge-slottracker-affiliate Nordic online gambling operator Cherry AB’s affiliate marketing subsidiary Game Lounge has acquired online bet monitoring site Slottracker.com. On Monday, Cherry announced that Game Lounge had reached a deal to acquire the Slottracker operation from US-based …

from Affiliate Marketing http://ift.tt/2DWblNL via Affiliate Marketing

from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2DQowQT

I Synergy Group increases transactions by 135% to more than 130000

Various modules have been developed by I Synergy in collaboration with a team of academics and researchers from the University of Technology, Malaysia. These modules range from an introduction of affiliate marketing to application of digital marketing. The collaborative approach has worked well for …

from Affiliate Marketing http://ift.tt/2Ftphvy via Affiliate Marketing

from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2ntFA4q

Junya Watanabe x Carhartt Is the Best Collab You Can Cop Right Now

Originally presented at Paris Fashion Week last season, Junya Watanabe’s Spring/Summer 2018 collection showed plenty of progressions on the designer’s trademark themes. Watanabe is known for his penchant for craft, hard-wearing workwear, and durable American brands. The collection included …

from Affiliate Marketing http://ift.tt/2DVRqhV via Affiliate Marketing

from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2DMFbFc

Sky Betting & Gaming's private equity owner mulls IPO options

The company has also sought to position itself on regulators’ good side, including scrapping its UK affiliate marketing program just days before some affiliates were formally censured for engaging in sketchy advertorial promos. However, one wonders how much of SB&G’s impressive growth was due to …

from Affiliate Marketing http://ift.tt/2Ft03h7 via Affiliate Marketing

from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2nrwuoz

Income Access to visit ICE London and LAC

(PRESS RELEASE) – Income Access, Paysafe’s marketing technology and services provider, will exhibit at this year’s ICE Totally Gaming event and London Affiliate Conference (LAC), held at ExCeL London, U.K., from 6-8 February 2018 and 7-10 February 2018, respectively. At LAC Income Access will …

from Affiliate Marketing http://ift.tt/2DWYoDj via Affiliate Marketing

from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2DO40As

Silicom Ltd. (SILC) At $67.89 Forms Top; 5 Analysts Are Bullish PFSweb, Inc. (PFSW) Last Week

Among 7 analysts covering PFSweb (NASDAQ:PFSW), 5 have Buy rating, 0 Sell and 2 Hold. Therefore 71% are positive. PFSweb had 17 analyst reports since August 11, 2015 according to SRatingsIntel. The rating was initiated by Cowen & Co on Tuesday, August 9 with “Outperform”. Northland Capital …

from Affiliate Marketing http://ift.tt/2Ft8bOn via Affiliate Marketing

from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2nqU84D

Classifying Your Affiliates in the MiFID 2 World

We do have some ideas that you want to run by your legal and compliance team that may help you make strong marketing relationships that will drive traffic and leads … An IB is simply a type of affiliate. … It can be construed that these types of affiliates are not IB’s but rather B2B marketing consultants.

from Affiliate Marketing http://ift.tt/2DNq0LV via Affiliate Marketing

from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2DWK2CF

Hologic, Inc. (HOLX) EPS Estimated At $0.49; Pfsweb (PFSW) Has 0.83 Sentiment

… design, user experience, interactive development, SEO and paid search, affiliate marketing, conversion optimization, storefront management, email marketing, and digital analytics. Analysts expect Hologic, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOLX) to report $0.49 EPS on February, 7.They anticipate $0.03 EPS change or …

from Affiliate Marketing http://ift.tt/2noPq7t via Affiliate Marketing

from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2Fr7oxp

We are looking for affiliate marketers ASAP no experience required

Hello, we will train you basic and advanced skills to start effectively affiliate marketing online at your own pace. We will pay you the biggest commissions in the industry from each of your sales. To start right away, we need you to fill out an application with us along with a questionnaire to see if you are a …

from Affiliate Marketing http://ift.tt/2DMjXaj via Affiliate Marketing

from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2DU40OJ

Rakuten Marketing Partners with RevTrax to Drive In-Store Sales

RevTrax, the leading personalized digital promotions company, has announced a partnership with Rakuten Marketing Affiliate Network that enables brands to increase sales by deploying secure and highly targeted digital coupons to consumers, utilizing advertiser DMP data to enable real-time offer …

from Affiliate Marketing http://ift.tt/2novVvG via Affiliate Marketing

from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2FrkiM6

Harsh Nagar

To appreciate affiliate marketing programs for beginners, one ought to understand affiliate marketing in the first place. Affiliate marketing is selling products for a vendor through marketing and advertising. The affiliate receives a commission or some other reward for customer action when the customer …

from Affiliate Marketing http://ift.tt/2DMlHR5 via Affiliate Marketing

from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2Frs3S0

What's Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (CFG) Upside After Reaching 52-Week High?

… evaluation/selection services; and agency services, such as LiveArea, digital strategy, design, user experience, interactive development, SEO and paid search, affiliate marketing, conversion optimization, storefront management, email marketing, and digital analytics. Haverford Tru has 4,333 shares for …

from Affiliate Marketing http://ift.tt/2noPm7J via Affiliate Marketing

from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2DYNOf4

Affiliate Marketing Promotion and Consulting for Online Websites Sales

Posted 1 hour ago. Details. We need someone to help with Affiliate Marketing. We set up a relationship with Tapfiliate but only had about 10 affiliates sign up and they all seem idle. Specifically, we need help with the following: 1) Does Affiliate Marketing make sense for our line of products (currently, …

from Affiliate Marketing http://ift.tt/2DOIKdN via Affiliate Marketing

from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2FqZcxr

Google Questions and Answers: A Case Study

Posted by MiriamEllis

Ever since Google rolled out Questions and Answers in mid-2017, I’ve been trying to get a sense of its reception by consumers and brands. Initially restricted to Android Google Maps, this fascinating feature which enables local business owners and the public to answer consumer questions made it to desktop displays this past December, adding yet another data layer to knowledge panels and local finders.

As someone who has worked in Q&A forums for the majority of my digital marketing life, I took an immediate shine to the idea of Google Questions and Answers. Here’s a chance, I thought, for consumers and brands to take meaningful communication to a whole new level, exchanging requests, advice, and help so effortlessly. Here’s an opportunity for businesses to place answers to FAQs right upfront in the SERPs, while also capturing new data about consumer needs and desires. So cool!

But, so far, we seem to be getting off to a slow start. According to a recent, wide-scale GetFiveStars study, 25% of businesses now have questions waiting for them. I decided to hone in on San Francisco and look at 20 busy industries in that city to find out not just how many questions were being asked, but also how many answers were being given, and who was doing the answering. I broke down responders into three groups: Local Guides (LGs), random users (RUs), and owners (Os). I looked at the top 10 businesses ranking in the local finder for each industry:

Industry	Number of Questions	Number of Answers	LGs	RUs	Os
Dentists	1	0	0	0	0
Plumbers	2	0	-	-	-
Chiropractors	0	-	-	-	-
Mexican Restaurants	10	23	22	1	-
Italian Restaurants	15	20	19	1	-
Chinese Restaurants	16	53	49	4	-
Car Dealers	4	5	3	2	-
Supermarkets	7	27	24	3	-
Clothing Stores	4	1	1	-	-
Florists	1	0	-	-	-
Hotels	44	142	114	28	-
Real Estate Agencies	0	-	-	-	-
General Contractors	1	0	-	-	-
Cell Phone Stores	14	3	3	-	-
Yoga Studios	1	0	-	-	-
Banks	1	0	-	-	-
Carpet Cleaning	0	-	-	-	-
Hair Salons	1	0	-	-	-
Locksmiths	1	0	-	-	-
Jewelry Stores	0	-	-	-	-

---

Takeaways from the case study

Here are some patterns and oddities I noticed from looking at 123 questions and 274 answers:

1. There are more than twice as many answers as questions. While many questions received no answers, others received five, ten, or more.
2. The Owners column is completely blank. The local businesses I looked at in San Francisco are investing zero effort in answering Google Questions and Answers.
3. Local Guides are doing the majority of the answering. Of the 274 answers provided, 232 came from users who have been qualified as Local Guides by Google. Why so lopsided? I suspect the answer lies in the fact that Google sends alerts to this group of users when questions get asked, and that they can earn 3 points per answer they give. Acquiring enough points gets you perks like 3 free months of Google Play Music and a 75% discount off Google Play Movies.
   
   Unfortunately, what I’m seeing in Google Questions and Answers is that incentivizing replies is leading to a knowledge base of questionable quality. How helpful is it when a consumer asks a hotel if they have in-room hair dryers and 10 local guides jump on the bandwagon with “yep”? Worse yet, I saw quite a few local guides replying “I don’t know,” “maybe,” and even “you should call the business and ask.” Here and there, I saw genuinely helpful answers from the Local Guides, but my overall impression didn’t leave me feeling like I’d stumbled upon a new Google resource of matchless expertise.
4. Some members of the public seem to be confused about the use of this feature. I noticed people using the answer portion to thank people who replied to their query, rather than simply using the thumbs up widget.
   
   Additionally, I saw people leaving reviews/statements, instead of questions: And with a touch of exasperated irony: And to rant:
5. Some industries are clearly generating far more questions than others. Given how people love to talk about hotels and restaurants, I wasn’t surprised to see them topping the charts in sheer volume of questions and answers. What did surprise me was not seeing more questions being asked of businesses like yoga studios, florists, and hair salons; before I actually did the searches, I might have guessed that pleasant, “chatty” places like these would be receiving lots of queries.

---

Big brands everywhere are leaving Google Questions and Answers unanswered

I chose San Francisco for my case study because of its general reputation for being hip to new tech, but just in case my limited focus was presenting a false picture of how local businesses are managing this feature, I did some random searches for big brands around the state and around the country.

I found questions lacking owner answers for Whole Foods, Sephora, Taco Bell, Macy’s, Denny’s, Cracker Barrel, Target, and T-Mobile. As I looked around the nation, I noted that Walmart has cumulatively garnered thousands of questions with no brand responses.

But the hands-down winner for a single location lacking official answers is Google in Mountain View. 103 questions as of my lookup and nary an owner answer in sight. Alphabet might want to consider setting a more inspiring example with their own product… unless I’m misunderstanding their vision of how Google Questions and Answers is destined to be used.

---

Just what is the vision for Google Questions and Answers, I wonder?

As I said at the beginning of this post, it’s early days yet to predict ultimate outcomes. Yet, the current lay of the land for this feature has left me with more questions than answers:

• Does Google actually intend questions to be answered by brands, or by the public? From what I’ve seen, owners are largely unaware of or choosing to ignore this feature many months post-launch. As of writing this, businesses are only alerted about incoming questions if they open the Google Maps app on an Android phone or tablet. There is no desktop GMB dashboard section for the feature. It’s not a recipe for wide adoption. Google has always been a fan of a crowdsourcing approach to their data, so they may not be concerned, but that doesn’t mean your business shouldn’t be.
• What are the real-time expectations for this feature? I see many users asking questions that needed fast answers, like “are you open now?” while others might support lengthier response times, as in, “I’m planning a trip and want to know what I can walk to from your hotel.” For time-sensitive queries, how does Questions and Answers fit in with Google’s actual chat feature, Google Messaging, also rolled out last summer? Does Google envision different use cases for both features? I wonder if one of the two products will win out over time, while the other gets sunsetted.
• What are the real, current risks to brands of non-management? I applauded Mike Blumenthal’s smart suggestion of companies proactively populating the feature with known FAQs and providing expert answers, and I can also see the obvious potential for reputation damage if rants or spam are ignored. That being said, my limited exploration of San Francisco has left me wondering just how many people (companies or consumers) are actually paying attention in most industries. Google Knowledge Panels and the Local Finder pop-ups are nearing an information bloat point. Do you want to book something, look at reviews, live chat, see menus, find deals, get driving directions, make a call? Websites are built with multiple pages to cover all of these possible actions. Sticking them all in a 1” box may not equal the best UX I’ve ever seen, if discovery of features is our goal.
• What is the motivation for consumers to use the product? Personally, I’d be more inclined to just pick up the phone to ask any question to which I need a fast answer. I don’t have the confidence that if I queried Whole Foods in the AM as to whether they’ve gotten in organic avocados from California, there’d be a knowledge panel answer in time for my lunch. Further, some of the questions I’ve asked have received useless answers from the public, which seems like a waste of time for all parties. Maybe if the feature picks up momentum, this will change.
• Will increasing rates of questions = increasing rates of business responses? According to the GetFiveStars study linked to above, total numbers of questions for the 1700 locations they investigated nearly doubled between November–December of 2017. From my microscopic view of San Francisco, it doesn’t appear to me that the doubling effect also happened for owner answers. Time will tell, but for now, what I’m looking for is question volume reaching such a boiling point that owners feel obligated to jump into management, as they have with reviews. We’re not there yet, but if this feature is a Google keeper, we could get there.

---

So what should you be doing about Google Questions and Answers?

I’m a fan of early adoption where it makes sense. Speculatively, having an active Questions and Answers presence could end up as a ranking signal. We’ve already seen it theorized that use of another Google asset, Google Posts, may impact local pack rankings. Unquestionably, leaving it up to the public to answer questions about your business with varying degrees of accuracy carries the risk of losing leads and muddying your online presence to the detriment of reputation. If a customer asks if your location has wheelchair access and an unmotivated third party says “I don’t know,” when, in fact, your business is fully ADA-compliant, your lack of an answer becomes negative customer service. Because of this, ignoring the feature isn’t really an option. And, while I wouldn’t prioritize management of Questions and Answers over traditional Google-based reviews at this point, I would suggest:

1. Do a branded search today and look at your knowledge panel to see if you’ve received any questions. If so, answer them in your best style, as helpfully as possible
2. Spend half an hour this week translating your company’s 5 most common FAQs into Google Questions and Answers queries and then answering them. Be sure you’re logged into your company’s Google account when you reply, so that your message will be officially stamped with the word “owner.” Whether you proactively post your FAQs while logged into your business’ account is up to you. I think it’s more transparent to do so.
3. If you’re finding this part of your Knowledge Panel isn’t getting any questions, checking it once a week is likely going to be enough for the present.
4. If you happen to be marketing a business that is seeing some good Questions and Answers activity, and you have the bandwidth, I’d add checking this to the daily social media rounds you make for the purpose of reputation management. I would predict that if Google determines this feature is a keeper, they’ll eventually start sending email alerts when new queries come in, as they’re now doing with reviews, which should make things easier and minimize the risk of losing a customer with an immediate need. Need to go pro on management right now due to question volume? GetFiveStars just launched an incredibly useful Google Q&A monitoring feature, included in some of their ORM software packages. Looks like a winner!
5. Do be on the lookout for spam inquiries and responses, and report them if they arise.

If you’re totally new to Google Questions and Answers, this simple infographic will get you going in a flash:

For further tips on using Google Questions and Answers like a pro, I recommend following GetFiveStars’ 3-part series on this topic.

---

My questions, your answers

My case study is small. Can you help expand our industry’s knowledge base by answering a few questions in the comments to add to the picture of the current rate of adoption/usefulness of Google’s Questions and Answers? Please, let me know:

1. Have you asked a question using this feature?
2. Did you receive an answer and was it helpful?
3. Who answered? The business, a random user, a Local Guide?
4. Have you come across any examples of business owners doing a good job answering questions?
5. What are your thoughts on Google Questions and Answers? Is it a winner? Worth your time? Any tips?

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don’t have time to hunt down but want to read!

from Affiliate Marketing http://ift.tt/2GpXL3x via Affiliate Marketing
from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2niR2Aq

I Synergy Group's Shariah compliance valuable for Malaysia marketing business

The company provides training and services for Malaysian affiliates in Affiliate Junction’s agency program and its retail affiliate program’s operations, rewards and incentives. The affiliate marketing platform, Affiliate Junction, is home to more than 25,000 affiliates and 1,000 advertisers. Under the platform …

from Affiliate Marketing http://ift.tt/2rKdabJ via Affiliate Marketing

from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2GoZwxP

ActiveCampaign vs. Infusionsoft: Best CRMs for your Ecommerce Business

When it comes to email marketing platforms or CRMs for your ecommerce business ActiveCampaign and Infusionsoft are two of the most popular tools … on their key features such as: tagging, automation & custom sequence, affiliate tracking & payments, e-commerce & CRM, integrations, usability and …

from Affiliate Marketing http://ift.tt/2GrDBpA via Affiliate Marketing

from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2rNHhyH

Analyst's Ratings : Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:CFG)

… and agency services, such as LiveArea, digital strategy, design, user experience, interactive development, SEO and paid search, affiliate marketing, conversion optimization, storefront management, email marketing, and digital analytics. It fall, as 21 investors sold ERI shares while 39 reduced holdings.

from Affiliate Marketing http://ift.tt/2FpMqiK via Affiliate Marketing

from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2EhUqmj

Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:CFG) Needle Ticks 0.28% For the Week

Account Management Llc sold 12,500 shares as the company’s stock declined 30.30% while stock markets rallied. … design, user experience, interactive development, SEO and paid search, affiliate marketing, conversion optimization, storefront management, email marketing, and digital analytics.

from Affiliate Marketing http://ift.tt/2DPTEzl via Affiliate Marketing

from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2DGxXhC

web developer for affiliate marketing site

web developer for affiliate marketing site. Web, Mobile & Software Dev Web Development. Hourly. Hours to be determined 1 to 3 months. $$. Intermediate Level. I am looking for a mix of experience and value. Posted 32 minutes ago …

from Affiliate Marketing http://ift.tt/2DQQBXI via Affiliate Marketing

from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2EfI520

Show off Your Fire Rotation with Our Favorite Sneaker Storage Options

It’s a good time to be a sneakerhead. Hyped releases and collaborations are announced on what seems like a weekly basis, with plenty of heat already in the pipeline for 2018. While this may be good news, it also means that you best have the appropriate storage for all of those fresh kicks in your …

from Affiliate Marketing http://ift.tt/2FpMor8 via Affiliate Marketing

from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2DDMjzr

8 Creative Ways To Add Christmas Spirit To Your Social Media

Holiday shopping is no longer a marathon – it’s something that happens in moments.

Instead of visiting different shopping malls and looking for the best offers, shoppers are turning to their mobile phones in hundreds of micro-moments that are happening every day during the holiday season.

In 2014 around 90% of holiday sales took place in stores, but 56% were influenced by mobile. According to Crowdtap around 64% of shoppers are going to social media to find inspiration for purchases, with Facebook influencing gift purchases at the highest rate of 59%. Pinterest and Facebook are considered to be the best social media platforms for inspiration, while 55% of shoppers continue to research on blogs.

Such trends are expected to continue to grow in 2015, so it’s more and more important for every business to be present at the point that influences, drives discovery and ultimately improves sales.

In case you haven’t prepared your social media to capture the attention of your customers and trigger Christmas shopping, it’s time to use these 8 tips that will make your social media festive and merry for the holidays.

Idea 1: Decorate Your Cover and Profile Photo

Your Cover Photo should always primarily represent the values and personality of your brand, but if you want to get your audience in the season spirit you have to change it to reflect the holiday season. People are browsing social media more than usual so fresh Cover Photos will motivate them to check your social media and look for special offers or gift ideas.

To start, try to picture the Cover Photo as your billboard and ask yourself what information you want to promote during the holiday season. Maybe you have some special holiday products you want to showcase or some special holiday deals your fans would like to hear about? Tell that to your audience with a simple and effective design that consists of a bold background color and playful combination of serif and sans serif fonts.

We suggest you try Arvo or EB Garamond as serif and Glober or Din as your sans serif fonts.

Even if your business cannot offer any special holiday discounts, post a picture of your office Christmas decorations and brand it elegantly with your logo to give an inviting and festive vibe to your social media.

According to research, each person has an average of 5 social media accounts but actively uses three so don’t stop on just one social media platform. Upload similar holiday-themed cover images to all your other social media accounts to create consistency and enable visitors to easily find and recognize your brand on their preferred social media network.

In a similar way you should shake up your Profile image and make people think about Christmas whenever they see your updates on the Newsfeed. If you cannot add a Santa hat, mistletoe symbol or some other holiday accents to your logo, you can always use festive-related hashtags and place them under your logo. Choose more generic hashtags such as #Wishlist2015 or #Christmas2015, or create your own hashtag as a part of the holiday marketing campaign, like Sears has been doing for several years now.

This will tie in all your social media accounts and help shoppers who are using Twitter or Instagram to research your offer in more detail. 

Idea 2: Create a Very Merry Christmas Offer

Christmas is one of the biggest buying seasons of the year during which most retailers earn as much as 20% of their annual revenue, so a lot of effort is placed into attracting buyers to choose a particular brand.

Messages such as: one day only, limited quantity sales, buy-one-get-one free, special discounts or holiday coupons are among the most frequent deals used. To bring attention to the message make sure you place text on a background that will not be too distracting. Apply the principle of font hierarchy and give bigger font size to more important pieces of the information, such as the discount value.

One of the most popular shopping holidays in December is also Free Shipping Day (this year it’s December 18^th) when businesses offer free shipping and guarantee that all orders made on that day will be delivered by Christmas Eve.

Offering free shipping is Amazon’s most successful recruiting incentive and also a number one reason that would influence people to complete a purchase on a social networking site during the holiday season. If possible, use Free Shipping Day as a perfect incentive to make people purchase from you and design a social media post that will place that information in the focus of attention with classic and confident font such as Chunk Five.

Another way to motivate a purchase is to have time-bound offers that will create a sense of urgency and inspire customers to act immediately, or risk missing out on a good deal. Accentuate your design with snowflakes, bows, a Santa Clause sleigh and other stickers you can find in Content Creator’s pre-designed Christmas templates.

Like this…

And this…

Idea 3: Share the Joy of Christmas

Social media is meant to be social, so use the holiday season to give your posts some festive spin. You will get people excited not only about the season but also about your brand!

You can start by creating posts that ask people what’s their most memorable Christmas moment, favorite holiday food, best part of Christmas: opening presents, dinner or the post lunch feeling?

If you are in a business that can benefit from recipe posts, you shouldn’t miss the opportunity to talk about food during the festive season. Share recipes or cooking tips, ask fans to share their own or to post a review once they make your dish.

People also love “this vs. that” questions, so you can ask them what they prefer to eat or drink around the holidays: cider or eggnog?

Whatever you choose to write about, make sure that your text is not invading the image. Use background shapes as a text holder so that the recipe is easy to read and experiment with fun and festive fonts such as Animatic or Toscuchet CM as they will perfectly capture the relaxed atmosphere of the season. 

Your tips and tricks can go beyond cooking ideas. You can help your audience learn how to decorate their home, choose the best gift or perfectly wrap their gifts.

Conversation on any of these topics will make you look knowledgeable and bring you closer to shoppers.

People tend to remember information grouped in three so if you want to get your message across choose three main points and design them as bullet or number lists. It will help you communicate the information without making your design complicated or busy.

Idea 4: Make a Wish Come True

A classic way to encourage interaction is to organize a prize game on your profile page or through applications. Multi-day giveaways, in which you give out prizes every day for a certain period of time (such as “the 12 days of Christmas”) have the best engagement rate because they make fans come back again and again. Your prize game mechanism could be as simple as setting up a quiz with holiday related topics or inviting your audience to share photos in their worst Christmas sweaters.

Keep the conversation fresh by sharing posts with detailed information on prizes, counting the days till the end of the competition or announcing winners through a specially designed post. Use consistent images and fonts on all your promo materials as that will increase brand recall and help your audience differentiate promo posts from others. Bring some holiday spirit in your design by placing copy on different holiday-inspired background shapes that you can find in Content Creator’s Christmas pre-made templates.

In case you need to reinforce the brand, we suggest you place your logo in the corner of the photo so that it can make a quiet but consistent statement without being too distracting or overpowering.

Idea 5: Kick Off the Festive Season with an Event

If you want your event invitation to be noticed in the newsfeed or in an email inbox, give your design some extra kick with creative icons, decorative shapes and powerful colors that symbolize the season. Use holiday inspired fonts such as Titan One for the headline and opt for simple sans-serif letters like Bebas for the body copy that contains important information about the time and location of the party.

Idea 6: Show the Magic of Giving

The holiday season is a time to remind ourselves that we should be helping others more, so share that thought and your efforts with your audience. Prepare a special holiday eBook and encourage downloads by saying you will offer 100 dollars for every 100 downloads. Or create a special hashtag and promise you will donate 1 dollar for each shared tweet that contains such hashtag.

For inspiration take a look at the #MacysBelieve hashtag campaign that invites kids to send their letters to Santa at Macy’s stores. For every letter received Macy’s is donating a dollar to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. In 2013 the hashtag campaign ended up raising 2 million dollars!

When designing your posts, use a photo of people who will receive the help, as that will have the strongest impact on your audience. For better legibility place a transparent layer over your photo and contrast the color of letters with the color of the background. Use up to 2 fonts and play with their size and weight for more variety.

Idea 7: Shout-out to Everyone

Reaching potential customers means exposing them to what your brand has to offer this season. The only guaranteed way you can achieve that is to boost your important marketing messages through social media ads or online banners.

In case you decide on Facebook ads remember to avoid blue and white colors that can blend with the background, and make sure that your text covers a maximum of 20% of the image.

Online banners, on the other hand, do not have any rule regarding the size of the copy, but it’s important you build trust with your logo and place it on the top or bottom of the ad, depending on the placement of the copy. Don’t forget to inform the viewer on what you want them to do (shop, follow, download) with a clear instruction or call to action.

When choosing the banner image remember that it doesn’t have to be all about Christmas trees, green-red decorations or Christmas gifts. Instead, try to think about your audience. For example, if you are selling clothing, focus the ad on the party season and market your offer to those who are looking for new outfits for that occasion.

Idea 8: Wish Happy Holidays

If you are tempted to think that Christmas Day is a good time for giving your social media accounts a rest, think again. Your audience will be logging in to their profiles to wish family and friends happy holidays so this is a perfect opportunity for you to send out a “Merry Christmas” message from your business.

Find an image that has some holiday decoration but also a little bit of clear space for you to place your text. You can stick with green-red Christmas colors or add a touch of gold or silver for a more celebratory feeling. Write your copy by contrasting two fonts that will help each other speak. Script fonts such as Sign Painter or Wisdom Script will add affectionate and personal notes to your message, while sans serif fonts like Selena or Linear will keep it strong but friendly.

The best news about using applications such as Content Creator is that you don’t need to pull yourself away from the Christmas table to post your holiday post. Instead, you can use the power of the scheduling option in the application and schedule your post in advance so that your fans can check it between their holiday moments.

In the end don’t forget to take advantage of the after Christmas season when real sales and discounts are just starting. Play with bright colors and frame your post to focus the attention on the copy and your great offer.

For more inspiration and ideas on how to design a perfect holiday post, make sure to check out Content Creator app and our special Christmas pre-made templates that will help you create great designs in just few minutes. And now, over to you.

Do you have other ideas on how to get your social media ready for the holidays? Will you try the ones we have suggested? Let us know in comments below!

Guest Author: Aida Gadzo is a Social Media Strategist at contentcreatorapp.com. She helps small and medium businesses master the what, why and how of producing and delivering engaging digital and social media content that will activate audiences and drive sales.

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post for Content Creator.

The post 8 Creative Ways To Add Christmas Spirit To Your Social Media appeared first on Jeffbullas’s Blog.

from Affiliate Marketing http://ift.tt/2Bodj8S via Affiliate Marketing
from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2DEI4U6