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Google Posts: The Free and Simple Way for SMBs to Leverage Local Search

Google Local SEO
May 20, 2021/by
Google Posts: The Free and Simple Way for SMBs to Leverage Local Search In 2019, nearly one-third of online consumers in the U.S. used the internet on a daily basis to search for local businesses. And as of 2021, Google had 86.6% of the market share of search engines — meaning, getting noticed on Google is an effective way to boost business volume and find new customers. To help companies reach prospective consumers, Google introduced a feature called My Business Posts. It allows businesses to share relevant information that appears within Google Search and Maps results themselves, rather than taking users to a new webpage. Despite their potential benefits, however, Google My Business Posts haven’t seen significant uptake from brands. Do a quick Google search and you’ll find a My Business Help page along with a host of questions like, “Do Google Posts work?” or “Do businesses really use Google Posts?” In part, this lackluster uptake stems from the ubiquity of Google and our own familiarity with these posts — many businesses assume that Google’s algorithms will pick and place relevant data automatically. In actuality, companies need to create and schedule their own My Business Posts. Here’s what you need to know about the best-kept secret of local SEO — and how to make My Business Posts work for your brand. Source When crafting your Google Posts, you’ll have ample opportunity to grab your audience’s attention. You can describe your offer, product, or event in up...
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3 Easy Steps to Build Your Brand Promise [+10 examples]

Branding
May 19, 2021/by
3 Easy Steps to Build Your Brand Promise If you're a decent human being, you always honor a pinky promise. For the uninitiated, a pinky promise is usually between two people and it holds more weight than a spit shake, legal contract, verbal agreement, and "I swear on my " statements combined. It's part of our social contract – once it's been agreed upon, it cannot be broken. A brand promise is the scaled, commercial version of the pinky promise, with the brand holding up one finger and its target audience holding up the other. Except, in this case, breaking it won't just ruin your reputation, it can impact your revenue. Let's talk about how to create a brand promise and see examples from popular brands. What is a brand promise? A brand promise reveals what consumers can expect from a brand across all touchpoints. It serves as a company's foundational value and informs every aspect of the company, from its messaging to its customer service. Your brand promise should be central to your company, something that remains constant as it grows and evolves. Not every brand promise is explicit. In many cases, it's more of an internal mantra that's shared with employees, investors, and partners. However, when you have built a strong brand identity and clear messaging, your brand promise can be assumed by your target audience. There's often some confusion between a brand promise and a tagline, so let's break it down. While it can...
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10 Outdated YouTube Marketing Tactics to Drop, According to HubSpot Video Managers

Youtube Marketing
May 18, 2021/by
10 Outdated YouTube Marketing Tactics to Drop, According to HubSpot Video Managers When YouTube first launched, I was in 6th grade and all my friends were creating funny videos to upload. See, back in the day, YouTube was mainly used for teens to upload funny, entertaining videos. Anyone else remember Smosh and Fred? I'm aging myself, but I digress. Back then, using YouTube for business and marketing was a new concept. Now, more than 15 years later, it's entirely different. Brands and businesses use Youtube to engage and connect with their audience. For marketers, this means your YouTube strategy needs to have evolved from the beginning days of the social platform. If you haven't and are still using old YouTube strategies, you won't benefit from having a channel. Let's review the top outdated YouTube strategies that you need to abandon and what you should do instead. 1. Focusing on selling products rather than helping your audience. While YouTube might have been a place for entertainment before, it's now also a place for people to learn new skills and conduct research. Nelson Chacon, the principal marketing manager of YouTube at HubSpot, says, "Don't sell, help. Users on YouTube like to be educated and not sold to." When businesses first started using social media sites, one of the older marketing tactics was to sell, sell, sell. But users don't want to be sold to. They want help. If they go to your business's YouTube, they probably want information too....
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The Ultimate Guide to Infographics

Infographics
May 15, 2021/by
The Ultimate Guide to Infographics Did you know that people retain 65% of the information they see, but only 10% of the information they hear? Also, people follow directions 323% better with a combination of text and illustration than instructions without illustrations. That's why, as a marketer, it's important to display information in a combination of visual and text, in an easy-to-consume way. A great way to do that is through infographics. If you've wanted to create and publish an infographic, you've come to the right place. I know you might be thinking, "I'm not a graphic designer" or "I've never made an infographic before." But you're not alone. And that doesn't mean it can't be easy for you to learn. In this post, we'll take you through everything you need to know about infographics, from what they are to what kinds of infographics there are to how to promote an infographic once you've created it. Table of Contents What is an infographic? Infographic Examples Infographic Dimensions Infographic Ideas and Topics Infographic Tips Infographic Templates How to Share an Infographic Infographics typically use engaging visuals to quickly and clearly communicate what the graphic is about. People use infographics because they can provide a quick overview of a topic, explain a complex process, and display data easily. Infographics are also great for comparing two opposing concepts or ideas. As a marketer, you might've experienced the feeling of indecisiveness...
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The Ultimate Guide to Viral Campaigns

Viral Campaigns
May 14, 2021/by
The Ultimate Guide to Viral Campaigns    “He once ran a marathon because it was on his way. Sharks have a week dedicated to him. Mosquitoes refuse to bite him purely out of respect.” Have you heard of him before? Yes, he’s “The Most Interesting Man in the World”— a fictional character that drinks Dos Equis beer and stars in the company’s viral commercials. The commercials — which make me laugh every time — are part advertisement, part comedy skit and have a similar theme so fans always know when they’re watching a Dos Equis advertisement. The company targets its audience of sophisticated beer drinkers in an engaging, creative, and humorous way through TV, social media, and YouTube. The unique campaign created fans around the world that helped spread it across multiple platforms, so much so that people even dress up as the commercial's main character for Halloween.  Dos Equis may not have been 100% sure that their campaign would take off the way it did, but they had a good idea about its potential popularity.  Similarly, there is no guaranteed way to ensure your content goes viral, but there are certain steps you can take to give your marketing campaign the best chance at success.   Many marketers hope for a campaign to go viral — meaning it's recognized, widely-accepted, and influential. But there's no guaranteed formula. However, if you think about some of your favorite viral marketing campaigns, you'll notice some common features. Marketers wanting to reach...
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A Beginner’s Guide to Data Flow Diagrams

Technical SEO
May 14, 2021/by
A Beginner's Guide to Data Flow Diagrams Ask any professional athlete or business executive how they became successful, and they’ll tell you they mastered a process. By figuring out which of their habits led to success and which didn’t, they improved their efficiency, effectiveness, and productivity at work. But implementing a process into a business, department, or even a team is a completely different animal than honing your own personal process. With so many moving parts, how do you track each aspect of your business' process and how do you refine it? Data flow diagrams provide a straightforward, efficient way for organizations to understand, perfect, and implement new processes or systems. They’re visual representations of your process or system, so they make it easy to understand and prune. Before we dive into how data flow diagrams can help refine any of your business’ systems or processes, let’s go over what it exactly is. Image Source DFDs became popular in the 1970s and have maintained their widespread use by being easy to understand. Visually displaying how a process or system works can hold people’s attention and explain complex concepts better than blocks of text can, so DFDs are able to help almost anyone grasp a system’s or process’ logic and functions. There are two types of DFDs — logical and physical. Logical diagrams display the theoretical process of moving information through a system, like where the data comes from, where it goes, how it changes, and where...
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Header Tags: What They Are and How to Use Them

On-page SEO
May 14, 2021/by
Header Tags: What They Are and How to Use Them When I first started blogging, I had no idea how to structure my posts to rank for search engines, or even why it was important. I just threw in bolded words and phrases that looked good and hoped to be randomly selected for the search engine results pages (SERPs). Now I know there is a science to blog optimization, and what I was throwing into my blog posts to make them look professional was called header/heading tags — and are an important tool for comprehension and SEO. Here's a quick guide on header tags and what they're used for: H1 — The title of a post. They're usually keyword-centric, focused around the "big idea" of a page or post, and crafted to grab a reader's attention. H2 — These are subheaders that classify the main points of your paragraphs and separate sections. Consider using semantic keywords related to the "big idea" in your H1 while also helping the reader easily find the sections they want to read. H3 — These are subsections that clarify the points made in the H2 further. Alternatively, they can be used in formatting lists or bullet points. H4 —These are subsections that clarify the points made in the H3 further. Alternatively, they can be used in formatting lists or bullet points. The "H" in H1, H2, etc. officially stands for "heading element," though the SEO community also...
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