The longer you avoid your data, the longer you continue to miss opportunities to market your business and serve the people who are looking for your services.
People use search and social media to discover products and services. Ads served along the way, combined with a strong social media presence, provides your business with consumer insight into how messages are being seen and received. This makes the resulting data an important part of identifying opportunity to connect with a customer.
The longer you delay analysis, the longer you misunderstand your customers…and the shorter will be your time in business.
Starting a paid search campaign can introduce a number of steps to get a marketing message in front of an audience. One important aspect is understanding the bidding process - maintaining a reasonable cost per click means appreciating the bid being set. This infographic from Wordstream explains the bidding process for Google Adwords. See how this enhances your strategy for a winning paid search campaign.
This infographic from Search Engine Land covers the basics of no-follow links, a kind of link tag that is meant to indicate to search engines to not consider a link between two pages or sites. The reasons for using a no-follow link can help manage the pages associated to your site. Take a look and see how the tips can help your optimization plans.
Even an older high quality digital camera is still useful for creating images that speak to customer wants and describes your products and services
The growing use of images in social media has added a cherry on top to the sundae called web design. Instagram, Pinterest, not to mention Facebook (which is the platform on which the most images are shared) and Twitter have altered how website should display images and how visitors experience product and services.
Great images provide 2 unique values for your business or organization:
But if your business is starting out and starved for images, there are a few ways it can make the most of what it lacks. Here are a few suggestions which has been applied to Zimana as it has moved forward.
1. Get the best tech possible (and affordable) in the year of your purchase so you can make the most of the features while you have it
Business get cashed strapped for having video in place, but it is a good idea to select the best tech for the budget possible in the year of your purchase. Doing so will entice your team to make the most of the features during the lifecycle of the product.
Consider a good digital camera with at least 6 Megapixel resolution. Most smartphones at this writing contain 8 MP cameras, but their range is usually not as extensive as a regular camera. In fact, there are even DSLRs that are surprisingly affordable, thanks to increased capability of iPads and Android devices.
All in all, the camera you use does not have to be the latest model. For example, I've used a Panasonic Lumix I purchased in 2006 for video and pictures. There are way better cameras on the market now, able to take advantage of SDHC cards and even offer DSLR performance depending on model. But this camera served me well for basic images with enough size to be edited and used for the blog.
2. Adjust your usage to the platform selected
Consider the nature of how people share on a social media platform. Not every platform requires a comment with an image - Instagram and Pinterest focus on discovery, while Facebook and Google Plus permits more back and forth conversation. Twitter usage can blend the temporary nature of the Instagram and Pinterest posting with limited conversation similar to Facebook and Google Plus. Moreover, Twitter is "open" - meaning you can share with just about anyone and that may change the kinds of interactions you have compared to the aforementioned platforms.
In simple terms, study each platform prior to using a social media dashboard like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck. Understanding the difference between the platforms can give new ideas to how a photo can be reference or mentioned.
3. Make sure images convey how your product or service benefits others
Small businesses in particular tend to share a lot of text about their business or a bout the business owner. Instead, see to it to share images that convey more about how your business interacts with its customers or how customers lover your products. Even B2B firms that rely on the old formulaic "business team" photos would do better with images of the team together.
If there is some hesitancy as to picking a picture for a site, use A/B testing combined with a web analytics solution to determine which image influence your conversion rates the best. Ultimately think of original ways to convey what your brand has to offer.
Web design is certainly evolving - this infograhic collects the latest ideas being added to websites. Some ideas have more "story" behind them, such as the suggestion of a single page. The "single page" is more about parallax design - backgrounds scrolling at a different rate than the text and other images. And flat sites will be a
Codefree has been around for a minute, and there will be certainly be more than a few companies that will crop up. But understanding code will be essential to build really great digital experiences for customers. Every business will have to access its capability to provide those experiences against its technological ability to update their sites effectively.
IMHO - Pierre
Thanking Avinash Kaushik (at right) after his 2012 SES presentation. He advocated in his book Web Analytics 2.0 the 90/10 rule on analytics budget - spend more on the analyst/training and less on the tool.
The business world is adopting website data and metrics as the guidance to understanding customers and developing new ideas. But what should a small company look for when considering an analyst for its needs.
The temptation is to focus on the skill set with a given tool. This is natural but can be an overemphasis on one aspect. Avinash Kaushik, co-Founder of Market Motive Inc and Digital Marketing Evangelist for Google, once stated that 10% of every analysis budget should go towards the tool; 90% towards the analysts. He understood technology and how a spend on a particular tool has a limited period of value before something else comes along.
Businesses should focus on people who understand some of the technical but also the strategic purposes within the business. Thomas Davenport in Competing on Analytics believed that understanding those purposes is at the heart of analytic value. His quote:
"Without a distinctive capability (what you do to set your business apart), it becomes impossible to compete and distinguish what data is important."
A good analyst should be able to understand what your distinctive capability is. He or she can then related that capability to the dimensions and metrics that conduct the reporting.
Here is how that understanding gets applied in your business.
One note: in some instances, a business may not have KPIs identified. But every business will have objectives, and select metrics to reflect those objectives yields the same process as that for businesses with KPIs.
But no matter the semantics about the starting point, ask yourself "What type of analysis do I need of my business?" The answer will lead to the best description for hiring analytic support.
Reviewing analytics data - whether by team or with a dedicated analyst - requires an understanding of the business objectives and reviewing how to best match those objectives.
