Top 10 digital marketing trends to look out for in 2017

Now that 2016 is nearly over, it’s time to look forward to 2017 and what trends we should expect to see in the digital marketing environment.

10 trends that will emerge in 2017 are:

 

1. Continued rise of mobile browsing

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2016 was a huge year for mobile browsing. For the first time ever, mobile browsing overtook desktop. Google’s algorithm now takes into account mobile websites. Businesses without an optimised mobile website will see their ranking fall. 2017 is sure to see mobile browsing continue to rise, and an increase of mobile focused internet marketing.

2. Live platforms

Video is becoming increasingly popular, so it makes sense that the next step would be live streaming. There are already platforms taking advantage of this, such as Facebook Live, Pericope, Meerkat. Instagram even just launched its livestreaming service in Austrlia. While live streaming hasn’t quite taken off yet, it is gaining traction, and businesses are learning what to do and not to do. Live streaming is a great way to be able to broadcast your business, event, new product launch - whatever your business desires. It is extremely cost effective, and this is why live streaming is sure to grow as a digital marketing business tactic in 2017.

3. Immersive video

Videos are a great opportunity to engage the audience. They’re not just one dimensional anymore - 2016 saw the introduction of 360 degree videos. Real estate companies have already capitalised on this technology, and 2017 will be the year other industries follow. GoPro have already released videos of surfers in Tahiti (check the clip out on your mobile for the full experience).

360 degree videos helps to break the fourth wall and completely immerse viewers in the situation. While these type of videos are only available on certain platforms, such as YouTube 360 and shoppable video, 2017 could see new technology developed and 360 degree videos expand their range and be used by businesses.

4. Video advertising

While 360 degree video is taking off, one dimensional video advertising is still highly popular. According to a study by Cisco, video content will comprise 69% of all consumer traffic by 2017. Video not only satisfies a customer's information needs, it also gives them entertainment. According to a study conducted by Nielsen, 64% of responders indicate video content will dominate their strategies moving forward.  It can only be expected that video advertising will continue to rise throughout 2017.

5. Augmented reality

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Pokemon Go has died down, but at its peak its success was impressive. It was installed over 100 million times, and earned over $10 million in daily revenue. The consumers enthusiasm for augmented reality, and the clear earning potential, may see more brands capitalise on it and produce more augmented reality games and ads.

6. Conversion Rate Optimisation

Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) isn’t anything new, but now it’s time to introduce it to websites and landing pages in order to raise your return on investment (ROI).

CRO is all about tracking user behaviour to see what produces the highest number of conversions. Businesses can use this to tweak their website to achieve a higher number of conversions and direct this traffic into sales. Make sure you test your landing page and optimise appropriately.

7. Influx of content marketing

“Content is king” is the cliche, but it’s a cliche for a reason. Content is still very much an essential part of any digital marketing campaign. Smart Insights undertook a survey and found content marketing is the top-rated digital marketing technique for 2017.

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Source: Smart Insights

2017 is sure to see an influx of content writers to keep up with the demand for content. This will make content marketing more competitive. It will therefore be more challenging to make the produced content more interesting than the competitors. Writers will need to produce high quality content and consider interactive content. Make sure you collect data to know what your readers want to read and personalise your content to make it relevant.

8. The rise of apps

As mobile usage continues to increase, apps are following suit and also becoming increasingly popular. As of June 2016, there were 2.2 million apps for Android users, and 2 million in Apple’s App Store. But what benefit does that have to businesses? There are now more benefits than just the money made from the app being purchased and downloaded by users.

Google now has app indexing for both iOS and Android apps. App indexing is a system that allows mobile users to find your app on Google search results in the form of an install button. The listed result will redirect to either Google Play or the App Store. For example, when I searched “hotel in Brisbane”, the top result was not a list of hotels, but rather an app for Booking.com:

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App indexing means an app will gain greater visibility, as it will be ranking on Google’s results page, and you can expect increased downloads. In 2015, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said “40% of searches now return app indexing results in the top five results.” This is definitely incentive for businesses to create an app to raise awareness of their company and increase sales.

9. Growth of social commerce

Conversionxl defines social commerce as “the ability to make a product purchase from a third-party company within the native social media experience.” This means, while you are browsing Facebook and want to make a purchase, you don’t even have to leave the social media platform. This saves the hassle of having to leave the social media website, browse through a store and complete your purchase. Currently, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest are the leading social media platforms for social commerce.

Social commerce has been growing in 2016, and can expect to continue to grow throughout 2017. There are a few things to keep in mind when considering embarking on social commerce, such as:

10. Artificial intelligence 

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Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer like how it is depicted in the movies. Instead, it is something that can be incredibly helpful to digital marketers.  

Boomtrain spoke to Nils J Nilsson, a founding researcher in the AI field, who described AI as an “activity devoted to making machines intelligent, and intelligence is that quality that enables an entity to function appropriately and with foresight in its environment.”

AI can exist to help the lives of digital marketers easier. It can be used to understand human behaviour and analyse big sets of data. This means AI can generate emails to customers, and streamline data collection while business workers focus on growing other areas of their brand.

Think we’ve left something off the list? Let us know in the comments.

Pros and cons of working with you significant other

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If you live in Brisbane and you and your significant other work in the same industry, chances are you could end up working together. If you work in a niche area, then there might not be that much competition - you’ll end up working together.
However, it isn’t always the best idea to be working with your significant other. Here are some pros and cons that might have you second guessing your decision to work together:

PROS

You’ll get to spend more time together

If you don’t live together, this can be a great thing. It can be difficult to spend time with your significant other during the week when we’re busy with work and then tired at night. Working together is a great way to spend more time together. You’ll get to spend lunch breaks together, which gives you the chance to relax, destress and have someone to talk to about work. If you live together, you’ll also be able to travel to work together, which could save money or at least give you some company on that commute.

Professional support

Your significant other will understand the context of your work life and will be in a better position to offer you support and advice. Your significant other knows your boss, and they will be able to offer advice on how to best handle them. If your partner didn’t work with you, they can still offer advice, but won’t really know first hand how well that advice will go. If you’re in a high demand job, say as a lawyer or a doctor, then your significant other is going to understand the demands and expectations you face at work.

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Finances

You’ll both be on the same pay cycle, so it’s a bit easier to manage your finances.

Productivity

Studies show that we work harder when we are happy. Happiness can make people 12% more productive. Of course you’re going to be happier if you’re in a good relationship and your significant other is in the same office.

CONS

You’ll get to spend more time together

Wait...wasn’t this on the pro list? While spending more time together can be a good thing, it can also be a bad thing. If you’re working closely with your significant other, you’re going to see them all the time. When you wake up, travelling to work, at work, at lunch, going home, at night. You run the risk of getting sick of each other. And what about if you end up in a fight? There’s no way of avoiding them at work and having some time to cool off.

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If relationships aren’t allowed

Some workplaces have rules in place that state relationships between co-workers aren’t allowed. Generally, it’s probably to avoid the problems on the “cons” list, or to avoid instances of sexual harassment. But if you’re just starting out being in a relationship, it can make things a bit more difficult. You don’t want to get busted by your boss with your new significant other. If you’re friends with your coworkers, chances are you’ll end up telling them or they will see you and your significant other together outside of work.

Competing with your significant other

If you’re at the same level in the same industry, chances are you might end up trying to out-perform your partner at work. If you’re looking for another job, you might both end up applying for the same job. This could be awkward if it’s not discussed about beforehand. Imagine if your significant other got that dream job you really wanted. In this instance it’s best to check with your significant other before applying - chances are they’ll be completely supportive of you.

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Not being able to separate work and your personal life

Some people prefer keeping their personal life exactly that - personal. This is harder to do when you work together. It can be helpful to personally know about who your significant other is talking about and have their problems be more relatable. But the problems from work end up coming home. If your significant other is your boss, and you make a mistake at work, chances are you’ll end up hearing about it at home too.

If you break up

When you’re getting into a relationship with someone you work with, you won’t necessarily think about the worst case scenario, that being if you break up. How will this change the workplace dynamics? If your significant other is your boss, it could make the workplace extremely uncomfortable. You would also have to interact with them every day while also trying to move on. If you continue to work in the same place, you might end up having to see or hear about their future relationships. It might not just be a nightmare for HR, but a nightmare for yourself.

If you’re just getting together with a coworker, chances are you won’t really think about the pros and cons of pursuing the relationship. Business Insider Australia lists twelve rules which coworkers can follow.

The 8 Free Tools to Build Your Best AdWords Campaign

So you’re ready to take the first steps in building your best AdWords campaign? It’s important to remember that there’s quite a few steps to this process. Before building your campaign, you need to do some serious research, and after building, ensure that you continue to monitor your results.

Doing your research

Research for an AdWords campaign consists of three key elements: keyword, audience and competitor.

Source: Pixabay

Keyword

Keyword research entails identifying keywords with high amounts of search volume per month. The purpose behind keyword research is to find keywords which give maximum traffic with minimal competition.

A complete Keyword search will allow you to find keywords to drive more niche, targeted traffic and added revenue as a result. This type of research also has the potential to help you find new keywords you might have missed.

Overall, effective keyword research has the capability of generating high volumes of traffic to your site.

Free tools for keyword research:

Google Keyword Plannerallows you to find out how many people are searching for your keywords and suggest keywords you possible hadn’t considered.

UberSuggest allows you to quickly find new words not available in Google Keyword Planner. It offers a quick and easy way of acquiring countless PPC and SEO-friendly keywords for your blog.

Google Predictive Search works by entering predictive text suggestions onto your Google search term/s. These suggestions are based on real searches and can show you which (long-form)? Keywords are trending.

This tool is quite limited however as results can vary by relevance, region, language and previous personal searches.

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Audience

Audience research entails figuring out your target audience's most relevant concerns in order to focus your content. Focusing content entails deconstructing the niche you will be marketing to. You need to make yourself knowledgeable about what your audience is searching for and reading online.

You need to familiarise yourself with your target audience.

Distinguish:

Why?

Because you want to create content that is relevant to the audience - content that is actually going to be read.

Free tools for audience research:

Google Trends allows you to see which topics and keywords are trending in a particular category (e.g. arts, fitness, books) at a particular time period (2004-present) and place (country, city, etc). The tool can be used to analyse a single query or to generate an interactive graph allowing your to compare up to five search queries at one time.

 

Source: Flickr

Competitor

In an AdWords campaign, you are competing for the top spot in Google. Competitor research provides you with knowledge about what your competition is doing and how to perform better than them. It is vital that you understand their position and what makes them unique. Familiarise yourself with their online presence, target keywords, active social networks, and their overall campaign approach. Knowing your competition gives you a better chance of “mapping the landscape” and determining how you can make yourself effectively stand out in the competitive market.

Free Tools for Competitor Research

SEMRush gives you insights into competitor strategies in display advertising, organic and paid search and link building.

The tool allows you to:

Remember that SemRush is a FREEmium tool, meaning there is a free usage plan, but it is very limited so use it wisely and sparingly.

Building your AdWords campaign

Now that you have done your research, it’s time to build your AdWords campaign - get in touch today if you’d like our certified AdWords experts to help!

Source: Pixabay

Here are the basic steps to get you started:

Step 1: Acquire an Adwords account

Before starting anything, you need to get yourself an AdWords account first.

To do this, visit AdWordsand sign up.

nsure you have your banking credentials ready, as Google will need this information to get paid per click.
Once the account is set up, click on “Create your first campaign”.

Step 2: Decide on your campaign type

Most recommend that you start with the “Search Network Only” option first but you can change this as you gain more experience.

Secondly, you need to give your campaign a name to keep track of the results.

Step 3: Designate geographic area

Consider the target audience you are advertising to. Focusing on the exact location of the majority of your buyers will save you a lot of effort and money.

Step 4: Set your budget

In this step you need to work out the delicate balance of spending enough money to gain results, but not too much that you might “break the bank”. Manually setting the bid for clicks put you in more control and means your ads will stop once your budget runs out, saving you from surprise expenses later on.

Step 5: Write your ad

The copy that you use needs to convince potential buyers to click. Even if they don’t buy - you still pay, meaning that as well as wanting to attract a large number of people, the most important thing is wanting them to buy.

Start with a killer headline which uses search terms directed at your target niche. You only have 25 characters to catch their attention, so ensure every character is used with a purpose.

For the second and third lines, think back to your audience research. Use these lines to point to the benefits your niche wants to hear, play on their most relevant concerns. What are the main features which cater to their needs? Remember your space on these lines are also limited. You only get 35 characters to drill the message through so use the space carefully.

Lastly, remember to maintain a bit of flexibility as you might have to change certain aspects if you notice your ad is not gaining the right amount of traction.

Step 6: Add your display and destination URLs (and know the difference!)

Noticing the difference between URLs is incredibly important, as they each serve different functions in your ad.

The display URL leads to the homepage of your website, and is the one you want people to remember as this will be the one they visit without finding your through the ad first.

However you want to ensure that your ad does not lead straight to the home page. You want to set up a landing page which focuses on the products featured in the ad. This is what the destination URL leads to. Sending people to the homepage straight away means that they will have to do more work to find the products they want, meaning they’re less likely to stick around.

Source: The Blue Diamond Gallery

Source: The Blue Diamond Gallery

Step 7: Add your keywords

This is where your earlier keyword research comes in. Ensure you focus on keywords designed to reach people who are already willing to buy. For example, instead of using “formal dresses”, use the keywords “blue satin gowns” to single out those who are more likely to be looking to buy a specific product rather than those doing vague searches.

You can also utilise negative keywords, which tell AdWords which keywords you don’t want your ad to show up for, which could save you a lot of money.

Step 8: Bid on your clicks

Tell Google how much you are going to spend on clicks. Given that you are manually controlling your budget, you can spend as much as you want until the money runs out. Remember that in PPC you have to spend money to make money.

Step 9: Check everything

This might be a no-brainer, but it’s always better to be safe than sorry. Ensure that you check everything once, twice and even double check your double check. A misspelled keyword can mean that you miss out on a lot of keywords searches. Ensure all the settings are correct - you don’t want any nasty surprises later.

Free Tools for Building your AdWords campaign

Canva is a free image design tool offering millions of stock photos, illustrations, filters, icons, shapes and fonts. For your AdWords campaign, Canva is a great tool for designing display Ads. Google has a list of the various image sizes for ads.

Monitoring your progress

Once your campaign is built, you can begin to monitor your results.

Monitoring your results gives you an indication as to whether you are doing the right thing in your campaign. Is your ad getting the right amount of traction? Is there anything you need to change?

The best way to monitor your AdWords campaign is through the use of the free tool, Google Analytics.

Select the Analytics Profile you want to attach it to.

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You will then be given a comprehensive dashboard laying out the following statics:

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geographic-locations

Learn something new

There is still so much to learn about running an AdWords campaign, and the process never ends. Never be afraid to continuously change and improve your ads.

How we can help

For a better understanding of your progress, our expert AdWords team can have a look at your results and see where you are and how you’re doing compared to your competitors.

Send us your report, and we’ll give you some advice.

Here's The Skinny On WordPress Updates - Read This BEFORE You Click That Button!

You are informed that once again, WordPress requires you to get the latest update. Many sites and guides on the web will tell you that you should jump in on these updates.

So why does WordPress insistently release these new updates, and what are the things that could go wrong in the process?

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Why you should install new updates

One of the main reasons WordPress releases regular updates is to protect users from hacking. Keeping your WordPress up-to-date ensures you are up-to-date with the latest security features. Like any other program,

Additionally, updating your WordPress enables you to access new features and improvements, with less bugs and a smoother running site.

Even with this in mind, many people are quite hesitant to update their WordPress site, and they have every reason to be cautious. Issues can arise from getting new updates and it’s good to be aware of what can go wrong and how to prevent or fix these issues.

 The White Screen of Death

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If your WordPress site is displaying a blank white screen after an update, then you are experiencing what is called the White Screen of Death. This could be caused by plugins which are not compatible with the new version of WordPress. If you suspect that plugins are causing the issue, you can go back and deactivate them, then reactivate them one by one until you find the culprit.

If you experience the white screen after activating a new theme on WordPress, chances are the theme is not compatible with the new update. To amend this, log into the WordPress admin theme screen and activate the default theme.

The theme files have been overwritten

Another issue updating can cause is overwriting your WordPress theme, meaning any customisations you have made have been changed.

This issue can be amended by using child themes. Many WordPress users neglect to use child themes, however they can ultimately save you a lot of future headache. Using child themes allow you to perform adjustments without affecting the original theme’s code, which allows you to easily update the parent theme without losing the changes (especially when it comes time to update). Not only does it make updating a whole lot easier, it ensures that your original theme will never be ruined, and the child theme can always be switched off as needed.

Last considerations

Now that you know which precautions to take, it’s time to put those updates into action!

Before you go to update, ensure you have completed the following steps:

1.) Backup everything!

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It is extremely important to ensure that there are duplicates of all your files in case something goes wrong, and there are several methods available. UpdraftPlus is a free WordPress plugin which allows you to perform backups.

2.) Preserve theme modifications

If you have used a child theme, you can be assured that your theme modifications will be preserved even after updating. However if you have made changes directly to the main theme files, you must save those changes before updating.

3.) Update themes and plugins first

A new version of WordPress could contain changes which alter functionality in existing themes and plugins. In this event it pays to update your themes and plugins before WordPress. This can prevent the occurrence of incompatibility and the white screen of death. Perform each update one at a time and test them on your site. This will make it easier for you to find the incompatibility.

4.) Schedule non-security updates for times of low traffic

Security fixes should be performed as soon as possible, however updates containing a minor bug or feature enhancement can usually be postponed at a lower traffic period. Holding off on performing these non-critical updates mean can allow bugs to be ironed by the time you’re ready for the next update.

5.) Reassess your current plugin choices

When new updates come around, it’s a perfect time to have re-evaluate your current themes and plugins. Over time, once-useful plugins become unnecessary for most users as they are incorporated into WordPress core. After two years, users are informed of potential support and compatibility issues.

Time to update

The last step remaining is to update! Keep all of these steps and considerations in mind and make your WordPress journey smooth and problem free.

Should I buy a theme from ThemeForest?

When you’re using WordPress for your business, chances are you’ll want to personalise the website with a customised theme. There are so many free WordPress themes to pick from, but sometimes the best option is to go premium and purchase one. There are numerous advantages to buying a premium theme, including increase quality, functionality and security, to name a few. However, you don’t just have to buy the themes from WordPress. There are various other options, including ThemeForest.

themeforest

ThemeForest is part of the Envato Market. It launched in 2008, and is the world’s most popular WordPress theme marketplace. It boasts that it offers 28,522 website templates and themes from as little as $2. The website is essentially a marketplace for developers who can list their themes for sale. ThemeForest then gets 40% of the revenue from the sale, with the developer only getting 60%. This means that you are not viewing the work of just one company, who produce all the themes. Instead, you get to view a range of work from hundreds of thousands of developers before making your choice on which theme to purchase.

Before you dive in and buy a theme from ThemeForest, there are some pros and cons that are worth considering:

PROS

Choice of themes

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ThemeForest has a huge library of themes. Not only that, but it includes ratings and total sales from each theme, to give users a peace of mind. ThemeForest offers such a diversity of themes that is unrivaled by marketplace or theme developer competitors. If you didn’t think there was enough to choose from already, roughly 5-15 new WordPress themes are added per day. So if you can’t find that perfect theme, maybe give it a few days and try again.

Support

One of the major problems with buying a theme on ThemeForest used to be the lack of support. When things break, generally it’s the best option to get the assistance of the developer, which was not always a viable option through ThemeForest. After-sales support was not compulsory, and customers generally got support from the ThemeForest comment section.

This changed when Envato announced a new support policy. This meant authors could choose to include six months worth of support in their theme. Buyers also have the option to extend that support option to a full year. The author would get 70% of the revenue, with the other 30% going to Envato. While this is a clear improvement for ThemeForest, it can still be confusing for customers. If you know you’re going to require support, before purchasing a theme, make sure to check whether it offers support or not.

CONS

Poor coding practice

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This is the number one gripe users tend to have with ThemeForest. Many of the themes featured on ThemeForest do not have high quality coding. Just about any web developer can sell their theme on ThemeForest, meaning not all themes are equal. Put simply, this can cause a lot of functionality and aesthetic problems for your website. This can be a big problem when themes are paired with plugins.

In September 2014, more than 1,000 themes sold on ThemeForest had a security vulnerability found in the WordPress Slider Revolution plugin. This meant remote hackers were able to download any file from an affected website’s server, and gain full access to their website. Because ThemeForest sells work from developers, and not just it’s own products, it was up to each individual developer to patch the problem. Some were quick to do this, others not so much. The problem was also resolved in the next update to the plugin. This security problem caused those within the WordPress community to call for themes and plugins to be separated.

Perhaps the best takeaway statement comes from Slobodan Manic, who stated:

“There’s no way around it, some of the stuff sold at ThemeForest would never, ever make it into WordPress.org repository of free WordPress themes. Let me say that again: Some of the themes sold at Envato are not good enough to be given away for free.”

Updates

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>While there are advantages to be able to see and purchase the works of many developers all within the one website, there are also disadvantages. One common downside to ThemeForest is the developer’s who create a theme, sell it, and will then move on. They won’t continue to develop or update the theme. This isn’t necessarily a problem if the theme is well made, or you have the technical capability to update the website when necessary. However, if you’re planning on using the theme on a long term basis, then eventually it could become outdated and easily break. If the developer is no longer updating the theme, you won’t receive any support or upgrades.

There are a few tips you can initiate to limit the chances of this happening to you:

Theme lock-in

This one is important if you plan on switching your WordPress theme any time in the future. Generally, that’s a pretty smooth and straightforward process, but not necessarily with the themes from ThemeForest. So what is a theme lock-in? As defined by Justin Tadlock:

“The lock-in problem is when a user is forced to continue using a theme because their data would be lost to them if they switched to another theme.”

Why would you be stuck with the one theme? Themes offered on ThemeForest can be deactivated at any time. This also deactivates shortcuts and any customisations made by the WordPress user. Generally, themes are for display and presentation, while plugins are for a website's functionality. This isn’t necessarily always the case with ThemeForest, as plugins are sometimes bundled in with themes. So when a theme gets cancelled, so do your plugins. This means your website can very quickly end up looking messy and not functioning correctly.

This can be attributed to poor coding practice, and the fact ThemeForest themes and plugins do not have to undergo the same rigorous scrutiny that themes on WordPress do.

If you’re considering switching your theme, but in doing so you’re going to lose functionality from the tied-in plugin, then chances are you’re going to stick with the theme you have.

To avoid being stuck with the one theme, you should consider using non-theme-specific shortcodes, which will continue to be able to be used if you switch themes. Same goes for plugins. You should also consider not using theme-specific functions.

In the end, we can’t tell you whether or not to spend your money on a theme from ThemeForest. While it is the biggest theme marketplace, the themes can also be of lower quality than those offered on WordPress. ThemeForest now offers support, but can also have developers abandon their projects at any time. New themes are constantly added, but you may get stuck with that one theme, especially if your plugins are tied in. These are some of the factors that are vital to consider before buying a theme from ThemeForest.

The rise of long-form content and what that means for your business

Matter Solutions previously wrote about “how many blog posts should I write for my business”, analysing several HubSpot studies and looking at how much time is dedicated to writing the blog posts. Since writing this, Orbit Media Studios have released their 2016 data, which could have a big impact for businesses who have a content marketing strategy in place.

How long does it take to write a blog post in 2016?

In 2015, Orbit Media Studios found 48% of bloggers spent two hours or less per post, with only 16% spending more than four hours per post. This was only a small increase from data collected in 2014.

However, in 2016 there has been a huge increase in time spent writing, with the average blog post taking 3 hours 16 minutes to write, this is 26% more time than in 2015. Twice as many bloggers now spend over six hours on their average post. In 2015, half of the surveyed bloggers spent less than two hours writing a post. In 2016 that has decreased to a third.  

Source: Orbit Media Studios

So why is there an increase in time spent writing?

The dramatic increase in time spent per article can be attributed to the increasing popularity of long-form content. Orbit Media Studio’s data found the average blog post is now 1,054 words. The amount of blog posts that are under 500 words is strongly declining, while the percentage of blog posts over 2000 words has doubled. Backlinko found pages with longer content ranked significantly better, and the average word count on a Google first page result is 1,890 words.

Source: Backlinko

Long-form content is increasing in its popularity simply because it achieves more results than shorter content. There are a few reasons why it is able to achieve such results:

Source: Quicksprout

In 2015, Moz teamed up with Buzzsumo to analyse the shares and links of over one million articles. Amongst their findings, they looked at the impact of content length on total shares and domain links:

Source: Moz

This data shows long-form content consistently gets higher average shares and links than shorter content. This is consistent with their findings from 2014. This finding is supported by HubSpot, which found articles with a word count over 2,500 words received more shares on social media. Furthermore, they also found a positive correlation between high performing pages and word count over 2,250. HubSpot found posts between 2,250 and 2,500 words earned the most organic traffic.        

Impact on frequency

The increasing popularity of long-form content means content is being posted less frequently. HubSpot’s study found companies that published 16 or more blog posts per month got 3.5 times more traffic than companies that published between 0-4 per month.

Orbit Media Studio’s 2016 data found the percentage of content produced daily is decreasing, with the percentage down more than 50%, with a 7% increase in weekly posting, and a 38% increase in monthly posting.

Source: Orbit Media Studios

As more time is invested into writing high quality, long-form content, the amount of blog post produced decreases.

However, in a disappointing finding for businesses, increasing the word count and quality of a blog post does not necessarily translate to an increase in result. In line with HubSpot's findings, those who post more content will still achieve higher results, despite the length of the post.      

What are the future trends for content marketing?

Businesses are investing more time in long-form content, which lowers the frequency of blog posts and therefore does not increase traffic to the website. The continual production of 500 word blog shows many businesses simply do not have the time to dedicate to writing a blog over 3000 words. If you don’t have the time to dedicate to a 3000 word long blog article, but short, 500 word blogs won’t get shares, then what is the solution?

Both Entrepreneur and Forbes have predicted that, come 2017, there will be an increase in dense content. Usability Geek describes this as “the ratio of content on a page in relation to the size of that same page.” Content dense posts usually have more keywords, and is easy to understand, and therefore helps to improve a website’s SEO. While the recent trend has been to produce increasingly long posts, people may not read the entire article, as it is too long, complex and requires too much attention. Content density is all about an articles per word value. It’s sometimes better to write a shorter article that has a higher value, rather than produce a 3000 word article that is dull, unnecessarily detailed and convoluted. This means there could potentially be less time spent writing, while the readers will receive more value.  

It’s clear that there is an increasing trend to writing long-form content, and there are many advantages to gain from producing such work. It’s important to consider whether it is better to produce long-form piece of higher value to gain more social media shares once a month, or if it’s better to produce 1000 word pieces more frequently to continue gaining traffic.  

References

Braintree vs Stripe - which one should my business use?

braintree-vs-stripe

If you have an online store or an app, chances are you’ll need to integrate some form of payment system. You’ll probably be considering two of the more popular options, Braintree and Stripe. So what are the differences between the two, and which one is right for your business? Comparing the two will help businesses make an informed decision on which one they should use.

So what is Braintree and Stripe anyway?

Braintree is a subsidiary of PayPal, after PayPal acquired the company back in 2013 for $800 million. While this means it is able to offer PayPal payments, the acquisition did cause concern for some who signed up to Braintree specifically because it wasn’t PayPal. Two years after the acquisition, Braintree had more than $50 billion in Authorised Payment Volume, which more than quadrupled its payment volume.

Stripe is a payment company with businesses in 25 countries around the world. However, it is more than just a payment platform. It offers a bunch of business tools including Connect and Atlas.

So what are some of the pros and cons of using the services? Here are some factors to consider:

Fees

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>Often an important factor to a business is how much something is going to cost. In the case of Braintree and Stripe, there’s really not that obvious of a winner.

Both companies offer a flat rate pricing model, with a flat fee of 2.9% of every transaction, plus an additional 30 cents per transaction. Braintree will process your first $50,000 worth of transactions for free, which Stripe does not.

In regards to fees, both charge a $15 fee for chargebacks. However, Stripe will refund this fee if the customer is at fault and the chargeback is not upheld.

Both companies will accept most major credit and debit cards - Mastercard, American Express, Visa, Diners Club, JCB and Discover. Braintree allows you to accept Paypal, while Stripe accepts AliPay.

So there’s really no clear winner in regards to fees, we’re calling this one a tie.

Support

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Braintree’s main form of support is through email and phone, while Stripe’s is through a web form, and it does not offer telephone support. However, Stripe does offer an IRC so you can chat live.

Both companies are active on their Twitter accounts, and respond to developers within a short period of time.

Sitepoint found that when asking Stripe and Braintree the same question, Braintree responded within six hours, while Stripe responded in a day and a half. Both responses were able to answer the question, but Braintree was much faster in response time.

Winner:Braintree for the faster response time.

Trial Periods

Everybody wants to have a trial period. After all, isn’t it best to trial a product or service before fully committing? The good news is, both Stripe and Braintree offer trial periods on subscriptions.

That’s where the similarities end. Stripe allows customers to complete the trial period without a credit card. If the trial period finishes and a user hasn’t provided credit card information, Stripe will register a delinquent payment. If the retry limit is exceeded, the customer’s account is cancelled. So the best option is to enter a credit card prior to the trial period ending.

On the other hand, Braintree requires credit card details upfront, before you start the free trial. This is not the best option if you’re limiting who you’re giving your credit card details to, and you don’t think you will end up using their service.

Winner: Stripe.

Upgrades

Sometimes a customer will want to upgrade their plans. If this happens, then you’re going to want a company that can make this process as smooth as possible. Fortunately, both services are able to smoothly upgrade a customer's plan.

However, if you’re upgrading to a different billing plan, that’s when the problems start. Braintree cannot process upgrades if you’re changing from monthly billing to quarterly, for example. Stripe is able to handle this using prorated pricing.

Winner:Stripe

Cancellations

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It’s an unavoidable part of business - sometimes a customer is going to want to cancel their subscription. When a customer does cancel, you may want them to continue to have access for the remainder of their billing period.

When using Stripe, an account can be cancelled at the end of the billing period. A webhook is sent to your app, so you’ll know to cut off the user’s access.

Braintree’s cancellations are effective immediately. Unlike Stripe, your app won’t receive a notification at the end of the billing period. The app just has to remember to cut off user’s access at the end of the billing period.

Winner: Stripe

These are just some of the factors worth considering before using Braintree or Stripe. There are many other worth considering, including discounts, server integration, and documentation, to name a few.

In the end, the winner ultimately depends on your business and your needs. Stripe is able to handle a lot of international payment, while Braintree is the better option for domestic payments. If you’re using PayPal frequently, then Braintree is the obvious choice. However, when looking at the factors we have considered, Stripe is the clear winner. While fees are similar, there are many other differences. If you want to undertake a trial period without disclosing credit card details, then Stripe is best for you. Stripe will also run smoother for upgrades and cancellations. Consider how important each feature is to you and your business before deciding who your winner is.

Should I manage my own WordPress website once it's built?

manage-wordpress

Your businesses website is all built, it’s up and running, all the hard work is over right? It’s not as easy as that. If you’re considering building a website with WordPress, or already have one, you also have to factor in whether you can manage once it’s functional. The website on it’s own isn’t going to generate sales.

Here’s a few things you’ll have to consider when deciding whether you can manage your own WordPress website:

 

1. Content

Fortunately, creating and producing content with WordPress is a fairly straightforward task. That is the easy part. The hard part is actually having the time to commit to writing a specified amount of blog posts per day, week or month. Your original content will generate leads that could potentially become conversions. You will need to consider a few things:

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2. Updates, plugins and themes

When you’re managing your own WordPress website, you’ll want to keep it as functional as possible and minimise its security threat. You don’t want to end up with a broken or hacked website. Security plugins such as iThemes Security will help increase your website’s level of security. However, there are a few extra ways in which you can minimise your risk of being hacked.

Updates

3. Download legitimate themes or plugins

Premium themes and plugins cost money that some people just don’t want to spend. It’s therefore very tempting to pirate a theme or plugin and install it for free. However this raises your risk of having downloaded a malicious theme or plugin and raising your risk of being hacked or having software on your computer. It’s best to make sure you’re only downloading themes and plugins from a reputable source. If you’re not sure, you can ask other WordPress users for a good source to download from. It’s a good idea to research a plugin or theme before downloading. There are 1,305 WordPress plugins vulnerabilities. When looking at the top 10 most vulnerable WordPress plugins, 5 were commercial, and one was even a WordPress security plugin.

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4. Reporting

Reporting is a vital tool when trying to improve your SEO and website. Analysing your report data will allow you to see how many people are viewing your website, their demographics, where they have been on your website and at what point they left your website. This will allow you to optimise your website and marketing campaigns to gain more conversions. If you’re not undertaking frequent reporting, you could be targeting the wrong demographics and be missing out on potential sales. Reporting tools you need to be using for your WordPress website are

5. Backups

If something goes wrong, you’ll have peace of mind if your website is backed up. If it get hacked or you accidentally break your website, all you need to do is refer to the backup. If your WordPress website isn’t backed up, you’re going to have problems.

Fortunately, you can install plugins which will backup your data. Some plugins worth installing are:

Make sure you download a backup plugin, and undertake backups frequently to avoid any future problems.

If you feel you are able to handle all the aspects of a WordPress website, then you will efficiently be able to manage your own website.

6 Things AdWords Noobs Do That Suck

The dichotomy of Google is that they want you to succeed, but they also want your money. It makes sense, if you’re successful then you will continue to spend money on Google. On the other hand, they appear to unofficially condone the concept of “a fool and his money are easily parted” by opening up the platform to everyone. Don’t be a fool! Here are five tips to follow so you don't end up being an AdWords noob:

1. Don’t Go Goo Goo for Google(‘s suggestions)

If you’ve ever logged into your AdWords account, hit the notifications button and thought to yourself, “thanks Google, I will add XX amount of KeyWords”, then your money is easily parting from you.

Or even better, the Opportunities tab is telling you to increase your Budget because you are missing out on Clicks, what do you do?

If your answer was to carefully calculate the current Cost Per Acquisition and implement a realistic Budget based on the scalability of the business, my goodness, you are the type of Business Owner that has a chance of succeeding online!

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2. Don’t fear spending money

In the most literal sense, AdWords is an investment. You put money and time into it in the hopes that it will bear fruit that makes the investment worth it.

Like a digital farmer, you break the ground, lay off rows, place your seeds, cultivate and weed, and protect the crop against insects and animals before your bountiful harvest. So in keeping with this analogy, how bountiful could your harvest ever be if you merely threw a couple of seeds on the ground outside?

Far too many people out there think that AdWords doesn’t work for them because they think it costs too much. I’m yet to see one of these Accounts with a budget over $10 a day. The only reason why these accounts are “expensive” is because they were set up with no strategy, left to run with no accountability, and simply not given the chance to become the beautiful AdWords swan it was destined to be!!

Two months, $600, and an erroneous conclusion later and suddenly “AdWords is too expensive” becomes a mantra.

AdWords is an investment, invest in it with research, time, and money. If you don’t have the time or inclination to research, employ a professional. Spend wisely, and remember that AdWords is an investment.

3. You’re probably bidding too low

Usually coupled with a low budget, bidding a tiny amount is connected with the assumption that the less you bid, the less you pay. Again, this is a view of AdWords borne of the idea that it is a liability, not an asset. That it is an expense, not an investment.

Don’t get me wrong, there are most certainly situations where a low bid strategy works, but unless you are one of my peers, it’s unlikely you are employing anything even resembling that strategy. It’s much more likely that you have a $5 a day budget and your reasoning is that by bidding at 20c, you have the potential to be seen 25 times in a day. That’s not how it works, sorry (sadface).

4. You’ve got one AdGroup, one Ad, and a kajillion KeyWords?!

Alright, maybe not a kajillion, that’s like, a made up number. But if you have heaps of KeyWords in one AdGroup, you’re doing it wrong. And if they are Broad Match only then you’re doing the wrongest of the wrong.

This is an elaboration on point one, as this is usually the result of a Google suggestion, or an AdWords Express account converted to AdWords. However, sometimes it is just because it is the simplest way to get an ad out there.

AdGroup = KeyWords = Ads

An Adgroup should be the Theme of the KeyWordsand the Ads should reflect that theme. There’s more to it, but that’s the foundation. As Einstein once said about me, “Sam, you are amazing at explaining things simply, you must really understand the subject material”, a quote that has since been paraphrased around the world.

5. Where are your Negative KeyWords? Do you even look at your Search Term Report?

Here’s 75 to throw in right now: https://www.techwyse.com/blog/pay-per-click-marketing/75-negative-keywords-that-every-adwords-campaign-should-include/

You’re welcome.

You need more. Your Search Term Report is now your best friend, check it like a mole after sunburn. It will help you with Negative KeyWordsand as an added bonus, will help you figure out what Search Terms are Converting! Keep it a secret, though, I haven’t told many people about this AdWords Tool.

Google Search Engine on Macbook Pro

6. Don’t search for yourself on Google and don’t torture yourself by checking AdWords every hour!

Seriously, don’t.

If you have some sort of chronic desire to see your Ad, use the Ad Previewand Diagnosis under the Tools tab in the account. I can give you the many reasons why you shouldn’t search for your ad on Google. My clients don’t search for themselves, they know it hurts them.  Trust me.

Google provides free assistance, of course, advice of which is like a shark saying “jump in, the water’s warm!” If any of the above points sounds like you, there is hope! An AdWords Professional with experience will take care of you and ensure that your parting with your money is temporary, while your money finds some friends and comes back to you.

Why blogging is so damn hard and tips on how to get it done

Blogging is a great thing any business can do for their website. B2B companies that blog generate 67% more leads per monthcompared to those who don’t. Furthermore, businesses that blog have 434% more indexed pages. That’s definitely some incentive to start blogging!
So then why is blogging so hard? Here are some reasons why businesses find blogging so difficult, and what you can do about it:

We are busy

Sometimes it’s hard to maintain a blog for your business when you’re trying to balance every other aspect of the business.A demanding client will often come before a blog post for your business. You can’t tell a client to wait, but you can make your blog post wait. Often, blogging isn’t the top priority for a business and may not have the highest ROI.
To avoid the busy excuse, block out a time on your calendar that will just be dedicated to blogging. Make this a frequent booking, one every week, fortnight, month. Whatever frequency works for you. Don’t book any clients or meetings, just sit down and write. Booking out a time will mean you’re more likely to honour that commitment and get the job done.

Not knowing what to write about

If you’re in a specialist or niche area, then it might be hard to keep coming up with different ideas to write content about. If your market is oversaturated, it’s hard to make your posts different and stand out.

If you’re stuck on what to write about, here’s a simple tip to help you out: write a list. On Excel, on Word, on your notepad, wherever. Just keep writing down blog ideas. You’ll eventually see your list of ideas grow. The existing ideas may even serve as inspiration to new ideas. Keep revisiting this list frequently and adding topics.

We just don’t want to write

Everyone has days where they just want to stay in bed and not go to work. Same goes for blogging. Sometimes it seems like there’s nothing worse than having to sit down and write a blog post.

Here’s a few tips to get that motivation back:

Writing too frequently

You’ve decided on how much content is going to be produced for your blog each month, and how frequently it will be published. You sit down to write and realise you’ve overcommitted yourself, and there’s no way you’ll get all the blog posts done as well as handle business.

When you’re blogging, it’s important to ensure you’ve got a timetable of how frequent you are going to publish content. Every week, fortnight, month, it doesn’t matter. Once you’ve decided how often you are going to write and how much content you will produce, stick to this timeframe. That’s why it’s so important to get this right before you commit. If you’re producing lots of content, but don’t have the time or resources, chances are you’ll end up with poor, sloppy content. In some cases, it’s better to produce less content, but ensure it’s of a higher standard.
So just remember a few things about blogging:

 

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