Author: hyper_user

  • Mobilegeddon’s Importance for Marketing Campaigns

    On April 21st Google launched an algorithm change that affects all sites that are not mobile friendly, which has been deemed by many as “Mobilegeddon”. Please remember being mobile doesn’t just mean phones, but all types of tablets are included in this change as well. Since affiliate marketing and online marketing in general is essential for generating leads, if you aren’t up to date on which algorithm changes are pertinent to your site you could suffer a huge loss on your Google search positioning.

    Why This Algorithm is Important

    Google created a “mobile friendly test” that allows users to enter a site URL and check how mobile friendly that site is. On the whole, if your site doesn’t pass the Google test then the Googlebots will see your site as a less reliable source. However, Google did state that if your site is the most relevant option for users that it will still show even if it is not mobile friendly. Sites that are more suitable for all web-linked devices will definitely get a boost in their rankings.

    This tool actually gives a breakdown of all issues that occurred from trying to load that site via mobile. Below we have included a screenshot showing exactly what you will see. The tool shows exactly how Google sees your page and if your site is not mobile friendly it will include a link explaining how to convert your site. It also shows each issue with your site specifically such as small text, page is too wide for mobile, and links are too close together – thus not very clickable, as shown below.

    HTMMobileFriendly

     

    NotMobileFriendly

    Benefits of Mobile

    Obviously, anyone could explain that social media traffic has greatly increased in the last 5 years alone, which means mobile marketing is importance. It isn’t only effective for the younger populous. Approximately half of the 65+ generation is using social media. This means that having a mobile website isn’t just about gaining the attention of young folks, but also older generations. Your web presence doesn’t have to be “hip” and flashy to be effective, it just needs to be simple and concise for everyone. In fact, an article from Pew Internet & American Life Project says that while young generations are moving away from blogging, more and more senior generations are moving towards blogging. This study also showed that most young adults are moving to “micro-blogging” which mainly consists of much shorter status updates instead of content rich blogging.

    For Your Marketing

    Google’s updates are oftentimes reflective of society. Mobile is important. Users have shown it is important and Google has solidified it. Google algorithm updates are updated to benefit search engine users and can be used as potential sign posts for what users want and how businesses can adapt to these needs. For example, mobile has been emphasized in the most recent update. If you have little to no mobile marketing, now might be the time to adopt a pay per call campaign, MMS (multi-media message service), mobile games and banner ads, or QR bar codes. The Google algorithm is constantly changing to adapt to user needs. Besides rankings and SEO, Google algorithm updates (like “Mobilegeddon”) can have impacts on your business, both positive and negative.

  • Is Affiliate Marketing Worth It?

    In a single word, yes. This type of campaign may not be for every marketer. This type of strategy can take some time to build up a proper clientele, but has proven to provide a significant increase in traffic and sales. So, go into any new partnership well educated about your particular niche market. We will go over some basics if you are just getting started with affiliates.

    Cost Effectiveness:

    Let’s start with the biggest “elephant in the room” – cost. Affiliates are usually only paid  a commission percentage when they actually drive a sale to your site. The merchant you are working with will pay out a commission based on the work provided. So, if you are considering marketing with an affiliate company you won’t have to worry about extra hidden expenses. However, you of course would always want to make sure you are doing extensive research on the company to make sure they are reputable and their prices & vision align with your marketing strategy.

    Start Small:

    This type of marketing can actually be quite lucrative especially with smaller businesses. It is easy to become discouraged when comparing to larger niche businesses. Keep in mind that if you have a smaller market niche, then the hard part is already out of the way. You have created a product or service that others do not have leverage over. Use this fact to your advantage and target affiliates that align with your strategy. Your marketing merchant should be able to help you outreach to those in and around your community and express rare value in advertising a smaller company.

    Look at the Big Picture:

    Creating relationships with affiliates (as long as they are dependable ones) is always a good idea for expanding your circle of consumers. Be cognizant of the fact that affiliate marketing could potentially have a negative effect on a company’s search engine optimization if done incorrectly. The end game shouldn’t be how many sites you can affiliate yourself with, but what quality sites you can partner with. With consistent algorithm updates from Google, one can be sure that those geniuses will find a way to weed out the bad content from the good. If you are putting your company name on quality sites you can be sure that quality consumers will be finding and passing along the information.

    Be Prepared:

    Affiliate fraud of course is always a concern when marketing this way. However, if you are patient and make business choices with direction this shouldn’t be a problem. Be direct with your partners, test out any business venture before starting it, and follow through with regular check ups to make sure your needs are being met. There are also several technical ways to prepare yourself for fraudulent behaviors depending on your business.

    Feel free to check out the articles referenced in this article for more useful information about affiliate marketing and how to avoid affiliate fraud.

  • The Importance of Inbound Marketing

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  • Avoiding Pay Per Call Fraud

    If you weren’t able to catch the action of LeadsCon don’t worry. We are here to fill you in on affiliate call fraud. Eric Evans, of HyperTarget Marketing moderated a panel at LeadsCon on this very topic. Here are some of the basics of what you need to keep in mind when trying to avoid these types of fraudulent behavior, not only in a call-based business, but in any marketing relationship.

    Fraudulent Call Specifics

    If you are running any type of call-based business it is imperative to make sure you are screening any potential incoming clients to confirm you won’t be scammed. There are several ways to do this. First, you can employ an automated answering system that automatically forwards frequent callers to a separate line. Secondly, a clear IVR (Interactive Voice Response) will not only weed out fraud callers, but also help your real clients get exactly where they need to go quickly and efficiently, which definitely helps with a first call resolution. Lastly, if you are unable to set up either of the previously mentioned items, then ask questions, and lots of them. While this isn’t always the most time effective method it will no doubt tell you who is real.

    Test Partnership Waters

    Make sure that who you are doing business with is legit. Relationships go quite a long way in any kind of business partnership. Start small when creating a new business endeavor. Have your inductee create some smaller content or outreach first to make sure they are a good fit with your marketing strategy. This not only eliminates the chances of them not having the same vision as you, but also makes sure they are who they say they are. This can also help if you want to check the kinds of viewers, followers, and customers they are bringing you are real.

    Be Clear About Your Needs

    If too much is left up to interpretation you could be setting the campaign up for failure. Set clear goals within a respectable and reasonable timeline with anyone worth working with. This way everyone involved knows exactly what is expected and there is no chance of trailing off or not getting the types of clients the business needs. This means that meticulous organization and documentation are key for success.

    Always Follow Up

    Even if you have clear guidelines set, they mean nothing unless there is follow through, especially if you are deciding to take on a new client or business partner. Set up multiple call backs and meetings to discuss your short and long term strategy plan. This is a good way to build rapport with a new client. Additionally, you never have to feel in the dark about exactly what is happening. Follow up doesn’t mean you have to micromanage all the ins and outs, but it does hold all parties exclusively accountable to the services exactly as they were discussed.

    Avoiding pay per call fraud is vital for anyone running a call marketing campaign. Make sure to keep these points in mind and be sure to visit panels and presentations when you are trade shows. You never know what you might learn.

  • Optimize for Maximum Gold Online This March

    We are all guilty of spreading our efforts too thin at times. It’s St. Patty’s Day and everyone will be busy gearing up for parties, making corned beef and cabbage, while still carrying out their daily routines. Unfortunately, there are no leprechauns to make life any easier. In the marketing world, it’s easy to try everything at once to get your business off to a running start (or perhaps you need a fresh face to your ads). However, this can prove to be very exhausting, discouraging, and ultimately ineffective. You may be lacking some very key ideas in order to save yourself some heartache and effectively advertise at the same time.

    Where to Market Online?

    It would be easy to say your marketing campaign should stretch from one corner of the web to the next. However, this wouldn’t necessarily be effective marketing. It is true that social media is the next big key to marketing success, but putting a business’s ads on irrelevant sites does not mean more business. A company is much more likely to receive new and continued business if you are sharing your web presence on related sites.

    How to Market Online?

    No one said it was going to be easy. A business that does their research will be a profitable one. If you can research and find all types of sites that fit within your area of expertise you will have an entire network to build upon. Once you have found relevant sites, communities, blogs, and all types of social media, market to them all. Build a campaign that encompasses and includes as many mediums as possible.

    Marketing Campaigns

    Plan out exactly what you want to accomplish by reaching out to your audience. Effective marketing campaigns are simple and concise. Include an easy to understand call-to-action that intrigues customers and makes them want to share, comment, and like. Make sure that it is easily accessible for them to do so. No one wants to fill out a giant form in order to participate. Catch people’s attention by thinking outside of the box and doing something you maybe wouldn’t normally do.

    Social Media Planning Apps

    Once you have created a “network” the best possible thing to do is stay organized. Daily interaction is what keeps marketing tools fresh in the consumer’s minds. Use every possible tool at your disposal to your advantage. Schedule time each day to reach out to the community on each one of your social media apps and/or make sure to write a comment on a relevant blog. Any kind of daily community involvement is always beneficial to your business. There are many different project managing apps available to keep it all straight.

  • LeadsCon Panel Discusses Affiliate Call Fraud

    HyperTarget Marketing Participates in LeadsCon Panel:

    “The New Elephant in the Room: Affiliate Call Fraud”

    Director Eric Evans Joins Other Industry Leaders to Discuss Pay Per Call Fraud

    Tuesday, March 3, 2015 Las Vegas, NV
    The Mirage Hotel and Casino
    3:40pm-4:20pm in the Grand Ballroom BC

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
    HyperTarget Marketing
    213.973.9905
    info@hypertargetmarketing.com

    Las Vegas, Nevada – Eric Evans, of HyperTarget Marketing, will be leading and moderating a session on affiliate call fraud with three other industry professionals at LeadsCon Las Vegas 2015. Empire Today’s Marketing Manager Dan Altman, Invoca’s Senior Channel Partnerships and Business Development Director Anna Jefferis, and RingPartner’s VP of Marketing and Operations Mike Williams will all be joining Evans to discuss current affiliate fraud schemes and potential methods that can be used to counter fraudsters. Furthermore, conference attendees will be able to hear these panelists discuss their expertise with pay-per-call campaigns and their thoughts on what has made their PPC advertising experiences successful.

    Pay-per-call marketing emerged as an advertising solution to click-fraud, in which advertisers pay for qualified impressions on a per-call basis. With enhanced technology, clicks are easy to counterfeit and produce, while calls, in theory, are not as easily fabricated. The goal with pay-per-call marketing is to generate qualified calls (calls with a legitimate interest in a product or service), which can in turn reward publishers and ad networks appropriately.  With the rapid and extreme growth of the pay-per-call industry, there has been an increase in the amount of fraudsters joining the market. While call fraud is more difficult to achieve than click fraud, it is not impossible. Due to the complex nature of call fraud, those using affiliate call fraud are some of the most savvy and refined fraudsters. This has made tracking fraud and holding individuals accountable complicated for both marketers and publishers within the industry.

    About HyperTarget Marketing: HyperTarget Marketing is a lead generation and call marketing solutions company based in Santa Monica, California. Founded in 2009, HyperTarget was an early adopter of pay-per-call marketing and has a passion for helping businesses get highly qualified inbound call leads.

  • How to Meet Your Lead Generation Goals

    A recent study by 360Leads concluded that only approximately 17% of companies from six continents meet their lead generation goals, despite many of the companies’ participation in lead generation programs. While it is important for any individual company to analyze why their lead generation efforts aren’t gaining momentum, it is equally important to look at possible solutions or changes that can be made to a lead generation campaign in order to make it more successful.

    Make Yourself Credible

    Another thing that lead generation campaigns can benefit greatly from is increasing a business’ credibility. Make yourself known in the industry. Don’t be shy, spread the word about your company (in a non-spammy way), and engage with competitors in discussions and roundtables. By gaining credibility or spreading information about awards or interviews published regarding your business, you can help influence prospective customers’ view of you. Credibility will make you seem authentic, and that can greatly impact the success of your lead generation campaigns.

    Embrace Mobile

    It cannot be reiterated enough: mobile is important for any type of marketing plan. If your marketing or lead generation strategy does not include mobile, then you are doing it wrong. Today’s world is mobile. There is no going around it. To succeed in a mobile world, it will require you to embrace mobile to some degree or another. A majority of individuals use mobile to search for products, and a majority of individuals make purchases over their phones or at least make contact with businesses by going from mobile search to direct calls.

    Focus on Relationships

    Stop focusing on the numbers aspect of your goals. Yes, they are important. But they are not the only important thing. Relationships have the potential to make or break a business. Focus on fostering relationships within your industry and focus on growing relationships with potential customers (as well as current customers). The success of your lead generation can greatly benefit from cultivating relationships with prospects and showing people that these relationships are cherished.

    Engage the Community

    This ties in with focusing on relationships, but the target here is to engage with the community in a personal sense. A lead generation campaign can profit from a company’s presence. By engaging with the community at a personal level, you have the potential to garner a customer’s attention. Let them know your interests (outside of your business interests and wanting them as potential prospects). Not only does this make you more credible, but people will see you as genuine, and this can help show how independent your business is from similar companies.

    Meeting any goal can be hard, especially in a difficult industry. It is important to constantly evaluate how you operate and how effective these strategies are. Given the right tools, more and more lead generation campaign goals can be met.

  • Why Performance Marketing is Just Like Professional Sports

    With the Super Bowl just finished, the National Hockey League continuing for the next few months into the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and Major League Baseball Spring Training starting up, most people will be settling in to see their favorite sports teams win (or lose) their respective games. But what about their businesses? For any business, Q1 can be an important time. It is the time of year that business owners and managers set budgets, present yearly goals, and set the tone for the rest of the year, just like any sports team’s conditioning sets them up for the season. In many ways, performance marketing and professional sports are very similar, both in methods and goals.

    Offensive and Defensive Strategies are Used to See Results

    Both sports and businesses using performance marketing want to see one thing: results. Every sport has offensive strategies and defensive strategies, used in conjunction with each other to create a balanced strategy that results in more wins than losses. Businesses in the performance marketing space do the same. Performance marketing is a form of interactive advertising that is used to generate results. The performance marketing space is more than just affiliate networks. In sports, using only an offensive or only a defensive strategy often times will not result in a win. The same can be said for performance marketing. Exploring your options and having a broad and balanced strategy can be beneficial for results.

    Analysis is an Important Part of a Good Game Plan

    Sports are not just about performance. Sports require preparedness and studying. Any good coach will tell you that they review their competitor’s games/tapes in order to evaluate what they are up against and to discover any tweaks that may need to be implemented in their game plan before the big day. The same goes for businesses. If your performance marketing strategy is not getting you the results you want but your competitor’s strategy is flourishing with success, evaluate what differences exist and what you can do to compete with them in the future. After your analysis, make the necessary changes if possible.

    Each Take a Commitment to Hard Work

    “You need three things to win: discipline, hard work and, before everything maybe, commitment. No one will make it without those three. Sport teaches you that.” Haile Gebrselassie, two-time Olympic Gold Medalist. Any professional athlete or coach will tell you that commitment and hard work are import if you want to see results. For performance marketing, results will require hard work and time. Expectations should follow a form of thinking that adopts dedication, especially in order to see progress throughout the year.

    While sports and performance marketing may seem quite different, there are strong similarities between the requirements needed for success. Each requires a broad and balanced strategy, a commitment and dedication to hard work, and the ability to adapt and adopt changes in their game plan.

  • Keeping Algorithm Changes in Mind When Advertising

    In the fall of last year, Google rolled out several algorithmic updates including Panda 4.1 (September 23rd), Penguin 3.0 (October 17th), and Pirate 2.0 (October 21st). As many know, these changes can drastically affect search engine rankings and website traffic. If you are following Google’s guidelines, it is likely probable that your traffic can increase. However, in cases where you are not adhering to Google’s guidelines, you could potentially cause major harm to your business. This is why it is important to keep Google’s algorithmic changes in mind when considering your advertising options.

    Put Google on Your Radar

    Paying attention to the threats Google makes about what it will penalize can give you some direction when advertising. No more guest blog posts. Pages with too many ads will be penalized. Using Transport Layer Security (TLS aka HTTPS) will result in better rankings. Mobile friendly sites will be highlighted in mobile search. Et cetera, et cetera. Google’s list of threats goes on and on and on. While some of these threats have yet to come through, there have been blips of changes regarding others. You can use these changes to determine what your advertising focus should be. For example, Google’s November 2014 announcement to label “mobile-friendly” sites as such makes it clear that mobile is important. Therefore, mobile advertising campaigns would likely be beneficial for business.

    Adopt a Variety of Advertising Mediums

    In 2009, Google released a lesser known algorithm known as Vince. The Vince algorithm put emphasis on brand validation and factored trust into rankings. The impact of Vince was that marketers and   advertisers had to adopt multi-faceted campaigns in order to build trust. This required more time, more content, and engagement of the online community. More often than not, the goal of an advertisement is to encourage someone to take action or to reach an audience. Using a variety of mediums with specific advertising campaigns can help you achieve these goals, as well as your authority, especially in Google’s eyes.

    Accept Changes Early Rather Than Later

    It is vital for businesses nowadays to have a knowledgeable staff capable of understanding the implications and having the ability of adapting to Google algorithmic changes. Take for example, the October 2014 announcement of Google’s new app called “Inbox”. Understanding the features of Inbox app and how it will affect email advertising is important. Google has made it clear that Inbox app will “bundle” particular types of messages together for better user experience. Taking this into account, it could prove beneficial to evaluate how email advertisements fit into your campaign.

    While nothing is known for sure, it is clear that Google’s algorithms can drastically affect business and advertising. Taking the time to pay attention to Google, adopting various advertising opportunities, and accepting certain changes early can be a huge influence in the success of your business.

  • What Type Of Marketer Are you?