Over the past decade, digital marketing pushed brands towards increasingly aggressive tactics. One such tactic was automatic opt-in. I used to just see these opt-ins for newsletters, but, more recently, I’m seeing this used for sales and add-ons. I assume these marketers want to get more active users, a more engaged audience, and more sales. But in my experience the ends don’t justify the means–in fact, this method isn’t even that effective. In 2017, marketers need to ask, “Is an automatic opt-in the best tactic for my clients?”
Archive for year: 2017
We just completed our hurricane prep checklist. Our equipment and data is secure. As we find ourselves in the path of an approaching hurricane, we want to take a moment to inform you about our proactive measures to ensure everyone’s safety. As a result, we will be temporarily closing our business to prepare for the impending storm.
Just so you know, over the next 6 days, it is very likely Houston will flood. Hopefully, it won’t be anything too serious, but we have to prepare for the worst. During this time, Chow-Bryant recommends reaching us by email or social media. We will respond as quickly as the situation allows.
The decision to close our business temporarily was not made lightly. We understand the inconveniences this may cause, but your safety is our top priority. By taking this step, we are ensuring that our team members can focus on securing their homes and families while also enabling our customers and partners to take necessary precautions. Once the storm has passed and it is safe to do so, we will assess the situation and make a decision about reopening based on local authorities’ guidance and the overall safety of our team and community.
We appreciate your understanding and cooperation during this temporary closure. Your safety is at the forefront of our minds as we navigate through this challenging situation. Our thoughts are with all those who may be affected by the hurricane, and we look forward to serving you again once it is safe to do so. Please stay safe, follow local authorities’ instructions, and take all necessary precautions to protect yourselves and your loved ones.
When people write web copy, they often take an “If You Build It, They Will Come” approach to their website. There are two major problems to thinking like that:
- That phrase references Field of Dreams, and the “they” in that statement are ghosts. Ghosts don’t buy anything. In fact, we’ve written about the problems ghosts cause on websites.
- If people do come to your website, but the content isn’t interesting, people leave. In digital marketing, we call this “bounce.”
Design Attracts New Visitors–Content Converts Them to Returning Visitors
A lot of people will tell you that a snazzy design or some kind of catchy name will fix these issues. While they do help, in my experience, a bigger factor is written content—you know, what many website owners think they should get from an unpaid, unproven intern.
Your written content is your customers’ first chance to find out what you do and what you’re all about. More importantly, perhaps, it’s also your best line of attack and defense in the never-ending War to Control Search Algorithms via SEO (another service you should vet and take seriously, but that’s another blog for another time.)
No lie, there are millions of websites that purport to teach people how to write effective, SEO-friendly copy. Of those, Heather Lloyd-Martin’s emails are the best I’ve found for effective advice on real-world websites. If she hasn’t run into it, it’s unlikely to be a real problem.
But for those of us who are pressed for time, I use the following rule:
Answers Two Questions on Every Page You Write
1.) Who Are You?
Have you ever been to a website that purports to be the best at something, but you have no idea who the company is or why they’re so great at that thing that they do? This means that the webpage(s) you saw failed to establish who it is that’s doing the talking. We accomplish it on the Chow-Bryant blog by associating an article with an author. Pretty easy, huh? If you don’t have the picture option, there are others. Pictures help. Stating experience helps. Doing both, though, is priceless. Even simple in-text links to your about page is a step in the right direction.
Speaking of, on a website, your about page needs to drive home who you are and why you—as a person or a company—are relevant to what you’re selling. If you can, use the rule of thumb for screen writing: State it three times. Be abundantly clear on who you are, why you’re interested in what you’re doing, and why you’re relevant to your field. If we don’t know who a website is about and why we should trust them by reading the about page, the copy has failed completely.
2.) Why Should I Care?
It’s not enough to tell people you sell things. You must also tell them what those things are and why they’re so needed. In digital marketing, we usually call this a USP, or unique selling proposition. Honestly, the name doesn’t matter. What matters is the substance. On average, people have an 8-second attention span, so the lengthy, wordy text of ads of yore just doesn’t work anymore. We read, but we read in blurbs and snippets. It’s best to get to the point—why people want what you’re selling—fast. Foot in the door tactics? Sweet Brown is right: https://media.giphy.com/media/10PcMWwtZSYk2k/giphy.gif
Recently, we received an email from Expertise.com that we were named to their list of the Best Digital Marketing Agencies in Houston 2017. Despite our relative newness, we made the list of 18 recommended agencies. Our emphasis on staying informed about industry trends and adapting our approach has played a pivotal role in this success.
Expertise.com’s Best Digital Marketing Agencies in Houston
Expertise.com’s list is based on five criteria:
- Reputation
- Credibility
- Experience
- Availability
- Professionalism
We don’t know our final score, but we’re honored to make the Top Digital Marketing Agencies in Houston 2017. This recognition underscores our ongoing efforts to provide effective marketing solutions for our clientele.
This recognition serves as a reminder of Chow-Bryant’s commitment to continuous improvement and client satisfaction. By embracing a humble approach and focusing on creating meaningful connections with our audience, we carved a niche for ourselves in the competitive marketing landscape.
Thanks, Expertise.com!
New Live Stream Calculator
In November we wrote a technical beginner’s guide to streaming on Twitch. At the time we were linking to live stream calculator on OBS’s site. Unfortunately, that calculator is no longer up despite being a handy tool for finding a good starting point for stream settings. As a result, we decided to build our own. You can find the new live stream calculator here.
Future Marketing Tools in The Works
There are also plans for some new tools in the near future. Check our Chow-Bryant Tools section for the latest. Additionally, you can browse our GitHub repositories here. This is where we provide templates and code snippets for website optimization, analytics filters, and structured data markup.
Internet security has been a hot news topic over the past few months. A cascade of software vulnerabilities, account breaches, and security flaws produced a steady stream disclosures, apologies, and a few PR disasters. As a result, most of us are more aware than ever of the need to keep every piece of our online presence secure.
What is Schema Markup?
Schema markup is a form of structured data that helps search engines understand what’s on a webpage. This markup is a community effort to create a universal vocabulary of tags and categories for the internet. An example of Schema markup in action is the Google Knowledge Graph. These are the cards on the right-hand side of some Google searches. These cards provide more information about your search, and are a collection of structured data snippets from all over the internet.
Here you can see a snippet of Chow-Bryant’s card in Google’s Knowledge Graph. Some of this information is fed into Google’s Knowledge Graph using Schema markup on our website. For instance, the footer on our site features Schema for a local business.
Other Forms of Structured Data
In a nutshell, Schema markup is very similar to the Open Graph Protocol and Twitter Card Data. The main difference is that Schema markup isn’t unique to a specific social media platform. Instead, Schema is primarily used by webmasters, app developers and search engines. In fact, Schema markup is supported by Google, Bing, Yahoo and Yandex.
It’s 11:30 p.m. After several last-minute targeting changes, your Google Display Network campaign is almost ready. You’ve set the targeting, and you’ve segmented out everything that needs to be segmented (of which there was a lot). Now all that’s left is uploading the ads so that they will start running at midnight as planned. All that’s left is adding the creative into the AdWords interface.
OH GOD NO.
AdWords just rejected your ads.
Your HTML5 ad is missing a primary .HTML file. Primary .HTML files include an Ad Size tag such as <meta name=”ad.size” content=”width=300,height=250″>. Make sure there is an .HTML file with an ad size tag in your HTML5 ad, and try again.
Now what? You’ve got 30 minutes to fix this, and both your designer and your developer left town for Vegas about two hours ago.
Tick-tock, Clarice. Read more
Help! My Malware Scanner Says I’ve Been Hacked!
If you’re using the Enfold Theme for WordPress, or another theme developed by Kriesi, you’ll want to read this post. Today, around 4pm CST, Wordfence and other WordPress security tools started sending alert messages to site owners using the Enfold theme. The messages informed them that a file on their site contained a link to suspected malware.
There was an increase in hacking attempts against WordPress sites in 2016, and it looks like 2017 will be no different. Fans of the Mass Effect video game series might feel like they’re struggling to “hold the line.”
But fear not! The amazing community of developers working on WordPress is always looking for ways to improve the CMS.
Targeting Causes Bullseyes or Black Eyes
Digital display media is a popular channel for marketing brands. We often equate the term to website banner ads, but it also includes video ads, social media ads, audio ads via music sites and apps, in-app ads, search engine marketing and more. It seems like there is always something new under the digital media moniker. Most often, though, discussions center around best practices for banner design, messaging or placements. These are important factors in a successful media campaign, but digital media targeting can make or break a campaign. It’s crucial in ways many people do not realize, plus it affects every form of digital media marketing. Read more