Search Results
149 items found for ""
- The Ultimate Guide to White Label Digital Marketing
Mar 3, 2022 Scale Your Agency with a Digital Ad Operations Partnership As our friend Marcus Murphy says: “Agencies are the backbone of the backbone of the economy.” Without expert marketers connecting their clients’ products and services to the right audiences, many businesses would not experience the success they have achieved over their lifespan. High-performing agencies are in demand more than ever. While this is undoubtedly exciting, it does raise an important question: Is your agency equipped with the means to scale alongside these new opportunities? To scale predictably and profitably in a 2020s economy, many agencies are turning to a variety of external solutions to fill any perceived gaps in performance. However, few are as involved in your success as a white label digital performance partner. Whether you are new to white label digital marketing, have been researching the topic for some time, or are an agency leader in-the-know, this guide will provide you with a complete overview. We’re going to cover: What is white label digital marketing and why does your agency need it? The three types of white label solutions What you get from a white label partnership A quickstart guide for a high-performance partnership What to look for in the right white label partner What is White Label Digital Marketing and Why Does Your Agency Need It? “White label” refers to a business arrangement where Company A purchases products and or/services from Company B at a wholesale rate, marks up the price, and then resells it under Company A’s own brand. In the context of digital marketing, one agency would purchase a solution like SEO or Paid Social from a partner and resell it at a profitable rate to their clients. During our hundreds of conversations with agency leaders each year, we’ve noticed quite a few common reasons behind why they’re seeking a white label partner. Do any of these scenarios speak to your agency’s needs? You’re landing more clients than you can keep up with. You’re looking to extend your in-house offering and still haven’t found the right solution. You’ve landed a can’t-miss client and need to deliver elite performance quickly. You’re looking to stabilize your internal capacity and costs. You need to hire new team members but are struggling to find the right ones. You’d rather lean on someone else’s digital expertise than take a crash course on new products and platforms. You’ve tried other white label solutions but have yet to find the right partner. These are just some of the situations that many agency leaders find themselves in before seeking a solution like white labeling. That being said, each agency is unique unto itself and there really is no “right” or “wrong” reason to seek help if you are looking to drive true scale. Three Types of White Label Digital Marketing Solutions As you research white label solutions, you will likely encounter a variety of providers that seem to offer a similar service at a glance. When you dig in deeper, however, you’ll see that they tend to fall into one of these three categories: Platform A typical white label platform relies heavily on a suite of software solutions to help you automate certain aspects of a digital marketing campaign. While this can ease your operational burdens, they often require an existing level of product knowledge to use in an efficient manner. Because platforms leverage more software than a vendor or partner, this can also result in some other potential drawbacks for your agency. With a platform, you will likely experience limited communication with the provider and customizability might be restricted, for example. Vendor Vendors are white label providers that produce a deliverable for your agency for a fee. Their obligations end once the I’s are dotted and the T’s are crossed on their service agreement. These white label providers often specialize in one or a small handful of competencies, such as copywriting or graphic design. While they can deliver these services at a high level, they usually lack a complete product suite. With vendors, it can also become difficult to gauge the quality of a deliverable. If you are not satisfied with the work you receive from a vendor, but they have fulfilled their contractual obligations, options may be limited. Partner White label partners are fully invested in the account relationship with your agency, acting as a true extension of your in-house team. With a partner, you gain access to a team of other skilled marketers that: Treats your clients as their own Offers a holistic suite of products and services Provides sales support materials to help you resell effectively Does not offshore or outsource your client’s work Essentially, combining efforts with a partner is like hiring an entire team of expert analysts to manage your client’s campaigns directly. This allows for more unified communication, elevated performance, and a higher-quality outcome for your accounts. What You Get from a White Label Partnership A Holistic Suite of Services Have you wanted to expand your agency’s scope of services but have not found the right way to do so? With a white label partner, you can instantly integrate any of their products into your offering and brand them as your own. For example, let’s say you have heard that OTT advertising is exploding right now . You want to add this service to your agency, but you have not found the right candidate to hire as an in-house programmatic analyst. A white label solution allows you to leverage your partner’s own team of OTT experts to manage your client’s campaigns on these desirable platforms. This ensures that your campaigns are built in line with the best creative and strategic practices from day-one to maximize the return on ad spend (ROAS) potential. An Expert Ad Operations Team to Complement Your Own Modern hiring challenges and labor shortages have created staffing obstacles for every industry. Agencies are by no means an exception. A white label partner aligns their expert ad operations team with your own. Your team receives the support that they need to deliver elite performance for your clients while reducing strain on internal bandwidth. The Ability to Scale Predictably High account volumes drive the white label partnership model. When you launch a campaign with your partner, this relationship provides you with a long-term peace of mind that you can continue to manage your capacity, expenses, and volume on a predictable basis while also expanding your client roster. Proactive and Unified Communication “I love communicating in siloes,” said no one, ever. Communication between agency and partner drives world-class performance for your client. Whether you need a sounding board for making campaign decisions or are looking for an active and equal participant in your operations, a partner can provide that responsive interaction you desire. Get More of Your Time Back A white label partner can help your agency offload capacity burdens that distract from your core competencies. You can use this extra time to focus on the services that you love fulfilling in-house as well as concentrate more on sales and growing your business. …And yes, plenty of time to finally take that vacation you’ve been meaning to take for the past two years. The Ability to Say “Yes” to Better Opportunities Let’s channel some GaryVee energy for a moment: Passing up on incredible new client opportunities flat-out sucks. No agency owner enjoys the feeling of turning down a chance to elevate their business to the next level. Feels good to admit that out loud, right? It feels even better when you can do something about it. A partner outfits your agency with the products, resources, and infrastructure to give you the confidence to say “yes” to any white-whale clients that knock on your digital door. As you continue to scale, questions like “can we handle this new massive account?” disappear. White Label Partnership: The Quickstart Guide Now that you’ve familiarized yourself with white label partnerships, let’s see how a campaign could play out in practice: Step 1: Identify Your Client’s Campaign Strategy and Goals Every successful digital marketing campaign begins with the end in mind. Working with your client, determine what they want to accomplish with their campaigns. Identify the ultimate high-level goals and then draw the strategic roadmap to reach them. For example, if your client is a fashion retailer looking to clear their recent Fall/Winter inventory in preparation for their new Spring/Summer collection, a goal could be to increase sales of the items from the previous season. As the weather warms and these products move closer to the “Sale” section of the website, you may decide to create a campaign that promotes these discounts on channels like Paid Search , Paid Social, and Programmatic Display . Identify the Audience(s) You Want to Reach Your client’s ideal audience avatars will inform all aspects of your campaign. From keyword and copywriting choices to targeting tactics, creative assets, and desired channels, you cannot build a successful digital campaign without knowing first who you are trying to connect with. Now, how do you determine these ideal avatars? Consider attributes such as: Geographic region Personal interests Personal characteristics (Age, sex, marital status, parental status, etc.) Economic characteristics (Job title, income level, educational level, etc.) Past purchase and search history Their past interactions with your client’s competitors Let’s use the fashion retailer client once again as the example here. Their sales data suggests that their largest customer segment is women between the ages of 20 and 35 that live near their physical storefront in New York City. To reach these ideal customers, you could create a campaign strategy that targets local women within this age range. You may also decide to set targeting parameters around income level if you are trying to attract individuals with larger or smaller shopping budgets. A sale promotion might attract more people who have wanted to purchase items in the past but did not complete the transaction. Additionally, depending on the platform, you could also draw a digital geo-fence around competing retailers near your client’s store. Customers that visit these locations will be served your client’s ads while they are within the boundaries of the fence. Because the client also sells their products online, you could launch an additional national campaign alongside one that is locally targeted. For example, you may launch a Google Shopping campaign with a keyword strategy focused around affordable winter coats that does not consider location-based terms. Determine KPA’s with Your Partner Key performance actions (KPAs) are used to measure a campaign’s results against your client’s goals. These touchpoints combine to write the holistic narrative of your digital efforts. They are reverse-engineered from the campaign goals that you identified during your initial strategic planning. As we stated above, our hypothetical fashion retail client’s goal is to clear out their Fall/Winter collection. Let’s say that you’ve identified “completed online checkouts” as the primary KPA to gauge campaign success. To contribute to this KPA, you’ve decided to direct Paid Search, Paid Social, and Programmatic Display ads toward a landing page promoting the sale on last season’s goods. While “completed online checkouts” is the ideal, there could be other actions the target audiences are performing that also indicate positive or negative performance in other areas, such as: Clicks to other parts of the client’s website after visiting the landing page Abandoned online shopping carts where purchases were not completed Checkouts for items not on the landing page Transactions for single items versus multiple items These additional touchpoints supply your team with valuable insights. Why are audience members interacting in these ways instead of completing a checkout? Following the data trail, you can uncover new optimization opportunities to improve the ad experience. Select the Right Products to Support the Campaigns You have your end-goal, targeting strategy, and KPAs. Now, it’s time to select the best digital products to support the work you’ve already done. For our fashion retailer’s campaign, we have already pointed to Paid Search, Programmatic Display, and Paid Social as potential channels. These most intuitively align with their need to clear their previous season’s inventory. Your agency can start with one or two channels and always add more products as campaign needs evolve. Start with the ones that provide the most direct benefit and can generate the most desirable KPA activity. Provide Your Partner with the Right Resources to Deliver High Level Performance Depending on the nature of your client’s products or services, business model, and industry, your partner may benefit from additional resources beyond what you submit in an insertion order. These could include items like product brochures, specific website pages, examples of past creative assets, and other similar points-of-reference. For example, if you are developing creatives around a specific product, send the product listing as well as any sales literature to your partner. This will help direct their own efforts for tasks like ad copywriting and keyword research. Use Your Partner’s Rate Card to Create Your Margins When you begin your white label partnership, your partner will provide you with their rate card. This document contains the prices that they charge for products and services. Use this as a reference point when creating your markups to resell these solutions to your client. Check Your Reports Frequently You have created the campaign strategy and have given your partner the green light to implement. Along the journey, the reports your partner provides will allow you to track ongoing progress and past optimizations. Performance is proven through reporting. During an active campaign, check in on your partner’s reports at least a few days each week. This transparency allows everyone to remain on the same page and make more impactful decisions in real-time in the event that any further optimizations need to be made. Stay in Touch with Your Partner Successful white label partnerships are built on two foundations: Communication and performance. Respond to messages from your partner’s ad operations team and do not hesitate to reach out to them with any questions, comments, or feedback you might have from your perspective. What to Look for in the Right Partner Evolving Product Suite A holistic product suite completes today’s digital marketing needs and evolves for the ones that will appear tomorrow. This equips your agency’s sales team with the ability to attract and land new quality accounts as well as expand opportunities with existing ones. 100% In-House Service Look for a partner that fulfills your campaign needs completely in-house instead of offshoring or outsourcing your work to another provider. Single-origin performance ensures higher-quality deliverables, more impactful communication, and timely action. Elite Performance and Reporting When entrusting your client’s campaign budget to another provider, you might be wondering: How can I be sure that my partner knows what they’re doing? This is a fair question, as you might be testing a white label solution for the first time and have not received a deliverable or report from them yet. Look for a partner that can provide you with tangible demonstrations of their capabilities and expertise. Examples could include case study libraries, high-level platform certifications, and samples of their campaign reports. Single Point of Contact Communication You started your agency to make a difference for your client’s business, not to play phone tag or juggle thousands of emails. Look for a partner that prioritizes your partnership experience as much as you do by providing you with a single point of contact to act as your key liaison for all of your white label needs. Sales Support Resources A performance-driven white label solution will equip your agency with the resources needed for you to resell their products and services effectively. Assets like product playbooks, partner portals, and a white label rate card can empower you to sell with authority and confidence that you will have the infrastructure behind you to seize new opportunities. Custom Branded Deliverables A “white label” product or service implies that your partner’s deliverables can be custom-branded to suit your agency’s business needs. Look for a partner that allows you complete creative freedom to customize your shared deliverables so that you can brand them under your agency or client. NDA Compliance Not all agencies desire to disclose their white label partnership to their clients. If you wish to remain private about your partnership, look for a solution that will faithfully honor your request for a non-disclosure agreement. Launch Your Own White Label Digital Marketing Partnership for Your Agency At Conduit Digital, we serve as the elite performance partner for successful digital agencies globally. By equipping your agency with best-in-class products, performance, reporting, and communication, we enable you to say “yes” to any can’t-miss opportunity. Are you ready to unlock your agency’s full scaling potential? Visit our Agency Partnership page for more information or schedule a 20-minute call to tell us more about your business.
- Top 10 Traits of Any Successful Marketing Agency
Apr 14, 2021 To paraphrase our good friend Marcus Murphy, marketing agencies are the backbone of the backbone of our economy. Why? Each day, agency-managed campaigns are driving customer action for businesses across all industries and are relied on to help them succeed. Since we launched Conduit, we have spoken to hundreds of agency owners that share with us their business success and roadblocks. Some of these agencies are in the startup phase, others moving into the growth phase, and many have been crushing campaigns for years. Taking this intel into account, we have developed a list of 10 traits that can be found in any successful marketing agency. If you are looking to grow your own digital marketing agency or refine your operations, check out this list of successful traits that you can integrate into your own workflow: 1. Communication is the Central Driving Force All marketing campaigns are communication. From internal project management to the audience-facing message, you are harnessing digital channels to inspire action and consideration in others. To ensure that all of your campaigns are hitting target benchmarks, prioritizing communication must remain at the top of mind for everyone on your team. Some ways that you can better leverage communication at your agency include: Use an advanced project management platform as a central hub for all campaign-level discussion Integrate a sophisticated messaging solution into your digital infrastructure (We’re big Slack fans here!) Develop a transparent standard for turnaround times when responding to client messages. For us, we have a 1 business day maximum turnaround time when responding to any messages. Check-in with your team members on a regular basis to track campaign progress, identify any roadblocks, and develop solutions Transparent and timely communication should act as a central artery through the heart of your agency. Without it, you run the risk of unhappy clients and inefficient processes. 2. Airtight Processes Having an airtight project management process will ensure that your agency can hit your goals on time and remain as profitable as possible. Each process should be tailored to the specific product or service that you offer. Developing processes is especially important when adding any new digital capabilities to your marketing agency. This way, everyone involved with these campaigns knows how they should be run, can remain in lockstep with one another, and can see a road map from start to finish. It is also recommended that you have semi-regular process evaluation meetings. After spending time in a process structure, you or your team members might identify new ways to further refine them. This will only boost efficiency when it comes time to crush more campaigns! At Conduit, we use the project management system Teamwork to outline our processes. This allows us to create structures that are as high-level or granular as necessary to ensure that we hit our benchmarks. 3. Your Agency Treats Itself as its Own Client Your marketing agency should market itself just as much as you do for your clients! Without investing in your own internal efforts, you can miss out on attracting high-quality leads that are looking for your services. Many agencies tend to neglect their own marketing in favor of allocating as much time as possible to client work. While that is important, doing the same for your own self is just as critical to your success. This rings true particularly for agencies that focus on their local market or specific industries. In these contexts, your ideal client pool is smaller than one that serves an eclectic roster on a regional, national, or global scale. Treat your own business as your most important client. If you are running innovative campaigns for your clients, do the same for yourself. This will help maintain a steady pipeline of qualified leads that will lead to tangible results. 4. You Have a Land-and-Expand Mindset At Conduit, we are all about land-and-expand. Once you land your client, work to expand the scope of their marketing capabilities. Ensure that all the client’s digital marketing bases are covered and that you are positioning your client for the most success possible across all channels. The best way to accomplish this is through providing a holistic suite of services. Push campaigns through multiple channels simultaneously, such as SEO , paid social , and programmatic display in addition to video and paid search to target users in the exact moments they are engaging with these platforms. 5. Everyone Has a Clear Role Many marketing agencies throughout the world are one-person or small-team operations. In these situations, a single individual may have to “wear many hats” to make sure that client needs are met. As you grow your business, identify both your own and your team members’ greatest strengths and develop processes that allow them to maximize their potential. Give your team members clear-cut roles so that they can focus their attention on providing world-class service quality. 6. Investing in Client Relationships Beyond the Contract Positive client relationships result in a more fruitful endeavor for all parties. Simply put: People are more willing to work with other people that they like. Building a strong relationship with your client extends beyond a contract or business transaction. When the opportunity arises, ask them how their business is doing, how their families are, what they like to do outside of work, and so on. Getting to know these people on a personal level will create a more comfortable environment for everyone and transform a business arrangement into a true marketing partnership. 7. The Agency Understands the Client’s Brand The best campaigns result from agencies syncing with their client’s brand. Do everything you can to understand their unique messages, value propositions, and identity. Here are three easy tips to master your client’s brand and understand it as intimately as they do: 1. Conduct an in-depth interview with your client about their brand before launching your campaign 2. Review their current marketing materials and look for consistent imagery and messaging 3. Read as much of their sales literature as you are able to (brochures, existing ads, etc.) Once you have gathered this intel, you can create better deliverables with a shorter learning curve. 8. You Know How to Identify a “Good” Client For any agency, a strong client base plays a critical role in growing your business. However, not every potential client that fills out a contact form will prove the “right fit.” Here are four traits to look for in a “good” client that can best align with your own agency: 1. Personality Compatibility – You and your client get along on a personal level outside of business discussions. They are pleasant to talk to and are mutually respectful. 2. Willingness to Collaborate – The client has their business goals identified and is willing to collaborate with you on developing the best possible strategy to achieve them. 3. Expectations Meet Reality – You and the client share a clear set of realistic expectations for campaign performance vs. other factors like budget and billable hours. 4. Communication – You and the client are able to maintain consistent communication and keep one another informed on the most pertinent facts related to campaign performance. 9. You Know Your Numbers Marketing agencies, like any business, need to know their numbers to drive profit and scale. Are your margins high enough to sustain growth? Are you under or overcharging on deliverables? Regularly auditing your agency’s financial health and resolving outstanding issues can ensure that you remain profitable and can expand your client base. 10. You’re Built to Scale “Scaling my business” is a goal that many marketing agency owners share but often face challenges in execution. When you’re in the weeds of daily client work, it’s understandable that you might miss the forest for the trees. As you plan to grow your business, you should take an inventory of roadblocks you might encounter and outline some solutions to overcome them. For example, what happens if you sign on far more clients than your current team can realistically handle? Will you hire a new team member to meet these needs or look for an external solution? Partnership Positions Your Agency for Scale You’ve done the hard work: Built a successful marketing agency that is ready to dominate the digital landscape on your clients’ behalf. If you’re looking for some help to take your capabilities to the next level, that’s where we come in. At Conduit, we strive to partner with agencies across North America to help them better serve their clients. We accomplish this by acting as an extension of their in-house teams and can expand their service capabilities, manage their account overflow, and provide one-of-a-kind data-driven insights through our Live Reporting platform. Our in-house team of digital experts can help you round out your service capabilities, offload your overflow client work, and serve as a driving component in your digital marketing engine. If you are interested in forming an agency partnership to land and expand clients at an unprecedented scale, view our Partnership & Pricing page for more information.
- Tips On Marketing Your Brand During The COVID-19 Pandemic
Apr 16, 2020 Marketing is always tough. But when a global pandemic strikes and many local and global economies come grinding to a halt, it can be near-impossible. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, brands have had to drastically reconsider their marketing efforts. After all, you don’t want your brand or your clients’ brand to come off poorly during a sensitive time. So how do you navigate this brand minefield and chart a successful course for you and your clients? The Truth Is, No One Knows And that’s ok! We are in an uncertain time and anyone who tells you that they “have the answers” probably doesn’t. However what we can do is band together, and take a look at what others around our industry are doing to reach out to consumers who are just as afraid as the business owners themselves. Since the crisis began, many brands have changed their strategies to reflect the changing times. Some have been more successful than others. Perhaps the best way to chart a course for your clients is to look at what has been done successfully so far during this crisis. Who Did It Right These brands have found the right mixture of sincerity, mindfulness, and value to market to consumers during this difficult time: Designs This cleverly designed Guinness ad from freelancer Luke O’Reilly is far more than just a call to self-quarantine. The subtle imagery of the couch against the all-black background invokes the imagery of a Guinness beer, reminding consumers that the product can be consumed from the comfort of their own home. As a brand that can still offer a product to its customers, Guinness found a way to promote a healthy message with a clever reminder to buy their product. This Nike ad from Weiden + Kennedy was part of a larger campaign where they got many of their big name athletes and spokespeople to promote their “Play inside, play for the world” initiative. With a simple approach, Nike was able to promote this message while remaining consistent with their brand voice and messaging. This campaign from McDonalds from Brazilian agency DPZ&T achieves a minimalist message. By distancing their iconic Golden Arches, they are sublty reminding people of the “social distancing” message that is being spread by healthcare and government officials. This is a great example of an approach that isn’t too “in-your-face” or pushy while reminding consumers of the grander mission. Initiatives While any marketer can appreciate a good design or a clever campaign, this is a serious time. And because of that, companies have a social responsibility to help where they can. Many industries will be able to help in their own unique ways. Diageo and Anheuser-Busch have shifted production and logistics to produce millions of bottles of hand sanitizer in order to aid the medical community during this time. This act goes far beyond a simple message of support or monetary donation. This commitment to a common goal and unity is exactly what makes gestures like these sincere and genuinely helpful during a time like this. Facebook and Tesla have also pledged to provide tangible help to the healthcare community. After stocking up on safety masks in the wake of California wildfires last year, both companies have pledged to donate their supply of masks to local healthcare organizations. While these may seem like simple gestures, they go a long way in creating real impact for local communities in need of these crucial supplies. Popeye’s took a different approach. Trying to remain light and playful during a hard time, the famous chicken chain gave away 1,000 free month-long subscriptions to Netflix if they sent a picture of themselves eating Popeye’s chicken while staying at home. While this campaign had little in the way of impact for the medical community, it did encourage the stay-at-home messaging in a way that grasped consumer engagement. How Does This Help My Agency? While looking at some of the biggest brands in the world is an interesting exercise, you may be thinking, how does any of this help my agency or my clients navigate through COVID-19? While your clients may not have the name recognition of McDonalds or Facebook, they can learn from their initiatives. These brands were able to walk the fine line of appearing to take advantage of the situation vs providing real value. With these examples in mind, we can begin to break down how your agency should be marketing for yourself and your clients. Ultimately, it begins with messaging. Are You Providing Real Help? Ask yourself the question, how can my agency or my clients provide real help right now? If your clients are in a position to provide tangible help to their local community, they should be capitalizing on that opportunity. Are your clients in the restaurant or healthcare industry? Give them guidance on how they can serve their community. For example, some local restaurants are donating meals to healthcare providers or creating funds to support out-of-work staff. Encourage your local vendors to engage with their communities and help in any way that they can. Maybe your vendors are the ones that need desperate help. Unfortunately, most small businesses can’t last 0-3 months without revenue. So what is your agency supposed to do if you and your clients have to keep the pedal down and keep selling? What If I Have To Sell? While no one wants to be disingenuous or out of touch, many businesses have no choice but continuing to look for ways to market and sell their products or services. And that’s ok! However it is more important now than ever before to be weary of the tone and messaging. If your agency and your clients are in sell-now mode, here are some Do’s and Don’ts to remember. Do 1. Provide Real For Customers If you’re going to be selling, give consumers an incentive to buy. Many agencies are temporarily waiving their fees, discounting prices, or providing strategic assistance. 2. Create Context Around Campaigns Though this is a global pandemic, its impact is local. Every message, ad, or campaign needs to be sensitive to the context of the issues people are dealing with. 3. Tailor Messaging To The Right Platforms As consumers move increasingly online, make sure you are finding the right audience and speaking to them on that platform, for that platform. Don’t 1. Try To Capitalize On The Crisis Just don’t. No explanation needed. 2. Run The Same Campaigns You Were Before A lot has changed in the past few weeks. Even if the goals of the campaign are the same now as they were before, consumers are not. Be sure to run campaigns that fit the current times. 3. Display Mixed Motives Many people, agencies, and organizations are struggling right now. If you are going to sell, that is ok! Just be transparent with your customers or clients and make your messaging clear. How Agencies Are Marketing Themselves A great thing about our industry is that every agency is unique! Just like the owners and teams behind the scenes, each agency has a different perspective on how to market themselves and their clients during this crisis. We reached out to agencies across the country to hear how they are marketing right now. Kevin J. Walker, Co-Founder & President, Boardwalk “Celebrate any achievements you may have during the crisis. Let your market know you’re waiting for them to come back. Mark Cuban said it best recently. Your market is watching how your business behaves during this crisis. And your brand will be judged by that behavior for decades to come. So make sure to maintain the highest standards of ethics and responsibility. Find ways to help others if you can.” Paige Arnof-Fenn, Founder & CEO, Mavens & Moguls “Communication is key to all of our community, customer and employee engagement. As far as messaging goes, between the pandemic and the possible recession, brands have an opportunity to further connect with anxious consumers and focus on the true relevance of their products or services. We have to acknowledge that now things are different so we need to communicate in a way that will give our audiences better focus, helping them to create a bridge from today to the future. We need to communicate in a way that combines information and need, synthesizing feeling and facts. I feel we have a tremendous responsibility because never before has communications had the power to help society in the way that it does right now. Words are part of the healing process and we can see which leaders and brands are doing the best job every day with messages that touch not only the mind, but also the heart and soul. There has never been a more important time to provide accurate, empathetic communication with transparency, truthfulness and timeliness. It is inappropriate now for content to appear tone deaf in any way to this crisis. Do not ask to be paid, be too salesy, imply solidarity, hope they are doing well, etc. it seems cheesy and worse opportunistic. Everyone is struggling right now to find a new normal so the key is to show your humanity and compassion.” How Agencies Are Marketing Their Clients Data-driven strategies drive our industry forward. Here are a few examples of what different agencies are doing to help their clients succeed during the pandemic. Shana Harris, COO, Warchawski “Our clients are pivoting to see how their offerings can be helpful during this time. The lesson here is that being adaptable and entrepreneurial is a skill that you will always need. For example, one of our clients is in the jewelry industry and has a unique model. They buy all sorts of high-end luxury jewelry and gold. This model allows them to do collateral loans and stay open. We have shifted our marketing efforts to support this side of their business and also promote their mail-in service. Clients in the conference business quickly had to cancel their upcoming conferences and create online webinars and networking events. For clients in sales, this is a good time to offer a good sale to help people during this time or allow people to defer payment, etc. Clients in the service business should offer flexible payment options that would also be a good way to promote your services while also showing how you are being flexible during these times. Media relations is still a great way to get third-party credibility and position your client as an industry leader. The rules of media relations don’t change, even during a pandemic. You still need to make sure your pitch and story answer these questions: Why is this newsworthy? Is it timely? Why should the media pay attention to this story vs. another story? How does this impact the target audience?” Jamie Hardin, Founder & CEO, Greenlit Marketing “Our clients are responding to COVID-19 with content, resources and offerings that address what their target audiences are struggling the most with. We are fortunate to work with small to mid-size businesses that can move quickly and adapt to what we’re seeing in the market. Increase in social media engagement is also a must.” What Conduit Is Doing We understand the troubles that agencies face during this time. We face them too! Conduit Digital is hoping to help guide our clients through these times with compassion, care, and attention. However in order to get through this time, we need your help! We are calling on all of our fellow agencies to join the #AgenciesUnited community. Times are tough but if we band together to share insights, ideas, content, struggles, and solutions, we can come out of this crisis stronger as an industry. Join us on the mission to Unite agencies everywhere . See What Partnership Can Do For Your Agency
- The Ultimate Reseller Guide for White Label PPC
Sep 3, 2021 Get the Most Out of Your New PPC Advertising Product If your agency is considering partnering with a white label PPC advertising provider, you may be wondering how you can effectively resell these services to your clients? In this ultimate guide, we’re going to show you how you can effectively resell PPC to that client you’re looking to land or expand. How to Communicate the Value of PPC Advertising to Your Client As an agency leader, you’re probably familiar with this scenario: Your client clearly needs to take their digital marketing strategy in a new direction, but there always seems to be a disconnect when you try to sell them on the idea. Instead, they are either happy to continue doubling down on current campaigns or they start to consider scaling back their marketing investments. When you speak to your client about PPC advertising, one of the questions you will probably have to answer is “Why should I spend money on that?”. Without a thorough and authentic answer, your attempt to expand the account can fall dead in the water. Here are some unique selling points of expert-managed white label PPC campaigns that you can offer to your client. Jump to the Top of the SERPs PPC campaigns place your client’s website at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs). This occurs when a search user enters a term relevant to the keywords that your client is bidding on. Rather than hoping your website ranks organically for that keyword, you can cut right to the front of the line and get your business in front of desirable eyes. Only Pay for the Clicks You Receive It’s in the name: Pay-Per-Click advertising means the client only pays for the clicks their ads generate. This method results in an invest-as-you-go structure that only costs the client when it is producing results. Target the Most Likely Conversion Prospects Unlike text-based newspaper classified ads of old, PPC ads allow you to target specific audiences that are most likely to convert on key performance actions (KPAs). Beyond matching users’ search terms, you also can tailor campaigns to reach specific people based on factors such as location, demographic data, and much more. Rather than broadcasting your ad to any and every set of eyes, you’re putting it in front of the right sets of eyes. Multiple Types of PPC Ads to Choose From Beyond simple text ads, there are many other varieties of PPC advertising formats that you can take advantage of. You can use a single ad format or a combination that best suits your client’s business goals. For example, Google offers ones that include, but are by no means limited to: Shopping Ads – Promote a product that your client is selling on their website and pay when a user clicks through to the landing page. Local Services Ads – Professionals in select industries can advertise verified service listings to search users. For example, a local personal injury lawyer can create an LSA ad that targets people who search terms like “personal injury attorney near me.” Click-to-Call Ads – Ads specifically designed to drive phone calls for businesses. These display only on devices such as smartphones where the user can place the call instantly. Expert-Managed Campaigns When you connect with a white label PPC advertising partner like Conduit, you have access to a team of certified experts that apply their expertise to your client’s campaigns. This ensures that the campaigns: Are designed based on your client’s desired KPAs Feature high-opportunity keyword strategies Implement effective ad copy compliant with PPC best practices Of course, you do not have to disclose that your agency works with a white label digital performance partner if you do not want to. In our experience, about half of the agencies in our network actively promote that they work with Conduit’s team of certified Google Ads and Bing Ads partners. Some prefer to call our PPC advertising team their own, which we are equally excited about! That’s the beauty of a white label partnership. Track Your Campaign Performance in Real-Time We believe that successful white label performance partnerships are built on transparency. When considering a PPC advertising partner, look for one that offers transparent data reporting on each of your client’s campaigns. This allows you to show your client how their campaigns are performing in real-time. This may inspire your client to invest more in PPC in the future or can open a productive conversation about adjusting strategy if the campaign is underperforming. It’s All About ROAS All of PPC advertising’s unique selling points are moot if the performance doesn’t align to drive return on ad spend (ROAS) for your client. However, with an expert white label partner, you can ensure that your client’s campaigns are set up for the most success possible. At Conduit, we help successful agencies across North America scale to the summit with a full suite of digital products. If you’re interested in adding white label PPC to your arsenal of solutions, contact us today to learn more about white label partnership.
- The Ultimate Guide to Becoming a Local SEO Rockstar
Sep 13, 2021 Leverage These Insights to Turn Your Agency Team Into Local SEO Rockstars Local SEO requires a different approach than general search engine optimization campaigns. To become a true rockstar among other competing agencies, you have to apply global-sized thinking to local execution. As a digital performance partner for digital marketing agencies serving many local markets across the United States, we’ve learned quite a bit about local SEO along the way. We’re going to share some agency insights to help you best leverage your white label digital partnership to become a truly major player in your client’s local market. 1. Gather as Much Local Intel as Possible Research the general region where your client’s business is located. Then, conduct research on their municipality, county, the other surrounding counties, and eventually the state. Be sure to also read up on local government regulations that may impact the way your client conducts their business. Other aspects of local intel you might want to research can include, but are not limited to: Seasonal climate conditions that may affect business Proximity to major cities and local economic hubs Median household income of the local population Other demographic data of local residents (i.e., Age, race, education level, etc.) Top local employers where potential customers might work 2. Research Local Competitors In-Depth Perform a local search related to your client’s business. For example, if your client is a medical provider in Ocean County, New Jersey, you can search “doctors office in Toms River” and view a variety of local competitors’ websites and Google MyBusiness listings. Perform a thorough review of these competitors’ websites. Look for aspects of these sites that might be outperforming your client’s digital presence. Look for factors like: Do the competitors have more content on their pages? Do the competitors have better quality content? Do they have a more intuitive user experience design? Are they using links more effectively on their website? Do they have more consistently optimized meta descriptions and headers than your client? These surface-level aspects of a website can provide you with a detailed initial overview of your client’s competitors. This will aid you in developing a strategy to elevate your client’s own website to remain viably competitive in their market. You can also use site examining tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs to take a deeper look into competitors’ websites to gather more granular data. These tools can provide you with advanced intel like: A website’s text-to-HTML ratio Number of broken links found on the website Instances of duplicate on-page copy Keywords that competitors are currently ranking for on organic search 3. Make Sure Your Client’s Digital Presence Has Updated Location Information Businesses that target local audiences often have their information displayed on a variety of different digital channels. These can include their own website, social media profiles, Google MyBusiness listings, directory portals, and more. Take an inventory of each channel that lists your client’s business information. Ensure that all of their contact information, address, and business hours, and website URL are up-to-date on each property. If one or more are inaccurate, be sure to address this immediately. 4. Identify Directory Opportunities Your Client is Missing Out On Online directories with local listings dominate local organic search results. These portals are considered of the highest authority by search engine algorithms, which means they face little difficulty achieving a top-3 ranking. Directories generate a large amount of organic referral traffic for your client’s website. If their site is not in the top-5 organic results for a specific keyword, but their Yelp listing is, this can result in many Yelp visitors clicking through to your client’s website if they want to learn more about their business. If your client is missing key directory listings for their local market and general industry, take inventory of them and plan to add their business to these channels as soon as possible. This will play an instrumental role in supplementing your organic traffic generation with referral links. 5. Build a Local Keyword Strategy “(Product or service) near me” is the king of local SEO keywords. Whenever a user includes the qualifier “near me” in their search term, Google leverages the device’s location function to provide local results. On your client’s website, be sure to tastefully call out specific locations in their content. This will indicate to Google that the business serves local customers in that specific area. For example, the H1 heading on a physical therapist’s homepage in Lincoln, Nebraska might be “Top Physical Therapy Center in Lincoln, NE” with the focus keyword being “physical therapy Lincoln NE”. 6. Be A Digital Neighbor People often support local businesses because they are owned and operated by their neighbors. In a similar vein, operate your client’s online channels like a digital neighbor. On their Google properties, social profiles, and directory listings, perform regular actions like: Respond to reviews from all customers, no matter the rating. Post notices of any changes in business hours, unusual closures, holiday schedules, etc. Link to new content on the client’s website, such as blog posts, to channels that allow you to post updates like Facebook and Google MyBusiness. Respond to questions, comments, and messages on these properties and provide links to the client’s website if the page can help satisfy a user’s needs. Share images of the business to the client’s Google MyBusiness profile, directory listings, and social media channels. These will also aid your client in ranking for image results on search engines. Scale Your Agency To True Local SEO Rockstardom Local SEO is a far more nuanced variation of search engine optimization that requires consistent experience to become a true rockstar. At Conduit, we’ve built a team of expert certified SEO analysts and managers that have built countless local SEO campaign strategies for agency clients all across North America and around the globe. As digital performance partners, we help agencies scale by meeting their needs with a full suite of services to round out their own in-house core offerings. If you’re ready to scale to becoming a true local SEO rockstar, contact us today to learn more about our white label SEO services.
- The SEO Audit: Your Agency’s Secret Weapon
Jul 28, 2021 Use SEO Audit Services to Build a Strategic Digital War Chest. An effective search engine optimization campaign requires more than new content and some flashy keywords. To generate desirable organic traffic for your client, you need to account for their website’s technical health. An SEO audit can provide this critical insight and help your team develop a tangible strategy. How Does an SEO Audit Benefit Your Clients? Clients often want to know what you have done for them lately. They are trusting your agency and investing a significant portion of their budget in your team’s expertise. When you are able to show the fruits of your campaign, this leads to greater transparency and a healthier account relationship. With an SEO audit, you can form a detailed, insightful, and long-term plan of attack for the client’s campaign. It will provide you with a full view of their website’s health, opportunities for new quality keywords, and a full lay-of-the-land when analyzing competitors. You can put all of this information into a monthly plan that demonstrates tangible value. From the financial perspective, an audit also allows your team to accurately price campaigns and ensure profitability. This ensures that the client receives the maximum possible return on their investment and boosts their satisfaction with your services. How Does an SEO Audit Benefit Agencies? SEO audits also benefit agencies in a number of ways. For starters, it becomes your team’s strategic war chest when forming your strategy. Each day, week, month, or quarter, you can use the audit as a central launchpad for your client’s campaign. Similar to the client-side, the audit also allows your team to forecast a more accurate picture of cost, revenue, and profit. Instead of estimates, you can provide a quote designed to both maximize the client’s budget and generate the most profit for your business. Components of an Excellent SEO Audit If you search for “SEO audit” on Google, you will find many third-party companies promising extravagant results for a cheap, one-time service. In many cases, these offshore providers import an SEO tool’s Manual and Machine Analysis A high-quality audit should contain points of analysis collected from both human SEO experts and industry-leading digital tools. Combining artificial intelligence with human-level insight allows your agency to offer clients a more complete, effective, and long-term strategy. Website Content Quality When it comes to SEO, content should accomplish two main goals: 1. Establish your client’s authority in their industry 2. Introduce and optimize for new keywords with high organic traffic potential Beyond this, the content should also engage the client’s target reader. After reading a blog post or landing page, the visitor ought to feel inspired to engage further. This supports the website’s overall lead generation and conversion goals. Technical SEO Health When search engine algorithms crawl through your website, they do not see all the incredible designs and bright colors. Instead, they read its HTML code. If the website is plagued with technical errors, the algorithm will likely determine the site offers a poor user experience and not rank it highly for desired keywords. Two examples of common technical errors an audit might uncover include pages with a low text-to-HTML ratio and slow page load times. After identifying errors like these, an SEO analyst can compile an action plan that corrects these issues on an ongoing basis. By noting all technical errors and warning signs, you can plan to address these problems and prevent them from further impacting the website’s organic search performance. As you continue to add new optimizations to your client’s site, these technical issues will not impede your progress over time. User Behavior Stats How are organic search users interacting with the website? Are they dropping off before making it to the desired point of conversion? During the audit, tools like Google Analytics can analyze user behavior like bounce rate, the average time of on-site, and behavior flow to help your team identify any disconnects between strategy and intended results. Optimization Information Does the client’s website already feature some basic SEO elements like focus keywords and optimized metadata? If not, these should be noted and addressed as soon as possible. This provides your team with the opportunity to introduce immediate campaign deliverables that deliver a noticeable impact. Essential SEO elements like the ones above tell search engine algorithms what your page’s content is about. Along with strong content and high technical health, your website stands a much stronger chance of ranking highly for desired keywords. Link Profile Is your client’s website receiving links from reputable online sources relevant to their industry? During an SEO audit, an analyst should examine these links and score their quality. If they are irrelevant, spammy, or toxic, they can impact your organic rankings. Search engines will note these links and if they do not align with your client’s content, they will likely assume your website does not have an authority level that merits a higher ranking. Any “bad” backlinks can be disavowed and better ones can be obtained through the course of an SEO campaign. These should be noted and cataloged during the audit phase. A Tangible Action Plan After the client has received an audit, your agency should provide them with a tangible action plan. Provide a list of high-level, ongoing deliverables as well as a plan to address any immediate issues. White Label a Better SEO Audit Today Looking to provide a better SEO audit for your clients? Consider an agency partnership with Conduit! Our team combines over 20 years of hands-on experience with industry-leading tools and a custom audit that covers over 80 criteria – all white-labeled under your client’s brand. To learn more about our SEO services that can benefit your agency, view our agency partnership page.
- The Future of Targeting: FLoC and the Latest iOS Update
May 5, 2021 We recently discussed Google embracing FLoC over third-party cookies in a previous blog post . Now, this reality is inching closer and digital advertisers will have to shift their approach to campaign management. Similarly, Apple announced that, with the latest iOS update, users can opt out of cross-web tracking on an app-to-app basis. When you first open an app after installing the update, it will allow you to opt in or out of cross-platform tracking. Most digital advertisers have relied on these longtime tools like third-party cookies and holistic web tracking to reach target audiences. Now, where does this leave the industry? Fortunately, the ad landscape will not descend into a barren wasteland. John, Jay, and Kwasi Discuss FLoC and the iOS Update in-Depth What Does the FLoC Model Mean for Google Ads? Third-party cookies collect data on specific users and their behavior across the entire web. This allows advertisers to tailor this individual’s ad experience wherever this person might visit. If you’ve browsed for sports equipment online and then saw ads for new running shoes on your Facebook feed later, that’s an example of third-party cookies at work. Now, Google will be eliminating third-party cookies from its tracking and replacing this with the Federated Learning of Cohorts, or FLoC model. Instead of tracking data user-by-user, FLoC creates groups based on holistic user behavior on a website. Is FLoC Better than Third-Party Cookies? Like any comparison, each side will possess a unique set of advantages and disadvantages. However, there are a few notable advantages FLoC has over third-party cookies: Google can now capture more usable group data This shift results in better group-level targeting at the expense of less usable individual user data iOS Update 14.5 Introduces App Tracking Transparency Apple has always placed a priority on safeguarding its customers’ privacy. This commitment extends far enough to where they have refused to unlock passcode-protected phones for FBI investigations. They build their brand on user experience and this latest iOS update is intended to further accomplish their main objective. Now, iOS update 14.5 will allow users to opt out of cross-app tracking on an app-to-app basis. Now, when an application is opened for the first time after installing the update, the user can select whether or not they wish for it to track their cross-platform data. This level of transparency brings unprecedented privacy protections to users. However, advertisers that relied on this holistic, cross-app view will have to adapt and rely more heavily on first-party data instead. What Are Some Major Changes with Tracking Transparency? Any major shift in the digital advertising world will require some degree of evolution and adaptation. With iOS update 14.5, some major changes advertisers should note include: First-party platform data will dominate Less sophisticated targeting due to limited amounts of cross-platform data available Can no longer attribute conversions to cross-channel behavior Should Advertisers Worry? Though some agencies may face initial bumps in the road as they adapt, this should not cause an overall worry. For example, this change will not affect Google Search Ads in any significant way, but it will have a much larger impact on social media platforms in the near-term. As John, Jay, and Kwasi discussed in the roundtable, many users may also opt into tracking than opt out. Why? People have come to expect targeted ad experiences. A significant majority will still want ads tailored to their interests rather than being served random, irrelevant messages. Are You Ready to Join the FLoC? The advertising world shifts frequently, but on occasion, major transformations occur like what we’re seeing with Google implementing FLoC over third-party cookies and iOS tracking transparency. To help you survive, thrive, and scale during this seismic moment in digital advertising, we want to help you develop a proactive solution to keep delivering winning ad campaigns. If you are interested in learning more, check out our partnership page or schedule a call with us anytime using the calendar below: Want to Be Ready for These Big Changes? At Conduit Digital, we tackle issues like the one you saw above on a daily basis. Our goal is to become the digital performance partner for successful agencies all over the world and be your secret weapon when seismic shifts rock our industry. To learn more about how we can help you scale, schedule a 20-minute call using the calendar below. We look forward to hearing from you!
- Social Media Marketing Trends in 2021: The Ultimate Guide
Feb 10, 2021 Social Media Marketing Trends in 2021: The Ultimate Guide Social media marketing trends are always evolving, and as one of the world’s fastest-growing digital agencies, we are always researching new ways to meet these demands. More than ever, people are connecting with each other via platforms like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and the up-and-coming Clubhouse app. 2020 Was Huge for Social Media Marketing, 2021 Will Be Even Bigger Many people spent more time at home during 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This also resulted in an increased amount of social media activity this past year . When unable to connect with others in person, interacting online is the next-best option. As pandemic-related restrictions still linger for brick-and-mortar establishments, office environments, and public gathering spaces, reaching people via social media campaigns will play a more significant role than ever. Simply put: If your brand is not alive on social media, you won’t thrive. To help ensure you do thrive in 2021, here are some social media trends you need to look out for: Instagram Reels Are Here to Stay Short form video content dominated 2020. People were introduced to this by the platform TikTok, but when Instagram’s Reels emerged as a viable alternative, it exploded. Prior to Reels, Instagram’s primary engagement driver was their Stories feature. Similar to Snapchat, Instagram stories presented users with quick pieces of timely content that would disappear within 24 hours. Since Reels were introduced, Story reach has declined as Reels are on the rise! Reels took off to the point where they have now replaced the Discover tab as the center-spot on the app menu. Now, accessing and engaging with your favorite creators is more streamlined than ever. Instagram Reels are short videos lasting between 15 and 30 seconds. Content creators can edit clips together, add visual elements, and share them with the rest of their other posts. Instagram’s Discover algorithm also regularly introduces new audience members to your content based on user behavior. These elements firmly cement the platform as the gold-standard for visual social media marketing. You might be wondering: Can I import my TikToks into my Instagram Reels? Instagram just released their latest algorithm update which no longer allows for promoting Reels that have a TikTok watermark on them . This makes TikToks less discoverable on the Instagram platform, but they can still be seen in the regular feeds. If you want to share your video on both platforms, we recommend creating the content on Instagram and then uploading it to TikTok. Instagram does not generate a watermark on Reels. (Short Form) Content is King The long-held “content is king” marketing mantra has applied to social media since its inception, but in 2021, short form content will take the spotlight. Videos that are only a few seconds long, like what we see with TikTok and Instagram Reels, are the new elevator-pitch to sell audiences on your brand’s value propositions. While you may not be able to present a detailed product description using these formats, you can maximize visual appeal. This means brands need to spend less time explaining and more time showing. Beyond sharing short videos via Reels and TikToks, here are some other ways to introduce short form content to your marketing strategy: Graphics & Infographics Create graphics and infographics as social posts that share valuable insights and information about your brand, industry, or other relevant subject matter with your audience. Here, you can add text to your posts and make snackable content that people can consume on-the-go. Memes & GIFs Who doesn’t love a good laugh? Share memes and GIFs that promote your brand’s sense of humor and give your content a viable chance to go viral within your industry or across a broader general audience base. Saves Reign Over Comments and Likes Whether you are running a paid social campaign or creating organic content, you should encourage your audience to save your posts on Instagram and Facebook. Saving a post acknowledges that the user intends to further engage with your brand at a later time. We are going to see a shift in engagement metrics that matter to the algorithm, saves and sends will be the most valued among them, followed by comments and likes. Likes will still remain important, but the days where likes hold the highest value are no more. Saves are transforming into the most powerful engagement metric as it tells the algorithm that you are building authority on the platform. The Trend That Will Dominate it All: Humanizing Your Brand In 2020, we saw that many brands relied on social media to connect with customers. Whether sharing updates to their business hours or posting specials, they turned to social platforms . This year, in addition to those routine update posts, we can expect to see brands becoming more humanized and authentic. In order to humanize your brands, you need to balance showcasing personality and maintaining professionalism. Here are some ways to do that: Showcase your team – Put faces behind your brand. Highlight employees, their birthdays and accomplishments, and don’t forget to promote employee-created content to inject some fresh personality! Go behind the scenes – Utilize stories to give your customers a glimpse of the day-to-day operations. Storytelling – One of the most effective ways to humanize your brand and become more authentic, is to tell stories. Whether you are sharing your successes or failures, you are being human, showing transparency, and giving your audience the chance to relate to you. Answer everything – Acknowledge and answer every single comment that comes your way, whether on a paid advertisement or a social post. A simple thank you can go a long way. For engagement that requires more thought and detailed responses, you should have a team to manage this type of engagement as your response can influence how people view your brand. Social Media Shopping – The New Digital Mall Social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram offer eCommerce portals for brands to sell products directly to users through their own accounts. Instead of having to navigate off-app to your own website, a person can engage in social shopping directly from where they currently are. With social media’s targeting capabilities, brands can also advertise their products and services directly to those most likely to purchase them based on demographic, interest, and behavior data. This allows you to drive more revenue through more qualified buyers seeing your listings in their feeds and taking action without ever leaving the app of their choosing. The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the way that people shop online. With more brick-and-mortar retail locations becoming less accessible, small and large businesses have leaned heavily on digital. Customers that wish to stay home have also engaged more with eCommerce platforms . Harnessing the power of social shopping provides a unique opportunity for small businesses to survive, or even thrive, during a tumultuous period in economic history. Once users transition to a post-pandemic society, we can expect many will continue to shop via social as it will become what they are now accustomed to. Similarly, we can anticipate that many more brands and entire industries will shift to social shopping than ever before. The New Frontier: The Clubhouse App Launched in 2020, the new Clubhouse app is emerging as the latest challenger to the established social media landscape. Completely unique, the audio-based platform operates on an invitation-only model where like-minded people can discuss topics relevant to their interests. Think of Clubhouse as a hybrid between a live podcast and a virtual chatroom. Users can jump in and out of conversations they’re invited to. Unlike other platforms, however, you cannot sign up for Clubhouse. You must be invited by another user. As the app expands its reach, you will see it be made more accessible to a broader pool of users, but for the time being, its exclusivity is driving user interest. Ready to Take these Social Media Trends by Storm? You’ve heard it here first: these trends will dominate the social media landscape in 2021. If you’re looking to elevate paid social and organic content capabilities this year, contact us to learn more about how we can form an agency partnership to help you scale.
- SEO Writing 101: A Guide for Traffic-Driving Content
Feb 17, 2021 SEO Writing 101: A Guide for Traffic-Driving Content High-quality SEO writing has never been more relevant. Competing in today’s digital ecosystem requires deploying a suite of strategic tactics to ensure your content ranks as high as possible with search engines. Why? According to Hubspot, 75% of users never scroll past the first page of a search engine result. Simply put: If you’re not ranking highly, it’s almost as if you are not ranking at all. While nothing in SEO is guaranteed for certain, there are some best practices you can put in place to ensure your writing is positioned for greater success. Here, we’ll cover each of these aspects in-depth to show you how proper SEO writing can generate immense value for your brand. Main Types of SEO Content Typically, SEO content is written for your or your client’s blog as well as cornerstone pages on your website such as your about, home, and products/services pages. If your industry relies on directory sites to drive traffic, optimizing your listing information on key destinations can also help since many of them compete for high organic search rankings. Why You’re Writing Build Authority – Establish your credibility for other sites to link back to your own Organic Search Rankings – Rank highly on relevant search engine results pages (SERPs) Match Search Intent – Position your products/services directly in front of people looking for them to drive conversions. Before You Write, You Must Understand Your Brand Whether writing for your own brand or a client, you need to understand its voice, message, and identity. Review all the brand’s existing content on their site, social media, and anywhere else they are sharing it. Look for recurring words or phrases that appear in the copy and take note of them. Distill these consistencies to their essence and you’ll have the brand’s core identity figured out! Who Is Your Audience and Why Should They Care? SEO writing puts the reader first. Look at places where your brand’s followers are engaging. Are they leaving reviews, asking questions on social posts, or commenting on your blog? Use this valuable free intel as you build your content strategy. When developing your content, match it to search intent. Why would someone search for your product or service? You can use online keyword research tools to also see what questions are commonly asked about the keywords you are targeting. How to Do Keyword Research for SEO Writing Understand Types of Keywords Generally, there are six types of keywords you should remember when writing: Focus keyword – the primary keyword that you are planning a piece of content around. It should relate to the central topic of your page or blog post. Secondary keyword – a keyword that is also relevant to the focus keyword and may help add additional context or increase the content’s rank potential for other user searches. Keyword variations – Variations of your focus keyword that you can use instead of repeating it verbatim in your copy. For example, a search engine algorithm can interpret “writing a blog” and “blog writing” as virtually identical when retrieving results. Seed keywords – short, broad-topic keywords you might use to find inspiration for higher-performing ones. An example would be “coffee” which you could then use to find longer ones like “coffee shop near me” or “best coffee in NJ” (Hint: that one’s Perk Cafe ). Long-Tail keywords: Keywords that are 3 or more words that are designed to match specific user searches like “How to repair your dishwasher at home.” Branded keywords: Your brand is its own keyword! If you’re not owning it with your content, your competitors might be. Keyword Research Tools There exist a number of great keyword research tools to use when developing content ideas. You can choose from a variety of paid and free options. With these tools, you can enter a keyword into a search field and gauge its performance potential, discover real search terms related to that keyword, and ideas for variants. This allows you to plan your content around ones that you have a better chance to rank for organically. Our personal favorite premium tools are Ahrefs and SEMrush for their immense data reporting capabilities. If you prefer to start keyword researching with a free tool, try Google Keyword Planner. Though mostly used for Paid Search campaigns, this alternative can help you understand the basics as you’re venturing into SEO writing. What Makes a “Good” Keyword? When researching keywords, you should look for one with high organic ranking potential. This means it has a low keyword difficulty and a high search volume. Strive to use focus keywords with a score under 40 and an organic search volume of over 600. Writing Content Others Want to Link Back To As important as using the right keywords, you also want to write content that others will link to. Create copy that is informative, entertaining, and relevant to your target readers to help increase the likelihood of generating more links from websites. When another website links to your own, that is called a “backlink,” and the more that you have from relevant other sites, the more credible search engines view you. If you have accrued a large amount of “toxic” backlinks from spammy or un-secure websites, you can manually disavow them with search engines so that you are not penalized. Content Writing Framework Okay, we’ve made it. Time to actually write some SEO content. Start with Creating an Outline Create a bulleted outline that details the blog or page title, the content’s primary message, and the headings that you will feature on each page. Under each heading, jot down the key points for that section and plan to fill that in with full sentences when it’s time to execute! Ensure Your Focus Keyword Covers all Technical Elements without Stuffing When you are writing for SEO, you must ensure that your focus keyword or similar variant covers all technical aspects of your content. This includes the page title, metadata, headings, and body text. However, you should not do this in excess. “Keyword stuffing” is easily detectable by search algorithms and they will penalize your page with lower organic rankings as a result. Determine Your Word Count How long will your piece of content be? You should determine a wordcount before writing to fully understand your scope of work. Do not use this number as an arbitrary cap. Instead, think of it as an approximate goal to strive for. Search algorithms do not prioritize short or “thin” content, but keywords can also lose their effectiveness when placed in content that is too long. At Conduit, we find a 1000-word benchmark works best for our own blog posts, even though we often pass that goal! Write the Ending First Before writing an introduction or body text, you should write your ending first. Knowing how your content will end will help draw a better road map from start to finish for your SEO writing process. Fill in the Blanks! You’ve created an outline for your content. Start filling in the spaces between the headers! You don’t have to work in order. Start with the sections that you feel the most comfortable with writing and go from there. Creative Best Practices when Writing: Mix long and short sentences Avoid using words that require a dictionary to understand Write as clearly as possible Write for your target audience, not yourself Strategic Writing Tips: Avoid keyword stuffing Use keywords across all technical elements Use secondary keywords and variants to support the focus keyword Have Someone Review it Before Hitting “Publish” You should never write in a silo. Ask someone with at least a working knowledge of SEO to give it a once-over before it goes live. This will help ensure you are not missing any important details that could improve or derail content performance. Share it! Be sure to post your content on all brand channels, such as social media, Google My Business, and any other platforms you use. The more eyes on it, the higher the chances someone will link to it or share it themselves! Make Content Optimizations Down the Road (If Needed) Both your brand and Google’s algorithm experience changes over time. If you need to update creative copy, change keywords, or make other optimizations, you can always do this later. Make sure any altered pages are re-indexed with Google Search Console when you’re done! Improving Your Agency’s SEO Writing with Partnership At Conduit, we partner with countless agencies around the world to deliver a better standard of content for their clients. If you are looking to elevate your own SEO writing, learn more about how you can partner with us .
- Scaling Your Agency in a Recovering Economy
May 19, 2021 Digital marketing agencies are the frontline of the economy. Driving successful campaigns produces measurable benefits for your clients and helps them sustain and grow their businesses. However, it’s no secret that the past year has left a devastating impact on various sectors of the global economy. Restrictions placed on business owners as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic have impacted revenues and limited resources. This resulted in many businesses closing or reducing external expenses. Agencies feel this pain, too. Can a client afford to continue running their campaigns? Will they be able to renew their contract? These questions can keep anyone up at night. Fortunately, humans are resilient creatures. We find ways to move forward. As COVID-19 vaccines become more widely available and more businesses are gradually reopening, we are seeing signs of economic recovery in many sectors. As of May 2021, trends are showing that layoffs have dropped, hiring rates are increasing, and unemployment claims have steeply declined. In a recent interview with Velocitize’s Andy North, Conduit Digital CEO Tim Burke spoke about scaling your agency in a turbulent economy. Check out his full interview below: Tim Burke’s Tips for Scaling Your Agency Prefer to read about these tips rather than watch a video? We have you covered: Reduce Expenses without Reducing Quality Agency owners can reduce expenses without sacrificing the quality of their work. Three key ways to do this include: Streamline your arsenal of digital tools. Quality always trumps quantity and reduces the number of platforms you’re paying monthly fees to. Standardize your pricing for each service. This can help you forecast revenues directly based on quotes you send to clients. Adopt airtight processes for your digital products. This streamlines the workflow and allows your team to better manage their time. Create a More Predictable Business Model The agency industry moves at lightning speeds. A day’s schedule can change by the hour and clients often reach out with urgent needs at a moment’s notice. By adopting a streamlined, airtight process structure, you can create a more predictable business model. Support this with transparent and proactive communication so that everyone knows what needs to be done now and what priorities are coming next. Use sophisticated project management software to help thread your operations together. At Conduit, we highly recommend Teamwork. We use their platform for everything from tracking time to client communications and sharing important campaign files. Offer a Complete Suite of Digital Solutions Offering comprehensive digital marketing services both draws new clients in and expands those you’ve already landed. If your agency cannot scale to meet your client’s changing needs, they may start to look for someone else who can and will. Lean Into Purpose-Driven Marketing The digital ecosystem bombards audiences with countless ads and organic content. To cut through the boilerplate noise, your campaigns need to lead with purpose and value. Make your mission meaningful to your clients and tell their authentic stories through campaigns. When authenticity resonates, consumers will react. Support Your Internal Team with a Digital Fulfillment Partner Many agencies excel at a handful of core competencies. For example, your team might dominate social media and paid search campaigns but struggle with SEO or programmatic video advertising. Partnering with a digital fulfillment provider can successfully run these campaigns for you. This results in more satisfied clients and gives your in-house team the ability to double down on their strongest skill sets. If you’re interested in a digital fulfillment solution, we invite you to view our partnership page and reach out if you have any questions about how we can help you scale.
- Project Denali: Taking Your Agency to the Summit
Aug 16, 2021 Helping Agencies Scale to New Summits Introducing Project Denali When you picture a successful agency, what do you see? Proving you’re the best agency in the market. Landing and expanding a longstanding client roster. Offering the most complete and innovative suite of digital solutions. Deploying the highest-performing team to manage your clients’ campaigns. You see your agency at the top of the summit. However, on the way to reach your destination, as the slope becomes rockier, the path can seem less clear. For you to reach that summit, it takes drive, planning, and grit. This requires having the right expertise, tools, and resources to not only help you get there but also get through the obstacles along the path. The Conduit Digital Team shares that drive and vision with you. That’s what we and our agency network are all about: Reaching the summit and gearing up to climb to the next one. That’s why we’re proud to introduce you to Project Denali. What is Project Denali? Over the past year, we have spoken with nearly 1,000 agency leaders about their pain points on their journey towards scalability. We’ve taken that feedback, digested it, and used it to refine our product offering, processes, and reporting capabilities to drive a better partner experience. Literally thousands of combined hours later, our team has built new infrastructure to help you reach where you want to go more effectively. We decided to name this initiative Project Denali after Mount Denali – the highest mountain peak in the United States. This best reflects our shared vision to help your agency reach new heights and continue to scale from there. By offering world-class products and services, backed by refined processes and enhanced reporting, we believe this will effectively support this goal. World-changing brands like Apple, Google, and Amazon do not settle for “good enough,” and neither do we. We will never stop innovating or improving what we can do to offer your agency a better experience as our partner. How We Made it Happen The Most Complete Product Suite for Today’s Clients As part of launching Project Denali, we are excited to offer two new products in addition to our existing suite of digital solutions: Programmatic Audio and our new Landing Page Library. Want to reach listeners on digital audio channels like podcasts, music streaming services, and internet radio? We’ll ensure that your ads are reaching audiences on podcasts relevant to your client’s industry by leveraging advanced targeting tactics you’ve come to expect from other programmatic campaigns. From location to online behavior, demographic data, and beyond, we can align your campaign execution with intended end goals seamlessly. Our Landing Page Library features a broad range of dynamic landing page layouts, designed in-house by our Catalyst Creative Team. Each one can be customized and completely white-labeled to your client’s business. Want us to write the copy for the page? We can do that too! With a more engaging landing page that prioritizes user experience, you can ensure that your campaigns are better communicating the unique value of your client’s business to drive the key performance actions that you measure success by. Also in the new creative library we have ready to use examples for not only landing pages, but also display and social ad templates to complete and support your holistic campaigns. More Seamless Campaign Onboarding We’re just as excited to launch your campaign as you are. From your initial insertion order with Conduit to onboarding more clients in the future, we have improved this process to ensure everyone is better aligned at launch. Engineering Campaigns from KPA’s Rather than operating from a perspective of what your client’s campaign “should” do, we are building campaigns to meet your client’s specific business goals. We will begin with the end in mind and build a roadmap that drives audiences toward their intended outcome. You tell us what your client wants to accomplish, and we’ll custom-build a campaign that supports it. Enhanced Data Reporting and Transparency Our signature 24/7 Live Reports have received a major overhaul as part of Project Denali. We have improved our internal processes so that our analysts can provide you with more data and insights than ever before. This will allow you to more easily and thoroughly track granular performance metrics tied to your client’s specific business goals with real-time commentary from our expert product analysts with an updated user interface design for an optimal experience. Project Denali is Here. Let’s Get Started. Project Denali is our new standard for continuing to innovate, and we are excited to roll it out across all of our agency partnerships. To learn more about what we can bring to your own agency, visit our partnership page or schedule your agency growth call today.
- Preparing Your Agency for Google Analytics 4 (GA4) [UPDATED 2023]
Mar 24, 2023 The Ultimate Primer for the Google Analytics 4 Paradigm Shift This month, Google revealed that they will be replacing Universal Analytics and Universal Analytics 360 products with Google Analytics 4 (GA4) starting in mid-2023. Because digital marketers like ourselves consume data as a vital nutrient, this presents a significant paradigm shift in the way that campaigns are launched, monitored, optimized, and reported on. For agency leaders, we cannot stress enough the importance of being ahead of major platform updates like these. If or when a client asks about the new GA4 rollout, you can establish greater authority and trust with them if you are already prepared to brief them on the coming changes and what to expect from them. To help you provide your clients with the information they need, we’ve put together this GA4 primer to help you more easily understand what changes are approaching over the next year. We’re going to cover: What is Google Analytics 4 anyway? What makes GA4 unique? How to prepare your agency and clients for GA4 Prefer to skip the read? Start equipping your agency to deliver high-performance campaigns on Google products before these updates and book a 20-minute call with us at your convenience: So, What is Google Analytics 4 Anyway? Google Analytics 4 was designed to address today’s measurement and reporting needs for digital campaigns on Google platforms. According to Google themselves, the Universal Analytics products were designed for an era where desktop sessions dominated and third-party cookies drove the majority of tracking strategies. As we move to a cookieless digital era and mobile search continues to outpace desktop devices, the Universal Analytics framework becomes less relevant and less useful by the hour. What Makes GA 4 Unique? According to Google’s announcement, several key differences that GA4 will bring include: Cross-Platform, Event-Based Data GA4 provides advertisers with a holistic picture of the customer journey using event-based measurement to present data across platforms and multiple sessions. For example, if your client operates a website and a mobile app, your agency can use GA4 data to identify any disconnects in the user experience. From there, you can perform optimizations to one or both properties to improve the funnel and increase conversion rates for desired key performance actions (KPAs). Data-Driven Attribution The new Google Analytics framework will leverage data-based attribution to provide advertisers with a comprehensive view of cross-platform customer behavior. Attribution will credit more than just the user’s most recent clicks for more intelligent optimization insights and opportunities. The data can also be ported into Google Ads and Google Marketing Platform so that you can maintain continuity across the tools that you use to manage these campaigns. Cookieless Tracking Instead of relying on third-party cookies, GA4 will generate more sophisticated first-party data with deeper insights than previous cookie-based models. Your agency will be able to generate greater performance and reporting capabilities directly from Google itself. Better User Privacy In an effort to minimize the gathering and storage of user data, GA4 will not store IP address information. For advertisers that serve clients with heavy privacy restrictions (i.e., medical practices) or for brands that do not want to risk compromising user data, this proves an advantageous feature. Google campaigns can now foster greater trust between advertisers and audiences with a mutual assurance that IP addresses remain anonymous. Maximum Data Value GA4 leverages Google’s industry-leading machine learning capabilities to offer predictive insights into audience behavior and likely conversion activity. This gives your team the necessary information to prioritize specific audiences and double-down on serving ads to those who are most likely to engage. Advertiser-Specific Customization With GA4, the structure of your Google Analytics account can be fully customized to satisfy your agency’s data policies. For example, if you or your client wish to restrict access to certain information from other external partners, this can easily be done directly from the platform. How to Prepare Your Agency and Clients for GA4 Get Your Team on the Same Page Now that you’ve been briefed on GA4, share this information with the rest of your team – especially those that serve your clients using Google products. Campaigns like SEO , Paid Search , Programmatic Display , and YouTube Advertising will be among those most impacted by these updates. As your team interacts with your clients, they will have the necessary knowledge to provide more complete and thorough answers to any questions or concerns that arise ahead of the Google-wide rollout. Install GA4 ASAP To maximize the most value from GA4, you should implement it across all of your clients’ Analytics accounts as soon as possible. The data that GA4 collects only starts generating after installation, so if you want to start seeing year-over-year data for most of 2022, install it now. Save Your Clients’ Historical UA Data With the Google-wide July 1, 2023 rollout of GA4, no new data will populate in Universal Analytics. It will be fully sunset after at least 6 months following this, and afterward, you will not be able to access its data any longer. 360 Universal Analytics properties will be able to still take advantage of a one-time processing extension that ends in July 2024. To save your clients’ historical data, you will have to export it before GA4 becomes the permanent and only analytics solution. Simply migrating UA to GA4 is not possible . They do not use similar data models, so merging them will not be something that you should plan for. The fastest and least-complicated way to save your UA data is to: 1. Open the UA report that you want to save 2. Add any customizations that you need to, such as geographical region 3. Click “Export” in the upper-right-hand corner to begin the process 4. Select the type of file format that you prefer. These include PDF, Google Sheets, XLSV, and CSV Keep in mind that you can only apply two dimensions when exporting historical UA data and that it may be samples rather than a full readout of every single metric. If a green check symbol is visible on the report, this will indicate that no sampling occurred. Share This Information with Your Clients Gatekeeping does the opposite of fostering trust with clients. Let them know that GA4 is coming and that they can expect: Better data collection and attribution for Google campaigns Advertiser-specific customization Increased user privacy for greater brand credibility and audience trust More valuable data for your campaigns By sharing this information with your clients ahead of the rollout, you can establish greater authority and credibility with your accounts. This positions your agency and your team as true experts on the Google campaigns that your clients entrust your business to manage for them. Revamp Your Measurement and Reporting Processes Ahead of Time The best time to prepare your measurement and reporting processes for GA4 is yesterday, but now also works. Thankfully, GA4 is already available to any and all advertisers, so you can start building your new reporting infrastructure as well as familiarize yourself with its user features before it becomes the set-in-stone standard. Deliver Better Performance with a White Label Google Premier Partner If you are looking to deliver true performance at scalable volumes for your client, it may be time to enlist a partner’s help. Look for a white label digital marketing partner that holds a Google Premier Partner designation, meaning their team is certified at the highest levels to drive elite performance for your client’s campaign. Say “Yes” To Better Opportunities with a White Label Partnership Today At Conduit Digital, we enable your agency to say “yes” to better opportunities of any scope by equipping your team with a holistic product suite , access to a team of Google Premier Partner analysts, and 24/7 live reporting – all tied together with single point of contact communication. If you are ready to dominate a GA4 world, schedule your 20-minute call with us today. This article was originally written on March 16, 2022 and updated on March 24, 2023.