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Unlock the Secrets of Advertising in Wollongong

Unlock the Secrets of Advertising in Wollongong

by | Sep 10, 2023 | Advertising Wollongong, Digital Marketing SOPs, Digital marketing wollongong, direct response marketing, Google Ads, local seo, SEO Wollongong, social media marketing, Website SEO

Understanding the Business Landscape in Wollongong

Wollongong, colloquially known as “The Gong,” is a city that combines the sea’s beauty with a buzzing industrial environment and a vibrant small business ecosystem. Given its unique economic landscape, understanding the city’s business terrain can provide valuable insights to shape your marketing and business strategies.

Industry Strengths

Wollongong has a diverse economic base, boasting strengths in sectors such as manufacturing, ICT, logistics, health, and education. The city has been the birthplace of significant industries and continues to attract new business sectors with its strategic location, state-of-the-art infrastructure, and skilled workforce. As part of your advertising approach, it’s crucial to identify these industries’ needs and align your marketing message to meet them effectively.

Economic Indicators

Understanding economic indicators such as unemployment rates, gross regional product, population growth, and property prices is crucial to comprehend the city’s economic health. These figures provide a broader context for your business operations and can offer hints about potential customers’ purchasing power and business growth opportunities.

Market Trends

Keeping an eye on market trends in Wollongong is essential to stay competitive and informed. Changes in consumer behavior, advancements in technology, demographic shifts, or shifts in the regulatory environment can significantly impact your business. Being aware of these trends can aid in predicting future movement, allowing you to be proactive and reactive in your marketing strategies.

Business Growth Factors

Several factors contribute to business growth in Wollongong. The city enjoys a robust transport network, excellent educational institutions, and a strong commitment to innovation and entrepreneurship, attracting businesses and individuals alike. A deep understanding of these factors can help you better position your advertising to appeal to these strengths and tap into the growth they initiate.

Opportunities and Collaborations

Wollongong has many opportunities for business expansion and collaborations. The vibrant startup scene, combined with the presence of well-established industries and close proximity to Sydney, presents a high potential for partnerships and innovation. Understanding these opportunities can help align your advertising strategies with the broader business goals and find collaborative avenues to expand your reach.

By fully grasping Wollongong’s business landscape, you can develop advertising campaigns that speak directly to the city’s unique characteristics, needs, and opportunities. Whether you’re targeting thriving industries, capitalizing on economic trends, or seeking collaboration, understanding Wollongong’s business environment is a key step in effective local advertising.

Target Audience Analysis in Wollongong

Understanding your target audience in Wollongong means dissecting a multitude of characteristics, behaviours, and attitudes that can influence buying decisions in this unique market. Here’s how each piece contributes to a comprehensive target audience analysis.

Demographic Data

An excellent starting point for target audience analysis is demographic data. In Wollongong, explore elements such as age, gender, income levels, employment status, education levels, and ethnic backgrounds. The city’s demographic profile can provide hints about which sectors of the population might find your products or services relevant.

For instance, Wollongong is known for its thriving university, which means a significant share of the population consists of students—this could indicate a potentially large market for affordable, convenience-oriented products and services.

Consumer Behavior Analysis

Understanding how consumers in Wollongong make buying decisions and interact with brands is crucial to tailoring your advertising message. This may include evaluating patterns in how consumers in Wollongong research and purchase products, the kinds of products or services that are popular, and emerging consumer trends.

For example, if consumers in Wollongong rely heavily on online reviews before making purchases, your advertising strategy might include investing in initiatives to build a strong online reputation.

Lifestyle Preferences

Lifestyle preferences can substantially impact consumer behaviour. These may encompass elements such as outdoor activities, cultural interests, health and wellness tendencies, and the importance placed on sustainability.

For example, Wollongong’s seaside location and abundance of outdoor recreational spots could mean a larger audience for health-focused, eco-friendly, or outdoor-related products or services.

Market Segmentation

A thorough target audience analysis also involves breaking down the larger market into sub-segments based on shared characteristics or preferences. This helps refine your advertising approach by enabling you to create tailored, personalised campaigns that resonate more strongly with each specific group.

For instance, you might segment your Wollongong audience into groups such as university students, young professionals, older workers in the manufacturing industry, retired individuals, or families, each of whom would likely respond to different advertising tactics.

Overall, understanding your target audience in Wollongong provides a roadmap to designing more effective advertising campaigns. By aligning your campaign with Wollongong consumers’ demographics, behavior, lifestyle preferences, and the specific needs of each market segment, you can craft compelling, relevant messages that speak directly to your audience’s unique traits and motivations.

Traditional Advertising Methods in Wollongong

Traditional advertising methods, while often seen as archaic in an increasingly digitalised world, retain a robust relevance in a market like Wollongong. These established methods continue to provide unique benefits, reaching extensive audiences and maintaining immense potential for brand building and engagement.

Print Media

While print media circulation has declined globally, it still holds value for local businesses in Wollongong. Newspaper adverts, whether on the local Illawarra Mercury or smaller community papers, can provide high visibility among residents. Print materials, such as brochures and flyers, can also have a high reach, especially in locations with high foot traffic.

The tangibility and perceived reliability of print often engender a level of trust that can enhance your brand image. By strategically integrating print into your marketing mix, you can amplify your campaigns’ reach and engagement.

Radio

Radio advertising remains a potent tool, reaching audiences in their cars, workplaces, or homes. Stations such as i98 FM and Wave FM serve Wollongong, giving businesses broad access to different audience segments. Radio’s strength lies in its ability to offer regular repetition of your message—an effective way to build brand recognition.

Television

Although many consumers are turning to streaming services, TV still commands a significant audience. TV commercials in regional markets like Wollongong can provide high visibility and impactful messaging by using sight, sound, and motion. It’s a platform that still holds sway, especially for products and services with a broad market appeal.

Billboards

Billboards remain a visible and effective form of outdoor advertising in Wollongong. Their ability to deliver high-impact visual messages along busy roads, retail areas, or near landmarks helps ensure your brand gets noticed. This constant presence can build awareness quickly, fostering brand familiarity and recall.

Direct Mail

Direct mail, with good targeting, can be cost-effective and surprisingly efficient in hitting the mark. Physical mail lends itself to personalisation and offers a tactile experience that can leave a strong impression. Despite the rise of inbox culture, well-crafted catalogues, postcards, or letters can still stand out and grab attention in a home’s letterbox.

Relevance in the Digital Age

Even though they’re sometimes perceived as old-school, these methods have unique strengths that make them relevant in the digital age. Traditional media outlets often have passionate, loyal audiences, and they can offer businesses credibility, broad access, and a tangible advertising experience that contrasts with the ephemeral nature of online content.

While the marketing world continues to lean toward digital, traditional advertising methods can not only coexist with these newer forms but can complement them. For businesses operating in Wollongong, utilising a blend of traditional and digital methods can ensure that all potential customer touchpoints are effectively covered. This integrated approach can engage audiences on multiple fronts, amplify your message, and bolster your chances of converting awareness into action.

The Power of Digital Advertising in Wollongong

Digital advertising is rapidly transforming the business landscape in Wollongong, enabling firms to achieve precise targeting, get real-time feedback, and generate impressive results often at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods. Here’s a closer look at the power of digital advertising in this market.

Search Engine Advertising

Search engine advertising, including platforms such as Google or Bing Ads, allows businesses in Wollongong to reach audiences actively searching for relevant keywords. Your advertisement’s visibility is determined by a combination of bidding, relevance, and quality, meaning even small businesses can reach potential consumers in a highly targeted manner. This method can yield impressive return-on-investment, as you are reaching consumers who are likely already interested in what you’re offering.

Social Media Ads

Social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter, allow local businesses to target Wollongong audiences based on demographic attributes, interests, behaviours, and more. These platforms also support various types of content, including text, image, video, and interactive ads, providing the necessary flexibility to create engaging campaigns that resonate with your target audience.

Content Marketing

Content marketing offers a way to provide value to your audience and position your business as an expert in your industry. By creating and sharing blog posts, videos, infographics, webinars, and other types of content, you can attract, engage, and persuade customers in Wollongong. This approach can build trust and loyalty over time, leading to stronger customer relationships and a higher likelihood of conversions.
Resource 1: “Starting a Social Media Calendar”

Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing leverages the reach and credibility of popular personalities or thought leaders across various digital platforms. Businesses can collaborate with influencers who resonate with their target audiences in Wollongong, using their authentic voice to increase brand awareness, drive engagement, and generate conversions.

Mobile Advertising

The widespread use of smartphones in Wollongong provides a powerful tool for reaching users with targeted mobile ads. From in-app ads to location-based promotions, mobile marketing has the potential to deliver personalised experiences that drive action.

Analytics

One of the most significant benefits of digital advertising is the ability to measure campaign results accurately. Using digital analytics tools, businesses can track clicks, impressions, conversions, and other metrics to understand their campaigns’ effectiveness and make data-driven decisions.

Resource: “Set up and track custom events in Google Analytics 4″

Ultimately, the power of digital advertising lies in its ability to connect businesses with Wollongong consumers in a targeted, engaging, and measurable way. Whether a business is small or large, the accessibility, affordability, and flexibility of digital advertising can create opportunities that would be challenging to achieve with traditional methods alone. By incorporating digital strategies into their advertising mix, businesses in Wollongong can tap into the power of the internet to reach and engage more customers than ever before.

Creating a Successful Digital Advertising Campaign in Wollongong

A successful digital advertising campaign can extend your business’s reach, increase brand awareness, improve customer engagement, and boost sales in Wollongong. Here are key steps, techniques, and best practices to guide your campaign development and implementation process.

Clear Objectives

Start by defining clear, attainable objectives for your campaign. Whether you intend to increase brand awareness, boost product sales, or drive website traffic, your objectives give your campaign direction and form the basis for measuring its success.

Target Audience Identification

Understanding your target audience in Wollongong is crucial to crafting an effective digital advertising campaign. Analyse demographic data, consumer behaviour, and interests to develop a clear customer profile, enabling you to tailor content and messaging to their preferences and needs.

Quality Content Creation

The digital ad space is crowded, and engaging, high-quality content can help set your campaign apart. Use compelling text, eye-catching visuals, and engaging video to capture your audience’s attention and encourage them to interact with your ads.

SEO Techniques

Apply SEO techniques to maximise your visibility in search engine results. Incorporate relevant keywords, meta-descriptions, and alt-texts, ensure your website is mobile-friendly, and utilise backlinks.
Resource 1:“Budget-Friendly SEO Tactics for Wollongong Businesses”

Platform Selection

Choose your advertising platforms based on where your target customers are most active. Each platform – from search engine ads (Google or Bing) to social media to email marketing (retargeting) – requires different content types and strategies, so it’s crucial to diversify your approach to hit all customers touchpoints along the customer journey.

Use of Analytics

Use analytics to assess and improve your campaign’s effectiveness. Tools like Google Analytics provide insights into metrics such as impressions, clicks, conversions and bounce rates, allowing you to understand your advertising ROAS (return on ad spend) and make data-based adjustments for continuous improvement.

A/B Testing

Perform A/B testing to identify the most effective parts of your campaign. By creating two versions of an ad and comparing their performance, you can identify which elements work best and apply those insights to future campaigns.

Continual Optimisation

Digital advertising calls for constant refinement. Regularly review and optimise your campaigns based on their performance, market changes, or shifts in your business goals and customer preferences.

By integrating these steps and best practices, you can create an effective digital advertising campaign in Wollongong. A comprehensive digital strategy provides a robust foundation upon which to build your online presence, engage with your audience interactively, and ultimately drive growth for your business.

Resource 1: “How to reverse engineer your competitors’ Google Ads strategy”

Resource 2: How to reverse-engineer your competitors’ Facebook Ads strategy

Utilising Local Advertising Platforms in Wollongong

Local advertising platforms in Wollongong present an opportunity for businesses to strengthen community ties, foster brand loyalty, and increase visibility in their local markets. These localised channels help businesses build a reputation as trusted, community-focused entities, thereby facilitating successful advertising campaigns. Let’s explore the benefits of these local platforms.

Local Newspaper Websites

Wollongong’s local newspaper websites, like the Illawarra Mercury, offer an efficient way to reach readers who value local news and updates. Advertising on these platforms gives businesses high visibility among a community-focused audience. Also, online ad formats like banners or sponsored posts enable targeted messaging, contributing to increased local awareness and improving conversion rates.

Radio Station Apps

Radio stations, like i98 FM and Wave FM, not only broadcast over the airwaves, but also have apps and online platforms. Advertising here allows businesses to reach listeners who are local intrigued, increasing reach and building brand recognition. Radio apps often allow for more interactivity, such as clickable banners or sponsored content, providing businesses with opportunities to more deeply engage their audience.

Local TV Websites

Television stations in the Wollongong area, such as WIN, Prime7, and Nine, offer online content supplemented by digital advertising opportunities. Advertising on these online platforms ensures that businesses reach audiences who consume both mediums, potentially increasing their reach and maximising their campaign impact.

Locally Focused Social Media Groups

Joining and advertising in locally focused social media groups—whether on Facebook, LinkedIn or other platforms—is an effective way to engage with Wollongong residents. These platforms often have a community feel, which can increase trust and credibility. In such communities, sponsored content or partnerships can perform particularly well, as they are seen as endorsements by trusted local figures.

Benefits of Using Local Advertising Platforms

Leveraging local advertising platforms in Wollongong comes with unique benefits:

  1. Enhanced Community Engagement: These platforms have a community-centric focus, meaning your advertisements will reach residents invested in local issues and businesses. This is key to community engagement and creating a loyal customer base.
  2. Increased Brand Visibility and Recognition: Regular exposure on these platforms can imprint your brand in the minds of local community members, leading to increased visibility and recognition.
  3. Localised Messaging: Advertising on local platforms offers opportunities for targeted, localised messaging. Tailoring your campaigns to reference local events or issues can resonate with your audience and increase engagement.

Utilising local advertising platforms is a strategic move for businesses seeking to gain a competitive edge and secure a solid standing in the local market. With the right approach, tools, and messaging, these platforms can amplify the impact of advertising efforts, leading to stronger brand loyalty, enhanced community alignment, and highly successful campaigns.

Solving the Success Equation: Measuring Advertising Strategy Performance.

Laying out an advertising strategy can be a tricky game, but figuring out whether it’s working or not is another challenge altogether. So, how can you measure the success of your advertising strategy, particularly if you’re focusing on the vibrant city of Wollongong? Let’s break it down.

Dip Your Toes into Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Like a compass guiding a ship, KPIs direct and assess the effectiveness of your advertisements. KPIs include metrics such as click-through rate (CTR), conversion rate, customer acquisition cost, and return on advertising spend (ROAS), among many others.

For example, let’s consider ‘Blooming Flowers’, a local Wollongong florist. They started an online advertising campaign to boost their deliveries. After a month, they noted a 5% increase in website clicks (CTR) but no significant increase in purchases (conversion rate). This gave them an essential hint – while their ads were attractive, something was hindering customers from making purchases, meaning they needed to improve their website user experience or reconsider their product pricing.

Harness the Power of Analytics

Diving deep into analytics helps to decode the performance of your advertising strategy, offering insights into your audience’s behavior, preferences, and response to your ads. You can use platforms like Google Analytics or social media analytical tools.

Take ‘Coastal Bites’, a well-loved Wollongong food truck. Using analytics, they found out that most customers visited their website after seeing their ads on Instagram between 6 PM to 8 PM. This insight helped them decide to concentrate their advertising spends during these hours, aiding them to make the most out of their budget.

Tracking Metrics – The Progress Mirror

Another way to measure your advertising strategy’s success is through tracking metrics like impressions, reach, engagement, and leads. They show the breadth and depth of your advertising impact.

Consider ‘Sunset Apparel’, a local Wollongong clothing store. They set up billboard and digital ads for their latest summer collection. Through tracking received inquiries (leads), they found that while the billboard increased brand awareness (impressions and reach), their online ads fostered more customer engagements and led to more store visits and purchases.

The Power of Iteration and Optimisation

Remember, measuring the success of your advertising strategy isn’t a one-time affair. It’s a continuous cycle of measurement – analysis – optimisation. Regular assessments allow you to make necessary adjustments to your tactics and improve your overall business results in Wollongong.

By leveraging KPIs, analytics, and tracking metrics, you can navigate your advertising strategy’s performance and steer your business towards success. Remember, every ad campaign is a learning opportunity waiting to be unlocked.

In the Limelight: Successful Advertising Campaigns in Wollongong

Every advertisement tells a story, but how many of them succeed in captivating their audience’s attention and driving conversions? Let’s take a walk down the memory lane of Wollongong’s advertising landscape by exploring some impactful and successful advertising campaigns.

Picture Perfect Portraits: ‘Wollongong Snaps’

The ‘Wollongong Snaps’ campaign by the local photography studio, ‘Framed Moments’, is one that still echoes within the local community. They launched an Instagram campaign with an inviting slogan, “Show us your Wollongong.” Encouraging locals to post photos capturing the scenic beauty of Wollongong with the hashtag #WollongongSnaps, they promised to feature the most captivating images on their studio wall for a week.

The result? Thousands of entries, skyrocketing social media engagement, and a significant increase in their studio visits and photo printing orders. The key was the campaign’s local-centric approach, which involved the community, allowing ‘Framed Moments’ to strengthen its brand-customer relationship and draw attention to their superior photo printing quality.

Action-Packed Appetites: ‘Burger Battle’

‘Burger Battle’ was an exciting campaign run by ‘Grill Masters’, a popular Wollongong burger joint. Taking advantage of their rivalry with another local burger place, ‘Grill Masters’ initiated a fun, burger-themed challenge, asking customers to vote for their favorite burgers through purchased meal tickets—each ticket equaled a vote for the respective burger.

This campaign created a buzz, leading to increased foot traffic and overall sales. The intriguing rivalry narrative amplified customers’ engagement, spicing up the otherwise standard dining experience. Additionally, this campaign demonstrated the effectiveness of “gamification” in advertising.

Defying Distance: ‘Beyond Wollongong’

Online learning platform ‘Amplify Education’ demonstrated a thoughtful advertising approach with their ‘Beyond Wollongong’ campaign. Realising that many Wollongong residents were looking to upskill during the pandemic lockdown, they launched a campaign around the theme, “Learning that takes you places.”

Using radio spots, social media ads, and email marketing, they emphasised that despite being in Wollongong, with online education, one could reach beyond geographical limits. The campaign saw a substantial increase in new registrations – a testament to the value of resonating with prevailing collective sentiments and the effectiveness of multi-channel advertising.

Each of these examples illustrates the power of well-crafted advertising campaigns that strike a chord with their target audiences. Creativity, strategic planning, and understanding of the local context are the common threads tying these success stories together. So, whether you’re a fledgling startup or a seasoned local business in Wollongong, remember, when it comes to advertising, the world is your canvas – it’s up to you to paint a picture that attracts the audience you desire.

Mastering the Art of Advertising in Wollongong: The Final Act

In conclusion, advertising in Wollongong, like anywhere else, is an intricate dance between creativity, strategy, and deep understanding of local culture. Through this journey, we’ve seen the significance of measuring advertising success with KPIs, analytics, and tracking metrics, leading to crucial insights and consequent refinements.

We’ve also uncovered the power of real-life case studies, showcasing how successful advertising campaigns harnessed Wollongong’s unique charm and local dynamics. Some of the key takeaways include the importance of resonating with the community, balancing traditional and digital advertising platforms, and utilising a mix of tactics to drive engagement and conversions.

The exciting world of Wollongong advertising is teeming with possibilities, and it is within your reach to make an impact. All you need is the right approach, knowledge, and dedication to continual optimisation.

Ready to take the leap but don’t know where to start? John from YBR Marketing is here to help. With years of experience and a keen eye for Wollongong’s advertising landscape, John and his team can elevate your advertising campaign to new heights. Take the stress out of strategising and let YBR Marketing guide you on your journey towards advertising success in Wollongong.

wollongong digital marketing

Contact John today at john@ybrmarketing.com.au or call 1300 902 588 to kick off your winning advertising campaign and make your vision a reality! Remember, your advertising brilliance is just a conversation away.

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Budget-Friendly SEO Tactics for Wollongong Businesses

Budget-Friendly SEO Tactics for Wollongong Businesses

by | Aug 17, 2023 | CX Wollongong, Digital Marketing SOPs, local seo, SEO Wollongong, UX Wollongong

“Elevate Your Digital Visibility: Simplified, Affordable SEO Techniques For Your Wollongong Business”

Are you on a quest to elevate your Wollongong business’s online visibility? This article is your answer! Presenting foolproof SEO strategies—inexpensive and easy to implement—that let your business shine in the digital landscape and grab the attention of potential customers, regardless of your company’s size.

Integrating the accurate keyword choice, refining your website’s layout and generating compelling content, you can amplify search engine ratings and ignite an organic surge of visitors to your site. Count on our experts’ advice to guide you in website optimisation for search engines that ensure your business receives the highlights it deserves.

In the fierce digital marketplace, staying ahead of the competition and employing SEO’s potency is vital for reinforcing your online visibility. The application of these strategies will elevate your website’s visitor count, enrich user experience and ultimately escalate conversion rates.

So, if you’re prepared to skyrocket your digital footprint, get ready to unearth pocket-friendly and straightforward SEO strategies that make your Wollongong business flourish in the digital domain.

Understanding search engine algorithms and ranking factors

To effectively optimise your website for search engines, it’s imperative to grasp the functioning of search engine algorithms and the aspects they evaluate when ranking websites. Search engines, such as Google and Bing, deploy intricate algorithms to assess a website’s relevancy and authority, which directly influences its position in search results.

Digging Deeper: Key Ranking Factors for Local Businesses

Content Relevance

For local businesses, the significance of relevant content on your website reaches beyond comprehension. It acts as a crucial criterion in determining your site’s ranking on search engine result pages (SERPs). This is where masterful execution of keyword research comes into play.

The keyword research strategy for local businesses should revolve around targeting location-specific words and phrases. By incorporating keywords distinctive to your business and its locale, you create a stronger relationship between your website and the search queries specific to the local customers you’re seeking to appeal. For instance, a hair salon in Wollongong might find it useful to include phrases like ‘best hair salon in Wollongong’ or ‘affordable hair cuts in Wollongong.’

Additionally, providing locally relevant information within your content is beneficial. It could be as simple as talking about local events, landmarks, or useful insights about your business area. This not only increases the local relevance of your site but also helps to position your business as an integral part of the community.

Incorporating a blog on your business website can serve as an effective platform for delivering such localised content regularly. Localised landing pages catering to different areas of operation might be beneficial for multi-location businesses. So just to expand on this a bit:
Localised landing pages could be a game-changer for businesses operating in multiple locations. These are webpage that are created specifically to cater to different geographical areas where your business operates. The focus is on serving tailored, relevant information to visitors from specific locations.

Here’s how these localised landing pages work and why they’re so beneficial:

Relevance: By tailoring the content of a webpage to reflect the needs and interests of customers in a particular location, you increase the relevance of that webpage to local search queries. This not only improves your site’s visibility, but also increases the chances of it being discovered by the right audience.

Improving Search Rankings: Localised landing pages are excellent for ranking organically for location-specific keywords. For example, a restaurant chain with outlets in various cities can create separate pages for each city like “Italian restaurant in Fairy Meadow” or “Italian restaurant in Wollongong”.

User Experience: Localised landing pages offer an enhanced user experience by providing information that’s directly relevant to a visitor’s location. This targeted approach can increase visitor engagement and ultimately, conversions.

Business Listings: These pages provide an ideal basis for creating separate “Google My Business” listings or as it’s now known “Google Business Profile” for each operating location, thus increasing your online visibility and local search rankings.

Localised Marketing: Localised landing pages are a great way to highlight specific offers, promotions, or events that are exclusive to certain locations, making your marketing efforts more effective.

Remember, each localised landing page should include key on-page SEO elements like meta descriptions, title tags, schema markup, and of course, relevant, keyword-rich content customised to that location. Authentic testimonials from customers in each area can also be added to convey the local presence and improve trust among prospective customers.

By adopting this strategic approach, multi-location businesses can successfully localise their SEO efforts, drive more organic traffic, and attract a higher number of potential customers from various locations.

By concentrating on relevance—providing local-focused, keyword-rich content—you position your site favorably on SERPs (Search Engine Results Page). In turn, this drastically increases the probability of a local consumer finding (and visiting) your business in the physical world.

Comprehensive Insight: The Impact of Backlinks on Website Ranking

Backlinks and Their Significance

Backlinks, also known as inbound or incoming links, are links from one website to a page on another site. They have a significant impact on a website’s visibility in search engine results, acting as trust signals that your website is a reliable node in the world wide web.

Both the volume and quality of backlinks directed to your site act as testimonials of its credibility. However, not all backlinks are created equal; search engines like Google put a premium on high-quality backlinks from trustworthy sources.

Here’s a deeper understanding of the two aspects:

  • Quality of Backlinks: High-quality backlinks come from websites that are authoritative, relevant to your business niche, and trustworthy. Websites with a high domain authority, what is a DA I hear you say? “A Domain Authority (DA) is a search engine ranking score developed by Moz that predicts how likely a website is to rank in search engine result pages (SERPs). Domain Authority scores range from one to 100, with higher scores corresponding to greater likelihood of ranking”, provide more potent backlinks compared to those with low domain authority. Backlinks from topically related websites reinforce the relevance of your content in the context of the user’s search query.
  • Quantity of Backlinks: An abundant number of backlinks signifies wide recognition across the internet, but it’s always important to remember that quality trumps quantity. Building a robust backlink portfolio from an array of reputable sources enhances your website’s authority, resulting in higher SERP rankings.

How to Achieve Quality Backlinks

While achieving quality backlinks should be a fundamental part of your SEO strategy, it’s no overnight task. It involves techniques like:

  1. Creating High-Quality Content: By producing content that offers value and originality, you naturally encourage other websites to link back to your resource.
  2. Guest Posting: Writing guest articles for reputable blogs or websites in your niche offers an opportunity to include backlinks to your site.
  3. Building Relationships: Connect with influencers or authoritative voices in your field and foster relationships. They could potentially share your content, further providing powerful backlinks.
  4. Submitting to Directories: Listing your business on credible directories or review sites usually provides a backlink, plus a chance to interact with potential clients.

Making the most of backlinks could significantly enhance your website’s ranking on SERPs, standing your business out as an authoritative and trustworthy source in the eyes of search engines, and the users.

Bonus SOPs:
“Reverse Engineer Your Competitor’s Backlink Strategy”
“How To Launch a Link Building Campaign for Your Existing Content”

Importance of Loading Speed in Website Performance

Loading Speed as a Key Performance Indicator

Website loading speed, or page speed, is one of the pivotal performance indicators in the digital landscape. It refers to the amount of time a page takes to fully display the content on a specific page. In an era where instant gratification is expected, slow loading speed can be the thin line between gaining and losing a potential customer.

Websites with quick loading times typically outperform their slower counterparts in term of user engagement, conversion rates, and consequently, search engine rankings. Here’s why:

  1. User Experience: User experience is a paramount concern for website administrators. A user’s positive experience is often tied to how quickly they can access the desired information without any lag or buffering. Slow page load time can lead to page abandonment, ultimately affecting the bounce rate – Bounce rate refers to the percentage of visitors that leave your website (or “bounce” back to the search results or referring website) after viewing only one page on your site (time, engagement metrics, and ultimately, conversion rates.
  2. Search Engine Ranking: Google, along with other search engines, takes site speed into consideration when ranking websites. This is because search engines aim to provide the most useful and relevant results for users’ queries, which also means offering results that are easy and fast to access.
  3. Mobile Optimisation: With the multitude of internet users cruising the web through their mobile devices, Google has instituted mobile-first indexing. This means Google predominantly uses the mobile version of the content for indexing and ranking. Hence, ensuring your site loads quickly on mobile devices is critical.

How to Improve Website Loading Speed 

Improving your website’s loading speed requires a strategic approach which can typically involve:

  1. Optimising Images: Large, high-resolution images can significantly slow down your page loading speed. Using tools to compress images, without losing quality, can make a significant impact.
  2. Leveraging Browser Caching: This involves storing copies of your website’s pages in a user’s browser so that they load quicker on subsequent visits.
  3. Optimising CSS and Javascript: Minifying CSS, JavaScript, and HTML  (The minified file version provides the same functionality while reducing the bandwidth of network requests) by eliminating unnecessary characters, spacing, and indentation can enhance your site speed.
  4. Using a Content Distribution Network (CDN): CDNs are networks of servers located across the globe designed to deliver web content quickly based on the user’s location. By focusing on boosting the loading speed of your site, you can significantly enhance user experience, search engine ranking, and overall visibility of your site.

User Experience (UX): A Pillar for Search Engine Ranking

Defining User Experience in the Digital Landscape

User Experience (UX), while critical across various industries, holds a special prestige in the digital world. UX in the context of a website or an application refers to the overall experience a user has while interacting with that digital platform. It can be influenced by various factors, including – but not limited to – site navigation, mobile responsiveness, content accessibility, and site speed.

When a website provides a sleek, smooth, and intuitive experience to its users, they tend to stick around, explore, and interact more. This not only leads to higher engagement and conversion rates, but it also sends positive signals to search engines about the quality of your site. Consequently, search engines – like Google – reward sites providing an excellent user experience with improved search engine rankings.

Crucial Components of User Experience

Let’s delve a bit deeper into some pivotal UX components:

  1. Site Navigation: A clear, intuitive, and consistent navigation structure allows users to effortlessly find the information they’re looking for. This forms the backbone of positive user experience.
  2. Mobile Responsiveness: As mobile browsing grows increasingly popular, search engines prefer websites that adapt or respond well to different screen sizes. A mobile-responsive site ensures that users on all devices have a seamless experience, reducing the chance of bounce-backs dramatically.
  3. Content Accessibility: Making your content easily accessible to all users, with different abilities, is an essential aspect of UX. Ensuring your site complies with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) – “Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2 is developed through the W3C process in cooperation with individuals and organizations around the world, with a goal of providing a single shared standard for web content accessibility that meets the needs of individuals, organizations, and governments internationally”, can be instrumental in enhancing the overall user experience.
  4. Site Speed: As discussed earlier, the faster a site loads, the better the user experience, leading to enhanced engagement and improved search engine rankings.

Enhancing User Experience

Improving your website’s user experience is a continuous process that involves thoughtful design, regular testing, and tuning based on user feedback and analytics. It helps to adopt a user-centric design, make your site mobile-responsive, organise content logically, make navigation intuitive, and regularly test and refine based on user interactions.

By continuously striving to improve your website’s user experience, you not only make your site more user-friendly and engaging but also improve its search engine ranking potential. Ultimately, a strong focus on user experience can significantly contribute to your website’s success.

Mastering Keyword Research for Wollongong-Based Businesses

Keyword research represents a cornerstone of effective SEO strategy, the process of which hinges crucially on pinpointing search terms and phrases that align with your target audience’s inquiries. For businesses stationed in Wollongong, leveraging keyword research that caters specifically to the local market would prove advantageous.

Nurturing a Wealth of Keyword Ideas

The genesis of any successful keyword research process begins with the cultivation of a rich assortment of potential keyword ideas that relate closely to your business, its service offerings, and its geographical location.

Understanding Your Business

Start by taking into account your business and what it represents. What products or services are you offering? In which ways would customers describe your business? What problems are you solving for your customers? Acknowledging these aspects can provide you with a good foundation for brainstorming relevant keywords.

Consider a Business Scenario

For illustrative purposes, imagine you run a restaurant business in Wollongong. The types of food you offer, the dining experience you provide and your location are all crucial aspects to highlight. In this context, you could brainstorm keywords that encapsulate different aspects of your business. Terms such as “Wollongong restaurants”, “top eateries in Wollongong” and “Wollongong dining guide” lie at the core of your business and would likely align with the queries made by your target audience.

Delving Deep into Diverse Areas

Don’t confine yourself to immediate and predictable ideas. Try to explore diverse areas that might touch upon your business indirectly. Questions like, “What is the culinary culture in Wollongong like?” or “What ingredients are local and popular in Wollongong?” can lead to keywords that are interesting yet pertinent.

Leveraging Tools & Competitor Analysis

Make use of keyword research tools – like Google’s “People Also Ask” feature or various keyword planning tools available in the market. These can help generate a vast variety of long-tail keywords (“A long tail keyword is a phrase that is generally made from three to five words. Since these keywords are more specific than generic terms, they allow you to target niche demographics. These keywords are also less competitive than generic keywords because they are designed to better reflect how people make queries”), and questions that people often ask around your targeted keywords.

In parallel, don’t neglect the value of competitor analysis. Explore the keywords your competitors are using and performing well upon, not to merely replicate, but to better understand the landscape, find gaps, and acknowledge where they’re excelling.

Refine Your List

Post brainstorming, ensure you evaluate each keyword for its relevance and appropriateness. The goal is not to create the longest list of keywords but the most effective ones, suited for your specific context.

By incorporating these practices into your keyword idea generation phase, you can create a comprehensive list of relevant keywords that not only align with your business offerings but also resonate with the queries of your target audience.

Bonus SOPs:
“Keyword Research and Mapping”
“Reverse Engineering Your Competitor’s Organic Keyword” 
“Organic Keyword Reverse Engineering Template”

Harnessing the Power of Keyword Research Tools

Once you’ve compiled a preliminary list of potential keywords, the next crucial phase is to engage in a deeper analysis of these terms. This can be done effectively utilising a variety of robust keyword research tools like Google Keyword Planner – is a free tool but there’s a catch, you need to have a Google Ads account or SEMrush – doesn’t require starting an account but you should as they have a great free subscription.
SOP: “Creating a Google Ads Account”

Keyword Analysis

These powerful tools offer many features that allow you to scrutinise various attributes of your selected keywords. This includes factors such as search volume, competition level, and relevance to your business.

  1. Search Volume: It provides information about how often a certain term is searched for. A high search volume indicates that there’s a significant level of interest around that keyword.
  2. Competition Level: It outlines how many businesses or pages are also trying to rank for that same keyword. If the competition level is too high, it might be challenging for your business to rank for that keyword.
  3. Keyword Relevance: It helps determine how accurately a keyword matches the content of your website. This assists you in focusing your efforts on the keywords that are most likely to resonate with your target audience.

Striking the Right Balance

Through these insights, the aim is to identify high-value keywords that have a high search volume yet relatively low competition. By discovering and leveraging such keywords, your chances of securing high rankings in the search results are significantly increased.

Competitor Analysis

Some tools like SEMrush can even show the keywords your competitors are ranking for, providing you with additional insights. This competitive keyword analysis can offer you outside-the-box keyword ideas that would be hard to find by any other means.

By adequately leveraging robust keyword research tools, you can strategically enhance your SEO efforts and ensure your content reaches the right audience at the right time.

Effective and Strategic Implementation of Keywords

Once you’ve discerned the optimal keywords suitable for your Wollongong-based business, it’s time to actuate these findings into reality by implementing them within your website’s content. Administrating these keywords strategically is crucial for an enhanced UX (User Experience) as well as improved SEO rankings.

Natural Incorporation in Content

Let’s begin by accommodating these keywords organically within the overall body of your content. The content should offer value or information to the reader and the keywords should blend seamlessly within that narrative. Avoid forced insertions of the keywords; these should be weaved in naturally, enriching and not hindering the reading experience.

Target Key Locales in Web Pages

Leverage the strategic areas of your web pages to supplement your incorporation of keywords.

  1. Page Titles: Typically the first thing that both users and search engine bots see, page titles should include the primary keyword while succinctly summarising the page content.
  2. Headings and sub-headings: Keywords in H1, H2 or H3 tags not only assist SEO but also enhance the read’s understandability.
  3. Meta Descriptions: They appear beneath the title in search results, and incorporating your keywords here can positively influence click-through rates. (Click-through rate is the ratio of clicks on a specific link to the number of times a page, email, or advertisement is shown. It is commonly used to measure the success of an online advertising campaign for a particular website, as well as the effectiveness of email campaigns)
  4. URLs: URLs (“A Uniform Resource Locator, colloquially termed a web address, is a reference to a web resource that specifies its location on a computer network and a mechanism for retrieving it. A URL is a specific type of Uniform Resource Identifier, although many people use the two terms interchangeably”) that engrain main keywords can contribute to a slight SEO uptick and help users comprehend what the page is about.

Remember, while these positions are strategically important, the keywords’ use should always make semantic sense. (“Semantics is the study of reference, meaning, or truth”)

Uphold Moderation

Keywords serve the vital function of guiding search engine bots to your website and helping them comprehend your site’s content. But, it’s essential to bear in mind that overdependence on keywords, or “keyword stuffing”, (Keyword stuffing is when you use the same keywords (or phrases) over and over again in your website’s content) can yield a counterproductive effect. This practice degrades the user experience and has the potential to send negative signals to the search engines, resulting in penalties or lower SEO rankings. Hence, moderation should be the guiding principle in keyword usage.

By employing these strategies, you can unlock the benefits of keyword targeting without sacrificing user experience or running afoul of SEO best practices.

On-page optimisation techniques for improved visibility 

On-page optimisation is a fundamental facet of SEO that focuses on refining specific elements within a website with an aim to improver its visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs). This intricate procedure encompasses the adaptation of the website’s underlying structure, content, and HTML meta tags, making the site more palatable to search engine crawlers.

Website Structure Optimisation

Begin your on-page optimisation journey by examining and enhancing your website’s structural layout. Ensure the configuration of your site bears a clear and logical structure, boasting ease-of-navigation. Implement well-defined menus and employ internal linking tactics to imply the hierarchy and organisation of your content to search engines. This streamlined structure aids search engine bots in their crawl process, enhancing the likelihood of your pages being indexed.

Meta Tag Optimisation

Once the site’s structural integrity is intact, it’s time to optimise crucial HTML meta tags, including page titles, headings, and meta descriptions. Incorporating pertinent keywords within these strategic locations helps search engines decipher the content of your web pages, potentially impacting their SERP position.

  • Page Titles: These offer a concise summary of the page’s content to both the users and the search engines. Make sure to use primary keywords (the main terms that your target audience is searching for) prominently within the title.
  • Headings: Utilise different levels of HTML heading tags (H1, H2, H3…) to structure the content. Aim to integrate relevant keywords in these tags without affecting readability.
  • Meta Descriptions: These brief page summaries visible on SERP should contain relevant keywords. A compelling meta description can significantly influence click-through rates.

Content Optimisation

Lastly, the very essence of your website – the content – needs rigorous optimisation. It is fundamental to generate high-quality, unique, and user-engaging content. Search engines attribute significant priority to websites delivering valuable, timely, and relevant information to its users. Strive to produce content that not just includes targeted keywords, but effectively addresses the queries and requirements of your intended audience. Prioritising user experience always returns favourable feedback from search engines.

Remember, on-page optimisation is an ongoing process. SEO trends and algorithms frequently transform; so it’s crucial to keep tabs on these changes and adapt your on-page SEO strategies accordingly.

Bonus SOPs:
“Perform an On-Page SEO Audit on a Page”
“SEO Audit Worksheet”

Off-page optimisation strategies to build authority, backlinks and content marketing.

Off-page optimisation refers to the actions taken outside of your website to improve its visibility and authority in search results. One of the key off-page optimisation strategies is building high-quality backlinks from reputable websites.

We have mentioned the importance  of backlinks previously, the more quality backlinks you have, the higher your website’s authority and rankings. So let’s dive in to this a little further within the context of Off- page SEO.

To build backlinks, start by creating valuable and shareable content that others will naturally want to link to. This could be informative blog posts, infographics, or industry reports. You can also reach out to relevant websites and influencers to request backlinks or guest posting opportunities.

Understanding Content Marketing Strategy

A content marketing strategy is a detailed plan that directs the creation, publication, and promotion of valuable content to fulfil specific business objectives. This strategy aims to attract, engage, and transform your target audience into potential customers. It requires identifying your audience’s needs, discussing subjects that resonate with them, and offering practical solutions to their queries through content.

Key components of a content marketing strategy include:

  • Defining Goals: What are the intended outcomes of your content marketing efforts?

  • Audience Personas: Who will be consuming your content?

  • Content Auditing: What type of content has worked well in the past?

  • Content Formats: What formats (blog posts, videos, infographics) will your content take?

  • Content Channels: Where will you publish your content?

  • Content Management: How will you schedule, manage, and assess your content?

Relevance of Content Marketing Strategy to Off-Page SEO

While content marketing occurs primarily on your own domains (blogs, website, social media accounts), it immensely contributes to off-page SEO in several ways:

Building Quality Backlinks: Again high-quality, valuable content attracts backlinks from reputable sites naturally as they reference your content within their publications, thereby boosting your website’s authority and SERP ranking.

Brand Mentions: Engaging content tends to promote discussions amongst users or industry experts on various online platforms, leading to brand mentions. These instances can increase your visibility, enhance your reputation, and indirectly influence your SEO ranking.

Social Media Shares: Well-crafted content encourages users to share it on their social networks, leading to an increase in reach and potential backlinks. Furthermore, it drives referral traffic and contributes to improved search engine ranking.

Guest Posting: A part of content marketing, guest posting is writing content for other websites. This practice directly assists in gaining high-quality backlinks, nurturing relationships with other industry influencers, and augmenting brand exposure.
A strategic, quality-focused content marketing approach serves as a cornerstone for a successful off-page SEO strategy, aiding in enhancing website authority and search engine performance.
Additionally, make use of online directories and local business listings to improve your website’s visibility and attract more traffic. Ensure that your business information, such as your name, address, and phone number, is consistent across all listings to avoid confusion and improve your local SEO efforts.

Local SEO tactics for targeting the Wollongong market

If you’re a local business in Wollongong, it’s essential to optimize your website for local searches. Local SEO involves optimising your website and online presence to attract customers in your specific geographic area.

Start by claiming and optimising your Google My Business or as it is now known Google Business Profile listing. This will help your business appear in Google’s local search results and on Google Maps. Provide accurate and up-to-date information about your business, including your address, phone number, business hours, and website.

Additionally, encourage your customers to leave reviews on your Google My Business profile and other review platforms. Positive reviews not only improve your business’s reputation but also increase your chances of appearing in the “Local Pack” of search results.

Optimising your website’s content with location-specific keywords and creating location-based landing pages can also improve your visibility in local search results. For example, if you provide plumbing services in Wollongong, create a dedicated page targeting keywords like “Wollongong plumbing services” or “emergency plumber in Wollongong.”

Mobile optimisation and its impact on SEO performance

With the increasing use of mobile devices, optimising your website for mobile users is no longer optional; it’s essential for SEO success. Mobile optimisation refers to the process of ensuring that your website is fully functional and accessible on mobile devices.
Search engines prioritise mobile-friendly websites in their rankings, as they provide a better user experience for mobile users. To optimise your website for mobile, ensure that it loads quickly, has a responsive design that adapts to different screen sizes, and has easy-to-use navigation.

Additionally, make sure that your content is easily readable on mobile devices, with clear fonts and appropriately sized images. Avoid using Flash and other technologies that may not be supported on some mobile devices.
By prioritising mobile optimisation, you can improve your website’s rankings and attract more organic traffic from mobile users in Wollongong.

User experience and site speed optimisation for higher rankings

User experience plays a crucial role in SEO. Search engines prioritise websites that provide a positive user experience, as it indicates that the website is valuable and relevant to users’ queries.

To improve user experience, focus on optimising your website’s loading speed. A slow-loading website can negatively impact your rankings and increase bounce rates. Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to identify and fix any speed-related issues on your website.

Additionally, ensure that your website is easy to navigate, with clear menus and internal linking structures. Make it simple for users to find the information they’re looking for, and provide clear calls to action to encourage conversions.

Regularly monitor your website’s performance and user behavior using tools like Google Analytics. This will help you identify any issues or areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions to optimise your website further.

Measuring and tracking SEO success in Wollongong 

To ensure that your SEO efforts are paying off, it’s crucial to measure and track your website’s performance. By monitoring key metrics, you can identify what’s working and what needs improvement.

Start by setting up Google Analytics 4 on your website to track important metrics like organic traffic, bounce rate, average time on page, and conversion rates. This will provide valuable insights into how users are interacting with your website and whether your SEO strategies are driving the desired results.
SOP:
“Set Up a Track Custom Events in Google Analytics 4”
“How To Add Google Analytics To a Shopify Store”

Additionally, use tools like Google Search Console to monitor your website’s visibility in search results, identify crawl errors, and track the keywords that are driving traffic to your site.

Regularly review your SEO performance and make adjustments as needed. SEO is an ongoing process, and it’s essential to stay up to date with the latest trends and algorithm changes to maintain and improve your rankings.

Hiring an SEO agency or consultant in Wollongong

Implementing effective SEO strategies can be a complex and time-consuming task. If you don’t have the expertise or resources to handle SEO in-house, consider hiring an SEO agency or consultant in Wollongong.

An experienced SEO professional can help you develop a customised SEO strategy tailored to your business’s unique needs and goals. They can conduct in-depth keyword research, optimise your website’s structure and content, build high-quality backlinks, and track your SEO performance.

When hiring an SEO agency or consultant, look for someone with a proven track record of success in improving search engine rankings for businesses in Wollongong. Ask for case studies or references to ensure that they have the necessary expertise and experience to deliver results.

Remember that SEO is a long-term investment, and it may take time to see significant improvements in your website’s rankings. Be patient and work closely with your SEO professional to achieve your desired online visibility.

Conclusion and key takeaways

Boosting your online visibility in Wollongong requires a strategic and comprehensive SEO approach. By understanding search engine algorithms, conducting keyword research, optimising your website’s structure and content, building backlinks, and focusing on local SEO, you can increase your chances of ranking well in search results.

Don’t forget the importance of mobile optimisation, user experience, and site speed in improving your search engine rankings. Regularly measure and track your website’s performance to identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions.

If you’re not confident in your SEO skills or don’t have the resources to handle SEO in-house, consider hiring an SEO agency or consultant in Wollongong like YBR Marketing, to help you achieve your online visibility goals.

With the wealth of information above, you’re now equipped with the knowledge and insight needed to carve out a cutting-edge, keyword-focused strategy that can propel your Wollongong-based business to new heights. Remember, the magic happens when you seamlessly blend researched keywords into content that offers real value to your customers.

But don’t stop at knowledge! Our team at YBR Marketing is ever-ready to assist you. Should you feel that the intricacies of keyword research and strategic implementation demand professional assistance, please reach out to us.

Together, let’s channel the power of judiciously chosen and strategically implemented keywords to manifest your business’s true potential!

John at YBR Marketing – Your companion for a thriving digital presence.

What’s Your Unique Selling Position?

What’s Your Unique Selling Position?

by | Sep 16, 2022 | Advertising Wollongong, Digital marketing wollongong, direct response marketing, Lead generation, local seo, Online Advertising Wollongong, Unique Selling Position, USP, word of mouth marketing

Get Out Of The Commodity Business By Developing A Unique Selling Proposition

You know you’re marketing your business as a commodity when prospects start the conversation by asking you about price.

Positioning yourself as a commodity and hence being shopped on price alone is a terrible position for a small business owner to be in. It’s soul crushing and this race to the bottom is bound to end in tears.

The answer is to develop a unique selling proposition (USP). Something that positions you differently, so that prospects are forced to make and apples-to-oranges comparison when comparing you with your competitor.

If they can do an apples-to-apples comparison of you and your competitors then it comes down to price and you’re toast, because there’s always someone willing to sell cheaper than you.

There’s Nothing New Under The Sun

Very few if any businesses or products are truly unique, so a common question is, “there’s nothing unique about my business, how do I develop a USP?”.

There’s no quick and simple answer to that question but here are a few ideas.

Firstly we want to get into the mind of our prospect. What do they really want? It’s rarely the thing you are selling, it’s usually the result of the thing you are selling. The difference may seem subtle but it’s huge.

For example someone buying a $50 watch is buying something very different from a person buying a $50,000 watch. In the latter case they are likely buying status, luxury and exclusivity. Sure they want it to tell the time just like the buyer of the $50 watch but that’s unlikely to be their core motivation.

So to get into the mind of the prospect, we need to discover what result they are actually buying. Once you understand this, you then need to craft your unique selling proposition based on the result your prospects want to achieve.

For example if you’re a printer, you’re a commodity business. You want to get out of the commodity business as quickly as possible. I don’t mean get out of the industry but you do need to change how you position yourself.

Stop selling business cards, letterheads and printing and start asking open ended questions such as, “Why are you coming to a printer? What is it that you want achieve?”. The prospect doesn’t want business cards and letterheads, they want what they think business cards and letterheads are going to do for their business.

So you could sit down with them and and say, “What are you trying to accomplish? Let’s do a printing audit and evaluate all of the things you’re trying to use printing for. By taking them through the process, you can charge them to do a printing audit. Then if they end up hiring you to do their printing, you can apply that consulting fee towards printing. This way you’re no longer viewed as a printer anymore. You’re now viewed as an advisor that’s serving their needs.

Use Outrageous Guarantees

Another great strategy for creating uniqueness in your offer is an outrageous guarantee. One which completely reverses the risk of the transaction.

To be truly unique when using this technique you must avoid the vague crap that everyone says e.g. satisfaction guaranteed, service quality, dependability.

You must have a very specific guarantee to address the fear or uncertainty that the prospect has about the transaction.

For example if you’re in the pest control business you’re customers want to know:

  1. The pests won’t come back
  2. The technician won’t leave their house dirty
  3. That you won’t poison their family with chemicals

So you’re outrageous guarantee could be something like this:

“We guarantee to rid your home of ants forever, without the use of toxic chemicals, while leaving your home in the same clean and tidy condition we found it. If you aren’t absolutely delighted with the service provided, we insist that you tell us and we’ll refund double your money back.”

Compare that to a weak, vague guarantee like, “satisfaction guaranteed”.

Does an outrageous guarantee like the one above entail risk for the pest control service provider? Sure, if they do a crappy job. But in a case like that they’re likely to have to give the customer a refund anyway. It may even be a legal requirement.

Here’s the other thing about guarantees. If you’re an ethical operator, you are most likely already offering a guarantee but you just aren’t using it to your advantage in your marketing.

So why not make a point of talking about something that you’re already doing.

Most people are honest and won’t abuse guarantees if they’ve received the service they were promised.

Even after accounting for the few people who do abuse them, you’ll be far ahead because a strong guarantee will attract more customers than a weak and vague one.

A strong, results oriented guarantee will also drive you to deliver a great customer experience. This alone ensures that it’s worthwhile to have a strong guarantee.

Your customers have their own fears. When you can name the fears and guarantee
against them in your marketing, you give yourself an overwhelming advantage
over your competitors.

Pricing Strategy

I’m sometimes asked, “can’t lowest price be my USP?”. Sure it can, but can you absolutely guarantee that everything you sell will be priced lower than all your competitors including the behemoths like Target and Kmart? Unlikely.

So a USP that says “lowest prices on some things, some of the time” is not quite so compelling.

The fact is if you’re a small or medium business, you’re unlikely to beat the big discounters at the lowest price game.

Truth be told, you probably don’t want to. By charging higher prices, you attract a better quality client. As counter intuitive as it may seem, you get far less grief from high end customers than you do from low end ones. I’ve seen and experienced this in multiple businesses across multiple industries.

A better option than discounting is to increase the value of your offering.

Bundling in bonuses, adding services, customising the solution can all be of genuine value to your customer but can cost you very little to do.

This also helps you create that apples-to-oranges comparison that gets you out of the commodity game.

Don’t hate the player, hate the game. So as hard as it may be to resist, don’t play the commodity/price game.

Dedicated To Your Marketing Success

John

wollongong digital marketing

“I would like to acknowledge the wonderful Alan Dib from Successwise“

Why You Need To Be Different in Marketing Your Business

Why You Need To Be Different in Marketing Your Business

by | Apr 28, 2022 | Digital marketing wollongong, Free marketing ideas, guerrilla marketing wollongong, Lead generation, local seo, millisecond marketing, Online Advertising Wollongong, UX Wollongong

Dare To Be Different?

So you’re starting or running a company. You know your product is amazing, and so you get to work telling everyone about it.

You are not alone in this effort. There are thousands of businesses out there with amazing products just like yours. And they’re all trying to get their customers’ attention too, right? So how do you make your business stand out?

Here are three reasons why it is important to be different in marketing your business:

1. People will remember you more quickly if you stand out from the crowd.

2. If you can describe your business in just a few words, their ears will perk up.

3. People won’t feel like they’re getting the same message over and over again (and they’ll be more likely to listen).

How To stand out from the crowd, differentiate yourself from others.

How to differentiate your business for attention

Step 1: Take a look at some of our favorite brands.

Step 2: Check their social media feeds.

Step 3: Notice that they all have one thing in common: they’re doing something totally different. They don’t look like anyone else, they don’t sound like anyone else, and they don’t act like anyone else. This is why we love them so much!

So how do you become one of these cool kids?

Simple. Look at what everyone else is doing and do the opposite—that’s it! But if you need a little more inspiration, here are a few ways to start thinking about how to make your brand stand out from the crowd.

Find your voice – Think about what makes your company special, and talk about that stuff! There’s no point in copying other brands because you want people to remember YOU, not THEM. So find what makes you unique, and run with it. Your logo should reflect this too—if it can’t stand on its own without text next to it then maybe you need another designer? Just kidding (kind of). Don’t be afraid to get weird either—the best brands always push the envelope in at least one way.

Let your freak flag fly. If you don’t want to be lost in the crowd, you gotta let your freak flag fly. You don’t have to go big if you don’t want to, but you do have to be true to yourself and your brand—that way people get a sense of who you are and what you stand for as soon as they see you.

Be bold, even if it’s not in your nature. If your natural tendency is to keep things simple, add a pop of color or a little glitter to your look.
If you’re already full-on sparkle and shine, try dialing it back with some simple cuts and classic patterns. The point is not that one style is better than another—it’s that whatever style or identity you choose, be bold about it! People will take notice.

Change up your routine. If people are used to seeing your face in the same place at the same time every day, change it up! They might not notice right away—the human mind is pretty good at ignoring things that seem like they shouldn’t be there—but eventually they’ll see that something’s different.

Why Prospect engagement matters.

Imagine you’re at a concert. You’re at the front of the stage and you can see the performer’s sweat glistening in the light, you can tell exactly how hard they’re working to put on a show for you, you can hear every note of the music and feel it vibrate through your chest.

Now imagine you’re in the back of a very large room, where there’s a faint buzz from some speakers. You can’t really see anything going on—just some shadows moving around on a foggy stage. The music isn’t quite loud enough to make out any individual notes.

Prospect engagement is what happens when your customer is in that front-row seat, instead of the back of the auditorium.

1) Make it easy for them to interact with you. Include a call-to-action on every piece of content you publish, and make sure it’s clear and actionable!

2) Make your audience feel like they’re a part of something bigger than themselves by tapping into their emotions and desire for community.

3) Use humor—people love witty jokes or puns (think of the Old Spice commercials). Just be careful not to offend anyone with sensitive topics like politics or religion.

You need your prospect to take action!!

So how do you get your prospect to take action?

The secret to getting your prospect to take action is…

Make them feel something!

Feelings are incredibly powerful. They can make us feel like we can conquer the world, and they can also paralyze us with fear.

My favorite quote of all time is from Neale Donald Walsch: “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.”

Advertising is so much more than just a nice little jingle or a cool slogan. It’s about making people feel something—inspiring them to be different and take action.

When you’re creating anything, whether it’s a product, an ad campaign, or the next great Australian novel, you have to think about what you want your reader to feel. Is it anger? Sadness? Fear? Or is it happiness? Joy? Peace? Curiosity? Excitement?

Whatever emotion you want to stir up in your prospect, that’s what should drive your work. If you don’t know how you want your audience to feel, then how will you ever know when you’re done with your project?

Understanding what emotions drive people will make all the difference for whatever you’re working on, because people don’t just buy products—they buy how products make them feel.

If you want your prospect to take action, use their feelings as a tool! Make them feel like they absolutely HAVE to act NOW or else they’ll miss out on an incredible opportunity, make them feel like this is their LAST chance to get in on the best thing since sliced bread.

Have a clear call to action

A lot has been written on the subject of CTA’s (calls to action) throughout the centuries. In his epic poem “The Iliad,” Homer describes a well-known CTA of the time, “Achilles, slay Hector!” Hippocrates, in his work titled “On Ancient Medicine,” says “If you have a fever and are feeling ill, ask your physician for an antidote.”

And yet, despite all this information available, there still seems to be some confusion about how to write a good CTA. What we’re looking at here is not so much the best strategic approach—that’s going to depend on your audience and your goals—but rather the best way to write a convincing CTA that will get your prospect excited about taking action.

Calls to action (CTAs) are like the instructions for your prospect. Without them, it’s hard to know what to do next.

So how can you make sure your CTAs are clear? Here are some tips:

1. Keep it simple. “Click here” or “Learn more” are good examples of simple CTAs that are easy to understand.

2. Make it stand out. Bolding or underlining your CTA will help readers notice it right away.

3. Say it with a button. Buttons are great for CTAs because they’re easy to see, and they look clickable.

Not all of the mechanisms suggested above will work effectively on all prospects, but you have to test what works for your prospect.

If you’re going to take a stand and be different, make sure it stems from your unique story and how you can benefit the client. If you just blindly follow others, there’s no point in being in business. Get noticed, be heard, and do what it takes to find success in your business.

To quote a great American entrepreneur Mike Michalowicz “Better Isn’t Better, Different Is Better” 

Let me know, what you think, comment below or just drop us a line..

Dedicated To Your  Marketing Success

John

wollongong digital marketing

Most Asked SEO Questions in 2023

Most Asked SEO Questions in 2023

by | Apr 26, 2022 | Advertising Wollongong, Digital marketing wollongong, local seo, Online Advertising Wollongong, SEO Wollongong, Uncategorized, YouTube SEO Wollongong

What is SEO marketing?

SEO stands for search engine optimization, which is the practice of increasing the amount of visitors to a website by ranking higher in search results.

Search engines like Google and Bing use robots to crawl the internet, looking at websites to determine how they should rank them in their search results. SEO marketing is the process of improving a website’s content and code so that it ranks as high as possible in these searches.

When beginning an SEO campaign, marketers need to consider how people search for information online and what search terms they might use when looking for your products or services. More and more consumers are using longer phrases called long-tail keywords when searching online. For example, someone trying to buy a laptop might type “best laptops under $500” into Google rather than simply “laptop.”

Marketers then optimize the website’s content and technical components, such as image tags and headers, so that these keywords appear throughout different parts of the site. This encourages Google’s algorithms to rank that website higher in search results for those keywords. The process is ongoing because what works today may not work tomorrow—search engines are constantly updating their algorithms to provide users with better results.

What is local SEO? What are the benefits of local SEO?

The term local SEO generally refers to the optimization of online marketing campaigns for small, local businesses. It’s a strategy for achieving higher organic rankings for relevant search terms that comes with numerous benefits. First, more traffic can result in more revenue as a result of superior organic ranking within search engine results. On top of that, local SEO allows businesses to target nearby audiences and offers increased trust among potential customers.

Free Standard Professional SEO SOPs

How much should I pay for SEO in 2023?

Your SEO cost will depend on the level of support you need and the size of your business. If you’re just starting out, you might only need one or two people to help you with SEO. On the other hand, if you’re an established company with lots of customers, it might make sense to hire an entire team.

The average SEO cost is $1200 per month. The cheapest SEO packages we offer start at $650/month and go up to $6000/month for larger companies with more complex needs, so there’s something for every budget! For example, if you’re looking for local search engine optimization services our agency charges $650-$2000 per month depending on how competitive your market is from both an organic and paid perspective.

Do you think SEO is still a valid way to get traffic to your website?

SEO, or search engine optimization strategies, are tactics designed to improve your website ranking and visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs). When executed correctly, SEO can be a very effective way to increase organic traffic without having to pay for ads.

SEO is a proven and cost effective marketing strategy, which enables companies to build quality and relevant links to their website. Over time these links can help non-brand aware consumers find your brand, driving more traffic to your site. There are many methods of SEO in order to effectively grow links, such as on-site optimization, quality link building, or social media optimization and promotion.

How many headings in the article should I put the keywords?

Well, it depends on the article. For example, if you are writing a short article about how to build a bookshelf level and put in place, there is no need to put too much headings. The reader will be able to understand what you are talking about quickly. However, if you are writing a longer article on how to build an office building or a hospital, we suggest that you use more than 2 or 3 headings. Why? Each section within the main article should be relatively independent from other sections, so that each heading can incorporate the keywords well.

How can I create backlinks for free in 2023?

One of the best ways to create backlinks for free in 2023 is by participating in online communities and forums. Share your knowledge, help others, and you’ll be rewarded with free backlinks.

But remember: creating backlinks for free on a forum can be a time-consuming process if done incorrectly.

Reverse engineer your competitor’s backlink strategy

What is a good SEO score out of 100? How can I check my website SEO status?

The first thing to know is that there is no such thing as a universal “perfect” score out of 100 when it comes to SEO. In fact, there may be no such thing as a perfect score at all. What matters most is increasing the number of people who visit your site and converting them into paying customers. The higher you can get that number without sacrificing your other goals, the better you will be able to rank in search results.

There are a few different ways to check your website SEO status:

1. Google Search Console

2. Bing Webmaster Tools

3. Moz Free SEO Checkers

4. SEMrush Site Audit Tool

Can deleting posts hurt SEO?

Yes, deleting posts can hurt SEO.

SEO is short for search engine optimization. It’s the art and science of making your website more visible to search engines by targeting keywords, producing quality content, and building backlinks (linking your site to other sites with similar content). When you delete a post or page, it becomes inaccessible to the search engine crawlers that visit your site. When they can’t access the post or page because it’s gone, they alert Google that there’s a broken link on your site. That negatively impacts your SEO score.

The best way to avoid this is to make sure that any posts or pages you want deleted are redirected to another page on your website through a 301 permanent redirect. You can manage redirects in the WordPress admin panel by going to Tools > Redirection and adding the URL of the post or page you’re removing from your site along with the new URL you want it redirected to.

Is it possible to rank #1 for competing keywords in a week?

What if I told you that you could rank #1 for your desired keyword in a week? Is it possible?

While it’s not impossible to rank #1 on Google in a week, we should first discuss what this means. Google is the most widely used search engine in the world, accounting for about 90% of all searches. For this reason, “rank #1 on Google” can be taken to mean “appear at the top of the first page of results when someone searches for your keyword.”

This is difficult because Google changes its algorithms frequently, and competitors are always updating their content and staying competitive. In fact, according to Backlinko’s study of 1 million Google search results, it takes an average of 3.8 months for a given page to reach the top 10 search result positions for a specific keyword.

While there are ways to speed up this process—such as through high-quality content and well-placed backlinks—nothing can guarantee ranking #1 on a search engine in just one week.

A lot of factors go into where you land on search engines (including things such as your geographic location, what device you’re using, whether or not you’re logged into your account, etc.), so it would be nearly impossible to get ranked in such a short space of time.

How can I find the right keyword?

The most important part of finding the right keyword is to understand what it is you want to rank for. Do you want to come up in the search results when someone searches for “leather jackets”? Or do you want to rank for “leather jackets in Denver”?

Think about where you want to rank, and try searching for it yourself. What results show up? If it’s a local business, does Google Maps dominate the results? How does your competition appear? What are they doing, and how can you do better?

Once you have a sense of what your goal is, it’s time to start doing research. Use all of the available tools: Google’s Keyword Planner in Google Ads, Moz’s Keyword Explorer, Ahrefs’ Keyword Explorer, Ubersuggest or Rank Tracker—the list goes on! The more information you can collect about keywords, particularly their search volume and difficulty, the better prepared you’ll be to select a keyword that perfect keyword!

Reverse Engineer Your Competitor’s Organic Keyword Strategy

When should long-tail or short-tail keywords be used to optimize SEO?

Long-tail and short-tail keywords are used to optimize SEO in different ways.

Long-tail keywords are used for more specific searches. For example: “blue down coat with hood” is a long-tail keyword phrase that indicates the searcher is looking for a very specific type of product. These can be particularly useful when you don’t have a high search volume for your product, or if you have a lot of competition. It’s easier to rank highly on a long-tail keyword search because there won’t be as much competition, and by targeting your audience more directly, you’re likely to receive higher quality site traffic.

Short-tail keywords are used for general searches. For example: “coat” is a short-tail keyword that could refer to any kind of coat, so it’s much less likely to convert into sales than the long-tail keyword phrase “blue down coat with hood.” However, short-tail keywords can bring in a lot of traffic and can be useful if you have products that are relevant to lots of different kinds of searches.

How do you select keywords and rank high in a search engine?

Developing a list of keywords that search engines can use to find your site is an essential part of your online marketing strategy. But what exactly are keywords? They’re the terms that customers type into search engines when they look for goods and services. When you research, select, and use keywords properly, you’ll not only increase your visibility on the web, but you’ll also drive more targeted traffic to your site—people who may just turn into new customers.

Here’s how to select keywords that will help you rank high in search results:

-Step 1: Research and analyze. Research other sites in your industry to see what keywords they’ve chosen. Also evaluate how relevant those keywords are to your business. If you sell snowboards, but other sites in your industry use the keyword “skis,” you won’t get much traffic if you choose this term yourself.

-Step 2: Use tools like Google’s AdWords Keyword Planner tool to choose terms that will be most effective at getting you ranked high in search results. You can also try WordStream’s Free Keyword Tool.

-Step 3: Create a plan for implementing them in various areas of your site, including URLs, page titles, headings, content, meta descriptions, and images

In order to rank well in a search engine, you need to know how to select the right keywords. You should select keywords based on their popularity and relevancy; ideally, they should be popular with consumers and relevant to your company’s products or services.

A good keyword is one that potential customers are actively searching for in order to find products like yours.

You can also improve your ranking by making sure that all of your website’s pages have content using relevant, high-performing keywords. You want every page of your site to be linked with a relevant keyword so that search engines can understand what each page is about and rank it accordingly.

 

Why are SERP features important?

SERP’s is an acronym of Search Engine Results Page. SERP features control what parts of your website appear in the search result, which reduces user clicks to other sites or competitors. They also improve the user experience by giving them a quick snapshot of an answer, rather than forcing them to click through multiple links to find what they want.

SERP features are a vital part of search engine optimization. The most common SERP features currently in use include featured snippets, image packs, local packs, and ads. Each type of SERP feature has its own strengths and weaknesses for the user, and each one is treated differently by the search engine.

They are important because they can add value to your site. The more SERP features you have on your site, the more information Google has about your website.

Your site has different types of content that Google can use for each SERP feature. It could be a blog post or an article that your company wrote, or it could be something from another website that you think can help with your business.

How do you target SERP features?

If you want to improve your visibility in search engines, you need to make sure that you’re targeting SERP features.

SERP features include:

– Featured snippets (a box at the very top of the SERP that contains information related to the user’s search)

– Knowledge panels (informational panels on the right side of the page)

– Maps (maps and listings of local businesses)

– Top stories (news articles listed at the top of the page)

– Image packs (images from around the internet related to your query)

– Video packs (videos from around the internet related to your query)

How do you get these featured spots?

You can target SERP features by using schema markup on your website. Schema is a language that helps Google and other search engines understand what parts of your web page are important.

This type of mark-up can help you to appear in SERP features such as Knowledge Graphs, carousels, top stories, and more.

How do I find low competition keywords for my new channel? 

FREE YouTube Keyword Research tool 

When you’re launching a new channel, you have to make sure you know what keywords to target. If you just throw up your content and start posting, you risk getting buried in the sea of YouTube competitors. So, how do you find the low competition keywords that will help your videos stand out?

Now, there are two ways to approach this:

The first is to look for what’s already popular on YouTube. Use TubeBuddy’s keyword finder tool to search for any top-performing videos. Look at their titles and descriptions and see what they’re doing differently from other videos in the same niche.

The other option is to do a little digging—literally into Google Keyword Planner—and find out what’s already popular with people searching for content on YouTube. You can also try looking at your own website analytics to see what people are searching for on your site that sends them over to YouTube. Once you’ve found some keywords, then it’s time to optimize!

How do you optimize your content for SEO and social media marketing?

Optimizing content for Google, and social media has become a key component of any social media marketing strategy. In order to effectively utilize the three platforms and bring in more traffic, businesses need to understand how they work and how to plug their content into them.

Optimize your content for Google

Google is the largest search engine in the world, so it’s important that your website is indexed by Google’s search algorithm. Content optimized for Google can be found using relevant keywords or phrases. Include your keywords in your title tag and meta description to help Google index your page for those terms. You should also optimize your webpage for mobile devices, as most Google searches are performed on mobile devices.

Follow these tips to optimize your content for Google:

* Make sure you have original and unique content on your website

* Make sure that you have a sitemap on your site that tells Google where all of the pages on your site are located (you can make one with our sitemap generator!)

* Make sure that you include relevant keywords in the page’s Title Tag and Meta Description tag

* Create quality backlinks to increase external traffic to specific pages on your website

Optimize your content for social media

Social media marketing is a rapidly-changing industry, and staying on top of the latest trends and tools can be challenging for most companies. Here are some tips for keeping your social media marketing up to date:

1. When you’re deciding on the type of content to post, keep in mind that certain types of posts tend to perform better than others. For instance, videos, photos with text overlay, and live streaming tend to get the best results.

2. When you’re deciding which social media platform to post on, remember that each platform has a different audience and purpose. For example, Facebook tends to have more family and friend connections, while Twitter tends to have more professional connections.

3. When you’re choosing when to post, remember that you do not want to post too frequently or at odd hours; it’s best to post during peak hours between 10am and 5pm.

4. When you’re determining how often you should be posting new content, keep in mind that it’s best to post about once a week for each social media page that you maintain; this will allow your audience to see new content several times a month rather than having them view the same content multiple times in one day.

Is it worth putting time into SEO for Bing if you’re already optimizing SEO for Google?

If you’ve optimized your SEO for Google, do you need to put time into Bing?

Some businesses are worried that they don’t have the resources to optimize their SEO for Bing. After all, Bing is much smaller than Google. That’s true: Bing doesn’t get as many search queries as Google does. However, if you’re already optimizing your SEO for Google, it’s worth putting some time into Bing optimization as well.

Here’s why:

The purpose of SEO is to help people find your product or service. If someone searches for a keyword on Google and your site isn’t showing up in the top 10 results, they’re not going to be able to find you. But if they search that same keyword on Bing and your site ranks #1-3, they’ll see your site and be able to click through to get the product or service they want. Even though less people search on Bing than on Google, it’s still important to make sure your site shows up in top results for both search engines!

Bing for Business is a free service that allows you to manage your business listing data on Bing.com and sync it with your Google My Business account.

How do I start a Bing for Business account and sync it with Google My Business?

If you have already registered your business on Google My Business, you can connect your accounts and start managing your listings on Bing.com immediately.

The first step is to sign up for a Bing for Business account here .

Once you have signed up, please follow the steps below to connect your Bing for Business account with Google My Business:

– Log in to the Bing for Business portal and go to the Manage Organization page.

– Click on “Add an organization” and enter the email address associated with your Google My Business profile.

– Follow the instructions in the email sent to you by Microsoft.

– When asked, enter your password associated with Google My Business.

After entering your password, you will see a message that says “Congratulations! Your Bing for Business organization was successfully connected to this Google My Business account.”

How important is keyword research when it comes to search engine optimization (SEO)?

Keyword research is a very important component of search engine optimization (SEO). Search engines aim to deliver relevant results to their users, and keywords are often the best way for them to understand what a page is about.

When you’re performing keyword research, you’re looking for high-volume words that people might use when they’re searching for your product or service. These high-volume keywords are often very competitive and difficult to rank on the first page of Google for. However, there’s an entire spectrum of words from “very specific” to “very general” that your customers might use when searching for your product. By focusing on lower-volume but more specific keywords, you can avoid the fierce competition at the top of the SERPs (search engine result pages) and still get traffic from your target audience.

When you do keyword research, you’re looking for words and phrases that tons of people type into search engines like Google, but that don’t have a ton of competition. You want to find those long-tail keywords—the phrases that are specific enough that they are only searched for occasionally, but which have a high conversion rate because when someone does search for them, they’re ready to buy something. A long-tail keyword is a phrase that contains between three and five words, like “how to find a job after college.” It’s more specific than shorter keywords like “jobs” or “college.” Long-tail keywords are better because they’ll bring in more targeted traffic that’s likely to convert into sales or

As a result, long-tailed keywords help sites appear more frequently in searches without driving up their rates, making them an excellent choice for small businesses on a budget who want to maximize their visibility within their industry without going bankrupt trying to do so.

Free Professional Standard “How To” Keyword Research SOP 

 

Do upper case or lower letters as keywords affect search engine optimization?

There is no difference in how search engines, like Google, Bing, or DuckDuckGo, regard upper- or lowercase letters when indexing and ranking results.

Search engines use “normalization” to convert all terms into lowercase when they index the page. This means that it doesn’t matter what case you use in the URL or title tag—it’s all converted to lowercase.

Therefore, there is no reason to worry about how you capitalize your keywords in web pages and links—they won’t affect your search engine optimization (SEO).

However, if you want to be consistent in your own website’s URLs, it’s a good idea to pick one format and stick with it for all of them.

How does a snippet work?

A snippet is a short piece of text, usually between 1 and 4 sentences long, that can be used for many different purposes. Many companies use them to increase their SEO (search engine optimization). They are aware that Google gives higher rankings to websites that have a lot of content, and snippets help them create more content without having to write an entire article or blog post.

Snippets can help with a variety of purposes! For example, they can be used as a store description on Etsy or the ‘About Us’ section of your webpage, or as an email introduction when you’re reaching out to potential clients.

There you have it, not an exhaustive list but they are the most asked about SEO questions we get around here..

If you’re looking for more answers regarding SEO, we are only too happy to help. We have comprehensive SEO plans for any requirement you may have.

Or, if you just want some free advice, check out our SOPs (standard operating procedures).

Dedicated To Your Marketing Success

John

wollongong digital marketing

8 Ways to Lowering Your Facebook Ad Costs in 2022

8 Ways to Lowering Your Facebook Ad Costs in 2022

by | Apr 19, 2022 | Advertising Wollongong, Digital Marketing SOPs, Digital marketing wollongong, direct response marketing, Lead generation, local seo, social media marketing

Have you been wondering how to stretch your Facebook ad budget? You’re not alone. Many marketers are still wondering how to grow their organic reach, avoid the Facebook penalty and keep up with all of the changes at Facebook. It’s for these reasons I’ve put together a list of 8 ways to stretch your Facebook ad budget in 2022.

Factors that affect the cost of Facebook ads

Just like Instagram ads costs, Facebook ad costs are influenced by a number of variables.

First and foremost, the campaign objective you select for your campaign will have a significant impact on pricing since it relates to the value of the desired goal and where in the funnel your users are. For example, Brand awareness or Engagement campaigns will cost less than lower-funnel campaigns like Conversions that drive purchases. It’s easier to get someone to engage with an ad than it is to entice them to click through, open up their wallet, and complete a purchase.

Next, audience size plays a role in Facebook ad costs as well. Ads targeting larger and broader audiences will generally cost less than ads targeted at smaller audiences. You will typically see lower costs in prospecting, upper-funnel, cold-audience campaigns compared to retargeting, lower-funnel, warmer-audience campaigns because the audiences of the latter tend to be more specific and smaller in size—therefore more competitive.

Facebook’s algorithm is in constant learning mode, so it will continue to optimise your ads over time. The longer your campaign runs, the more data Facebook has to work with, which can result in lower costs.

This is where a high daily budget comes in handy. For example, if you have a $5 daily budget for a new ad set and only spend $1 on a given day, Facebook may take longer to exit the Learning Phase because it received less data to work with. The same will happen if you have a very low-performing ad set — if the ad set doesn’t reach Facebook’s minimum goal for engagement or conversion volume by the end of the day, then it may not be able to learn enough to optimise your ads well.

If your daily budget is on the higher end, Facebook may be able to exit the Learning Phase faster because it has enough data and a large enough audience pool to draw from. With a higher daily budget, Facebook also has more room in its budget optimisation algorithm to push your ads out more frequently, increasing your chances of getting new conversions and engaging with new users.

Bidding strategy is another factor that influences the cost of your Facebook ads.

A bidding strategy is the way you instruct Facebook to spend your ad budget, and there are a variety of options.

If you choose a lowest-cost bidding strategy, it will try to spend as little money as possible while focusing on getting the most out of your ad for you. A maximum value strategy prioritizes maximizing the value of each conversion. A cost cap strategy is more expensive than a lowest-cost option but allows you to set a limit on how much you’re willing to spend on each click or conversion. Similar to cost cap, minimum ROAS (return on ad spend) involves setting a specific dollar amount that you want to get back from each dollar spent. Finally, manual bidding gives you direct control over your bids for clicks or impressions, with no optimisation by Facebook’s algorithm.

Click-through rate can also play a role in you Facebook ad costs. If click-through rate is low, especially in a website traffic campaign, you may then see higher costs as Facebook understands that there may be some disconnect between your target audience and the messaging in your ads.

A healthy Facebook click-through rate is about 2%. More often than not, the higher your click-through rate climbs, the lower your cost per clicks will be.

There are many factors that influence the cost of Facebook ads, and the most important one is industry.As you saw in our benchmarks above, Facebook costs vary by industry, which also includes varying click-through rates. It’s also important to look at the ROI by industry. For example, the average CPA for restaurants is $12.91. But if your customer spends $50 and keeps coming back for years to come, you’re essentially making money off of that ad.

Of course, other factors play into ad costs as well, such as:

The level of competition in your industry (for example, in real estate)

How many times a user has converted on your site or app

Whether or not you’re advertising mobile or desktop apps

The cost of your product or service

Seasonality: Historically speaking, in the latter part of Q3 and Q4, costs tend to temporarily increase as the advertising landscape changes for the holiday ecommerce season. Competition ramps up as brands increase their budgets and gain more impression share, thus, increasing costs for all advertising brands.

Keep that in mind as you budget for the year and if you aren’t in ecommerce or running promotions during the end of the year, you may want to strategize on whether to keep a presence or to scale back.

Location: If you’re targeting a smaller metropolitan area like Peoria, IL versus New York City, your costs may be lower given that there will be less competition for those impressions.

Competition: The more saturated your industry is with advertisers, the higher costs will be. There are simply more brands vying for those same impressions and clicks from your target audience.

facebook CPC per industry

Source: Wordstream.com

Lowering your Facebook ad costs

Running a Facebook ad campaign isn’t easy! Success comes as a result of constant testing and optimisation. There are ways of making things easier and reduce your costs without having to take shortcuts. We’ve put together 8 proven ways to help you lower your Facebook ad costs.

1. Create a full-funnel strategy

To use your budget wisely, choose funnel-appropriate campaign objectives. In general, Awareness and Consideration campaigns are suited for the top of the funnel; Consideration and Conversion campaigns align with the middle of the funnel; and Conversion campaigns are best for bottom-funnel conversions.

In short, begin with upper-funnel campaigns to reach more people in your target audience at a lower cost, and then move your way toward conversion campaigns that optimize for your purchase-driving conversion events.

Note that some brands can certainly run a Conversion campaign targeting upper-funnel audiences with lower priced products or something that may make for a good impulse buy.

People can and do make purchases upon first interaction with a brand on Facebook, however, most will need more touch points from a brand so you can gain their trust, showcase your benefits, and entice them to convert.

facebook full-funnel strategy

Source: Wordstream.com

2. Use the Automatic Placements setting

While it can be tempting to pick and choose where you want your ads to appear within the Facebook network, the best way to save money is to start with the default Automatic Placements setting. In fact, not doing so is on our list of 7 Budget-Wasting Facebook Ads Mistakes. By appearing on all placements, Facebook can get a better idea on where to best serve your ads, thus lowering your costs. You’ll also get out of the learning period faster so that you can apply data-informed money-saving optimizations as soon as possible. Your targeting conditions will remain the same regardless of placement, which means Facebook can then serve ads to user in a lower volume, but lower cost placement that can help drive incremental revenue for you.

facebook automatic ad placements

3. Broaden Your Audience

Your audience size impacts how much Facebook ads cost. So while you want to keep your targeting narrow, you should strive to make those targeted audiences as large as possible. This has become trickier as a result of privacy measures implemented by Facebook, but the benefit is increased privacy for Facebook users and the opportunity for marketers to target more precisely and identify more effective strategies for reaching their target audience. If you’re not sure where to start, look for commonalities among your current customers and try targeting people in your own network who share those characteristics.

  1. Check audience overlap

Check audience overlap. Facebook’s audience overlap tool can be instrumental in saving money. Let’s say you have one ad targeting an audience of people interested in startups and another ad for people interested in entrepreneurship. You have different Facebook ad copy and creative to appeal to these different audiences. However, the overlap tool shows you that half of the startup audience overlaps with the entrepreneurship audience. Knowing this, you can use exclusions so those ads don’t overlap. Otherwise, you’d lose money bidding against yourself.

facebook ads audience overlap tool

Source: Wordstream.com

5. Bid caps

Bid caps are the manual bidding strategy in Facebook ads, where you can set a maximum bid instead of allowing Facebook to dynamically bid based on your goals. But this should be used with caution. It’s for advertisers who have a solid understanding of the conversion rate and profit margin, and requires regular maintenance. If you set your bid cap too low, Facebook might have a hard time spending all of your budget.

6. Use the Pixel and the Facebook Conversions API

The goal of both of these pieces of technology is for you to track your ad performance. With visibility into what’s working and what’s not, you can allocate budget accordingly. You can also gain insights about the people viewing your ads, which you can use to further optimise your campaigns and maximise your budget.

The Facebook Pixel is still a thing, but it is losing its power since it’s cookie-based and cookies are crumbling. The Facebook Conversions API does not rely on cookies, but it doesn’t pick up the same exact information as the pixel. So, using the two together will ensure you capture the most accurate data. Refer to SOP “Installing facebook pixel on your site” below.

SOP 005: Install the Facebook Pixel on Your Site

7. Run Facebook A/B testing

Facebook isn’t the set-it-and-forget-it type of platform. If you want to get the most bang for your buck, you’ve got to stay active, and that includes running tests at the ad level.

Running tests can help improve your engagement rates and CTR, which will stretch your budget further. Here are some tips on how to lower your Facebook ad costs through testing:

  • Run A/B tests on ad sets
  • Run A/B tests on ads

Lowering your Facebook ad costs can be tricky. If you’re reading this, you know as well as anyone that Facebook is constantly making changes to its platform, and sometimes those changes aren’t so great for advertisers.

But there are still plenty of ways to make sure your campaign achieves the results you want while keeping costs low. We put together a list of the top 8 ways we’ve found to help lower your Facebook ad costs—and get more bang for your buck.

A/B ad testing

8. Target your page fans separately

1. Target “People who like your page and their friends” with a different ad than what you’re showing other audiences because this audience will convert at a much higher rate than cold traffic, but remember: just because it converts better doesn’t mean you should spend more in this audience than other audiences.

2. Don’t target people who like your page if all you want them to do is engage with an ad, not convert—that will just cost you more money because they’re already familiar with your brand and content.

3. Target only the interests that are relevant to your business, even though Facebook gives users the option to select multiple interests when creating campaigns on its platform (such as beauty products or tech gadgets).

4. Use remarketing ads instead of retargeting

SOP 074: How to select your Facebook Ads Targeting
SOP 075: How to plan your Facebook Ads Campaign
SOP 007: Creating a Cart-Abandonment Remarketing Campaign Using Facebook Ads

Considering the above facts, it should come as no surprise that Facebook Ads are more cost efficient per thousand impressions than other social media platforms. However, there are other factors to consider when making a final decision on where to spend your ad budget. No matter what platform you choose, keeping your costs down will always be an important element of running successful campaigns.

Dedicated to Your Marketing Success

John

wollongong digital marketing

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