Marketing - vector modern flat design illustration with laptop, work place, darts

What is Online Marketing and 5 Reasons Why It Is More Important Now Than Ever Before

 

Marketing online was initially just an alternative platform for companies to market their products, opening up for new and innovative ways to engage with their audience. However, as time passes, the need for connectivity and staying online has become an essential part of everybody’s life. Online connectivity has been ingrained into our lives and the statistics tell us just that. As seen in Hootsuite’s 2019 report, users spend 27% of their year online. This increased usage of the internet over the years shows the need for an emphasis on online marketing, not just as an alternative platform, but as a necessity for businesses to stay competitive and thrive.

Gone are the days where it is just sufficient for your company to have a retail store and an online website that isn’t up to date and unoptimized. Online marketing is more important now than ever. Consumers nowadays look to search for products that they are interested in before they purchase them, with an astonishing 87% of purchases beginning with an online search. In order to capture these consumers, your products have to be visible to them in the first place. Without tools like Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC) or Search Engine Optimization (SEO), your company would find itself hard-pressed against competitors in terms of staying visible to the target customers.

Our article today will help you understand what online marketing really is. It isn’t just about creating a website and having a social media page, there is more to online marketing than that. We will also let you in on some of the reasons why certain aspects of online marketing is crucial to your business success. Before we get into the reasons let’s start with what online marketing is about.

What is Online Marketing?

Online marketing is the marketing of your products through an online medium. It could be through social media sites such as Facebook, LINE, Youtube and Instagram or through platforms that allow you to pay for display advertising space such as Google. The main objective of online marketing isn’t much different from traditional marketing, which is to help your business gain awareness, sales, new customers, target new audience and more. There are various methods to sell and market your product or services online, but they are usually categorized into three categories.

They are:

Search Engine Marketing

what is online marketing article picture

Search Engine Marketing is a component of online marketing whose techniques businesses must excel at in order to market online successfully. Recall that we mentioned earlier that 87% of consumer journeys start with an online product search. Search engine marketing refers to using techniques like SEO (helping your site to gain organic traffic in Google’s search engine rankings) or PPC (purchasing paid ad space) to get your product and website more easily visible to the right target audience.

Social Media Marketing

online marketing picture

Social Media Marketing is a form of marketing that is done through the multiple social networking platforms. The main purpose of engaging in this type of online marketing is to connect better and engage your audience, creating loyalty and awareness for your company. This is a very popular form of marketing for businesses as the usage of this medium is high with a projected 2.96 billion users to be on these platforms by the end of 2020.

Email Marketing

online marketing image

This is the online version of the traditional “snail mail”. Email marketing is marketing through the sending of emails to target customers. It is known to be the lowest cost form of marketing compared to search engine and social media marketing. Not only is it cost effective, email marketing also allows for direct engagement with your customers.

Now that we’ve covered the three different forms of online marketing, here are 5 reasons why online marketing is more important now than ever before.

Reason #1: Personalization

personalization image online marketing
Image Source: IMPACT Marketing

When it comes to marketing for businesses, every business would specifically try to convey and shape their message according to their target audience’s preference and needs. With traditional marketing, you are able to do that by crafting a message in your advertisement that is based on your target audience’s pain points to resonate with them. Marketers are said to have seen an increase of 20% in sales when they used some form of personalization in their marketing campaigns. Additionally, 71% of consumers in a DynamicYield research expressed that they believe that personalized emails will influence their decision to engage with the email.

MailChimp - G Suite Marketplace
MailChimp’s Email Marketing Software (Source: G Suite)

However, if you were to use online marketing, you can not only just target specific market segments. Your targeting can go down to even the personal level through the use of email marketing. With email marketing tools like MailChimp out there that offers personalization, businesses can look to go down into the specifics in their message when speaking to consumers. MailChimp’s software enables businesses to personalize everything about their email marketing campaign, from addressing customers on a first name basis, to recommending only the products that they’d be interested in. It is this form of personalization that is only available through an online medium, giving you more reasons to engage in Online Marketing.

Using a marketing personalization software may be difficult for some companies that have to focus on their core competencies and don’t have the time to churn out quality content for themselves. It is also essential to learn how to effectively use these software in order to maximize its potential. Therefore, for smaller to medium sized businesses, a use of a digital marketing agency specializing in online marketing could help to alleviate these concerns.

Reason #2: Act as a Contingency Plan and Alternative Platform for Your Business

The current retail situation in the world is dire due to the COVID-19 epidemic. Online marketing will definitely serve as an essential platform to reach out and connect with consumers to help retain your company’s brand recall and even become the main source of sales during this period.

With countries around the world such as China, Italy and Spain going into lockdown and shopping malls being cited as the third most likely to be shunned places, brick and mortar retail stores are going to suffer majorly if they do not have an online sales channel.  Such unforeseen circumstances also highlights the importance of having an online presence in terms of marketing and sales.

Social media marketing serves as one of the best ways to communicate with customers. In this period where people aren’t leaving their house, retail brands without an online marketing strategy may be forgotten by customers. It is no surprise as these lockdowns are going to last for quite some time and as the customers consume more media online about other retail competitor’s brands, it is very likely that those without online marketing would have a diminishing presence in the consumers’ minds. This is the reason why we are seeing many retail stores going on to social media to communicate with their customers. Updates on business delivery means and social responsibility campaigns can be run in order to continually engage with your customers in the case of such unexpected times.

If you haven’t already had your online store set up as a retailer to give your customers an alternate purchasing outlet, there are plenty of great websites out there. Sites like Shopify, Wix and WordPress are user-friendly and not difficult to use at all. They are great for helping retailers without an online store to build one, without having to hire a web developer which usually would cost way more than using these programs.

This COVID-19 emergency does serve as a reminder to retailers that there is a need for an alternative retailing and communications channel to their target audience. Online marketing is needed more than ever to help cushion some of the losses incurred during this period and help businesses push forward.

Reason #3: Increases Your Business’s Legitimacy in the Eyes of Your Customers

Imagine that you’re interested in running and one day decided to search for the best running shoes to purchase on Google. The first page results show the store pages of Nike, Adidas, Under Armor among others. Seeing these results, it is highly likely that you would think that these are definitely the best brands for running shoes since they are ranked so highly on Google.

Using pay per click advertisements and search engine optimization, you will be able to bring your brand to the top of Google’s search engine rankings for keywords pertinent to your industry.

Legitimacy in online marketing is a matter of honing your business’s perception in the eyes of the consumers. This is without a doubt, one of the greatest benefits to online marketing, especially in a time where businesses in general aren’t doing too well. Getting in the front page of Google will give your brand and its products the respect they deserve.

Reason #4: Drives Quality Traffic

online marketing drive quality traffic
Image Source: GraceThemes

Traditional marketing when done right can help you to reach out to your target audience. You can craft a message that your target audience likes and place the advertisement at a prime location for targeting them, yet not have your marketing campaign succeed.

The problem with traditional advertising is that while you can get the geography and message right, you aren’t necessarily going to be guaranteed quality leads. Your advertisements can also appear in front of uninterested people – a form of low quality traffic for your company.

This is the edge that online marketing has over traditional marketing. A successful online marketing campaign should outperform that of a traditional marketing campaign’s in terms of quality lead. This is so because in online marketing, you are able to be more specific when targeting leads.

For example, when running Pay Per Click campaigns on Facebook or Google, you are guaranteed to be targeting certain interest demographics. You are given the freedom to choose the keywords to target as well as the keywords to not appear on. This allows for more focused and precise targeting. Furthermore, other demographics such as income, age group, and location are also available for you to choose. The increased precision available in online marketing helps you to drive more qualified leads, resulting in higher quality traffic as opposed to traditional marketing.

Reason #5 Scalability Compared to Traditional Advertising

If you think that Online Marketing is going to cost a bomb like how traditional billboard ads or video ads are when placed in prime locations, think again. Online advertising and marketing are the most cost-efficient in terms of helping smaller companies that are trying to scale.

Unlike traditional marketing where companies are expected to pay extravagant amounts of money to get that prime television spot to show their ads to potentially uninterested audiences, online marketing allows for flexibility.

To run online advertisements on platforms such as Youtube, Google or Facebook, all you would require is a daily budget. Paid advertising on the aforementioned 3 platforms allow for businesses to allocate a budget for campaigns. Once that budget is expended the campaign would then end. You can then decide based on that ad’s performance whether or not to extend the campaign, increase your budget for the particular ad or re-design the advertisement if it runs poorly.  This allows for easy scalability, especially for small businesses.

Additionally, the ease of just popping into your ads account to top up the advertising budget or edit the campaign helps give more flexibility to businesses. In a way, online paid advertisements empower businesses to make their own decisions with regards to their advertising. Gone are the days where you have to negotiate a display advertisement campaign’s duration and commit strictly to it based on the signed contract. You are given the flexibility to run your campaigns as you wish!

Are You Ready to Take Your Business Online?

After reading this article, you should know some of the reasons why online marketing is definitely important right now. It is not just a contingency plan for businesses in case of any unexpected circumstances, but it also is a highly effective and efficient marketing method.

We’ve presented you with some tools earlier in the article to help you get started with building your online marketing strategy. You could also pick up some tips from some of our other articles that will help you with the social media and search engine optimization aspect of your online marketing journey. For some businesses, online marketing may not be their core competency, which is why digital marketing agencies are out there to help people with their marketing. Either way, we hope that this article at least helps you to understand the need for an online marketing strategy!

A top digital marketing agency in Thailand

A Top Digital Marketing Agency in Thailand

MarketingGuru's Milestone: A Top Digital Marketing Agency in Thailand

It’s a moment of sheer joy and pride for the MarketingGuru team as we share a thrilling piece of news with our community. DesignRush, a renowned authority that benchmarks agencies, has recognized our efforts and outcomes by featuring us as one of the Top Digital Marketing Agencies in Thailand. This accolade is not just a badge we wear with honor, but a reflection of our unwavering commitment to excellence in digital marketing.

The Significance of This Recognition

This accolade from DesignRush stands as a testament to the tireless work and unwavering dedication of our team. It’s a validation of our innovative approaches and effective marketing strategies that have consistently delivered results. Being acknowledged by DesignRush, a platform that meticulously curates lists of top-performing agencies, bolsters our standing in the digital marketing realm and amplifies our presence within the industry.

Implications for Our Esteemed Clients

For our cherished clients, this recognition is a reassurance that your faith in us is well-placed. It’s a promise that we remain dedicated to pioneering the industry trends and delivering avant-garde strategies that yield tangible results. Our feature on DesignRush’s esteemed list is a nod to our proficiency and the substantial value we contribute to every project we undertake.

Discover Our Profile on DesignRush

We invite you to explore our Marketing Guru profile on DesignRush and witness the journey that has led us to this prestigious moment. It’s a journey marked by partnership, innovation, and success—a journey we embark on with each of our clients.

A Heartfelt Thank You

As we celebrate this milestone, our hearts are filled with gratitude for the trust and support of our clients and partners. Your belief in us fuels our passion and drives us toward even loftier heights of success. Together, we’re not just reaching milestones; we’re setting new benchmarks.

Here’s to a future brimming with achievements and partnerships that transcend expectations. Thank you for being an integral part of our story. Let’s continue to craft success stories, one digital strategy at a time.

Digital-Marketing

5 Digital Marketing Techniques That Can Elevate Your Business To The Next Level

Digital Marketing. It is a buzzword that gets loosely thrown around nowadays due to how hugely popular and impressive anything related to technology is.

But what exactly is Digital Marketing? Digital Marketing encompasses a wide scope of tools, ranging from Search Engine Optimization to Pay Per Click. It essentially refers to marketing via digital means. In this article, we will be covering 5 of the most effective digital marketing techniques that can elevate your business to the next level.

The average time spent by a person on the internet in the world is 6 hours and 42 minutes.

1. Search Engine Optimization

Life has been made so much easier for us since the creation of search engines. Searching for things online is a huge part of our lives to the point where terms like “Googling” or “Google” became verbs in the dictionary.

This shows how frequently and conveniently we search for things in our daily lives, reinforcing why it is integral for businesses to incorporate and manage their SEO as part of their digital marketing activities. By definition, SEO refers to getting traffic from organic or natural search results on search engines, which basically refers to the unpaid traffic that your website gets from users who happen to be searching for content within your domain.

Statistics have shown that 60% of the clicks go to the top three websites in the search results and a staggering 93% of all traffic come directly from a search engine. It is therefore of paramount importance that businesses use software like Ahrefs or Moz to help them with understanding the keywords that their users use in searching for the content relevant to their business.

Having a good grasp of the users’ behavior when they do their searching has helped businesses. Take the case of TechSpace IT Services for example. By changing up and increasing the quality of content that the site was providing coupled with proper keyword research and website optimization, the company gained results in the form of an 839% growth in traffic volume, with over 30 keywords appearing on the first page of a google search.

What SEO has done for IT Company Techspace

Want to learn more about how to effectively use SEO to boost your business’ search engine results? Read our quick, 9 steps simple beginners’ guide on SEO here.

2. Search Engine Marketing

Search Engine is all we need. Vector

SEO refers to the organic unpaid traffic that businesses get from users via a search engine. Search Engine Marketing (or SEM) is kind of like the premium paid version of SEO.

This technique is usually done by companies through platforms like Google AdWords where companies bid against each other to appear at the top of the users’ search results. They will pay Google based on the keywords that they want and as a result will appear as a top search result when users search for that particular keyword.

Google Paid Ads from PPC Advertising

For this technique to work effectively, a company must be able to identify the keywords that its intended target audience would search with. By identifying these keywords, they would then be able to appear at the top of their desired target audience’s search engine results, consequently giving them more traffic and possibly conversions. For some help to kickstart the process of identifying these keywords, company could use tools like Google’s Keyword Planner.

For this technique to work effectively, a company must be able to identify the keywords that its intended target audience would search with. By identifying these keywords, they would then be able to appear at the top of their desired target audience’s search engine results, consequently giving them more traffic and possibly conversions. For some help to kickstart the process of identifying these keywords, company could use tools like Google’s Keyword Planner.

While this technique may seem very convenient and somewhat foolproof as it immediately helps boost your company all the way up to the top, it is an expensive technique to execute especially when your company is a small  company trying to compete with bigger companies. Therefore, it isn’t recommended for a start up to be using such a technique, unless they operate in a niche field.

3. Social Media Marketing

Let’s face it, in this day and age a large proportion of us cannot imagine life without social media. The stats on social media reflects that too. At least half the population of the people in the world are online (3.5 billion) and of that 3.5billion, 66% of them are on Facebook! The potential for engagement on social media platforms cannot be overlooked and must be capitalized by businesses who are looking for opportunities to seek out new potential new customers.

Social Media Marketing is the promoting of your business’s product through social networking platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube or even more recently trendy ones like TikTok. The goal of social media marketing is to engage with your target audience through conversations. The greatest benefit of social media is how it can bring about exponential gains as consumers can share products or businesses they like with their friends, helping businesses experience more growth than expected.

One of the many savage Wendy's Twitter Roasts Image from justsomething.co

Successful Social Media Marketing does not rely solely on how interesting or popular the business’s products and services are. It could also be due to the kind of content that they are producing on their social media platforms. Take for example, Wendy’s, an American fast food chain’s Twitter account. They’ve amassed a following of 3.4million followers which is close to Mcdonald’s, an arguably more internationally renowned brand’s following of 3.6million followers. The content that Wendy’s Twitter produces are content that appeals to their target demographic of young adults and teenagers. They put out tweets that are entertaining and humorous and at the same time, make use of online memes to help connect them with their audience. Wendy’s Twitter page also regularly engage in hilarious conversations with their customers. The authenticity and personality of your business’s social media presence is crucial in ensuring success in the field of Social Media Marketing.

4. Content Marketing

People are more likely to be engaged and take an interest in your business if you are able to put out quality content that they enjoy. Content marketing essentially refers to attracting customers by publishing and creating free, relevant content that piques their interests.

There are many ways to execute a content marketing strategy due to the myriad of possible content that could be published by businesses. Examples are things like: Instructional Videos, Memes, Photos, Entertaining Videos. The possibilities are endless when it comes to content marketing.

One great example of how content marketing could help spark interest in a brand is the example of BlendTec. Blenders sound like a very ordinary product with nothing too special to rave about when marketing such a product. I mean, after all what other uses can a Blender have other than to make some good ole’ strawberry milkshakes and fruit juices right? BlendTec would however, beg to differ. BlendTec had an extremely successful viral YouTube campaign “Will It Blend” to promote their blenders. The premise of the show is basically the company experimenting to see if random objects like the iPad, the XBOX 360 and even diamonds could be blended when put through their BlendTec blender. This, coupled with their use of a goofy looking professor as the face of the show, helped skyrocket them into internet virality. The show garnered more than 10 million total views and its channel currently has a subscriber count of 876,000. By delivering entertaining and creative content, BlendTec successfully propelled their brand to becoming one of the most popular blender brands in the world.

As proven by BlendTec, content marketing is only limited and bound by your creativity!

5. Email Marketing

The common misconception about this strategy is that most consumers take e-mail advertising as spam. Afterall, who actually bothers reading advertising emails and not discard them right? It has however been proven that email marketing is an effective channel for reaching out to consumers and converting them. In 2018, the average return on investments that companies gain from email marketing amounted to $32 per every dollar spent. This is a drop from the figure of $38 per dollar spent in 2015. While this may indicate a declining trend and strength of the email marketing strategy, businesses who want to create a good first impression or retain its customers must still know how to effectively capture their audiences with the email channel.

82% of consumers will open a “welcome email” and 59% of marketers citing email as their biggest source of ROI.

Retention and capturing the audiences’ attention through email is crucial as figures have shown that on average, 82% of consumers will open a “welcome email” and 59% of marketers citing email as their biggest source of ROI.

If you’re still not convinced of the power of email marketing yet, look at the case of Vin Bin, a wine and cheese retailer’s email marketing success story. Vin Bin freshened up their email marketing strategy by sending out their newsletter via email to its customers. By sending out relevant content that their target audience is interested in through emails, they’ve seen returns of 5 times more subscribers to their e-newsletter and growth of their sales altogether.

Email marketing might be seeing a declining trend in terms of ROI, but with the right content to capture your target audiences, it can still prove to be one of the most effective digital marketing strategies

Up Up and Away!

Hopefully this article helps you understand how some of the digital marketing strategies are able to help take businesses to the next level. If you require further help in developing a marketing plan for your company, feel free to drop by our home page and request for a FREE (yes, you read that right!) SEO audit.

If you’re still not convinced that going digital is the way to go as opposed to sticking to traditional marketing means, just know that a Hootsuite report revealed that the average time spent by a person on the internet in the world is 6 hours and 42 minutes. This is a marginally large proportion of 27% of their life in a year! Ready to capture that 27% of their life? Continue reading to find out how…

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Why Video Marketing Becomes a Game-Changer?

In a world where digital content is the king, businesses are constantly seeking new approaches to capture and retain their audience’s attention. Video marketing has emerged as a powerful tool in this quest, offering a dynamic and engaging way to connect with endearing audiences. In this article, we will thoroughly explore the impact of video marketing on modern business strategies and how it can help your business stand out from others in such a crowded digital landscape.

Prominent Reasons Why Video Marketing Helps Your Business

- Boost Social Media Interaction

Video marketing has the power to significantly boost engagement on social media platforms. Videos are inherently more shareable and memorable than text-based content, making them ideal for generating likes, comments, and shares. By creating compelling video content, businesses can increase their reach and visibility on social media, ultimately driving more traffic to their website.

For example, a clothing brand takes advantage of short videos to showcase their latest collection, rather than just utilizing a long narrative of solely text-based content. This is because videos are more shareable and memorable, fostering marketing performance with a wider range of engagement on social media platforms. In fact, such a marketing success can be completed when the audience generates likes, comments, and shares across their online communities. 

- Enhance SEO and Encourage Website Traffic

Video marketing can also have a positive impact on a business’s search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. Search engines like Google prioritize video content in search results, meaning that well-optimized videos can help improve a website’s ranking. In addition, embedding videos on your website content can increase dwell time and reduce bounce rates, both of which are considered important factors for SEO.

For example, a digital marketing agency strives to create some informative videos regarding tips to achieve satisfying SEO practices. After that, the agency intentionally includes such videos in a blog post on their website. The reason why this particular case matters is due to the fact that search engines generally prioritize video content in search results. Therefore, the application of well-optimized videos can enhance the potential of a better website’s ranking. 

- Establish Trust and Credibility

Video content is one of the most powerful tools for building trust and credibility with your audience. By showcasing your expertise, sharing customer testimonials, and providing behind-the-scenes glimpses of your business, you can establish yourself as a trusted authority in your industry. Thus, the integration of video marketing can lead to increased brand loyalty and customer retention as desired.

For example, a cosmetic company shares a series of videos regarding interviews with some established dermatologists, along with testimonials and reviews from actual customers. Without a doubt, this can help signify how professional the company is when it comes to video marketing approaches. As a consequence, it can help build trust, increase brand loyalty, and potentially drive further customer retention.

- Effectively Communicate Complex Ideas

In general, some concepts are relatively difficult to explain using text alone. And of course, video marketing allows you to visually demonstrate sophisticated ideas, making them easier for your audience to understand and catch the ideas. Whether you’re showcasing a product demo or explaining a new process, video content can help simplify complexity and effectively increase audience comprehension.

For example, an appliance company employs an animated explainer video to help demonstrate how their latest product works in correct manners. As you might imagine, videos can serve as a medium communicator breaking down perplexing concepts into comprehensible explanations. Compared to a solely text-based description, videos are definitely more effective when drawing the audience’s attention and making sophisticated content consumable.

- Cater to Mobile Consumption Habits

With the mounting rise of mobile devices, more and more people are consuming content on their smartphones and tablets. Video content is particularly well-suited to mobile consumption, as it can be easily viewed on small screens and doesn’t require a lot of reading. By incorporating video marketing strategy, you can better reach and engage a wider range of mobile users.

For example, a food delivery service creates short videos representing their recommended menu items with a mobile-friendly view. Then, why is it important to consider the importance of mobile-optimized performance? This is owing to the ever-escalating use of mobile devices in our daily lives. When mobile consumption takes initial place, it is advantageous for businesses if the audience can comfortably watch your videos on their smartphones or tablets at all times. 

- Stay Ahead of Other Competitors

In today’s competitive landscape, businesses need to constantly innovate to stay ahead of the competition. Video marketing is a relatively new and rapidly evolving field, meaning that there is still plenty of opportunities to differentiate yourself from other competitors. By embracing the power of video early on, you can position your business as a leader in your industry.

For example, a real estate agency embarks on the use of drone footage to make high-quality videos of their properties. What happens next is that the integration of such videos can uniquely differentiate the agency from other rivals, and help leverage the agency’s position as a leader among that particular industry. 

- Analyze and Evaluate Performance

One of the key benefits of video marketing is the ability to measure and analyze performance. Most video hosting platforms usually offer insightful analytics that allow you to track metrics such as views, engagement, and conversion rates. By analyzing this data, you can gain valuable insights into what’s working and what’s not, allowing you to refine your video marketing strategy in the long run.

For example, a fitness app launches a series of workout tutorials videos and closely tracks insightful metrics like the number of views, engagement, and sign-ups. Significantly, those insights can be utilized to figure out how video marketing strategies work and how to leverage them to the next level in the future.

- Drive Actions and Conversions

Ultimately, the goal of any marketing effort is to encourage actions and conversions. Video marketing specifically excels in this area, for videos are inherently more persuasive than text-based content. Whether you’re looking to drive sales, increase sign-ups, or boost brand awareness, videos can be a highly effective tool for encouraging your audience to take an immediate action.

For example, an e-commerce company shares an intriguing video showcasing their products with special deals. Plus, they clearly include an intended call-to-action to “Shop Now.” This is a sort of persuasive attempt that can effectively encourage the audience to take immediate action, making a purchase in this case, at that particular moment.

Final Words

In summary, video marketing is a powerful tool that can boost your business to the next level with awaiting surprising outcomes. By using visuals, sound, and storytelling, you can create a unique experience for your audience. Video marketing offers many benefits, from increasing brand awareness to improving SEO and increasing relentless conversions. As such, we can definitely say that video marketing is literally worth a shot. If you are looking for a professional to help boost your digital marketing efforts, MarketingGuru is the key! Partner with us and see how much your business can grow from now on!

SEO mistake

Top 7 SEO Mistakes You Should Avoid

SEO mistake

In this digital marketing era, it is undeniable that businesses are attempting to stand out from other rivals by coming with a variety of best-in-class digital marketing strategies. However, one of the most common approaches that most businesses are now focusing on is what is called ‘SEO’.

SEOstands for ‘Search Engine Optimization’, which is known as an effective practice that businesses rely on to get more organic traffic through search engines. Now, you may be curious as to the reason why SEO predominantly matters among groups of digital marketers. This is due to the fact that being more initially recognized means being able to stand a chance of business’s success. Thus, SEO is one of the most prevailing marketing strategies that businesses should not even once overlook.

The Role of SEO in Digital Marketing Strategies

Intriguingly, SEO forms the strong foundation of your business’s marketing strategies. It enables your business to engage with your desired audience, establish your brand trustworthiness, and enhance your website traffic. Much like when an appealingly designed storefront with captivating displays can draw in passersby, an SEO-optimized website can attract potential clients in powerful manners.

Apart from that, SEO functionally goes beyond merely drawing traffic. It centers on attracting qualified leads actively seeking products or services akin to yours. By concentrating on particular keywords and optimizing your site through this approach, you can guarantee that your site becomes more visible to the appropriate audience at the appropriate time.

7 SEO Mistakes Your Business Shouldn’t Make

When applying the use of SEO to your marketing strategies, it is crucial that the overall steps you opt for are literally effective and correct. Wrongful SEO approaches, as a consequence, can lead to numerous failures in your optimization efforts. Thus, MarketingGuru will address seven common SEO mistakes that your business shouldn’t make in your marketing strategies.

1. Opting for Incorrect Keywords

Selecting the right keywords is essential for the ultimate success of your SEO marketing strategies. Using irrelevant or overly competitive keywords can result in your content being lost in the ocean of search results. It’s vital to conduct thorough keyword research to identify relevant keywords with high search volume and low competition. By targeting the right keywords, you can improve your content’s visibility and attract more organic traffic to your site. Also, don’t forget to check if your included keywords are too stuffed — this can lead to failures in your SEO practice.

2. Neglecting Content Marketing

Content marketing plays an imperative role, as high-quality, relevant content is more likely to rank well in search engine results. Neglecting to create and optimize your content for SEO can hinder your site’s visibility and ranking potential. It’s important to regularly produce high-quality content that is valuable to your audience and aligns with your SEO marketing strategies. By focusing on content marketing, you can improve your site’s authority, attract more organic traffic, and enhance your overall SEO efforts.

 

3. Forgetting the Importance of Mobile-Friendliness

With the prevailing use of mobile devices, having a mobile-friendly website is also essential for SEO. Google and other search engines prioritize mobile-friendly websites in their search results, meaning that non-mobile-friendly sites may rank lower in search results. Therefore, it’s important to ensure that your website is responsive and optimized for mobile devices to provide a seamless user experience and improve your satisfying site’s performance.

4. Inadequate Social Marketing for Your Content

การตลาดออนไลน์ช่วงโควิด(digital marketing in covid)

Social media can be a powerful channel for promoting your content and driving traffic to your site. However, many businesses may overlook the importance of social media in their SEO marketing strategies. By actively promoting your content on social media platforms and engaging with your audience, you can increase your content’s visibility and attract more traffic to your site. Additionally, social signals, such as likes, shares, and comments, can also positively impact your site’s SEO performance.

5. Overlooking Tags and Meta Descriptions

Tags and meta descriptions are essential elements of on-page SEO that help search engines better understand the content of your pages. Forgetting to optimize your tags and meta descriptions can result in your content being less visible in search results. Therefore, it’s important to also include relevant keywords in your tags and meta descriptions, and ensure they accurately reflect the content of your pages. By optimizing your tags and meta descriptions, you can improve your desirable content’s visibility and click-through rate in the overall search results.

6. Ignoring to Include Some Internal Links

Internal linking is also another important SEO marketing strategies that helps improve your site’s visibility and unrivaled user experience. By linking to other pages on your site, you can help search engines discover and index your content more effectively. Furthermore, internal linking can help users navigate your site and find relevant content, which can improve their overall experience. Because of this, it’s important to strategically add internal links throughout your content to improve your site’s SEO outcomes.

7. Disregarding Website Auditing

Regular site auditing is essential for identifying and fixing technical issues that can drastically impact your site’s SEO performance. Neglecting to audit your site can result in a wide range of unnoticed issues that can harm your site’s visibility in search results. Owing to this, it’s critical to regularly audit your site for issues such as broken links, duplicate content, and crawl errors, and take corrective action to improve your site’s SEO performance.

Final Thoughts

To recapitulate, it goes without saying that SEO is worth applying to your marketing strategies as it helps enhance your business visibility through search engines. However, it is more important to note that there are certain conditions that should be seriously taken into account while integrating SEO to your marketing strategies. As such, partnering with some professionals like MarketingGuru will leverage your SEO efforts to the highest triumph as desired. Contact us today for your upcoming digital marketing success!

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Digital Marketing Strategies for iOS Users Opting Out of Voice Search

Digital marketing requires understanding and adapting to user preferences due to brand success. While voice search has gained popularity, it’s important to recognize that some users may choose to disable this feature on their iOS devices. In this article, we’ll share practical strategies and tips for digital marketers to successfully connect with their target audience in the digital marketing world.

 

Understanding User Behavior

 

User behavior is a factor that provides many dimensions of customer insight. Marketers adapt to this information to choose platforms and publish content more effectively, especially for iOS users who are fond of the convenience and fast response offered by voice search. They can ask questions through their devices anytime and anywhere. However, some users may find voice search unreliable due to personal preferences, privacy concerns, or a preference for traditional text-based search. Therefore, it is crucial to analyze and understand their preferences in order to tailor strategies that meet their needs.

 

Diversify Marketing Channels

 

When voice search is disabled, we need to adapt our marketing plans to reach the right target audience. To do this, it is crucial to understand our target audience and their behavior, as mentioned above. If customers are seeking more information and making comparisons, organic reviews can be the most effective content to put on the appropriate platforms. For example, Nike’s target customers include Generation Y to Z, so platforms like Instagram and YouTube would be the best match. Additionally, don’t forget to implement display advertising and email marketing to reach a wider audience and maximize visibility.

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Optimize for Text-Based Search

 

With users relying more heavily on text-based search, digital marketers should optimize their content for this specific channel. Key strategies to consider include:

 

  • Comprehensive Keyword Research and Optimization

 

Digital marketers should first identify customer pain points and conduct keyword research to create content that addresses their desires. Utilizing tools or enlisting the help of a marketing agency, incorporate top-notch keywords into website copy, blog posts, and social media captions. This approach will broaden visibility and drive more traffic from text-based search results

 

  • On-Page Optimization

 

Improve your online visibility by optimizing the on-page elements of your website, like titles, meta descriptions, headers, and so on. Make sure your content aligns with what users are looking for and provides valuable information. By focusing on both search engine optimization and user satisfaction, you can improve your search engine rankings and have a positive impact on your audience.

 

  • Local SEO

 

If your digital marketing efforts have a local focus, prioritize local search optimization. To Make the highlight better than competitors has the service or products with the same area. Claim your business profiles on platforms like Google My Business, include accurate location information on your website, and leverage local keywords to enhance visibility for local search queries.

 

  • Content Marketing Strategy

 

Create compelling content that is high-quality, informative, and relevant. Enhance it with visually appealing graphics to increase user engagement and make your content more memorable. Continuously assess how your content is performing, track user engagement, and make any necessary changes to keep your strategy effective as time goes on.

 

Enhance User Experience 

 

User experience (UX) plays a critical role in engaging users who have disabled voice search on iOS devices. Focus on optimizing your website and digital assets to deliver a seamless and user-friendly experience. Consider the following:

 

  • Responsive Design

 

Web design serves as the very first encounter users have when they land on your website. A visually captivating and intuitively designed website can instantly captivate and engage visitors, leaving an indelible mark in their minds. So, make sure to invest in an appealing and user-friendly web design that showcases your brand’s personality and effectively communicates your message.

 

  • Loading Speed

 

When loading speed is slow, it can cause user frustration and reduce engagement. Don’t forget to check the site speed for users who prefer text-based search. They are more likely to value a fast and efficient browsing experience, which can result in increased time spent on the site and improved conversion rates.

 

  • Clear Navigation and Site Structure

 

If your website’s navigation is intuitive and easy to follow, users are more likely to explore more of your digital marketing content. This is because they can find the information they are seeking quickly and efficiently.

 

  • Accessibility

 

Implement accessibility features to cater to users who rely on text-based search. This may include using alt tags for images, captioning videos, and formatting content for screen readers. 

 

We hope you found this content helpful in addressing the challenges of iOS users opting out of voice search. MarketingGuru is here to lend a hand and put these strategies into action for your business. Feel free to reach out to us for any assistance!

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What are the five reasons for paraphrasing?

Paraphrasing is a technique commonly used by writers to express the ideas of another author using their own words. In simple terms, it involves rephrasing and restating existing concepts from published sources. Paraphrasing has gained significant importance in content writing for various reasons. In this post, we will discuss the key reasons why you should consider incorporating paraphrasing into your writing.

 

The importance of paraphrasing 

 

Paraphrasing holds significant importance for a variety of reasons. In this regard, the following five factors are widely recognized as the most crucial ones.

 

1. Paraphrasing helps you present ideas in a better way

 

As mentioned earlier, paraphrasing involves presenting ideas rather than the exact words of another writer. To effectively present ideas, thorough research and ideation are necessary. During the research phase, it is advisable to take note of key points that aid in understanding the core message of the content. These main points and ideas should be carefully considered when writing your own version.

 

2. Paraphrasing helps you keep away from the accusation of plagiarism 

 

The most crucial reason why paraphrasing is important is that it helps you avoid plagiarism. When you are using the same ideas and words of another writer in your content then you are simply committing plagiarism. But if you paraphrase content then you can keep yourself away from the accusation of plagiarism. It’s a way to present information using your unique expression, protecting you from unintentional or intentional plagiarism.

 

3. Paraphrasing Reduces the Need for Extensive Research

 

Creating a new content can be time-consuming and research extensive research. However, there is an alternative approach that can help streamline the research phase. By opting to rewrite or paraphrase existing content, you can significantly reduce the need for extensive research. To ensure originality, it is advised to gather ideas and information from various sources and then paraphrase them to craft a fresh and unique post.

 

4. Paraphrasing helps you make your writing style better

Practicing is crucial. It not only helps you enhance your writing skills but also allows you to avoid errors and improve the quality of your content. Another important aspect of paraphrasing is its ability to simplify complex information. By utilizing this technique, you can easily refine your writing and make it more accessible to readers.

 

5. Paraphrasing helps you save a lot of time and energy 

Paraphrasing offers a valuable way to save time and energy in content creation. By investing time in outlining and planning your content can help organize your thoughts and streamline the writing process. Additionally, utilizing online paraphrasing tools further facilitates quick content generation. Embracing paraphrasing techniques, coupled with effective planning, allows you to save significant time and energy while creating engaging and original content.

 

Enhancing Paraphrasing Accuracy and Reliability with Online Tools

 

Paraphrasing accurately and with complete reliability can be challenging, as there is always a risk of plagiarism. However, you can use online paraphrasing tools to help you create and present new content with precision. These tools are user-friendly and, best of all, free to use.

 

To utilize an online paraphrasing tool, simply copy the content from your reference sources and paste it into the tool’s input box. After inserting the text or document files, click on the ‘Paraphrase Text’ button. Within seconds, the tool will generate a fresh version of the content. By employing artificial intelligence and ENL (Emulated Natural Language) technology, an essay rewriter produces human-like content easily and quickly.

 

By incorporating these tools into your writing process, you can confidently rewrite content while maintaining accuracy and reliability.

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Build a Successful Business by Advertising with Google

SEO and content marketing are 2 effective channels for promoting your business in the online marketing world. The only downside to them is that they take months upon months for your efforts to come into fruition. To grow your business faster, you can try advertising with Google Ads. This will bring you much faster returns. It will also help to kickstart your business no matter which stage you are in.

This form of paid advertising is called Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising. While there are various PPC advertising, we will be focusing mainly on advertising with Google Ads. This is due to its widespread use among digital marketers.

Why Google Ads?

Advertising with Google Ads, specifically, ones that are used to target audiences in the form of keywords. This means that when you search for something on Google’s search engine, your search results will show you the ads that your keyword suggests. As a result, keyword research is an extremely important part of Google Ads. 

The text below will show the fundamental parts of Pay-Per-Click advertisements and give you a foundation on how to conduct keyword research.

Before kickstarting your PPC project…

There are 3 key components required to set it up.

  • Ads — From afar, ads are the smallest individual component in Pay-Per-Click projects. What you put into these individual ads is exactly what your audience will see.
  • Ad Groups — These are a group of ads. To make things simpler on the backend, it is recommended to create 1 ad group per product. Under these ad groups, you can test different ads to find the best performing one.
  • Campaigns — A campaign contains ad groups. It can contain many PPC projects, for example, a campaign could be run for the Christmas holidays

To summarize, a campaign can have several ad groups, and each of those ad groups can have several individual ads.

For a high-performing Google PPC ad with high clickthrough rates, they must have quality ad copy or texts. However, to find the best-performing ones require testing multiple ad copies.

Setting up a PPC project will always require starting at the campaign level downwards. The start of this process will require you to fill out your bid strategy and ad budget. You will also learn about the variety of advertising networks you can choose on the Google Ads platform to best suit your marketing goals.

Fundamentals of Advertising with Google

When starting out on this platform, it is best to put your budget on the lower side as it can take some time to learn to create and optimize your ads. Once you feel more comfortable with the platform, then you can increase your budget.

There are 4 basic aspects to most paid ads which are:

  • Headline — This should match the title of the content that your ad links to. (Your headlines cannot exceed 25 characters)
  • Description — This part should give your audience a reason to click on your ad. Always add a call to action here.
  • URL — Your audience will be taken to the URL you have set for your ad.
  • Network-specific aspects — A unique element of different networks, for example, likes and shares.

The performance of your paid ads is also largely dependent on 2 factors its relevance to the audience and the curiosity it evokes. 

Targeting the Right Audience with Keyword Research

Targeting is just as important as having an attractive ad copy. To attract your ideal customers, you must know what they are looking for when they go online. A concept that will help make your keyword research process move faster is imagining yourself as your customers. 

Ask yourself this: If they want your products or services, what will they search for?

You can also create customer personas. These will help to direct and guide your decisions in marketing and keyword research. This is to help you be sure that you are targeting the right people in your business.

For targeting keywords, there are 3 main types that you can choose with some variations. An example of these are as shown below:

For the exact match type of keyword, you will get the highest amount of conversion rate in comparison to the other types because it targets people who are looking for the exact words.  

Phrase match is a keyword type that enables your ad to show up when someone searches for either an exact match of the phrase or a close variation of it with extra unrelated words before or after the keywords.

Broad match is a keyword type that targets all kinds of searches that has a specific word in it.

Broad and phrase matches may not be so good if your keyword could show up for “coffee mug holders” when you sell only coffee mugs, however, this does not mean you should miss out on some potentially great keywords to target for.

Optimizing Your Google Ad

Aside from all the elements that we have explained, there are many ways for advertising with Google Ads to work as efficiently as possible. There are 4 main factors for this:

  • Landing Page Quality: If you run ads to your website but your website is not fully ready to support your visitors, your ad budget will be wasted.
  • Keyword Relevance: Targeting the wrong keyword will not only make your visitor leave your website immediately, but it will also lower your ranking among competitors.
  • Quality Score: The Ad Quality Score is based on Google’s algorithms of your ad relevance and quality as determined by customers.
  • Creative: A great creative will help attract customer attention. This can be in the form of an enticing ad copy and/or graphic design depending on your chosen medium of Google ad type.

Now that you know all the requirements for advertising with Google Ads, you can start running the PPC in your business. 

However, if you want to save time and cost by hiring some professional help, you can contact Marketing Guru for a free consultation today.

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Improve Your Online Marketing with Google Micro-Moments

Google has defined the micro-moments as the key moments in a customer journey. They are ones that consumers use to interact with a brand, specifically, in the form of mobile searches.

These key moments are ones where consumers make certain decisions and reach for their devices to find answers or assistance. This is why it is something all digital marketers must always keep in mind when forming marketing strategies.

The key micro-moments are

  • I-want-to-know moments
  • I-want-to-go moments
  • I-want-to-do moments
  • I-want-to-buy moments

How can they improve your customer experience?

There is always someone, somewhere searching on Google. In fact, Google gets an estimate of 3.8 million searches per MINUTE!

Therefore, learning how these micro-moments impact your customer’s journey will help with your business. Specifically, in learning how to increase your brand awareness, boost your customer experience as well as creating the right marketing strategies for your business.

According to PWC, 73% of all people agree that customer experience is a critical
factor in their purchasing decisions and 43% of all consumers are willing to spend a premium for greater convenience.

That’s why this is one of the most exciting opportunities to invest in 2020!

I-want-to-know moments

At this stage, your brand should be giving relevant informative content to your potential customers. Google has discovered that up to 69% of consumers are more likely to buy from companies that gave them the relevant answers they are searching for. Not only does it increase brand awareness, but this touchpoint can also help in growing your customer base.

The most common searches in I-want-to-know moments are for general topics (“What’s on the news today?”), food and groceries (“What are healthy dinner choices?”), and shopping-related searches (“What’s the shipping policy?”).

I-want-to-go moments

Location-based searches are critical for this micro-moment. This is where physical shops can bring in more customers. Research has found that up to 76% of consumers are likely to visit the store they have found when searching online that same day.

Therefore, any local shops looking to increase their customer reach should pay attention to this micro-moment to plan and market accordingly.

For example, local SEO can be used. Make sure your local shop has signed up on the Google My Business site to show up on Google’s search ranking page when customers searches for “near me” businesses.

I-want-to-do moments

91% of smartphone users look to their devices for ideas while completing a task. To elaborate, most consumers search for “how-to” information or examples to help them follow through with some type of activity. This is where the I-want-to-do moments comes in as a touchpoint between your brand and your customer.

Brands can leverage this micro-moment to create a lasting impression on the consumers. Keep in mind that up to 48% of smartphone users are more likely to buy from a company that provides instructional video content which is why this micro-moment is a great way to position your brand as an authority in your industry and help create trust between your customer and your company.

I-want-to-buy moments

Customers in I-want-to-buy micro-moments are ones who are ready to buy from a business. These are great for raising brand awareness and increasing conversions as Google has reported that up to 51% of consumers discover a new brand or product when conducting searches on their smartphones. This moment provides brands with great opportunities to sell their products and close their deals.

The most common types of searches in these micro-moments are usually shopping-related (“smartphone comparisons”), food and grocery-related (“best place to buy imported fruits”), and restaurants and bars (“pizza delivery near me”).

More than one type of micro-moments can be used simultaneously. For example, when a consumer searches for “coffee near me”, it is likely that the potential customers are in both I-want-to-go and I-want-to-buy stages.

How To Apply The 4 Micro-Moments?

Now that you know of the Google micro-moments. How do you apply this to your business?

The first thing you should do is to know your customer. No business can survive for long without truly understanding the everchanging needs of their customers and answering to that.

One of the most important tasks for any business to do is to develop customer personas and come up with the type of questions they will have for your brand’s products or services. With this, you will be able to imagine your customers as real people rather than just profit numbers. Always approach your business from a value-first approach. The easiest way to do this is to put your customers first and strive to deliver the best for them.

After developing customer personas, map out your customer journey, or even better yet, go through that customer journey yourself. By experiencing it yourself, you will be able to empathize with your customer and search for the best ways to deliver even more value for them.

From here, observe the potential touchpoints customers may have with your brand and think of the types of information your customers will likely search for. Each business is unique and what works for other businesses may not work for you. Therefore, it is extremely important to base your business decisions on real data.

There are plenty of tools you can use for market research and to explore certain topics and trends. Google Trends, for example, helps in learning more about the popularity of certain topics and industries which is useful in predicting the market direction.

Maximize the touchpoint opportunities and create relevant content according to those moments that will help in increasing your opportunity to grow closer with your customers.

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5 Digital Marketing Myths You Most Likely Haven’t Heard Of

Digital marketing myths come from misunderstandings. These are rather common when it comes to complicated topics such as online marketing. Make sure to keep a heads up for all things regarding this industry. Any news can be either an opportunity or a risk.

 In the following text, we will be describing some common myths that most people assume about digital marketing. 

1. “Digital Marketing is Everything”

Digital marketing has definitely become the marketing area of choice for most businesses. Brands these days are much too diverse to assume that traditional marketing does not work for them.

Digital marketing is a form of acquiring customers is getting harder every day to tap into. This is due to how much competition there is. Some traditional marketing channels that are still widely used today. For example, billboard advertisements, networking, giving away free product samples, and, of course, cold calling.

Most corporate brands use both traditional and digital marketing to execute a truly omnichannel marketing strategy. With this method, their marketing flawlessly fits into their customers’ lifestyles.

These strategies work amazingly for bigger brands. However, only 8% of all businesses with an omnichannel strategy believe that they have mastered it.

Digital marketing can be highly interactive for your ideal audience. Nevertheless, traditional marketing can also work just as effectively when done right.

2. “Paid Ads Alone is Enough” 

Customers that you are advertising to are real people, not just data.

Another digital marketing myth is that many people think that paid ads alone will work for their business. Paid ads are definitely one of the best tools to use in promoting your business. This is because you can bring people from Google’s search page into your website. However, if your website does not have a responsive design, you will simply be throwing your money down the drain. 

Hence, it is extremely important to keep in mind that a business requires much more than just paid ads in an effective digital marketing strategy

A study has shown that website visitors can take just 50 milliseconds to judge if your website is worth staying on. Therefore, any digital marketer and business owner must know more than just this channel.

For example, website optimization and an attractive ad are all essential parts of successfully converting leads.

3. “Online Negative Reviews Will Affect My Business”

It is true that negative reviews can chase potential customers away. People are eager to vent about negative experiences on a product or service, especially with the advantage of online anonymity.

However, that is not a reason to fear them. There are plenty of solutions that will help you turn negative reviews around to something that can help your brand. 

Of course, we all would love to have an entire list of feedback filled with positive reviews. We know that positive reviews mean that you have made your customers happy through your products or services.

But it is never possible to satisfy everyone. 

On the other hand, negative reviews can also help your business. It is one way for you to really listen to your customers and learn how to improve your business.

Research has suggested that complaining customers are more likely to revisit a business compared to unhappy silent businesses.

Another way to turn this problem into a brand-building strategy is to have a great customer support service in place. If the complaint is handled well, you may be able to clear out your problem. Complainers are likely to come back to leave a positive review or even delete their own negative reviews. Therefore, there is no need to fear those negative reviews as long as you know you can handle them well.

4. “I Can Get Instant Results” 

This myth is not entirely a myth. 

It is true that paid ads can definitely bring you relatively fast results. It is only when you have the right target audience and products, however. But it is unlikely for it to be any close to ‘instant results’. 

While some businesses may be able to get results within a few hours, it is not always the case. Think about it from the customer’s perspective. If you saw one advertisement for an interesting product, you probably wouldn’t buy it. Not unless you really felt like you needed it enough to make the impulse purchase. 

If you were to see the same interesting brand over the span of a few days, then you might be interested in what they are trying to communicate. In this case, customers are then more likely to convert.

There are also plenty of other digital marketing channels that require time and expertise. SEO, for example, usually takes 2-6 months for your website to start ranking page one on search engines.

Hence, instant results may not always apply to every business and, as with all things, sacrifice comes before success.

5. “Email Marketing is Spam” 

Despite most people’s inbox being a mess of a junkyard for emails, good email marketing is still reported by small business owners as the second most effective strategy in building their brand awareness.

Email marketing does not always have to be spammy. There is a difference between effective prospecting emails and spammy ones. 

To avoid sending your emails into the abyss, make sure that you know who you are writing to. Also, add an attractive subject line. Your customers will judge your email within the first few milliseconds of reading those subject lines. 

One method to train yourself to write great email subject lines is to look at your own email inbox. Observe the ones you’ve opened or ones that attract you. 

What made them worthy of your click?

Observe this and apply it to your own email subject lines when writing.

Another important factor to ensure your emails won’t be spammy is to create valuable and relevant content in those emails. These could be personalized, educational, or offer-related.

Conclusion

Now that those myths are busted, I believe you now have a better understanding of what digital marketing is. It is not easy to market any brands online. Every business requires its own customized combination of channels and content strategies. Constant tweaking of your social media and websites will also help to keep your online profile modern.

If you are ready to grow your business with digital marketing, but you are not sure where to start. Let Marketing Guru help you and get your free consultation today!