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CRO is a straightforward process once the right data is in place. Collecting data is the tough part and a one-stop shop like Zarget offers a plethora of CRO tools that make life easier for a digital marketer.

The post 3 CRO Techniques for Boosting Conversions in 2017 by @sejournal appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

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Much more than just a buzzword, disruptive marketing is changing the way we react to, understand and accept companies and their advertising. From a business standpoint, disruptive marketing represents a key shift in an era where promotional strategies update as fast as the technology that carries them.

From a consumer standpoint however, all of this change can lead to uncertainty and confusion. Here’s how some of today’s top companies are changing the marketing space through disruption – and what you can learn from them.

What is Disruptive Marketing?

“Disruption is all about risk-taking, trusting your intuition, and rejecting the way things are supposed to be. Disruption goes way beyond advertising, it forces you to think about where you want your brand to go and how to get there.” – Richard Branson

Disruptive marketing is taking all the marketing rules you’ve heard and practiced faithfully – and stomping on them. It’s never settling for the way things are, but rather turning “the way it’s done” on its head. Disruptive marketing shakes things up by changing customer perceptions about not just the company – but the industry as a whole.

And here’s the important part. Because they’ve changed our perception entirely, we come to associate new, better and more positive feelings with the company and brand that started it.

Want an example?

Ask anyone around in the technological boom of the late 1990s if you should have bought an Apple computer back then.

After they finish laughing, they’ll likely explain to you that Apple products were regarded as bland, overpriced garbage.

Not only were they overpriced but most of what they came up with were rehashed clones of products that were superior in terms of processing power, features, price and available software. Apple’s stock tanked, if you can believe it, to a low of $4 per share.

Today, agree with it or not, Apple is synonymous with sleek, sophisticated, forward-looking products. People wait for hours, even days, in line to score the latest iPhones. What brought about such a shift? The design of an MP3 player in an age when most people were touting Discmans as the ultimate in portable music. And the innovation just kept growing from there.

That’s the kind of effect that disruptive marketing can have on not just a brand, but an entire industry and the way we perceive it. But not everyone can pull off a disruptive marketing campaign. No matter what industry you’re in, all of these types of campaigns have a few selective traits in common.

Key Traits All Disruptive Marketing Initiatives Have in Common

So what exactly makes a disruptive campaign…disruptive? Disruptive brands don’t just push the envelope, they crumple it up and throw it in the trash. They’re not afraid to be daring and break the status quo. But for all the buzz they generate, they also need to be able to ride the peaks and valleys successfully, as not everyone will be accepting of their challenge to a traditional mindset.

Here’s another great example, from the Singapore Red Cross. How many times have you been told in your life that you should donate blood? Probably many times. You know it can save lives and yet very few people take the time to do it – particularly healthy, young people. The Singapore Red Cross decided to change that with an ad that capitalized on young people’s love of selfies and celebrities by doing an ad called “Blood Ties”.

Music. Blogging. Comedy. All things that attract the younger generation. Forget the preachy “you need to give blood!” demands – this kind of ad speaks to them exactly in a way that resonates. It’s a win-win.

Why Customers Love Disruptive Marketing

Most customers love disruptive marketing because it changes the face of how we perceive advertising. If done well enough, it even becomes a part of our vocabulary. When was the last time you called a cab? When was the last time you called an Uber? There are even more reasons that customers respond so well to disruptive marketing. Namely:

It’s Approachable

Disruptive marketing often tells a story in a way that consumers can understand. In one example from Spain that went viral around the world, an ad against child abuse showed an image of a child with the caption “sometimes child abuse is only visible to the child suffering from it.”

Most adults got the message, but its true impact was understood only by children. Using lenticular technology, when viewed from a certain height, the ad’s message changed entirely:

From a child’s height, the message showed the boy with bruises and cuts indicative of abuse, and the ad read “if someone hurts you, call us and we’ll help you.” The ad was meant to speak to victims of abuse even – and especially –when they’re out with their abuser.

It’s Affordable

Disruptive marketing doesn’t have to break the bank in order to be effective. It just has to change how things are done – even a little. Case in point: Air fresheners. You probably don’t give much thought to buying them. You just want something that smells good, right?

But what if you could do more than that? What if you could create an entire mood just by the scent that best describes your décor? Airwick created such a quiz-style design with its Scent Decorator:

By clicking just a few images, you get a better idea of the feeling you want to create in your room, along with recommended air fresheners to complement it. Not bad for a can of smelly air, is it? This kind of process takes an ordinary, inexpensive thing and transforms it into something more – and that’s the kind of disruption that customers can feel comfortable with.

It’s Often Imitated, Never Duplicated

One of the best reasons customers (and businesses) respond so favorably to disruptive marketing – especially after the initial shock wears off, is because it can’t easily be duplicated. There’s only one Airbnb. Only one Red Bull. Only one Apple. Companies who try similar tactics to position their brand in a related way will be ignored in favor of the first to have done it. And when you have that kind of a lead on the competition, it makes sense to do everything you can to stay one step ahead.

It Hits a Common Touchpoint

Disruptive marketing is that loud and sometimes obnoxious friend that says what we’re all secretly thinking. The Dollar Shave Club turned subscription-based marketing into a huge trend by offering razors for $1 a month. But the reason they found such success wasn’t because of their pricing – it was because their founders came together over a common complaint: They were tired of expensive razors with ironclad packaging and countless “technological features” like flashlights, ionized organic coatings and salad slicers built into the handle, and still the same painful, bumpy shave.

It remains to be seen if Dollar Shave Club can keep up the disruption that their viral videos were famous for – especially after being bought for a BILLION dollars by personal care and shaving giant Unilever.

Now It’s Your Turn…

What are your thoughts on disruptive marketing? Have you seen a particular ad campaign that really changed the way you perceived a particular brand or industry? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

About the Author: Sherice Jacob helps business owners improve website design and increase conversion rates through compelling copywriting, user-friendly design and smart analytics analysis. Learn more at iElectrify.com and download your free web copy tune-up and conversion checklist today!

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After a holiday season full of delightful indulging, millions of people make an optimistic New Year’s resolution to stay fit or lose the extra pounds they put on from those festive parties and family get-togethers. To help, starting today we’re piloting a new way to easily book fitness and wellness classes. Reserve with Google will be available in Los Angeles, New York City and the San Francisco Bay Area, to make keeping up with your resolutions easier than ever.

To book a fitness class, visit the Reserve with Google site on desktop or mobile web. There you can search for fitness studios near you, get great recommendations for fun new classes, or book a spot in the session you already know and love.

Over the coming days, you’ll be able to do this right from Google Maps and Google Search, as well.

Reserve with Google is possible through deep partnerships with top scheduling providers you may already use, including MINDBODY, Full Slate, Front Desk, Appointy — and we’ll be adding more, like zingFit, MyTime, and Genbook soon.

So pull out your yoga mat, dust off your running shoes, and fill up that water bottle. Reserve with Google will help make completing your New Year’s resolution as easy as click, click, booked.

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Editor’s note: As part of the ExploreEDU event series, schools are working with Google for Education Premier Partners to throw open their doors and invite neighboring educators to learn first-hand from their own experiences using Google tools to innovate and improve. To see if there is an event near you, visit the ExploreEDU site. For those who can’t join in person, we’ll also share the schools’ experiences here. Today’s guest author is Nicholas Gooch, Director of Technology, from Grain Valley School District. The school is hosting an event on Dec. 15-16 with Best Buy.

It’s daunting to realize that many of us are preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist and a world we can’t quite imagine. At Grain Valley School District, we’ve designed our schools to prepare students for the future workplace. We’ve created our curriculum to emphasize communication and creativity. We’ve done away with the traditional 100-point grading system to instead focus on helping students master their subjects. We’ve even started the process of redesigning our high school campus to create dedicated spaces for group and individual learning.

We see technology as critical to helping students master the skills they’ll need in the 21st-century workplace. We began integrating technology into everyday learning by launching G Suite for Education at our high school, two middle schools and four elementary schools during the 2014-15 school year. Last year our high school became the first of our schools to go 1:1 with Chromebooks. Each of our 1,250 high school students has access to a Chromebook that they can use in class and at home. With the help of technology and the support of our innovative teaching staff, here are a few ways we changed how we educate to better prepare students for the future:

Fostering teacher leadership and innovation

To empower our teachers to push the envelope and take more risks with technology in the classroom, we created Breakthrough Learning cohorts. The cohorts are made up of elementary and secondary teachers who applied for the program. One day each month, these teachers work with our instructional technology coaches to learn the best practices for integrating technology into their curriculum. These sessions go beyond typical “how-to” sessions and instead focus on helping teachers make learning, assessment, and digital citizenship a seamless component of the classroom. Not only does the program develop this capacity in our own teachers, it allows them to do the same for their fellow teachers.

High school students using TV screens to collaborate on shared assignment.

Emphasizing subject-mastery over grades

In 2006, school and district leadership reexamined the 100-point grading system. They decided to try a new approach — helping students achieve subject mastery rather than measuring them on a graded scale. Standards-based grading and feedback practices have been fully integrated at the high school since the 2013-2014 school year. Today, we personalize each student’s learning program. Google Classroom has also helped us emphasize the learning process rather than a final grade. Teachers can easily give feedback on an assignment, even before a student has turned it in.

Building for collaboration

The new architecture for our high school is designed to make it easier for students to study together outside of class. We’re creating communal spaces with whiteboard walls and TV screens. Students can use these TV screens to visualize projects they’re working on together — for instance, a presentation they’ve made in Google Slides. We’re also providing WiFi access and ample charging stations for laptops and mobile devices across the campus. Over the next few years we hope to introduce similar changes to other schools in the district.

We’re excited to be hosting an ExploreEDU event on December 15-16. If you’re in the area, join us to hear more about how we redesigned our approach to teaching and learning for the 21st century, supported by technology and an openness to change.

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SEO fixes tend to get pushed further down the development queue as their benefit is harder to put a number on. While you can usually put a definitive number on CRO or UX fixes, SEOs tend to fall into the trap of parroting back Google guidelines, or best practice recommendations, which quite frankly do not stand up to the scrutiny of hard and fast projections.

What if I told you I could give you a process which can put a definitive number on the returns you would get from SEO fixes? At Zazzle Media, we lead all our recommendations with data. We ground this with keywords, but then pull all the information we can about our competitors to make informed decisions. We then use past, current and predicted keyword rankings for the affected pages and project traffic levels based upon estimated click through rates.

Why Keywords?

Why do we use keywords to estimate traffic levels when we already have traffic in Google Analytics? GA is not as clean a data set. You’re not going to get an improvement to your branded traffic levels so it will need to be excluded from your data set, and this is pretty much going to be guesswork. Seasonal traffic also need to be removed; while search volumes are subject to seasonal volume alike, we’re looking to measure the impact excluding these factors. A yearly average of search volume is sufficient for this. Stripping out seasonality from GA traffic is trickier.

Keyword rankings exclude the white noise which affects Google Analytics, and allows us to sidestep the above tricky questions. Once completed you will be able to say:

“The current average ranking position of the four affected pages is 5.4. Should we fix the issue it will affect 78 keywords in ranking positions, moving our average position across the pages to 4.2, which will equate to an additional 6428 clicks per year. For a full breakdown of the affected pages and keywords please see my report.” Now that is how to win an argument!

Methodology

To complete this task, you will need a complete list of keywords, search volumes and rankings. From there we’ve got a great little template which puts it all together and which you can download here.

So to begin with you’ll need all the keywords you rank for. When I say all I mean all. You only get out what you put in and I cannot stress how critical it is to this task that you get every possible keyword you rank for. Here’s how I would do it. First I’d go into every rank tracking tool; SEMRush, AHrefs, Sistrix and others and export a full list of my domain’s keywords, ranking and search volumes.

Don’t neglect the free tools! Google Search Console and the Adwords Keyword Planner are both invaluable additions which some of you will have to lean on more should you have a limited toolset.

While the export feature in the GSCs Search Analytics report only allows up to 1000 rows at a time, you can get around this restriction with filters. Only select a single URL and pull an export. Make sure you’re keeping tracking of the URL in the export as you will need this later.

Another way of getting a ton of free keywords is with the keyword planner report. Take full advantage of every report available here; product/service (your keywords), top landing pages and the multiply keyword combination report.

By this point you should have a monster set of keywords. Get them all into a single sheet and remove duplicates. Here you want to sense check your keywords for irrelevant/branded keywords which won’t be delivering any targeted traffic. Without a clean data set our analysis is pretty much useless so make sure you’re hot on this.

You’ll need up to date rankings for every single one of your keywords – if you haven’t already get these you can use URL profilers simple serp scraper. You’ll also need search volumes which will be a bit of a pain if you haven’t got access to an active adwords account. I’m currently using the chrome bookmark Keywords Everywhere which is a good alternative.

Once you’ve got all this it’s time to fire up our keyword template. Go straight to the Keywords and Rankings sheet and copy your keywords, search volumes, rankings and ranking URLs into the relevant columns. From here on in drag the formulas present in rows G through to K down to the bottom of your keyword set and you should have something resembling the following:

I’ve hidden the categorisation tabs here as we don’t need it initially. This template is a great strategy tool with a large range of uses, but as we’re only concerned with traffic by URL for this task most of it isn’t required. If you would like to look into the other uses for this template you can read up on it at our blog.

Okay – now to explain what’s going on. The estimated traffic column will multiply the search volume by the relative position’s click-through rate (estimated CTRs are available in the CTR Ref sheet). So for example, if you were in position one for 1,000 searches a month keyword, you’d capture 26% of the searches which would equal 260 clicks per month.

The maximum traffic column simply multiplies the search volume by position one’s CTR to give you the total traffic you could ever capture for the associated keyword.

The incremental traffic column takes the current traffic away from the total traffic to give you an estimate on how much traffic is available for your keyword to capture should your rankings increase.

Position range and opportunity group pull in from their relative position on the CTR Ref sheet. We will come back to these later.

So the easiest way to sort through all this data is through a pivot table. Highlight all the columns, then insert a pivot table into a new sheet and use the following setup:

Sort your rows by URL and then keyword. This allows us to see a breakdown of the total performance of each of your URLs, while expanding the field can show individual keyword performance.

Columns are sorted by values. We can now see the average position of your URL, amount of keywords the URL ranks for, the total traffic going into this page and the total incremental traffic available.

It is important to filter your pivot table by opportunity group and exclude long terms and no ranking keywords. This allows you to only see keywords which are currently giving you traffic, making the incremental metric as relevant as possible as it won’t be skewed by keywords we have no chance to rank well for.

Finally, sort your URL by estimated traffic and you will be left with something like this:

I just ran a quick export of search engine watch’s keywords. You can see that I didn’t exclude any branded or irrelevant keywords straight away. Apparently SEW are getting a ton of traffic from the term Duck Duck Go. I don’t think so! Do you think they get traffic for the term Search Engine Land? That one is up for debate. I personally would go into GSC’s Search Analytics report for guidance here; if it shows up high on the list keep it in. Here is is updated pivot table which looks more accurate:

Now, you’ve got all the tools you need to build a business case. Technical fixes you’re chasing will broadly fall into two categories, proactive and reactive. You’ll need to use the tool differently in each instances so I will run through a few examples below.

Example 1

We’re going to use proteinworld.com as the example here. Let’s say we don’t think our internal linking is optimised for search. Key pages are several clicks from the homepage and we want to improve this but don’t know where to begin.

We begin as we always should, by following the above methodology. This allows us to benchmarking our current performance; we end up with an ordered list of amount of available growth by keywords which are already ranking well. This is our foundation.

I would then do a screaming frog crawl of the site and get the clicks from homepage metric. Add these onto the end of the Keywords and Rankings sheet and update your pivot table to include your results. We now have a table which looks like this:

Here we can see straight away, the top page isn’t even the homepage. It’s a whey protein product page which is three clicks from the homepage. In fact, only two (three with the homepage) out of the top ten pages are in the main navigation! We’ve now identified a significant opportunity to improve the visibility of multiple pages on site.

We now need to work through them individually to analyse how much growth we can achieve. We can’t predict a positional increase without understanding what we are up against. We need to compile our competitors’ rankings, technical implementation and website authority, then we need to find a competitor with similar metrics to us, just who have better internal linking. The difference in traffic should be a projected traffic increase; simple right?

I actually just started again with a fresh spreadsheet at this point, but I just like to have things clean. So I took every keyword which the whey protein page ranked for, I pulled off every ranking URL and their relative position and added it to my new spreadsheet. I quickly identified the top sites by estimated traffic and number of keywords ranking for and ran all the top sites through screaming frog to get the clicks from homepage metrics. Finally, I ran my domains through URL profiler to get their trust flow (Ahref’s domain rating is just as good metric for this).

The theory here is that, while you can build links to improve your site’s authority, the overall authority is relatively out of your control. Replicating a fix to move your site in line with Amazon technically is not going to elevate your rankings to their level if your domain’s authority sucks.

Here are my results, rows are ordered by domain and sorted by count of keywords:

As I have sorted columns by domain and then URL, expanding the sections allow me to see exactly where this traffic is coming from:

We can go one step further and see which keywords are driving the traffic:

They’re absolutely killing it on the head term. P.5 on the term whey protein with a product page, with lower authority metrics. How are they doing it? Surely it can’t be just the internal linking? Of course it’s not.

If you take a look, their on-page content is awesome:

http://www.theproteinworks.com/whey-protein-80-concentrate

They’ve got star ratings, reviews and an absolutely awesome FAQ content section at the bottom of the page:

This is great news for us though, as it is something we can go out and do a lot quicker than say, boosting your trust flow by 30 points. Reviews might need development time… if only you have a business case for that.

All we have to do is go to our pivot table. Grab our current traffic estimates and our competitors’ estimates, and then pull off affected URLs. So in this instance:

https://www.proteinworld.com/whey-protein-isolate.html

Average Position 11
Estimated Clicks Per Month: 416
Keywords we expect to see an increase on:
iso whey protein
isolate protein
isolate whey protein

(etc).

Projected Position 6
Projected Clicks Per Month: 2623
Projected Increase in Clicks Per Month: 2207

We then just repeat the process for every affected URL which we believe is under-optimised. This basic process applies to any proactive fix you want to push through:

Identify affected pages
Estimate improvements to rankings based upon competitor implementation and link metrics
Project traffic increases based upon estimate rankings improvements.

Example 2

Reactive fixes are a lot easier to project; the most important part of the exercise is to regularly run rankings, especially before and after technical fixes are deployed. Let’s say, for example, that your site does a redesign and despite your wishes, the new category template moves the main body of content below the fold.

In the template just duplicate your positional and estimated traffic volumes, and add in a new column which takes the new estimated traffic from the old.

Jump into the pivot table and update it, comparing your affected URLs pre and post launch traffic and build a business case from this. Here is an example of what this might look like:

We’ve got the average positions and lost traffic all laid out for you. If you sort the pivot rows by URL and then keyword you can highlight exactly where you have lost traffic at the click of a button.

A weak argument which parrots Google guidelines and best practices is unconvincing, especially to the uninitiated to SEO. We can all understand data, we can all understand competitor intelligence. Using this approach wins arguments and silences doubters.

Failure to justify your recommendations can see even the best recommendations fail to get off the ground.

 

Tom is a Search and Data Consultant at Zazzle Media and a contributor to Search Engine Watch

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Posted by MiriamEllis

Two dates to know: August 4, 2010 – the day Google enabled owner responses to Google My Business reviews; November 17, 2016 – the day Moz enabled incredibly easy GMB owner response functionality in the Moz Local dashboard. Why are these noteworthy events in Local Search history?

Because reviews and owner responses are direct reputation management, free marketing, free advertising, damage control, and quality control all wrapped up in one multi-voice song about your brand.

What’s missing from the picture of this free-for-all of voices caroling sentiment about your brand? You are — the conductor! If you’re not leading the tune — from setting customer service policies, to training staff, to managing complaints, to engaging directly with consumers online — you’re giving up available reputation management controls.

Make no mistake: No brand can prevent every sour note, but with owner response functionality, you can not only retune relationships with valuable customers, but can also protect revenue by keeping those customers instead of having to invest 25x as much in obtaining new ones. Owner response mastery is, indeed, smart business.

For the past six years, since Google launched owner responses as part of its local product, I’ve been studying them and acting as a consultant to a variety of local business owners and agencies regarding effective usage of this remarkable capability. Today, in celebration of Moz Local’s support of this function, I’m going to break down the types of reviews into 5 categories and offer you my tips for skilled management. With reputation and revenue on the line, every local brand needs an intelligent strategy!

Getting up-to-speed on owner responses

During our recent launch, a Moz community member let us know he’d never heard of owner responses before, so real quick: Many review platforms give you the option, as the business owner, to respond to reviews your customers have left you. This is normally done from within your dashboard on that platform, or, in some cases, via mobile apps.

In the Moz Local dashboard, the Google My Business owner response function is a real time-saver. We alert you when new reviews come in, and you simply click the ‘reply’ link to write your response. A little form pops up in which you can type away handily:

Now let’s delve into responding to the five basic types of reviews most local brands can expect to receive.

Type 1: “I love you!”
Real-world example:

Diagnosis: This is the customer every brand wants to have: the delighted evangelist who goes to the lengths of saying that nothing else on the local scene can compare to what the business offers. Honestly, reviews like this are like beautiful greeting cards validating that your business is getting it right on all points. Pure music to your ears!

Owner response strategy:

Many business owners ask if it’s necessary to respond to positive reviews. My short answer is yes, if you wish your business to come across as courteous and engaged. Part of conducting the flow of your reputation is acknowledging customer satisfaction and thanking them for the time they invest in writing such nice things about your company. It’s just good manners.

Having said this, I’ll qualify it by mentioning scale. If your enterprise has 100+ locations which each have 100+ positive Google My Business reviews, responding to every single one may not be the best use of your resources. Prevent the appearance of ungrateful neglect by aiming for a percentage — maybe 10% — of ‘thank yous’ in response to your best reviews.

Pro tips:

Your thanks can be brief, but avoid repetitiousness. Write a unique response each time. There are owner response profiles out there that have made me strongly suspect robots manage them, as in ‘thank you for your review’ written on 30 different responses. Avoid that.
Remember that owner responses are content consumers read. They are, in essence, free advertising space. Don’t go over the top with this, but if a customer mentions something they love, latch onto that. In our sample review above, the owner could mention that comments like this one inspired them to bottle their hot sauce for retail sales, or they could mention that they actually just won a best-in-Bay-Area award from X publication. Think products, services, and hyperlocal/local terminology. No, don’t put the hard sell on the customer in the owner response, but use this real estate with savvy. If there’s something you think a happy customer would be excited to know, promote it in a nice, friendly way!
Positive reviews indicate that a customer is already in a good, receptive mood. The more personable your owner response, the more of an impression your business can make, encouraging the customer to come back for more. Here, company culture, personality, and fun can shine. Your customer thinks you are special — act like it in the response.

Suggested owner response:

Hi Charley!

We were just thrilled by your review — in fact, we showed it to Chef Rosa, because the pique sauce you love is based on her grandmother’s traditional recipe brought from Puerto Rico in the 1930s. It’s the real deal, and we’re actually offering it bottled for retail now right next to the hostess stand at both our San Rafael and San Francisco locations, based on diner requests. Hint: one secret ingredient is apple cider vinegar, but that’s all we can say! We’d love to see you back soon, and Chef Rosa says, “Thank you for the lovely compliment.” ‘Best in the Bay Area’ makes us all proud!

Good Eating!

Marta Sanchez, Owner

Type 2: “My mind isn’t made up yet.”
Real-world example:

Diagnosis: A 3-star rating is the hallmark of the consumer who likes some things about your business, but isn’t totally loyal yet. They may/may not return and may/may not recommend you to others. Undecided patrons represent an exciting challenge to transform dissatisfactory aspects of your business and specific consumer sentiment, all at the same time.

Owner response strategy:

The honesty of a less-than-5-star review, when written in detail, delivers two valuable assets to your brand: it tells you where you’re hitting and where you’re missing, giving you the opportunity to improve and turn a lukewarm consumer into a loyal one.

Strategy for the owner response involves thanking for praise, accepting responsibility for faults, apologizing for disappointments, and making some kind of an offer. This offer, meant to sweeten the pitch that you hope the consumer will give your company a second chance, could be a comp or a coupon for future use, or it could simply be an explanation of how you have heard their feedback and made changes.

Pro tips:

Express gratitude for consumer complaints — they are valuable. Do not attempt to shift blame onto anyone else, including the customer or staff members.
Document both the positive and negative sentiment of so-so reviews and use it as your playbook for keeping what’s good and improving what isn’t excellent.
Be sure the customer feels heard. Cite their complaints back to them. By doing so, you are demonstrating to all future potential customers that your brand is responsive to feedback.

Suggested owner response:

Dear Yesenia,

We’re so grateful to you for letting us know that our prices, staff, and in-hotel restaurants pleased you, and, I also want to express my thanks to you for mentioning that the housekeeping wasn’t exceptional. I need to hear that, and take full responsibility for the dusty room. I have been trying a variety of cleaning services this past year, with the goal of finding the best.

While I want to be sure that every guest knows we honor any requests during their stay (just dial 9 on your in-room phone), I also want to let you know that, based on your comments, I held an all-staff meeting with our current cleaning service and have issued a new 10-point cleaning checklist (including dusting all surfaces) for each housekeeper. Should you honor us with a second stay, I personally guarantee you will find your room immaculate, and I would also like to offer your party a free breakfast in the Palm Room, as you enjoyed our restaurants. Just tell them Rob sent you, and it will be our pleasure to serve you! Thank you for your valuable and honest review.

Cordially,

Rob Brown, Owner

Type 3: “There was hair in my taco…”
Real-world example:

Diagnosis: The dreaded 1-star review! The customer has a specific, legitimate complaint, and your job as the owner is to address their dissatisfaction, take responsibility, and, whenever possible, make an offer to make things right. A negative review is likely the last life preserver an unhappy customer will throw you — a last chance to earn them back with superior responsiveness. Given the cost of replacing them, rewards for the effort can be great. When a customer ‘saves you’ by making their complaints known, an adept response from you may ‘save them’ in return, earning their repeat business.

Pro tips:

Apologize!!! Say the words, “I’m sorry, I apologize.”
No blame shifting, no lectures — just total accountability, humility, and a willingness to learn.
Be as honest as possible about whatever circumstance led to the customer’s bad experience, and state what you’re doing to improve that circumstance. Sometimes, the circumstances may include faults on the customer’s part. If you have to mention these in order to be honest, do so with great care and no blame, as in the sample response below.
Negative reviews often run on for agonizing paragraphs and chapters, but your response should not. Be thorough, but concise.
Offer something, even if it’s just a few minutes of your time on the phone, to try to make it right.
Aim for a ‘wow’ factor — as in you want future potential customers to say, “Wow, this business really cares!” when they read the response.
For more tips on managing negative reviews, please read Diagramming The Story of a 1 Star Review.
Document all complaints; they are incredibly valuable both in terms of damage control and quality control. Consider doing a full review audit on a set schedule to catch emerging problems and resolve them.

Suggested owner response:

Dear Vivi,

This is Dr. Tom, and I want to begin by apologizing for the inconvenience you experienced. I hate to think of you having wasted both time and gas on this. I’m so sorry.

I regret that you missed the message about hours for the shot clinic on our homepage, and your review has made me concerned that other patients may be missing it, too. Thanks for alerting me to this. Here’s what we’ve done:

Enlarged the homepage hours message + included those hours in the header of every website page
Put this at the top of our Facebook page
Updated our off-hours phone message to include the info that folks need to come in by 3:00 to ensure walk-in service.

Will you give me a second chance to make this right for you? It’s so important that your pet gets proper shots. Please phone and let my receptionist know Dr. Tom is offering you a priority appointment, any day of the week, and I’d like to make friends with your pup by treating him to one of our wonderful new chew toys. Hoping to have the great pleasure of caring for you and your awesome companion animal!

Kindly,

Dr. Tom

Type 4: “I’m actually your competitor.”
Real-world example:

Diagnosis: Unfortunately, fake reviews happen. They may stem from unscrupulous competitors, disgruntled past employees, or individuals with personal grudges against someone at the company. The line to walk here is whether the reviews are simply false (warranting a response + Google action) or citing such defamatory or illegal practices that you should consult with a lawyer before taking any further action. Our real-world example is of the former kind — it illustrates what a fake review might look like with sentiment that is negative but not accusing the business of criminal activity.

Pro tips:

If research has made you aware that a review has been left by a competitor or by someone who is not a customer, that’s a violation of Google’s Review Policy.
First, leave a brief owner response to the review (as shown in my sample response below) to alert consumers to the falsity of the review. Note: I don’t advise ‘outing’ the bad actor — it’s not professional.
Second, follow Google’s steps for flagging the review. I suggest waiting 24 hours after doing this before moving on.
Next, on that same page, you will see options for speaking directly with Google via phone, chat, or email. Contact Google to let them know about the fake review you have flagged. Hopefully, they will be able to rectify this for you and remove the review.
However, if you get a rep who doesn’t seem to understand your issue, turn to the Google My Business Community, post the complete details of your scenario, and beg for a Top Contributor to help escalate your issue.
Don’t expect a quick fix. You may have to be persistent to obtain resolution.
But, again, please don’t take these steps if a review accuses your business of something illegal. We’ll cover that, below, in Type 5.

Suggested owner response:

To Our Valued Customers,

Sadly, after researching this, our company discovered that this review was left by a competitor. We are taking the appropriate steps to report this to Google, and we hope having this fake review removed will encourage this unfortunate competitor to seek other, more honest forms of promoting his business. If he persists, we will engage appropriate legal counsel.

SMH,

Jim Davis, Owner

Type 5: “I’m citing illegal stuff.”
Real-world example:

Diagnosis: Whether a negative review is true or false, any time illegal or dangerous behavior is cited, it’s a cue to you that you need to speak with an attorney before taking any further steps. Don’t respond and don’t attempt to have the review removed, as both could be used as evidence in a court of law. Seek an attorney well-versed in cyber law and act on his or her advice, rather than on any advice you may read on the Internet or receive from marketers, friends, etc. And if you run an SEO agency, I urge you not to advise clients on Type 5 reviews — we’re SEOs, not attorneys, and shouldn’t be consulting on legal matters.

Orchestrating the ideal owner response environment

If you already have an excellent customer service training program in place at your business, chances are good that you will mostly be managing Type 1 and Type 2 reviews with only the occasional Type 3. Types 4 and 5 will hopefully be the exception rather than the rule. Given that one 2016 survey found that 57% of consumer complaints relate to employee behavior, we can estimate that at least half of your reputation is anchored to the quality of your staff hiring and training practices. So, definitely place first and fundamental focus there, and then manage the ensuing consumer sentiment as it flows in with these tips:

Observe the typical rate at which you normally receive reviews. It could be a few per week, or if you’re managing multiple locations, numerous reviews per day.
What you observe dictates how frequently you need to monitor your reviews. If you’re a Moz Local customer, we’ll conveniently alert you as each new review comes in, and you can check that as often as makes sense.
Avoid unnecessary customer frustration and bad reviews stemming from bad data. There must be literally millions of negative reviews on the web citing wrong phone numbers, wrong hours of operations, wrong addresses. Do a quick citation health check to see if your major local business listings are fomenting negative sentiment. Correct problems.
I’ve seen various theories about how quickly an owner should respond to reviews; my own opinion is ASAP, particularly when it comes to Type 2 and Type 3 reviews. If you are trying to catch complaints for the purpose of resolving them and winning back unhappy customers, there may be circumstances (like our example with the puppy shots) that make it vital to respond quickly to avoid customer loss.
While it may be ideal to have owners be the authors of all owner responses, scale may make that an untenable situation. If you are designating a staff member or marketer to represent the owner, prevent mistakes by clearly outlining company policies, voice, permissions, and objectives with that person.
Responsiveness can be a competitive difference maker. Observe your direct competitors; if they are careless about active management of reviews, you can take advantage by making your brand the one that always responds, demonstrating care and accessibility.
Know that expert owner responders experience thrilling victories, like having an unhappy customer update their review and raise their star ratings after receiving a great owner reply. These are rewards that make the input of effort well worth it!

Six years into Google’s rollout of the owner response function, I still encounter many business owners expressing fear of reviews. At the root of this, I often find that they feel powerless and overwhelmed by the prospect of managing their brand’s reputation.

It’s my hope that this post signals to every local business owner that you do, indeed, have significant power in this regard. Via the the right combination of skilled customer service and active review management, you can orchestrate an exceptional online reputation for your brand in concert with your customers, in harmony with your professional goals and dreams.

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Campus Exchange is a start-up exchange program hosted by Google for Entrepreneurs. We recently invited four start-ups from Korea and another four from Brazil, Ireland, Mexico, and Poland to join us at Campus Seoul for a week.  We gave them access to Startup:Con 2016, and hosted workshops on the topic of going global with their businesses. Two founders — Byungik Choi, CEO of CoolJam, the Korean start-up behind “Hum On!”, an app which transforms hummed melodies into musical soundtracks, and Pedro Matsumura Kayatt, co-founder of VRMonkey, a virtual reality start-up based in Brazil — share their insights from the exchange.  

What are some of the differences between running a start-up in your countries and elsewhere? 

Byungik of Cool Jamm (Korea): I’ve realized just how supportive the Korean government is of start-ups compared to some other countries. Mentors are readily available here—though I do think there’s always room for more role models who are open to sharing advice about their entrepreneurial journey. 

Pedro of VRMonkey (Brazil): Korea has a very tech-friendly environment that helps companies to perform better and even attract more investments. Brazil’s still an emerging country when it comes to technology—there aren’t many big tech players, and many people with a technical background end up going abroad. 

How do you think your experience at the Google Seoul Campus Exchange will shape your company?

Pedro: First thing we learned is to focus. Our VR studio has been doing a lot of things, and we should really focus on doing more in one particular area. We also learned how we can collaborate better with so many content providers to create really amazing VR experiences that’ll hopefully go mainstream.

Second, we now understand how important it is for our projects to be accessible in other languages. English is not enough. People in Korea and other countries want to play games in their own language. Plus, we understand that we can launch games and experiences that can also impact other regions, so we are exploring more themes—including Asian themes—to create more content. 

Byungik: First, it reminded me of the importance of English. For a global start-up, having fluent English skills are mandatory. Second, the dogfooding session taught us that we could get a lot of meaningful feedback from Googlers and other start-up members who are from different cultures. It was really helpful. We’ve now decided to do dogfooding sessions frequently.

Who was one of the most memorable entrepreneurs or people you met during this trip? 

Pedro: Wow, that is hard! I met so many amazing people during the program, but one guy who made me feel at home was Junsoo Kim, Chief Operating Officer of Reality Reflection. He invited me to their office and we spent a night there talking about the future of VR and sharing our companies’ projects over a pizza! It was a great time and made us rethink a lot of things about VRMonkey.

Byungik: All the participating start-ups are wonderful. FanFootage from Ireland was most impressive to me. I think it was a good example where a great idea and great technology are well-combined. And the Brazilian guys of VRMonkey were cool and friendly.

The week-long Campus Exchange in Seoul featured participants from all around the world, icnlduing FanFootage from Ireland, FEAT Sp. z o.o. from Poland,  Machina Wearable Technology from Mexico, VRMonkey from Brazil, and 1DAY1SONG, Cool Jamm, Maverick Co. and Busking TV all from Korea.

A panel on fundraising in Korea featuring Tim Chae of 500startups and Kihong Bae of Strong Ventures

What’s your advice to entrepreneurs seeking to expand their business?

Byungik: Staying humble. It is I who must ask for advice from other entrepreneurs because I just started my first start-up. Everything is new to me.

Pedro: My strongest advice would be to share. Be honest about what you are doing, do it in the best way you can imagine, and share your work with anyone interested in it. There are few secrets and almost no competitors when it comes to markets like mobile and VR because basically, the whole world is your client.

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It’s a week full of video launches! After Instagram’s debut of live video in the U.S. and the addition of 360 video to the Facebook Live experience comes Twitter’s launch of live video. Starting today, you can #GoLive on Twitter.

The post #GoLive Now: Twitter Launches Live Video by @rinadianewrites appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

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It is much more cost effective to keep a customer than it is to find a new one. In fact, according to a report by Adobe, returning customers account for up to 40% of a company’s revenue.

Trouble is, a 2016 small business survey revealed that while 72% of small businesses plan to allocate the majority of their marketing budget to customer acquisition, only 28% plan to allocate the majority to customer retention.

To help marketers refocus their retention plans — especially those in the ecommerce industry — I’ve put together six creative ways to keep your loyal customers coming back. Check them out below.

6 Little Ways to Reward Your Customers This Holiday Season
1) Offer a compelling discount.

By a compelling discount, I don’t simply mean “20% off your next order.” Instead, try a discount that will inspire your customer to continue shopping with you.

What does that look like? It depends. And there are a couple things to consider:

Focus on the value your product or service provides customers, not just the price you discount it by. In other words, position yourself in a way where buying your product is a complete no-brainer.
Choose your words carefully. According to research from Psychology Today, a “Get $ Off” promotion emphasizes achieving a gain, while the “Save $” wording emphasizes avoiding a loss — and customers recognize that difference.

For example, check out how T-Mobile positioned this holiday deal on the Samsung Gear S2:

2) Get personal.

Great customer service is about more than just solving your customer’s issue. Try going above and beyond by creating something awesome to remind your customers why they love your business.

For example, you might send out a personalized holiday card or thank you note to their home address. Even though we’re in a digital word, it means a lot to receive something handwritten, and capitalizing on the holiday spirit in this way can build a positive brand association.

Not only do the folks at Buffer engage their audience on social, but they also go out of their way to send handwritten cards, stickers, and t-shirts to their clients:

Wearing my @buffer t-shirt with pride. #bufferlove pic.twitter.com/bWpjalt2nW

— Jason Thompson (@nosaj_jason)
January 25, 2016

Their strategy works well because with every exchange, they are encouraging customers to become brand ambassadors.

3) Tap into referrals that reward.

Referrals are a great way to get customers to sell your products for you. It’s a simple evolution of word-of-mouth marketing, as customers usually refer friends or colleagues.

For example, when shopping with The Clymb, you are gently reminded to refer a friend in the website header:

Notice how it provides a clear call-to-action along with an incentive — $10 for your loyal customer and $10 for a future one — encouraging visitors to take action even before they start shopping.

4) Use premium packaging.

Anyone that’s spent any amount of time wresting with a roll of wrapping paper and tape dispenser knows the value of a pretty package. In fact, according to a 2015 Dotcom Distribution packaging study, 49% of online shoppers said that branded packaging made them more excited about receiving or opening an item, while 44% admitted that packaging reinforces that a product is worth its cost.

The lesson? First impressions make a huge difference in our fast-paced lives, so by using premium packaging you allow your product to stand out against others. Take Pad & Quill, for example. This tech accessories company packages its iPhone and iPad cases in paper with friendly messages printed on it. It even uses an authentic-looking Roman seal to give a more hand-wrapped feel.

5) Turn the small print into a feature.

Refund and exchange policies are often part of the small print on your website. During the holiday season, you have an opportunity to make them a feature. After all, these policies are in place to increase trust and promote sales, right? Make them known.

When buying gifts, customers prefer a return policy that ensures that if the recipient doesn’t like it, they can easily return it. If you can offer this, you have a better shot at increasing sales, while keeping your customers happy.

Nordstrom does a great job of displaying all of its holiday shopping, shipping, and return perks right on the homepage, giving potential and existing customers peace of mind during one of the more stressful times of the year:

6) Create a holiday-inspired video.

Why does everyone love and anticipate the John Lewis holiday advertisements year after year? Because they tell a story that evokes emotion.

Fortunately, you don’t need a million-dollar TV advertising budget to do this, just an idea for a great story. As video is becoming more and more popular, it’s key that you apply it to all areas of your marketing strategy.

Back in 2014, the Lowell Police Department went viral due to its “Christmas Surprise Traffic Stop” video. In the video, police officers asked the folks they pulled over for traffic violations questions about what they wanted for the holidays. Meanwhile, their behind-the-scenes crew quickly purchased the items and drove them to the scene. Watch the magic unfold below — trust us, it’s worth the four minutes:

The holiday season is a time of giving, so be creative with how you can implement goodwill into your marketing campaign.

Wrapping Up

Offering compelling discounts with creative call-to-actions will inspire your customers to buy, but great customer service is why they return.

Remember to focus on the value that you are bringing your customer, not just how low you can get your prices.

How are you creating the holiday cheer with your marketing this year? Share your ideas with us in the comments below.

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Hitting a wall in your SEO strategy can make planning your next move kind of hard. But if you’ve exhausted your current SEO strategy and feel like your recent efforts need a ramp-up, it might be time to start exploring the idea of paid search.

I know, it sounds expensive-and intimidating-and is it really more important than the SEO efforts I use to drive organic traffic?

The fact of the matter is, paid search plays an undeniable role in the success of many websites, and in order to rank among top tier competitors, you’re probably going to have to dabble in paid search at some point. Here are 5 reasons to make a PPC campaign your next move.

CTR of paid search is up, up, up!

You may recall last February, when Google eliminated right hand side advertisements. Since the elimination of those ads, paid search CTRs have risen 38%. For just 9 months, that’s a significant increase. The absence of that right hand side gives the paid ads you now see at the top of search results a red carpet for clickability.

Mobile is a must.

As you know by now, user behavior continues to reveal a major shift towards mobile browsing. Google has adjusted to and accounted for this shift by assuming a mobile first design to provide a better experience for users, giving you a great PPC mobile-friendly resource. Within your AdWords account you can adjust for optimized display across any device, including mobile phones.

PPC is a social affair.

Many major advertisers have increased the amount of targeted ads across social platforms. You’ve likely experienced how effective this form of paid search is firsthand, so it should come as no surprise that the share of social media visits produced across the major platforms (Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) has also increased significantly.

It works well for newbies.

If you have a relatively new website, PPC has the potential to get you a lot of bang for your buck. What many people overlook is the amount of time it takes to build up the necessary authority behind a domain to earn a top ranking spot. Organic search optimization alone will take a while, but paid search can put you right up in the top spots. You may have to pay more for keywords, but the ROI of having a top ranking website is well worth it.

You have more control.

Google can basically change what your listing says at any time, so there’s really no guarantee on what your meta, title tags, etc. will say. When you work through the paid search platform

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