Digital

By Doug Gunsolley

Marketing for businesses that serve the homeowner (think plumber, landscaper, roofer, etc.) has always been competitive.  But in today’s digital environment, having the right online presence can make a big difference in the success of your business.  Today’s busy homeowners are searching and sourcing online for services more than ever.  Here are some tactics and strategies to help your home services business leverage your digital presence to capture these customers.

Mobile-Friendly Site

Eighty percent of Internet users regularly browse the web on a mobile device. Additionally, Google recently decided to reduce the search engine ranking of websites that aren’t optimized for smaller screens. Due to these two factors, it’s become essential that your website is mobile friendly.  Having a responsive website that looks great and loads quickly on desktop, tablet, and mobile will help more users connect with your business.  Google studies also show that sites that are not mobile friendly are more than twice as likely to get abandoned than ones that are. If your site loads slowly or isn’t compatible with a mobile screen, your bounce rates are likely to increase. So, make sure your site is optimized for mobile with clear messaging about your business and strong call-to-actions to convert those site visitors into leads.

Accurate Listings Management

Having accurate business information on search engines and directory sites’ listings is critical for local search engine rankings.  Since Google can trust the businesses with accurate and consistent data, it ranks those businesses higher, making them more visible to searchers. Those with poor listings are pushed down in the search rankings, where customers are less likely to click on them and Google is less likely to be blamed for providing its users with inaccurate information.

Reviews

Studies show that, depending on demographic, up to  95% of consumers read online reviews before contacting a business.  Studies also show that even one negative review can drive away 30 potential customers. Reviews are also a factor in Google local search results. Therefore, it is imperative that businesses actively manage their online reputation so potential customers have confidence in reaching out.

SEO

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results.  Getting higher rankings for the services and products you offer leads to increased visibility and the likelihood that more potential customers will find you when they are searching online.  Good SEO is a long-term strategy to help keep your company visible and protect your rankings from search engine algorithm shifts.

Social Media

Your social media presence can provide a myriad of benefits to your business. Since over 80% of U.S. adults have a social media presence, sites such as Facebook and Instagram allow you to reach customers in a more informal way.  Sharing photos of completed projects, accomplishments of employees, and information about your community can help give a sense of your company’s personality and values.  Additionally, the reach and scale of these social media sites gives your business a larger overall digital footprint.

Blogging

Everybody loves to feel they are working with an expert in an industry.  Having a blog where you can discuss important topics and tips in your trade will allow you to show off your expertise and thought leadership. Being an authority in your field will allow customers to be confident in using your services.

These are just a few of the tactics and strategies that companies who target homeowners can employ to help their online presence.  Here at Connoisseur Digital we help many local businesses improve their online presence using these and additional tactics.  To learn more about how we can help your business grow, contact us today!

By Todd Moskowitz

If you want to grow your business, you need a buttoned-up marketing strategy that connects you with consumers when they are ready to buy. This article focuses on two simple elements of marketing which, if managed correctly, will make significant impact in helping you achieve more edge over your competitors.

Two Questions Worth Asking

1. Is your storefront visible online? Do consumers have to work hard to find you? If so, it will set your business back. 75% of consumers never scroll past the first page of results. The web is crowded. It’s mission critical to take every step possible to make it easy for customers to find you.
2. Do you have a sustainable strategy for managing your reviews/reputation? While business is dramatically influenced by the quality of your product or service, what matters more is what others believe to be true of you. Reputation truly plays a significant role in influencing public opinion. It’s worth assessing if you make an active effort to manage your reputation through responding to all online reviews – both positive and negative.

The above two factors work hand in hand. Here’s why: Ensuring you’re able to be found online not only makes it easy for people to find you, it also creates the opportunity for you to showcase your positive reviews once you are found (providing you are managing reviews effectively). At Connoisseur Media, we can help solve the entire puzzle with one solution: through our Local SEO: Review & Listings Management Portal.

How It Works

Part One: Listings Management to improve organic search performance

• Our Local SEO service includes managing a business’s online listings on all important platforms. This way the business can achieve pure consistency across the Internet.
• While accuracy across listings pages may sound trivial, it has a real effect on your organic search performance.
• If your business’s information is consistent across the Internet and has good reviews, Google will prioritize your listing and your business will appear in the search results.
• As noted above, 75% of searches never go past page one, which is why improving your organic search performance is so important.

Part Two:  Managing your reviews to improve your reputation and win more business

• Managing your reviews is an essential step to influencing public opinion about your business.
• Our service enables you to seamlessly manage all reviews from a single portal, rather than switching from one site to another (Facebook to Google, for instance).
• Additionally, our service seamlessly enables you to send out review requests to your best clients, which help to drive more positive reviews.
• Here is why it’s important to respond to online reviews:
  • 92% of consumers now read online reviews and 85% of consumers trust online reviews.
• Here is why it’s risky to not respond and manage reviews:
  • One negative review drives away 30 new customers per month
  • Unaddressed reviews lead to a 15% increase in churn

If you want to grow your business, you need a buttoned-up marketing strategy that connects you with consumers when they are ready to buy. Ensuring that you can be found, along with ensuring you have a solid reputation, are two very important steps to connecting the dots on the Internet.  If you’re looking to increase your business’s presence and reputation online, contact our team of dedicated professionals. We look forward to putting your business on the front page!

By Doug Gunsolley

Even in today’s world of Social Media platforms and online communications – think LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, etc. – for businesses, face-to-face interaction is still the key for building trust.  Why?  90% of communication is nonverbal.  Making personal connections is a powerful way to grow your network.  And growing your network is one of the keys to success for most business owners.  By growing your network, opportunities arise, business partners appear, connections are made, and trust is garnered in the local community. Here are just a few of the top reasons that networking is so crucial to business success.

1. Get Additional Leads for Your Business

However, remember to be professional when following up on leads. This is a good opportunity to acquire leads. Avoid being too pushy, though, as that can be detrimental to your business. This could create a negative impression of your company which could spread throughout the network.

2. Learn from Others by Building Your Knowledge Base

Most business owners do not start off as experts, so networking is also a great opportunity to learn from more experienced industry leaders. They can share advice on the do’s and don’ts in your industry. This allows you to broaden your knowledge and get an outside perspective of the industry. When you encounter difficulties in your business, you may even be able to count on this professional network for advice.

Even for experienced small business owners, networking allows you to be updated on the latest business trends. These unique insights can give you an edge over your competitors by giving you a new understanding of the industry.

3. Visibility

Being a small business, local recognition is important. You need to be visible and noticed in the local community. Through regular networking sessions, you can build up awareness for both your business and yourself. With time, people will recognize you as a reliable and capable person, especially if you are able to give tips and advice on how your business can help them. Being familiar in your local business community will also mean that others will think of you if they need what your business offers. This will, in turn, generate more business leads and opportunities.

4. Friendship

Many friendships can form as a result of networking because your network is likely filled with like-minded professionals that share a common goal, growing a business. You meet and help each other regularly, so naturally, strong friendships tend to form. Although this advantage is not directly applicable to your business, do not overlook the simple benefit of having friends in the business world with no strings attached. You need to know someone has your back and that you have people who are there for you.

These are just a few of the reasons why business networking is so important to your business. Connecting with people who have business experience and building up your network with these people will certainly help your business grow and become more successful.  Here at Connoisseur Digital, our networking efforts have allowed us to help many business owners not only with their online marketing, but business success in general.  Contact us today to see how we may be able to help your business.

By Erica Chludzinski

As any successful business owner will attest, your customers are the most crucial part of your business. Without customers, a business simply cannot thrive. Therefore, generating leads and spreading your business’s message to potential new customers is arguably the most necessary for your business’s success. So, where is the best place to market your business? Studies say email marketing is one of the best channels for generating leads and now is the best time to get started.

The first step in a successful email marketing campaign is deciding upon your target audience. There are 3.8 billion email users worldwide. There is no doubt that, within that 3.8 billion, lies your business’s next customer. However, unless you have an infinite marketing budget, you cannot possible target every email user on the planet. This is where your target audience comes into play. Decide your target audience based on your current customer base. Where are your customers from? What are their interests? Do they require a specific HHI to be able to afford your services? Do they have children, pets or own a home? Once you know your target audience, you can utilize your marketing budget to send your email ads to that specific audience.

The next step in successful email marketing campaign is cultivating your creative. On average, people receive about 140 emails per day. Its crucial that your email ad is creative and intriguing enough to cut through the noise and invite your audience to click! Marketing campaigns that focus on email advertising have the potential to receive a high open rate and, consequently, a high click-through rate, which can open the door for new leads and conversions.

So, why email marketing? Email marketing allows your business to tap into a growing and profitable market. In four years, the amount of email users worldwide is expected to increase by another 600 million users. Email marketing also offers an incredible 122% Return on Investment – that’s 4x higher than other digital channels! Finally, email offers your business the opportunity to stay top-of-mind while giving consumers the resources they need to quickly make a conversion.

Interested in getting started with email marketing for your business? Contact the professionals at Connoisseur Digital today to learn more.

By Todd Moskowitz

A Major Consumer Shift

As the digital evolution continues to set the pace of change, a constant trend is the growth of video content consumption. 74% of US households now consume television content through Smart TV’s (or connected devices), rather than through cable or broadcast. While much of the television content is the same, the consumption method has shifted. Consumers are embracing video content for other purposes at a higher rate, as well. Consumers utilize online video for everything imaginable: from a new recipe video, to exploring a product demonstration video, to sharing videos through social media. Video popularity amongst consumers is growing rapidly. Research forecasts that, in 2020, Americans will spend 84 minutes per day consuming video content, up from 67% in 2018.

Advertisers Follow Consumers

As consumer video consumption grows, advertisers have focused on heightening their video engagement with consumers as well. And not without good reason.

Here are three compelling benefits of video:

1. Video connects with consumers emotionally through the power of audio, along with the complementary visual element.
2. Video offers all the valuable benefits of TV advertising, without the growing concerns of ad skipping and cluttered environments.
3. Video marketing offers access to a captive audience.

To help local businesses capitalize on this trend, Connoisseur Media has numerous video solutions, which collectively provide various ways for a local business to engage with consumers through video.

Here are programmatic advertising options you can leverage to maximize compelling video for your business:

Audience Targeted Pre-Roll

• What it is: Audience Targeted Pre-Roll (also known as Video Pre-Roll) is a :15 or :30 second video that serves on a website before online video content begins. For instance, if you were to go to a website to consume video content, such as news or entertainment, you would first be greeted by a Video Pre-Roll ad.
• Benefits: It allows marketers to engage with a highly captive audience at the immediate moment when the user opts-in to video content, which is when consumers are most engaged. Video Pre-Roll is capable of targeting consumers in various fashions, including audience interests, demographics, geography and more. It’s built to serve across desktop, mobile, and tablet devices.

CTV (Connected TV)

• What it is: Connected TV refers to any TV that’s connected to the Internet and accesses TV content via devices such as Apple TV, Google Chromecast and more. There is a term called “cord cutters,” which refers to the growing population that has switched from traditional cable or broadcast to a Connected TV. As noted above, 74% of Americans consume television through a Connected TV.
• Benefits: Unlike cable and broadcast TV, Connected TV spots are not skippable. This alleviates dramatic concerns for TV advertisers. Additionally, CTV advertising reaches groups of TV viewers that traditional advertising cannot. CTV can be targeted by zip code. This enables a local business to handpick geographies, and even span across multiple cable zones, without having to deal with multiple providers.

GeoVideo

• What it is:GeoVideo ads are video ads that are featured on mobile apps, based on a device’s specific location inside of a client’s chosen geography.
• Benefits:GeoVideo ads enable a client to market to a strategic targeted location, such as a competitor’s business, or a critical area where they know prospective customers are present. This is a great way to market to consumers that are in your immediate area. As a result, GeoVideo is a very strong way to assist conversion achievement.

In – Banner Video

• What it is: Display In-Banner Video appears in HTML-5 banner ads. The video plays after the banner animates, with the option of playing manually or automatically.
• Benefits  Just like regular programmatic display banners, In-Banner Video offers both audience & geo-targeted capabilities.

All of the above video solutions are opportunities that are offered by Connoisseur Media. More importantly, we can assist in helping you to understand your core business goals, with the intention of making sure that your marketing is tied directly to those goals.

by Sharon LaGaipa

Traditional marketing has dominated marketing and advertising for years. Traditional Marketing includes Direct Mail, Newspaper, Broadcast/Cable TV, outdoor Billboard Ads, and Radio.

Traditional marketing has proven successful over time and has many benefits. It can still aid in reaching your target audience and can be attention-grabbing.

Direct Mail is targetable, has reach and can be measured depending on the messaging and structure. However, consumer perception often associates Direct Mail with “junk” mail and can lead to very low response rates while being extremely costly. You may not get what you pay for with Direct Mail. If you do find it works for your particular business, consider complementing it with a Radio campaign. Radio can bring high level attention to your Direct Mail piece and is a medium which, contrary to Direct Mail, has an audience is highly receptive to ads.

Newspaper Advertising can be visually impactful and is one of the oldest forms of advertising. The Hartford Courant is the country’s oldest newspaper in continuous publication, first published on October 29, 1764. That was then, this is now. Newspaper circulations have been diminishing rapidly in recent years especially given changes in consumer behaviors and how content is consumed. Production costs remain high with Newspaper Advertising and therefore this form of advertising can be challenging as relates to Return on Investment (ROI). Statistics have shown that large ads are not always effective. If Newspaper Advertising is a strategy you’re utilizing, consider a modest ad size and build in Radio to your media mix. The power of voice will not only reinforce your brand with memorability, therefore making what consumers see in print much more impactful.

Broadcast and Cable TV, while they have the allure of reach and visual/audio format, audiences are declining with the rapid movement towards Connected TV and OTT. Broadcast/Cable TV production costs and limited targeting options can put into question the value. Further, with the rise of fragmentation on TV, reaching audiences isn’t as easy as it used to be. On the other hand, Radio can be efficient, economical and expand beyond the home … to the car, at work and on the go. Additionally, Radio has the ability to boost a TV/Cable advertiser’s message through “imagery transfer” or “theater of the mind”. Numerous research studies have proven Radio listeners visualize images from a TV ad when they hear that advertiser’s same or similar message on the Radio, reinforcing the impact of the TV ad schedule.

Billboard and other Out-of-Home advertising is eye-catching and bold and can be a good way for businesses to attract the attention of a mass audience. It can certainly contribute to branding and name recognition. With that said, it has very limited capacity for your message and fleeting impressions with short exposure time at typically 4-8 seconds. It’s difficult to capture fully engaged attention as people focus on driving. Radio reaches over 82% of drivers and its listeners are highly receptive to ads. Next time you’re on a major highway and tuned into Radio, as you listen to the ads, compare those to the Billboard ads and consider which medium leaves a stronger impression on you.

There’s no doubt incorporating forms of traditional advertising can be effective as part of a marketing mix. However, Radio transcends other media. Radio reaches over 92% of people ages 18+ weekly. It establishes a personal connection with the consumer that cannot be matched by other forms of advertising. Our radio stations, combined with our fierce portfolio of digital marketing solutions, make Connoisseur Media your standout resource for traditional & new media.

Sources: Quora.com; RAB.com; Connecticuthistory.org; Forbes.com; Adweek.com.

By Ty Anschutz

Considering that 51% of diners go out to eat more than once a week and 81% of diners use a restaurant’s website to place an order, it’s important for diners to find you online. Having a responsive website is important for any restaurant. It is a great way to reach more customers and generate more revenue through online features, including online orders and table reservations. Responsive Web Design will automatically resize your website to make it look good on all devices (desktops, tablets, and phones). Responsive Design features your restaurant should consider include online ordering, table reservations, customer reviews, menus, pictures and so much more.

Images and photos on any website are key. In the case of a restaurant’s website, photos of your offered food and beverages are essential for attracting possible customers. If your budget allows, hiring a food stylist and photographer to present and photograph your food is a must. If your meals don’t look appetizing online, nobody will come through your door when they’re looking to eat. If you cannot afford a food stylist or photographer, stock photos can be purchased online that resemble your meal offerings.

It’s important that your website can be viewed on any device. If your site doesn’t have a responsive design, it could lead to a terrible experience for anyone looking to see your menu, hours or location.  Most customers that come to your website, come from Facebook, Yelp, Urbanspoon and even Google Maps.  The majority of these users are browsing on mobile devices. If you are on the go and looking for a place to eat, the first thing you will reach for is the phone. You click the link to a tasty restaurant and see a desktop view website or even worse, nothing at all because they are still using Flash. You are probably eating somewhere else.

Great reviews fuel new customers. Once you launch your project, stay on top of customer reviews, by being responsive to all great and less favorable concepts. As of 2018, 86% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses. Make sure your reviews are encouraging customers to visit your restaurant instead of your competition!

Interested in taking your restaurant’s web presence to the next level? Contact Connoisseur Digital today for help with your restaurant’s Responsive Web Design.

By Erica Chludzinski

Location Based Advertising, LBA, is utilized when an advertiser targets an audience based on the audience’s location. GeoFencing, a form of LBA, is utilized when specific locations, like restaurants or shopping malls, are chosen and visitors to those locations are served ads on their mobile phones. GeoFencing can be utilized for many types of businesses, but can be especially beneficial to restaurant advertisers.

Picking Your Location
The first step in GeoFencing is choosing the locations that you will target for your advertisements. A consumer’s location can tell you a lot about their interests. Locations can be chosen based on targeting consumers around your business or at your competitors locations. Locations can also be chosen because they represent a lifestyle similar to those of your usual customers.

Choosing Your Message
Just like with any type of advertising, the message in your GeoFencing ad has to catch your consumer’s attention and persuade them to become your customer. Messages that offer coupons and special promotions can persuade a person to make a conversion. Depending on your target audience, some messages can be more persuasive than others. For example, “Free Delivery” is likely to attract college students and busy moms, while “$5 off” is likely to attract audience members who are more interested in a sit-down meal.

Getting the Conversion
GeoFencing strategies are especially effective when used to promote restaurants. This is because targeting an audience based on their proximity to your location is the best way to find people likely to frequent or even try out what your restaurant has to offer. For example, if you’re a Mexican restaurant with a great delivery service, GeoFence the local colleges and offer a deal for students who order your meals to their dorm room.

GeoFencing can assist many conversions for restaurants, whether it be getting more customers through the door or influencing more online orders. It can be difficult to determine the best locations and message to advertise your restaurant as effectively as possible. Interested in advertising through GeoFencing for your restaurant, but not sure where to begin? Contact the professionals at Connoisseur Digital to maximize the opportunities that location based advertising has to offer your business.

By Doug Gunsolley

Every business that has a website would like to know how their website performs. Questions like “How much traffic does my site get?” or “How are visitors finding my website?” can be very important to let business owners plan and strategize for online performance. Google Analytics allows you to do this and more. Google Analytics is a free tracking tool that gives you detailed data on your website visitors and their actions on your site. It’s one of the most comprehensive analytics tools in the market and estimated to be used on over 30 million sites. With Google Analytics, you can easily make data-driven marketing decisions to grow your traffic and help boost sales and revenue.

Here are some important reasons for implementing Google Analytics:

Knowing Your Site Visitors

When it comes to making business decisions, it’s important to know who your existing customers and prospects are. With Google Analytics, you can learn who your site visitors are by their age, gender, geographic location, device, interest topics, etc. You can then use this information to customize your products and services.

Analyze Traffic Data

Did you advertise a promotion or offer and want to know how much traffic it drove to your site? How about seasonal fluctuations or year-over-year traffic? With Google Analytics you can measure, compare and analyze performance for a variety of scenarios.

Know Your Best Content and Focus on It

Google Analytics shows you exactly which content on your site gets the most visits, average duration, and bounce rate for the individual pages. You can take this data and analyze and optimize for better engagement.

You can add more call to action (CTA) buttons, purchase links, etc. on the top pages of your site to boost your conversions. You can also update the top landing pages with the latest information or revamp their whole design and structure to make them look fresh and updated.

In addition, Google Analytics helps you learn what type of content works and what doesn’t. That way, you can focus on the type of content that gets more visits to boost your site engagement and gain more customers.

Improving Your Site’s SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the most crucial aspects in helping your business grow. The more organic traffic your business site receives, the more leads and conversions you can gain.

Google Analytics help your site’s SEO in various ways. By knowing your visitors’ demographics and interests, you can create targeted content and get better visibility on search engines. You can also gain some insights on backlinks by tracking your referrals.

Tracking Conversions

Different websites will have different actions they most want visitors to take. You can set up conversion tracking in Google Analytics for your website based on the actions you most want visitors to take, such as filling out a form, signing up for your email list, or making a purchase.

It’s Free!

Google does not charge you anything for using Google Analytics. You do not have to pay to use this product. Even the more advanced features are free and Google also provides great tutorials on setting up and using.

Getting Started

To get started, you just need to set up an account with Google Analytics, add your website as a property, and add the tracking code provided to the pages on your website. This is something you can do yourself or your webmaster should be able to do it for you.  At Connoisseur Digital, we provide the option to add Google Analytics to all the sites we build so that you can have access to the powerful data that Google Analytics can provide. Contact us today to learn more!

by Joe Brown

How is it that certain movies are so widely revered that you can quote a line, such as “May the Force be with you,” and 9 out of 10 people will know you’re talking about Star Wars? The answer is simple: compelling video.

Sounds oversimplified, but think about it. George Lucas created video content that became ingrained in our brains. Video ads aren’t really all that different. The most memorable ones stick with us – the Tootsie Pop “how many licks” cartoon, Budweiser’s “Whassup” series, Dos Equis “Most Interesting Man in the World” …the list goes on and on. While these advertisers applied different stylistic approaches, what these video ads share in common is compelling content.

When done properly, video ads drive intent. Ninety percent of users report that watching a video about a product or service is helpful in the buying decision process. Talk about making an impact on the consumer’s thinking!

You might have noticed that I keep referring to this topic as “video ads” instead of “commercials”. This is purposeful. Commercials tend to carry the connotation of running on TV. Video ads aren’t limited to such traditional lines of thinking.

As a society, we’re spending more time than ever before online – on average, 24 hours per week. We’re even consuming our TV content in more ways than ever before through Connected TVs and OTT streaming platforms.

So, what does this tell us? 1) compelling video drives intent, and 2) humans spend a lot of time on their phones and computers…like, a lot.

Why limit yourself to advertising on traditional TV when you can reach people where they spend over three hours every day? With programmatic and geo-video strategies, you’re reaching people across their favorite websites and apps (ESPN, USA Today, Fox, etc.), imprinting your brand in their brains.

Think about it – traditional TV commercials take a user completely out of what they’re experiencing. It’s a break in YOUR content (i.e. TV show). If you’re watching TV live, commercials are your cue to grab a snack, go to the bathroom, or…you guessed it, scroll on your phone!

Online video ads can be a totally different experience, especially in-banner video ads. They don’t take users out of their current experience, but instead, capture potential consumers while they’re attentive and primed to remember your message. It’s for this reason that compelling video, even in advertising form, can become ingrained in our minds in the same way Star Wars is.

Not only is online video a powerful branding technique, it can also drive conversions. After watching a video about a product, users are 64 percent more likely to buy it online. Powerful stuff.

It’s important to tailor your video ad to serve your purpose and spread your message while your audience’s attention is captured. Online video ads must be between :15 and :30 seconds. It is important to note that the first 9-12 seconds need to be powerful. A video ad can lose its effectiveness if it doesn’t capture the viewer’s attention from the beginning.

If driving intent and higher brand recall are high on your company’s agenda, consider compelling online video as part of your next marketing campaign.

Want to learn more about how to implement online video ads for your company? Joe Brown is the Digital Sales Manager of Connoisseur Digital’s Eastern PA division and can be reached at jbrown@connoisseurpa.com. Not in Eastern PA? Call 888.819.2336 or contact us for more information.