Tag: Digital marketing experts

semantic_search

What is Semantic Search and Why is it Important for SEO?

Posted on | by devops
Expert Tips For What is Semantic Search and Why is it Important for SEO?

The evolution of search engine technology goes beyond backlinks and includes as many keywords as possible. The focus is now shifting toward understanding the intent, behavior, and context behind those keywords. When we understand what the keywords mean, provide rich information that contextualizes those keywords, and discern the user’s intent, we can better understand consumer behavior. The key to working effectively and efficiently in the knowledge economy lies in semantic search. In this blog post, we’ll dive into what semantic search is and why it’s important for the new age of SEO. 

Semantic Understanding 

Semantics is a branch of logic and linguistics referring to the study of reference, meaning, or truth. Applying this discipline to SEO translates to a better understanding of consumer intent and behavior and provides rich information that contextualizes the meaning of keywords. Semantic search looks to understand the natural language the way a human would but is facilitated by machine learning and AI technologies.  

In order to rank high on Google, your website needs to use semantic search engine optimization techniques. Semantic search is the understanding of intent, behavior, and context behind search engine optimization (SEO) keywords. In order to generate the most accurate SERP (Search Engine Results Page), Google must understand the relationship between words and the context in which they are being used. 

Why is it Important? 

The implementation of Google algorithms has directly impacted SEO and facilitated a shift to adopting new best practices and techniques. Before semantic search engines were fully realized, content created for SEO purposes had to be designed around specific keyword-to-word-count ratios. Today, the emphasis is on the relevance of content and how accurately it reflects the way people naturally use language.  

The rise of voice search plays a significant role in the evolution of semantic search. Mobile voice commands are now commonplace and optimizing for this type of search is immensely different from traditional SEO as the results must immediately get to the point and keep the content much more conversational. A firm understanding of language, context, and behavior is vital to achieving this. 

People often say things and search for things in different ways, languages, and tones. Search queries can also be vague in nature. Google semantic search can distinguish between distinct entities and interpret the searcher’s intent based on factors like the user’s search history, location, global search history, and spelling variations. All of these aspects help Google provide a better user experience by delivering quality information and surfacing the most relevant content results. 

Keyword Search vs Semantic Search 

Keyword search satisfies the basic needs of a search query, but it has its limitations. They are extremely literal in the sense that the search engine finds terms wherever they appear, even if the words are used in a larger phrase or different context.  

Today, the way people search for things is often ambiguous. Semantic search takes into consideration the user’s intent to uncover the contextual meaning behind those terms and pushes beyond the boundaries of Google’s collective base of knowledge to surface the information and concepts that haven’t been explicitly written into the query. Semantic technology decrypts concepts and meaning by associating search inputs with clarifying terms, like related synonyms that have been integrated into the system. Semantic enrichment helps users find new ideas and concepts by tagging unstructured text with information about its meaning. To differentiate concepts, semantic technology references vocabularies containing all known terms for the same thing or its synonyms connects these entities to each other in hierarchical relationships, and employs algorithms to analyze the content within which those terms appear. Latent coding automatically enriches the search query and provides better, more relevant information rather than simply including the specific words searched amongst a multitude of contexts. 

Conclusion 

Even with Google’s advanced algorithm, it still isn’t smart enough to gather meaning or understanding by itself. You must optimize your site to help Google understand your content and present it to your target audience. Semantic keywords, link building, structured data, and analysis are some of the most important tools needed for business growth in the era of digitalization. 

Agency Partner Interactive is the top SEO agency to optimize your website and help your business rank #1 on Google. Our digital marketing experts have the skills to effectively utilize tools like Google semantic search and semantic keywords to accelerate the growth of your business. Contact us today to get started!

Meta-Tweaks

Fox 5 Las Vegas: Meta Tweaks Facebook App

Posted on | by adam
Social Media News: Is Facebook Trying to Copy TikTok’s Feed?

Agency Partner’s co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer Adam Rizzieri joins Fox 5 Las Vegas to talk about the latest social media news. If you’ve been paying attention to recent social media news, you may have heard that Meta is updating Facebook to be more like TikTok. Is this really a good idea? Bad idea? What is the goal here…?

Tune in to the conversation below.

For a more in-depth analysis on this major social media update, click here for the whole story.

 

Can Agency Partner Interactive Help With Your Social Media Marketing Challenges?

Of course! As Dallas’ top digital marketing agency, we optimize social media marketing investments in real-time with our digital marketing and social media management services. Agency Partner’s internet marketing experts can adjust and optimize your marketing campaigns up to 48 times over 24 hours. We try to make improvements in real-time to provide you with the fastest, most impactful return on investment.

Our digital marketing experts will help you attract valuable customers, drive sales, increase your leads, build brand awareness, and more. Ready to optimize your business with an award-winning PPC Agency? Maybe you just have some basic questions?  Contact us today to get started!

facebook-tiktok-ui

Meta Updates Facebook Feed To Be More Like TikTok

Posted on | by adam
Social Media News: Is Facebook Trying to Copy TikTok’s Feed?

If you’ve been paying attention to recent social media news, you have likely heard that Meta is updating Facebook to be more like TikTok. 

The heart of the app update will be focused on your Facebook feed. This is typically where users find content from friends and family… Well, this week we’re seeing a change to that as Meta is now able to utilize its new “Discovery Engine” to show you more recommended content, with a strong tilt for all video formatted content, above audio and text.

With a new discovery algorithm powering all of this, the Facebook User Interface, which is basically what you see on your app screen, will now be split into a “Home” feed and a “Feeds” tab. The Home Feed will present you with content that is designed to keep you entertained, similar to your typical TikTok experience. Meanwhile, the Feeds tab is where you’ll find the latest posts from Friends, Groups, and your you basic social media favorites.

Facebook feed update like TikTok

This is a Move from Social Network to Online Content Sharing Platform

There is no doubt that this is a big change for Facebook. It is a move away from its roots as a social network among friends and family, and towards a TikTok style “entertainment app” that highlights content creators and online commerce.

Think of the TikTok “For You” feed. This is a feed that shares seemingly endless short form videos from strangers and friends alike. Of TikTok’s 1 billion users, more than 55% of them are creating highly shareable short form videos that are not restricted to an audience of first, second, and third-degree connections.

Facebook feed update

What is Behind this Change to the Facebook Feed? 

If you ask 10 people, you may get three to five different answers. Here is what the Zuck himself has to say about it:

“One of the most requested features for Facebook is to make sure people don’t miss friends’ posts. So today we’re launching a Feeds tab where you can see posts from your friends, groups, Pages and more separately in chronological order. The app will still open to a personalized feed on the Home tab, where our discovery engine will recommend the content we think you’ll care most about. But the Feeds tab will give you a way to customize and control your experience further.”

Does the Zuck stop here?

We don’t think so… We think Meta is anxious that TikTok is now surpassing 1 Billion active users. We know Meta is taking note of the fact that Bytedance’s cash cow, TikTok, is poised to grow from $4 to $12 Billion in 2022.

If you look back to October 2012, back when Facebook hit its first 1 Billion users, that level of active users turned out to be a nuclear reactor of new revenue growth, teeing them up to acquire Instagram (for cheap, just $1 Billion), WhatsApp, and 2 Billion more users.

So here we are…. TikTok is at its first billion users and it is dominating the attention of Gen Z. Consider this: the average TikTok user spends 29 hours per month scrolling through the app. This compares to 16 hours for Facebook users and just 8 hours per month for Instagram users.

That difference in time spent on the app is huge… Meta is feeling left out because no doubt, they are not the cool kid in school anymore.

Is Facebook About to Alienate the Legacy App’s Loyal Users?

This move to appeal to a younger demographic could totally blow up in Meta’s face.

Your typical Facebook app user presents much different demographic data than your daily TikTok user. Meta’s Facebook has mostly Millennials on up to Baby Boomers, and really doesn’t have many Gen Z gamer kids on the platform.

Meta has to ask itself: “Can we have it all and if we cannot, is it worth alienating a loyal legacy user to try and attract the favor of a younger demographic?” 

At best, the younger demographic is spending time reposting TikTok videos to Instagram Reels….

Why, you might ask? Well, social media users tend to prefer the video editing tools that TikTok offers in its app so most often a video will be created and posted to TikTok before eventually being shared on Instagram Reels.

But I digress. Baby boomers and older millennials are likely engaging in none of this content duplication and posting behavior. They’re on Facebook to share updates with the family across the country or keeping up with old friends from school. If they’re keeping their content consumption closer to home, it’s likely that they’re hanging strong in Facebook Groups.

Are Companies Changing Their Social Media Behavior?

Yes and no. In some ways, a good social media marketer is always changing things up. Similarly, the social media engagement algorithms are constantly in flux to cater to a combination of a better user experience and specific business goals. Yes, business goals. These social media companies are NOT non-profit organizations. In some ways, they may even be a little bit evil, emphasizing that small businesses and individuals are largely at the mercy of the big tech.

News organizations, for sure, will have to change how their content is disseminated online.

More than 70% of US adults are accustomed to consuming news content in a digital, in-app social media format and Facebook has been a leading supplier of this type of information. This Facebook-TikTok update will highlight user generated content (think of the TikTok challenges and trendy dance moves) and move away from syndicating real and “fake” news. Given the heat that Zuckerberg and Co. have been facing from US lawmakers and states attorneys general, this may help mitigate the companies annual legal expenses.

As always, in times of change, opportunity presents along with challenge. There will be some companies that find new ways to engage their customers among the 3 billion Meta users worldwide.

How Should I Respond to this Facebook/TikTok Social Media Update?

It depends!

If you’re a social media user, pay close attention to the type of content of you see in the Facebook Home tab, and take note of how it differs from the stuff that is presented to you in that Feeds tab. If this change happens to be a win for Meta, and Facebook starts to measure more app activity between Facebook, Instagram, and Insta Reels in particular, then expect this to stick around. Remember, Facebook is a for-profit business and it really only cares about promoting user growth and selling advertisements to businesses. Meta cares about Meta.

If your business happens to be a news and information publisher that relies on Facebook to syndicate content, you should contact a social media marketing agency today. This will be a difficult time for your company.

If you run a product or service company that gets new product sales, phone calls, appointments, and form submissions from social media marketing, then this could be an interesting new world for you.

In fact, it could be a lot of fun if you’re able to invest in shareable, video content that is designed explicitly for social sharing. Brands have been using TikTok to go viral and put themselves front and center in front of gamer kids, Gen Z’s, and younger Millennials. 

Now, that same style of content can be used to get your brand in front of a more mature social media user. Depending on what you sell and who your customer is, this may or may not work, which is why always recommend that you consult with a digital marketer first. With that said, every new internet marketing campaign is a test and should be conducted using the scientific method.

Can Agency Partner Interactive Help Me With This?

As Dallas’ top digital marketing agency, we optimize marketing investments in real-time with our digital marketing and social media management services. Our internet marketing experts can optimize your marketing campaigns up to 48 times over 24 hours. We try to make improvements in real-time to provide you with the fastest, most impactful return on investment.

Our digital marketing experts will help you attract valuable customers, drive sales, increase your leads, build brand awareness, and more. Ready to optimize your business with an award-winning PPC Agency? Maybe you just have some basic questions? 

Contact us today to get started!

PPC_management_agencies

How Much Should Working with a PPC Agency Cost?

Posted on | by devops
Expert Tips For How Much Should Working with a PPC Agency Cost?

If you’re in the market for PPC (pay-per-click ads) services, you may be wondering how much you should expect to pay. Pricing can vary widely among PPC advertising companies, so it’s important to know what to look for when choosing one. In this article, we’ll look at the rates that PPC management agencies typically charge as well as some factors that can affect the cost of their services. So, whether you’re just starting out with paid search advertising or looking for a new agency partner, read on to learn more!

What’s the Cost of Hiring a PPC Management Agency?

A quick Google search on how much you should pay for PPC management services will reveal a wide range of articles with conflicting advice about what’s “normal” or “average” when it comes to agency pricing. You’ll find that PPC Agencies will charge anywhere from $250 to $5,000+ per month. When you see numbers at $250 to $300, it’s often too good to be true. On average, that buys you about two hours a month for any agency. Will you be getting the best results possible when someone is looking at your account for roughly half an hour a week? How much can that agency do strategically for you to maximize your ad spend?

What’s a Realistic Expectation for PPC Management Pricing?

If you’re looking for an agency that can actually drive revenue and deliver the best results, you should expect your PPC management costs and ad spend costs to be about the same. If you’re spending $2,000 a month on ad spend and you want to see deliverable results with Google Ads, you can expect to pay an additional $1,000 to $1,500 to a PPC agency.  

That figure may seem like a lot, but realistically, that’s what you’ll need to be looking for when pricing agencies. This number allows an agency to really dive in and spend time with your account. They need to be constantly optimizing and figuring out innovative ideas for improvement. As your ad spend goes up when spending money across multiple campaigns, so should your agency spend.

Why do I have to spend more with a PPC agency just because my ad spend goes up?

You could spend less or go with cheaper agencies while still seeing some results month over month, but in order to scale the results of your ad spend, you need an agency that spends more time in your account for at least 1 to 2 hours per week at a minimum. With more money being spent on Google Ads, the agency will have to keep track of more keywords and run more campaigns. 

Are the Returns Really Worth the Investment?

With the right agency and strategy, 100%.

At Agency Partner Interactive, we have a client that spends roughly $15,000 per month on both ads spend and PPC management fees. They see a return of close to $250,000 on that investment. This is only possible when you properly invest in a dedicated digital marketing agency. This empowers them to spend more time analyzing your audiences, campaign performances, and more. If you’re only buying the agency 30 minutes a week to spend on your account, it’s impossible to achieve that level of return.

How Do I Make Sure I’m Getting the Most Out of the PPC Agency?

The absolute best way to ensure you’re maximizing your ROI (return on investment) is through communication. Constant communication with your PPC agency allows you to discover what is and is not working so that they can adjust their strategy as soon as possible. If you’re not communicating often and clearly with your PPC agency about what qualified leads look like or whether their Google Ad campaigns are actually delivering qualified leads, you’ll be in for a world of trouble.

What sort of trouble?

If your PPC agency partner is driving a ton of leads for you only to find out later that most of those leads are spam, you aren’t giving the PPC agency a chance to fix these issues. The earlier you can provide feedback on the results you’re seeing, the earlier your PPC agency can solve potential problems and save you money.

What Should I Expect When First Starting Out with a PPC Agency?

You should anticipate a learning curve, especially during the beginning of your relationship with your PPC agency. It’s critical to be aligned and vocal about what you are and aren’t seeing. This way, you and your PPC agency will be constantly working toward achieving better results together.

Start with a smaller budget during the preliminary stages. After you’ve proven your concept through testing and refining your audience and campaigns, you will have gathered the data to inform your decisions before you start investing heavily.

Why Agency Partner Interactive?

As Dallas’ top digital marketing agency, we optimize marketing investments in real-time with our PPC bid and budget management services. Our PPC and data science teams can adjust search campaigns in competitive markets up to 48 times in over 24 hours. Our digital marketing experts will help you attract valuable customers, drive sales, increase your leads, build brand awareness, and more. API knows that every penny spent is an investment to produce a return, and our transparent communication and fair pricing will keep you in the loop every step of the way. Ready to optimize your business with an award-winning PPC Agency? Contact us today to get started!

content-marketing

7 Latest Content Marketing Strategies Practiced by Digital Marketing Experts

Posted on | by Agency Partner
Expert Tips For 7 Latest Content Marketing Strategies Practiced by Digital Marketing Experts

As a part of digital marketing, content is an indispensable tool that can drive engagement, help to convert leads and make your company more visible to a wider range of people. Good content is considered an increasingly valuable asset by digital marketing experts and companies alike, with over 90% of companies surveyed recognizing it as essential.

Of course, with its importance comes one of the potential drawbacks – if we all know the importance of content marketing strategies, it’s harder to gain an advantage. So what can we do to ensure a better shot at a wider market?

Below, we will analyze seven separate content marketing approaches that digital marketing experts practice and explain how they could work for you. These are the tips that the best digital marketing services in Dallas and beyond are adopting for their own clients, and they can be effective for you, too.

Build a collective of contributors

If you have the one perfect content creator on staff, you can be sure of attracting customers who like the kind of content they create – but that doesn’t do a lot to diversify or grow your pool of leads. It simply delivers the same people each time.

That’s good for customer loyalty, but you need more than that. A wider range of content creators from different parts of your business means more diverse subject matter, a shake-up of writing styles, and the chance to do different things.

You can invite guest writers who are experts in different aspects of your business, customers who have been really pleased by your service, and more creators besides – if they have something relevant to say about your industry, the more, the merrier.

Build a content calendar

It’s useful to have a pattern to when content goes up, what type of content you publish, when, and more besides. For instance, you should have a deadline for submissions that allows time for proofing, editing, and integration before a post goes live.

You can give over different days of the week to different aspects of your business – posts about HR issues can go live on Wednesdays, while Friday can be for content about procurement. Repeat visitors will come back more often if they know when to come back – and they’ll start to gain an interest in aspects beyond their own areas of focus before long.

Look for digestible content.

The experts on the best content strategy in Dallas and elsewhere know that a diverse collection of content is the way to go. Sometimes, people will want to read deep dives on specific topics, while other times, they will want something a bit more punchy.

You can repost (with permission) other people’s content, potentially adding your own introduction to highlight the relevance of what those other people have to say. Instead of posting the entirety of their content, you can include the sections that mesh especially well with what you want to say – and then drop a link to their blog to advise readers on where they can hear more.

Give people what they want.

It sounds simple, but it does need some fleshing out as a point, this one. There are many ways to find out what people want to read on your blog, and you should use all of those ways. Look at your own analytics, and see the search terms people have used to find your site. Look at keyword analysis tools, and see what’s popular as a search term in your niche.

With media monitoring tools, you can see what’s a hot topic in your sector right now. And then there are always follow-up posts. If one piece has done very well on your blog before, revisit it and address any potential changes in the topic, answer readers’ questions and develop the theme in a way that drives engagement and leads.

Boost your signal

Once you’ve created and published content, the next thing to promote it for all it’s worth. Tweet about it early in the day – and flag it on Instagram, Facebook, and any other social network you’re on – and then send another tweet related to it in the evening with an “ICYMI” (In Case You Missed It).

Various plugins will automatically Tweet any article you post. However, you may prefer to manually promote new posts on social media as this will allow you to add hashtags, emoji, and anything else that makes your content pop.

Also, if recent events have made any of your content more relevant, call back to it on your social channels – people who are following the trend with interest may become followers of your account.

Spread the word

If your content is good enough, then it may well grace the pages of other outlets beyond your own blog, which is something to embrace. Yes, exclusivity is nice as a way of controlling the way your content is displayed and read.

However, the more people that read it, the better. Suppose it is seen on industry blogs, private forums, and local papers much better. The one thing you must insist on is that your name and business are heavily attached to it when it is published elsewhere. You wrote it, you worked on it, and you should benefit from it in terms of your profile.

Don’t write for you

If you’re a writer, then there are probably times that you piece together bits of content in your head, constructing the guts of a post that sounds snappy and interesting to you. Don’t mistake trying to turn this into a post on your blog because a good post won’t start with a snappy line of content – it starts with an idea.

By all means, if you have a decent turn of phrase in mind, it sums up a moment, or it includes a joke or two that will be well-received by more people than just you, then you can include those throwaway lines. Just don’t build your content around things that have amused you – leave that to Sunday broadsheet columnists. It doesn’t work in digital marketing.

business-on-twitter

How to Use Twitter for Business

Posted on | by Agency Partner
Expert Tips For How to Use Twitter for Business 

Twitter is an undoubtedly effective tool for expanding your business’s internet presence. Eighty percent of all Twitter users have referenced a brand in a Tweet, and the average Twitter user follows five businesses. If you’re an Inbound Marketer, you should know that Twitter isn’t just for growing consumers through word-of-mouth marketing; it’s also for targeting the customers where they already are. However, to be successful as a business on Twitter these days, you must be able to stand out. However, for the millions of companies on Twitter, this can mean a variety of things.

So, instead of being an annoyance when posting online, what actions can you take to improve your audience’s online experience? How can you advertise your product or service so that people would want to buy it? On a platform built for connection, how can you make your brand more human? This useful guide was created to assist you in developing a successful plan and leveraging Twitter’s potential for your business. Continue reading to find out how to utilize Twitter for business this year.

How to Market Effectively on Twitter

You must first develop a Twitter marketing plan. Your strategy is the cornerstone of your success, and it is well worth the effort you put into studying and developing it. Like any other social media plan, a Twitter marketing strategy revolves around the material you develop, post, and distribute to engage your followers.

Your content should attract new followers, inspire new leads, increase conversions, and raise brand awareness. Your company’s high-level business objectives are likely already in place, and Twitter is a channel that can assist you in achieving them. If you want to produce long-term leads and sales, you’ll need brand recognition on your side to get the ball rolling.

Research your rivals

You can use Twitter to look up rivals and see what kind of marketing material and strategies they’re implementing. Observing what your rivals are doing will facilitate the development of your own strategy. Is there anything you should be doing instead of what they’re doing? What does their platform-based customer support look like? You can start your own well-developed plan by asking questions about your rivals.

Regularly audit

When it comes to strategy, the importance of auditing cannot be overstated. It would help if you always were organized for Twitter to be a useful marketing tool. Making sure your followers are genuine by siphoning out bots will help expand your reach, and taking note of the built-in analytics will do nothing but help you improve your content.

Define your target audience

Every element of marketing, including social media, should take your business personality into account. It would help if you had a description of your identities in mind while designing your strategy and even when generating individual pieces of content. Who are you attempting to contact? What are their passions? Will this pique their interest? The more refined your content is, the truer your audience will be.

Find out if there’s a better way of doing it.

This, like auditing, is a process that must be repeated regularly. Maintaining best practices as Twitter evolves and is updated is critical to maintaining strong impressions and engagements, not to mention staying ahead of your rivals.

How to Use Twitter for Business

Now that we’ve covered how to create a Twitter marketing plan let’s look at some key steps you’ll need to do to leverage Twitter’s potential for your business.

Make sure your profile stands out.

First and foremost, you must customize your profile to ensure your success. The last thing you want is for someone to disregard your Twitter account – and, by extension, your business – because your profile image is a Twitter egg.

Make sure your banner and profile photo are both visually appealing. While many businesses use their logo as their profile image, the Banner allows you to be more creative with your colors and graphics. If you’re new to Twitter or have a new business, you’ll want to make your Twitter account as relevant to your business as possible.

You should also fine-tune your description, website link, and location. All of these elements should be included on your Twitter profile so that your followers can learn more about your business, and they should be updated and checked regularly.

Content is king

Adding value to your Twitter post is equivalent to adding value to other types of marketing material. Because the key to generating great inbound content is to make your readers feel like you’re speaking directly to them, you should constantly keep your buyer personas in mind. It’s not worth posting content that doesn’t spark discussion!

Don’t underestimate hashtags.

Hashtags are a simple and popular technique to promote your information, but you should limit the number of times you utilize them. If you use too many hashtags, your business can appear spammy or as if you’re seeking attention. Simply put, don’t overuse hashtags. Per the tweet, limit yourself to one or two relevant hashtags.

If you want to get more people to see your content, you should also conduct hashtag research. Determine which hashtags your target demographic is currently using to discuss your business, and then use them yourself.

Always engage with your audience.

It would help if you interacted with your Twitter audience regularly, whether it be by tagging them in tweets, responding to their comments, or even holding exciting giveaways.

Use tools to help you

When it comes to utilizing Twitter for business, signing in every time you want to publish a tweet can become tedious and time-consuming. Several apps allow you to plan your postings, so you don’t have to click “Tweet” 50 times a week. HubSpot’s Social Media feature allows you to post to social networks while creating campaigns and scheduling content. You may also look at using Sprout Social or Buffer.

Conclusion 

Perhaps you’ve been using Twitter for a while and are feeling irritated or uninspired. After all, building a devoted and engaging Twitter following takes time, and it’s discouraging to watch content go out and receive little or no reaction. However, abandoning the platform removes a significant source of brand recognition for your company and makes it more difficult for clients to locate you.

social-media-trends-in-pandemic

Top Social Media Trends the Pandemic Gave Us in 2021

Posted on | by Agency Partner
Expert Tips For Top Social Media Trends the Pandemic Gave Us in 2021

We are now halfway through 2021, and life is just now getting back to normal. Living life remotely for over a year impacted the way we live our lives, and it even changed the way we use social media.

When we started using social media in a new way, new trends emerged. The trends started by the pandemic are still enjoyed by many, and brands are strategically finding ways to leverage them to improve customer relationships and experiences.

When we were all stuck indoors, online shopping skyrocketed, and social media giants like Facebook and Instagram made it possible for users to shop directly from the app.

When we had to hold off on some of our favorite hobbies and past times, we found entertainment in new ways. That’s when TikTok became everybody’s favorite distraction.

To see family and friends, we had to connect virtually. And those who wanted to be in front of a larger audience went on Instagram Live. That’s when live streaming became a hot trend and a new feature for many social media apps.

And finally, the pandemic brought hard times. We weren’t able to comfort each other in the ways we wanted to, so we had to adapt in new ways to show compassion. People saw the value of creating meaningful content online and how we support one another virtually.   

We have become so accustomed to these trends that we began to see the value in them, and we’re not ready for them to go away. These trends are changing the way we use social. And it’s also changing our expectations of brands and how they connect with us. We see the value of growing connections because that is something we had to do this past year.  

Today, we will be diving deeper into how these trends came into fruition and how you can leverage them for your brand. 

How the pandemic birthed Social eCommerce

When we were stuck indoors and unable to visit our favorite stores, we adjusted to new ways of buying the items we needed. Amazon was at its prime – no pun intended.  

Social media giants like Instagram and Facebook saw the growing demand for buying items online, and they wanted to join in on the party. Instagram launched its ecommerce feature in March of last year when the pandemic hit, and it’s been history ever since. Instagram tremendously restructured the mission of their app, bringing more attention to the in-app shopping features. As Adam Moserri stated in his recent video, the pandemic shifted how buyers shop, and they are working on learning towards this trend.

How you can leverage this: If you are a brand with ecommerce capabilities, and your audience is on Instagram. You NEED to consider getting an Instagram shop. Imagine how much revenue you are missing out on without it? Instagram is the perfect opportunity to visually show your product, connect with your audience, and sell all in one app! And the best part is buyers can directly make the transaction from your store on the Instagram app. It shortens the sales process and lessens the risk of lost a lead or abandoned cart. 

The Rise of Video and Creator Content

Lo and behold, the rise of the video came to be. TikTok became the latest social media giant, bringing millions of viewers captivated by the hottest trends and most creative content. With all the extra time we had on our hands and stalls of our favorite hobbies, we found new ways to get entertainment in 2020. With all the extra time we had on our hands and stalls of our favorite hobbies, we found new ways to get entertainment in 2020.   

The video made us feel stuck with us, and it continued to be one of our favorite distractions as we continued with our daily lives. Video is holding record statistics of engagement because audiences stay on the apps longer, continuously absorbing every pleasurable video.

And as for the latest TikTok update – TikTok will be testing 3-minute videos. It will be interesting to see how creators will utilize this new feature and how this could affect other video dominating apps – like, I don’t know Youtube? 

How you can leverage this: Concept different ways you can create video content for your brand. Some topics can be the story behind your brand, tutorials, or any other subject where a video can be fitting. Make sure whatever you are creating tells a story and will be visually captivating. Make sure whatever you are creating tells a story and will be visually captivating.

Livestreaming and How it Can Build Relationships

At one point in 2020, live-streaming was huge. Celebrities were unable to tour and do concerts, so they opted for another way of connecting with audiences through live-streaming.

Brands caught wind of this trend quickly since it allowed them to connect with audiences in real-time through the live chat feature on the live streams. Q&As and live tutorials were a few of the many conversations brands had with their audiences.

How you can leverage this: If you are searching for ways to make meaningful relationships with your audience, consider doing a live stream. Livestreams can bring more authenticity to your brand because you can connect with audiences visually and see their live chats coming in. This also allows you to understand your audience’s wants and needs and possibly their current perception of you.

Ensuring Your Content is Meaningful and Holds Value

And with the hard times the pandemic brought, people began to see the value in the physical connections they previously had with others. Since we transitioned to connecting virtually, people were reading deeper into the messages on their timeline and what it actually meant.   

For example, with the social movements in the last year, many brands knew that to be perceived as the humane and caring brands they claim to be, they had to post content that showed they supported the cause. 

This sparked the social shift that content had to deliver a message and speak to others rather than some unoriginal marketing post to earn more revenue.

How you can leverage this: If you want to grow a deeper connection with your audience, take the time to create a message that is meaningful and will positively impact your audience. People are scrolling through social media for a reason. They are looking for something that will inspire them – try to be that one post that leaves a good impression and makes them act on it.

Agency Partner lives in the digital world, and we know the digital landscape changes by the minute. If you have any questions about influential social media trends and tactics, contact Agency Partner, and we will reach back to you as soon as possible.

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5 Important Digital Marketing Tactics in 2021

Posted on | by Agency Partner
Expert Tips For 5 Important Digital Marketing Tactics in 2021

With the digital world constantly evolving, marketers are continuously challenged to stay updated with the latest marketing trends. A good percentage of our jobs consist of learning the new updates and seeing how it affects our current marketing strategies. 

In this blog post, we will be sharing 5 digital marketing tactics that have emerged in 2021. Although these marketing tactics aren’t necessarily new, marketers are looking at these tactics on a deeper level, learning the science behind them and how they can use these updates to their advantage. Below is a list of tactics that we will be discussing:

  1. Influencer Marketing 
  2. Mobile-First Marketing 
  3. Local SEO 
  4. Personalized Content / Audience Segmentation / AI 
  5. Voice Search 

With the advancement of technology, marketers are becoming more knowledgeable on ways they can reach their consumers and telling them what they want to hear. Even though the constant transformation of the internet can be draining, its development has been beneficial. 

Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing has always been a traditional marketing tactic. The concept is simple. Someone with strong influence shares your product or service with their audience, and in return, you can gain more awareness from the promotion of your product. With the growth of social media each year, the impact of influencer marketing has become exponential. 

TikTok, for example, is the newest venture when it comes to influencer marketing. TikTok has been very successful in being a video-based app. Audiences are entertained for longer periods of time and stay on the app longer, giving marketers more exposure opportunities. The influencer marketing tactics on the app have been so successful that software marketers now use them to recruit influencers influential to their target audiences.

Instagram is another powerhouse in influencer marketing. Recently, Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, shared that there will be changes in the way users use the app. Video and shopping content will be prioritized, minimizing the visibility of photos posted by family and friends on the timeline. As you can imagine, influencer marketing will be used more frequently with these updates.  

Mobile-First Marketing

Mobile-first marketing has been taken into more consideration by marketers in recent years. Many are starting to understand that the majority of online traffic derives from mobile devices, which means your content must be optimized for mobile devices for users to engage with it.  

If your website is not mobile-friendly, you risk the chance of quality leads leaving your site simply due to user experience. Marketers now understand the importance of mobile and how their content strategies must be based around it before executing.  

Local SEO

SEO (Search-Engine Optimization) is becoming a more respectable piece in marketing. With the development of the internet, a website’s quality score plays a big part in measuring its success. Google will not make it easy for websites to gain traffic if it sees no relevance in it. Google’s priority is the user.

They want more people to use Google to solve their day-to-day problems, and the way they are accomplishing that is by updating the algorithm to improve user experience. Google wants to make it easier for users to quickly search for something and find a solution to their problem. If your content is not answering a user’s question, your site will have a lower SERP (Search Engine Results Page), and it may never get found or clicked on. 

Local businesses have recognized the importance of SEO, and without it, they don’t stand a chance against the competition. Local SEO is essential because local audiences have a higher chance of conversion, and as a local business, you want to be present when that user is ready to make a purchase. 

Google My Business has helped many local businesses get listed on Google result pages. Utilizing keywords like your city name and services will make you more relevant, and it will higher your chances of appearing on a higher Google result page. 

Personalized Content / Audience Segmentation / AI

Creating your content based on your target audience has always been a marketing best practice. And thanks to the growth of artificial intelligence, personalizing content has never been easier. Audience segmentation is the process of dividing your general target audience by traits and attributes.

The segmentation helps marketers create and tailor content that will specifically market to that group. And with the help of artificial intelligence, marketers have understood their audience’s wants and needs on a deeper level. 

For example, if you are an ecommerce business, you can tailor your audience’s content by their shopping habits. A frequent buyer can receive a different newsletter from an infrequent one, and each of their newsletters will be customized to what each buyer wants to see.

Artificial intelligence is becoming more and more advanced, and it allows marketers to use it to their advantage that goes beyond just email personalization. The data supplementation from AI software systems is skyrocketing, and it will enhance our marketing strategies as we continue in 2021.  

Voice Search

Search engines and other applications have introduced voice typing features to enhance user experience. It makes searching a lot easier when it is hands-free. Marketers had noticed that when audiences used this feature, the keywords used are different from their regular typing. Due to the difference in vocabulary, SEO specialists consider how this will affect their SEO strategies.

Conclusion

Digital marketing has advanced within just a few years. Marketers must consistently stay on top of the latest trends to ensure their digital marketing tactics are executed successfully. Even though some of the tactics mentioned above aren’t necessarily new, they have evolved with the advancement of technology. 

Agency Partner lives in the digital world, and we know how the digital landscape changes by the minute. If you have any questions about cutting-edge marketing tactics, please get in touch with Agency Partner.

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Google: Algorithm Updates 2021

Posted on | by devops
Expert Tips For Google: Algorithm Updates 2021

Google algorithms are the key to every single search — expedited, run, & executed every second. These algorithms are complex systems used to retrieve data from its search index and instantly deliver the best possible query results.

The search engine uses algorithms and numerous ranking factors to deliver web pages, ranked by relevance on its search engine results pages (SERPs). Google possesses a long history of famous and functional algorithm updates, search index changes, and refreshes.

In its early years, Google only made a handful of updates to its algorithms. Now, Google makes thousands of changes every year. Most of these updates are so slight that they go completely unnoticed. However, on occasion, the search engine rolls out major algorithmic updates that significantly impact the SERPs.

At Agency Partner Interactive, we leverage your brand through precision digital marketing and help you take full advantage of Google’s core updates. We are not your average digital agency. We work to understand your business and leverage technology and marketing solutions to generate revenue and increase profits. To do this, we don’t hire just anyone.

Like Silicon Valley’s most impressive tech firms, we take ownership in everything we do, and our fully distributed business model enables us to offer the absolute best digital marketers, software developers, and designers on Earth.

To top it off, our clients enjoy an average 40 to 60% reduction in their cost of investment without any compromises, and our SEO digital marketing experts provide the key insights, core web-vitals, search index changes, and Search Engine Optimization while catering to Google search visibility seamlessly.

Google’s core updates, 2017 to present.

As far back as 2017, Google has started to refer to bigger updates as Google core updates. Since then, there is even less transparency about what those updates are and which parts of the search they are intended to improve. SEOs would often track post-update ranking shifts and figure out what exactly had changed, but there is rarely a conclusive observation. Google core updates are likely just improvements on previous Google updates or perhaps bundles of smaller updates tied together.

Since the effects of Google core updates are often unknown, one thing you can do is track SERP history for the keywords you are targeting. Once the update happens, you can check which of your competitors have moved up or down in rankings and make an educated guess about the contributing factors.

To start tracking your SERP history, launch Rank Tracker, Target Keywords > Rank Tracking > SERP Analysis, and click Record SERP data. The tool will start tracking the top 30 SERP positions for each of your keywords.

Understanding the BERT update.

Hazards: Poorly written content, lack of focus & lack of context.

This Google algorithm update uses natural language processing technology to understand search queries better, interpret text, identify entities and relationships between entities. We’ve seen Panda, Hummingbird, and RankBrain updates move away from keywords, and the BERT update is the culmination of this effort — it allows Google to understand much more nuance in both queries and search results.

We’ve finally lived to see the day when Google is actually rewarding good writing. Like never before, it is important to strive for a meaningful copy. It means you should go easy on fluff words and adopt an expository style of writing.

It is also a good idea to do entity research when creating copy — including relevant entities helps create a context for your content. We at Agency Partner Interactive provide you the level-playing field you need to advance your digital website and brand through good SEO content and marketing.

Not big on reading? That’s okay. Watch “Google: Algorithm Updates 2021” instead. Using the power of Artificial Intelligence, we turned this blog into a video for you. Check it out below!