• FAQs

          Search engine optimization (SEO) helps businesses drive visits to their website through organic search traffic. Given that the top organic search results receive a third of the clicks, a decline in ranking could be detrimental for your business. Implementing SEO best practices on your website will help to ensure that your web content is seen by as many potential customers as possible. The more visitors you have, the better your chances are of converting those visits into sales!

          Local search engine optimization (SEO) helps local businesses gain visibility by optimizing their local business listings for local search. A business that leverages local SEO will include its address, phone number, local opening times, and exact location in the form of a local citation. The goal is to rank for local searches which are usually performed by people in a specific geographical region looking for a business near them.

          We typically see results within the first 30 to 60 days, but when it comes to SEO, there are many factors at play. It's important to remember that SEO is a long-term strategy and results may not come as fast at you wish.


        • FAQs

          Digital advertising uses the internet to send advertisements to customers who are online through different websites and social media platforms like Google, Bing, LinkedIn and Facebook.

          The price for Google Ads management depends on the monthly ad spend. For accounts with $1,000 in monthly ad spend, the price is $550/month. Between $1,000 and $5,000 a month in ad spend, the price is $950/month. For $5,000 to $10,000 a month in ad spend, the price is $2,000/month. For more than $10,000 a month in ad spend, the price is $4,500/month.

          The price for Social Media Ads management depends on the monthly ad spend. For accounts with $1,000 in monthly ad spend, the price is $550/month. Between $1,000 and $5,000 a month in ad spend, the price is $950/month. For $5,000 to $10,000 a month in ad spend, the price is $2,000/month. For more than $10,000 a month in ad spend, the price is $4,500/month.


        • FAQs

          This depends on the complexity and size of a redesign and if eCommerce is needed. On average, it takes around 14-18 weeks from the web design intensive stage to launch.

          If your website experiences the following issues: it’s not responsive on all devices, has a slow loading speed, the design appears old and tired, users don’t spend long on the site, sales are stagnant, or your business is going through a rebranding - your website needs a redesign to boost your brand awareness and sales.

          Sometimes there’s no need to rebuild a website. Minor edits, refreshing page content and images, or restructuring page layout for SEO best practices can boost traffic and sales.


        • FAQs

          Semantic search launched in 2013 with the release of Google's Hummingbird update. Since then, Google's search engine has become more complex. The integration of machine learning, with RankBrain, and NLP, with BERT, has enabled the search engine to better understand the context of a query and deliver more personalized and targeted results. Semantic SEO is the process of creating machine-readable content using structured data and linked open data to help search engines better understand your content.

          On-page SEO is the practice of optimizing individual web pages in order to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic in search engines. On-page SEO refers to both the content and HTML source code of a page that can be optimized, as opposed to off-page SEO which refers to links and other external signals. From meta tags to page content, website structure, and HTML, on-page optimization services are focused on making your website more visible to search engines.

          Structured data refers to any organized data that conforms to a certain format, such as information in a relational database. When information is highly structured and predictable, search engines can more easily organize and display it in creative ways. Structured data involves using a piece of code that is laid out in a specific format easily understood by search engines. The search engines read the code and use it to display search results in a more dynamic way.


        • FAQs

          An SEO agency has experts in different areas of search engine optimization that may be out of the realm of your marketing team's abilities. SEO can be very complex and time-consuming. Furthermore, as search engine algorithms change it can be difficult to stay current on the latest ranking factors and strategies for improving online visibility. You will likely see a greater return on investment and better results from using a professional SEO agency than you would from tackling this on your own.

          As a digital marketing agency, SMA Marketing provides products and services in four areas: SEO, Local SEO, Digital Advertising, and Web Design

          We focus on building authentic, long-lasting relationships with our clients. We’re goal oriented and results driven and believe in doing good and making a difference in the world.

  • Contact

Why Does Personalization Matter for Email?

    The term “Personalization” has become more common in the marketing world over the last few years‚ even to the point of seeming like just another trend. But what does Personalization really mean, and how much of a difference does it even make in your marketing?

    Ask yourself: how many emails did you get this week from the various mailing lists you’ve opted into over the years? How many direct mail pieces are sitting on your kitchen table right now? Of all that content, how much of it stood out to you? How many felt like real messages composed by someone who knows and cares about you?

    I’m going to guess almost none.

    The truth is that people have gone numb to traditional marketing, and that includes form letters and emails. When you get a letter that says “Dear Ma’am/Sir/Resident”, each sentence after that is an uphill battle for the sender to persuade you to read it the whole way through. For emails, it’s even harder. Most marketing emails are never opened because, frankly, it is very transparent to the recipient what they are from the moment they see the subject line.

    Even inbound marketers and businesses using the Inbound Methodology are not immune to this. You might able hook some leads by offering good content, but over time, you could still lose them if their inbox is being flooded with generic messages that do not connect with them.

    How do you get through to an audience that has become jaded? How do you cut through the noise and connect with your target in a way that is genuine, not fake and mass-produced?

    Personalization is the Answer

    Personalization is the process of customizing your communications with customers, leads, prospects and visitors to the maximum extent possible— to make your marketing seem tailored to them specifically. When the recipient reads that message, sees those recommended links, or notices a list of products recommended to them, it is that kind of personalized touch that makes them feel like that message really was written just for them, with all their wants, needs, desires, and problems in mind.

    Think about the last time you went to a brick and motor business, and one of the staff really took the time to get to know you. To understand what your pain points were, and go out of their way to help you find the solution that was right for you. The purpose of Personalization in digital marketing is to replicate that type of one-on-one, person-to-person engagement as best you can without being there in real life.

    But is it possible to replicate that experience in a digitally-connected world where you not there in person, and you’re communicating with so many people at once? Sure it is.

    The Key to Connecting‚ and Converting‚ with Email

    One of the simplest ways to personalize content is one that you’re probably already familiar with: using your reader’s name: when you get an email or a piece of mail with your name on it, it grabs your attention way more than a generic, copy-&-pasted message or form letter.

    And this isn’t just feel-good talking points: the math shows that personalization makes a real difference. A survey of over 500 brand marketers found that personalizing their email content led to a 244% increase in click-through-rates, and a whopping 412% increase in revenue per opened email.

    Your email lists are the quickest way to begin experimenting with Personalization in your marketing. When subscribers opt in, you should be collecting as much data about them as you can, while still making it easy and frictionless for them to do so.

    Getting the name is mandatory. Every email and offer you send to them should be Personalized to begin with their name, and incorporate it into the body copy where appropriate. Beyond that, asking for information like location, gender, age, job title and the industry they work in can be immensely useful for personalizing content.

    You can also extrapolate a lot of good information (including some of the above) by tracking which pages your visitors read, and which lists they’re opting into. For example, say you’re managing the marketing for an engineering firm. If a visitor to that firm’s website provides their name and email in order to download a white paper about systems engineering design, you can be reasonably assured that this subscriber works in an engineering-related field. It would also be logical to conclude that this subscriber will be interested in other systems engineering-related content as well, and you can suggest this content to them in subsequent communications. If you know what specific industry they work in, you can send them links to news articles about cool/important developments in their field. This shows that you “get” them, and helps them stay on top of what’s happening in their profession.

    This is especially powerful when combined with a well-defined Buyer Persona. If you’ve already gone through the process of putting together a detailed persona and deeply understand your persona’s wants, needs and pain points, you’ll be able to use that data to create content that connects with him or her.  You can then use the data gathered from your interactions with them to personalize their experience with you even further, recommending specific content, products, and solutions just for them. This information can then be used to produce predictive analytics that can help you serve not just that customer’s needs, but all your customers’ needs even better. This is what allows you to engage in data-driven planning and decision-making without losing that human touch to your marketing.

    Personalization is, in many ways, the future of not only Inbound, but of marketing as a whole. Just adding your subscriber’s name to your next email is the simplest and fastest way to see this in action. In a world awash with too much marketing noise, Personalization is literally revamping the whole Buyer’s Journey process, and marketers and companies who ignore these trends are going to get left behind.

    Want to learn more about what personalized marketing can do for your business? Check out our Personalization page and see how we use this approach to help you build stronger and more profitable connection with customers.

    Did you find this article helpful? Then you’re going to love our free guide How to Engage Anonymous Online Visitors Through Personalization. This book will show you how to Personalize your visitor’s experience, and increase your conversion rates through the power of Contextual Marketing.

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