Conversion Funnels: Understanding the Stages of Conversion for Your Customers

In this post, we’ll cover the following:

Every business that sells products or services online will have a conversion funnel. However, not everyone will understand the concept or benefits of them.

In this article, the conversion rate optimisation (CRO) experts at our digital marketing agency in the West Midlands will explain what conversion funnels are, how they impact your customer journey, and how businesses can use them to make informed strategic decisions.

WHAT ARE CONVERSION FUNNELS?

A conversion funnel is a term used to describe the strategic journeys potential customers go through before becoming a conversion I.e. a prospect or customer

The aim is to attract and engage a potential customer through your funnel towards completing the intended action, be it a purchase or the inputting of data, using a variety of content and marketing strategies.

Funnels should be tailored towards how your customer buys, rather than how you sell your products or services, with a focus on providing a great experience throughout the user journey and convincing your audience to convert.

THE 3 STAGES OF MAKING FUNNELS

1) AWARENESS

The top of the funnel is the first stage of the process, where potential customers become aware of your brand and engage with it for the first time through your website, marketing campaigns and / or consumer research.

Individuals are looking for purchases, resources, education, and insights that help them address specific needs and may not know much about your services at this stage, so the focus is on promoting brand awareness and expertise.

Blogs, infographics, Q&As and social media posts are good examples of top-of-the-funnel content as they are looking to direct your audience towards contacting you, I.e. visiting your website and learning more about you.

2) CONSIDERATION

The middle stage of the conversion funnel is all about building trust with your audience and helping individuals evaluate the benefits of what you have to offer over your competitors.

At this stage, the potential customer is aware of your brand and is now looking to find out more about how you can help satisfy their requirements and explore the product or service more thoroughly.

They could sign up to your email newsletter, follow you on social media, or download guides and other resources from your website.

3) CONVERSION

The final stage of the conversion funnel is about converting your audience into customers.

At this stage, you have got their attention, built trust, and developed a relationship with them. The focus is now on providing specific reasons for them to choose your brand over competitors.

A lot of the focus here is on your call-to-action, detailing what you want them to do. Depending on the product or services you offer it could be anything from making a purchase to an email signup, form submission or button click.

You can also utilise techniques to make it easy to convert here, such as offering a consultation, trial, estimate, or sending a discount to anyone showing hesitation at the final stage before conversion.

THE IMPORTANCE OF CONVERSION RATE OF OPTIMISTATION

Conversion rate optimisation is the process of increasing the percentage of visitors who complete an intended website’s goal. When it comes to helping nurture your audience through the funnel, CRO is an invaluable way to assess how visitors interact with your website. You have so much data at your fingertips that you need to review on a regular basis to ensure the funnels are aligned.

Every aspect of your conversion funnel can be optimised to increase the number of successful conversions. This involves understanding what motivates and persuades people so that you can give them the best possible experience, as well as discovering the reasons why part of your audience is failing to convert.

Metrics such as cost per acquisition, bounce rate, customer lifetime value, conversion rate and conversion rate per channel can help measure your marketing funnel’s success and effectiveness.

HOW CAN EDGE HELP AS A DEDICATED WEB AGENCY?

As a leading web and SEO agency based in Sutton Coldfield, we have over 15 years of experience creating digital campaigns that actively increase conversions.

Our expert team are pioneers in using remarketing to boost conversion rates while raising your business’s reputation, visibility and bottom line. As a business, we aim to make every interaction with your audience a meaningful one.

Learn more about our approach to conversion rate optimisation and remarketing at CRO and Remarketing | EDGE Creative (edge-creative.com)

Why Customer Personas Are Vital for Your Marketing Strategy

In this post, we’ll cover the following:

Knowing your audience and understanding what makes them tick can make all the difference when it comes to attracting high-value visitors, leads, and customers to your business.

In this blog, experts from our marketing agency in Sutton Coldfield will explain the concept of customer personas and delve into the importance of using them to help achieve your business goals.

We will focus on areas including how it differs from marketing segmentation, where it fits in with your marketing strategy and how our digital marketing specialists can help.

HOW DO CUSTOMERS COMPARE TO MARKETING SEGMENTATION?

Customer personas, also known as buyer personas, are fictional but ideal, representations of your customers, built upon using the existing real data you hold about them. These personas can help you gain a deeper understanding of the clients you’re trying to target and how they find, interact, and use your services or products.

Such personas expand on the typical types of market segmentation that include demographic-led data such as gender, age, location, and lifestyle to name a few, to focus on the behaviours associated with these audiences, which could also include their personal motivations and values.

The aim is to identify similar personality traits within these customer personas and use that information to shape your marketing strategy, improve the customer experience and bring your business closer to its marketing goals.

WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT TO USE CUSTOMER PERSONAS IN YOUR MARKETING STRATEGY?

The more information you have about your customer base, the more value you can add to their experience of your brand.

Within your business teams, every member of staff will benefit from understanding your customers and prospects – from those in the sales and marketing teams to product development and customer support – every communicational touchpoint can have an impact on a sale and will leave an impression (good or bad) on your audience.

This information will then lead to a greater insight into your customer journeys. It enables you to identify and meet customer needs, align your brand close to your customers, improve outbound communications and core messaging, fine-tune your services or products including pricing, and save time and money as the efficiency of your overall business is improved!

Once the above has been fully implemented, you will be better equipped to serve your customers and as a result, they will reward you with brand loyalty and peer-to-peer endorsement that will increase your brand awareness and reputation.

MAKE PEOPLE FALL IN LOVE WITH YOUR PRODUCT

If you’re selling products online, your competition can be high and if you don’t have a set strategy to help you stand out from the crowd, your brand and product will become just like any other out there in the e-commerce landscape.

Using storytelling might be your secret weapon to make your customers fall in love with your product – people remember stories 22 times more than just facts or figures. So, it’s your time to shine and show who you are and how can they identify with you!

Creating a story for your product not only will help you simplify the message, but you can also place it in a real-life situation and show how can the customer benefit from it. This will make it easier for them to understand the purpose and the value of the product.

The story that you tell can make the difference between converting them to buy your product or going to the competition, so make sure you overload it with your brand personality and that you use the right tone of voice!

WHAT TECHNIQUES CAN YOU USE TO ESTABLISH CUSTOMER PERSONAS?

Keyword research is a very effective marketing tool when it comes to gathering data about your clients. It allows your business to discover exactly what customers are searching for concerning your services, products and what advice they are looking for within your industry and location.

For example, you could discover that a popular search term is the name of one of your services alongside the word ‘offer’. This suggests that price and value could be important factors for your audience.

Social media can also be a useful tool for helping to establish personas – most platforms already have built-in analytics that offer a wide range of data about your audience. On top of this, you can see the type of content that is generating the most engagement and then gain an understanding of the user journey and what your customers are looking for.

There are also more traditional methods of communication and market research that can be used to help with customer personas, such as surveys, forums, and one-to-one interviews. If conducted in the right environment and at the right time, the responses can often be very honest and personal providing key beneficial insight into your business.

HOW THE TEAM AT EDGE CREATIVE CAN HELP WITH YOUR MARKETING STRATEGY

As a fully integrated digital marketing agency in Birmingham, we have a team of marketing specialists who understand the importance of establishing customer personas to help grow a business.

We can help develop your marketing strategy, focusing on reaching your target audience through a range of effective techniques, including a free marketing audit, brand review, content marketing, email marketing, paid advertising and conversion rate optimisation.

If you’d like more information about how EDGE Creative can help take your business to the next level, please call us on 0121 355 0892 or email info@edge-creative.com.

What Does Google’s ‘Helpful Content’ Update Mean for Website Content?

As a specialist digital marketing agency, here’s what we’ve discovered:

 

Google is constantly looking at new ways to ensure all web pages that appear and rank in its search engine are as helpful and relevant as possible for the user.

At the end of August 2022, the company announced its Helpful Content update, an alteration to how its search engine algorithm ranks website content.

As a specialist digital marketing agency in Sutton Coldfield, it is our nature to keep up to date with all the latest news and updates that affect online content and SEO (search engine optimisation).

Read on to see our content marketing experts explain the latest Google update in more detail, focusing on how it should change your approach to writing website content.

WHAT IS THE GOOGLE HELPFUL CONTENT UPDATE?

The update was introduced on August 25th 2022 and took around two weeks to fully roll out to all worldwide searches in the English language.

It is not a core update to the search algorithm. Instead, it is a new signal that aims to reward content that satisfies the user experience and lowers the performance of content that fails to meet a visitor’s expectations.

Google introduced it as a weighted site-wide algorithm. This means that if the AI determines a high amount of unhelpful content on a website, it could get flagged with a label that can impact the visibility of the entire site on the search engine results pages (SERPs).

All this could sound quite daunting, but don’t worry, the content specialists at our SEO agency in the West Midlands are here to make life easier for you. Reach out to a member of the team for more information.

HOW DO WE RECOMMEND YOU APPROACH WEB CONTENT AFTER THE NEW UPDATE?

You are probably wondering what you need to consider when trying to produce content that the Google update will respond positively to.

In short, the emphasis should be on creating web content that satisfies the user intent and provides additional value using SEO best practices, without it feeling like it has been made with a focus on search engines.

The most successful content will focus on the intended audience of your website and the information they want from you. Ultimately, avoid trying to be everything for everyone.

Websites will be rewarded for clearly demonstrating first-hand expertise and depth of knowledge in a particular area or field.

Using elements like original photos or insights are an effective way to highlight the experience you have with the topic you are writing about. These visual demonstrations can enhance the experience.

Put yourself in the shoes of the user. Imagine the questions they are likely to want answering in your content and at speed. Make sure you are accurate with your answers because Google will caution websites that are making false claims and not giving the user what they want.

HOW CAN A SEO AGENCY LIKE EDGE CREATIVE HELP YOUR BUSINESS?

As a fully integrated marketing agency in the West Midlands, we have dedicated SEO and content teams who specialise in creating high-quality web content that ranks highly on search engines and implementing effective SEO strategies.

We focus on identifying the needs of your audience and satisfying those requirements through accurate and engaging content that demonstrates your expertise and depth of knowledge.

If you want to take your website content to the next level, contact us today by calling 0121 355 8092 or emailing info@edge-creative.com.

Web 3.0 – What Can We Expect From the Next Generation of the Internet?

What topics we’ll be covering with Web 3.0:

An advancement in how computers understand the meaning behind the information is likely to be at the heart of it, allowing them to learn more about topics you are interested in and helping to find the information you want faster.

In this article, the digital marketing team from our expert digital marketing agency in Birmingham will focus on what we hope to see from the emergence of Web 3.0.

WHAT IS LIKELY TO CHANGE FROM WEB 2.0?

The second generation of the World-Wide-Web handed the capacity for interaction between users and sites. It was driven by the emergence of social networks, mobile and cloud technology.

In Web 3.0, the idea is to enhance the user experience further, through a more human-like communication that will see artificial intelligence look at the meaning behind words and understand relationships between things, leading to better connections and more relevant information.

It is also believed that there will be a change in power regarding data, with the user expected to be able to take back control, giving greater privacy, transparency, and ownership over their information thanks to blockchain technology.

The aim is the introduction of a web that does not require personal information to be provided to large tech companies like Facebook, Google and Twitter to use their services.

WHAT FEATURES OF WEB 3.0 ARE WE LIKELY SEE?

Whilst much of Web 3.0 is still at the theoretical stage, details are starting to emerge about many of the key features that will play a part in taking the internet into the next generation.

These include some of the following:

SEMANTIC WEB 

This will help improve the search process to generate and share content using methods that understand the meaning of words rather than keywords or numbers.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Computers will take a more human-like approach to provide faster and more relevant results, helping to improve the way they satisfy user intent.

3D GRAPHICS 

The frequency of 3D design on websites and services such as guides, computer games, eCommerce and geographical contexts should increase rapidly with Web 3.0.

CONNECTIVITY

Information will be more connected because of semantic metadata that will help progress the user experience to new levels.

DEVICES

As technology develops, new methods of gaining access to internet content and services will emerge, rather than exclusively through computers and smartphones.

BLOCKCHAIN

This technology leaves user data protected and encrypted. It will serve to stop large companies from controlling and/or using users’ data for their gain.

DATA OWNERSHIP

Data will be stored within a peer-to-peer connection, meaning users keep ownership of their data and digital assets, and can log in securely online without being tracked.

EDGE COMPUTING

Web3 relies on the advancement of edge computing in which apps and data are processed at the network edge on mobile phones, laptops, appliances, and smart devices.

HOW CAN EDGE HELP?

EDGE Creative is a digital marketing agency with content specialists and website developers in Birmingham who pride themselves on keeping up to date with the latest technological changes and developments.

As a result, we are perfectly placed to help our clients get the most out of their online presence and maximise the ways they interact digitally.

So, if you are ready to take your business to the next level, please get in touch with us today by calling 0121 355 8092 or emailing info@edge-creative.com.

The Sensible Way to Choose Between Live Video and Animation

When creating video content, you’ll need to know the following:

The following blog has been written by Philippe Ingels, a visual communication and marketing specialist for more than 35 years, currently leading the creative process at Wakster. His in-depth knowledge of how the brain works in reference to decision-making and behaviour helps him identify the most effective visual marketing methods.

WHAT IS THE CAMERA POINTING AT?

To tease out the difference between live video and animation is not as straightforward as it might seem. Live video points a camera at the real world, while animation points it to something in an imagined world.

Just to make sure things are not unnecessarily simple – I mean, why not – there is a sizable fuzzy border between the two formats. We’ve all seen real-world actors placed in imagined worlds. On the flip side are animations that look so super-realistic that we start questioning whether we’re looking at the real world or not. Both live video and animation can more or less do everything on the long list of requirements to create a compelling message.

We need to explore a bit deeper into the differences between these two formats to determine what you need to consider when deciding which format is best for your purposes.

REAL OR NOT?

One key consideration is whether your message requires you to make a visual connection to real-life people in real-life situations using real-life products. If showing the CEO, your factory or the clever widget you’ve just invented is essential to establish authenticity, then you have to use live video.

On the other hand, if the success of your message depends more on the audience understanding the value of your idea, product or process, then animation becomes a consideration. However, that doesn’t mean it can’t be done with live video. We’re again at an impasse, but this brings us to our second key difference.

How hard and in which way do you need to push your audience’s mental buttons to persuade them to take action?

PUSH AND PUSH

To make your message successful at conversion, you need two essential elements: it needs to make sense, and there needs to be a good dose of the right emotional triggers mixed into the message. Behavioural science has shown that reason and emotions are two inseparable parts of a single decision-making process. The emotions trigger the decision because the mind uses them to determine priorities. The rational framework gives the context and purpose of the emotions. Without emotions, no decisions are made, and without the rational, there is a danger of senseless choices.

So, the two questions you need to consider are these:

  • How likely is it that someone, at some point, might lose the thread of your explanation? Remember, some, if not most, of your audience will not be sufficiently familiar with your products or services to easily connect all the dots. That means they might be unable to keep track of all the essential facts you throw at them.

  • What is the size of the emotional impact you need to make to persuade someone to take action? The more competition for attention and the more objections there are, the more intense the emotions you need to trigger – such as anticipation, excitement and conviction.

As far as the rational argument is concerned, both video and animation are ideally suited for explaining the value you offer. However, animation is particularly good at explaining products or services with multiple features and benefits that are closely interrelated. This is because animation is often much better are handling abstract ideas.

What about creating an emotional impact? There is no doubt that live video can trigger high-impact emotions. Because it deals with real-life people in real-life situations, it has the potential to create an emotional experience at a much deeper level than animation.

There is a catch, though – it’s usually much more expensive to produce such an impact with live video than animation. Why? Because in many cases, you need to secure suitable locations, hire professional actors and get a top-notch production crew on board. And it can get costly to make any changes, especially if it requires hiring the same actors and getting the crew, location, and setup back together.

With animation, you can create any location imaginable – any place, any time period and at any scale. You can also magic as many diverse actors as you need into existence and have them do whatever is required to bring your story to life. Need someone to fly? They fly. Need someone to run the 100m in under 9.58 seconds? No problem, you don’t need to cast Usain Bolt.

You have perfect control over every tiny aspect of the production, which means the story can be perfectly crafted. An animated actor will re-do a scene a hundred times without complaining once. They also never have to go into rehab (unless that’s in the script, of course). Animation allows you to easily change your video content at any time as all the locations, actors and setups get frozen in time, just waiting for you to re-activate them.

THAT REMEMBERING THING

It is always decidedly beneficial if people can actually remember your message. People are not always ready to buy when they encounter your message, so for them to not only recall what you’ve said but still feel some of the conviction they experienced means you have to impress – big time.

By now, you will not be surprised to learn that both live video and animation are perfectly capable of making things memorable. Memorability is directly related to the size of the emotional impact you’ve made. It also relies on factors such as differentiation – how surprisingly different the experience is. It all comes down to cost. Differentiating things using real-world people and locations can have a significant impact but can get very expensive. With animation, your only limitation is imagination.

AND THE WINNER IS…

There really isn’t a winner between live video and animation. It all depends on a combination of factors that include the importance of a real-world connection, the nature of the dots you need to connect, the emotional impact you need to make and your budget. There is even the real possibility of combining the two formats into one production or using the two formats separately to serve specific purposes.  

Use video:

  • If you need to use real-life to establish authenticity.

  • If the dots you need to connect to explain the value you offer are reasonably straightforward.

  • If you have enough budget available to make a significant enough emotional impact.

  • If you have enough budget available to do what it takes to make the video memorable.

  • If you just want a video because everyone has a video.

Use animation:

  • If real-world authentication is less important.

  • If persuading someone to take action is dependent on connecting multiple value dots.

  • If you need to make a significant emotional impact within a reasonable budget.

  • If you need to make your message memorable within a reasonable budget.

YOUR NEXT THING

We’ve created hundreds of animations, combined video with animation and directed live video shoots with actors performing in front of green screens.

If you want to know more about the power of animation, please visit our website. Alternatively, feel free to get in touch if you need advice on what format is best for your needs and what your options are by reaching out to philippe@wakster.com.

Why Do Businesses Need to Segment Data to Accurately Report and Direct Marketing Efforts?

When learning about data segmentation it’s important to know the following:

In any business in any sector, data is important. Data comes in many forms, whether it’s the personal information of you and your employees, the contact details of your customers, or the profit margins and outgoings of your business.

Data is what businesses need to operate, and one of the most efficient ways to organise and store this data is through segmentation.

But what is data segmentation, what is it useful for, and why might you want to utilise it? Read on for the answers to these questions and more!

THE ESSENTIALS: DATA, SEGMENTATION, AND SECURITY

Data is at the core of any business, especially in the era of the internet. As a leading digital marketing agency in Birmingham, data plays a huge role in what we do by informing us of who to contact in a variety of situations.

It also helps us see how our clients are performing in their various industries, too. From marketing to HR, payroll, and IT, data is what informs every department of every business what it is they should be working on.

Data should be the driving force behind business decisions. Data helps you to respond to market trends, identify patterns in customer behaviour, and reduce expenditure, all of which should culminate in an increase in revenue if you respond accordingly.

But with data comes complications. For one, there are security concerns, usually regarding how long data can be stored for and the ways in which it is used. For example, personal data must be collected willingly, legally, and with good reason, all of which should be outlined in your company’s privacy policy.

Secondly, data needs to be stored effectively for it to be useful, especially when you’re dealing with large databases of potential leads or existing customers. This is where audience data segmentation comes into effect.

DATA SEGMENTATION AND HOW BUSINESSES UTILISE IT

Segmentation is the process of separating and organising a database into sections based on shared factors. We’ll explain the concept through an example:

Imagine you own a national business, and therefore cater to clients from the Scottish Highlands to the sunny south coast. In this example, you might have a database of 6,000 leads.

Let’s say you had prepared a marketing campaign tailored towards potential clients specifically in Northumberland. Combing through a database of 6,000 leads, each from different parts of the country, to identify which people you should contact would take an incredibly long time.

By segmenting your data by location and storing them in separate locations, you will be able to select the “Northumberland” database and immediately send across your materials to just those people. With a full database that large, the Northumberland area might include upwards of 750 potential clients.

By doing so manually, or even using filtering tools, you could miss some of those potential leads, or send irrelevant information to a client in Sussex by accident. Plus, it could take hours of administration work, whereas a segmented database could be contacted with a single click. This is why data segmentation is so important.

Since we are a digital marketing company in Birmingham, we’ve used a marketing example, but this kind of data usage can be important for any aspect of a business.

SEGMENTED DATABASES ARE CRUCIAL FOR YOUR MARKETING EFFORTS

To effectively maintain and grow your client base, and therefore your revenue, a segmented and accurate database is key.

The beauty of a segmented database is that your data can be organised according to any number of specific factors, provided you have access to the required data.

That means you could have a database for existing clients in the automobile industry, or you might want to have a database for companies in the UK with a director whose surname is “Adams”, for whatever reason.

This helps you not only target potential leads with correct and relevant information, but also to send communications and offers to existing customers to help retain them.

If all your content is ending up the correct inboxes, your emails will be opened, and you will generate leads. Plus, if you have the right data, you could use business addresses to even send something physical to really stand out from the crowd.  

GET IN TOUCH

Want to get the best out of your existing database, or looking to start fresh and kickstart a new, targeted marketing campaign? We can help. As a specialist digital agency, our email and content marketing is tailored to the needs of your business and your clients.

We can even help across other forms of marketing too, from building a brand-new website to developing your brand, our goal is seeing you succeed.

To find out what we could do for you, drop an email to info@edge-creative.com or call the office on 0121 355 8092.

How Will Marketing the Metaverse Transform Digital Marketing?

In this post, we’ll cover the following:

Facebook owner and potential ‘Illuminati alien lizardman’ Mark Zuckerberg both surprised and confused the world last year when he announced that his company was to be rebranded as “Meta”. Perhaps even more surprising was that he also revealed that Meta was developing a new virtual realm known as the “Metaverse.”


In simple terms, the metaverse is an online augmented reality in which real people can live as avatars in a digital world. The aim is that in a few years, the Metaverse and other virtual reality platforms will become the norm for social and business interactions.


But what does that mean for marketing? Read on for the insights of an expert within a leading marketing agency!


WHAT IS THE METAVERSE?


The Metaverse is a blend of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technology, which together creates a digital world in which people can explore, conduct business, and socialise.


The aim of the Metaverse is to change the way we view and use technology. The Metaverse aims to be a hub of social interaction and business, which could affect everyone of a working age depending on how quickly this technology is adopted.


Sceptics don’t see a complete overhaul of business practices happening any time soon, and instead think that the Metaverse could be a tool used in tandem with standard business practices. For example, you might use it for the occasional meeting or for presentations that require interactivity.


Each individual user will have their own avatar and freely walk around a generated world. Exactly what the Metaverse will look like is a mystery, but using what has officially been released, it could entirely depend on where you choose to go.


Some parts of the Metaverse may be designed to look like a busy city centre, while others might look like tropical islands, the countryside, or a fantasy world. Truth be told, each area in the Metaverse will probably look completely different depending on the developers’ ideas.


What we do know is that some companies and wealthy individuals have already purchased plots of “land” and “real estate” within the metaverse, which they will likely be able to customise according to their vision.


This means you might spot recognisable companies with branded structures or advertisements during your stay within this virtual reality, just like the real world.


WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR MARKETING?


As a leading digital marketing company in Birmingham, we are used to working in a fast-paced and ever-evolving industry. Should the Metaverse be as popular as those developing it hope, we could see a drastic change in the way online marketing is conducted.


Since the Metaverse is an explorable and interactive virtual world, it is likely that the marketing utilised there will need to reflect that. You may see billboards and posters much like the real world, but you will also probably experience new forms of interactive marketing.


For example, the very foundation of the Metaverse is virtual reality. VR technology is already being used to create more interactive, immersive, and physically challenging video games, such as Beat Saber or Superhot.


This means that companies and brands could commission short, interactive games that you could play within the wider Metaverse that promote their products.


You will also be able to create assets within the world that people can watch, use, or interact with that could promote your product. These could include menus, puzzles, pictures, or whole spaces within the Metaverse for users to explore.


And, with plots of virtual land going to the highest bidder, you might see branded buildings, like skyscrapers or shops, in which you can engage with their products or services. These might include full game rooms, mock-ups of the inside of their shops, and more. In many ways, the possibilities truly are endless.


WHICH BUSINESSES COULD WIN WITH THE MOVE TO META MARKETING?


Marketing is not as simple as putting a few adverts out on social media. The businesses that will benefit from a move to Meta marketing are those that innovate and adapt the fastest.


The interactivity of the Metaverse is one of its key selling points, meaning that the companies who utilise those points first will likely be the initial winners. Producing some kind of game or story that the user can play and interact with could be the first step in winning over the Metaverse audience.


Some companies have tried to make games in the past. Two examples that come to mind are Sneak King, a game from Burger King in which you quietly feed random members of the public Whoppers, and the KFC dating simulator (no, I’m not joking), I Love You, Colonel Sanders!


While these are on the extreme end of interactivity, it is ingenuity and daringness like this which could be key in Metaverse marketing. If a VR experience releases inside the Metaverse early on in its lifetime, that is likely to be picked up by new users to the platform, news sites, internet personalities, and more.


But it isn’t just games that can utilise this VR technology to get ahead of the competition; businesses could offer experiences or virtual tours of their work sites. For example, a brewery could faithfully reproduce the inside of their building and have virtual guests take a tour without impacting the workflow and hygiene of the original site.


Perhaps businesses working in skyscrapers could reproduce their office space and the view they have of the city around them. Maybe travel agencies could give teaser experiences for customers looking at travelling around the world, by letting them visit certain tourist destinations from the comfort of their home.


Once the technology has been ironed out, and costs are accessible for a wide range of users, any company willing to create something new and exciting could win big. If they offered something unique in a VR space that is accessible only by purchasing their product and receiving a code, for example, then they could increase sales as a result.


METAVERSE MARKETING STILL NEEDS IMPROVEMENTS FOR THE BETTER


Regardless of what we speculate, the reality is that the Metaverse still needs time to develop, and marketing within that space will naturally evolve on its own.


It’s impossible to predict exactly what will transpire, as every company with have their own approaches and ideas on what they think will work, and what won’t.


We believe that the interactivity aspect of the Metaverse is what should be utilised first. Our expertise as a leading digital agency in the West Midlands gives us a good idea of what will be effective, even if the Metaverse hasn’t yet taken shape.


TALK TO THE EXPERTS


Our knowledge can help your business achieve its goals. Though we are a digital marketing agency in Sutton Coldfield, we have helped businesses throughout the UK grow their customer base and increase revenue.


We can handle all your business marketing needs, from website design and development to SEO strategies, social media management, and content production.


If you’d like to benefit from our expertise, or you’d like to find out more about what we do, get in touch today by emailing info@edge-creative.com or calling the office on 0121 355 8092.

Five Ways to Optimise Your Website for Voice Search in 2022

When optimising for voice search it’s important to know:

Alexa, Siri, Bixby, Cortana.

Though it might sound like the line-up of the next group to win the X-Factor, most people will recognise at least one of these names as virtual assistants. Common among modern UK households, virtual assistants have several purposes.

From setting timers and reminders to controlling the lights in your house and playing your favourite album on demand, virtual assistants are convenient and functional. One of the main features of virtual assistants is being able to ask quick questions, which are then answered following a quick scan of the internet.  

You could be missing out on a key portion of your audience by not tailoring your SEO approach to accommodate voice searches, but don’t worry; read on to find out exactly how you can appeal to your target audience through voice search optimisation.

WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN VOICE SEARCHES AND REGULAR SEARCHES?

The way we choose to communicate and interact with those around us differs from person to person. For example, in most cases, you wouldn’t talk to your friend in the same way you talk to your boss. The same can be said for technology: do you type in the same way you speak?

There are several differences in the norms of text and voice conversations, and it’s the same for text and voice searches. If you wanted to know about the best marketing options in your local area, you might type something simple, like:

‘Marketing agency Birmingham‘

If you were to do the same by voice, you might ask something like:

“What’s the highest-rated digital marketing agency in Birmingham?“

This difference in search terms and specificity could mean that a usually effective SEO strategy doesn’t work its magic on the more than one billion voice searches made every week. In fact, with some sources claiming that voice searches are now more common day-to-day than text-based searches, it might be more important than ever to target this audience.

Here are five steps you can take to do so.

1) REVIEW YOUR KEYWORDS

Due to the short, succinct nature of text searches, a traditional SEO strategy is likely to target single words or short phrases specific to your industry to drive search traffic to your website.

With voice searches changing the way people phrase their queries, the keywords and phrases you need to target are likely to be different.

Since voice searches are more conversational and grammatically correct than the text-based equivalent, it makes sense to target these with your content. Instead of appealing to “voice search SEO”, for example, you may want to target “how to improve voice search ranking” or “what’s the best way to improve voice search SEO.”

This change of approach might seem strange, but if someone were to ask the same question using exactly the same wording as you have on your website, then you will rank higher on the results.

2) PRODUCE CONVERSATIONAL CONTENT

If voice searches are being utilised in a conversational tone, then you need to produce conversational content. The content you produce should match what people are searching.

There are several ways to approach this, so you need to pick the one that best suits your existing tone and content. Perhaps you could produce question and answer content to appeal to the longer keywords while also reducing the formality of your communication.

Maybe some of your webpages could work better as lists or graphs rather than long, drawn out explanations, or perhaps you need to rework your titles to be more appealing to a wider audience.

3) MAINTAIN A FOCUS ON THE USER EXPERIENCE

Targeting users when they may not physically enter your website might seem strange, but it has its SEO benefits. For one, the load speed of your website is considered when the search engine decides where to rank you in the search results. The higher up you rank, the more likely you are to be picked by the voice search.

Additionally, your website needs to be easy to use and navigate for users so that the search engine can access the necessary information easily. If the website is logical and laid our intuitively, then the search engine will be able to find the search query as easily as a user.

4) DON’T DISREGARD YOUR REGULAR SEO STRATEGY

Appealing to voice search doesn’t mean you should suddenly ditch your attempts to target text search traffic, too. To attract the highest possible amount of web traffic, it will pay to target both voice search and regular search audiences.

This means that you might need to operate two separate SEO strategies or combine them into one unified method. Juggling two different methods of search engine usage is complex, especially when you’re trying to appeal to two different sets of similar keywords.

5) CONTACT AN SEO AND MARKETING SPECIALIST

What’s the best way to guarantee SEO results? Reach out to the experts. We can handle all the complex SEO research and produce an effective strategy from the findings. We can then also produce the content you need to seamlessly incorporate this strategy into your website.

We believe in transparency, so our team will walk you through the steps we take to help drive traffic to your website and send you the quantitative results of our efforts. You will be able to see exactly how our services have helped you and what might need tweaking.

For more information on how our SEO team could help you generate leads and increase revenue, email info@edge-creative.com or call the office on 0121 355 8092. 

The Power of Sound: How Sonic Branding Can Help Grow Your Company’s Reach

In this post, we’ll cover the following:

If you asked a room full of people “what do you consider as effective business marketing?”, you will probably end up with a wide range of answers. From social media management to celebrity endorsements and a positive brand image, there are several valid answers that all contribute towards successful marketing campaigns.

However, very few will answer “sonic branding”. For most, the term is probably entirely unfamiliar, and yet they would still be able to identify sonic assets when exposed to them.

So, what is sonic branding, and if very few people know what sonic assets are, is it worth investing in it?

Absolutely, and here’s why.

SONIC BRANDING FOCUSES ON A LESSER-USED SENSE WHEN IT COMES TO ADVERTISING

As a society, we are incredibly focused on visuals. So much of what we do orientates itself around our sense of sight, from choosing which clothes to wear each day to the car we drive (or want to drive) and the media we consume. 

TikTok and YouTube are two of the most influential social media platforms currently on the internet. Some of our most common pastimes, like watching the television or playing video games, are inherently sight-based too. In fact, the only one of your five senses you are using to read this blog is sight as well.

That’s because sight is unrestrictive. Taste and smell are unlikely to be used outside of the food and cosmetic industries, and touch is tough to utilise outside of the clothing industry.

That leaves hearing: the sense which sonic branding appeals to, and the sense that is drastically under-utilised. Unlike taste, smell, and touch, there are very few barriers when it comes to sonic assets, and unlike sight, hearing doesn’t require your full attention.

This is why sonic branding is so effective. It appeals to an underutilised sense in terms of advertisement, and it doesn’t require someone’s full attention to be successful. In fact, a successful sonic asset will often stick in your memory even without you trying to remember it. 

AUDIO BRANDS ARE OFTEN SUBCONSCIOUSLY RECOGNIZABLE

“Did somebody say Just Eat?” If you read that sentence and didn’t hear Just Eat’s jingle in your head at the same time, you are certainly in the minority. The instant recognisability of a phrase or song such as this means that sonic assets work similarly to a logo in many ways.

No matter whether you’re at home or out and about, something as iconic as the McDonalds logo, for example, will immediately catch your attention. The same can be said about sonic branding, meaning that if you hear a certain tune or note, you may immediately associate it with a specific company.

This is incredibly powerful method of marketing. If your brand is easily recalled on the spot and associated with a particular sound, your customers may be thinking about you constantly. Every time they something vaguely similar to your sonic asset, your customers will be thinking of your business.

WHAT MAKES A GREAT SONIC ASSET?

From our perspective as a leading creative agency in Birmingham, a great sonic asset needs to be effective at three main things:

  1. APPEAL
  2. PERSONALITY
  3. MEMORABILITY

APPEAL

Simply put, a sonic asset must appeal to the audience. Dismissing a few notable outliers, sonic assets need to be liked by those who will hear them to be successful. This means they should either sound professionally made, give off positive connotations, or both.

Some examples of this include Moonpig, Checkatrade, and Just Eat. The beats and jingles in these examples are generally uplifting and enjoyable to listen to and might even make you sing along.

PERSONALITY

A sonic asset must also be reflective of your brand for people to think of your company when they hear it. Certain ideals of your business need to be expressed through the sound – for example, a mechanic may want to have more metallic sounds take centre stage in their sonic asset. In some cases, you may also want to include the name of your brand in your jingle.

MEMORABILITY

Lastly, a sonic asset needs to be remembered to be effective. There is no point in including sound in your marketing if no one can recall your brand after hearing it, or if the tune doesn’t flow logically.

Most sonic assets work because people sing or hum along to it subconsciously. If your sonic asset is too long, doesn’t follow a tune, or is simply produced poorly, no one will care to remember it.

CONTACT US FOR FURTHER INFOMATION

If you’d like a deeper look into sonic branding and what it could do for your business, get in touch. As marketing experts, we know how to amplify your brand both on and off the internet and can help plan a comprehensive marketing strategy for your business. For more information on how we could help your business grow, email info@edge-creative.com or call the office on 0121 355 8092.

Are You Ready for This Major Google Analytics Update?

In this post, we’ll cover the following:

Could you imagine suddenly losing all the data your business has been collecting via Google Analytics? It’s a scary thought – and we’d do anything to avoid that happening.

While this sounds like a nightmare for any data junkie, it may become a reality if you’re not prepared for this major GA update.

WHAT IS THIS MAJOR UPDATE ALL ABOUT?

Google has recently announced that their current platform Universal Analytics (UA), which has been running since 2012/2013, will be superseded by Google Analytics 4 (GA4) permanently from July 1st, 2023.

WHAT DOES THIS CHANGE MEAN TO YOU?

When GA4 becomes the main platform on 1st July 2023, your Universal Analytics property will stop tracking your website data and only historic reports will be available to view. At the end of 2023, you will lose access to Universal Analytics data completely.

It’s worth highlighting that the data from Universal Analytics (that will be collected until 30th June 2023) will not be passed through to GA4.

In a nutshell: If you don’t act now, you’ll have less time to gather website data once the change becomes permanent.

By creating a GA4 property now, you’ll be able to build up 1 whole years’ worth of Analytics reporting and ensure you don’t miss out on valuable insights.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN UNIVERSAL ANALYTICS AND GA4?

GA4 has an updated measurement module that will allow you to produce more accurate reporting, based on events and parameters such as campaign, source, medium, term, and content.

Right, but what exactly is the difference?

CAPTURE EVENTS INSTEAD OF HITS

To start with, any interaction that’s captured is considered an event, therefore the previously known “hits” on Universal Analytics such as page view or social will now translate to “events”.

The events are now organised in four categories: Automatically collected, enhanced measurement, recommended and custom.

Let’s explain each category a bit further:

AUTOMATICALLY COLLECTED

These events are exactly how the name indicates – you don’t have to activate the events manually or write any code as it’s all automatic. These events can be the exact time someone visited the website or even the first visit to the website or app.

ENHANCED MEASUREMENT

This is an option that GA4 gives you to switch on that/which will provide an extra set of events that will be collected automatically. The good part? You don’t have to code these events and they’re quite useful – having enhanced measurement will allow you to collect events such as a click on a file download button on the website, the first time someone scrolls all the way down in the page, or a click in a link to drives traffic to another website.

RECOMMENDED EVENTS

These are the events that aren’t part of GA4, which means you can’t collect these automatically even if the enhanced measurement option is on. If the events are not in the automatically collected or enhanced measurement, you’ll have to check the recommended events, where you can find them and follow a guide to create the event and make it compatible with future GA4 releases.

CUSTOM EVENTS

We’d call these the “outsiders” –  the events that don’t fall in the other three categories, and you’ll need to configure these events yourself. For instance, you can create a custom event to track menu clicks as this isn’t available in the other categories. Bear it in mind – Google doesn’t guarantee that these codes will be supported in the future! They recommend that you create a custom event only if you don’t see it in the first three categories.

HELLO DATA STREAMS

We’ll also say goodbye to “Views” as they become “Data Streams”. According to Google, “Data Streams” are:

“A flow of data from your website or app to Analytics. There are 3 types of data stream: Web (for websites), iOS (for iOS apps) and Android (for Android apps).”

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that a GA4 data stream is equivalent to a Universal Analytics view – the data streams are not a replacement for these. GA4 lets you connect your website’s URL to a data stream instead of connecting it to a view as it happened in Universal Analytics.

Also, differently to Universal Analytics, you can’t create a filter in a GA4 data stream. However, you’re able to set up a list of domains for cross-domain tracking, make a list of domains that you wish to exclude from tracking, and a set of rules for defining internal traffic.

NEW METRICS REPLACING OLD ONES

What about the metrics? We’re glad you’ve asked. Some of the metrics that you are already familiar with have been replaced with new ones. To name just a few:

  • “Bounce Rate” now becomes “Engagement Rate”, which measures a session that spent 10 seconds or more on the website/app, viewed two or more pages or had a conversion event.
  • Conversions will be measured differently – instead of being measured based on the configured goals for each view, with the new update the goals are based on the events that you send to the property.

CAN I SAVE MY DATA?

Good news: You can save your data, so no worries!

DON’T PANIC, WE’RE HERE TO HELP YOU TRANSITION!

We recommend that you begin this transition as soon as possible to get familiar with the new interface, but also to collect one year’s worth of data!

Does this all sound overwhelming to you?

Don’t worry, we’ll work with you to get ready for this change and help you understand how Google Analytics works. We can also run an audit on your website and set up an effective SEO strategy, taking into consideration the new benefits of Google Analytics.

Call us on 0121 355 8092 today or email info@edge-creative.com to find out more.

PS: Why don’t you pay a visit to our TikTok page and watch our informative (short but sweet) videos on this change?

Can I Use Competitor Brand Names as Keywords in My Google Ads?

In this post, we’ll cover the following:

Do you remember the keyword controversy between Interflora Flowers and Marks and Spencer? The scandal began in 2008 and lasted five whole years, disrupting both companies and the reputations of marketing agencies as they appeared in the public eye.

The dispute began when Interflora brought its infringement claim against M&S, objecting to them paying Google to use the keyword “interflora” as a search term in their adverts. Interflora stated that consumers searching for “interflora” were being led to the M&S website, and landing on a page promoting M&S’s own flower delivery service.

Interflora believed M&S were infringing on their trademark and driving traffic to their competing service. Even worse still, Interflora was spending lots of money in order to outbid M&S for the right to use their own name as a keyword.   

Regardless as to whether you agree or not, some businesses will deliberately use their competitors’ trademarks as keywords in Google Ads as part of their digital marketing strategies. This isn’t likely to stop any time soon either, as following the dispute between Interflora and Marks & Spencer, a EU court decided that this wasn’t and didn’t classify as a trade mark infringement.

The ideology behind this is that if someone is searching for Brand A, but sees an advert that is clearly for Brand B, it is clear that they are two different brands. Although in many cases it’s not necessarily as easy as this, this approach has been widely adopted as a general rule. 

DOES THAT MEAN I CAN BID ON MY COMPETITOR’S BRANDED KEYWORDS?

In short, yes – but there are also a few different rules you need to follow in order to ensure this approach stays legal. 

DON’T INCLUDE YOUR COMPETITOR’S NAME IN YOUR ADVERT

It’s important that you avoid using your competitor’s name within your adverts. If you were to do so, this could be perceived as manipulative marketing, as it can seem like you’re trying to trick any search users into thinking that your website is your competitor’s website. This is against the law in many countries.

 DON‘T USE DYNAMIC KEYWORD INSERTION

Dynamic Keyword Insertion is the process of taking any of your keywords matching the search query to fit the 25-character limit of the headline in your advert. It is designed to make adverts seem more relevant to the search engine user, by replacing part of the original copy with the user’s search team.

If you are using this method, the headline of your adverts could end up showing your competitors brand names, which could cause a potential legal problem. 

HOW CAN I FIND OUT IF SOMEONE IS BIDDING ON MY BRAND NAME?

As a business or brand owner, you can easily find out if someone is bidding on your brand name as a keyword – just search for your brand.

If your competitor’s website comes up and your brand name is in the copy, you should contact your lawyers about a trademark infringement.

HOW CAN I AVOID THIS HAPPENING?

By making sure you and any agency you work with understand the risks before setting your keywords and keyword insertion strategy, you can avoid any legal trouble.

Better still, by partnering with a marketing agency that takes guidance and works in collaboration with solicitors, you can rest assured knowing you are getting correct and up-to-date legal information.  

Find out more by emailing info@edge-creative.com.