I meet with business owners like you regularly, and everyone wants to know about the latest website design trends or Facebook algorithm or SEO hacks.

But there’s something way more important than any of this — and that’s getting the basics right.

I recently met with a restaurant owner who didn’t understand why his lunchtime trade was so slow. I looked him up online and, according to both his website and Google listing, the restaurant was closed for lunch. Luckily, this is an easy fix but it left me wondering how something this basic had gone below their radar.

Keeping your information up-to-date is vital. This is especially true for opening hours and contact details — how will people get in touch otherwise? How will customers know you’re open? Especially when so many people are using their mobile phone to get directions and make calls to businesses – information needs to be to hand, and accurate.

Here are five more marketing basics to prioritise right now:

1. Mobile-Friendly Website

How does your website look when you browse it on your mobile? With 71% of Australian smartphone users browsing the Internet on their phones daily, this is so important.

Not compatible with mobile? Website visitors are unlikely to stick around — which means you’re losing potential customers.

2. Basic SEO

Search Engine Optimisation sometimes seems like another buzzword, but it is important.

The good news is, the basics are straightforward to implement. Make sure your website is set up correctly and contains engaging and unique content. High-quality content that recognises and helps solve the problems of your target market is key.

If you can find time to blog (like I’m doing now), that’s a bonus!

3. Google My Business

Google My Business is a service offered by Google to help you engage potential customers.

The best part is it’s free (at the moment), so make sure you claim and make the most out of your listing — start by adding your correct opening hours!

4. Know Your Customers

Any good marketing strategy starts with an understanding of the target customers. This will impact everything else you do, so it’s worth spending some time getting it right.

Write it down, print it out and stick it on your wall. Make sure everything you do is focused on them – don’t get distracted.

5. Start an Email List

An email list is one of the most valuable marketing assets any business can have.

Use it to stay in touch with your customers, focusing on providing value over the hard sell. Remember — people don’t like to be sold to, so you need to think about the kind of content and messages your target market want to read.

Are you struggling to find time to do it all yourself? Get in touch to find out how we can help.

Google initially launched voice search in 2012, but it’s really taken off in the past couple of years, especially with the release of personal assistants like Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana, Amazon’s Alexa and Echo, and Google Home. In fact, ComScore suggests that by 2020, 50% of all searches will be voice searches. (This sounds a little high to me.)

For local businesses, voice search has grown exponentially. Google has reported a 900% increase in “near me / today” searches in the past two years – and they also found that searchers are three times more likely to use voice than text searches to find local businesses and ask for local directions.

Why the increase? For one, it’s easier and faster to ask for help out loud rather than typing a search term or request, especially when you’re on the go with mobile devices. You can ask your smartphone a question or get help no matter where you are.

So how does the rise in voice search affect marketing?

In short, if you’re offering products or services for sale directly to consumers (B2C), you need to consider how potential customers will use voice search to find you. While ALL businesses need to think about voice search, it’s critical for local retailers in particular because Google tracks users’ locations and offers results near them when they’re looking for lunch, a haircut, coffee, etc.

Tips on optimising for voice search 

With all that in mind, here are four tips for optimising your website content for voice search:

1. Answer questions in your keyword phrases – Unlike text searches, when people type in a few words like ‘buy garden gloves,’ voice searchers tend to use complete, long-tail phrases and questions such as, “Where can I buy gardening gloves near me?” or “How much do gardening gloves cost?” Therefore, when deciding which keywords or phrases you want to include, think about what questions your potential customers have and how you can answer questions and solve problems within this context.
2. Location, location, location – If you’re a local business, think about what major landmarks you’re near and which neighbourhood or district you’re in. These may be useful in helping people find you. Got a salon right near the University of Adelaide campus? Own a café near Victoria Square or in Parkside? Consider adding these terms to your meta descriptions or on your home page, contact page or FAQ page in order to help Google and local searchers find you.
3. Check your Analytics and Ads results – Another good tip is to check your Google Analytics and Google Ads results. See which keywords or phrases searchers are using to find you. Unfortunately, Google Analytics won’t show you all the keywords used by searchers, but you can still get an idea of what’s bringing people to your site. Look at the search terms for help in crafting your content.
4. Claim your Google My Business (GMB) listing – If you haven’t already set up a Google My Business listing, now is the time. In voice searches for local businesses, Google shows GMB listings first in response to enquiries. In fact, searchers may never get to your website at all, but if they see your phone number, hours, and address on a Google map (as well as some positive Google reviews), they’re much more likely to call or stop by.
   

Need help optimising your website or improving your content? Contact Breathe Marketing today.

Going ‘live’ on Facebook means that a person or group is broadcasting live video. The video can be of anything from an official announcement (like a press conference or new product release) to a rugby match or a family event.

Regardless of the content, live video is one of the hottest trends in social media for both individuals and businesses. In fact, going ‘live’ can be a great way to generate interest among your followers – and when used effectively, it can build loyalty, help answer questions or share announcements with your customers.

With that in mind, let’s take a brief look at Facebook Live and how you can use it to your advantage.

What is Facebook Live?

Introduced in 2016, Facebook Live allows you to create and share live-stream video. This is different than just posting a video on your page (though that’s good, too) because those videos are pre-recorded. However, once you create and share a live video on Facebook, it will remain in your News Feed as a viewable “post” unless you decide to delete it.

(Note: Not to be outdone, Twitter and Instagram have also added “live” options, and Periscope is a site completely dedicated to sharing live video, so if Facebook’s not your thing, you have other choices.)

How it works

With Facebook Live, you can broadcast video directly from a smartphone or tablet. Friends and followers can “tune in” and see your broadcast at the appointed time.

Here’s a list of the steps:

1. Log into your Facebook account on your mobile device.
2. Open the status bar like you were going to write a post.
3. Click the “Live video” icon.
4. Allow Facebook access to your camera and microphone (this should only show up the first time you test it out).
5. Choose a privacy level. It’s best to choose “Only Me” first just to try things out! Once you get the hang of it, you can go public. Scroll to the bottom to find this setting.
6. Add a description/title. This is optional, but the title will appear in your News Feed later, so be sure to help your viewers understand what you’re showing.
7. Aim your camera at what you want to film.
8. Hit the blue “Go Live” button to begin. As soon as you begin filming, your video will appear in your News Feed just like any post (providing you’ve changed your privacy setting back to ‘public’ after testing). Once you’re done, click “Finish” to stop recording.

Once you’re live, you can take and respond to comments from viewers if you choose. And just like other Facebook posts, you can delete the file if you want to remove it from your News Feed.

Tips for using Facebook Live in your marketing

Facebook Live is easy to use, but to get the most out of it, it’s best to plan ahead. Here are some tips for getting the most out of Facebook Live:

1. Create a strategy
   Think about ways to use live video that would help inform and engage your followers. Have a new product to share? Would a customer testimonial or interview with a member of your team be live-worthy? Put together a plan for how to use live video as part of your overall social media strategy.Also, think about how long your live video will be. Will people stick around for an hour-long event, or do you need to keep things short, sweet and focused? Long events that do well are seminars, roundtables, and training sessions.
2. Rehearse
   BE SURE to try the process out before you go public! Yes, there may be a few surprises with a live broadcast and things may not be perfect, but nothing says “amateur night” like a shaky camera or long, awkward pauses. Your audience is likely to leave.
3. Give notice
   Facebook will automatically notify fans when you’re live, but it’s best to let people know in advance what you’re doing and what your event will be about so that you have as many people watching as possible when you broadcast. Consider sending an email prior to the event or posting advance notices on Facebook for a few days before your event.
4. Or be spontaneous
   Giving notice when you will do a live event can help attract a larger audience, but spontaneity can be good too! Once you have some experience going live, look for opportunities to do a quick spontaneous video. Something fun or unusual happening at the office, an interesting site out in the field, a quick tutorial showing how to use the product in real life, etc. These are great opportunities to really engage with your customer base.
5. Engage
   One thing that makes live video so interesting is that viewers can immediately request and receive information. For example, if you’re presenting a new product, you have the chance to answer questions about how it works and get feedback from viewers on the spot. Get your viewers involved and make it worth their while to tune in.

Need help incorporating live video into your overall marketing strategy? Contact Breathe Marketing today.

1) PPC – This acronym stands for pay-per-click, and refers to ad campaigns with major companies. Most often, this acronym is used to talk about Google AdWords campaigns. In these campaigns, you (as the advertiser) bid for your ad to show up when someone enters a search term relevant to your business, and then you pay when someone clicks on one of your ads. Sometimes these campaigns bring in tons of website traffic, but depending on how often people click on an ad, you can burn through your budget really fast. So monitor your ads and spend carefully.

2) SEO – This stands for Search Engine Optimisation. Basically, SEO means using various techniques (including link-building, researching and using keywords and high-quality content) to get your website to rank as high as possible when someone enters a search term that’s relevant to your product or service, without paying to run ads in a PPC campaign. Unfortunately, some people use underhanded, “black hat” SEO techniques to try to improve their site’s rank, but be warned: Google is getting better all the time at catching these, so stick with creating great content that include your keywords.

3) URL – Uniform Resource Locator. This refers to the unique address of a file on the Internet. The files can be plain web pages, text documents, graphics, or programs. For instance, the URL for Breathe Marketing’s home page is https://staging.breathemarketing.com.au/.

4) HTML and XHTML – HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language, and it refers to code or language that’s used to create web pages. XHTML (Extensible HyperText Markup Language) is the successor to HTML, and it has stricter rules about what’s used (and allowed) in coding.

5) CMS – In the Internet marketing world, this stands for Content Management System, and it refers to web applications that allow users to edit pages on a website without knowing HTML. In other words, the app creates the code for you when you make your changes. WordPress, Joomla and Drupal are examples of some popular CMS software programs.

Have questions about any of these? Let us know!