What Makes A Good Conversion Rate In Marketing?

What Makes A Good Conversion Rate In Marketing?

What Makes A Good Conversion Rate In Marketing?

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Transcript:

When it comes to conversion rate, what is the magic number? 

No, I’m not talking about how many euros you can get for your pound, I’m talking marketing. Duh.

What’s the rate you should be aiming to achieve in order to make your boss, the client and yourself happy? What will make you feel proud?

Well, hold on to your metrics, because Wednesdays are about to get GIANT.

 

Hello, my name is Ant and welcome to Giant Wednesday, the only place to be to discover the wonderful world of digital marketing. Don’t forget to subscribe to our channel and post your comments below.

Ok so we’re here to talk about conversion rate so let’s quickly cover off what it is.

Well, to start with is something I like to call a “most wanted response”.

It’s often misunderstood that conversion rate has to be based on a sale you’re making or action you’re driving. But that’s not true!

Ultimately, it’s likely that whatever you’re tracking will be about delivering some sort of business value and this isn’t always e-commerce based.

That’s why we talk about the MWR or the “most wanted response”.

This is the action you feel is most valuable to you and your needs, but most importantly, what you want users to do when they get to your site.

This could be downloading a whitepaper, filling in a form, calling through to make an enquiry and of course, it can be something e-commerce related such as making a sale.

The most important thing when setting a conversion is to ensure that whatever you choose has business value and is worth measuring. Something that is agreed across all stakeholders that you’ll be reporting to.

If you don’t agree that it’s a valuable metric to report on then what’s the point?

Make sure what you track is something everyone values from so not to waste an opportunity.

Once you’ve figured out your most wanted response, it’s time to set up a conversion point, a goal or an event in Google Analytics and start tracking.

This is the bit we all love, and once you start tracking you can gain a better understanding of what is working and what could be done better. That’s the point, right?

But anyway, you’ve stuck with me, so now to actually delve into what a good conversion rate is.

And, I’m sorry to have strung you along… but the answer is there is no such thing as a good conversion rate.

Now don’t up and leave, understanding why is very important

Conversion rate is not static. It’s not fixed and it should always be progressing and developing.

I mean sure, a conversion rate of 100% would be beautiful – but we’ve got to be realistic and if you’re measuring a metric at that value then it’s probably not the right one…

Now it’s not to say there isn’t a required baseline which may be understood as ‘good’ if you achieve it, but that will be absolutely unique to your business and your commercial model.

An example to illustrate my point…

You own a website that sells red shoes and are spending £100 a day on pay per click advertising to drive roughly 200 people to your site.

Every time you sell a pair of shoes there is a margin of about £10.

To get that margin you’re spending £100 to send those 200 visitors to your site. So you need to make at least £100 to break even.

That’s the equivalent of ten sales, so if you know that you need to achieve ten sales from 200 visitors then the required conversion rate is 10/200 as a percentage so that’s… 5%!

In this instance, you could very well say that is a “good” conversion rate target to start with. But the reality is that you should never settle because all you’ve done is set a benchmark.

When we do talk about “good” conversion rates, we talk about the trend. Is the conversion rate developing and progressing through optimisation? Is it up year on year?

On top of this, you’ve got to be respectful of the things that will impact your conversion rate, positively and negatively.

For example, competitors entering the market, your prices changing and adding delivery charges, could all have a negative impact on your rate so you’ll need to continually adjust your benchmark. 

 

So, in true marketing style, you’ve got to optimise. Here are three tips for you.

Number 1: Keep it simple.

Users don’t like to work hard – make the process to complete your most wanted response as easy and as quickly as possible.

Number 2: User experience.

We all like to have good experiences online whether that be through site speed or design, so keep these in mind to help people convert and encourage return visitors.

Number 3: Test and test again.

Any form of optimisation and usability testing should not be a one-off thing. Change something, track the change and review the results. Make a decision on success and keep testing.

 

So yeah, sorry but there is no such thing as a good conversion rate. There’s just a drive to constantly strive to be better and better and better. 

That’s it for today, go forth and comment your views on this and give us a like and subscribe to see more great digital and marketing content every week.

Thanks for watching, and we’ll see you next week for another GIANT Wednesday.

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5 Ways to Make Your Website Mobile-Friendly

5 Ways to Make Your Website Mobile-Friendly

5 Ways to Make Your Website Mobile-Friendly

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Transcript:

Smartphones are taking over the world!!!

Stats show that up to 70% of web traffic comes through a mobile device and 89% of people would recommend a brand after having a positive experience on a mobile, so can you afford to lose out on that much traffic? 

Making your website mobile-friendly is the key to success in today’s digital world – and the digital world of the future. But it doesn’t have to be difficult – and we’re here to help.

Get your smartphone’s ready, because Wednesdays are about to get GIANT.

Hello, my name is Sam and welcome to Giant Wednesday, the only place to be to discover the wonderful world of digital marketing. Don’t forget to subscribe to our channel and post your comments below.

Making your website mobile-friendly is a must if you’re looking to see success online.

It’s been a few years now since mobile phones knocked desktops off the top spot when it came to overall internet usage – yet you can still come across websites that haven’t been optimised for mobile devices.

It’s 2019 people – the time has come. 

Fortunately, for those who are a little late to the party, or for people just launching their digital presence, there are a few simple ways to get your mobile site up to standards. 

So sit tight as we cover 5 ways to help ensure that your website is mobile-friendly.

Number 1: evaluate where you’re at

Before you start making changes to your site, first evaluate where you’re at right now.

Use things like Google’s Mobile Friendly Test to check how easily a visitor can use your page on a mobile device – and see how you score. 

The beauty of running the mobile friendly test, is the fact that it will flag areas of improvement, that should give you a steer on how close you are to the mark of ‘mobile friendliness’.

You can also use responsive design checkers to show you what your website looks like on different devices, which can help to point out areas to improve. 

Number 2: make it responsive 

On the topic of responsiveness, mobile devices have much smaller screens than desktops, which come with their own considerations in regards to website design.

In order to be eligible to receive a “mobile-friendly website” label from Google, make sure your site is responsive.

This means that your content will resize to the screen automatically – and prevents mobile users from having to scroll around or zoom excessively, causing a bad on-site experience. 

 

Number 3: optimise for tap targets

Tap targets are elements on a site that users interact with – such as nav bars, menus, buttons etc. Not actual taps, disappointingly. 

Make sure that they have enough space around them so that a thumb or finger wouldn’t accidentally tap something else when a user tries to interact with it. 

Do the same when you’re adding things like CTAs or internal links – give them space. Don’t crowd their bubbles.

 

Number 4: speed can be impressive

Number 4: speed can be impressive

As Google says, “A slow mobile site limits your business” – and nobody wants that.

In fact, statistics time. 10 years ago Amazon found that every 100ms of latency cost tehm 1% in sales. Google found that an extra half a second meant a 20% drop in traffic. AND, a stock broker could lose £2.5 million in revenue per millisecond if their platform is just 5 milliseconds behind… EEK.

Make sure that your site loads quickly and efficiently on mobile devices to prevent losing traffic, customers and your cool. 

53% of mobile users will leave a page that takes longer than 3 seconds to load – so keep this in mind when you’re optimising. 

And on that note….

Number 5: Compress, compress, compress 

Images and other visual content usually take the longest to load on web pages, but fortunately they’re also relatively easy to optimise. 

Review your visual content and make sure it’s all required with no unnecessary straglers, and then work to compress them – reducing their size without compromising on quality.

Also think about what content shows straight away, or ‘above the fold’, and focus on that in order to make a good first impression.

And that’s our top 5 for today! There are plenty of other things that you can do to appease the mobile gods, but remember that Mobile-friendliness is no longer a ‘nice to have’ – it’s a must if you want to see your business continue to grow and flourish in the online world. 

Going into your digital efforts with a mobile-first mindset is a sure-fire way to ensure that users have a great experience on your site, no matter what device they’re using.

 

So, that’s it for today, go forth and comment your top tips for making your site mobilicious, and give us a like and subscribe to see more great digital and marketing content every week.

Thanks for watching, and we’ll see you next week for another GIANT Wednesday.

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Effective Link Building Techniques: Earning vs Buying Links

Effective Link Building Techniques: Earning vs Buying Links

Effective Link Building Techniques: Earning vs Buying Links

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Transcript:

Link building is not a type of chainmail making exercise from the medieval times…

It’s one of the most important factors considered by search engines (cough Google) when looking to rank your website.

High quality links from one website to another is a mark of confidence in the eyes of Google crawling spiders, but can take quite some time to build that trust up. And that’s the key. Trust.

So do you buy some quick links, or spend time gaining them organically?

Stop being the weakest link… because Wednesdays, are about to get GIANT.

Hello my name is Luke and welcome to Giant Wednesday, the only place to be to discover the wonderful world of digital marketing. Don’t forget to subscribe to our channel and post your comments below.

So when it comes to Search Engines, ranking factors are notoriously murky with Google (and Bing) keeping their cards close to their chests.

Finding out exactly how it ranks websites on search engine results pages, or SERPs, is, in itself a task.

But one factor that is confirmed to play a huge role are links.

Links can be either internal, pointing users to another page within your website, or external, where other websites point to yours.

These external links can also be called backlinks and are almost like currency in the online world.

Links from authoritative, trustworthy and notable websites are counted as a mark of confidence from one website to another. Something Google is a big fan of. After all if the BBC or Guardian think you are cool, the chances are, you are!

These back links help to transfer some of that website’s authority to yours, amplifying your content to a much wider audience via search.

As I’ve said, link building can take quite some time.

It isn’t always as easy as going out and asking someone for a little hyperlink with your name on it.

And because of this, some people go down the route of buying links, flashing the cash and paying for these ‘votes of confidence’ instead.

It’s clear then, that the difference between the two is one you pay for, one you work hard for. But what’s the best method?

Link building best practices have changed massively over the last ten years, with algorithms constantly changing the way us marketers do things.

Because of this, search engines have gotten more savvy to “black hat”, back alley methods.

And they do not approve…

Buying a shed load of links from a sort-of-dodgy directory site is seriously frowned upon these days.

Google wants you to EARN back links the good old fashioned way, by just doing your job well and providing value to other businesses or websites.

As you may have guessed, going about it the right way is a task. But it can be a fun one that sits well within the rest of your marketing strategy.

Popular link building campaigns are based around content, such as making high quality guides or blogs, which encourage people to want to share them with others online.

Essentially, work with local businesses, councils, programmes etc. and they’ll include links on their site to say they’re working in partnership with you. See, added value.

Or you can look for linking opportunities among customers or partners that you already work with!

These are obviously great, organic ways to build up links. But there is always someone looking for an easier, less time-consuming way of doing things.

But as I’ve already addressed, this is risky business.

Google and Bing discourage people from buying links and work hard to penalise those sites that do so.

And just what kind of penalties I hear you cry? Well, get ready to see a severe drop in rankings.

No, these search giants aren’t tracking your bank account (well, they might be?). But they are clever and can spot patterns which indicate if a link was paid or is organic.

Also, the kind of sites that might be willing to sell you links are usually less-than-desirable with really poor authority scores.

This is going to do you no favours. A spammy link is a bad link, no one wants that. 

It’s also worth remembering that offering someone a product or service in exchange for a link can also be considered a form of link buying.

The quest for a healthy link can be a bit of a minefield to navigate. But fortunately, here are 5 things you can do to build high quality links.

  1. Make sure the sites linking to yours are relevant to your industry. If you’re selling pet food, links from sunglasses retailers aren’t all that great…
  2. Create great content that will attract engagement and sharing. Include calls to action throughout to try and encourage this.
  3. Build relationships with key journalists or PR influencers. This will help you generate long-lasting link building opportunities and is always a bonus for your business PR objectives
  4. Slow and steady wins the race. Build links over time and invest some effort in doing it the right way.
  5. And finally, when it comes to the link itself, use relevant, natural anchor text – don’t force a random phrase in there for keywords take.Natural is the word of the day, if you haven’t worked that out already.

As I’m sure you’ve gathered by now, time and effort goes a long way when trying to tickle Google’s fancy here. 

Whilst it might be tempting to get your wallet out to buy a big bunch of links at the metaphorical petrol station, it’s not going to be worth it once the big boys find out just what you did!

You wouldn’t want to make Google angry, would you? 

So that’s the difference between link building and buying links, and how to go about, all in the best possible way, of course.

Got any questions or need any help? Get in touch. We’ll be in contact!

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Making & Using UTMs To Track Web Traffic

Making & Using UTMs To Track Web Traffic

Making & Using UTMs To Track Web Traffic

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Transcript:

Ever wondered which amazing piece of online content you produced is bringing in the dollar through your website?

Using UTM’s can make your life as  a data nerd that much simpler!

So, it’s time to don your coding hardhat and use one simple pimple piece of code that will change the way you analyse web traffic FOREVER.

Time to input your source, medium and content… because Wednesdays are about to get GIANT.

Hello my name is Sam and welcome to Giant Wednesday, the only place to be to discover the wonderful world of digital marketing. Don’t forget to subscribe to our channel and post your comments below.

We’re here to talk UTMs my friend and, put simply, a UTM is a piece of code made up of text that is added to your URL and tells analytics tools a bit more information about each link.

If you’ve ever wanted to feel like some top level coding genius, but lack the understanding of all the letters and symbols, then UTMs offer the next best thing.

UTM stands for Urchin Tracking Module… weird, I know. But, aside from the word urchin, they do exactly what it says on the tin.

Let me give you an example. 

You’re running some new and exciting video content promoting your latest product. You’ve chosen to publish it across all social media platforms for maximum reach.

You’ve included links to the product page on your site and followed a whole host of best practices and it’s paid off. You’ve got loads of traffic to your website. Wooo!

But when you go further into your analytics you can’t work out what traffic came from your video or what came from the other promotional content you produced?!

How will you measure the return on that video?! How will you know if it achieved your objectives?! Was it EVEN worth it? Who the hell knows?

Well I reckon you can probably guess that the solution here, is a UTM. 

They’re a great way to stalk people across your site and even better provide you with valuable insight to make your digital marketing efforts better!

Put simply a UTM will allow you to see exactly what piece of content or marketing drove someone to your website, and that’s pretty handy! So instead of Google Analytics telling you 20 people came from Facebook, we can tell which exact post from Facebook drove them to your site – Awesome!

Adding a UTM s can help you track and answer three very useful questions. In no particular order, these are;

  • Where is the traffic coming from?
  • How is it getting there?
  • Why is it going there?

If we wanted to be geeks about it, we could simply say:

  • Source
  • Medium
  • and, Content

When you’re done It’s going to look like this. A long piece of ugly stringed-together wording. Or stunningly beautiful if you’re into that kinda thing, which I am.

There are hundreds of UTM generators out there on the world wide web. But we personally like to keep track of the ones we’ve already made in a handy spreadsheet. Like the one we link to in the description below, available to you, for free. Aren’t we kind?

To make sure you’re getting the most out the builder, I’m just going to quickly run through the sections that you need to fill out to UTM-ify your link.

First up, the URL

This is the page you want to send people to, so would most likely be on your website. The URL is the direction or end point for all the traffic you are going to generate.

Next up, is the Campaign name

This one is pretty self explanatory. It’s going to help you work out why the traffic is going to your website and helps you to segregate data in analytics later on. For example, some people use it to differentiate between types of sales they’re hosting like ‘spring_sale’ and ‘summer_sale’.

This helps work out which particular campaign has been successful.

Now it’s time for the source.

You want to know where they’re coming from, don’t you? In our UTM builder, you can select some top level sources from the drop down box such as website, email and social media platforms.

Source dictates how your audience sourced the content in the first place. Was it via an email? Or perhaps through a post on social media? You decide,

Now you want to fill in the medium so you know how the traffic is getting there. 

For example, if you selected your source as an email, then you’re going to want to use the medium to list the type of email it was to help separate it from all the other email campaigns you might have. For example, was it the Summer newsletter, perhaps?

And finally, the content name.

This is where you get specific and detail the actual element of that content that drove the initial click.

Say in your email newsletter you’ve linked to the webpage in two different places using different coloured buttons, it would be good to know which coloured button drove most traffic so you can understand what works for your audience. You can type into this section ‘blue_button’ ‘pink_button’.

And there we go! Easssssssssy! You’ve built a UTM! 

Now you understand what they’re for and how to build one you are an unstoppable force of CODERY.

You can find the information you built into the link through things like Google Analytics under the source/medium sections, using ‘ad content’ as a second dimension.

More on understanding Google Analytics to come in future videos, but taking a look at this I can see clearly what worked and what didn’t.

So go wow your boss with your urchin knowledge and beautiful insights from the data collected. Be a hero and become known around the office as the king of all data!

That’s it for today, go forth and comment your views on this and give us a like and subscribe to see more great digital and marketing content every week.

Thanks for watching, and we’ll see you next week for another GIANT Wednesday.

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