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    How to create attractive and engaging content

    Content marketing has quickly become a strategic approach for businesses looking to share valuable and relevant information with customers within their industry. While it may be easy to share content on your blog, social media accounts, and through email, developing great content that stands out on a consistent basis to your audience is the only way to develop your content marketing strategy. Listed below are some steps you can take to help your produce content that will reach and engage with your target consumer. 

    Know your audience

    Identifying your target audience allows you to look beyond the basics. Things like their demographics, psychographics, and behaviours help to understand the type of content that may interest them. Content creators visualize their audience before adapting marketing personas that help to establish a composite of the reader. Whether it’s the topic of a blog, a social media post, or an email, knowing your audience before creating the content will do wonders in attracting them to it. 

    Ensure that your headline is powerful 

    The headline of your blog, social media post, or email is the hook that catches and lures in the customer. While it needs to be consistent with the information that you want to present, it should also exhibit actionable keywords that help with your search engine optimization (SEO) while also utilizing language that’s attractive to the audience. 

    Tell a story

    Part of creating engaging content is using a series of words to tell a story. You shouldn’t just jump into your piece without first setting the stage nor should you simply stop writing because you’ve reached your minimum word count (unless it’s a social post, of course). All content should have a beginning, middle, and end if you’re hoping to attract and engage with your audience.  

    Provide useful information that’s quick to read

    Online shoppers are time-crunched and may have just come across your digital marketing efforts while aimlessly perusing the web. All that matters to them at that moment is what your content is doing to educate, inform, or entertain them. Many customers are consuming content while on the go, in short spurts of time between other activities. Be sure to use simple words, write direct sentences, and use an active voice in your content. 

    Are you in need of a content creator? Trek Marketing offers a wide range of digital marketing services that work to develop your business’s content. 

    What type of content attracts you as an online shopper? Drop a comment below to share with our readers. 

    4 ways to boost your SEO with the season

    There are a variety of ways that shoppers find new businesses to purchase from. While some utilize referrals from loved ones, most leverage the power of the wide web as an effective way to discover new storefronts. Whether those shoppers make their purchases online or simply use the power of search engines to lookup places near them, people are searching for products and services online every day and your business must harness search engine optimization (SEO) to successfully capture these leads. Below are some of the best ways to boost your SEO for the weeks of fall ahead. 

    Create vibrant seasonal content

    A great way to continuously engage with your audience is by using seasonal content to boost your SEO. Start by doing a little research into what keywords are trending, find a way to relate them to your business, and create vibrant content around them. Whether you plan on hosting a seasonal sale to get rid of older inventory or you’re launching a new product, be sure to find a way to connect with autumn by appealing to the colours of the season. If black, orange, red, yellow, and brown aren’t popular colours for your business, instead customize your messages to include words that match the season instead. 

    Utilize internal links

    Lack of internal thinks in your website content is a missed SEO opportunity. When you want your products or services to be found, highlight those keywords in your relevant content and link them to specific pages or even back to your blog. This lets search engines know that you have something valuable to offer that contains the specified key phrases that will allow your pages to crawl up higher organically in the list of search queries. It’s not only a great way to build your SEO, but also a strategic way to connect with new customers that are on the hunt for your products. 

    Internal linking is a part of Trek Marketing’s local search engine optimization service. This on-site task helps to drive additional traffic to your website and ensures that best practices are followed. 

    Compete for relevant keywords

    While keyword research can be time-consuming, it’s an essential part of your SEO strategy. Needless to say, you do have the option to tag along with trending searches and compete with other businesses for those keywords. Although you will always find more success in building up your content, so be sure to take the time to learn what your customers are searching for this season. 

    Update and add new products and services

    Many businesses have the luxury of attaining new products which with updated content, can starting pulling search engine interest. Needless to say, there are e-commerce companies out there that are constantly remarketing the same products and services, making it challenging to reinvent your content time and time again. Trek Marketing’s local search engine optimization service works on tasks like page layout, page speed, meta tags, and content creation, so even if your brand falls under the second umbrella, you will still have fresh content. 

    Which example will you be starting with to boost your SEO? Drop a comment below to share with us.

    Why do business owners need to be more cyber vigilant with their marketing strategies?

    With technology vastly advancing every day, it’s becoming increasingly important to find new ways to protect your business against the threat of cyberattacks. While virtual assets such as customer information and company financials are at risk, your brand’s reputation is another element that requires businesses to be more aware of cyber-vigilance. So, are you ready to learn about how to better secure your online shop? 

    Bots can affect your marketing strategy

    A bot is a software program that operates on the internet and performs repetitive tasks. While most bot traffic is good, some bots have a negative impact on a website or application and will maliciously attack to collect data. So, if you’ve got a killer marketing strategy, you need to be cyber vigilant to ensure that you’re protected. While Google Analytics can do some of the work for you, this program will miss things that the human eye can catch, which is why it’s always a good idea to have a professional take a look at your digital marketing efforts to ensure good cybersecurity. 

    You want to protect your customer’s information

    While you may not examine your customer’s information daily, its collection is essential to the operation of your business, especially if you have loads of recurring orders. That being said, customer-associated data is very precious and should be stored in a protected order management system to track visitor movements and protect names, addresses, and credit card numbers in the event of a data breach. 

    Since digital marketing is a data-led game, it’s important to carry out security checks to ensure any risks or vulnerabilities within your chosen software are removed. We also recommend that you change your passwords often and keep employee access only to those that require it. 

    Avoid plagiarism of content

    It’s challenging to share content in the online world without the risk of competitors copying your style. While the first step is being aware that plagiarism tends to happen, the next is ensuring that your content creation remains focused on building informative copy that’s written in-house or by a trusted third-party digital marketing company that will write original copy geared towards your brand. 

    If you think you’re a victim, use an online plagiarism checker and once found, contact the offender to have them remove the copy. If they refuse, the next step is to contact their web hosting service with the proof. 

    Remove the risk of brand damage

    Another reason that business owners focus on digital marketing cybersecurity is to ensure their brand’s competence isn’t destroyed due to aggressive or obscene messaging. Many consumers are fixated on a company based on this relationship and if emails or social posts go live with other motives in mind, it can be very challenging to apologize and make a comeback. 

    Are you ready to reduce any threats to your businesses’ security? 

    Have you ever been a victim of a cybersecurity breach? Please share your story in the comments section below with our other readers.

    How to create an effective digital marketing plan

    A digital marketing plan equips online business owners with an essential roadmap to achieving their most crucial brand objectives. Since it’s a tool that helps to guide marketing activities to generate the best results, it must be organized step-by-step and reviewed at multiple points in the lifespan of your business venture, which is why most entrepreneurs opt to have a professional digital marketing company handle their plan for them. 

    Why do you need a professional digital marketing plan?

    Are you looking for a way to reveal new opportunities, grow, and expand your reach? While every business owner has the potential to dabble with digital marketing, those hoping to connect with their audiences and establish a unique brand identity need an in-depth and detailed approach that is usually only achievable through a strategy formulated by a professional digital marketing agency

    So, for those asking themselves, “Do I need a professional digital marketing plan,” the answer is always yes, and here’s why:

    • While a business owner can formulate goals and work towards those objectives, a professional digital marketing agency will draw up a consumer-competitor analysis and create a plan that focuses on the entire environment surrounding the brand including context and current market situation. 
    • Intended objectives are achieved quicker with the help of a professional digital marketing agency, especially since they have separate departments that coordinate together. 
    • A coordinated digital marketing plan contains strategies and actions that are put in place to carry out campaigns. 
    • Measuring the results of actions is one of the most overlooked tasks of business ownership which is why it’s important to include it in a professional digital marketing plan. 

    Now that you know what to expect from a professional digital marketing plan, below are some advantages that it can bring to you and your company:

    • You will gain in-depth knowledge of the market and your target audience. A good marketing plan allows time for a research phase which creates a scope of your business challenges and how to respond to them. 
    • Digital marketing actions can align with departments working towards the same brand objectives. 
    • Allows you to budget for the resources that are most effective for your business strategy. 
    • Improves internal communication so all those involved can easily coordinate future goals.
    • Improves client communication by outline the elements that will meet their needs and expectations. 

    How our professional digital marketing agency creates an effective digital marketing plan: Step by step

    1. Analysis and starting point: 

    Creating an effective digital marketing plan starts by analyzing the current situation of the company and coordinating time towards market research. During this phase, we aim to answer questions such as, “What could be a unique selling position for this company” and “What is the competition doing and how can we compare”. 

    2. Create objectives

    Success is achieved when objectives are met. When the phase commences, the objectives of the company need to be concrete, detailed, measurable, realistic, and time-bound. Based on these parameters, we will create a professional digital marketing plan that will reach new markets, increase brand awareness, and improve your company’s return-on-investment (ROI).

    3. Develop a buyer person

    It’s important to paint a picture of your ideal client, even if it involves defining a profile for more than one type of product or service user. This includes determining the age, gender, income level, occupation, and place of residence. This will allow us to develop a professional digital marketing plan that creates a better understanding of your brand-to-consumer relationship. 

    4. Content plan

    Every professional digital marketing plan requires an outline of the type of content that will be distributed. While it can follow a variety of formats, your content should align to the above buyer persona(s) and be incredibly focused to increase website conversions. This phase should also include the addition of search engine optimization (SEO), which is the backbone of content creation, dedicated to structuring the website to direct valuable traffic. 

    5. Determine platforms for business growth

    While the world of social media marketing offers an assortment of platforms for any brand, it’s always best to focus on those that are more adapted to your companies’ objectives. Effective digital marketing planning includes intentions for these social networks and the application of available resources to boost your growing strategy. 

    Are you ready to speak with our team about your digital marketing plan? 

    What stage of the above digital marketing planning process is your business at? Drop a comment below to compare with other readers. 

    The pros and cons of outsourcing your digital marketing project

    Targeting the growth of your e-commerce business should be an essential part of your online marketing strategy, especially in these unprecedented times. If you’ve resorted to Googling “outsourcing digital marketing in Vancouver”, know that you aren’t alone. Many business owners are on the hunt for ways to get ahead of their competition, and to help you make the best business decision, it’s important to know if the benefits outweigh the risks. 

    How to determine if outsourcing is for you

    Outsourcing your digital marketing is when you use a third party to create content or perform marketing services on behalf of your brand to promote the growth of your business. This could include writing copy, blog management, creating social media posts, producing custom video content, constructing lead magnets, designing ads, managing pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns, setting up Facebook ads, and managing your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. While these are a few examples of what types of services you can outsource, there will always be options for more assistance elsewhere. 

    What are some pros of outsourcing digital marketing?

    Do you or your employees possess any hands-on digital marketing experience that could be advantageous in the implementation of future strategies? If not, here are some reasons to consider outsourcing digital marketing, especially in competitive marketplaces like the city of Vancouver.

    • Expertise: Whether you select an agency or a freelancer to be a part of your team, someone with expertise in the digital marketing field will know of ways to get things done more efficiently and effectively.
    • Money savings: While you may think paying someone to perform a service costs too much, it’s important to remember that if you lack the skills needed to get traffic to your website, you won’t be making any money to begin with. Consider the person you hire as an investment. The best part is that most agencies offer hours-based packages to allow you to start small and add more time as your business grows. 
    • Accessibility to multiple services: While this benefit may be achievable with the right freelancer, often the ability to subscribe to multiple digital marketing services can only be found within an agency. Outsourcing digital marketing in Vancouver gives business owners the power to access an entire team of staff that through collaborative efforts will provide your e-commerce brand with a menu of options to increase conversions. 
    • Frees up your time: By relying on experts to get your online marketing tasks done you have more time to dedicate to other aspects of running your business. 

    What are some cons of outsourcing digital marketing?

    Depending on how you measure your businesses’ success, it may be best to keep some of your digital marketing efforts in-house. For that reason, here are some examples of why you may want to not outsource all of your digital marketing services.

    • Fear of brand consistency issues: Every business creates values and a reputation over time, which can make it difficult to feel comfortable passing the reins to someone that doesn’t live and breathe every aspect of your brand. 
    • You won’t have 100% control of all timelines: While services like blogging, email marketing, and social media possess the ability to formulate strict posting schedules, other efforts like SEO and PPC advertising can take more time to show their value, and if you’re using a freelancer for any of the above tasks, you will need to remember that their ability to rearrange other commitments to prioritize you might not always be possible.
    • Not as much freedom to offer a personal touch: Small businesses build their brand on connecting with their customers, and while outsourcing gives you access to so many amazing resources, mastering the tone and voice you’ve envisioned may take time for other people to covet. 

    In our professional opinion, none of the above cons possess any inabilities inhibiting them from being overcome. Especially through the use of proper implementation and communication by outsourcing to the right digital marketing company in Vancouver.

    Do you possess any other questions or concerns about outsourcing? Please drop them below for a speedy reply.

    Strategies to better understand social media marketing

    In an age where social media holds such importance in the lives of everyday consumers, it would be silly for business owners to not be utilizing its power. After all, social media marketing is one of the few forms of digital advertising that can bridge the gap between brand and target audience, which in turn connects businesses to an assortment of shoppers that already possess similar beliefs and values. That being said, below are a few ways that you can strategize your social media marketing strategy to strengthen your efforts through popular social platforms. 

    Set yourself achievable goals 

    Like anything, your social media marketing strategy should contain a list of objectives and goals that you hope to achieve as a business owner. However, the most important thing that you can do to set yourself up for success is to formulate some short-term and long-term goals that are attainable. This will give you the confidence you need to overcome difficult business hurdles down the road as well as the tenacity to make critical decisions about your brand. 

    When it comes to social media marketing it’s essential to set yourself some objectives that include the following targets — driving traffic, increasing brand awareness, building brand loyalty, and generating more sales. The following goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound so that you’re able to track your progress as a business owner. 

    Know your target audience

    If you’re hoping to crush some of your professional goals it’s worth gearing your social media marketing strategy to reflect the values and interests of a target audience. Consumers that live a lifestyle that could benefit from your product or services are the ones that should be focused on when you’re formulating your promotions, content or advertisements. After all, appealing to as many people as possible is exhausting, so why not start by generating content based on the location of your audience, a particular demographic (age or even gender) or psychographics such as aspirations and attitudes?

    Study your competition

    If you’re wanting to better understand how to reach your targeted consumers through the use of social media marketing, it’s worth taking the time to analyze the successes of your competitors. Now, we’re not encouraging you to directly copy or steal their ideas, however, before you sit down to build a content strategy for your brand, take a look at the tactics that have already proven to be effective in your industry. Start by following other brands on social media, keeping an eye on their post’s performances and crafting your social media marketing strategy to reflect on valued insights that are currently working and modifying them to better suit your brand and audience. 

    Utilize visual content

    While carefully crafted textual content is a definitive must-have for your social media marketing strategy, putting some extra attention to detail on the visuals — such as high-quality images, infographics or videos — has the power to grab the attention of consumers that are aimlessly scrolling through their social feeds. It’s one of the best ways for you to add engagement to your already thought-provoking content. 

    What other ways can you coordinate your social media marketing strategy? Drop a comment below to share with our readers. 

    What are content calendars and how can they be used?

    Let’s face it, cultivating creative content for your webpage and social channels isn’t as easy as it may seem. While your digital advertisements, high-quality graphics, videos and memes may be enticing to some degree, with the influx in brands and competition, there’s a likely chance that you won’t get noticed. However, the best way that you can combat this business hurtle is by building yourself a standard content calendar. Whether you’re a content specialist or a business owner who’s looking for ways to revisit your content strategy, using a content calendar is one of the best ways for you to keep organized, reflect your brand and provide engaging subject matter that’s both coordinated and formed around important dates, upcoming holidays and seasonal sales and promotions. How else do you expect to keep up with the pace?

    What is a content calendar?

    We define a content calendar as a shareable resource that allows the content specialist, business owner, or digital marketing team to plan all content activity and to visualize the content that is up for distribution. Usually created using a calendar-based format, the content calendar has several business benefits:

    • Access to the resources: Everyone who’s involved in the digital marketing content strategy process will have access to what’s being published when it’s being published and where it’s being published.
    • Avoids duplications: Because everyone is aligned with access to the content calendar, duplicate content is easily avoidable. 
    • Provides a well-round, visual representation: Whether you plan a week, a month, or a season ahead, a content calendar creates a clear vision of how your content with be distributed. 
    • Plan content milestones: Key events and important dates should always be a focus in your digital marketing content strategy. So be sure to use a content calendar to check off all the seasonal celebrations. 
    • Spot content gaps: Planning allows you to gain a sense of what needs to be planned and gives you more time leading up to deadlines. 
    • Plan ahead: One of the biggest benefits of creating a content calendar is the ability to organize far in advance, allowing you to pre-schedule your content. 

    How do you build a content calendar?

    Content calendars are an essential part of your digital marketing content strategy, so here is how you can go about creating your own.

    • Repurpose past videos, images, and blogs and formulate them to appeal to the current calendar you’re working on.
    • Do some research and leverage the data that you found to create infographics or industry stories. 
    • Tap into the expertise of your colleagues and create a video or audio interview to share. 
    • Utilize whitepapers and reports and add them to your calendar as automated content. 

    Now that you know the type of content that can be repurposed and created, we will show you how to formulate this content into something that can be planned and published. 

    First, download an online calendar or create one using Microsoft Excel and ensure that you’ve highlighted all the important dates that month, including industry anniversaries, holidays and social media celebrations. Then, it’s essential for you to take note of the season or month you’re planning for. For example, if it’s October, you should be looking at your Halloween content plan but also preparing to market for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Remember to give yourself enough time when planning out your content calendar to ensure that when your content is published, it will be at an appropriate time. Once your calendar has been filled full of content, start creating it and pre-scheduling it. Once it’s published, you can choose to promote it across all your social channels to track analytics about how your content is getting noticed, at what time people are engaging and which days are working well. After you make note of this data you can tweak the upcoming content in your calendar and utilize what you’ve learned to published more engaging content in the future. 

    Sound too complicated? You can hire content specialists that will handle all the workload for you and even create the calendar for your approval! 

    Do you plan to create a content calendar and integrate it into your digital marketing content strategy? 

    Why You Shouldn’t Overlook the Power of Pay per Click Advertising

    PPC advertising

    There are so many methods available to market your online business. While blogging, sending newsletters and spreading the world on social media all prove to be effective cranks turning the wheel towards audience awareness, one of the most advantageous marketing techniques is pay per click (PPC) advertising. Not only does PPC advertising take a close look at your current business objectives, but it will also determine which media channels you’re getting noticed on and will target how to reach your buying consumers. After all, doesn’t it make more sense to pay for an advertising technique that only charges you once a customer has actually noticed your endorsement?

    What is PPC advertising?

    Also known as cost per click, PPC advertising is an internet advertising model that is used by marketing companies to direct traffic to websites. The best part is that the advertiser will only pay the publisher if the ad was clicked on. So, essentially, it’s a way of buying visits to your business website, rather than trying to obtain those visits in a more organic way.

    Search engine advertising is one of the most popular forms of PPC advertising because it allows advertisers to bid for ad placement in the search engine’s sponsored link section. This is determined by selectively choosing relevant keywords that are related to the business or product offering. By getting ahead of organic search results you’re asserting your position as a leader in your industry.  

    What is Google Ads?

    Formally known as Google AdWords, this PPC advertising tool enables businesses to create ads that will appear on Google’s search engines. It operates as a pay-per-click model, which means that every time a search is initiated, Google will pull a few winners from their database to appear in the ad space in the search results. The winners are chosen based on a combination of factors, including the quality of their chosen keywords as well as of amount that they bid. It’s basically an auction to determine which businesses will be seen first.

    Why should you take advantage of PPC advertising?

    • Budget-friendly: Full-on ad campaigns can be expensive and require money allocation before they roll out. PPC advertising allows you to set a small to medium budget and then analyze how your campaign is performing. If you’re starting to create traction and making money, then you can slowly start investing more into your marketing budget.
    • Keywords: PPC advertising helps you determine which keywords are appearing in your industry and allows you to use those words to also create organic traffic.
    • Targets your audience: PPC advertising has the power to help your conversion rates by targeting the audience that’s actually interested in your product or service to click-through to your website. If they click, chances are you’re drawing in the right people.

    Are there any other ways in which PPC advertising is beneficial to business owners? Share your comments with our readers below.

    What are some benefits of quality blog writing?

    content writing

    The modern-day realism is that everyone and everything is constantly competing for attention, which is why getting noticed is incredibly important for an e-commerce business owner. Although you might consider blogging to be an old fashion marketing tool, it’s an incredible way to spread awareness about your brand. Blogs not only improve your search engine optimization (SEO), the driving force behind your website, but it also breathes a fresh look of professionalism, leading-edge knowledge and reliability. If you’re ready to create compelling, educated content writing, then it’s about time to break down the elements that go into crafting a quality blog.

    Focus on boosting your SEO

    The likelihood of potential customers finding and reading your content is entirely dependent on your ability to use relevant keywords in your content writing. When you optimize your blogs, your digital marketing efforts extend beyond a small audience. How does this work you ask? Well, many internet goers are often searching for information, such as how to do something or reviews on a particular, high-ranked product. Blogging about these fields, using strong, credible keywords, allow potential buyers to find your content writing and empower them to read and fill their gap in knowledge.

    Focus on building trust

    Blog about what you know. If you don’t know it, research it, and then blog about it anyways. Your content writing establishes your credibility and allows you to assert a leadership role within your industry. In due time, readers will rely on your blog as a knowledgeable, trustful resource for information.

    Focus on sharing your content

    Content creation goes hand-in-hand with social media marketing. Once you’re happy with the blog post that you’ve crafted, share it throughout your various social media platforms. After all, the more you spread the word in the world of digital marketing, the more people you’re able to entice people to buy.

    Focus on establishing a following online

    When you put effort into your business, it shows. By crafting engaging content, and attracting loyal readers through the use of social media, you’re able to boost your brand and further extend the reach of your audience. It’s important to establish which social platforms work well for sharing your written content in order to optimize your chances of increasing in popularity.

    Focus on building a community

    Once you gain comfort in your writing, build up your reading community by establishing a blogging schedule. Whether you aim to write a blog post a week, it’s important to remain consistent and dependable. Perhaps consider choosing a day each week to publish your content so that your readers are able to check weekly and read up on some interesting facts.

    Although blogging is a powerful digital marketing tool, not everyone has the means or ability to maintain a quality blog. In order to boost your website’s influence and engagement among potential customers, considering hiring a professional marketing team to run an engaging blog for you.

    Are there any other benefits of content writing that we’ve missed? Tell us in the comments section below.

    How do you create marketable holiday themed content?

    content creation

    Happy holidays everyone! Before you become completely occupied with the anticipation of unwrapping your gifts and indulging in roast turkey and all the fixings, we want to help you get into the festive spirit… marketing style. Now, although the holiday season is almost over, a new year is upon us, and there will be plenty of other holidays for you to embellish your creative side in the months to come. So, let’s have some fun with your holiday-themed content creation. In fact, here are a few ways that you can stay relevant in your industry, engage with your audience and create timely, developed content for your business.

     Content creation that is easy to understand

    Whether you decide to post engaging memes or custom themed images, the text is equally as important as the image and should be clear and concise. It’s important to start off with developing a creative connection. For example, if you were posting something about the holiday season, then you would maybe discuss which of your products would make great stocking stuffers. However, it’s important to really drive home that connection. Since people are constantly scrolling through their news feeds and glancing at a little of everything, you want to make your content hard to ignore.

    Content creation that is relatable

    Once you make the connection between your brand and the holidays, then you want to make your content relatable to your target audience. It’s only human nature to automatically tune into messages that you feel a connection too. Creating content for customers who already value your product or service is a good start, but try and draw them in with something that is thought provoking and relatable.

    Content creation that mimics the spirit of that season

    Every holiday has a certain festive spirit to it. Whether it’s something that many families do or certain colours they decorate with, it’s important to mesh your content with the vibe of that holiday season. Christmas is cozy and a time for giving, Valentine’s Day is a time for love and Romance, while Halloween is all about making everything spooky. Consumers love any excuse to get excited about any upcoming holidays or festive events.

    Content creation that includes a call-to-action

    Never forget the notion that holiday-themed content is timely and needs to be effectively spread a few weeks before the celebration. To create a larger impact when you share holiday-themed content, we recommend including a call-to-action in your posts. Whether you start a poll asking about people’s favorite beers to drink on St. Patrick’s Day or you ask a question about which of your products would make the best Christmas gift in your blog, showing off your brand’s personality sports true creativity and allows your consumers to feel connected to your company.

    How have you built your content creation to embellish the holidays? Tell us in the comments section below.