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    Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) and how visitors become customers

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    Online businesses are always striving to turn website visitors into loyal customers. Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is what helps to achieve this transformation. Let’s explore how CRO can significantly increase your conversion rate and provide practical insights on turning visitors into customers. 

    Understanding the conversion funnel

    To begin our CRO journey, it’s essential to comprehend the conversion funnel. Imagine it as a multi-step pathway that visitors take on your website, from the initial landing page to the final conversion action. At each stage, there’s an opportunity to optimize and enhance the user experience to increase conversion rates. 

    Enhancing user experience

    A seamless user experience is pivotal in boosting your conversion rate. Visitors who find your site intuitive and engaging are more likely to become customers. Start by ensuring fast page loading times, clear navigation, and compelling, user-friendly content. Make it easy for your audience to find what they’re looking for. 

    Compelling calls to action (CTAs) 

    Your CTAs are your digital salespeople. If they don’t catch the attention of their viewers, visitors won’t be inspired to take the desired action. Optimize your CTAs by using persuasive language, contrasting colors, and strategic placement. Experiment with differing wording and designs to find what resonates best with your audience. 

    A/B testing

    One of the most powerful tools in the CRO toolkit is A/B testing. This method involves creating two versions of a webpage and then comparing their performance. By analyzing the results, you can pinpoint which elements are most effective in increasing conversion rates and refine your strategies accordingly. 

    Personalization

    It’s no secret that personalization is key. Tailor your website content and product recommendations to individual visitor preferences. By delivering a personalized experience, you can increase the likelihood of turning casual visitors into loyal customers.

    Trust signals

    Building trust with your audience is essential for CRO. Incorporate trust signals, such as customer testimonials, security badges, and clear privacy policies, to reassure visitors that their data and transactions are safe. Trust can significantly increase conversion rates, as visitors feel more comfortable completing a purchase. 

    Optimize for mobile

    With the majority of web traffic coming from mobile devices, it’s crucial to ensure your website is responsive and mobile-friendly. A clunky or unresponsive mobile site can deter potential customers, but a seamless mobile experience can significantly increase conversion rates. 

    Which of the above suggestions are you most likely to try out first? Drop a comment below to share.

    3 types of effective and easy email marketing

    While there are many digital marketing strategies that deliver high returns on investment, none foster direct communication with your audience quite like email marketing. As the cornerstone of a successful digital strategy, you need to be sending emails! Crafting effect and easy email marketing campaigns isn’t complex and simplicity is what often leads to the most impactful results. Listed below are three types of effective and easy email marketing strategies that will help to bolster your engagement and conversion rates. 

    Personalized emails 

    Personalization is key in today’s marketing landscape, which is why tailoring your emails based on customer preferences and behaviours can significantly enhance their engagement. To do this, we recommend segmenting your email list according to elements like location, purchase history, or interaction with other emails. Then, you can customize the content of each future email accordingly, addressing recipients by their names and showcasing products or services that they’re more interested in based on these past interactions.

    Additionally, you can further personalize your email template—with the help of professional web development—to offer your customers product or service recommendations. This approach not only streamlines the creation of emails but it also helps to ensure that your audience is receiving content that resonates with their interests. 

    Automated drip campaigns

    Drip campaigns involve sending a series of pre-written, automated emails to subscribers on your list at scheduled intervals. Not only do these campaigns help to nurture leads and guide them through the sales funnel but they also assist in mapping out the customer journey by enabling your business to create content for each stage—a welcome email, educational content, and promotional offers. 

    Depending on the email platform you choose, there are also some automation tools that make it easy to set up and manage these campaigns, allowing you to stay engaged with your audience without the need for manual intervention. Be sure to keep a close eye on the performance of your drip campaigns so if something isn’t working you can make adjustments for improved effectiveness over time.

    Event-based triggered emails

    Triggered emails are sent automatically based on specific actions or events. This includes a purchase, website visit, or an abandoned cart. These emails are highly relevant and timely, often leading to increased engagement and conversions. However, you want to craft your triggered emails to be both personalized and automated to ensure you’re making the most of this effective and easy email marketing strategy. 

    Other examples of triggered emails include sending a thank-you email after a purchase has been made or reminding customers that they have added items to their shopping cart and they should come back and complete the purchase. These emails are valuable touch points that show customer value.

    What other types of effective and easy email marketing tips do you have for our readers? Drop a comment below to share your expertise.

    What is data-driven marketing?

    Digital marketing has evolved immensely in recent years, with data-driven marketing working as a force behind successful online campaigns and strategies. Data-driven marketing is a dynamic approach that uses the power of information to make more informed business decisions and further refine tactics to achieve enhanced results. It’s time to learn more about what data-driven marketing is and how it works in your favour. 

    What is data-driven marketing?

    Data-driven marketing is a strategy that relies on the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data to guide a businesses marketing efforts. From gathering insights of consumer behaviour to demographic information, online interactions, and purchase history, one can conclude how to target this audience through content creation and campaign optimization. 

    What are some key elements of data-driven marketing?

    • Data collection: The foundation of data-driven marketing lies with the collection of website analytics, social media engagement metrics, customer surveys, and so much more.  
    • Analysis and interpretation: Once data is collected, marketing professionals can use it to uncover patterns and trends. This provides direction on which actionable insights will work for future marketing strategies.
    • Personalization: By understanding individual preferences and behaviours, marketing professionals can tailor content to resonate with their audience. 
    • Return-on-investment (ROI) measurement: Your ROI is a type of data that attributes specific outcomes like conversions and sales, which enable a clear understanding of what is working and what needs to be addressed. 

    What are the benefits of data-driven marketing?

    • Enhanced decision-making: Data-driven insights provide a solid foundation for making strategic decisions by reducing the guesswork. 
    • Improved customer understanding: Through the analyzation of data, marketing professionals gain a deeper understanding of the needs and preferences of their customers. 
    • Optimized resource allocation: Precise data analysis ensures that resources can be allocated to the most effective marketing channels and strategies. 
    • Increased ROI: Targeted campaigns lead to an improved ROI compared to traditional, less targeted approaches. 

    What works for one business may not work for another, which is why data-driven marketing is one of the many methods that Trek Marketing uses to determine which services will best help your business grow. 

    What have you tried so far and what do you have to try in the future? Drop a comment below to share your thoughts with us and start a discussion.

    Google Analytics 4 and what you need to know

    Google Analytics is a powerful tool that helps online businesses gather valuable insights about their websites’ performance. In 2020, Google introduced a new version called Google Analytics 4, almost known as GA4. In the blog submission, we will explore what GA4 is, its key features, and why businesses need to understand and implement this updated analytics platform. 

    Understanding Google Analytics 4

    Google Analytics 4 is the next generation of analytics from Google. It introduces several key changes compared to its predecessor. One significant change is the shift towards an event-based data model, where events play a central role in tracking user interactions across different platforms and devices. GA4 also provides enhanced cross-device and cross-device and cross-platform tracking, giving businesses a more comprehensive understanding of their customer’s journey. 

    Key features of GA4

    GA4 offers several notable features including enhanced machine learning capabilities, providing automated insights and predictions based on user behaviour data. The integration of Google Signals allows businesses to gain insights into signed-in users across devices. The introduction of a new analysis hub provides a centralized location for data exploration and discovery. GA4 also offers more robust support for app tracking and e-commerce analytics, making it a versatile solution for businesses with diverse digital properties. 

    Why GA4 matters

    Adopting GA4 is crucial for businesses to stay ahead in the ever-evolving digital landscape. With GA4, you can gain a deeper understanding of customer behaviour, enabling you to make data-driven decisions that drive growth and improve user experiences. As privacy regulations evolve, GA4’s focus on first-party data and its cookieless tracking capabilities provide a future-proof solution. By embracing GA4 early on, businesses can ensure they have access to accurate data to fuel their marketing strategies and optimize their digital presence. 

    Moreover, Google Analytics 4 is a game-changer for businesses, and embracing it could offer you a competitive advantage! Want to learn more about how GA4 can positively impact your business?

    What else have you learned about GA4 in recent weeks? Drop a comment below to share your expertise. 

    How to allocate your digital marketing budget

    While there is no universal strategy for small business budget allocation, successful e-commerce companies will invest in a mix of both paid and organic initiatives. With a wide abundance of marketing channels available in various sectors of online advertising, it’s important to know where your money can be wisely spent to yield a higher return on investment (ROI) and which activities will strategically reach your target audience. In this blog, we will walk you through some steps that you should take when appropriating your marketing budget and offer tips on how to better budget yourself in the future. 

    Making the most of your digital marketing budget

    Whether this is the first digital marketing budget you’ve ever built or you’re looking to give your process a little refresher.

    Here are some steps that can help you to determine where the money should go:

    • Use a budget tracker: All businesses need to track their expenses and analyze where cuts can be made to further the profit. Likewise, your first step to allocating a budget for digital marketing for a small business is to prepare data into a report that shows proposed spend, actual spend, and the results of your spend for future planning.
    • Review goals: Your organization’s top priorities and initiatives are things to consider when budgeting for the next quarter. However, when reviewing these goals, you also need to factor in new product launches, deals, promotions, and event signups.  
    • Select the right sales channels: What works for one business or industry may not work for another, which is why outreach, demographics, behaviours, and intent are elements to consider when choosing the right sales channels. This will not only help you to avoid wasting money but also build up your buyer persona. 
    • Paid search: Online ad campaigns like Google Ads may use up much of your budget because of the cost-per-click but if you secure the right visitors to your website, the investment is well worth it.  
    • Paid social: Popular choices include Facebook ads, Instagram ads, and LinkedIn ads, which show up for potential customers on their social feeds. Depending on the dollar amount you spend, your chances of acquiring new customers can become heightened. 
    • Content marketing: Content is king and since it can typically be put online for little to no charge, the only cost associated with the content is the time that it takes to write. If you can do that yourself, great! But if you’re one of the many who need to rely on freelance writers to produce awesome business content, be sure to budget what you can afford and post as much as you can. 

    If you allocate your budget based on data, you’re setting yourself up to be successful. Since Trek Marketing works with digital marketing for small business, we have all the services and expertise you need for allocating your budget. 

    What other strategies do you consider when depending on your business budget? Drop a comment below to share.

    4 ways to measure digital marketing success

    Your website is part of the consumer journey, which means there’s a strong need to measure its efficiency. Digital marketing success relies heavily on a brand’s ability to sell online and maximize return-on-investment (ROI). While clicks do possess some power to provide companies with insight into how their efforts are being recognized in digital advertising, there are many more in-depth metrics that point to digital marketing effectiveness. 

    By the overall site traffic 

    While you can measure site traffic in a few ways, Google Analytics is a great free tool that helps business owners to monitor their site’s performance to know which digital marketing efforts are working best for their campaigns. Not only does examining overall traffic to a website give you an idea of how many visitors are stopping by, but Google Analytics also allows you to filter by day, time of day, click-through rates, conversions, session time, the source of the traffic, and even offers you insight into if the users are new or returning. This enables business owners to view a more complete picture of their web traffic allowing them to tweak website goals and the purchase cycle of the consumer. Understanding your campaigns better can also allow conversions, traffic, and sales to grow as you continue to target returning customers and better target the first-time consumer.

    By mobile traffic

    Much of your website’s digital traffic is likely coming from mobile devices. Because of this modern-day trend, it’s essential that you know the percentage of users accessing your site via mobile and whether or not it demands more attention. Mobile traffic metrics teach business owners how many users are accessing their sites via mobile and can even break down by demographics such as age, location, and gender. You must examine how long each user is active on the site and compare it with your non-mobile traffic to determine where users are most engaged and work towards enhancing those experiences. 

    By traffic sources

    All of your outgoing campaigns should be tagged to allow for easy examination by traffic sources to your site. This means that whether you’re sending an email, leaving a blog live on your website, or posting through your social channels, everything will be trackable back to its source. Things like keywords, what websites users are coming from, and search traffic percentage are all sources that can be highlighted by your marketing efforts, allowing you to know where to allocate future funds for digital marketing strategies.

    By time spent per visit

    With easy access to viewing the average time that each user spends on a site, businesses can learn more about their content’s engagement. The longer users spend on pages they’re viewing, the more likely they’re to enjoy the content and the experience offered on your website. Ultimately, taking the time to measure this metric will allow you to understand how your campaigns are performing and provide you with a deeper insight into how your digital marketing strategies are co-existing overall. 

    Are your digital marketing strategies measured by any of the above metrics? Do you know of some other resources that business owners can use? Please drop a comment below and tell us your thoughts.

    Amp up your digital marketing these 3 ways

    Each new year ushers transformation to the world of digital marketing. Thus, digital marketing strategies must constantly undergo a revamp to remain effective in improving customer relationships, visibility, conversions, and growth. Listed below are three ways that you can focus on remaining on top of your business and craft new strategies to achieve your desired results.

    Utilize the social platforms that will benefit your business most

    While harnessing the power of social media is a great way to reach your target audience, we recommend that you not get caught up in the craze. With so many social channels to pick from, you must weigh the pros and cons of each one and select an amount that’s manageable for you or your digital marketing team. It’s way better to be unique and authentic on the platforms where your audience engages most than to overextend your means by trying to post on every single channel. After all, if the demographic you’re advertising to spends most of their time on Instagram or TikTok, doesn’t it make more sense to spend your time creating content there? Maintaining social accounts is a huge task and if you want your digital marketing efforts to be noticed, implement your strategies in a way that best suits your brand’s personality.

    Examples of the top social platforms to implement your digital marketing strategies:

    • Facebook (recently renamed Meta)
    • Twitter
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    • TikTok
    • Pinterest
    • Snapchat
    • YouTube
    • Whatsapp
    • Reddit

    We recommend selecting two to three of the above options for your small business.

    Tell stories by utilizing your customer reviews

    Not only are business reviews valuable in developing trust with prospective customers, but they can also be used to further your digital marketing efforts. Customer feedback is a gold mine for any sized business. While business owners must listen and respond accordingly when the review requires you to get in touch, positive assessments can be used in so many ways—you can turn these reviews into stories for your blog, create an image with the review copy and place it on your social channels, or simply ensure that the reviews section of your website is up-to-date so that shoppers can read them to help answer some of their questions. All of the above examples will help you appeal to wider audiences through authentic customer feedback. 

    Strive to always be flexible and adaptable with your business

    Some digital marketing strategies might work long-term, while others will be required down the road. Change in any digital space is inevitable, so you need to be ready to jump onto new opportunities and understand that what’s working today might not be the case for tomorrow, next week, or next year. Part of growing your digital marketing strategies is embracing the pace of your niche industry and the nature of an adapting digital world, so be sure you learn how to leverage new tools and trends so that you gain the most success in each of your digital marketing efforts. 

    If any of the above amped-up digital marketing suggestions seems daunting to you or you simply want tips to further your understanding and the direction you need to go, our team of digital marketing professionals is here and ready to answer all of your questions and take on any of the workload proving to be challenging.

    Which one of our amped-up digital marketing strategies are you most excited to work with? Drop a comment below to start a conversation. 

    How to evolve your digital marketing strategy during COVID-19

    The world is facing some very unprecedented challenges with COVID-19 spreading at an exponential rate. While regulations have made operations difficult for many businesses, others are thriving off of stay-at-home orders. So, if your business hasn’t managed to do better amid lockdown measures, perhaps you need to evolve how you’re conducting your digital marketing strategies and double down by making some adjustments? Below are some ways we suggest that you can strengthen your commitment to your brand and the needs of your customers moving forward.  

    Keep up with your online presence 

    Since we’re all back to spending more time at home amid the second wave, the number of hours the average person is allocating online has drastically increased once again, and so has your opportunity to connect with your target audience!

    While consumers are partially glued to their phones and computers out of routine, they are also spending more time with their devices out of boredom, which means that there’s a higher chance of them connecting to your business through your online efforts. As much as most people don’t want to be reminded about the pandemic, you can use COVID-19 to leverage your content; for example, you can highlight products that help to make their home-bound stay a little better or promote services that can be enjoyed from the safety of their home. Also, while the goal of most digital marketing strategies is to brand, sell, and market your products, community support is crucial during these times. Thus, remember to use your social media platforms as a means to connect and bond with your customers in a meaningful way. 

    Adjust your content and digital marketing strategies to reflect growing trends

    Many aspects of our lives have shifted throughout the pandemic and it remains challenging for businesses to make amendments to their digital marketing strategies when customer’s needs are constantly changing. However, keeping up with societal trends doesn’t need to negatively impact consumer engagement or loyalty. For example, many businesses have revamped their advertising campaigns to spread awareness and understanding about the rules and regulations of our new reality, including illustrations and skits that emphasize handwashing, physical distancing, and masks. Even companies that have been sidelined by the virus (hotels, travel agencies, and airlines) are continuing to build brand awareness through their content! 

    Consider paid advertising 

    As mentioned above, 2020 has seen quite an influx in e-commerce browsing and shopping, leading many businesses to shift their focus digitally with the opportunity to invest more in their pay-per-click advertising strategy.

    When consumers input a key term into their chosen search engine, paid ads appear at the top of the search list, attracting shoppers to click through based on their higher placement. While businesses have to pay for the ad spot, the efforts it takes to achieve an organic ranking will undoubtedly take more time. Also, the best part about PPC is that the business is only charged when and if a consumer clicks on the ad. However, the cost of which is entirely dependent on the search engine traffic that steams from that said word or phrase. On the other hand, PPC ads are also popular on social media channels and can often be seen in advertisement placement sections when you scroll through your accounts. These ad holes work as a remarketing tool, popping up based on what you’ve searched for in the past, such as things that interest you or some previous purchases you’ve made. 

    With more people working at home and staying digital, there will be many more opportunities to rework your future digital marketing strategies to better appeal to your growing online audience. 

    Are there other ways in which you’ve changed up your digital marketing strategy throughout the pandemic? Drop a comment below to compare with other readers.