The Posh Hotels and Re-marketing Pixels

Posh Hotels and Remarketing Pixels
The posh hotel where no one speaks?

How are posh hotels and remarketing pixels connected?

Imagine you walk into a posh hotel; the decoration is gorgeous, really sumptuous. The reception is empty so you walk by and head to the bar area. There are fabulous sofas and coffee tables with magazines and attractive settings. You cannot see any staff, and that’s ok because you are not a customer. You are not talking to them and hopefully, they are not talking to you. You explored a bit further and decided to leave.

Could that happen?

Would a posh hotel allow you to wonder around and the staff not take any action to encourage you to become a customer? I doubt that would happen and yet online it happens all the time.

The Remarketing Pixel

There are thousands of some beautiful websites out there in web land and like our pretend hotel they make no attempt to connect with prospects. There are many options to connect, from email systems, quizzes, and surveys.  However, there one option that requires minimal effort and is so underused. It is the google and facebook remarketing pixels. These littles bit of code collect details of your website visitors storing that information in a list that you can access through advertising.  It is a powerful marketing advantage and costs nothing to set up.

In my work I see a lot of websites, in fact, this post was prompted by a local company that has just had a site makeover. It is good looking site and just as in my hotel example does none of the above.

The Facebook and Google tags matter 

Why does it matter? Have a little journey with me, how often do you look at a website and buy something on a first visit? We all troll Amazon for interesting things to put on the wish list. I visit other sites all the time and very seldom do I buy on the first visit. I am sure you do the same.

What does that tell you?

Your customers do the same thing.
That is why it’s critical for us when marketing any business to have these things in place. These simple scripts put on your site allow both Google and Facebook to build lists of people that are interested in your products
Using the advertising platforms of Facebook or Google, adverts for your service can appear on the Facebook newsfeed or various websites throughout the internet.

What is £5 per click or 40p?

Obviously, you’ve got to pay money for the advertising. However, these clicks cost so much less then if you were directly trying to attract those customers. As an example, one of my professional service clients could be paying over £5 a click if they were looking to advertise their services directly. Using a remarketing, they’re paying less than 40p to 45p per click. That is the value of building a remarketing list.

Why Wait? Do it Now.

The reason it is so important to do this now is that if you want to use this list at some point, they have to be built you can’t just turn it on. Because it will take a few months or maybe even a year to make a list. What you’re doing today is preparing the ground for that potential future advertising.

Now if you are in a rush and want to build lists quickly, there are options,  but that’s a different conversation and a subject for a later article.

Artificial Intelligence and Local Search

Artificial Intelligence and Local Search Is there a battle between Artificial Intelligence ( A.I) and local search, are we looking at war?

We have been watching the development of A.I. on the silver screen for more than 30 years. Starting with Hal in the space odyssey, through the Terminator franchise and up to the more benevolent Jarvis, Tony Stark’s AI assistant in Ironman.

 

We have been waging an undeclared war!

The reality for the digital marketing and local search is that we have been waging an undeclared war with AI for longer than we realise. Most internet users are just not aware of it.

Over the last five years, the battle of search Engine Optimization (SEO) for a page 1 position in Google. Or to secure audience visibility in the Facebook newsfeed have become an arms race of best practice.

All online platforms like Google and Facebook use secret algorithms to make positional decisions that affect the success or failure of your business marketing efforts. These platforms have been using a range of systems including artificial intelligence as a core part of the decision process.

The current thinking is that a phrase or sentence trigger the A.I. systems producing a more accurate search results than a simple keyword selection.

A.I. is now in the hands of the consumers!

Artificial Intelligent search However, more disruption is coming. Artificial Intelligence is now in the hands of the consumers, and that will change how search results are derived and presented. We know from our mobile phone use how integrated it has become. We can see it all around us; the phone is the default personal assistant and web search tool. Current data suggests that between 50 to 70% of all searches are from a mobile device. It will continue to rises as the technology of these devices develops to rival the desk machines within years.

This advance in technology has also opened a new option, “the vocal search.” People can now speak to their phone. Cortana and Siri are AI systems that learn about the user and seek to deliver the requested information. This speech recognition is standard on Windows 10 machines, and I know from our family experience our teenager prefers to speak than type.

Artificial Intelligence and Local Search

You may have read all about mobile search before, but vocal search? How does it affect your local search performance? These A.I. systems learn about their users; the program can access a range of data from the phone. So when a user asks for a dentist or plumber or an Indian restaurant. The request may come in the form of a sentence or phrase. The system will already know the user location, age, and sex and delivers relevant results.

Winning the A.I. war in Local Search. Take Action

As a business owner, you need to take notice of this development as local search has become more competitive. Much of this due to the influence and shift to mobile devices and small screens, as a response there is less space on page one. You can find out more about these changes at the link above.

The battle will be won with data, rich content and reputation management.

Data: This is about the accuracy of information across multiple platforms. It is important for the search engines that they can see and validate your location and contact information.

Rich Content: Back to building a destination on the web. Because the new vocal search is liable to be a phrase or sentence matched. The more varied content will have more opportunity to be found.

Reputation Management: This is social signals and local customer engagement on social media.

While this may seem to complicate the marketing world, it is driven by competition, progression and the change of consumer behavior.

The winners will take it all…

However while we are in this place of transition, there is a lot of opportunity for those companies that embrace Artificial Intelligence and Local Search by looking to enhance their local search opportunity.

For more information about managing your reputation and building your local search check out the frequency marketing dashboard.

Start with a free local search snapshot report.

 

The Power of Story

We all love to hear a story. The Bible is a series of stories. The Buddhist tradition uses story. There are stories everywhere. The point is that life is all about stories from the news to your neighbors adventures at her daughters wedding to the nightly news or the twitter feed.  As marketers and owner of a business, it is critical that we use story to spread our message.

So I need to tell you a story,  Cortijo Romero is retreat centre in Spain. When I start working with the organisation three years ago, they had been hit by the changes in the Google algorithm and lost most of their website traffic.

With IT support, we addressed the technical issues on the site. But in a two-fold process, we started an email communication strategy with the existing client base. We interviewed the original owner and asked about the journey that lead to the creation of the centre. Then we explored the new owners story; it could be seen throughout the 25-year history that the original impulse that started the centre was still part of its ethos.

By sharing these origin stories with the client base, it built trust and interest to the point where clients began to share their stories on the Facebook page. All of this interaction builds a community of like-minded people.   Three years on the business is thriving and well beyond its Google problems.

How are you using stories in you sales and marketing messages?

Do you have an origin story, how it all began? Think Grand Design.

Do you ask for stories from your customers?

If you would like support to uncover the stories in your business, book a Discovery Call that is 30 minute free to see what is possible for your business. There will be a story to tell.

Free Discovery Conversation