How E-Commerce Can Increase Your Profit

The world has never been as digital as it is now. Companies are flocking to the web to create websites, update blogs, access social media, and set up online stores, especially with this year’s inability to shop in-person. With easy-to-use tools like Shopify, the landscape of the internet is becoming more saturated with ways to purchase goods and services. And there’s good reason, too.

You may have heard of e-commerce, but what is it really? Simply put, e-commerce is defined as the buying and selling of goods and services online. E-commerce has taken off in a way no one could have imagined during the pandemic. From huge sites like Amazon to independent online stores, people have been spending more and more online, making the demand for online shopping skyrocket. 

Think about your own experience online. Chances are, you’ve probably needed a food delivery or a quick shipment of toilet paper. Imagine if you could give your customers the same quick experience. The ease of e-commerce is one of its biggest appeals, and offering that to your customers will likely increase your sales as well as help you build your brand identity, not to mention keep your business alive as technology rushed forward.

 

How to Use E-Commerce to Increase Profits

  • Build an online site.

Obviously, you’re going to need a website in order to sell products and services online. If you already have one, site hosts like WordPress or Wix likely have an option to add a store. If you don’t have a website already, that’s okay! There are lots of options for website development that are user-friendly; The AD Leaf offers affordable and effective web design too.

  • Decide on products.

Almost anything can be sold online, but sometimes it’s easier for some products than others. If you sell ice cream and candy, for example, you might choose to only offer candy for purchase online to avoid difficult and costly shipping methods for special items. Think about what you can offer that you already have, or what you could add to your inventory that might sell well online.

  • Upload products.

Once you’ve decided on which products to sell, you’re going to want to upload them to your shop. You’ll need great photos of your stuff, which means you can either try to take professional quality pictures or seek the help of professional services. Choosing prices, layouts, menu options, and other details to fill out your shop is the next step, followed by writing up product descriptions.

  • Utilize SEO and Content Writing.

SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of helping your business rank higher in searches on sites like Google or Bing. SEO professionals use strategic keywords and market research to help your webpages rise above the competition. SEO teams work closely with content writers who fill out your website with relevant service pages, blogs, product descriptions, and more, all to make your website the optimal marketing tool. Without proper SEO strategies, your website could suffer from being buried at the bottom of the pile of endless other sites, making it hard for customers to be able to find you.

  • Get on social media.

Your customers are on social media already, so why not reach out to them there, too? Utilizing social media channels is a great way to build your brand image, reach more potential customers, and run campaigns. You can advertise or just be present to raise awareness of your shop. If being on social media seems like too much of a hassle, there are also professionals who are experts in navigating the apps who can help take your store to the next level.

  • Run promotions.

Being active with your customers is also an effective way to drive sales. By running promotions, you are offering your customers a chance to save a bit of money while also attracting more attention to your online store. This can be done directly on your site or through social media channels as well.

 

Just like an interview, you want your business to make its best first impression. In today’s digital age, people are turning more and more to the internet to search for products and services. In 2020 especially, people can’t even go into stores to buy essentials, making e-commerce crucial for businesses to stay afloat. Keeping up with current e-commerce trends and digital interfaces can help put you ahead of the competition. Whether creating your own online shop from an online source or taking advantage of creative services like ours, get your site up to snuff for the new year.

A Look Inside The Leaf: SEO

Search engine optimization, otherwise known as SEO, is a crucial part of any business’s website. This is because the right practices can rank your website higher and higher on the organic search results of different search engines. The higher your website ranks, the more likely that your target audience sees your website when they search for certain keywords. 

Here at The AD Leaf ® Marketing Firm LLC., we are the foremost experts on SEO in Melbourne, Florida. We have helped hundreds of clients figure out a formula that works best for their business, and we can do the same for you!

Our SEO Services

As a business owner, SEO might not be the first thing on your mind. That is okay! In fact, you should not have to constantly worry about where your website is ranked on Google or other search engines. That is why you should come to us. We offer a number of different services that will lead to results in your SEO rankings.

Want to learn more about what we can do for your rankings? Here are some of the services we can do for you:

  • Keyword Research
    • We will compile a list of keywords that best correlate to your business. This list’s entries will consist of terms and phrases that your customer base is likely to search for online.
  • On-Site Optimization
    • We will optimize the content that is already present on your website. This is a collaborative effort between SEO and content marketing, as they will both determine the best course of action for your pre-existing content.
  • Local Search Engine Marketing
    • Think of this as SEO for search engine maps. A big part of SEO is making sure that your website is visible across different aspects of search engines, so having your business show up in maps is crucial. We will log the information needed to have your business be registered in search engine maps.
  • Link Development
    • Usually considered to be the most underrated aspect of SEO, we will help adjust the keywords in your website’s URLs to accurately reflect the keywords used in our research.
  • Content Service Strategy
    • In another collaboration with the content marketing team, we will help determine what the best type of content service is right for your website so it will show up in organic search results.
  • In-Depth Reporting
    • We will keep close track of your website’s progress in organic search results and regularly update you on any changes.

What Our Clients Say

The AD Leaf doesn’t believe in a one size fits all approach to social media marketing. Our agency works with clients across many industries and regions. We use our diverse knowledge to implement effective, customized strategies to fit our client’s needs and budget. The AD Leaf works hard to not only improve clients’ sales and business figures, but we strive to build relationships and develop thoughtful strategies to help their companies grow from the roots up.

Here’s what our satisfied clients say about our service:

“I hired Ad Leaf a few years ago and honestly I thought I would only work with them for a few months because you know how marketing experiences can be. I was averaging about 7 sales per day I was hoping they could help me get up to about 10-15. 3 years later, we’re up to about 300 sales per day and I’ve had to move into 2 new warehouses since I’ve started working with them. They are a really strong marketing company, very responsive, and when they make suggestions or want to implement something, I do it immediately. I trust them implicitly and will work with them for as long as they’ll have me. These guys are the real deal and if you work with them they’ll help you too.”

“I met AD LEAF back in December signed on with them to do all my SEO work and website and social media. They are very professional and give me daily updates on what they did for me. When the pandemic hit they worked extra hard to get me leads and helped me out with billing when money was tight.”

“Unfortunately I have been on a journey with using multiple website companies over the 8 years of operating my business. I have learned and experienced some good things and a lot of bad in the process. Ad leaf has stepped up and within 2 months of working together provided a new lead stream source through social media. The lead intake was so high we need to adjust our process and add sales assets to keep up with the leads. That’s a problem any business owner would gladly take. Their team has a great organized process and approach to their monthly deliverables. I am more than thrilled we have found such a great partner and highly recommend their services to your business!”

“Here is what I posted on my LinkedIn page about Ad Leaf… “If ya haven’t noticed, I have a lot of activity for 2020 with the business and social media. I’ve hired a company called Ad Leaf and they are really doing a bang-up job. As friends, customers, or associates, I ask for your support and at the very least, your tolerance, lol. I have great products. Just time they aren’t the best-kept secret. Ad leaf is helping me with that. Thanks for everyone’s help, support, and understanding. If you have a business, I would also highly suggest Ad Leaf in Melbourne.”

“Our interactions with The Ad Leaf remains my Gold Standard of client communications. The company smoothed out our cumbersome website into an easily navigated and visually attractive source of information. Our social media ‘posts’ and ‘Likes’ surpassed our expectations. Thank you for being there.”

Why Melbourne?

It may not be a household name in the way that our nearest metropolitan neighbor Orlando is, but Melbourne, Florida is a bustling town that houses many small and large businesses. That is why The AD Leaf Marketing Firm LLC. is so proud to be headquartered in this beautiful town. We believe that one of the best ways to give back to the community is to purchase locally and to support local businesses. Being a marketing agency in Melbourne, Florida allows us to give back by providing valuable resources and services to businesses so that they are able to succeed. 

SEO in Melbourne Florida

Are you a business owner that wants to take their SEO strategies in Melbourne Florida to the next level? Talk to one of our local experts here at The AD Leaf Marketing Firm LLC.! We are located at 508 N. Harbor City Boulevard, Melbourne, Florida. To schedule a free consultation with our marketing teams, call us today at 321-255-0900.

seo and ai

AI & SEO

Depending on how you perceive them, technological advancements can either pose new problems or new opportunities in any industry, and developments in the area of artificial intelligence and digital marketing are no exception.

Self-teaching algorithms have made search engine optimization (SEO) more complex and challenging to learn, which means that it could get more challenging to target followers, and eventually win a customer through digital marketing initiatives.

However challenging it can be to adapt to new innovations, an incredible return on investment exists for those who are willing to adjust and learn how to use emerging technologies.

So, how will artificial intelligence shape the new SEO landscape?

Search Engine Are Becoming Smarter

While it’s made our work a bit tougher, it still presents an opportunity for advertisers.

The goal of both these developments in artificial intelligence and machine learning is primarily to have improved user experience and to make consumers happy.

Don’t we want the same thing as the marketers? If these networks get more effective, features such as private (formerly “personal”) search results can push more eligible, qualified traffic to the right location. Thus, instead of creating mass appeal content for better search ranking, you will be able to create content that speaks directly to your audience – meaning more qualified traffic.

Let’s see how AI is being used to produce quality content, develop better strategies, with a focus on personalized customer experiences.

Hyper-personalization 

Nothing captivates a buyer more than being personally marketed to. Today’s consumers want to feel as if companies care enough to produce content that zeros in on their individual needs and concerns. Personalization is thus important not only for SEO, but also for the satisfaction of the consumer. Data reveals that 79% of companies that have met their sales goals have a designed a personalization stragety. In addition, smart optimization engines used to identify consumer intent would allow digital companies to increase their revenues by up to 15%.

Consumers want businesses to pay attention to what they do online and bring ease to their online buying experience. AI helps you to construct customized interactive environments that cater to these individuals.

Specifically, AI can allow us to:

  • create specific landing pages
  • dynamic content
  • create unique customer interfaces focused on behaviors

How AI Is Used Today
Finding out what keywords, verbs, or phrases you want to automate is more than half a fight. AI excels in identifying trends in broad data sets, including search volume results. Your preferred search engine depends on artificial intelligence to produce the answers of your queries. Search engines use advanced AI, machine learning , and deep learning to perform searches, and then anticipate which outcomes will fulfill each quest. As every SEO specialist who tracks Google’s algorithm updates knows, search engines do not disclose precisely how their AI programs operate, but offer hints.

Local Search
It’s not always straightforward to make sure your company turns up specifically in search of several different places. And the consequences of incorrect local search results can negatively affect companies within a metropolitan area. AI is great at solving this type of information-based problem on a scale.

User Experience Is Top Priority for Ranking
More intuitive search engines are taking into account user interaction and connection trends in the evaluation of the content. User engagement has been Google’s top priority for some time now.

Google is looking at four key user interface signals:

  • Organic Click-through Rate: The number of users who click on the outcome of the search.
  • Sessions: How long a person has spent on your web.
  • Bounce Rate: How many users leave your website immediately after arrival.
  • Pogo-sticking: How many times a user clicks the back button to go back to the search results and find another connection.

In addition to the accuracy of the content on your websites, you must ensure that the website is searchable, easy to navigate, and available to all browsers and computers.

Back links are still also a significant ranking aspect, so make sure yours comes from high-level pages.

Even More Mobile-Focused
Users Are More Likely To Purchase From A Mobile Friendly Company
Your smartphone friendliness has an effect on your conversion rate. If your platform is running well on smartphones, your customer is more likely to buy items from your service. A mobile-friendly website will help you make more conversions.

People Invest A Significant Portion of Their Time on Mobile Devices
70% of the time,  users use handheld devices to browse the internet. If users spend most of their time surfing the web using mobile devices, you need to ensure that they have a memorable experience on your platform. If you don’t adjust, you risk losing potential leads bad a poor mobile experience.

The implementation of strong, high-quality SEO on a brand’s website and digital properties will always benefit the brand and its marketing efforts. At The AD Leaf ®, we understand that not every business has the time to invest their full efforts into SEO. To learn more about how investing in SEO can bring more leads to your business, contact us via our phone number, (321) 255.0900. Or, set up a consultation by emailing us at info@theadleaf.com. We look forward to hearing from you soon!

seo for small business

SEO For Small Business

SEO will definitely boost the searchability and accessibility of your business’s website, but what other practical benefit does it offer? What is the benefit of SEO for small business? SEO can provide more value than greater viability and searchability. Small business SEO has the potential take their brand to the next level!

Organic Search Is Typically The Source of Website Traffic
Organic search is an essential part of the success of most company websites, as well as a vital aspect of the customer sales funnel, eventually bringing consumers to complete a conversion or take an action.

Google, the world’s most visited search engine, is also the world’s most popular email provider (with over 1 billion users). Thus, we know that a significant majority of the world that accesses the internet is most likely visiting Google at least once a day.

Being highly visible as a trusted resource will always work for the brand. Quality SEO and a high-quality website can bring the right customers to your brand.

Trust & Credibility
As experienced SEOs, we aim to establish a strong foundation for a website with an efficient user experience that can be easily discovered in the search process thanks to the trust and credibility of the brand and its digital properties.

There are many elements in establishing the authority for search engines. In addition to the factors mentioned above, authority is accumulated over time as a result of elements such as: positive user behavior, machine learning signals, optimized elements and content, and quality backlinks.

Remember, it’s impossible to build trust and trust overnight — just like real life. Authority and credibility is acquired and built over time.

Local SEO Can Lead To Increased Engagement, Traffic & Conversions
With the rise and increasing dominance of mobile traffic, local search has become a key part of the success of small and medium-sized enterprises.

Local SEO aims to optimize your digital properties for a specific location, so that people can find you quickly and easily, putting them one step closer to a transaction.

Local SEO marketing focuses on different cities, territories and even states, creating a competitive platform for brand advertising at the local level. We do this by enhancing a website’s content, including local quotes and backlinks, as well as local listings specific to the location and business sector of the company.

We also emphasize Google Reviews. There should also be a strong emphasis on user reviews on Google, as well as on other review sites such as Yelp, Home Advisor, and Angie’s List, depending on the industry.

SEO Can Impact The Buying Cycle
Customers are conducting their homework. The ability to research almost anything is considered to be one of the greatest benefits of the Internet, from the point of view of the consumer.

Using SEO strategies to convey the message for excellent offers, innovative goods and/or services, and the quality and value of what you sell to the customers will change the game.

Undoubtedly, this would also have a positive effect on the purchasing process when done properly. Brands must be visible in places where people need them to make a worthy connection. Local SEO enhances that visibility and enables potential customers to find answers and companies to respond.

It’s A Long Term Strategy
SEO can have a measurable effect in the first year of implementation, and all of these efforts can have an effect that lasts longer than a few years.

As the market evolves, yes, it is best to follow trends and changes closely. The more SEO time, energy, and investment is performed, the stronger and longer a website stands to be a worthy competitor in the business.

It’s no mystery that if you’re not on page 1, you are missing crucial opportunities to get traffic to your website. A recent study shows that the first three organic search ranking positions result in almost 40 percent of all click-throughs, while up to 30 percent of all results on pages 1 and 2 are not clicked at all.

What’s the significance of this? There are two things:

  1. If you’re not on page 1, you ought to be on page 1.
  2. There are far too many times where a person performs a search query and can’t locate what they’re searching for.

The implementation of strong, high-quality SEO on the brand’s website and digital properties will always benefit the brand and its marketing efforts. At The AD Leaf ®, we understand that not every business has the time to invest their full efforts into SEO. To learn more about how investing in SEO can bring more leads to your business, contact us via our phone number, (321) 255.0900. Or, set up a consultation by emailing us at info@theadleaf.com. We look forward to hearing from you soon!

organic seo search rankings

Why Organic Search Matters

4 Reasons Why Organic Search Matters

Getting traffic from paid advertising and social media, is a great thing. However, organic SEO efforts should not be neglected in the process.

We work in a different world today, a more diversified world. We’re using AdWords and Bing Ads. We build identities through social media and promote them via Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. Websites no longer rely solely on Google Rankings. Thus, it’s easy to see why organic rankings may be perceived as less relevant to the user experience.

We can confidently assure you that the importance of maintaining high organic ranking still matters when considering your business’s credibility, and competitive edge. Here are four reasons why organic SEO matters, and will continue to matter.

  1. Organic Is Still Relevant
    Overwhelmingly, organic search trumps other traffic generators. Organic is clearly still best suited for the delivery of necessary website traffic. The only platform that performs better in some capacity is paid search advertising, but that is for conversions only, not overall traffic delivery. We also find that by combining channels, we can outperform either channel by itself. Thus, if you are neglecting your organic listings, your Paid listing could be affected as well.
  2. Investing In Organic Gives You A Competitive Edge
    If you want to be successful, SEO is non-negotiable. Chances are, competitors are investing time and energy into their sustainable traffic. They target high-value keywords. And they’re doing everything they can to dominate the rankings. On a fundamental level, this means that you can not ignore the benefits of SEO. If you have strong search results, it’s easier to dominate your market. Imagine that your content appears on the first page of results for the top keywords in your niche. That kind of advantage is paramount. Traffic and potential customers that would’ve otherwise gone to your competitor now are being directed to you. In addition, your competitors can’t recreate the unique content experience that you use to drive organic traffic.
  3. Bring In Regular, Engaged Visitors
    This is one of the most noticeable advantages of maintaining organic rankings. If your website is ranked for a keyword, you will enjoy regular, targeted traffic. This consistent flow of traffic will open up floodgates for new leads and customers. Here’s the point about an organic audience: you have the opportunity to create a rich content experience. Additional eyes on the website are fantastic, but if you can’t get them to connect, you not converting that traffic. When users invest in your content, they’ll keep coming back, and they’ll become the fuel for your sales.
  4. An Effective Method For Building Your Brand
    Your future clients use search engines to look for information on a regular basis. Google conducts 40,000 search requests of its own per second. When your website is constantly coming up as a solution, you ‘re going to be the preeminent brand in people’s eyes. This ensures that any piece of content that leads consume that created by you, is increasing your brand’s value. Not only that, but you’re also creating multiple touchpoints, so potential customers have every opportunity to discover your business.

We know that it takes a lot to stay on top of the different ways you can improve your website SEO efforts. That is why The AD Leaf ® Marketing LLC is here to help. Our team of SEO specialists will help you determine the best course of action for your SEO strategy. Call us today at (321) 255-0900 for more information!

Content Marketing And SEO

What is the Difference Between Content Marketing and SEO?

Whenever you open up your internet browser, what is the very first thing you do? Well, you conventionally start by searching for a topic of your choosing up in the search bar, correct? We can all admit that many consumers in today’s society, in particular, are looking to build some sort of a trusting relationship with their search engine so that in turn, they will be able to receive the most accurate information as well as reviews. This is essentially why Content Marketing and SEO are both necessary for going forward. They are the marketing tools that maintain those routines in today’s society.  However, these two methods have changed drastically over the past couple of years which is why we need to first break them both down to ultimately understand the bigger picture. 

Search Engine Optimization:

Search Engine Optimization, which is also abbreviated to be “SEO”, is a specific method that furthers a search engine’s ability to rank and categorize different client’s websites. We know what you’re thinking. What’s the point? There are so many websites to choose from! (There are literally 1 trillion websites to choose from) The great thing about Search Engine Optimization is that it narrows an individual’s search down to the point where your website could get ranked even higher than millions of other sites! Over the course of the past few years, however, Search Engine Optimization has changed dramatically. So you may be wondering, why is it still important to incorporate SEO into your writing? When’s the last time to clicked past Page 1 on Google? Probably never. Imagine if your business could potentially be on the 1st page. Usually, the way this is achieved however is through keyword-rich titles, words, and copy which many SEO specialists believe will effectively optimize your site for the search engine.

Content Marketing:

“Traditional marketing talks to people. Content marketing talks with them” was said by Doug Kessler who was trying to best explain how besides rankings, meaningful conversations and relationships need to be developed so that people are basically more engaged with what they are reading. To that point, Content Marketing is basically all about guiding the audience when they review a website through written content that the audience themselves will actually find intriguing including blog posts, infographics, guides, etc. Content Marketing has become very popular today because connections and digital marketing have both in some way intertwined. Instead of companies using outbound marketing strategies, Content Marketing can help companies boost conversions, create a sense of community around a specific brand, but also build a vigorous relationship between the consumer but also the business. 

The Overlap of Content Marketing and SEO

Many people nowadays believe that Content Marketing and SEO must be disunited, but this is not always the case! They do in fact work well together and here’s why. If we look from the viewpoint of an SEO specialist, Search Engine Optimization is basically the method that makes the big demands meaning that they show the audience what they are looking for in particular. Now, this is why Content Marketing needs to come into play. With the help of Content Marketing, the fulfillment of those demands can actually occur as the audience can now be constantly guided with satisfying information that will hopefully make them eager to reach out to the business or company. The main message we’re trying to get at here is that sometimes in order to enforce successful Content Marketing onto a page, sometimes SEO has to be incorporated (and vice-versa) as you need verbiage but also lots of substance. At the end of the day, it is great if you are able to combine both Search Engine Optimization as well as Content Marketing. By using a “hand and hand approach”, an effective integrated digital marketing plan can be produced so that both the reach and the visibility of the content are produced thus resulting in the ultimate satisfaction for your client. 

Still Need Help With This?

At the AD Leaf, we have an expert team of both SEO specialists and Content Marketers that understand exactly how to fill out a service page with great original content but at the same utilize keywords in order to enhance your website. More than anyone, our team actually dives into the writing before the client does. 

If your website needs additional updates or even needs to be restructured/rewritten you can give us a call at 321-255-0900 or email us at info@theadleaf.com in order to set up a consultation appointment. We promise you we can help you understand why updating your website with content is the key to success. We look forward to helping you in whatever way we can!

SEO Content Writing

SEO Isn’t Just About Quality Content

Over time, those who are unfamiliar to advanced search engine optimization (SEO) strategies have the perception that the quality of written SEO content is the most important factor to being top ranked on search engines. This perception isn’t entirely incorrect. However, it is misleading and can cause a casual SEO strategist to focus the wrong factors.

When you search a keyword on Google, or another search engine, and click onto a specific result, you’re most likely going to judge the page you land on based on different needs. Does the web page give you the content you were specifically looking for? Is the page easy enough to navigate and view? Does the content actually peak your interest, and does it seem accurate? In terms of quality content, many of these questions are very important to answer. They overall impact the experience of a website’s visitor and how search engines can measure the worth of the page.These elements are important for writing quality, but don’t do much for the actual optimization robots are looking for when indexing websites.

What Is SEO Actually About?

Other than writing quality SEO content, optimization done both on-page and off-page largely factors into what can rank a website greatly on a search engine. Here are the other factors that truly determine SEO success:

Time

SEO is all about time. It is not a process that is completed within a simple couple hours. It can take months, and almost years to gradually build ranking for multiple keywords. It can take a long time to build links externally, that are meant to support your website overall. Gradually and slowly, search engines will discover all connections you are trying to build within your website (from possible internal links), or even links you may have created on other websites that connect back to your site.

Link Building

Search engines could care less about content either being the best or worst if the content itself is not being found through a proper link. If your audience cannot link to it, search engines are very unlikely to even rank it and this will result to no traffic being driven to your website. Think of it this way: The more people can link back to a certain piece of content, the better its chances are of actually ranking for a specific related keyword. Quality links truly do matter, and they can sometimes push a link that has been stuck at position 5 to position 1 on search engines.

HTML Tags

Meta tags, such as title tags, meta descriptions, and keywords, are extremely important. Title tags and meta descriptions are the first impression a possible visitor could have on a specific web page you have ranked. What is displayed in the SERP can make or break whether a person clicks on your website or not.

Source of Content

Link building can play a big factor in giving a website high domain authority. But why is domain authority important? Google will give priority in ranking to those websites that have built such authority and credibility over time. When optimizing a new page, if the website already has high domain authority, they already have a huge head-start in SEO.

Other Factors

Other factors that could affect search engine ranking involve simply having more spend on using better SEO tools, or having a bigger ream of people working on the factors listed above. Another factor is also simple luck. Despite a lack of optimization of SEO strategies, some websites have specific pages ranked up well.

 

Writing the best SEO content may not be the only way to get your web page top ranked. Overall, SEO is a competition of strategy ‒ strategies that are achieved by multiple levels of optimization. However, perseverance and patience are important and are almost key to such a competition.

Digital Marketing Strategy

Why Businesses Need Digital Marketing To Survive COVID-19

Why Businesses Need A Digital Marketing Strategy To Survive COVID-19

In the coming months, businesses of all sizes are going to become extra reliant than ever on their digital marketing strategy. Without wanting to sound too much like a killjoy, in many cases, it will be the deciding factor in whether they make it through the tough times that are ahead. 

The unparalleled, and almost-total disappearance of all channels related to live events and conferences, and the increasing barriers on face-to-face business, pose an enormous challenge to any business model. 

B2B companies, in particular, rely on the annual circuit of trade shows and exhibitions to network and build customer relations. In industries that are not digital-native, they may also be less sophisticated in their digital growth and customer relations strategies. Especially in the case of smaller businesses that are used to getting new customers strictly word-of-mouth referrals or on the strength of a hard-won reputation, their loss is going to come as a shock if it hasn’t already.

Larger companies are now finding themselves in the position of having potentially lost millions of dollars from canceled events alone. They won’t claw back the hours of time and expense spent on preparations for this year, but insurance and flexible cancellation policies are going to leave them with some marketing budget to reassign. Digital Marketing in any aspect is likely going to be the clear and obvious choice here, and companies that may not so much as had a Facebook page before will need to move into social media marketing, content marketing, SEO, and even influencer-led campaigns. 

This, of course, means there are opportunities out there for the taking and a key factor in resilience is adaptability. If it’s standard in your industry to go out and meet new customers face-to-face before you do business, adapting may mean opening new channels over web or social media platforms where introductions can be made and relationship fostered. In the coming months, you prospective clients are going to be less open to the idea of letting you walk through the door and shake their hand, and no-one really has any idea how long this will last and whether this will lead to longer-term change. 

We are going to be in some uncertain times, but with the increase of remote working and a collaborative approach, companies are going to turn to digital channels and embrace the transformation. There has already been a real spike in the last few weeks from companies wishing to create or update their websites, launch new social media channels and campaigns focused on home-workers and a real focus on using influencers and SEO to reach new audiences. 

Being confined to the office — or even the home — rather than on the road on sales visits or at events, means marketers are going to have more time to develop digital marketing strategies. This means researching where your customers can be found online, and how different approaches and tactics might impact your success. If your organization previously put minimal efforts into digital channels, now is going to be a prime time to revisit them. That could be as simple as giving your website or social media pages a refresh, or a more innovative approach. 

A key point to note is that a lot of corporate entities use up about 50-60% of their marketing budgets on events. When things go back to normal, budgets will most likely be going back to those live face-to-face events, but if organizations can see the benefits and opportunities that digital marketing can offer, they might understand the benefit of adding it to their long-term marketing strategy. 

Channels such as Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn Live are going to be crucial moving forward as the ability to connect with a targeted audience real-time is very beneficial, if not essential. 

It’s certainly true that the coming weeks, or months – or however long this situation lasts – will be a challenging time for any company that isn’t ready to think about how they will replace the opportunities that have been lost. 

As long as businesses can approach the shift to digital marketing strategically, there’s no reason why it should just serve as an emergency fill-in but could carry on providing long-term value when the world eventually gets back to normal. And of course, this would make companies more resilient to deal with any future pandemics. Do you need help with your Digital Marketing Strategy? Looking to take your social media or SEO to the next step? Contact the team at The AD Leaf ® Marketing Firm and learn how you can grow with us today and weather the storm that is COVID-19!

Marketing Agency

5 Reasons To Hire A Marketing Agency VS An In-House Team

Should you hire a Marketing Agency or build an in-house team?

In today’s digital landscape, there is no shortage of marketing options for businesses. From freelancers and marketing agencies to hiring your own in-house team, companies have more choices than ever before, specifically when it comes to online marketing. As your business grows, you will need to consider how your marketing will be handled, including whether to hire new employees and build an internal marketing team or empower your brand through a Marketing Agency.

While each has its own advantages, a full-service Marketing Agency provides substantial value to large, medium, and even small businesses. They strive to build cohesive and effective brands, put organizations in front of their customers and audience, and drive sales through awareness.

5 Reasons to Hire A Marketing Agency

1. Unparalleled Experience

Why piece together individual talents when you can hire an experienced Marketing Agency to handle everything for you? One of the major advantages of hiring a Marketing Agency is a professional experience. In fact, a good agency will have specific knowledge in a wide range of industries and markets, along with experience facing a diverse range of scenarios and challenges never encountered by many newer business owners. Having a knowledgeable and experienced staff at your side can produce immediate results for owners, helping to quickly get your marketing efforts off the ground.

2. Broader Skillsets

It can be difficult to locate suitable in-house employees with branding and marketing skills such as SEO and graphic design. By hiring a Marketing Agency, you’ll not only have the necessary tools to achieve your vision for success but a suite of creative services at your fingertips.

For example, a full-service Marketing Agency can assist clients in everything from rebranding their company image and website, developing their print and direct mail campaigns, and creating a social strategy to boost SEO and PPC campaigns. With a Marketing Agency, a client may choose to utilize one service or all them–whereas, with an in-house team, businesses are limited in what they can achieve.

3. Fresh Perspective & Inspiration

Another major advantage of hiring a Marketing Agency is a new perspective. A marketing team can help inject new life into marketing efforts, helping to identify unseen opportunities and enhance current campaigns. One example is social media marketing. With more companies looking to broaden their social reach through sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, a Marketing Agency can significantly enhance a brand’s approach to social media, including how they’re perceived by their audience.

4. Speed, Efficiency, and Consistency

As an up-and-coming business owner, you’ll be forced to wear several hats when getting your business off the ground. Generally speaking, this will almost include tackling aspects of the business you’re unfamiliar with, such as branding and digital marketing. With only so much time in the day, it’s important your marketing approach doesn’t suffer from time restraints or inexperience. Hiring a Marketing Agency can easily solve this dilemma.

5. More Affordable Than Hiring In-House

The cost of hiring and maintaining a team of in-house marketers can be very expensive. For smaller businesses, this expense may be too much to afford.
One of the more surprising benefits of hiring a Marketing Agency is cost-effectiveness. Along with providing a plethora of knowledge, experience, and skillset, a Marketing Agency is almost always more affordable compared to hiring a full-time marketing team. For example, after hiring a marketing manager, web designer, graphic designer, content writer, and social media manager, the total cost can reach upwards of multiple six figures a year! And that’s not even including the cost of employee benefits.

Marketing is the heart and soul of any business. At The AD Leaf ®, we’ve spent the last 25 years working with a diverse range of clients — from healthcare and technology to governmental, law enforcement and consumer goods — to perfect our approach to marketing, advertising, and branding. From strategic creative direction to engaging digital marketing, our extensive marketing team is here to handle every aspect of your business.

Want to enhance your content marketing? Looking to take your social media to the next step? Contact the team at The AD Leaf ® Marketing Firm and learn how you can grow with us today!

SEO Specialists

What’s Going On With Google’s New Featured Snippet Update?

Google had released a significant update for featured snippets on January 22, 2020. This overall update affects the first page of search results, and the organic traffic following featured snippets. However, what exactly happened and how will this affect search engine optimization (SEO)?

In the past, Google used to give any ranked URL two spots on their search engine results pages, which are also called SERPs. This would occur when a URL was ranked with a featured snippet, which is also called position zero as it would appear ranked above position one on any average search result. However, this no longer occurs with Google’s newest update on featured snippets. In fact, if a URL shows up as a featured snippet, Google will no longer duplicate and show the URL on any position past position zero. This entire procress is called deduplication, which is when Google removes duplicated URLs from SERPs containing featured snippets.

Google’s SearchLiaison posted the following facts about deduplication on Twitter:

 

Performance reports will not change at all as a result of deduplication, as Google SearchLiaison had explained. Basically, if a site loses position one of organic search but is still a featured snippet, it will still be considered rank one on any performance report.

However, how will this update affect any SEO efforts overall?

SeoClarity conducted some research to see how search ranking has been affected. Prior to the final update, the research revealed that 28% of duplicate listings appeared in the search results’ second position to any featured snippet. In addition, the following graph reveals that the ranking positions of the duplicate listing for about 250,000 keywords that had been found on featured snippets:

Google’s Featured Snippet Changes & Impact on Organic Traffic [STUDY]

 

However, now that sites on featured snippets have been deduplicated the first page of search results, SEO specialists and site owners are wondering how organic traffic and SEO will be affected overall. Luckily, with seoClarity’s study of traffic, they have found that traffic has been consistent from the lat 14 days to the final implementation of the Featured Snippet Update (from approximately January 10, 2020 to January 23, 2020). So, SEO specialists and site owners can relax as there is no significant change.

This is a good sign so far for all those who are concerned. Yet, it will be interesting to see if Google implements any changes relating to this situation, over the upcoming months. Be sure to contact The AD Leaf ® Marketing Firm for more information on the services our SEO specialists provide.