Many businesses have avoided social interaction for fear that an existing bad reputation, or possible negative comments will come back to bite them.  These ideas may be true if the issues are left unchecked, but for a business that is highly active on social media, negative comments can turn into a positive experience.

Legitimate customer comments around a product or service will definitely start to pop up when a business decides to start regularly using social media to promote their business.  Many of these could be negative comments which may cause some alarm to those not well-versed in the ways of social media marketing.  However, there is one simple solution - use social media as a platform to address customer issues head-on and allow customer service to shine.

Rather than hiding legitimate concerns or negative comments, a business should provide a thoughtful response with options to further assist a customer via phone or email.  Also, someone should follow up internally to ensure that these concerns are addressed before they spread to other customers.  The more these issues are professionally handled, the more brand evangelists will emerge to come to a businesses' aid to fend off the negative comments and critiques!

While it can be tough to see negative comments and feedback, a business should view it as an opportunity to show that they can turn a positive into a negative.  How do you all handle less-than-positive feedback on social media?

With access to ever more precise PPC optimization tools, it can be tough to resist tweaking every minute detail.  Like a child let loose in a candy store, refraining from touching and trying everything can take serious willpower.  Most of the available tweaks are great ideas individually, but as a whole they can possibly impair performance.

Typically, data needs to accumulate in order to make decisions.  On a large PPC budget, a lot of data can be gained quickly, however making daily or even weekly tweaks can derail an account's success when over-optimization occurs.  Google has actually suggested 2-4 weeks worth of data be collected before considering data optimizing on a particular area of an account.  While 3 or even 7 days might seem like enough time, many times this is still too small a window to actually have any actionable data.

Most PPC accounts have more than one ad group, so just because a marketer or business is letting data accumulate in one area of an account does not mean they are not doing anything towards the betterment of their campaigns overall.  While an A/B test occurs in one area of an account, other things can usually be tweaked elsewhere that will not contribute to over-optimization.

The capability exists to make big changes fast, and sometimes those changes are obvious and need to happen immediately.  However, sometimes something good might be changed before it has a chance to prove itself.  What are your thoughts on how much data is enough to make a decision for PPC?

With access to ever more precise PPC optimization tools, it can be tough to resist tweaking every minute detail.  Like a child let loose in a candy store, refraining from touching and trying everything can take serious willpower.  Most of the available tweaks are great ideas individually, but as a whole they can possibly impair performance.

Typically, data needs to accumulate in order to make decisions.  On a large PPC budget, a lot of data can be gained quickly, however making daily or even weekly tweaks can derail an account's success when over-optimization occurs.  Google has actually suggested 2-4 weeks worth of data be collected before considering data optimizing on a particular area of an account.  While 3 or even 7 days might seem like enough time, many times this is still too small a window to actually have any actionable data.

Most PPC accounts have more than one ad group, so just because a marketer or business is letting data accumulate in one area of an account does not mean they are not doing anything towards the betterment of their campaigns overall.  While an A/B test occurs in one area of an account, other things can usually be tweaked elsewhere that will not contribute to over-optimization.

The capability exists to make big changes fast, and sometimes those changes are obvious and need to happen immediately.  However, sometimes something good might be changed before it has a chance to prove itself.  What are your thoughts on how much data is enough to make a decision for PPC?

Many businesses are great at making and/or selling products and services.  Most can succeed at getting their message in front of their target market and getting some clientele.  However, a critical point that is tough to perfect is retaining those customers - especially in today's business climate where much of the reputation and engagement is carried out online.  The key to making a lasting enough impression for return business is understanding customers.

Rather than treating customers as simply a source of revenue, today's successful businesses give customers a more rounded-out experience.  The first step generally involves getting shoppers to listen to the sales message.  If a business is good at understanding customers, it should be able to devise a few messages based on the different types of buyers it has and get those messages specifically in front of those that are best to respond.

Step two in the process that leads to retention is emotionally connecting with shoppers.  Understanding customers really boils down to the emotional drivers that motivate them. Many share similar drivers, but most will have differing emotions that would cause them to consider a purchase with a business.  If marketing can stir the emotions and the company seems like it cares about its customers, this can raise feelings of trust and connection between a potential client and a business.

Finally, getting clients to participate in the business can seal the deal with keeping shopper's loyalty.  A business can demonstrate that it is good at understanding customers by getting them involved in areas that don't necessarily strictly involve transactions, such as reviews, social media posts and live events.  These efforts can also further humanize a business and win over the sympathies of its target audience.

Today's businesses have to take things a lot further in order to get loyalty and this is built upon simply understanding customers.  What are some other ways that we can understand our clients?

Many businesses are great at making and/or selling products and services.  Most can succeed at getting their message in front of their target market and getting some clientele.  However, a critical point that is tough to perfect is retaining those customers - especially in today's business climate where much of the reputation and engagement is carried out online.  The key to making a lasting enough impression for return business is understanding customers.

Rather than treating customers as simply a source of revenue, today's successful businesses give customers a more rounded-out experience.  The first step generally involves getting shoppers to listen to the sales message.  If a business is good at understanding customers, it should be able to devise a few messages based on the different types of buyers it has and get those messages specifically in front of those that are best to respond.

Step two in the process that leads to retention is emotionally connecting with shoppers.  Understanding customers really boils down to the emotional drivers that motivate them. Many share similar drivers, but most will have differing emotions that would cause them to consider a purchase with a business.  If marketing can stir the emotions and the company seems like it cares about its customers, this can raise feelings of trust and connection between a potential client and a business.

Finally, getting clients to participate in the business can seal the deal with keeping shopper's loyalty.  A business can demonstrate that it is good at understanding customers by getting them involved in areas that don't necessarily strictly involve transactions, such as reviews, social media posts and live events.  These efforts can also further humanize a business and win over the sympathies of its target audience.

Today's businesses have to take things a lot further in order to get loyalty and this is built upon simply understanding customers.  What are some other ways that we can understand our clients?

Many businesses wonder where they are at in the grand scheme of things.  While success is definitely a relative term, for marketers the gold occurs when shoppers begin to develop brand loyalty.  There are three typical stages a business will go through before achieving brand loyalty at large.

The first stage a business would want to achieve is awareness.  At it's most basic, this means that people are aware that the business exists.  Many never even reach this stage!  Marketing and a logo can go a long way towards establishing the existence of a business, but the path to brand loyalty doesn't truly begin until the enterprise becomes known for something. Once this occurs, the next stage should hopefully follow.

When shoppers begin to develop affinity for a company, brand loyalty is on its way to being established.  In order to achieve this, a business needs to get the customer to care about it and feel that it represents them in some way.  Smart product placement and marketing, including building a social media presence that reflects the brand in a way that sparks this attitude is key at this stage.

The final stage for long lasting brand loyalty is amplification.  At this point, customers identify with the brand so much that they will forgive a misstep and even defend the brand.  Only a proven track record of positive action, branding and customer interaction will pull a company through to this stage.

Getting brand loyalty from customers is key to return business and word of mouth publicity.  What are some other ways to help build customer loyalty and brand recognition?

Many businesses wonder where they are at in the grand scheme of things.  While success is definitely a relative term, for marketers the gold occurs when shoppers begin to develop brand loyalty.  There are three typical stages a business will go through before achieving brand loyalty at large.

The first stage a business would want to achieve is awareness.  At it's most basic, this means that people are aware that the business exists.  Many never even reach this stage!  Marketing and a logo can go a long way towards establishing the existence of a business, but the path to brand loyalty doesn't truly begin until the enterprise becomes known for something. Once this occurs, the next stage should hopefully follow.

When shoppers begin to develop affinity for a company, brand loyalty is on its way to being established.  In order to achieve this, a business needs to get the customer to care about it and feel that it represents them in some way.  Smart product placement and marketing, including building a social media presence that reflects the brand in a way that sparks this attitude is key at this stage.

The final stage for long lasting brand loyalty is amplification.  At this point, customers identify with the brand so much that they will forgive a misstep and even defend the brand.  Only a proven track record of positive action, branding and customer interaction will pull a company through to this stage.

Getting brand loyalty from customers is key to return business and word of mouth publicity.  What are some other ways to help build customer loyalty and brand recognition?

Digital Marketing is one of the largest advertising expenses a business can take on.  Since the science behind digital marketing is growing as more and more data is collected, many of the kinks are being worked out with respect to wasted digital marketing spends.  There are many reasons why digital marketing could be ineffective enough to be considered a wasted spend, with two being fraudulent/bot clicks and poor targeting.

Fraudulent clicks makes up a large part of wasted ad spend.  While platforms such as Google AdWords attempt to mitigate and investigate fraudulent clicks, it is safe to say that detecting every single wasted click would be a near impossible job.  Free analytics solutions don’t really provide the keys to making sure only legitimate traffic reaches a site either.  While IPs and URLs can be excluded on platforms like Google Analytics, the interface can be cumbersome and less than straightforward.  One solution is to operate on a custom analytics platform.  Such a platform could be built that could tell via IP address, country of origin, or referral URL which clicks are likely fraudulent and compile this into a report for further analyzation.  If these clicks are detected as being from advertising, a business would then have a good case towards getting some marketing dollars refunded from whatever advertising platform the traffic originated.

Another way digital marketing spend can be wasted is through poor or nonexistent targeting.  Simply blasting out a display ad, boosting social content to a huge audience or using generic broad match keyword terms via PPC might be a way to get a lot of traffic, but much of this traffic is unqualified and unlikely to buy.  A Zero Moment of Truth approach is to try and catch users when they are closest to buying.  This ultimately means making sure to set targeting that makes sense with regards to interest, geography, demographic, time of day, etc.  Narrowing down the audience will result in less traffic, but theoretically this traffic will be better traffic that is more interested in a product or service being offered.

All in all there are many reasons digital marketing dollars might be going to waste.  Can you name some other basic checks a company should be doing to minimize wasteful spend?

Digital Marketing is one of the largest advertising expenses a business can take on.  Since the science behind digital marketing is growing as more and more data is collected, many of the kinks are being worked out with respect to wasted digital marketing spends.  There are many reasons why digital marketing could be ineffective enough to be considered a wasted spend, with two being fraudulent/bot clicks and poor targeting.

Fraudulent clicks makes up a large part of wasted ad spend.  While platforms such as Google AdWords attempt to mitigate and investigate fraudulent clicks, it is safe to say that detecting every single wasted click would be a near impossible job.  Free analytics solutions don’t really provide the keys to making sure only legitimate traffic reaches a site either.  While IPs and URLs can be excluded on platforms like Google Analytics, the interface can be cumbersome and less than straightforward.  One solution is to operate on a custom analytics platform.  Such a platform could be built that could tell via IP address, country of origin, or referral URL which clicks are likely fraudulent and compile this into a report for further analyzation.  If these clicks are detected as being from advertising, a business would then have a good case towards getting some marketing dollars refunded from whatever advertising platform the traffic originated.

Another way digital marketing spend can be wasted is through poor or nonexistent targeting.  Simply blasting out a display ad, boosting social content to a huge audience or using generic broad match keyword terms via PPC might be a way to get a lot of traffic, but much of this traffic is unqualified and unlikely to buy.  A Zero Moment of Truth approach is to try and catch users when they are closest to buying.  This ultimately means making sure to set targeting that makes sense with regards to interest, geography, demographic, time of day, etc.  Narrowing down the audience will result in less traffic, but theoretically this traffic will be better traffic that is more interested in a product or service being offered.

All in all there are many reasons digital marketing dollars might be going to waste.  Can you name some other basic checks a company should be doing to minimize wasteful spend?

Most successful business owners have some kind of strategy for marketing, growth and development. As such, most marketing now includes a digital budget, with various channels including display, pay-per-click, social, video and others.  However, half of the companies doing digital marketing have no content marketing strategy.  This is a major misstep, not only for SEO, but for overall brand growth.

While many companies understand that customers are searching online and have developed keyword-centered SEO content marketing strategies to address this, most of these strategies revolve around creating content with very little value, other than a higher rank in search engine results.  Due to the amount of information available online for almost any product or service, the power in sales has shifted to the consumer.  A good content marketing strategy is not only in line with a business's sales goals, but also provides enough useful information that it can be used as a resource for research as well as a landing page for sales.  This "double duty" helps keep search engines and searchers alike happy, while creating authority and building trust.

While writing keyword-centric content is a good first step in a piece of content marketing, the aim should be to provide useful information (building trust and authority) while aiding in and aligning with the sales process of the business in some way.  That way, a site doesn't just end up with a bunch of empty keyword optimized fluff for content, and will actually get visitors organically that choose to stay on the site to conduct research and shop.

Content marketing isn't just about pleasing search engines, it is also about aiding the sales process and building trust with consumers that have endless options for research and purchase.  How are you all making your content beneficial for other things besides SEO?