Saba Digital Marketing

The 6 Tools Every Content Marketer Needs

Content marketing is essential if you want to connect with your target audience, increase brand awareness, and humanize your brand. It’s also no easy task. Here are six must-have content marketing tools that are favorites among San Diego digital marketers.

1. Feedly

Great content requires fresh ideas. As the clear successor to the late Google Reader, Feedly is the best RSS solution for content creators who need to stay in the loop about trends and current events.

2. Quora

A substantial portion of the Internet is dedicated to providing answers to the ever-growing body of online questions. Quora is the ultimate social network dedicated to clearing up queries and allowing fascinating discourse about the answers, many of them provided by respected subject matter experts.

3. Yoast

Any online marketer that works with the WordPress content management system should be familiar with the Yoast SEO plugin and its add-on components. Taking the time to get a green light score on a post with the Yoast plugin guarantees that the content will not only be picked up by Google but will also score favorably for the focus keywords.

4. Evernote

Busy content creators spend a lot of time doing online research, and the nature of their work requires them to capture great ideas for later use. When a content marketer syncs his or her Evernote app with content authors, ideas can flow more easily for the purpose of creating online material that audiences will love and share.

5. Visual.ly

While text articles are still very powerful content pieces, modern readers enjoy seeing graphic representations of ideas. With Visual.ly, authors can easily transform ideas into attractive infographics to enhance the reading experience.

6. BuzzSumo

To make engaging content go viral on social networks, the most important aspect is being able to identify influencers and outreach avenues. BuzzSumo makes this task easy for online marketers.

Managing a content marketing strategy is a full-time job and not one many businesses have the resources to manage on their own. That’s where Saba SEO comes in. We are a leading SEO agency in San Diego specializing in content marketing, PPC, and social media marketing. Find out how we can help you grow your business through digital marketing by giving us a call at (858) 277-1717 today!

Voice Search Is Changing the Digital Marketing Landscape

The English language is considered one of the most rapidly evolving languages in the world, and yet it has taken us this long to achieve widespread adoption of technology that takes advantage of it: Voice search.

Think about it this way. If your boss walks up and says, “TPS reports,” what is your conclusion? Is he asking for them to be handed to him? Is he asking you to do them? Is he demanding overtime so they get done? If he says, “Who is working on the TPS reports this month?” you have a clear picture of his intent and the response he expects. This is how voice search is changing the internet and digital marketing landscape.

How to Gain Voice Search Visibility

PPC and SEO companies in San Diego can use this technology to augment every campaign they create. Simply adding keywords like “when” and “how to” can increase visibility among people conducting searches using natural language to ask a question. Even better is to add full, natural questions to keywords. For example, “where to buy concert tickets” or “Who owns Main Street Café”

Don’t Forget About Local

Speaking of Main Street Cafe, many voice searches via mobile are locally influenced. Think about adding local landmarks, neighborhoods, and cities to your keywords, so searches done referencing them will more frequently return your page. For example, “skiing in Davis” will be more localized and therefore more effective than “east coast skiing.”

Voice search technology will continue to evolve and shape how we interact with smart devices on a daily basis. Optimizing your marketing strategies to take advantage of this will give you a leg up on the competition. If you have questions or want to further discuss how to optimize your campaigns for voice search, give Saba SEO a call today at (858) 277-1717. We look forward to hearing from you!

 

How to Create an Effective Email Marketing Campaign

Email campaigns are one of the most effective digital marketing strategies. An impressive marketing email commands the attention of your customer and generates more interest in and sales for your product or service. Listed below are five tips for an effective email marketing campaign from San Diego digital marketing experts.

1) Use Attention-Grabbing Subject Lines

An average email account can receive over 100 emails a day. Create a subject line that will inspire the recipient to read the email instead of sending it to the trash bin, and avoid spam trigger words in the subject (see tip number four).

2) Incorporate Powerful Graphics

Visual graphics break up the monotony of a text-based email. The graphics should be relevant to the subject matter, and make sure they don’t interfere with the readability of the email. Ideally, your email should be 80 percent text and 20 percent graphics.

3) Create a Current Contact List

Pay attention to emails that are returned as undeliverable and remove those addresses from your contacts list. A current contact list ensures that more potential customers will be reached.

4) Avoid Spam Trigger Words

Almost all email providers employ a system of automatically flagging emails containing certain trigger words as “spam”. Those flagged emails are sent directly to your customer’s spam folder. To prevent this, avoid using spam-triggering words such as “free”, “act now”, “you’ve been selected”, or “easy money”. Search the internet for complete lists of spam trigger words and avoid them like the plague.

5) Use Email Marketing Software

Email marketing providers and software services take a lot of the guesswork out of creating emails for your campaign. Most offer pre-designed templates that make creating professional-looking emails very easy. Additionally, many offer autoresponders that do a lot of the work for you. Prices for these services are usually based on the size of your contact list.

For more tips, tricks, or help crafting an effective online marketing campaign, turn to Saba SEO. We specialize in San Diego SEO, PPC, and social media. Call our office today at (858) 277-1717. We look forward to chatting.

Understanding and Using Long-Tail Keywords

One of the most vital aspects of optimizing your website for search engines is the process of selecting and targeting specific keywords. Doing this helps Google and other search engines know what your content is focused on, and they’ll be able to send traffic to your site when relevant terms are used.

What Are Long-Tail Keywords?

Long-tail keywords are keywords that are specific phrases of three or four words or more. Some examples might include terms such as “women’s gyms in New York” or “long red velvet drapes”. They can also include full sentences or questions such as “How do I fold fitted sheets?”

Why Are Long-Tail Keywords Beneficial?

Because there is such a vast amount of information online, making your content stand out can be a challenge. One way to help your site show up higher in search results is to use long-tail keywords, which are more detailed than short-tail keywords and attract a very specific audience.

Because long-tail keywords are much more specific, fewer people may be searching for them–but you’ll also have far less competition. Since people searching for very specific terms are more inclined to make a purchase, your ROI can also improve by using longer keywords rather than their shorter counterparts.

How Do I Use Long-Tail Keywords?

Consider the sort of content on your site and ask yourself what sort of things your audience will be searching for. Ask yourself what kinds of questions they may be asking, and choose those sorts of phrases to target. Once you’ve created a refined list of long-tail keywords, revisit your content and determine where you can naturally incorporate them. In addition to using these in the content on your primary webpages, incorporating these words and phrases in blogs can also help.

When you’re working on optimizing your site, remember not to keyword-stuff. Besides being unattractive to search engines, it’s also likely to look unnatural and awkward, especially when you’re dealing with such specific terms. Instead, use related terms and synonyms to target your keyphrase of choice.

Saba SEO is a trusted SEM company in San Diego, specializing in SEO, social media, and AdWords. Give us a call today at (858) 277-1717 and discover additional tools and strategies to improve your online visibility and boost your bottom line!

5 Effective Emotional Marketing Triggers

We now know that a consumer’s conscious and subconscious emotions play a very big role in their shopping habits. By understanding some of the variables that trigger these emotions, businesses can create much more effective online marketing campaigns for their products and services.

1. Trust

Building trust with your customers is one of the best long-term investments you can make. Unfortunately, this is no easy process for most businesses and often requires dozens of positive interactions. Once the trust has been built, you must avoid abusing it at all costs with hidden fees or surcharges.

2. A Sense of Belonging

Even the most introverted individuals will still want to feel as if they are part of a group at some point. You can leverage this emotion by creating a sense of family within your company. When a customer feels invested in your product or service, they will become a walking advertisement for your company.

3. Fear

Fear is one of the few emotions that can override almost anything else we feel. While this might sound like a negative or aggressive emotion to work with, it can actually bring customers closer to your brand in a very positive manner. As long as your product or service can help them avoid the situations they fear, you can easily use this emotion to your advantage.

4. Value

The value we place on our daily purchases is another powerful driving factor. Those who feel as if they are getting a good deal or purchasing something that will enrich their lives are much more likely to evolve from one-time buyers to lifelong customers.

5. Competition

People are often driven to make purchases that will put them on equal or better footing than their peers. When you happen to have a new product or better service, it is important that your customers know exactly how it outclasses your competition.

Saba, Inc. is a trusted online marketing company based in sunny San Diego and specializing in AdWords Management, social media marketing, and SEO. Find out how we can help your business achieve quantifiable and sustainable results by calling (858) 277-1717 today!

How Do You Create a Winning Customer Persona

In short, to run a successful business, you must provide a solution to a strong desire or need. This starts with creating a buyer persona that represents your target audience. A customer persona is a profile of the person you want to attract to your business. The more accurate your customer persona, the more likely it is that you’ll offer something your target customer is willing to pay you for.

For the purpose of illustrating how to build a customer persona, the digital marketing pros at Saba SEO will use an example of creating a customer persona for someone who might buy fitness equipment. This fitness equipment is easy to store and can be used for as little as 15 minutes per day.

Demographics: This list should include things like age, gender, education level, occupation, income, and geographical location. Here’s an example of what this looks like:

  • 32 years old
  • Female
  • Ohio
  • Married with 2 month old
  • Bachelor’s degree
  • Annual household income of $62,000

Psychographics: Detail your ideal customer’s lifestyle, mindset, values and behaviors. The psychographic list for our example consumer persona might look something like this:

  • Used to be more active
  • Concerned about appearance (Retained 20 pounds from pregnancy)
  • Has trouble finding time to work out or go to a gym
  • Reads magazines about parenting, babies, fitness and travel
  • Spends time online and watching modern sitcoms
  • Weekly date night with husband
  • Wants to balance being a mom with self-care

Imagine You’re Her (or Him)

Be as detailed as possible. Name your ideal customer. Get into her head and imagine how you’d feel, what your objections might be, what would motivate you to make this specific purchase. Get as detailed as possible. Doing so will increase your chances of matching your offer to her need or desire.

Use your customer persona to filter every word used in your marketing and every decision made in your business. Staying in that space ensures product and service offerings that move prospects to consumers.

Creating the right buyer person is just the first piece in the puzzle. Successfully targeting and attracting customers takes time, energy, and lots of effort. To learn more about what your company needs to boost business and profits, reach out to Saba SEO. We’re a trusted San Diego SEO agency with an exceptional track record of success. Give us a call today at (858) 277-1717 and ask about a free website audit.

Effective Ways to Visually Improve Your Marketing Material

Ninety percent of the info transmitted to the brain is visual, so it’s easy to see why content peppered with appealing images, graphics, photos, or videos is more effective. If you’re not seeing much engagement with your existing content, digital marketing companies in San Diego suggest these often-overlooked ways to improve your marketing visuals.

Infographics

Condense important facts and figures using corresponding visuals to present info in a way that’s easily digestible and shareable. Tools like those available from Easelly can be used to create customized infographics without too much effort.

Animated Videos

Go beyond still images and increase engagement with a few carefully placed animated videos and graphics. PowToon has free tools you can use to create animations for teaser trailers, product demos, and other marketing goodies.

Video Slideshows

Go beyond PowerPoint and create video slideshows to introduce new products or services or just to give your audience a behind-the-scenes look at your company. A tool like Slidely is especially handy. This is a great way to repurpose existing photos or videos, and you can add background music.

Customized Charts

Especially useful in social posts, customized charts allow you to present stats in a visual form with an assortment of colors and styles. With Datawrapper, you can export your preferred info and customize charts with a few clicks before sharing the results.

Graphic Designs

Personalized graphics on everything from your social profile pages to your pins can instantly attract the right kind of attention. DIY graphic design platform Canva gives you access to thousands of free images, or you can use your own.

Use image-creation and analysis tools like Bannersnack to see how browsers are interacting with your visuals to get a better idea of what needs tweaking and what’s already working. Just remember to keep any visuals you use relevant to the associated content.

Discover other creative ways to improve your online marketing efforts by reaching out to Saba, Inc. As a leading SEO company in San Diego, we help businesses near and far reach their target audience, boost traffic, and drive revenue. Give us a call at (858) 277-1717 and schedule a free website audit today!

6 Must-Have Online Marketing Tools—Oh, and They’re Free

From determining the right keywords to use to attract local shoppers to tracking visitors to your site and blog, there’s a lot that goes into creating the right online marketing strategy. Ideally, you want a fairly diverse selection of tools designed to take some of the guesswork out of such efforts. Before investing in any paid marketing tools, however, take a moment to consider what’s available for free.

1. Buffer

Schedule your social media posts with Buffer. Choose the “forever free plan” to connect profiles from your social platforms and schedule up 10 posts in advance for each social network.

2. Pablo by Buffer and Canva

Add some relevant eye-candy to your content with Pablo. Ideal for social media marketing since images fit Twitter’s size specifications, it gives you access to more than 600,000 images you can use to enhance your social profiles. Canva, a similar free tool, comes with convenient built-in templates.

3. Answer the Public

Entirely free, this tool allows you to choose topics and questions related to your primary keywords. You can then build the rest of your content around your selected topics and questions to boost engagement and increase visibility.

4. Open Site Explorer

Track your competitors’ link profiles to find the sites linking to them. This allows you to identify sites that are more attracted to your competitors’ sites and adjust your content accordingly to woo some of them to your site.

5. Portent’s Title Generator

The title suggestions this free tool provides are sure to come in handy when you’re looking for shareable headlines, captions, and sub-heads. Results range from humorous to serious.

6. Google Analytics

You may be surprised at how much info you get for free with the granddaddy of all stat-tracking tools. Not only can you see how much traffic you’re getting, but you can tell how long browsers are staying on each page and what actions they’re taking.

Even with plenty of free marketing tools at your disposal, creating and maintaining the right marketing strategy can be challenging. Let a trusted SEO agency in San Diego help with all your online marketing needs from optimized content to pay-per-click campaigns. Reach out to Saba, Inc. in San Diego by calling (858) 277-1717 and discover how our services can boost your business.

Top Tips for Writing the Perfect Press Release

A press release is an important part of any public relations campaign. These documents are generally short and compelling pieces that can explain product releases, announce company events, and explain any other newsworthy information about a company. Because a press release is meant to keep the media and readers informed, they need to be written well enough to pique a journalist’s interest so they might seek to cover the topic in further detail. Press release writing can be a little tricky. Below are some great tips from San Diego digital marketing companies on how to write a perfect press release.

Use an Attention-Grabbing Headline

Just like with any news or magazine article, the headline is the most important part because it is what will draw in the reader. The headline of your press release needs to be accurate, concise, and engaging enough to make the reader want to keep reading.

Get to the Point Quickly

Reporters and journalists are busy people. It is safe to assume that they will read the first sentence or two and then quickly scan the rest of the press release. This is why it’s important to get to the point quickly. All of the important points should be talked about in the first paragraph. Each following paragraph should be additional supporting information about those points.

Add Quotes When Possible

A great way to add a human element to a press release is through adding quotes from reputable sources such as someone working for the company mentioned in the release or someone who works close to the event or product being talked about.

Keep It Short and Grammatically Flawless

The best press releases are generally one to two pages long. As it is with most written pieces, shorter is better. Brevity will force you to deliver the best information in a concise, readable document that will be more favorable to journalists. Additionally, all press releases need to be free from grammar and spelling mistakes. Even the smallest of mistakes can keep a reporter from taking you seriously.

Provide Access to More Information

While it is best to keep your press release to no more than two pages, there are still ways to ensure your readers are able to learn more if they are interested. Always add a relevant link to your company’s website in the final paragraph of the press release so curious readers can learn more.

Press releases also play a role in effective online marketing campaigns and can boost a company’s SEO efforts. To find out how or for more information on creating an SEO strategy unique to your business’s needs, reach out to Saba SEO. In addition to to SEO in San Diego, we also specialize in PPC campaign management, social media marketing, and web design. Give us a call today at (858) 277-1717 and speak with a friendly marketing pro today!

Digital Marketing 101: Banner Ad Best Practices

Banner ads are an incredibly common form of internet advertising. Many businesses find that they are a cost effective way to drive website traffic and hopefully increase revenue. However, this approach isn’t without its downfalls. By keeping in mind these helpful tips, you can ensure that your ads are generating results and your desired ROI.

1. Know Your Audience

In order for your ads to be effective, they need to appeal to the community that will actually be purchasing your products. Advertising on forums is a good place to start because people browsing a photography forum, for instance, are likely to be interested in buying photo gear.

2. Less Is More

Consumers have been seeing banner ads for years on the web and have become adept at adverting their gaze from ads that they find unattractive or intrusive. Online marketing companies in San Diego suggest a sleek, minimal presentation and clear, concise text. Never put more than one banner on a page, as it can overwhelm readers.

3. Rotate Advertisements Often

While you may initially see positive results from a banner campaign, it is unwise to assume that this boost in traffic will always return the same results. Eventually, this boost will begin to sag and you will be back where you started. In order to avoid this, have a solid rotation of ads that change by week or month.

4. Experiment

Banner ads are a relatively cheap form of advertising, and you should use this to your advantage to run experiments and improve your bottom line. By a/b testing different ad formats and placements, you can get an idea of what is most effective. There is truth in data.

5. Match the Style of the Website You Are Advertising On

If your graphics are unappealing or don’t match the native content on the website, customers will be repelled. A bright orange box on a refined white and gray page might catch the eye, but it won’t necessarily entice customers to click on it.

Discover the right marketing strategy for your company by reaching out to Saba SEO at (858) 277-1717. We specialize in San Diego SEO, PPC, and social media and can help your company reach its target audience, boost traffic, and increase revenue. Call us today!

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