“Hey, Siri! Find nearby gas stations.” How many of you have asked Siri a similar question when you’re out and about? I bet a lot of you depend on Alexa and Google Home devices to help you accomplish many of your daily tasks from setting alarms to reminding you to pick up flowers at a nearby florist. Voice search is growing at a rapid pace and gaining ground on traditional search applications. According to a business study conducted by Bright Local in 2018, 58% of consumers have used voice search to find local business information in the prior 12 months and 46% of voice search users look for a local business on a daily basis. Did you hear that…local and daily! That’s you!

Back in 2015, Think with Google published an article about how micro-moments are changing consumer behavior forever. Maybe you have heard the term, maybe not, but I’m certain you’ve participated in a micro-moment or two or million. Google defines micro-moments as “moments when we turn to a device—often a smartphone—to take action on whatever we need or want right now.” In marketing terms, they are moments that allow you to target a consumer seeking quick, practically instantaneous, answers or solutions to their problems. Think of your business as being there in your consumer’s time of need. This can be a fantastic opportunity, if you are ready, willing and waiting.

Companies have been using media kits for decades…they just used to be in a cardboard folder and mailed or hand-delivered. Fortunately, now most are in PDF format and can simply be attached to an email or downloaded from your website.

A typical media kit should contain:

Google Analytics is one of the most insightful ways to see how people are using your site, but it is perhaps one of the most underused. This powerful tool not only allows you to gain important information about how your customers are viewing your website, how long they are staying on pages, how they are getting there, but it is incredibly useful for identifying problems that your users are encountering while they are using your site. Not identifying and correcting these problems leads to lost revenues. Some very important problems that Google Analytics can help you identify are site speed, sudden traffic drops and look for 404-page sessions. Let us take a quick look at them in detail:

You have worked hard for your business’s reputation, but lo and behold, you received a bad online review. It happens. In fact, it happens to the best of businesses. You will never make everyone happy no matter what you do. My grandma used to say, “If you gave some people a bag full of money, they would complain about the bag it came in.” It is hard to accept as a business owner that we couldn’t make a customer happy, but sometimes it just isn’t going to happen. Have you ever had the general rule of thumb that if a customer is happy with your business they will tell one to three people, but if they are not they will tell 10? These days that 10 turns into 10,000 in about one minute flat. Reviews are a powerful tool for consumers. I use them often to determine if I am going to purchase a product, stay at a certain hotel or do business in general with a company. I also read more than one, and I try to weigh the negative and the positive reviews to see if the one or two negatives are those people that wouldn’t be happy anyway. Unfortunately, many consumers see a bad review and take it at face value. In addition, reviews are a part of Google’s search algorithm and it pulls not just Google reviews, but also Facebook, Yelp, and others. Therefore, depending on how many reviews you have, one bad review could cause your ratings to plummet. That is why it is imperative to continually ask good customers to review you online. Think of it like this, you have four great reviews and get one bad, the one bad equals 20% of your reviews. Now, if you have 99 great reviews and get one bad review that is only equal to 1%.

‘Tis the season to get started on your 2018 holiday marketing. We have just begun the last quarter of the year and you want to be sure to end it on a very merry note when it comes to marketing your business. The holiday season allows you to connect with your customers in a completely different way—it is all about being cheery and bright. No matter what kind of business you are in, you can use the holiday season to your benefit. Here are a few easy ways to get you in the spirit of holiday marketing:

By now, you have probably heard about Google AdWords. You probably think to yourself, “I need to check on that.” That is pretty much the extent of your Google AdWords campaign, because you get busy running your business and wearing all the hats that are required of you to make your business successful. Marketing often is put on the back burner for business owners, especially marketing plans that include things we do not fully understand how they work.

 You may be focused on the content of your website and rightfully so, but your background is a core feature that determines how visually interesting your website is. A good video background creates a vibe, sets the tone and/or induces an emotional reaction. A background also holds the theme of a website.