SCSC Web Dude Blog

November 12, 2015  Chad Pollitt As 2015 begins to wind down, the prediction posts pontificating what the next year has in store have begun to ramp up. This has become something of an annual tradition for marketers and this season is no exception. What does next year hold in store for our industry? There’s no way of knowing for sure, but below is how I see things shaping up for next year. 1. Social media traffic to most websites will decline The more people go in-app with their social media use, the more it will appear as though social traffic is on the decline. In actuality, it’s likely an attribution error. Many mobile apps strip out what’s known as  UTM parameters  from links or simply obfuscate itself as a source. This causes analytics programs to view the traffic as direct as opposed to social or referral. Also, Twitter has been making changes to its API as of late, the result of which has led to the disablement of some third party software and the ability to

Written by   Meaghan Moraes SHARE 855 in Share in Share Marketing constantly adjusts and reacts to changes in technology and attitudes. While digital marketing has undergone a substantial transformation in the last few years, the technology that incited the changes is growing at a faster pace than most brands can keep up with. So, what does this mean for competitive marketers that are already strategizing for 2016? Brands need to look beyond the usual channels to stay ahead rather than simply jump on the bandwagon. Download our complete guide here to learn what the future holds for marketing in 2016 and beyond. Here, we’ll discuss those trends that are changing the face of marketing (yet again) and give you an eye-opening look at what marketers should be leveraging in 2016. 1) Relationship Marketing As smartphone adoption continues to rise with an estimated  2 billion consumers worldwide expected to own a smartphone by 2016 , the opportunity for brands to be

By  Lucy Hitz  – Nov 4, 2015 Simply Measured   Education & Analysis Social Media We constantly  recommend testing your social content , but which attributes should you be testing against each other? If you’re looking for some new ways to test and optimize  Instagram  content, then you’ve come to the right place. Specific Link in Bio vs. No Specific Link in Bio Are you struggling to find a way to convert to get your Instagram followers to your website? Whether you sell sweaters or B2B software, this is likely a relevant concern for your brand. Here’s one way to test how well Instagram is working as a website traffic driver for your brand. For one week, post a different picture or video each day which directs followers to your Instagram bio, where you include the same Bitly link to a specific landing page for the entire week. The following week, make the link in your Instagram bio a generic link to your brand’s main page. Note the difference in traffic to the landin

by  Chris Lucas Chris is the vice president of marketing for  Formstack . He is passionate about setting the vision for Formstack’s marketing department, as well as discovering new ways to drive web traffic and leads. When it comes to CTAs, it’s tempting to scour the Internet for that one trick that will get your customers clicking. The problem is, there is no guarantee that someone else’s call-to-action technique is going to work on your customers.  The only way to know if your call to action is effective is to run A/B tests. Interestingly, almost  30% of all A/B tests  are CTA button tests, according to one study. Not every marketer has the time or ability to test every element of a website, but you don’t have to employ an entire analytics department to start running A/B tests on your CTAs. Free tools like  SplitButton  let you to run A/B tests on your submit buttons, which helps you can see exactly how your customers respond to different styles, colors, and value propositi

February 20, 2015 Megan Marrs What Is A Call-To-Action Button? Call-to-action (CTA) buttons are the buttons you use in your website and on your  landing pages  to guide users towards your goal conversion. It's the part of the landing page that the user needs to click in order to  take the action  you want them to take. CTA buttons can vary in style and size depending on your goal conversion and website style. Some common examples of call-to-action buttons are: Add to cart buttons Free trial sign-up buttons Download buttons CTA buttons have a very specific goal: to get your web visitor clicking and completing a conversion. Today we'll be discussing 17 call-to-action button best practices to help you get the most clicks out of your beautiful buttons. 1. Use Action-Packed Text.  Call to action buttons should feature striking, action-oriented text. Substitute boring words like “submit” and “enter” for more action packed words like “get,” “reserve,” and “try.” You

02/04/2015  by  Dylan Kissane So you’ve committed to investing in social media and quickly you realise that you are jumping into a brand new world of marketing. You’re convinced that the investment is going to be worth it – every consultant has been signing from the same song book on that point – but you’re still wondering how to track the success or failure of a campaign based on social media platforms you aren’t entirely familiar with. The sorts of metrics that you’ve been used to in print, television, radio, and even online advertising don’t seem to apply anymore. Instead you’ve been inundated with terms that sound happy, fun, but less than serious: fans, followers, pins, retweets, and share. How can these be connected to what you’re really concerned about, things like brand awareness, brand engagement, converting leads, and making sales? The answer can be found in your social media key performance indicators, or KPIs. By tracking less than a dozen KPIs across your social medi

Data Analysis Index (What you will learn) #1 What is a KPI #2 Difference between a Metric and KPI #3 How to find a good KPI #4 Can you use ‘number of twitter followers’ as a KPI #5 Can you use ‘number of facebook fans as a KPI #6 Can you use ‘Phone Calls as a KPI #7 Can you use Clients’ Happiness as a KPI #8 Types of KPIs (Internal & External) #9 Attributes of a Good KPI #10 Examples of Good KPIs What is a KPI? KPI stands for ‘ Key performance Indicator’ . It is a metric which is used to determine how you are performing against your business objectives.   A metric can be a number or a ratio. So we can have ‘number metrics’ and we can have ‘ratio metrics’. For example: Visits, Pageviews, Revenue etc are  number metrics  because they are in the form of numbers. Bounce rate, Conversion rate, Average order value etc are  ratio metrics  because they are in the form of ratios. Since KPI is also a metric, we can have KPIs in the form of numbers and ratios. So we c