Is Your Website Bounce Rate Related to Content Marketing?

Whenever small businesses see their website bounce rate, it’s always a source of panic.

Maybe you’ve heard that website bounce rate doesn’t matter, or maybe you’ve heard that it matters for some things and not for others, or maybe you’ve been taught to believe that your bounce rate is one of the most important metrics for a website.

Whatever your background, chances are you’ve thought about what your website bounce rate means to you. This data is usually never where you want it to be, so it’s a natural cause for concern.

So what does bounce rate have to do with content marketing specifically? Is it really a cause for concern? In short, bounce rate the way you’re probably thinking about bounce rate doesn’t really matter when it comes to content marketing specifically. It just doesn’t. However, there are ways to make this data more meaningful for you.

How Website Bounce Rate is Defined in Google Analytics

When Google Analytics calculates bounce rate, they’re calculating how often someone visits one webpage and then does not interact with that page. Interacting with a page could mean clicking an internal link to go to another page, clicking a buy button or a coupon, commenting on that page, signing up for your newsletter or other downloads, etc.

If a visitor clicks the back button, types in a new URL into their browser, clicks an external link within your content, closes their browser entirely, or stays on your page without any interaction for at least 30 minutes, it counts toward your bounce rate metric.

Why This is a Problem for Your Content Marketing

Let’s say you’re looking at your content webpage by webpage (so article by article). You may see that some articles have a higher bounce rate than others and immediately assume that the articles with the lower bounce rate are more successful and therefore “better.” This could cause a Webmaster to try and mimic the content of the pages with the lower bounce rate, which essentially could change a content strategy completely based on data. While this analysis is usually a good thing, bounce rate data simply isn’t something that should be so influential.

Why? If someone were to read your content all the way through and spend 15 minutes on the page, but did not interact with the page, it would be counted as a high bounce rate. This isn’t fair because someone spending a lot of time on your page really reading what you wrote means you wrote great content. It may have a 100 percent bounce rate, but in reality this is the content you should be trying to mimic in the future!

As a Webmaster, you shouldn’t have to look at website bounce rates of individual pages against the time spent on pages and then try and determine which metric is more accurate all on your own. There are ways to tweak your data so that the bounce rate metric can be used in a more meaningful way.

How to Adjust Your Bounce Rate for Better Content Marketing

This is a cool tip that Outbrain recently reported on that first opened our eyes to how to make bounce rate work for us. All you need to do is add a line of code to your Google Analytics tracking script so that you can trigger an event when readers stay for a minimum amount of time (whatever time you think is appropriate). If you think a bounce should only be counted when someone stays on a page for 20 seconds or less, you can make that happen.

According to the Outbrain article, the following two codes can make it happen:

You will, of course, still have access to the “old” website bounce rate metric, but this will be a new event that you can use in place of that metric to better analyze your content marketing. Simply visit your Reporting tab and then go to Behavior > Events to see your new metrics (or event).

In the end, you have to remember that someone staying and really reading a piece of your content is meaningful. It may not be quite as exciting as if someone interacted with the page, that doesn’t mean that they won’t in the future. If you created content that captivated them enough to read the entire thing, that helps your brand visibility, reputation, credibility, and trustworthiness — all things you need for someone to return to your website (and then do their interacting later).

What do you think about website bounce rate and content marketing? Is there another way you like to look at this metric or another event you like to create?

Republished by permission. Original here.

Bouncing Ball Photo via Shutterstock

This article, "Is Your Website Bounce Rate Related to Content Marketing?" was first published on Small Business Trends

Content for Business: How to Build Your Business on a Solid Content Foundation

Do you have a great idea for a business? Wondering if content marketing will help move the needle? To discover what it takes to build a content-driven business, I interview Joe Pulizzi. More About This Show The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It’s designed to help busy […]

This post Content for Business: How to Build Your Business on a Solid Content Foundation first appeared on Social Media Examiner.
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Essential Guide to Video Marketing: A Resource for Marketers

Do you want to use video for your business? Are you looking for a resource to help you combine video with social media marketing? Whether you’re using video as an individual or as part of a team, these expert articles will help you live-stream, record, publish and market video to support your marketing goals. Each […]

This post Essential Guide to Video Marketing: A Resource for Marketers first appeared on Social Media Examiner.
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5 Ways to Monetize Email Newsletters

It may not be as exciting as social media or content marketing, but email marketing is one of the most effective ways to reach an intended customer.

In fact, digital marketers have stated that email is the most effective digital marketing channel when it comes to customer retention.

Email is also effective at achieving brand awareness, customer acquisition, and conversion.

When you also consider that, by 2016, there will be approximately 4.3 billion email accounts, you quickly realize that email is a channel that marketers, business owners, and bloggers can not ignore.  

But, what if you do not sell a direct product or service. Could you actually make money from your current email newsletter? That would be a sweet additional bonus for all of your hard work.

And, here are 5 ways that you can easily accomplish that.

1. Target Your Audience With Launchbit

Launchbit was launched in 2011 by childhood friends Elizabeth Yin and Jennifer Chin to modernize email advertising.

Instead of sending out the same mass email, Launchbit tailors emails to specific targets. In a way, it’s very similar to Google AdWords. You create you the ad, select your audience, and set the the cost-per-click (CPC) price budget that you want.

Not only does this assist you with bringing in qualified leads at a reasonable price, Launchbit also provides statistics for your campaigns so that you know which publishers are performing best. The platform also integrates with Mailchimp to make your life easier.

This 500 Startups alum was acquired by BuySellAds in 2014, but business has gone on as usual.

2. Work With Affiliates Using VigLink

According to a study by Forrester Consulting, on behalf of Rakuten LinkShare, it’s expected that marketers will spend almost $4.5 billion on affiliate marketing. If that’s the case, then wouldn’t it make sense to team-up with a company like VigLink?

VigLink was founded in 2009 by Oliver Roup and is basically word-of-mouth marketing, but at a larger, digital scale. The company finds mentions of commercial products within an influencer’s content, connects them to the brands, and offers to monetize these mentions through affiliate links in emails.

When someone clicks on that hyperlink in your newsletter and makes a purchase, you’ll get paid a commission. With an advertiser network of more than 40,000 brands and merchants, VigLink can be an effective way to make a little extra money.

3. Re-target Your Customers

Did you know that only 2 percent of website traffic completes a purchase?

What happens to the other 98 percent?

It’s lost. That’s why re-targeting has become a popular and efficient marketing tactic.

If you’re unfamiliar with re-targeting, it’s just a friendly of a product or website that you visited. You’ve probably noticed that when you go to a site like Amazon looking for a polo shirt. You’ll keep seeing that polo shirt as you keep surfing online.

Instead of losing those potential customers, use a service like AdRoll or Meteora, who happens to be a newer player since it was founded in 2014, to bring those customers back.

Not only can you follow your audience across the Web and social networks like Facebook, you can also send your target audience discounts, coupon leads, or loyalty rewards by placing a nifty conversion capture widget in your email newsletter.

4. Charge a Subscription

If you happen to be an expert in your field, which hopefully you are, then it makes sense for you to charge others for your knowledge.

In fact, many companies that offer services are creating free content like e-books to illustrate their knowledge and expertise. While that may sound a little pretentious, that’s how many authority figures make a decent living.

Here’s how it basically works; you provide your subscribers something of value, such as guides, tutorials, or video classes. You may only give them a taste of this content and offer the rest of the premium content for either a monthly or yearly fee.

For example, if you’re a fantasy football expert, you could send your subscribers your top 10 player rankings which details why they’re worthy of your draft selection. To receive the complete and exclusive list, however, your potential customer would have to purchase the paid newsletter subscription.

5. Sell Your Ad Space

If you have a large following, it may not be the difficult to sell valuable ad space in your newsletter, like directly above the header section of the email body.

You could even place a sponsored by ad underneath your newsletter title. Quartz’s Daily Brief is one example of a brand that does technique. Even though banner ads may not be the most effective — they don’t bring in a lot of money and subscribers may ignore them — advertising is a proven and longstanding method of making a couple of extra bucks.

If you don’t have a large following, or don’t want to sell your ad space, you could use your newsletters real estate to promote your own featured product or service. You could use a service like Canva to make your own banner ads if you don’t have the technical skills to do so.

How do you monetize your email newsletters?

Image: Launchbit

This article, "5 Ways to Monetize Email Newsletters" was first published on Small Business Trends

20 Cool Tools for Creating Infographics

Imagine if you could take 1,000 words a and help people digest that information in only a few seconds?

An infographic, put simply, is a creative way to take a “thousand words” and depict them using a picture. These days, readers are looking for quick access to brief information.

Website visitors love this unique form of presentation which is quickly gaining popularity, and in some cases, becoming the standard form of communication instead of page long, lengthy blog posts.

Infographics have emerged as one of the most popular forms of content marketing in contemporary digital media.

But why should you care about infographics?

• We receive 5 times more information than in 1986 and are 80% more willing to read anything with colors. Infographics are great with colors.
• 45% more users will click on a link if it features an infographic.
• They help us get valuable inbound links - Streetcouch does a great job of explaining the importance of creating infographics and sharing them on social media in a 5-step process (as a link-building strategy).

Readers are not the only ones with time constraints and an inclination towards quick and easy ways to consume information.

What if you, the creator of an infographic, are also short on time and need a simpler, quicker way to create beautiful infographics in an instant?

Forget about Photoshop and other time-consuming image creation methods.

Let’s introduce you to a set of tools that will make creating infographics simpler than ever!

1. Easel.ly

This application will let you create an infographic in just a few clicks.

First, you get to pick a template from a long list of cards, then a search bar and drop down menu on the side will allow you to filter the template results. For instance, you could search for a template that deals with geography (maps) or templates with a timeline format.

Once you’ve selected your template, you can add in more shapes, backgrounds, charts, objects and of course text to personalize the template and let it tell a story in your own way.

The basic version of this tool is offered for free.

2. Visualize.me

Visualize.me focuses on letting users create “infographic resumes”. However, the template designs are not limited to that purpose alone. Once you’ve signed in with your LinkedIn or email account, you can select from a range of beautiful themes, language maps, timelines, bubble charts, tree maps, pictograms, and other formats.

3. Visme.co

Visme is another super cool tool that allows you to create interactive presentations, infographics, ad banners, animations, customer layouts, and more. It has an extensive library full of templates, shapes, icons, and objects to choose from.

It is a highly-recommended app by  Coursework Spot, a service that offers academic research. If you’re not up for a bunch of changes, edits, additions, or subtractions, you may simply edit the text and hit publish. You can also directly insert data values to change the charts and graphs.

Another plus point is that it’s “specially priced” for teachers and students.

4. PiktoChart

Applications like these could kick graphic designers out of business since PiktoChart markets itself as the tool that let’s “non designers create beautiful infographics in as little as 10 minutes.” This may be a shocker – or maybe even a bit offensive – but it is true. Piktochart has over 400 fully customizable themes with retina-ready images, objects, graphs, and colors you can edit and adjust according to your preference.

5. Canva

One of the most uniquely and brilliantly designed websites,Canva aims to train both designers and non-designers to come up with cool and creative stuff. Canva will start out with a brief tutorial to acquaint you with their program. Once you’re through with that, you can move on to creating your project whether it be a presentation, Facebook cover photo, business card, ad, poster, banner, or a retina-ready infographic.

6. Infogr.am

Infogram is all about making charts and infographics “the easy way”. So far over 2 million infographics have been created using the website and some have even been used by prestigious organizations including Euronews, University of Cambridge, and the Huffington Post.

Whether you are blogger, educationalist, brand ambassador, or an organization, you can make charts/infographics in three easy steps: pick a template, visualize the data, and publish.

7. Venngage

Venngage has everything you need to create free infographics and publish them on the spot. You can choose from hundreds of professional templates.

Infographics is not all you can make; reports, posters, promotions, and social media posts can also be created using Venngage, allowing you to tell your story “visually” with the help of charts, maps, icons, and visuals.

8. Dipity

With Dipity you can create digital timelines. If a timeline-based infographic is what you are after, you can use Dipity to do the job. Dipity aims to organize web content by date and time.

9. iCharts

iCharts is a cloud-based visual analytics platform that allows users to create quick and easy visualizations for complex business information, data sets, or extensive research work. You can access and update your data in real time whenever you like since it is cloud native.

10. Geo Commons

Perhaps, you’re more interested in presenting maps instead of timelines. Geo Commons is perfect for geography-based infographics that must include a map of your choice.

Create feature-rich maps and share what you know!

11. Google Charts

Why not simply use Google charts? This is probably an application you are already familiar with and definitely one that requires little training or experience to learn. Google Charts is a free solution with all kinds of charts, maps, bars, and statistical goodies to choose from. Google’s gallery is rich with variety.

12. InfoActive

Infoactive is a simple and flexible platform that allows you to create interactive infographics and other “data driven” stories. InfoActive lets you connect your data to the application and let automation do the rest for you.

13. Photo Infographic Gen Lite

If your infographic is based on the number, ways, or timing you take your photos, you can use this Android application to sum it up for you. This is a very specific program with a very specific purpose, but if you’re a photographer looking forward to fulfilling that purpose, it will suit your needs.

14. Get About

Another application designed to cater to a specific purpose, Get About lets you create infographics that determine your social media activity. For instance, Get About will let you track your Twitter terms, hashtags, and mentions. Also you can monitor your social activity with infographics that chart out how you connect and share with your network.

15. Creately

Creately is not only a diagramming tool, but also a tool that works for teams requiring real time collaboration. Creately will let you create style smart shapes, diagrams, connectors, and more to gather information in one compact space.

16. PhotoStats

This is an iPhone application dedicated to generating infographics on how, when and where you take photos. Similar to Photographic Gen Lite for Android, the application will reveal your photography habits in just a few clicks, and if you like, make it available to your friends.

17. Charts Bin

Charts Bin is a free online solution that allows you to create interactive maps. After a sign-up, create a map of your choice by inserting values or zooming in. If you like you can copy and paste the HTML code to your blog without having to go through a bunch of tricky steps to display it on your website.

18. Gliffy

Gliffy will transform your ideas into shapes by providing you with a variety of flow charts, UML diagrams, wireframes, network diagrams, org charts, and sitemaps. Create digital visualizations by dragging and dropping shapes/lines/objects from the library and transforming words into graphs.

19. Wordle

Sometimes word clouds are all you need to explain a concept in just a few words. Wordle will let you create unique and interactive word clouds in a variety of fonts, layouts, color schemes and more.

20. Smile Widgets

Smile Widgets is an extremely simple website that allows users to create “free, open source data visualizations and web widgets”. The software will let you create exhibits, timelines, time-plots, and runways of your choice.

Guest Author: An aspiring blogger, Jillian Petrova loves blogging a lot and in her leisure time she writes insightful posts on latest trends, education, marketing, etc.

The post 20 Cool Tools for Creating Infographics appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

6 Google+ Features to Promote Your Business

Do you use Google+ for your business? Wondering which features to invest your time and effort in? While there have been recent changes to Google+, the platform has a number of features many marketers love and will continue to use. In this article you’ll discover six Google+ features you can use to promote your business. […]

This post 6 Google+ Features to Promote Your Business first appeared on Social Media Examiner.
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Success Story: How Personal Customer Service Grew This Business

When it comes to selecting a product or service, does customer service matter even more than price?

Everyone loves to save a few dollars, but when businesses mishandle customer complaints, the resulting frustration and viral venting can seriously damage a brand’s credibility both with the angry customer and the customer’s wider social network.

And given the power of social media to spread angry customer rants like wildfire these days, that network can be pretty wide.

In today’s transaction-driven economy, customer service has been cut out of nearly every experience — unless something goes wrong. We order everything from clothes to groceries with just a few clicks of the mouse, never needing to interface with a customer service rep until a package fails to show up on time or an item arrives damaged.

While we expect great customer service when we need it, most folks rarely interact with a customer service rep. By default, this means that most businesses approach customer service from a ‘damage control’ standpoint: a customer is upset because something didn’t work out, so what can we do to alleviate this anger and prevent a full-scale viral meltdown?

But what if businesses approached customer service more proactively and used it as a tool to grow their businesses, rather than just fix problems after the fact?

Back in 2009, solopreneur Margarita Hakobyan was determined to adopt this personal customer service approach for her business. Her story holds an important lesson for all businesses, from startups to Fortune 500 companies.

Proactive Customer Service: One Solopreneur’s Success Story

Margarita Hakobyan is the CEO of MoversCorp.com, an online sourcing company for locating moving professionals throughout the U.S.

MoversCorp is similar to popular hotel and flight booking sites like Kayak, Expedia, and Hotels.com. The site is a virtual online marketplace for movers. Users can submit their information and compare different moving company bids all without having to contact multiple companies directly.

“I like the simplicity and practicality of comparing and booking all in one place,” says Hakobyan. “Moving can be a tremendous stress. When I founded my business, from the onset my mission was simple.

“My mission: make the process of hiring moving companies and storage units much easier and faster by providing a platform where consumers are able to compare thousands of companies and select the best available option.”

Hakobyan knew she had a winning business idea but she struggled to get customers.

“I didn’t have a big budget to advertise in Yellow Pages (they were popular back then) or on the Internet,” Hakobyan says.

As Hakobyan knew from her background in moving and shipping, great customer service doesn’t cost a lot — especially when this service is helpful to folks who are going through a stressful and overwhelming period in their lives.

Her strategy was simple: treat the customer like gold. For her first customer, that meant a personal phone call congratulating her on her booking and rewarding her with a $50 gift card — totally out of the blue.

“Our first customer was very excited when we called and told her she’d won a $50 gift card,” Hakobyan adds.

Compared with other startup costs, the $50 gift card was a minimal investment, but together with the phone call, it proved the golden touch for building customer momentum, with more customers rolling in thanks to positive word-of-mouth and online reviews.

Building Your Business with Better Customer Service

As Hakobyan’s experience attests, personalized customer service can truly be the golden ticket to building a business during those crucial early days.

She did several things right: she responded instantly to her first customer, she rewarded their business, and she encouraged positive word-of-mouth by taking what is otherwise a stressful experience and turning it into a positive one.

Here’s how you can do the same:

Proactively Thank Loyal Customers

Let your first customers know how much they mean to you by offering a discount off their next purchase or a rebate for referring other customers your way. Everyone loves to feel special!

Set Expectations Appropriately

While you can’t prevent all problems from occurring, you can help reduce conflict by setting expectations from the beginning.

For example, if you promise delivery in three business days but know, with fulfillment time, there’s no way the customer will get it until the following week, you’re only setting everyone up for frustration.

Set expectations appropriately and, whenever possible, over-deliver.

For example, upgrading a first-time customer’s shipment from two-day delivery to overnight priority may only cost your business another $25, but could net you a loyal customer for life.

Respond Instantly to Problems

Whether it’s an angry customer tweet or online service request, don’t wait 24-48 hours to get back to the customer. Even if you do not have an immediate solution, simply acknowledging the problem and stating that you’re working on a prompt resolution will help ease this frustration.

Bottom line

While some may say that personal customer service is a lost art, it’s never too late to knock your customer service out of the proverbial park.

Proactively rewarding customers for their loyalty, surprising customers with simple upgrades (like overnight shipping), responding instantly to feedback, and providing personal customer service doesn’t require a major financial investment. It’s the small touches like these that will help your business grow with loyal customers for life.

Image: Margarita Hakobyan, MoversCorp

This article, "Success Story: How Personal Customer Service Grew This Business" was first published on Small Business Trends