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How Often Should You Redesign Your Website?

Website Redesign

If you’re reading this, chances are you’re considering revamping your business’s website. To paint a picture, you might be asking yourself if your current website still fits your needs. Or, if you’re like many others, you might be cringing, asking yourself, ‘Why did I ever think that looked good?!” (We’ve all been there…)

Truth be told, there are many reasons why you might be considering a redesign. (Note: a ‘rebrand’ is something completely different altogether. Don’t worry you can learn everything you need to know about rebranding your business on our blog).

Anyway, whether your site isn’t performing well or it simply doesn’t mesh with your business’s look and feel anymore, we’re here to help answer the question: How often should you redesign your website?

Let’s dive in.

The Hard and Fast Answer

For those of you who don’t want to sift through the reasons why your business might consider a website redesign, here’s a general rule of thumb for how often you should refresh your website.

A business should consider a redesign every three years, according to Amanda Rogers, Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Digital Storyteller. You may find that your business needs a redesign sooner, but likely not much longer after the three-year mark.

“Every three years you should look at your website and really evaluate how much your business has changed.” 

If you look at the last three years alone in the business world, so much has changed with:

  • COVID
  • The changing world of work
  • The way we talk about our teams
  • The way we talk about building culture
  • The way that we share our relationships with our clients

For example, many of our clients went from working exclusively in California to working around the country. This considered, they needed to adjust the language on their site to be not state-specific but industry-specific.

Make Sure Your Website Has These Elements

The three-year timeframe is about the time that a website is still considered ‘new.’ Remember, you always want your website to be:

  • Convenient
  • Functional
  • Aesthetically pleasing (the fun part!)
  • On-brand
  • And always, user and mobile-friendly

So, there are shifts in your business that require looking at your website every three years at a minimum.

Then, of course, we have to recognize that there are shifts in style as well.

How Often Should I Really Redesign My Website?

Now, for those who don’t need a quick answer, here’s the truth behind how often you should redesign your website, but in more depth.

(We know. We’re going to get a lot of hate for this one.)

The true answer to the question at hand is, it depends.

Yes, we know. That’s an annoying answer that no one wants to hear but it’s true. Whether or not you need to redesign your website varies on a case-by-case basis.

Below, we’ve listed some reasons as to why you might consider a website redesign.

To Address a Problem

Redesigns aren’t always about aesthetics and branding. Is your business’s website experiencing a drop in organic traffic? You’re no longer ranking on Google’s search engine results page? Or, is your website subject to a cyber hack?

To provide another reason for a redesign, maybe your site isn’t effective. Quality content that is hard to find, slow loading times, and links that lead to nowhere (or error or 404 pages), are all huge turn-offs for site visitors.

If any of these problems sound familiar, it’s time to freshen up your site.

To Address Being Outdated and to Align Branding

Sometimes things just look, well, blah! As our favorite Disney antagonist, Sharpay Evans says, “It’s out with the old and in with the new.”

Ask yourself these questions to see if it’s time for a redesign: Is your branding consistent across all platforms? Does your site look or feel outdated? If the answer is ‘yes’ to either of these questions, it might be time.

Because It’s Just Time

Sometimes you don’t need a big problem or reason to redesign your site. It might just be time.

As we well know at Digital Storyteller, the world wide web is constantly changing. Those who don’t keep up in terms of website design will be left in the dust. If your site isn’t offering the best experience to your users, that can be reason enough for a redesign.

Remember, your website will always be changing. It’s a living, breathing piece of content, which leads us to our next point.

Website Maintenance is Key

Let’s imagine. You just finished a website revamp for your business. Hooray! “Glad we’ve got that off our plate,” you might be thinking.

“We don’t have to worry about touching the site for another two to three years, thank goodness…” NOT!

Just because you’ve gone through a redesign as of late, does not mean your site is good to go until the next redesign.

As our Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Digital Storyteller, says, “Web design is never over.” (We also like to call her the web design genius!)

As Amanda well knows, there is always a bug to fix, a team member profile to add, coding to tweak, the list goes on. You will always be completing website maintenance, including site audits, and making small improvements.

This might include changes when:

  • Your products and/or services change
  • Your mission evolves
  • Branding is reconsidered
  • Your team grows
  • Prices change
  • The Google algorithm changes (and yes, it will change…)
  • Updates to mobile sites occur
  • And more

Is it Time for Your Redesign?

At Digital Storyteller, we recognize that these changes might be beyond your team’s expertise. We know, it’s a lot of work—which is why we’re here to help.

Here are some questions to ask yourself when looking at your website:

  • Is it reflecting who you are as a business right now?
  • Is it looking forward to where you are headed as a company?
  • Does it have any sort of telltale stylistic elements that have fallen from favor?

These three questions alone are a great way to tell whether it’s time to redo your website.

Contact our team at Digital Storyteller today to learn more about how we can support your upcoming website design project or website build.

Want to get to know us before you hop on the phone to discuss? We totally get it. Check out our most recent culture video where our team shares our 2022 New Year’s Resolutions!

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Six Benefits of Outsourcing Marketing

Outsourced Marketing

Outsourcing isn’t as complicated as it sounds. When you outsource your digital marketing services, you save time, energy, and money. Here are six benefits of outsourcing marketing.

Read more
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How Do You Measure the Success of Your Digital Marketing?

How Do You Measure the Success of Your Digital Marketing

So, you finally caved and implemented a kick*** digital marketing strategy for your business. Congratulations, that’s amazing!

But how do you know if it’s working? How do you measure the success of your digital marketing strategy? It’s an important question and is often an inquiry that Andrew Marr, CEO & Owner of Digital Storyteller, gets from prospects and clients.

He’s here to answer it today. Watch Andrew’s video below to learn how he measures the success of a digital marketing strategy. Let’s get started.

The Most Important Question to Ask

Whether or not your digital marketing strategy is successful or not comes down to one main question: Are you getting more clients?

If the answer is no, it’s time to reevaluate your strategy. Here’s how you can do that.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

We’ve all heard of KPIs.

Digital marketing KPIs, according to Digital Dot, are “quantifiable metrics that you can use to measure and monitor the partial and overall success of your digital marketing strategy.”

KPIs help to establish clear goals regarding campaigns and can be used in a variety of marketing approaches, including:

  • “Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
  • Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC)
  • Social Media Marketing
  • Email Marketing”
  • And more

Here are some of the most important KPIs to track when it comes to your digital marketing strategy.

How to Measure the Success of Your Digital Marketing Strategy

At Digital Storyteller, we conduct monthly and quarterly reporting for all of our clients. These reports help us show clients how we’re moving the needle, what’s working for them in their digital marketing strategy, and where we can shift to improve.

Below are some factors we evaluate:

Authority Score

Authority score, according to Semrush, is their “compound domain score that grades the overall quality of a website or a webpage.” Your score can range anywhere from 0 to 100. The higher the score, the more credibility a site typically has. Obviously, an authority score of 100 is #goals, but realistically, a score ranging from 32-48 is where you’ll see a strong organic marketing score lie. 

This figure is determined by a few key factors including:

  • Backlinks
  • Organic keyword rankings
  • Site health
  • Site age
  • Among many other factors

Because of these factors, authority score takes time and consistency to grow. After all, you can’t grow your authority score overnight– even though we wish you could. 

Ranking Keywords

There are, of course, specific keywords that your business will want to rank for. If you’re in the commercial insurance industry in San Diego, for example, some of your keywords might include:

  • “Commercial Insurance San Diego”
  • “Business Insurance”
  • “Business Owner”
  • “Risk Management”
  • And so on

Using a tool like Semrush—which collects research on your business’s SEO, PPC, content, and social media efforts—can help you identify the keywords you are currently ranking for (or currently not).

Information about ranking keywords is critical to making your way up the Google Search Engine Results Page (SERP).

Organic Traffic

Organic traffic is defined as “visitors that land on your website from unpaid sources.”

The amount of organic traffic that your website receives is a huge indication of where or not your marketing strategy is successful.

Average Session Duration

Session duration shows how much time visitors spend on your website. As a general rule of thumb, you want a high session duration. That means people are engaging more on your sight instead of clicking away! 

You can increase session duration by:

  • Providing quality informational content on your site
  • Ensuring your site is easy to navigate; user-friendly
  • Incorporating video content

Bounce Rate

What is bounce rate? Bounce rate indicates how quickly someone exits (or “bounce” from) your website after visiting it. For this reason, we want a high session duration and a low bounce rate. Semrush tells us that “an optimal bounce rate would be in the 26% to 40% range.”

Our goal is to keep people on-page as long as possible. You can decrease your bounce rate by:

  • Making sure your website loads quickly
  • Including all information that prospects might be looking for
  • Creating an easy to navigate the site
  • Prioritizing engaging content
  • Eliminating page errors

Social Media Statistics

We, of course, cannot end this article without talking about social media statistics. In our monthly and quarterly reports we give in-depth information for each social platform being used on:

  • Growth (i.e. followers)
  • Interactions
  • Reach
  • Comments
  • Clicks
  • Number of posts
  • Profile views
  • Impressions

As we’ve worked with our clients, however, we’ve noticed that it’s not uncommon for clients to get hung up on numbers. For example, the number of followers or likes they get on an Instagram post.

It is very important, however, to identify where their prospects spend time. For example, Instagram followers and likes might not matter so much for a financial services company compared to a clothing brand.

While it’s important to be active and engaged on Instagram, a better indication of a financial services company’s success might come from a platform like LinkedIn or YouTube. For those interested in learning more, here’s an article on what social platforms are best for your business to be on.

To reiterate, likes and followers don’t automatically equate to success, but it is important to be engaged and consistent within your social media strategy. Naturally, this means that as time goes on, your following, likes, engagement, etc. should increase.

Notice the trend? Slow and steady growth wins the race. 

Depending on who you ask, engagement might be a more important factor than the number of likes and followers.

Well, that’s all folks. We hoped you learned a thing or two from this article! If you’re interested, read on for more on social media, specifically the difference between social impressions and social engagement.

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Cornerstone Content: What Is It and How Can It Support SEO?

Cornerstone Content

Let’s talk about cornerstone content: what is it and how can it support your SEO strategy? 

For those of you who don’t nerd out at the thought of search engine optimization, SEO can feel like a black hole of confusion. (And let’s be honest, that’s probably all but one or two of us *cough cough* our SEO manager…), but don’t stress. We’re here to help! Let’s dive in.

What is Cornerstone Content?

Cornerstone content, sometimes referred to as evergreen content, includes the most important articles and pages on your website (not including your homepage). Cornerstone content is typically:

  • Long-form (longer than your average blog post)
  • Informative
  • Very well written

According to Rank Movers, the purpose of cornerstone content is to “perfectly explain your business or the purpose of your website.”

Most websites’ cornerstone content is made up of three to five elements. These can be pages or posts, but regardless, it is important that they are frequently updated. Keep ‘em fresh!

As a final note, Yoast tells us that the pages that make up your business’s cornerstone content should consist of “the best, most important articles on your site; the pages or posts you want to rank highest in the search engines.”

So, don’t get lazy with these pages and/or articles. Your cornerstone content is your time to shine!

An Example of Cornerstone Content

Here’s an example of great cornerstone content (better yet, it comes from one of our clients!).

Our client, Milikowsky Tax Law specializes in IRS, EDD, and State Attorney law. This considered, some of Milikowsky’s cornerstone content includes:

  • What to Expect from a California EDD Audit and Investigation
  • What Triggers on IRS Audit
  • The Difference Between EDD and CSLB Audits

Remember, cornerstone content is the core of your website. It must be relevant and hold a prominent, easy-to-access spot on your website.

Why is Cornerstone Content Important?

So, why the heck is cornerstone content so important for SEO? Well, when you first launch your website, chances are it will be small and nearly impossible to find unless someone is directly searching for it. *insert sad face emoji* It takes time to build up your site’s organic search traffic and organic keywords. 

We hear it all the time from clients who are just beginning their digital marketing strategy with us. “How can I rank for XYZ?” “I want to show up on the first page of Google!” Awesome, we want that for you, too! Cornerstone content is an amazing, effective way to achieve this.

But remember, “sites don’t rank: individual pages rank. If you want to rank for a particular keyword, you’ll need to determine which specific page you want to rank for that keyword,” Yoast reminds us.

Unfortunately, ranking #1 on Google is not a magic overnight process. Like all things SEO and digital marketing, it takes time. (As your mother used to always say, ‘good things take time.’ She’s not wrong…) With a consistent effort, you’re sure to reap results. 

The first step is to identify what keywords you want to rank for, and then to create a “hub” for that topic; a page that is the center of that topic.

With consistency and hard work, cornerstone content will help you increase the visibility of your site. And we all know site traffic leads to prospects and ultimately conversions—yay!

How Can Cornerstone Content Support SEO?

As previously mentioned, it can be difficult to rank for certain topics and keywords—especially broad or popular keywords with high volume or keyword difficulty. By implementing a cornerstone content approach, you can chip away at the difficult search terms that your business wants to rank for.

For our clients who have lots of content on the same topic or keyword (*cough cough* all of them), cornerstone content helps tell Google which pages are the most important. (Yes, even the algorithm needs a bit of help sometimes…)

Become an SEO Pro

If your head is still spinning at the thought of cornerstone content, contact our team today. Our awesome SEO manager is the best at breaking down SEO so you can understand it all, no problem.

Read on to learn more about why SEO is important for your company. We promise you’re not giving it as much attention as it deserves.

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Digital Marketing Trends for the New Year

Digital Marketing Trends for the New Year

And just like that, it’s 2022! We hope your New Year is going wonderfully. 

In celebration of the New Year, we’d like to address some digital marketing trends for the new year. We know… Digital marketing trends are always changing. It can be hard to keep up! But it’s crucial to identify current trends and strategies for your businesses, and we’re here to help. 

Let’s get into it.

Video Marketing

We’ve written about it time and time again. Video marketing is, and will continue to be, an absolutely critical part of your digital marketing strategy in 2022.

Not convinced? Research according to Hubspot shows that video will account for nearly 82% of consumer internet traffic. Wowza!

For those of you who flinch at the word ‘video’ or the idea of crafting one yourself, don’t worry. We promise it’s not as scary (or expensive) as you think. All you need is a quality camera and a microphone. (Even a smartphone can work in most cases!)

To increase search traffic to your website, HubSpot recommends you:

  • Make sure your video contains useful information to solve your ideal customer’s problem
  • Optimize your video on YouTube using relevant keywords

The title of your video is also important. For example, someone would be more likely to click on “how to cook the perfect scrambled eggs” over “how to cook eggs.”

The bottom line about video marketing is: Video is the preferred form of content by all social platforms right now: Instagram, TikTok, YouTube (of course), you name it.

Don’t be discouraged if there is already content out there that is similar to your video (in fact, we guarantee that there will be). The most important thing is finding a way to make your content stand out, says HubSpot.

Honestly, we could talk your ear off about video (and we probably have…) We’ve written about how Instagram reels support your social media marketing strategy and how to connect with your prospects using video. What’s that? You haven’t read those articles yet? Finish this one and then get to it!

SEO

It’s time to brush up on your SEO skills. Search Engine Optimization is still as important as ever. Quality, thought-out SEO is the bread and butter of increasing traffic to your site.

Search engine algorithms, however, are always changing. In fact, a really awesome feature that Google’s algorithm has now adopted is the ability to differentiate between search and intent.

What does this mean? (Aside from a very happy SEO manager on our team…) Google search intent, according to Yoast, is “the term used to describe the purpose of an online search. Google wants to rank pages that best fit the search term someone is using, as well as the search intent behind the search query.”

Because of this new feature, it is crucial that you “segment queries that you want to rank for and make competitor analysis a big part of your SEO strategy,” according to HubSpot.

It’s crazy to think that Google is now smart enough to interpret why you are searching for what you’re searching for.

Optimize Content for Voice Search

This is a trend we mentioned back in November in our top five digital marketing trends you can’t ignore article. And guess what? It’s still relevant.

Thanks to AI-powered voice assistants (like Siri, Google, Alexa, and Cortana), millions of people every day search for things online without even touching or being near their phone or computer. User experience and web accessibility today are so important.

This considered, it has become all the more important to optimize your content for voice search. Start 2022 off with a bang by doing so. Not sure where to start? Contact our team today.

Social Media

Truth be told, it feels a little silly to even have to mention social media on this list of digital marketing trends. You’re ten steps behind your competitors if your business is not:

  • Active on social media
  • Providing engaging and informative content on a consistent basis
  • Interacting with prospects and clients

We recommend our clients have profiles on at least:

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram
  • Twitter

The platform that you place the greatest amount of attention on will depend on your business’s unique goals and target audience. For example, if you’re selling branded hoodies to Gen Z, Instagram is likely your best bet. If you are an insurance broker, however, you might opt for the more professional nature that LinkedIn offers.

Still don’t believe in the power of social media? According to DigitalMarketing.org, “3.96 billion people use social media today, which accounts for roughly half (51%) of the global population.” Wow!

Think: This is a huge loss for businesses who opt out of a well crafted social media marketing strategy. If they want to stay relevant, the more traditional companies (who are fearful or overwhelmed by social media) need to learn how to adapt.

Rentech Digital recommends that businesses use social media to not only attract prospects but also to retain them. Remember, the more frequently a prospect sees your brand, the greater opportunity to build a trusting relationship with them—and ultimately to convert them into a client.

For those of you who are interested, read on to learn which social media platforms your business should be on and why.

What Is YOUR New Year Resolution? (Marketing Edition!)

Will you outsource your marketing this year? Get your team on a weekly Instagram reel to boost social engagement? Take a course on SEO? Let us know your 2022 New Year Resolution, and if there’s room for our team to help!
Read on to hear our team’s 2022 New Year Resolutions. Cheers!

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New Year, Same Us… Our 2022 New Year’s Resolutions!

new years resolutions cookies and written notes

Happy New Year! Wowza, the holidays are over and it’s officially time for a fresh start. You already know, this means it’s time for some 2022 New Year Resolutions! Hopefully, we haven’t broken them by the time this gets posted… (As long as they weren’t resolutions like no cursing or drinking, we should be on track!)Check out the video below to hear some of our team’s 2022 New Year’s Resolutions! Or, if you’re boring you can read along. Let’s get into it!

Caroline LoPresti, Social Media Manager: “My new year’s resolution is to worry less about the future and focus more on the present.”

Kelsey Arvidson, Content Specialist: “I wanna cook more recipes in the new year every week or maybe every month ’cause that’s more realistic.”

Magdi Cook, Graphic & Web Design Manager: “My new year’s resolution is to get involved in dance classes again and to start a gratitude journal where I journal 10 items that I’m grateful for every night.”

Devin Aubert, SEO Manager: “My 2022 new year’s resolution is to be the coolest, funnest aunt to my soon-to-be-born baby niece or nephew.”

Jackie Berens, Client Success Manager: “My new year’s resolution is to make my life my medicine.”

Madi Lindley, Social Media Specialist: “I want to travel more this year and see new places.”

Beatriz Carias, Content Specialist: “I wanna get more involved in my community and volunteer more.”

Becca Jones, Content Specialist: “My new year’s resolution is to make time for reading before bed.”

Amanda Rogers, Founder & CCO: “I can’t make new year’s resolutions. I’m too old and tired.”

We know, you really enjoyed this. We did, too! You know what else you will enjoy? Our Owner & CEO’s Chardonnay Review Series.

His name is Andrew Marr but we like to call him the ranting Scot (yes, he’s from Scotland). Anyway, there are 35 reviews, so get ready to binge-watch!

Or, if you’re already missing the holiday season, get a load of our team’s favorite family traditions on the blog.

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It’s the Most WINE-derful Time of The Year…

Holiday Traditions

It’s the holiday season—hooray! At Digital Storyteller, we love our team (and no, it’s not just because our bosses got us boujee gifts like custom tumblers and embroidered Lululemon hoodies…)

With Christmas right around the corner, we’re sharing the opportunity to get to know the parts that make our team who we are. I mean, our team is awesome! We hire for people, which yes, we know, is a little unconventional these days… But hey! It’s working for us. We pride ourselves on having amazing company culture. Want to take a peak?

Keep reading to hear some of our team’s favorite holiday traditions, Christmas songs that make them cringe, and for FUN holiday photos!

The Founders

Q: What is your favorite family tradition?

A: “My mom took me to see the Nutcracker every year at Christmas at Lincoln Center in NYC (where I’m from) we’d dress up and go out in the cold and take the subway up to the theatre. We did that every year for 30 years.  Now, I take Ella, my daughter every year.  The best part is the time together and being unnecessarily judg-y about the dancers! I also love to go get the Christmas tree and decorate while listening to Christmas music and having eggnog with bourbon.” 

-Amanda Rogers, Founder Chief Creative Officer

Q: What do you like most about Christmas?

A: “What I like the most about Christmas is opening gifts on Christmas morning.  I haven’t learned how to ask for something in a way that doesn’t end up with 5 of them.  But I kind of like that. Amanda bought me 5 cashmere sweaters last year. I had mentioned that I’d like a cashmere sweater… We live in San Diego.  Just saying.”

-Andrew Marr, Owner, CEO

The Content Team

Q: What is your favorite family tradition?

A: “My family spends every Christmas Eve cooking up a huge meal! We make tamales, turkey, ham, pepian, and many other yummy traditional Guatemalan dishes.”

“After cooking, we feast on all of the dishes we worked so hard to make together while catching up with family we haven’t seen in a while. We chat, reminisce over old memories, and play games until the clock strikes midnight. Once midnight hits, all of the kids (yes that still includes me) zoom to the Christmas tree to open presents. We’re all usually up until 2 am playing with our new gifts or still chatting together.

“It’s one of my favorite family traditions because it’s rooted in spending quality time together and making more cherished memories.” —Beatriz Carias, Content Specialist

Q: What is a funny family tradition of yours?

A: “My family always wears these glasses when they pick me up at the airport!” —Kelsey Arvidson, Content Specialist

Q: What is your favorite family tradition?

A: “My favorite holiday tradition is on Christmas Eve all the young cousins sit together in the master bedroom and read Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (which over the years has been not so subtly turned into a drinking game for adults participating…) We read the story as we listen for Santa’s bells. When we hear the sleigh bells ring, all the kids race down the stairs and run down the driveway to try to catch Santa and the reindeer and find what presents he left them on the front porch. It’s a tradition that I’ve done my entire life and have loved to share with my little cousins since.” —Devin Aubert, SEO Manager

Q: What is your favorite family tradition?

A: “My favorite family tradition is something my family calls ‘family baking day!’ Every year in December, my family heads over to my Grandma’s house early in the morning to bake over 1,000 cookies! We bake every kind of cookie you can think of. My favorites are the ‘Turtles’—pretzels, topped with a Rolo and a pecan. Then, we package up the cookies for teachers, family, and friends. It takes all day!” —Becca Jones, Content Specialist

Q: What is your favorite family tradition?

A: “My favorite family tradition during the holidays is Christmas morning. Ever since I was a young girl, we would wake up at 5 am and wait in one of the siblings rooms for our parents to call us down. We would run out of the room, my parents with a video recorder in hand, with grins from ear to ear. After we finish opening up our gifts, my mom starts making breakfast and the smell of bacon flows throughout the house.” —Jackie Berens, Client Success Manager

The Design Team

Q: What is your favorite family tradition?

A: “My favorite holiday tradition is decorating my home and Christmas tree with my family! Every year, we light the fire pit, blast Christmas music, hang garland and streamers around the windows and staircase, put ornaments on the tree, and drink hot cocoa. And of course, the tradition wouldn’t be the same without our dogs going insane and trying to eat all of the decorations in the process!” —Magdi Cook, Graphic and Web Design Manager

Q: What kind of holiday shopper are you: Black Friday? Christmas Eve? Yearlong hoarder?

A: “I’m a year-long shopper because most of my gifts end up being handmade, and that takes time. So, if it’s a cross-stitch, painted ornament, or re-covered book, it’s a year-long process to get it planned and looking good!” —Shay Larby, Junior Graphic Designer

The Social Team

Q: What kind of holiday shopper are you: Black Friday? Christmas Eve? Yearlong hoarder?

A: “Holiday shopping is my one excuse to shop because it’s all on sale, but that doesn’t stop me from shopping all year round of course… ;)” —Caroline LoPresti, Social Media Manager

Q: What is your favorite family tradition? And what Christmas song makes you cringe?

A: My favorite family tradition is taking snowy walks in the city to get hot chocolate when I go home to Boston. The Christmas song that makes me cringe is… nope, can’t think of a single one they are all amazing…especially the Michael Bublé Christmas album (obvi)!” —Chris Preller, Social Media Coordinator

Q: What is your favorite family tradition? 

A: “My favorite family tradition is our white elephant gift exchange that we have on Christmas Eve. Everyone contributes very random gifts, some good and some bad. My favorite gifts that I’ve ended up with were the Snoop Dogg cookbook and a blanket hoodie!” —Madi Lindley, Social Media Specialist

Are you in desperate need of some last-minute gift ideas? Check out this article where we detail holiday gifting strategies for B2B businesses!

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Everything to Know About Rebranding Your Business

Rebrand

When it comes to “branding,” the term might seem a wee bit vague. Chances are the first things that come to mind are logos, colors, and fonts! While all of these elements are integral pieces of creating your business’s brand identity, branding, and rebranding, runs much deeper.

Here’s everything you need to know about rebranding your business.

What Is Branding? Why Is It Important?

Branding, according to The Branding Journal, is defined as “the process of giving a meaning to [a] specific organization, company, products or services by creating and shaping a brand in consumers’ minds.”

Branding “is a strategy designed by organizations to help people to quickly identify and experience their brand, and give them a reason to choose their products over the competition’s, by clarifying what this particular brand is and is not.”

Branding is important for not only consumers but also employees, shareholders, and third parties.

One of the most important parts of branding, which is wildly overlooked in our personal opinion, is the word “meaning” in the above definition. Too often, a brand becomes about the “aesthetic” or the colors.

Having a stunning logo is great, but what is the meaning behind it? Need a story to illustrate just what we mean? We’ve got the perfect client for you.

The Story of The Golden Screw

Meet John Milikowsky, founder of Milikowsky Tax Law. John is a tax attorney who focuses on helping clients navigate government agency audits from Employment Development Department (EDD) to Internal Revenue Service (IRS). 

John is one of our superstar clients at Digital Storyteller. (We actually refer to him as our ‘unicorn.’)

Here’s a before and after of the Milikowsky Tax Law logo.

Before Working With Digital Storyteller

Milikowsky Tax Law

After Working With Digital Storyteller

Milikowsky Tax Law

Now, of course, there’s a lot more that goes into branding than just your logo—but more on that later.

For now, let’s travel back in time with John to hear about how his new logo came to be, what happened when he sat down with us to explain the origins of his business, and how his skill set makes him a fantastic tax lawyer. Here’s what John had to say:

“It’s 1987 and I’m 10 years old. I’m sitting in a windowless supply room in the back of my parents’ lighting store on a stool and in front of me is an oil barrel filled with screws. Machine screws, wood screws, drywall screws, Phillips screws, you get the idea… a lot of screws.”

John’s task? Sort these screws into containers. Sort, sort, sort… In that entire summer, John never got through more than an inch’s worth of progress in sorting those screws.

“In the middle of that summer, I realized I had a choice to make… I could be furious, resentful, victimized by the mundane monotonous task set in front of me… or, I could do it well and fast. I could be the best at screw sorting.”

Not seeing where this story is going? Hold tight.

John describes his first few years of audits with his tax law clients. “They handed me their metaphorical oil barrels filled with numbers: profit and loss statements for three, four, five years, receipts faded with time, and transactions whose recipients had long gone out of business,” says John. “I came to appreciate that summer of sorting. That training in detail work, that patience for sifting through the most minute details.”

John’s passion is the detective work it takes to uncover the one piece of information that makes all the rest of a company’s business narrative fall into place. 

Like finding a needle in a haystack, John is equipped with the attention to detail to find ‘the golden screw,’ if you will.

After unpacking this story with our team, we were able to create a logo with meaning, as opposed to simple colors and font slapped on a page. In his logo, the “M” in Milikowsky Tax Law is encircled by tiny screws with the golden screw crowning the “i” 

What Are the Levels of Rebranding?

*Hint* A rebrand concerns more than just your logo! Knowing this as a business owner, however, you might be asking yourself, “How long will a rebrand take me?” and more importantly to some, “How much will it cost me?”

Well, the amount of money that you pay for a rebrand is dependent on the size of your company. For example, rebranding a mom-and-pop cabinetry shop isn’t going to cost the same as a rebrand of Walmart or Target.

Now, let’s dive into the different levels of rebranding.

The Brand Refresh

A refresh is the most simple level of rebranding, and might include:

  • Brand Discovery
  • Visual Identity
  • Corporate Stationery
  • Website
  • Copywriting
  • Photography

This timeline typically lasts three to four months.

The Brand Reboot

According to Ignyte, this level of rebranding is best for companies “who are dealing with the systemic issues that typically accompany business growth and/or age,” and, in addition to everything included in a refresh, might include:

  • Customer Research
  • Brand Audit
  • Brand Strategy Naming and Tagline
  • Brand Identity
  • Marketing Collateral

This timeline typically lasts six to eight months.

The Full Rebrand

*Cough cough* Mark Zuckerberg rebranding ‘Facebook’ to ‘Meta.’ (Can’t say we are huge fans…)

Anyway, according to Web FX, a full rebrand involves “changing every aspect of your brand,” including:

  • Company name
  • Logo
  • Tone of voice for your company

A fantastic example of a full rebrand is Nike. In 1964, Blue Ribbon Sports (now Nike) was founded. Seven years later, “Blue Ribbon Sports did a complete rebrand and became Nike,” according to Web FX. Blue Ribbon Sports changed everything: colors, logo, name, tone of voice.

Blue Ribbon Sports Nike Rebrand

Think of the full rebrand as the ultimate glow-up for your company; you’re entirely new. As you could guess, this is the most expensive level of rebranding.

This process could take up to a year or more in some cases.

The Meaning Behind Your Branding

So, it’s time for some self-reflection. 

Would you be willing to send your website to everyone you know right now, as is? If the answer is no, consider why not. What about your branding doesn’t satisfy you?

Branding is so much more than colors and fonts. Here are some questions to get you thinking about your branding:

  1. How does your current branding reflect you as a company?
  2. If you were a consumer in your target demographic, would you want to work with your company?
  3. How do people feel when they come to your site or visit your social media? Are you pushing out consistent content?
  4. How does your brand make people feel? Safe, excited, confusing, overwhelmed?

A Quick Bit on Font Psychology

Well, what is font psychology? According to this article by Canva, “font psychology [is] the study of how different fonts impact thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.” For example, Comic Sans as your primary brand font might evoke a very different reaction than if you were to use Arial, Roboto, or Montserrat.

By understanding font psychology, which you can do more of here, you will be able to choose the best fonts for your brand.

The Value of a Rebrand

Many brands consider rebranding when they realize that their mission, or their ‘why,’ isn’t being reflected accurately in their existing brand. The value of a rebrand, when done correctly, is priceless. Think: Do you think Nike would still have the global brand recognition that it does if it were still Blue Ribbon Sports, branding and all? Most likely not.

At Digital Storyteller, we begin every client relationship with a Brand Storytelling Session to get to know your business at its core. Because after all, we can’t accurately represent your brand until we truly understand who you are, who your audience is, and what your goals are. Get in touch with us today to learn more about your free Brand Storytelling Session deliverable.

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What to Expect Working with an Outsourced Digital Marketing Agency

Outsourced Marketing

When it comes to marketing your business, there are a lot of options available to you. Not all marketing efforts, however, are created equal.

Do you know what outsourced digital marketing is? How much does it cost to outsource marketing? How exactly does it work? Here’s what to expect working with an outsourced digital marketing agency.

What Does It Mean to Outsource Your Marketing?

The word ‘outsource,’ by definition, means to “obtain (goods or a service) from an outside or foreign supplier, especially in place of an internal source,” according to Google.

Therefore, as Precision Marketing Group puts it, outsourced marketing is “the engagement of a professional marketing firm to serve as your own firm’s marketing department.” Simply put, outsourced marketing means letting a third party take care of your marketing efforts. You then have more time to do what you do best—which is run your business.

Who Can You Expect on an Outsourced Marketing Team?

Well, depending on the outsourced marketing agency’s specialties, you could work in close contact with a variety of different marketers. At Digital Storyteller, for example, our team is made up of:

  • A Creative Director
  • Social Media Manager
  • Social Media Coordinator
  • Social Media Specialist
  • A Client Success Manager
  • SEO Manager
  • Graphic & Web Design Manager
  • Junior Graphic Designer
  • And numerous content specialists!

Why Would You Hire an Outsourced Marketing Team?

By hiring an outsourced marketing team, you allow your team to place focus on running your business.

An outsourced digital marketing agency covers every aspect of marketing so you don’t have to worry about:

  • Posting creative, consistent content
  • SEO optimization
  • Managing your online reputation
  • Website design and branding
  • Staying up to date with social media updates and algorithms 

The list goes on…

As we mentioned previously, by hiring an outsourced digital marketing team, you gain access to creative directors, social media experts, content specialists, and more, at a fraction of the cost it would take to hire an in-house team.

All the support you need is wrapped up into one flat monthly rate.

How Much Does It Cost to Outsource My Marketing?

Now, as a business owner, one of the first things you’re wondering when you hear about the benefits of outsourced marketing is: How much is this going to cost me? The short answer? It’s cheaper than doing it yourself. 

Let’s talk numbers. Our most popular package at Digital Storyteller sits at $5K a month, which totals $60k for the year. Sound like a lot? Let’s consider the cost breakdown of hiring a team of four marketers in-house instead:

Hiring four marketing experts in-house, after salaries and benefits will cost your company $260,000 annually, plus some $16,000 for new hire costs. In just one year, your company has racked up $276,000. That’s only with four experts. The cost grows as you continue building your own team. 

We know it’s not spooky season anymore, but for more frightening math, visit this blog post where we break down the cost-benefit of outsourced digital marketing.

At Digital Storyteller, we try to make things less frightening, which is why our most popular digital marketing package is $60K annually as opposed to $276,000.

Our rate gives you access to an entire team that’s also dedicated to building your business. Outsourced marketing is a great, cost-effective way to invest in your company’s marketing efforts.

How Do You Know if You’re a Good Fit to Outsource Your Marketing?

There are many reasons why outsourcing your marketing is a great option. Here are some signs you’re a good fit.

  • Your current marketing efforts are not consistent
  • The world of digital marketing is overwhelming to you — so many changes are constantly taking place!
  • You want to focus on what’s most important: running your business
  • You don’t have a marketing “strategy”
  • You want to take your marketing to the next level, but aren’t sure how to
  • The idea of hiring someone in-house worries you — how could a single person have all of the marketing skills I need?
  • You are ready to trust an agency to get to know your business and market for you

How Effective Marketing Can Be When You Let Your Outsourced Agency Do Their Job

The last bullet above is SO important: “You are ready to trust an agency to get to know your business and market for you.”

When companies bring in outsourced digital marketing agencies but don’t let them do their job (i.e. hold off on pushing content, stay inside their comfort zone), the results of outsourced marketing are poor. 

Part of our job is to challenge you! We get that it can be hard to let someone take the reins and run a big piece of your company. But that’s what we know and do best. You’re juggling a million things when running your own business, let us take a large chunk off of your plate so you can focus on what you love to do.

Here’s an example of a client who lets us do just that, take the reins.

SBMA is an Affordable Care Act (ACA) compliant Minimum Essential Coverage (MEC) benefits provider that provides affordable coverage for thousands of employers. We’ve been working with SBMA for nearly two years. Here’s what we’ve done for them during our partnership.

When we first started working with SBMA, they had very few keywords. What are keywords, you might ask? Check out this article for everything you need to know. 

Anyway, all of the keywords that SBMA was ranking for on Google were branded keywords (think names of specific employees and the literal name of their company ‘SBMA).

Long story short, if you only rank for branded keywords, you won’t come up on Google very often, unless someone is searching that exact, specific keyword. You really want to rank for more than just branded keywords.  

SBMA, as a benefits provider, would also want to rank for things like ‘MEC plan,’ ‘Health Plan Administrators,’ and ‘Worksite Benefits,’ to name a few.

With our ongoing content marketing strategy, we’ve been able to work wonders for them. Here are some numbers to prove it.

Currently, 80% of SBMA’s site traffic comes from organic search. Last October 2020, SBMA had 2,155 site users in a month. This October, in 2021, SBMA had 3,566.

Additionally, they had a 60% increase in their authority score. Last October, they had a domain authority score of 16 whereas this October they have grown to 23.

Authority score is based on a number of various factors including site health, organic keyword growth, backlinks, and more. It takes time, research, and consistent effort to grow an authority score, so a seven-figure jump in authority score is incredible.

When we first began working with SBMA, they let us know that they wanted to rank for ‘MEC.’ Now, SBMA dominates the organic search engine results page (SERP) when it comes to the ‘MEC’ space.

Lastly, SBMA currently ranks for 965 keywords whereas last October they ranked for 408. The graph below shows SBMA’s organic keyword growth over time.

SBMA Organic Keywords

Marketing: It’s What We Do Best

The goal of an outsourced digital marketing agency is to understand your business and your brand voice to then let the world know how awesome you are.

We start every engagement with a Brand Storytelling Session where we identify your unique brand voice. Then, our team uses bi-weekly client calls, Monday emails, and content calendars to make sure you know what’s happening, always.

We have monthly reporting where we let you know what the return on investment that you’re getting is from your relationship with us.

Of course, there’s always a team member available to you just a call, email, or even text away. Not to toot our own horn, but we’ve been told on multiple occasions that our bi-weekly calls are their favorite calls!

Happy with the direction we’re headed in? We’ll keep running that way. Want to tweak something? More than happy to adjust.

We’ll bring you fresh ideas from our kick*** creative team from a relationship built on trust. Because that’s the beauty of digital marketing.

For those who are interested in learning more about the difference between outsourced marketing and in-house marketing, read on here.

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Why Is Your Brand Storytelling Session Important? (And What Is It Anyway!?)

Brand Voice

Author Robert McKee once said, “Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world.” And he was right!

At Digital Storyteller, we begin all of our partnerships with a strong foundation—your very own ‘brand storytelling session’ (BSTS). After all, we’re an outsourced digital marketing agency, which means we will be creating content as if we were you. This BSTS is crucial in order to be able to do what we do best (…marketing!).

If a ‘brand storytelling session’ sounds a bit like another language, we’re sorry! We’ll explain. Better yet, Amanda Rogers, Owner and Chief Creative Officer at Digital Storyteller can give you the lowdown and answer all of your juicy questions, like why is your brand storytelling session important? And what the heck is it anyway!?

Let’s get into it.

What is Brand Storytelling?

Brand storytelling has become kind of a buzzword. People use it to mean all kinds of things. They use it to mean:

  • Branding that means something to you
  • Storytelling for individuals

What Do You Do During a Brand Storytelling Session?

In our Brand Storytelling Sessions, we do things a bit differently. We block out two hours on our calendar to zoom with you and get to know your brand at its core.

We know it sounds intense, but don’t worry. Our favorite description that a client gave us at the end of a Brand Storytelling Session was, “I was expecting a root canal and I got a massage.” Yay for free massages! 

For Digital Storyteller, the Brand Storytelling Session grew naturally out of questions we had to ask clients over and over again and the research we did to better craft clients’ websites, content, and content marketing strategies.

A brand storytelling session focuses primarily on finding out what your ‘brand voice’ is. In other words, what your brand archetype is. 

Brand Archetypes

What’s a brand archetype? We’re glad you asked. Brand archetypes are as old as Greek tragedy (sadly, we can’t take credit for making them up…) The 12 brand archetypes that we use at Digital Storyteller are:

  • The Innocent
  • Everyman
  • Hero
  • Outlaw
  • Explorer
  • Creator
  • Ruler
  • Magician
  • Lover
  • Caregiver
  • Jester
  • Sage

Don’t worry, we cover what all of these archetypes mean during your Brand Storytelling Session!

What Happens After Your Brand Storytelling Session?

We’re all for transparency. After your two-hour block, we have a comprehensive overview of:

  • How you talk about what you do
  • How you feel about your company name
  • What your brand archetype is

From there, we can start to build the kind of marketing strategy that is unique to your company.

The Timeline

A week after a Brand Storytelling Session, you will receive a well-designed deliverable.

A few days after that, we get on the phone and set a kickoff call, if you decide we’re the right fit for you!

After our one-hour kickoff call, we set weekly one-hour meetings for the first month of our partnership, followed by bi-weekly meetings following. 

Why Is a Brand Storytelling Session Important?

As we say at Digital Storyteller, marketing without a brand voice is like a margarita without tequila… Useless!

Defining your brand voice through a Brand Storytelling Session shortens your sales cycle because having a clear brand voice makes people feel like they already know you when they walk into a room with you.

It helps build trust, and it makes prospects feel at ease as they’ve heard your brand voice consistently across your website, content, and social posts.

When you pick a brand voice and choose a brand archetype, it’s about the way in which you speak, not what you’re talking about. 

Conducting a Brand Storytelling Session helps us to truly understand a client’s brand voice, their brand archetype, and helps us to be able to write in their voice.

Amanda, Founder and Creative Director at Digital Storyteller, put it best. “I can talk about something that’s highly consequential in a number of different brand voices. The way you speak about what you do is what sets you apart from your competitors… A Brand Storytelling Session is the uncovering of the way in which you tell your own unique story.”

If you couldn’t tell by Amanda’s spiel, a BSTS isn’t anything to be afraid of. Don’t believe us? Check out what one of our clients, Todd Regan, said about his BSTS. (P.S. He wasn’t excited!)

“Looking at the [brand storytelling session] appointment on my calendar, I thought this is going be so painful – it was the opposite, so insightful, valuable, and fun.” —Todd Regan Chief Operating Officer at Payroll Hub

A brand storytelling session is crucial for all of you out there who struggle to explain to your drunk aunt what business you’re in every Thanksgiving. If you’re not clear on what you do, how can your prospects and clients be?

Plus, we can’t—or any outsourced marketing agency, for that matter—accurately represent your brand until we truly understand who you are, your audience, and your goals. Our brand storytelling sessions answer all of these questions.

We’re so confident in our ability to surprise and delight you that your initial BSTS session and deliverable are free.

Interested in learning more about the importance of brand storytelling? Check out this article.

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Top Five Digital Marketing Trends You Can’t Ignore

Digital Marketing

At Digital Storyteller, we know well that digital marketing is an ever-changing field. Sometimes, it can feel like a full-time job just keeping up with all of the algorithms and constant updates!

(C’mon, Zuckerberg! Give us a break!) Just kidding…

In all seriousness, the best thing you can do for your business—whether you do it yourself or hire an outsourced agency like us to save you time and money—is do your best to stay current with the top digital marketing trends.

Don’t worry, we’ll give you a hand! Here are the top five digital marketing trends you can’t ignore today!

Video Content

If you’re not currently living under a rock, chances are you know that video is the number one media that social channels are pushing right now.

The statistics say it all. Did you know that in June 2021, TikTok reached 3 BILLION downloads? In the five short years that the video-sharing app has existed, it managed to snag the 7th most downloaded app for the 2010s, according to App Annie.

Even Instagram has jumped on the video bandwagon. In June 2021, Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, said in a video that Instagram is no longer a photo-sharing app. Instead, Instagram will prioritize video content, leaning into the high level of success that they are observing competitors like TikTok and YouTube achieve.

So, get your business ready to push out some awesome video content if you haven’t already—Instagram reels, TikToks, explainer videos, testimonials, culture videos, the list goes on.

Value-Driven Content

Although our digital marketing agency lives by the phrase “content is king,” we’d like to make an important modification to this term coined by marketing whiz Neil Patel.

“QUALITY content is king.”

Just think: Any person, at any given moment, has an enormous surplus of content that they could decide to consume. It’s almost overwhelming. So, consider this: Why should someone click on your page rather than your competitor? What are you offering them that your competitor is not?

Sure, you may be handing out eBooks, but is the information different? Or is it generic? Your best bet at gaining clients’ trust is by offering content that drives value.

This means no carelessly written articles with typos just for the sake of posting something. You want to shoot for quality, long-form content.

It’s equally important to do so in a way that doesn’t come off as too salesy either. We know, it’s a difficult line to straddle…

To provide an example of quality content, picture this. You’re at your local mall and you see an electric wine bottle opener. (Oooh!) What would make you more prone to purchasing said wine opener?

A bland instruction manual about what the product is and how it works, or a beautifully designed pamphlet showing how the wine opener will save you time and frustration for years to come? We think you know your answer. Say goodbye to stubborn synthetic corks!

But anyway, the point is long-form, value-driven content is key in your digital marketing strategy.

Hyper-Personalized Content

It has happened to all of us. You’re on a website viewing a product; it could be shoes, decor, food, doesn’t matter. Then, you leave the page without making a purchase.

A few hours later you receive an item with the subject line “Get it before it sells out!” or “You forgot something…” You click into the email… It’s the exact product you’d been looking at just hours before.

Weird, right? Well, not really in the world of digital marketing. Welcome to hyper-personalized content!

Hyper-personalized content is the third digital marketing trend you can’t ignore. Personalized content is no new feat, and as you can tell, we’re not talking about adding a simple first name personalization in your email marketing. (That might have been impressive five years ago, but times have changed).

For businesses looking to generate more traffic and increase conversion rates, you have to get really nitty-gritty about who your target audience is and more importantly, what they’re looking for and at. By using artificial intelligence (AI), you can collect information about individuals who are engaging with your business and track their behavior to target them more effectively.

There are many third-party software companies that can help you obtain data to create this hyper-personalized content. Some of our favorites include:

Optimize Content for Voice Search

“Hey Siri, search ‘content marketing’ on Google!” Thanks to AI-powered voice assistants, millions of people every day search for things online without even touching or being near their phone or computer.

User experience and web accessibility today are so important. With the rise of voice search, including Siri, Google, Alexa, and Cortana, it has become all the more important to make sure your content is optimized for voice search. Keep your eyes out for a full article on how to optimize your content for voice search soon!

Easy to Contact

Today, we live in a world where delayed gratification is not our friend. At least not when we have a question about a product, service, or business! Whether you’re messaging your favorite clothing company, your hairstylist, or a restaurant, chances are you value a quick response on a user-friendly platform.

Your prospects are no different. If you’re not available 24/7, using AI to ensure your prospects get timely responses is a no-brainer!

Hiring an Outsourced Digital Marketing Agency

Top Five Digital Marketing Trends You Can’t Ignore

We know, there are a lot of bases to cover. The best thing you can do is focus on what’s hot now and tailor your content marketing strategy as such. Recognize current trends and use them to your advantage in your digital marketing efforts.

Still sounds a bit scary? Check out this article on the Top 10 Resources for Digital Marketers!

At Digital Storyteller, we’re your go-to for your outsourced digital marketing needs. As our client, our team will keep you up to date on all the latest digital marketing trends.

Get in touch today to schedule your free Brand Storytelling session. What is Brand Storytelling you might ask? Don’t worry, we’ve got an article for that, too!

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What Are Algorithms—and How Do They Work?

Algorithms

If you have social media of any kind, chances are you’ve heard people talk about “algorithms” pretty regularly. When someone posts content and it performs poorly, whether they be a business, an influencer, or your Average Joe, you might hear them blame it on the algorithm.

“Oh, the algorithm hates me… I can’t figure out the algorithm… The algorithm is always changing, I can’t keep up!” And so on and so forth.

At Digital Storyteller, we recognize that there is some truth in these statements. Algorithms are always changing. But first, what are algorithms—and how do they work?

What is an Algorithm?

While the word “algorithm” is thrown around a lot today, it can be hard to fully grasp what this term even means.

Kristien Matelski at Vizion puts it perfectly. An algorithm “is a pattern or set of rules that problem-solving operations (especially computers) use to make calculations.”

Let’s dive into what this definition means for Google and social media specifically.

The Google Algorithm

The Google algorithm is “a complex system that allows Google to find, rank and return the most relevant pages for a certain search query.”

Like we mentioned, algorithms are constantly changing. In fact, Marketing Whiz Neil Patel shares on his blog that Google makes minor changes to its algorithm daily!

Google “might even release multiple updates in 24 hours,” says Patel. “These changes are usually small, and you probably won’t notice a drop in search page rankings due to these updates alone.”

However, knowing that the algorithm can literally change overnight (and multiple times at that!), it can feel impossible to keep up. (We know our social team at Digital Storyteller works hard every day to stay fresh with new updates and trends you can’t ignore.)

Google holds over 70% of the search market share and therefore, is the most popular search engine, according to Hubspot. This considered, how can you use the algorithm to your advantage? What does the algorithm take into account when ranking content?

Well, you’re in luck! According to an explainer video posted by Google titled “How Google Search Works,” there are hundreds of factors that go into determining what pops up on a search engine. Here are a few.

  • Keywords: Keywords play a significant role in the optimization of your content. You want to ensure you’re paying close attention to the keywords you choose to use. For example, if you own a smoothie bar in downtown San Diego, you probably want to rank for “good smoothies San Diego” or “downtown San Diego smoothies,” as opposed to keywords like “pizza” and “tacos!” For more on keywords, visit our article on how to optimize your content for search.
  • Meta Descriptions: Keywords aren’t the only thing Google looks for when curating a search engine results page (SERP). Meta descriptions, sometimes called a meta description attribute or tag, “is an HTML element that describes and summarizes the contents of your page for the benefit of users and search engines,” according to WordStream. Write meta descriptions carefully, as you only get about 155 words to show off what your content is about!
  • Images and Alt Text: Google LOVES images, and so do humans! Think, if you’re looking up a recipe on how to make the ‘World’s Best Lasagna,’ would you be more likely to click on the recipe with or without photos? Alt Text, or alternative text, is also important. It’s a short written description of the image that Google can read to help rank your page.
  • Title: Your title needs to be well thought out and something people would actually search for. Your title should summarize your content and include your target keywords.
  • Meta Tags: “Meta tags are invisible tags that provide data about your page to search engines and website visitors.”
  • Backlinks: The Google algorithm also looks for backlinks. Backlinking is the action of linking back to another external site on your own and is an extremely valuable tactic to use in sharing your site content. Backlinking helps position you as a trustworthy, authoritative source. For more on backlinking, visit our blog titled “PR vs Backlinking Strategies: What’s the Difference?”
  • Site Health: A site with a score of 80% or above is typically considered “good” site health. Site health is determined by the number of errors and warnings found when your site is crawled.
  • Site Authority: Google also cares about your site authority score. Authority is built slowly over time but is determined by your site’s backlinks and organic keywords. For more on how to build your domain authority, visit our article to get the secret sauce behind improving organic search rankings.

For our friends who are interested in watching Google’s quick explainer video for more information on how Google search works, here it is.

Social Media Algorithms

So, what’s a social media algorithm? “A social media algorithm is the mathematical calculation that sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and [Snapchat] use to understand user habits and to customize the social experience,” says Matelski.

“Social media algorithms work seamlessly behind the scenes, optimizing the user experience without them knowing the system is at work.”

No two algorithms are identical but they all use similar structures to determine what content you see, to organize the way you see it, and when you see it. Here are a few elements to consider.

  • Social Signals: Social shares, likes, tweets, and pins on search engine rankings have been shown to increase SEO through several case studies. Social sharing helps boost your SEO ranking significantly if you stay consistent with organic content and ask people to share your content. For two more content marketing SEO tips, read on here.
  • Hashtags: Hashtags help categorize your content and will help users discover your business. Using hashtags in your social posts can also place your content higher in SERPs.
  • Captions: While it may be trendy to keep your captions simple (*cough cough* influencers who write one-word captions or only use emojis!), this is not the best practice for SEO and algorithm purposes. Great captions are engaging, SEO friendly, and memorable. Great captions take time and effort. Don’t underestimate the power of a great caption!
  • Video Content: We all know that video content is the number one media being pushed right now. So, get your business ready to push out some awesome video content if you haven’t already—Instagram reels, TikToks, explainer videos, testimonials, culture videos, the list goes on. Bonus tip? Use trending music in your videos to rank higher!

For those of you whose business is ready to take advantage of the benefits of video content, check out our article on Instagram Reels to learn how video content supports your social strategy.

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Top Five Mistakes You’re Making with Your Content

Content Marketing Mistakes

Hungry for some truth? Today’s your lucky day!

“Content marketing may be a relatively simple strategy,” says CEO and Founder of Marketing Insider Group. “That doesn’t mean it’s easy.” These are the wise words of Michael Brenner. (Psst… For those who don’t know Brenner, he’s a content marketing pro!)

Brenner’s words considered, it’s likely that your business is making some mistakes when it comes to content and your marketing strategy. Here are the top five mistakes you’re making with your content!

Not Using Keywords

Keywords? SEO? What does it all mean!? Don’t worry. Let’s start at the beginning.

Search engine optimization, also known as SEO, is a way that marketers tailor their content to appeal to search engines. Popular examples of search engines include Google, Yahoo!, and MSN Search. In today’s world, search engines rule the scene!

SEO keywords, also known as keywords or keyphrases, are “terms added to online content in order to improve search engine rankings,” according to Backlinko. Having a set of target keywords for your business is crucial because they are the bridge between what people search for and the services or products you provide.

To build this list, you must complete thorough and frequent keyword research. Keyword research is “the process by which you research popular search terms people type into search engines like Google.” Then, using said research, you strategize how to include these keywords in your content. Thus, placing you higher on search engine results pages (SERPs).

A higher ranking can improve your chances at business, deem you as an authority in the market, and increase a client’s likelihood of trusting or choosing to do business with you. 

Consider this: If you were searching for a new veterinarian for your dog, would you scroll to the fifth page of results on Google to the vet with a bleak social presence? Or, would you be more likely to trust a business that popped up on page one with hundreds of positive reviews and photos?

For this reason, it’s important that all of your content is optimized with relevant, targeted keywords. You want to rank higher on Google, don’t you!?

For more on why SEO is important for a financial services company (or any company for that matter!), visit this article. We promise you’ll walk away having learned something new.

An additional mistake to be wary of, (and often a byproduct of having a list of relevant keywords that you’re using on a consistent basis!), however, is keyword stuffing.

Keyword stuffing, as defined by Google, is “the practice of loading a webpage with keywords or numbers in an attempt to manipulate a site’s ranking in Google search results.” In short, you’ve gone too far! You know… there is such a thing as over-optimizing, and keyword stuffing is exactly that.

It’s a fine line to walk for sure. Our SEO team at Digital Storyteller can help you there.

Failing to Cater to Your Audience

Hooray! You’ve launched your business. Now, who should you market to? Some people might think, “If we market to everyone, we’ll

The truth of the matter is that your business, product, or services might not appeal to everyone. As Chris Do, Emmy award-winning designer, director, and CEO and founder of The Futur, once said, “If we cater to everyone, we’ll stand for no one.”

So, get eerily specific about who your audience is.

Learn who they are, what makes them tick, what they need and want. Who is benefitting from your business? What motivates them? Who holds influence over them?

Then, use this information to inform your branding, brand voice, and brand archetypes. These three elements are what help your brand become uniquely recognizable.

Narrowing down a specific target audience and catering to them specifically makes what you offer more memorable. Plus, when you cater to your audience and consider what they might want first, your chances of winning over their trust are higher. It’s a win-win!

As a business owner, when you only write content that you want to write, instead of what your prospects are searching for or need, you set yourself up for failure in an instant. (Just think how different your target audience is from you!)

Instead of writing whatever the heck you want, we’d recommend writing what’s trending. And no… we don’t mean “trending” in the sense of what’s currently trending on TikTok or Instagram. When we say “what’s trending,” we’re talking about what your prospects or target audience is currently searching for.

In other words, there’s a difference between what you want to talk about and what your prospects want to talk about. As Regina George from Mean Girls would say, “Stop trying to make fetch happen. It’s never going to happen.”

For those who are unfamiliar with the 2004 American teen comedy film, stop trying to make prospects interested in what you are interested in. You’re there to serve them.

At Digital Storyteller, we use SEMRush—an all-in-one tool suite that helps improve our clients’ online visibility. We use tools like SEMRush to conduct topic research. (Yes, you should be researching what to write about! Not just writing anything and everything you find interesting.)

SEMRush provides a ton of information on keywords and topic research including keyword difficulty % and search volume. 

Keyword difficulty shows you how hard it is “to rank in Google’s organic search results for a specific term” whereas search volume measures how many people are searching for a particular topic, keyword, or question.

Simply put, to be on top of your content marketing game, you need to answer relevant questions that are being asked frequently. After all, you don’t want to write content that no one is searching for in the first place!

Writing Too Much or Not Enough Content

This one is pretty self-explanatory. If you’re writing too much, your content will get swept under the rug. Longer doesn’t always mean better! Remember, it’s not the 1800s anymore, aka you’re not the author who is getting paid per page that they write.

Moreover, attention spans are shrinking. In fact, a recent study by Microsoft concluded that the human attention span has shrunk nearly 25% in just a few years. Search engines are getting smarter every day.

Even if you write the longest article ever, filled to the brim with what you think is juicy information, Google will not rank you well if your content fails to meet the needs of that target audience we chatted about earlier on in this article.

Finding the sweet spot between too much content or not enough is a tightrope, but with our help, we know you can do it! Think Goldilocks…

And of course, it’s equally important that prospects and existing clients are engaging with your brand. This might look like likes, comments, clicks, shares, and so on. When you have high levels of engagement in today’s day and age, algorithms reward you by pushing your content to more people (which leads to brand awareness aka exactly what you want!)

Your Content is a Walking Sales Pitch

Let’s face it. You’re not Jordan Belfort. Today, people look for more than just a sales pitch. People are drawn to stories.

Consider: how do you feel receiving constant ads or pitches? At Digital Storyteller, we think it’s pretty annoying, and would recommend that instead, you try your hand at telling a story.

Why? “Storytelling enables marketers to develop a deeper connection with the audience,” according to Forbes. “[It] is a fundamental human experience that unites people and drives stronger, deeper connections.” (Well, duh! Storytelling even goes back as far as the cavemen days.)

National Geographic is a top-notch example of a brand that implements great storytelling.

Their awe-inspiring images paired with their captivating stories keep people coming back for more. Check out this example from their Instagram!

By crafting a story, you provide value.

It can be used to educate, share, communicate, and connect.

Instead of overselling your content, focus on a call to action (CTA) instead. CTAs with strong action words that evoke emotion.Feeling overwhelmed? Here is all you need to know about crafting organic content creation to grab your prospects’ attention plus four tips on how to organize content!

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