Month: December 2020

The Client

The Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo (ADSFR) is a big event here on the Gulf Coast every year, well regarded as the biggest fishing tournament in the entire world, where thousands come to compete in fishing for the finest specimens that the Gulf has to offer. In fact, they currently hold the Guinness Record for Biggest Annual Fishing Rodeo. We were honored when we were approached by the runners of the project, the Mobile Jaycees, in 2018 to build a brand new website for the event. Their site at the time was out of date; not responsive and generally lacked the creative feeling that they wanted to represent them. They wanted a website that worked, one that looked sleek and modern and included some much-needed features. So of course, we said OK!

The Website

With ADSFR having such a huge following, the website needed to be solid. We decided to use WordPress, for its reliability and extensible nature, which proved to be a good decision. ADSFR needed a series of features tailored specifically to the event, such as live weather updates that connect out to the buoys floating in the Gulf, as well as live leaderboards for the tournaments and live feeds. Apparel sales are also huge for the event, so the board wanted to support that through a new eCommerce section of the website, where users would be able to buy a variety of the events’ yearly items online during the event. These are all complicated features, and no existing set of code offered by WordPress was going to implement them.

So, we had to write our own. Our team of developers wrote a custom WordPress site, complete with PHP-powered interfaces completely unique to the site, that reliably pulled in all the necessary information. We lovingly crafted 32 individual pages, each one including all necessary marketing tags like Google Analytics and search console. The eCommerce portion was specifically built out to sell 13 different products to fans of the event in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

By the end, the ADSFR website was functional, reliable and up-to-date.

The Results

Their website was a big hit. The update greatly impacted the participants’ and spectators’ experience by allowing them an easy-to-use space to get all the information they needed online. In July alone, the site amassed 50,607 sessions, a major increase.

As far as merch, with the help of our developers and advertising team, we were able to bring in tons of web traffic and sales for as little as $0.93 for advertising per customer purchase, an astoundingly good value that made them very satisfied with their ROI. Within just days of the site being online, over 600 merch orders were already placed. This site was a huge victory for our client and for us, and we can’t wait for the next annual event to see it help them again.

Google Ads is a terrific – to some, an essential – tool for a business’s marketing strategy. In theory, it’s as simple as picking keywords that match your users’ searches to your services and writing some basic text that encourages them to click. 

But Google Ads is deceptively complicated, and people wouldn’t hire us if it wasn’t, right?

Google Ads is filled to the brim with nuance, and looking deeper at how Google Ads works is important. While researching, you may also find some examples of Google Ads failing a business’s budget, which often were simple mistakes causing a big impact. To save you some trouble, we are listing 5 simple, but big, mistakes that people make when setting up Google Ads for their businesses.

1. Confusing Impressions for Results

This is the case with all online marketing, but it’s an important principle to keep in mind when using Google Ads. Impressions are not results. Impressions are views, and nothing more. Impressions increase when your ad merely appears in someone’s search results. Many see this number and stop looking, and continually add keywords without considering a campaign’s results. How much money are you making back from your Google Ads? That’s the question to ask because remember, a single sale is a single sale, whether you got 1 impression or 10,000,000.

2. Not Thinking Like Your Customers

As business owners, we tend to have a single-minded view of what our keywords should be. Those keywords are often offerings, services and product names. Those things should be keywords, but they are not enough. Those are the ideal searches, but often, it means you are not reaching the people who truly need you without knowing to look for you. Tons of people search Google, not looking for one thing directly, but looking for Google to provide a series of solutions. So the next time you update your keywords, always ask yourself: “What do my clients search for?”

3. Your Keywords are Too Broad

Broad keywords are keywords with no “quotation marks” or [brackets], meaning Google will do its best to make assumptions about those keywords. Google will automatically match your keyword with similar keywords in an attempt to catch more attention for words you don’t explicitly write down. This is a great tool – sometimes. It is easy to assume that every keyword should be broad, but doing so can cost you money down the road, not to mention having the potential of false leads. We usually recommend your keywords be “phrase matched” (within quotation marks). It’s a balance between broad and exact matching. This strategy tends to have good results without placing you at risk for showing up for keywords that you shouldn’t be. When in doubt, targeting a more narrow set of keywords is more recommended than the alternative.

4. Not Using Negative Keywords

Negative keywords are the opposite of keywords. They are words you do not want your ad to show up for, and it is common for new users of Google Ads to ignore them. But they are just as useful as keywords! We are always optimizing our campaigns, which means we are often adding negative keywords. Every negative keyword you add saves you money on a result or click that you do not want to pay for. We highly recommend that anyone using Google Ads utilize them as often as possible.

5. Having a Poor Post-Click Experience

Even if your Google Ads are the best in the world, the most important thing to remember is where you want those searchers to go: your website. That click should point them to what they wanted to see, ideally a landing page on your website that gives them the answer they wanted immediately. Your landing page should be fast, reliable and easy to use, with clearly displayed contact information and calls to action. (If you need help building one, or optimizing yours, feel free to reach out!)

Google Ads are complicated for all of those reasons and more. That is why many businesses opt to hire a marketing agency with experience. At Southern View Media, we have made Google work for hundreds of clients across hundreds of industries. If you are interested, call us today!

Articles about building your brand with the help of a marketing strategy are all over the internet. As a beginner, you will slowly notice that a business will thrive off the story behind the brand. The core steps that get you there are not only important but will determine your brand’s purpose and the overall areas of success. To help you fill in the blanks, we’re highlighting a few key points that we think are worth noting.

Define Your Brand.

Ask yourself this: “What am I offering, and why is it important?” Customers will want to invest their time in a product or service just as much as you do if they know what your brand provides and stands for. By creating this safe space for core values, interested consumers will easily become attracted both online and off. 

Target Audience Reach

Being naive and thinking that “the public” will have an interest in your brand tends to make you stray away from your overall focus. You must therefore define your target audience and reach with the mindset of looking at plausible influences. Who are the interested age groups? What do they bring to the table as far as sharing the same interests, and are they capable of reaching a tangible product or service with their personal earnings? Also consider ways that you can reach them, whether it be through a first-time user sign-up email newsletter or through an ad. 

Center Your Brand Story

This is the time where you want your brand to shine and tell its story. How you want to present this story is up to you. Most marketing strategies will consist of building a website and getting the about page and mission statement up and running. 

Create It. 

The way you present your brand’s look will help visually attract what you want to project. All aspects matter here, from the colors you choose to the way your product is packaged. The marketplace competition should be a reason your brand’s look stands out as you acquire it to fit and convey your brand’s value. 

Continue To Show up.

After you have presented your brand, you will need to continue to show up. Social media platforms are a great way to show off your skills by creating and uploading content. Engagement will also take part in your brand marketing strategy as customers want to feel included in what you bring to the table with comments and questions. New product launches, innovative features and limited-time offers are great ways to keep the momentum going.

Contact us to find out how we can help with your business’s digital presence. For a free consultation to formulate a strategic and affordable plan, call us today at 251-583-2605 or visit www.southernviewmedia.com. We are a Google Trusted Agency and will be happy to answer your questions.

THE CLIENT

Advanced Management Operations Platform (AMOP) is a connectivity platform created to assist both carriers and enterprise customers to manage their processes. When you work with AMOP, you can also work with Altaworx, a successful telecommunications company based in Fairhope, AL.

The client asked for a sleek and modern look that would complement the design of the preexisting Altaworx site and brand. We more than delivered.

THE WEBSITE

A Southern View Media designer created mockups of the homepage and secondary page. Upon approval from the client, one of our expert developers brought the designs to life within WordPress by utilizing Elementor. With its design and features, the website is simple and accessible while maintaining a modern appearance.

Our developer used CSS throughout the AMOP website. The site consists of seven individual pages. Six of those web pages highlight different aspects of AMOP. The seventh page, “Contact Us”, utilizes custom CSS within the unique honeycomb shape. It also takes advantage of Gravity Forms. 

THE RESULTS

The final product is a website designed to promote AMOP and its services, as well as earn leads for both AMOP and Altaworx. You can visit the final site at www.getamop.com.