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Design, News

It’s easy to be daunted by a technical term like website UX… but really, the concept is extraordinarily simple. UX stands for user experience, and all it means is that, when someone visits your website, you want to make it as easy as possible for that visitor to locate the information they seek. In short, you want their experience on your website to be smooth sailing, never frustrating or onerous.

UX is important for myriad reasons; in fact, it can impact almost every key metric. Your SEO rankings, conversions, bounce rates and dwell time all rise or fall according to the experience you offer the end-user.

Something else that’s important to note is that pretty much every aspect of your Web design impacts the UX in one way or another, either positively or negatively. Today, we’re going to focus on the latter. Here are six things that, however innocent or well-intentioned they may be, can actually erode your website UX.

6 Things That Can Harm UX

  1. Lack of direction. When someone visits your website, it should be immediately clear to them what they should do next, whether that means scrolling down or clicking a link. If your website makes it difficult for the visitor to reach their desired endpoint, that’s a problem. Make sure you always have clear navigation, and also calls to action on every page that prompt the user for how to proceed.
  2. Lack of mobile-first design. Just because a website looks good on the desktop, that doesn’t guarantee that it will look good when shrunk down to mobile-sized screens. If users have to do a lot of zooming or scrolling to make your website accommodate their screen, that’s a problem. Always double and triple-check that your site looks sharp on all device types and on all browsers.
  3. Too much text. It’s good to give people information. It’s not so good to give people so much text that it makes their eyeballs go numb. By all means, present some valuable content, but make sure you break it down into small paragraphs and easy-to-digest sections. Allow the end-user to skim through your site with ease as they look for a particular piece of information.
  4. Slow loading time. Nobody wants to wait for a full minute for your site to load… especially not if you have competitors whose sites load more expediently. In fact, statistics show that most Google Search users are only willing to wait four seconds or so before they give up and move on to the next site. Be sure you eliminate any bad code or large files that make your website slow loading.
  5. A cluttered appearance. The human eye needs a little white space. That means, if your site barrages the user with images and text, it may be too overwhelming for them. Make sure you allow for some negative space along the margins and between design elements. Don’t feel like you have to fill every square inch of your website with stuff.
  6. Confusing architecture. Finally, a good UX requires you to have a navigational structure that lays out just a few simple options for the user to choose from. If your home page points off to 30 different pages, that may overwhelm your user; rather, it should lead naturally to just a handful of secondary pages, which in turn may branch out into additional pages, etc.

Does Your UX Need an Overhaul?

As you consider your website, it’s critical to look at it from the end user’s perspective… and to ensure the strongest possible UX. If that’s something you’d like to learn more about, reach out and let’s chat. Contact the design team at Driven2020 to discuss your specific UX needs.

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Design

When you begin a Facebook Ads campaign, you’ll face a number of important decisions. One of the most important of all is the decision you make about your objective. That’s because the ad objective you choose determines so many other aspects of your campaign, including the way you bid, the way your campaign is optimized, and more.

The problem is, choosing your ad objective can be rather daunting. There are more than a dozen options provided by Facebook, and there isn’t a lot of detail provided to help you pick one over the others.

There’s actually quite a bit that could be said about each of the available ad objectives. But in today’s post we just want to provide an overview; hopefully, this will help you narrow down your options and make better sense of which ad objective is right for your campaign.

About Facebook’s Ad Objectives

Here’s the rundown.

  1. Store Traffic. The Store Traffic objective is mostly for chains. If you want to drive traffic for a chain of stores or to help your end-user connect with a specific location that’s closest to them, then this is probably the best option for you to choose.
  2. Reach. When you choose this objective, you’re optimizing your campaign to get as many people as possible to see your ads, and for those people to see your ads as many times as possible. In other words, it’s all about exposure.
  3. Brand Awareness. If you’re looking to increase brand recall, pick this option, which signals to Facebook that you want them to show your ads to people that will be more likely to remember you.
  4. Traffic. This one’s among the most self-explanatory objectives. Simply put, it’s what you should pick if you’re looking to get as much traffic as possible for your website or your app.
  5. Engagement. This one’s all about encouraging people to engage with your content in some way, such as liking and/or commenting. If you’re looking to amass social proof for your product or service, this is a good one to think about.
  6. Lead Generation. Useful at any point in the sales funnel, the Lead Generation objective is highly versatile; among other things, you can ask for customer email addresses to start building up your subscriber list.
  7. Video Views. Another self-explanatory ad objective, this one is good for any campaign that hinges on video content.
  8. Messenger. Are your leads likely to have questions or need certain pieces of information before they make their purchasing decision? If so, you might consider this objective, which encourages your end-user to reach out to your company via Messenger.
  9. Catalog Sales. For eCommerce vendors that have catalogs attached to their business manager, this objective can be a helpful option.
  10. Conversions. This is probably the most popular objective because after all, conversions are what this whole process is ultimately about! Be warned, however, that this is mostly useful for bottom-of-funnel scenarios when your leads are just about ready to convert.
  11. Event Response. If you want to get Facebook users to RSVP to an event, this is the objective for you.
  12. Page Likes. Just looking to get more Facebook users to LIKE your page? Here’s how you do it!
  13. App Install. Finally, if you have an app that you want users to install on their device, here’s an objective that’s just right for your goals!

Find Out More About Facebook Ads

As you can tell, there’s a lot to think about as you start optimizing your Facebook Ads campaign. If you have further questions or want to talk to a Facebook Ads expert one-on-one, reach out to Driven2020 at your earliest convenience! Don’t miss out on what Facebook Ads can do for your business.

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News

On some level, most SEO and digital marketing professionals know how important user engagement is. Consider this: The search algorithms have a simple role… to provide the end user with the best, most relevant answers to their queries. Google and the other search engines want to offer users meaningful results. As such, they try to reward the content that gets people clicking and interacting.

If your website doesn’t provide users with relevant information—if users don’t find it worthy of their engagement—then your SERP rankings are liable to drop, as your site is effectively replaced with something deemed to be more relevant.

That’s the simple summary of user engagement and its relationship with SEO, but of course, there’s quite a bit of complexity contained within this topic.

Different Types of User Engagement

You’ll naturally want to focus on content that promotes user engagement, yet it’s important to note that user engagement comes in many different forms. Some of the most common examples include:

  1. Click-through rates. This is the entry-level user engagement you need—e.g., people seeing your website in the SERP and actually clicking on it.
  2. External forms of engagement—linking to your content, sharing it across social media platforms, etc.
  3. Dwell time. Once someone clicks through to visit your site, how often do they stay there?

Tracking the Right Metrics

Each of these types of engagement is meaningful, and worth pursuing. Taking a strategic approach to user engagement requires SEO professionals to actually monitor and measure their progress, which means knowing the most useful metrics. Here are a few to consider, all available in Google Analytics.

  1. Pageviews. This measures the total number of visits to your page within a set span of time.
  2. Top content. This metric helps you determine which piece of content has received the most engagement.
  3. New visitors. Are you actually growing your audience, or are all your pageviews coming from the same people?
  4. Bounce rate. How often do people visit your site and then immediately navigate away? You want to aim for the lowest bounce rate possible.
  5. Time on site. How long do people spend reviewing the content on your site? More time equals a higher level of engagement!
  6. Conversions. Are your website visitors signing up, calling, emailing, etc.? This is one of the most important engagement metrics of all!

How Engagement Impacts SEO

It’s important to note that not all of these metrics are Google ranking factors—though a couple of them, like dwell time, are.

While they are not all directly impactful to Google’s algorithms, they can certainly make a big difference with regard to your overall ranking. More precisely, having good engagement numbers proves that people are connecting with your content and finding it to be useful—and again, that’s what Google and the other search algorithms prize above all else.

A good approach for SEOs is to stop thinking in terms of the algorithms and what they want—to stop chasing these different ranking factors—and instead focus on simply creating content that will cultivate engagement, across these different metrics and categories.

It’s by giving your end users what they want that you can ultimately satisfy the search algorithms and achieve robust rankings.

Connect with Driven2020 to Learn More

It may sound straightforward, but of course, there’s nothing easy about developing content that generates engagement. That’s why we encourage companies to work closely with an SEO and digital marketing partner, like Driven2020.

We’re here to offer a data-driven, no-fuss approach to content creation and search engine optimization. Reach out to Driven2020 today to discuss the solutions we can offer.

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News

Nobody ever said search engine optimization (SEO) was easy. Actually, it can sometimes feel downright complicated. Not only are the algorithms constantly shifting and evolving but there’s a huge number of factors you have to account for if you want your site to rank.

Some of those factors are what are known as off-site ranking factors. These include signals to the search algorithms that your content is valuable to the end user—for example, links from other reputable publications.

But there are also on-site ranking factors, which have more to do with organizing your site in a way that it’s easy for the algorithms to scan it.

These on-site factors are incredibly important, and they’re also relatively easy to get a handle on. As far as SEO goes, they can be low-hanging fruit.

And yet, many websites overlook them! Here are just a few of the most common on-site ranking factors you need; double and triple check that you’ve crossed off all these boxes. And if you need an expert opinion, the Driven2020 team is here for you.

Don’t Skip These Crucial Ranking Factors

  1. Compelling content. Google uses a framework called EAT, which stands for expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. Basically, the algorithms want to reward premium-grade, highly relevant content that truly satisfies user queries. Are you providing it?
  2. Title tags. Also called SEO titles, these are the page titles that appear at the top of the search window. They tell both the algorithms and the end user what the page is all about—and although your space is limited, title tags can be a valuable place to include some keywords.
  3. Meta description. Every page should have a meta description—a short description that tells the algorithms and the search user what the page is about. This is the snippet of text you’ll see on the SERP. Again, use a keyword or two if you can. Include a call to action. And, be sure each page has an original meta description. Unique content is key.
  4. Headline. Similarly, each page should have a clear, compelling headline at the top—something that provides the reader with a reason to scan your page. Again, if you can work in an organic keyword or two, that’s even better.
  5. Image optimization. The images on your page should never be an afterthought! On the contrary, you should be careful to select quality images that support your content. Also, make sure you optimize them with SEO-friendly titles and alt tags. Images present invaluable opportunities for search optimization, yet they are often overlooked.
  6. Great copywriting. The quality of your writing matters—but what makes good, SEO-friendly copywriting? The critical thing is readability. Just make sure you write something that reads well and is easy to skim. Focus on the end user and on delivering valuable information—and generally, the rest will fall into place.
  7. SEO keywords. Finally, make sure you’ve done your keyword research; Google gives you plenty of tools. As for how to place them, we’ve noted some strategic areas throughout this post (meta description, headline, etc.), but you can also work them into your content organically. Again, so long as you use them judiciously and keep the focus on readability and coherence, you should be just fine.

These are just a few of the on-site SEO opportunities you have available to you. To find out more about strategic site optimization, give us a call. Driven2020 boasts a team of seasoned, results-oriented SEO professionals, and we’d love to take a look at your site. Reach out to us today!

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Design, News

Almost every day you hear about a new channel for digital outreach and communication—a new app, a new social media service, what have you. Meanwhile, there’s nothing new or sexy about email…yet it remains pivotal to our everyday lives. And for marketers, it remains the single best way to connect with your target audience. Yes, study after study confirms it: Email marketing works. Better than anything else.

Maybe that surprises you, or maybe you’re a big believer in the importance of email marketing. Either way, it’s important to know that not all email marketing campaigns are created equal. Just because you’re sending out a newsletter to your subscriber list, that hardly guarantees you’re reaping all the benefits of email marketing.

Consider some ways to enhance and accentuate your strategy—to truly get the best possible results from your email marketing efforts.

Get All the Benefits of Email Marketing

Segment Your Lists

Read any article about how email marketing works and you’ll see a lot of emphasis on personalization.

Personalization is certainly important. You want your readers to feel like you’re writing just to them. That’s why it’s long been common practice for email marketers to include the recipient’s first name somewhere in the message.

That’s all well and good, but it’s also kind of an old trick. To really get the most out of your email marketing, you’ll need to take your personalization efforts a little further.

One way you can do that is to break down and segment your subscriber list into different audiences, focused on demographics or interests. For example, a law firm that handles both estate planning and succession planning may have one email list for estate planning clients, another list for business owners.

This allows you to tailor your email content more specifically to the recipient’s interests and provide them with something that’s truly relevant to them.

Get the Timing Right

You’d be amazed at what a big difference timing can make.

You may send your message at 8:00 in the morning and get no results whatsoever, whereas sending at 2:45 in the afternoon will get you countless opens and conversions.

There’s not always a clear way to tell which time is best for your audience, but you can track which times work and which don’t and adapt your strategy accordingly.

There are even email marketing software programs that allow you to determine the best send time for individual recipients.

The bottom line: don’t overlook the importance of email marketing timing.

Stay Out of the Spam Filters

Something else you’ll come across as you read about how email marketing works: plenty of references to spam filters.

Simply put, today’s email platforms are hip to your tricks. They have safeguards in place to ensure that spammy emails don’t wind up in inboxes, but instead get dumped straight into the trash.

You can avoid that fate by avoiding the keywords that tend to trigger spam filters, including overly salesy words—sale, 50 percent off, etc.

And if you actually are trying to tell people about a big 50 percent off sale, make sure you properly contextualize your message with high-quality writing and substantive content.

Get the Email Marketing Expertise You Need

These are just a few of our top tips for determining what’s wrong with your email marketing, then ratcheting up the performance.

To learn more about email marketing for busy attorneys, we invite you to reach out to Driven2020. Our digital marketing services include email, and are always tailored to meet the client’s needs.

Embrace the power of email marketing by contacting Driven2020 today!

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Design

In digital marketing, it’s important to try new things—to take risks, to swing for the fences, and to adjust your strategy on the fly. Some of the things you try will work wonders and some may come up short. That’s okay, so long as you learn from your trials and devote yourself to continuous improvement.

The problem is that a lot of brand marketers don’t have any way to learn from their mistakes or even to tell what works and what doesn’t work in the first place. That’s because they lack clear metrics, and in particular content performance metrics.

Simply put, how do you know whether all the branded content you’re developing is making any impact? What can you do to monitor and measure your content performance, ensuring you’re doubling down on what works and learning from what doesn’t?

Decide Which Content Performance Metrics to Track

The first thing to ask yourself is this: In measuring content performance, which metrics are actually important? These days, it’s possible to measure just about everything…but if you measure anything, you’ll quickly find yourself drowning in analytics. It’s important to be judicious about what you do and don’t measure. To accomplish that:

  • Set the organizational goals for your content marketing—what are you ultimately trying to accomplish? How will you determine whether your content is successful?
  • From there, you can identify top measurement priorities. For instance, if your ultimate goal is increasing sales, you’ll want to look at conversion data; if it’s improving brand awareness, you might look at website traffic or social media engagement numbers.
  • Establish some basic performance benchmarks, which makes measuring content performance much easier.
  • Also calculate the costs associated with creating your content and getting the results you need, which can help you contextualize your findings.

Track, Measure, and Monitor

Once you determine which content performance marketing metrics you’re evaluating, the next step is to do it!

  • Start by creating a measurement schedule; how often will you stop to gather data and generate analytics?
  • Build a measurement dashboard where you can look at all the key metrics and keep track of findings. This could be as simple as an Excel spreadsheet.
  • Invest in monitoring and analytics tools that can automate the process and furnish you with useable results! Ask your marketing agency for a recommendation.
  • Make sure you have a system in place to organize your information for easy reporting.

Turn Data into Insight

The final step in the process is to use your content performance marketing metrics to gather actionable insights.

  • It may be beneficial to come up with a scoring system, which you can use to evaluate the success/efficacy of different channels or pieces of content.
  • Use Google Analytics to get a good, condensed lineup of powerful metrics, including page views and bounce rates—both of which will help you better size up your content assets.
  • Compare your data with your content creation and distribution costs and calculate your real return on investment.

It’s often said that to do marketing without analytics is like flying blind. That’s very true for those who work in content and for whom analytic data abounds…yet actually putting that data to good use can be daunting.

Driven2020 is here to provide our clients with a truly data-driven approach. Make truly smart, informed content decisions by gaining insights from our team. Reach out to us today to discuss content marketing performance metrics in greater detail or to develop a new online content strategy for your business. (See also: How to keep your law firm’s content marketing engaging; how to get efficient with your content marketing.)

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News

Executing a successful SEO strategy is anything but simple. There are countless factors to juggle, including both technical and creative components, off-site ranking signals as well as on-site cues. What’s more, Google’s search algorithms are always in a state of flux; the SEO expert has to keep tabs on a constant stream of updates and revisions.

Given the complexity of SEO, it’s only natural that mistakes are made. Even the most accomplished SEO professionals can err, and usually, it’s possible to course-correct and bounce back.

With that said, there are some incredibly common SEO mistakes that amateurs often make, and their results can really be catastrophic. If you don’t quickly right these wrongs, your entire SEO endeavor can come up short.

These Common SEO Mistakes Can Ruin Your Efforts

Some examples:

  • Not properly defining your goals. You may say that the goal of SEO is obvious—it’s to get better rankings. Sure, but for which keywords are you trying to rank? In which geographic area? And how will you measure and define success? Do you have to be on the first page of Google for certain search terms, or are you simply looking to gain a little more prominence among local search engine users? Defining objectives and metrics is always key and is one of the biggest and most common SEO mistakes.
  • Not assigning roles. It takes a full team effort to make your SEO campaign a success. You need Web design, you need social media, you need content, you need someone to track data and analytics—there’s a lot to consider. It’s crucial to specify who’s doing what, and to outline all the responsibilities required to meet your goals. If you don’t, things could start to slip through the cracks.
  • Working without a schedule and a plan. SEO isn’t something where you can fly by the seat of your pants or make it all up as you go along. It’s important to plot out your strategy in advance, and to create a schedule of when key tasks will be completed. Again, without this planning, you may find that important tasks get overlooked.
  • Not paying enough attention to your website. You’d be amazed how many SEO campaigns have a deficient website at their center. Remember that the website is the hub of all your SEO efforts, and that ensuring the proper content, keyword placement, and site architecture can make or break your entire mission.
  • Growing slack in your content production. You’ve got to continually feed the content monster! Regular blogging and video content are especially key. Without fresh content updates on a regular basis, you’ll quickly be forgotten by the Google search algorithms.
  • Not staying abreast of algorithmic changes. Again, it’s important to understand that SEO best practices aren’t etched in stone, and that the algorithms themselves change regularly. Make sure you have trusted resources to keep you in the know about these updates, and that you tweak and adjust your strategy accordingly.
  • Paying for stuff you don’t need. Like anything else, SEO requires you to have a budget in place. Far too many businesses blow their budget on stuff they don’t really need and are common SEO mistakes made while failing to invest in the things that really bring results.

Incidentally, Driven2020 was founded with the mission of connecting clients to those things that really yield results, excising all the fluff that tend to eat into SEO budgets. In other words, if you’re looking to invest in an SEO plan that’s totally focused on moving the needle and helping you meet your goals, you need to give us a call! Reach out to Driven2020 to talk SEO today and avoid making common SEO mistakes that can ultimately cost you.

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Design

First impressions are important. They’re important on dates, they’re important in real estate, and they’re certainly important in marketing. Simply put, your potential customers or clients will very quickly form an opinion of your business, and if it’s a negative one, you may never have the chance to correct it.

That’s very pertinent to any discussion of website user experience, or UX. There are some complicated definitions of UX we could give you, but ultimately, it’s just a matter of making your visitors feel welcome and make the effort to improve your website. Good UX means your page is readable, it’s easy to navigate, and it helps the visitor locate whatever information he or she seeks.

UX matters for your first impressions, and good UX can underscore the professionalism of your firm. What’s more, UX is a big SEO ranking factor. All of this is just to say that it’s well worth investing in a positive UX for your law firm’s website—but how to improve your website?

6 Tips for a Better Website UX

Here are some simple ways your firm can improve website UX today:

  1. Make sure the content on each page is broken down with appropriate headings and subheadings. This not only makes it easy on the eye—nobody really wants to see one long, unbroken block of text—but it also means that someone who’s just skimming can very quickly get a feel for what your content is about, and zero in on the section that’s relevant to them.
  2. Add original images to your site. What do we mean by original, exactly? Well, basically, we mean not stock images. Most Web users can immediately identify these generic pics, and it can be a major turn-off. Whenever possible, have original graphics designed and unique photos taken for your firm’s site.
  3. Be certain that there’s white space throughout your website. That means margins. It means a little breathing room between text blocks and images. It means not filling every single square inch of online real estate. Simply put, white space is vital for making your site readable. Without it, you’re just offering your visitors a headache.
  4. Double and triple check that your site is optimized for mobile users. These days, most sites are, but you don’t want to leave this to chance. See how the site looks on all device types and on various browsers. If it’s hard to read, requires a lot of scrolling, or loads too slowly, that’s reason enough to get under the hood and do some retooling.
  5. Speaking of loading times… it’s best if your site loads in two or three seconds, tops. If it doesn’t, visitors will get frustrated and head elsewhere. Loading time is a huge

component of positive UX, and something your firm should definitely explore.

  • Finally, spend some time combing your site and making sure there aren’t any dead links. When someone clicks something on your site and it leads to a 404 Error, it can be annoying, to say the least. And while you’re at it, create a personalized 404 page, just in case; this can sometimes prevent a frustrated user from jumping to a different firm’s site altogether.

Contact Driven2020 to Ask About UX

UX experience matters for a number of reasons when looking to improve your website, and it’s not something you can leave to chance. We’d love to help you ensure a law firm website that’s ready to make a positive first impression on each visitor; Driven2020 has worked with a number of law firms throughout California and across the country, and we’d love to show you some of our user-friendly, SEO-enhances website designs. Reach out to us today to schedule a consultation.

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News

These days, all SEO is local. What matters to business owners is that their brand can be discovered by consumers within the community—the folks who might actually become paying customers. That’s certainly true for law firms, which may care about national name recognition but probably care even more with potential clients in their own backyard.

Local search success doesn’t happen by accident; the good news, though, is that there are some simple strategies firms can take to generate results.

5 Things Law Firms Can Do to Improve Their Local Search Visibility

1. Include the right keywords.

For attorneys, there are a couple of keyword categories to keep in mind. They are:

  • Hiring intent keywords. These are the words and phrases a client might use when they are looking for an attorney to hire—e.g., estate planning lawyer, commercial litigation firm, real estate lawyer, etc.
  • Research intent keywords. These are the words and phrases prioritized by those who are simply trying to get the lay of the land, and to determine whether they need an attorney at all—e.g., what is a will, do I need a trust, what are the penalties for a DUI, etc.

We’d recommend including both types of keywords in your content; use the Google Keyword Planner to help you determine some smart phrases for your firm’s website.

2. Have a Google My Business page.

We can’t recommend this highly enough. Signing up for a Google My Business account is free, and it’s what allows your firm to show up on Google Map results—i.e. to be prominent in local searches. Make sure you take the time to sign up for a profile, fill it out completely, and work in some of your keywords where possible.

3. Optimize your website

There are a number of on-page SEO opportunities for lawyers to keep in mind—too many to name them all here. To get you started, though, here are some steps we recommend:

  • Make sure you have a meta description, including keywords.
  • Include a call to action on every page of your site.
  • Include an H1 title tag on each page of your site, ideally with a keyword included.
  • Make sure your NAP (name, address, phone number) information is listed on every page of your law firm website.

4. Get citations and links.

In terms of off-page SEO opportunities, citations and links are especially valuable. You can often get listed on other sites simply by asking—for example:

  • General/national business directories
  • Industry-specific directories
  • Local business associations and Chambers of Commerce

Reaching out to claim these opportunities is very much worth the effort, and can add a little credibility to your firm’s website.

5. Cultivate reviews.

Reviews on Facebook, Yelp, and especially Google can help your business reach a wider audience. Indeed, Google puts a lot of emphasis on reviews, so it’s very much worth your while to directly ask your clients to provide some words of feedback. And when you get reviews, whether positive or negative, view it as a chance to show some customer service, thanking the reviewer and, if necessary, asking how you can improve their opinion of your firm.

Local SEO for Law Firms

These local SEO tips can help your firm be discovered by the right people—and if you’re ready to put them into action, we’d love to help. Contact Driven2020, a marketing agency that specializes in helping law firms, today. Connect with us at your next opportunity and we’ll start the conversation!

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Design

These days it seems like every business has their own blog, Facebook feed, and YouTube channel—trying to make good on the promises of content marketing. Not all content marketing efforts are created equal, though, and for every business that finds smashing success, there’s one that comes up short. One way to ensure your content marketing efforts thrive is to review some of the most common content marketing misfires—then taking care to avoid them at all costs.

The Top 5 Content Marketing Mistakes

These are the content marketing errors we see most commonly.

1. Not putting the audience first.

Great content doesn’t mean anything if you don’t have an audience to receive it—yet too many brands create content more or less in a vacuum. For one thing, they fail to identify the social media channels and digital platforms where their customers actually congregate—a fatal mistake. And, they neglect to ask questions, solicit feedback, and engage with their audience, effectively ignoring the social part of social media. These errors can make your content marketing feel one-sided and ultimately ineffective.

2. Focusing too much on SEO.

To be clear, content marketing and SEO are not at odds with one another. In fact, they’re really two sides of the same coin. With that said, it is possible to focus so much on optimization—stuffing keywords into every single sentence—that your content comes across as robotic or formulaic. Really, the best thing you can do is focus on creating real value for human readers that the algorithms will figure it out from there.

3. Having overly high expectations.

You can and should set goals for your content marketing, and expect your efforts to generate some results over time. With that said, content marketing isn’t something that yields fruit immediately. It’s ultimately about building relationships, and that requires a long-term commitment. We see a lot of companies that assume their blog or their tweets will send their sales through the roof overnight, and that’s just not reasonable. Be patient and stick with it!

4. Being inconsistent.

Simply put, if you only post a blog post or update your Facebook page once every five months, you can’t expect to get any traction. Again, you have to think of content marketing as a relationship, and relationships need to be nurtured. Make sure you maintain a schedule of regular content updates. Using an editorial calendar can help you achieve this kind of consistency in your posts.

5. Focusing on quantity instead of quality.

While consistent posting is essential, that doesn’t mean you should focus on the number of articles over the quality of those articles. The most important thing of all is providing your readers with valuable insight and useful information. Find a rhythm that works for your business—one where you’re creating new content at a regular interval but never sacrificing your standards of quality.

Develop a Content Marketing Approach That’s Right for You

As you consider your content marketing needs, and as you strive for a campaign that avoids these common errors, we invite you to give Driven2020 a call. We help businesses create digital marketing strategies that get real results, and that includes everything from content creation to content distribution.

We’d love to sit down with you, learn about your business, and help you establish some content marketing best-practices that deliver higher customer loyalty and increased sales. Reach out to Driven2020 today to start a conversation with us about your content marketing needs!

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