What is Snapchat?

Snap, Inc states they are “a camera company”.

“We believe that reinventing the camera represents our greatest opportunity to improve the way people live and communicate. We contribute to human progress by empowering people to express themselves, live in the moment, learn about the world, and have fun together”.

Snapchat allows users to capture and send “Snaps” which are only viewable for a set duration between 1 to 10 seconds before they automatically delete, or with no time limitation until they are closed by the recipient.

Snapchat users have an option to save specific snaps on a private storage area with the “Memories” feature. Users can see locations on a map where other people make their snaps.

For many businesses the holiday season can dictate over 50% of their entire years’ revenue.

Planning is important.

A solid strategy is important.

Hardcore planning of Holiday marketing should begin in June. You’ll want a strategy in place by the time September rolls around. Cultivating your Email subscribers year-round is doubly important because if you’ve spent time growing your list you should have a good base of customers ready to buy from you come holiday season.

If you’re playing catch-up and it’s later in the season than you’d like, there are still a few holiday email marketing strategies you can put into place.

Using custom Facebook Frames will give a unique twist for your business page and/or to share images with your followers. Great to use for personalizing profile photos, page photos and for business event frames.

You may or may not be familiar with the Google Keyword Planner tool, formerly known as the Google Keyword Tool. There was a time the Google Keyword Tool was accessible under its own URL and free to use for everyone, however in June of 2016 – Google rolled the Google Keyword Tool under the umbrella of Google Adwords, restricting use only to those logged into an AdWords account.

If you’re already registered with Google Ads (Adwords), then you most likely are familiar with how to use the Google Keyword Planner to research keywords, search volume trends, platforms, competitors, locations, etc.

Here we’ll cover Tips for How to use the Google Keyword Planner tool for researching Keywords, and building Keyword Lists, without having to sign up for a funded Ads (Adwords) account.

Linking Adwords to Analytics allows you to see metrics such as pages per visit, percentage of new visits, average visit duration, and bounce rate - all within the AdWords interface.

You'll discover which keywords generate visits and the length of time spent on those visits. If people are spending ten seconds on a page, and others are spending three minutes on another page - then it's a flag indicating you'll want to adjust either your keyword(s) or the landing page.

Linking Adwords to Analytics will give you insights for re-allocation of your marketing budget based on conversion and performance metrics.

Learn more about email marketer convenience tools to make your email marketing a breeze.

Google is concentrating on Mobile-First Indexing, and change is here.

Google will calculate what it places in their index based on the mobile version of your website. In contrast, they used to index the desktop website version first.

This change has come about due to the elevated number of searches coming from mobile devices. Google has stated that to give users a better experience, they've decided to prioritize mobile results.

Bottom line - what this means is, website owners need to ensure their websites are mobile friendly. If you already have a responsive design for your site, then you shouldn’t be affected.

If you have different websites for desktop and for mobile, and your mobile site has far less content, then you will most likely be affected.

In theory, you have to Spend $$ to Make $$. Most often it’s easier to say than do.

The challenge of small business owners is knowing how best to invest funds in a manner that actually generates a return on their investment – rather than just spending for the sake of spending.

What is Drip Marketing?

Drip marketing is considered a specific Email communication strategy that ‘drips’ (sends) a set of pre-written messages to customers / prospects over a period of time.

What is a Drip Marketing Campaign?

An Email Drip Campaign is a series of scheduled marketing Emails based on behavior and or actions. Emails are scheduled to be sent out automatically and become increasingly more of a promotional nature.

Google is trying to make sure that the web sites you visit are secure. That’s why in July, their Chrome browser (version 68) will start marking sites without an SSL (security certificate) as Not Secure. To make sure the 75% of web users who use Chrome don’t see your site as Not Secure, you need to buy and install a security certificate. Just email support@hostingct.com for assistance.