This is due to the fact that consumer habits have changed significantly in recent years. If you cannot keep up with the growth of digital competences of your target group, a problem will arise. Your customers – both a large proportion of the current ones and a large number of potential new ones – are already online. If you do not wait for them there, when the moment comes when they will start looking for services or products offered by your company, they will turn to the better digitally exposed competition.

Internet marketing, especially if your company has not carried out such activities before (or has conducted them to a minimal extent), is an activity that requires a large dose of knowledge at the very beginning. Moreover, to say that later the necessity to broaden marketing horizons grows exponentially would be a delicate hyperbole at best. It is also worth remembering that while some of the elements that make up the digital image of a brand can be done for free or with a low effort and budget, costs will increase as they develop.

How to start internet marketing? Which tools to use? Which are essential at the beginning and which can be postponed when the brand grows digitally?

SEO

Virtually every brand should have its own website. Thanks to this, you can provide customers with basic information about your services / products and, above all, let them find you. A well-made website will allow you to make the right first impression and provide the necessary contact details. The website should be readable, aesthetic, fast and adapted to User Experience standards (more about UX later in the text).

However, in order for the website to be properly visible, it is important to properly approach its positioning. When a user enters a phrase that interests him / her, it returns a list of several dozen or several hundred thousand results in a specific order. It is not accidental, and the constantly evolving Google algorithm is responsible for it. However, you can live in harmony with it and use good SEO (Search Engine Optimization) practices from the very beginning.

The SEO of websites and online stores can be divided into two categories. The first is changes that we can make on the website itself – sometimes the whole process is called on-site SEO, i.e. SEO performed directly on the website. They mainly include the creation and optimization of content in such a way that it is “easy to digest” both for the user and for the search engine bot who will regularly visit and analyze the website.

It also means that the content is saturated with keywords for which we want to position the page – they should appear in several places in the text (possibly also in the headings), but you should not overdo them with excessive, unnatural intensity, because this will reduce the readability and quality of the text itself. To gain space for content that does not overwhelm with quantity (no one likes to read a wall of text), you should think about starting a company blog. This will allow not only to increase the amount of content, but also to present the brand as it deserves – i.e. as an expert in a given industry. In addition to substantive articles on a given branch of the market, the blog is a great place to present employees, current achievements and corporate culture – so that customers can also see the “human face” of the company.

On-site SEO also focuses on the technical refinement of the website:
– improving its loading time (the vast majority of users will resign from visiting if the page loading takes more than a few seconds) – this can be achieved, among others, by image compression, code minification, transfer to a faster server, etc .;
– adaptation to display on screens of different resolutions (most of the internet traffic takes place via smartphones, which requires the use of other solutions than in the case of typical desktop versions – users of desktop and laptop computers, however, cannot be forgotten, there are also tablets);
– SSL certificate installation – it ensures encrypted communication between the website visitor and the server and is taken into account by Google bots;
– And many other aspects.

The second, no less important part of SEO is getting links leading to a given website, which is referred to by the term off-site SEO. It is they who signal to the network bot that, according to the social proof of rightness, the website is probably valuable and it is possible to raise its position in the search results. The key, however, is not to “hack” the right number of links from random pages – in SEO, the number must go hand in hand with quality. Tools such as Senuto or Ahrefs help in analyzing the link profile.

At the initial stage, the key information about SEO is the fact that SEO is a long-term process. Achieving satisfactory results is not possible in a week, month, and often even a year – it requires creating a plan and its proper implementation, adapting to the current algorithm updates and continuous training. What’s worse, once the results are achieved, it is easy to lose, for example, due to an ill-considered website update, which, for example, will cause problems with indexing individual subpages.

SEO audit

If you already have a website, it is worth checking carefully how it is doing in the search engine and what can be done to improve its positioning status. We are talking about performing an SEO audit, thanks to which you can check both the elements that can be improved on the site itself (on-site SEO) and the link profile (off-site SEO). On the web you can find many sites – both free and paid – with which you will automatically collect basic information on this topic. At Paraphrase Online com, we also prepared the possibility of conducting such a quick audit. The Google PageSpeed Insights tool, which checks the speed of operation and other basic elements that make up the “performance” of the website, may also be useful.

As a collection of general information, automatic SEO auditors and similar scripts are the first base for further actions. They only take into account the very basic factors influencing the position of the website, so if you think about SEO “seriously”, a professional audit by a specialist will be necessary. Multifaceted analysis allows you to develop a detailed SEO strategy, which in the vast majority of cases (except for extremely niche market sectors) is necessary to bring the website to meaningful results.

Google My Business

When a potential customer enters a company name, a section with details about the specific company often appears on the right next to the search results. Setting up such a business card is free, so you can display the most important data – phone number, address, opening hours or photos of the registered office. Thanks to this, the user has access to basic data without the need to search further, and you can make the right first impression. We write in detail about the GMF in a separate article on our blog.

Social Media

Social media is the modern equivalent of city centers. Depending on the current status of a given portal, they can be bustling (like Instagram or TikTok) or abandoned (like MySpace used to be). There is no doubt, however, that the presence in social media will be useful for most brands – they are perfect platforms for quick contact with the client – not only announcements “I am a given brand”, but also “maybe it’s worth establishing a dialogue?”.

The first question to be answered when considering setting up a brand account on social media is “which website is your target audience on?”. Each website is characterized by a slightly different user profile – due to the skillfully built up position of Facebook over the years, theoretically, you will find all age groups there, but Instagram and TikTok reach younger users better. Each platform has its own code – IG is an image-based platform, TikTok is mainly short videos, Twitter is primarily based on 280-character text messages.

Think about which website your brand fits best. A dynamic brand aimed at teenagers, with skilful profile management, will be great on TikTok, while in the case of care products for seniors, the presence there will probably end up in business terms as a waste of time and resources.

There are many brands in social media. This is a huge overload of information for the user. Due to this accumulation in social media, the company should stand out – not use a clichéd, boring narrative. You have a split second to catch the eye of a potential customer – don’t waste it on overproducing clichés.

It is worth knowing that the era of organic reach (that is, achieved without the support of paid ads) is gone forever. Your fanpage on Facebook will not be displayed to all users who once clicked “I like it” and they hope that it will allow them to update about new posts. Social networks are increasingly monetizing their activities and focus on presenting paid ads. For this reason, bearing in mind your presence in social media, it is worth allocating part of the budget, for example Facebook Ads – it is a waste of time for content creators to see the posts by a dozen or several dozen people.

Google Ads is a powerful advertising system that allows you to reach millions of potential customers.

The Google Ads ecosystem allows, among other things, to show ads:
– In search results – above and below organic results. This placement guarantees adequate exposure of the advertisement and is usually associated with clicks. An advertisement placed especially at the very top of SERPs, although marked appropriately, is sometimes confused with a traditionally positioned page.
– On YouTube – the largest video content portal in the world is also an excellent advertising platform. You can place ads before, during and after your videos (in the form of videos), as well as text overlays, product overlays. The system also allows the use of several other formats (e.g. at the top of the column with suggestions for other movies to watch).
– On millions of portals associated with the Google Display Network partner network. Thanks to this, you can display ads on many lifestyle, news or journalistic websites – the network brings together both small blogs run by hobbyists and the largest wide-range horizontal portals in the world. Furthermore, your ads may be shown to specific users – those who, for example, have previously visited your website or expressed interest in similar products. This is a great way to remind customers about yourself.
– In Discovery Ads – a graphic and video format based not on the sent ready materials, but on a set of elements that, based on self-learning algorithms, the system dynamically mixes, thanks to which it selects a creation that will generate the best results in a given place and under given conditions. Discovery Ads appear on Discover tabs, Gmail (“Offers” and “Communities” tabs) and YouTube (“Watch Later” panel and the platform’s home page).
– In Google Shopping – In the “shopping” tab of the search results page, there is a product price comparison platform. In addition, you can also advertise specific articles there over the “normal” results. What’s more, product ads can also appear in traditional SERPs – when a user enters a phrase in Google that suggests a product (for example, a drone or a thermal mug), Google Ads may display an ad for your product with an image, name, price and, of course, a link to the store’s website.
– And this is only a part of the possibilities of Google Ads!

What else is worth knowing about Google Ads? Out of reach, the system is distinguished by enormous targeting possibilities. Unlike, for example, a TV advertisement, we have the option of precisely specifying to whom the message is to be displayed, which prevents the budget from being wasted. The platform also enables dynamic adjustment of the target group based on the collected data, thanks to which it can rotate ads in real time to people who, according to the system, have the best prognosis for conversion. Supportive solutions such as POCM are also available, which adapt the data 24/7 thanks to self-learning algorithms.

Related to this is the fact that in order to take full advantage of Google Ads, the system must have “what” to collect data on, which is why it is a solution that requires a financial contribution.

How to start internet marketing?

The channels presented above are a good start for a brand that wants to start online marketing in its company. Of course, this is only the tip – digital marketing offers basically endless possibilities. The key is to choose the right channels – so that communication is consistent and results grow.

What is organizational culture? Definition

Organizational culture is believed to be an integral part of the workplace and plays a key role in it. There are many definitions of this concept. According to economists, it is “the appropriate organizational climate and management method, a system of incentives, qualifications, and interpersonal relations.” According to E. Schein, the culture of an organization can be called a pattern of basic assumptions discovered, invented or developed by a group during its confrontation with its internal problems or with the problems of the environment. There are many other definitions, but they have common points from which it can be concluded that the organizational culture expresses patterns of behavior, norms and values relevant to the company. It has various functions:

– enables the integration of employees,
– determines the manner and time of criticizing people in power, and the decisions they make,
– allows you to understand the strategy and assumptions of the company, as well as to identify its basic goal,
– increases employee involvement,
– defines the boundaries of the group, and additionally the criteria for accepting and rejecting it,
– allows you to avoid aggressive actions and negative emotions, and soothes conflicts.

Organizational culture is based on various disciplines, such as organizational sociology, social psychology and anthropology. It makes it possible to distinguish a given company from others on the market, and also attracts people with similar values.

Components of organizational culture

The aforementioned E. Schein distinguished three elements of organizational culture, that is: artifacts, norms and values, as well as basic assumptions. They should be compatible with each other. Artifacts are conscious, visible, but also artificial cultural creations that require interpretation. They are divided into several types:

– linguistic – this group includes both the language, history and legends of the company,
– behavioral – ceremonies, employee behavior, rituals,
– physical – items characteristic for the company, dress code, technology.

Norms and values are an element more durable than artifacts, but also more difficult to observe. These include:

– a specific image,
– company strategy and goals,
– features desired in employees,
– organizational structure,
– management style.

In turn, the basic assumptions are considered to be the foundation of any organizational culture. This element is the most durable of all three, and at the same time the most difficult to notice. It mainly includes:

– the nature of man and the environment,
– the company itself,
– the company’s relations with the environment,
– interpersonal relations.

Types of organizational cultures

There are different lists presenting the types of organizational culture. One of the most popular models is the one developed by K. Cameron and R. Quinn in 2006. It is considered universal, according to him, there are four types of organizational cultures:

– Klan – otherwise family culture, typical of local, small businesses. They all share similar personality traits, share the same values, and maintain friendly relationships. Great emphasis is placed here on employee involvement and team building, but also on tradition and loyalty. In the culture of the clan, an important role is also played by freedom of action and a partner-like attitude towards clients.
– Market – popular in particular in very large sales companies. It puts emphasis on getting tasks done and improving results. There is a lot of competition between employees and leaders. Hostile attitude towards competition, sometimes also towards the customers themselves, is a common phenomenon in market culture.
– Hierarchy – the opposite of the clan culture, there are many professional levels and well-defined structures and rules here. The leader ensures that the employees are correctly following the procedures. It is a bureaucratic and formalized culture, characteristic of international corporations. Problems and situations that arise are usually solved at a given level.
– Adhocracy – it is characterized by innovation and creativity. The exercise of power is exercised by people who have the greatest knowledge in a given field. The culture of adhocracy is dynamic, focused on constant development and adaptation to the changing reality. Employees are encouraged to new ideas and experiment.

Another division can be found in many studies on this subject. It distinguishes three cultures:

– Normative – the company’s employees fully agree with its goals. They are committed and fully devoted to their tasks, and they often treat the workplace as a second home.
– Coercion – the opposite of normative culture. People work in a given company for financial reasons. It is true that they follow the applicable rules and values, but do not identify with them. This makes the level of employee involvement low, they have no hesitation to leave the company when the opportunity arises.
– Utilitarian – one could say that it is situated between the culture of coercion and the normative one. Employees are involved in their duties for financial reasons, but wages are not their main motivation. There is therefore a certain bond between them and the company.

The organizational culture begins to take shape at the moment of establishing the company. It is very often influenced by the personality and approach of the business founders. It is worth remembering that each enterprise is influenced by various internal and external factors. Organizational culture may change accordingly. Of great importance is, among others the age of the employees and their character traits. Usually, younger people are more risk-prone and open to changes, thanks to which the company becomes more dynamic. On the other hand, older employees attach importance mainly to the sense of security and tradition. The industry, competition in the market or even the value system of the society are also important for the organizational culture.

Why is organizational culture important and how to create it?

The culture of the organization greatly influences the way the company operates. It determines not only the types of relations between employees, but also determines the way in which it is perceived by customers. Not every person using the offer of a selected company knows its system of values. However, it can be easily seen when employees are involved, conscientiously fulfill their duties and, above all, care about the right approach to customers. It is thanks to the organizational culture that everyone can experience the values and the code of ethics adopted by a given company. Thanks to it, the company also gains a chance to stand out from the competition. It is not uncommon that the elements of the organizational culture have a decisive impact on customers’ purchasing decisions, so everything should be carefully prepared.

More and more often it is said that organizational culture plays an equally important role as a good operating strategy. Even a very original business idea will not be successful if the right organizational culture is not built. However, many entrepreneurs have doubts about how to do this. You should pay attention to, among others on the selection of people for the team, but not only in terms of knowledge, competences and skills. It is also necessary to take into account whether future employees agree with the values on which the company wants to focus. Other important aspects include:

– consistency (between what is said in the company and what happens later),
– specifically formulated standards and expectations,
– skillful listening to employees, using their creativity and talents,
– establishing clear rules, respectfully,
– encouraging employees to discuss (especially about what works for the company and what doesn’t),
– discussing failures and learning from them for the future.

In the era of a pandemic, supporting employees has become even more important in the context of creating organizational culture. They may feel stressed and insecure about the future, and have problems finding work-life balance. For this reason, it is important to pay attention to their mental health and make them feel safe. This shows employees that regardless of the circumstances, they can count on their company and are an important part of it.

Neglecting the individual elements that make up the organizational culture may affect the fate of the company. There is a risk that it will develop too slowly or not at all, and therefore will not be successful. An underdeveloped organizational culture means that employees are not motivated to work, there are also other problems such as avoiding active action, lack of willingness to improve oneself and the entire business, or a negative image of the company outside. Its construction is a long process, which requires finding the golden mean between too rigid approach and giving too much freedom. It is worth spending a lot of time and taking care of every detail to create or redefine the organizational culture. This will facilitate building your position and gaining an advantage over competitive enterprises, as well as creating space for employees to increase their efficiency.

The examples of how different organizational culture can be. When asking about role models, experts often point to companies such as Google, Danone or Apple. Each of them developed their own scheme of action allowing them to achieve successive successes. Entrepreneurs should be aware that the organizational culture largely determines the way their businesses operate, and the management’s approach has a key influence on its shaping.

The whole idea of performance marketing is very simple – you pay for the result. This way, for example, two giants of the online market – Google and Facebook – are responsible for their marketing services. The most popular billing models are:

CPC: cost per click (ad click fee)
CPM: cost per mille (fee for 1000 ad impressions, e.g. banner)
CPV: cost per vier (fee for viewing, e.g. of a YouTube video)
CPS: cost per sale (sales fee, popular model in e-commerce)

As you can see, these models depend primarily on the medium you are using and the expected result. For example, if you want as many customers as possible to click on your ad in Google Ads, you automatically choose the CPC model, because no other model will work in this case. The situation is slightly different when you want your customers to take a different type of action. This is what the CPA model was created for.

CPA: definition

CPA means cost per action. This is a non-standard billing model as it can include a whole range of different activities that your customers or users take. Activities billed in the CPA model include, for example:

– e-book download,
– subscription to the newsletter,
– filling in the application form,
– making a reservation,
– sending an inquiry or satisfaction survey.

CPA: Marketing

Due to its flexible nature, the CPA model is very popular in marketing. It is particularly eagerly used in the aforementioned performance marketing. It can be used in many cases and is easy to calculate. Speaking of which, how can you calculate the cost of a campaign in the CPA model? Use this simple formula to do this: CPA Cost = Total Campaign Cost / Number of Actions.

So, if you ran a promotional campaign for your new e-book, spent $ 10,000 on it, and 360 downloaded it, the CPA would cost $ 27.78.

It is also worth explaining that the term CPA is understood differently by Google and Facebook. In the case of Google, CPA simply means conversion – that is, reaching your final ad goal. You can read more about it here. What about Facebook? In their Business Help Center, we can read that CPA “allows you to pay only for actions that people take on your ad.” So the way of understanding this method of settlement is very similar.

CPA: Earning

Finally, let’s explain the relationship between the CPA model and your company’s earnings. The only possible answer is indirect. CPA is rarely directly about selling. Of course, this is what you ultimately care about (you hope that after reading your e-book someone will become your client, or that the person who made the reservation will come to the scheduled treatment, etc.), but the model itself is not based on how much you earn. It focuses on what actions your customers will take. Of course, some of them will eventually lead to a sale, but not all of them. Therefore, you should approach the CPA model with a certain amount of caution and do not expect that campaigns settled in this way will directly translate into higher sales in a short time.

If you want to know more about the CPA model and see how it could work in your case – please contact the Paraphrase-Online team. We will help you plan and conduct campaigns that will help you achieve your business and marketing goals.

The term real-time marketing is mainly used to describe the concept where the brand actively tracks social media and the entire network for the possibility of interacting with the audience by talking about current events and popular topics. Brands that have already decided to implement RTM practices refer to this concept as a true performance lever, thanks to which they generate better sales results and increase their publicity. Before we look at the concept from the practical side, let’s take a look at the definition of real-time marketing.

Real-time marketing – what is it?

RTM is a strategy that uses real-time data, on the basis of which marketers create content for the benefit of a given brand. Rather than creating an advance marketing plan and executing it on a schedule, real-time marketing creates a strategy focused on relevant, relevant trends and immediate customer feedback. The use of such a method in communication allows:
– arouse the interest of Internet users,
– gain publicity,
– increase the dissemination of published content,
– establish direct communication with current and potential customers,
– get greater audience engagement.

The essence of real-time marketing is not to create content that will suit the nature of your business, quite the opposite. This strategy relies on the company’s ability to use new and popular non-industry news for its own benefit.

Real-time marketing – How does it work in practice?

RTM can be compared to marketing that takes place every day in physical stores. When you step over the threshold, the seller greets you and tries to understand your needs, then offers you the item that best meets them. The household appliances stores operate in a similar way, offering TV sets at promotional prices during the FIFA World Cup.

In the first case, the seller tries to understand your needs in order to present you a product that will satisfy you immediately and encourage you to buy. In the second, the store uses a very popular event to awaken in you the desire to buy a TV that will make sports emotions unforgettable. Each time the store directly adjusts the current promotions, advertising or the way of communication to real time in order to finalize the sale. Moreover, this strategy tends to build consumer loyalty, because if the seller offers a product that is perfectly suited to his needs, the customer will be satisfied and come back to him. Real-time Marketing works just like that, only on the Internet, where the customer is not physically standing in front of the seller.

How to prepare for real-time marketing?

Implementing real-time marketing doesn’t mean managers have to spend their entire lives staring at phones 24/7 and alerting you every time something happens. RTM requires a much greater degree of organization and appropriate preparation. New processes and work approaches should be designed, tested and implemented. It is not an easy matter. A brand should be ready to implement methods that will allow it to respond to a global trend or the needs expressed by a local customer in just a few minutes.

Before applying real-time marketing, it is also essential to thoroughly study online customer profiles and shopping paths. Companies must follow consumer habits as well as know their sociodemographic, behavioral and geolocation data. Only after arming yourself with such key information, you can start developing an effective RTM strategy.

Planning of RTM

The real-time marketing strategy is based on news. It is therefore important to be up to date with the latest news, information or trends. First of all, it is worth establishing a yearly publication schedule, taking into account holidays or other celebrations. This can be extremely helpful. Of course, it is impossible to predict in advance what will happen throughout the year, so the RTM campaign plan should be as flexible as possible.

If your company decides to implement real-time marketing, it is important to regularly research the most popular hashtags or topics covered on the Internet. In addition, you also need to be prepared to engage with audiences who are likely to react to your content. When sharing an article on a topic, you need to be ready for questions from consumers about the material you have published. Only a quick answer will allow you to build trust between the brand and its recipients and will use the potential of RTM.

Time is money, i.e. the faster you react, the more you gain

RTM requires you to distribute your content at the perfect time. Publishing too late exposes you to the fact that no one will pay attention to your post or article anymore. Real-time marketing needs to be immediate in order to impress audiences by causing laughter, comments, reactions, and responses, both pleasant and less affectionate. However, it’s worth remembering that publishing too early can cause yours to be forgotten before they gain visibility. Knowing when to publish will come with practice.

Advantages of real-time marketing

Real-time marketing is a powerful lever for sales and publicity. Consumers love to be close to events and information, and in particular to express their opinion on them. Therefore, a company that starts the RTM game and gives its audience something to comment, think about, or a reason to smile has a chance to:
– build a closer relationship with consumers, overcome barriers through brand humanization,
– gather a committed community around the brand,
– generate interactions, arouse curiosity in recipients,
– increase competitiveness, demonstrate expert knowledge and become a key player in the industry.

According to a survey by Paraphrase-Online.com, brands using real-time marketing can increase their conversion rates by 26%.

Can RTM be harmful?

Each strategy has its advantages and disadvantages. RTM can also do harm if the brand only uses this strategy. When reacting to current events, there is no room for planning, which may reduce the quality of the content. Moreover, in the case of RTM, it is difficult to predict the reaction of Internet users. The published content may be received very well or the opposite. This may be due to too hasty publication, or simply the content will not appeal to the audience. That is why it is so important not to rely only on RTM and, above all, to create content that will be valuable to the recipients.

Good examples of real-time marketing

Some brands quickly realized the importance of creating ads that reach their audience and get immediate responses. Let’s take a look at the most interesting examples of real-time marketing:

OREO REAL-TIME MARKETING – SUPER BOWL
Oreo is a great example of successful real-time marketing. In 2013, the brand made a hype on Twitter, addressing Super Bowl XL VII viewers who had been plunged into the darkness for 34 minutes. The message “You don’t need light to bite your cookies” has sparked the enthusiasm of millions of football fans, both inside and outside the stadium.

STAR WARS REAL-TIME MARKETING
Loyal Star Wars fans who purchase tickets and plan their costumes months before launch inspired marketers around the world to harness their creative potential and surprise audiences with stunning marketing gimmicks. The popularity of Star Wars was perfectly used by the Japanese airline ANA, which prepared for the premiere, equipping the crew with quite unusual outfits and accessories:

Duracell also capitalized on the popularity of Star Wars by creating a Duracell Star Wars ad, then stoking the emotions of audiences with the announcement “the most powerful alkaline battery in the universe”.

REAL-TIME MARKETING: BANKSY
The loud event, which was the deliberate destruction of the painting “The Girl with a Balloon” just seconds after the work was auctioned in London, was also not overlooked by the masters of real-time marketing. It didn’t take long for the brands to react.

RTM rebounded with hiccups

Sometimes an idea presented in a conference room may sound great, but when the moment of implementation comes, it turns out that even if carefully thought out, it turns out to be a failure. One of the most devastating failures is Pepsi, which in 2017 wanted to advertise to make their product a symbol of cultural unification. The idea was not bad, but the film in which Kendall Jenner by handing a policeman a can of soda tries to resolve the stalemate between the protesters and the police in the Black Lives Matter turned out to be a scandal. The spot was ridiculed on social media, parody on SNL and quickly removed.

Another RTM mistake on social media concerns the Cinnabon brand, known for its confectionery products. After the death of the late Carrie Fisher, Cinnabon decided to pay tribute to the actress on Twitter by posting an artwork of a Star Wars character made of famous cinnamon rolls. The tweet received a lot of negative responses and was labeled “tacky” or “shameless self-promotion.”

Can RTM help with SEO?

A conscious RTM strategy in social media can support SEO by generating organic search results. By tracking popular topics that are relevant to your brand communication and publishing content that relate to them, you can effectively drive traffic to your site. Real-time marketing allows you to build a closer relationship with users, and thanks to a bit of creativity and humor, it will warm up the brand image. In addition, RTM allows you to create content that is eagerly shared by Internet users, and this will not be indifferent to search engines. As a result, real-time marketing allows you to expand the reach and gather new recipients.

There is no doubt, however, that creating a good RTM combined with content marketing requires in-depth analysis and knowledge of the target group. There is no single recipe for successful real-time marketing. Successful brands are those that make the most of their consumer knowledge and multi-channel marketing strategies combined with constant observation of what is happening on the internet. It’s worth experimenting and drawing conclusions to be successful and build effective real-time marketing.

SXO – a combination of two important strategies

The combination of Search Engine Optimization and User Experience has contributed to the creation of a completely new operating strategy. It focuses on both increasing the visibility of a website and improving conversion. Fine-tuning your site for SEO and user experience is the most effective way to get your audience to respond the way you want. Usually, it is the purchase of products, which is why SXO is especially eagerly used by sales platforms.

How does this strategy work? The site ranks high in the search results, and this generates organic traffic. Users who pass to it see that it is intuitive and tailored to their needs. This encourages you to stay longer and even come back frequently. According to SXO, the website must be refined not only in terms of factors important from the perspective of search engine robots. It is also supposed to be useful for recipients, so responsive, fully legible, and it should load as soon as possible.

The SEO elements that make up the SXO strategy are mainly:
– technical optimization (including correctness of the HTML source code),
– key phrases,
– content,
– metadata,
– headers
– internal and external linking.

The user’s experience while using the website plays an equally important role. The UX factors are:
– clear site navigation,
– refined CTA formulas,
– aesthetic and modern look of the site,
– functionality and adaptation to the needs of users,
– loading speed.

When traditional SEO proves to be insufficient

As every SEO agency emphasizes, the strategy aimed at ensuring the website’s good position must be analyzed and modified on an ongoing basis. This is due to the constant changes in search engine algorithms and the need to adapt to them. Traditional SEO focuses on increasing the visibility of your website, this is the main focus of your activities. Although many companies can achieve their business goals in this way, it is not enough for everyone. The mere refinement of key phrases, meta data and similar issues is sometimes not enough to keep users on the site and persuade them, for example, to buy products. That’s why the SXO strategy has emerged.

Search Experience Optimization is the successor to SEO. In recent years, there have been significant changes in Google’s algorithms, as a result of which user experience has started to have a more significant impact on the position of the site. 2021 was the year when the implementation of new ranking factors began, focusing on the convenience of website visitors:

– LCP – Largest Contentful Paint, i.e. the largest rendering of content. It measures the time it takes for the largest (by default the most important) element of your website to be loaded.
– FID – First Input Delay, delay on first operation. It measures the time that must pass until the first interactivity of the website (from the moment of clicking on a specific element to the reaction).
– CLS – Cumulative Layout Shift, or visual stability. This is a reference to the traffic that occurs on the site once it is loaded. LCP, FID, and CLS are indicators that are part of the Core Web Vitals collection.
– Responsiveness – adapting the website to mobile devices.
– Security – Google checks if the website uses the HTTPS protocol.
– Presence of interstitial ads – it is recommended to avoid them as they limit access and make the content inaccessible to users.

This shows that Google wants pages to be adapted not only to robots, but above all to the needs of the recipients. The SXO strategy includes activities in the field of SEO, UX, but also analytics, content marketing, CRO and web development. All this to ensure the highest possible conversion and help the company achieve all the business goals it has set for itself.

Why is SXO needed?

SXO makes users go to a website through organic search results and then perform the desired action. They are effectively encouraged to do so by positive experiences resulting from refining the website in terms of the needs of the recipients. Search Experience Optimization is most often referred to in the context of increasing product sales. However, it is worth remembering that a call to action placed on the website may also persuade you to perform another action, e.g. subscribe to a newsletter, fill out a form, set up an account on the website or watch a video.

The main goal of the SXO strategy is to increase conversion, but implementing it brings the company several other benefits as well. Belong to them:
– increasingly better visibility on Google,
– lasting bond with clients,
– gaining trust and creating the image of an expert,
– standing out from the competition and gaining an advantage.

As you can see, SXO allows you to combine two very important aspects influencing success on the Internet – positioning and adapting to the needs and requirements of customers. The combination of SEO and UX is very effective. Even when the site is perfectly polished in terms of user experience, it will not guarantee the company’s success if it is difficult to find it in the search engine. It also works the other way around. A well-positioned website that is neither readable nor responsive at the same time will not increase profits to such a large extent. According to the SXO assumptions, the website should be clearly visible, but also encourage users to stay there for longer.

SXO not only for e-commerce

Since SXO is used to improve positioning as well as increase the number of page visits and conversions, it is used in particular in the e-commerce industry. This is due to the fact that it is mainly focused on sales. A highly visible platform that provides users with a positive experience is conducive to shopping. For potential customers, every detail is important, from a clear menu through quick product search to the possibility of making an easy transaction via a mobile device.

E-commerce is an industry that is constantly developing, and the businesses operating in it should respond to changes in order to be successful. The implementation of the SXO strategy facilitates the achievement of the intended goals, as it is a response to the constantly growing expectations of customers. Comprehensive, multi-dimensional optimization of an online store ensures results both in the short and much longer term. In the case of platforms that have already been visible on Google, it is not uncommon for a sudden increase in conversion to occur very quickly. A nice looking, fast loading and clear website will gradually generate more and more sales and profits. There is also a high probability that people satisfied with the transaction will return to the store, becoming loyal, regular customers.

However, it should be remembered that SXO can also be successfully implemented in many other industries. This solution is recommended to anyone who wants to stand out from the competition and have higher financial results through good visibility on the Internet and improving user experience. More traffic to the website results in a high conversion rate, which may or may not be in the form of product purchases. Sometimes it is signing up for a subscription, submitting a form, ordering a phone call with the company, downloading an e-book, etc. According to the definition, conversion is a specific activity performed by the user that is desired by the company and brings it closer to achieving its business goal. Therefore, SXO works well not only in e-commerce, but also in service industries. More and more often, bloggers or people running content websites decide on such a strategy.

Important support for business

The combination of SEO and UX strategies is considered to be extremely effective. SXO is a very important support for business, conducive to its development. Thanks to it, users can easily find exactly what they are looking for on the Internet, and then perform actions on the website that meets their expectations. The implementation of Search Experience Optimization allows you to get rid of the doubts whether the website is adapted to Google’s algorithms and at the same time fully valuable for the recipients.

The use of the SXO strategy allows you to refine every important detail. Compared to SEO, it does not only focus on optimizing the website for search engine robots, because they do not increase conversion. It is necessary to realize that the users, their feelings and needs play an important role in this matter. Companies wishing to be successful on the market should show potential customers that their satisfaction is the most important.

Of course, SXO will not make every user visiting the site perform the desired action. Nevertheless, this strategy makes it easier to reach people from a well-defined target group and encourage them to stay on the site for longer. This increases the likelihood that the company’s offer will arouse interest and translate into profit. The implementation of SXO enables adaptation to the new requirements posed not only by Google, but also by internet marketing itself. It is worth remembering that there are still changes in this area that you need to adapt to in order to build your competitive advantage.

Google Data Studio – an aesthetic way of presenting data

The Google Data Studio tool appeared in 2016 and quickly gained a lot of positive feedback, especially among analysts. It is free and, moreover, easy to use due to the transparent panel that appears after logging in. An additional convenience here is a short introduction in the form of a tutorial. With the help of Google Data Studio, you can collect all important data in one place, presenting it in an aesthetic and accessible way.

The tool provides access to ready-made report templates that can be modified in terms of background, font, colors of individual elements or dashboard dimensions. After a style is defined, all subsequent data sets will be automatically adjusted to it. If needed, you can use options such as inserting images from Google Drive or a computer, and even using text boxes, shapes, graphics, and other objects.

Google Data Studio allows you to create reports based on various databases. They can come from, among others with:
– Google Sheets,
– Google Ads,
– Google Analytics,
– YouTube statistics,
– Google Search Console,
– Facebook Ads,
– Ahrefs.

A significant advantage of the tool is that more than one person may be involved in creating a report. In addition, adjusting the appearance of reports to the company’s needs is not a problem.

Google Lens – innovative image search

Even though the Google Lens tool appeared in 2017, it is still gaining in popularity and is being discovered by an increasing number of users. It is an advanced application that allows you to recognize objects in photos and obtain various information about them. On some phones, the Google Lens is available immediately, for others, it is enough to download it from the App Store or the Play Store. The technology of scanning and interpreting images is constantly being improved, which enables it to be used in many situations.

The tool allows, among others to quickly translate the text (however, it is still not possible to paraphrase the text), to check the appearance of dishes from the restaurant menu or to identify specific plant species. All you need to do is point the phone with the application turned on at the selected object to obtain the necessary information. The Google lens is useful both in everyday life and at work, in many industries. It has long been said that visual search is the future of e-commerce. After scanning a specific item, you can quickly get a list of similar products ready for purchase. Perhaps in the future, image scanning will completely or almost completely replace text search. That is why it is worth optimizing marketing activities in this respect already, remembering, among others, about detailed metadata or the appropriate size of graphic elements on the website.

Performance Planner – easier optimization of campaign costs

Tools from Google such as Performance Planner will be useful primarily to people who create advertising spending plans. Thanks to them, they gain many new opportunities, including:
– viewing the results by adjusting the campaign settings,
– access to forecasts for conducted campaigns,
– budget management.

Performance Planner is usually updated every 24 hours and can handle up to billions of queries. This guarantees access to accurate forecasts. The tool takes into account important aspects such as landing page, seasonality and competition. It significantly facilitates the preparation of advertising spending plans, but not only. The Performance Planner is also useful for assessing how your changes to your campaign will affect its overall performance and key metrics. Thanks to it, you can receive suggestions on how to optimize the selected strategy without the need to increase the budget. The tool is available through Shopping, Local, Search, Display, and App campaigns.

The Performance Planner tells advertisers what bids and budget to set to maximize the data they choose for their campaigns. By using it, you can save a lot of time that would have to be spent on analyzing expenses yourself. The tool gives you access to several practical functions, and one of the most important is the summary chart. It is dynamic and at the same time transparent, reading information from it is not a problem. The comparative table of before and after data, in which key items are broken down into existing and planned, is also rated well. Performance Planner allows you to check many scenarios before choosing the most appropriate one.

Google Tools for Internet Businesses

Many small and medium-sized enterprises are already active both offline and online. Google decided to make it easier for such companies to develop and introduced two new, free tools: Grow My Store and Local Search Navigator. Their premiere in our country took place in September 2021.

Grow My Store was launched in several countries in 2019. It is a very useful tool with which sellers can improve the quality of their online customer service. It tests the website, taking into account over 20 indicators, measures, inter alia, mobile friendliness and loading speed, in addition, it checks the HTTPS protocol. Any retailer can take advantage of Grow My Store, whether online or offline only. It gives you access to information and tips on how to improve your website’s visibility in the search engine and increase traffic. All this is based on suggestions tailored to the needs of customers. The insights were gathered during research conducted by Google in collaboration with Ipsos MORI and Kantar TNS. Tips deal with aspects that play a significant role in shopping, including personalization and page performance.

The second tool, the Local Search Navigator, also helps companies reach a wider audience and increase profits. It tells you what to do to stand out on the Internet. The Navigator provides entrepreneurs with personalized tips based on a thorough analysis of their business profile on Google. It also suggests what data should be improved and what new information to enter. One of the greatest advantages of the tool is its intuitive operation. It is enough to enter the name of the company and after a few minutes you will see if it is visible enough on the web. The Local Search Navigator allows you to refine your Google My Business profile to attract potential customers to your offer. By using it, you can also make sure that you have entered all the necessary information to facilitate communication, making an appointment or performing another activity.

Less known tools from Google that are useful not only in marketing

One of the tools that undoubtedly deserves attention is Google PageSpeed Insights. It allows you to check how fast the website loads on computers and smartphones. The categorization of user experiences is presented in three categories, namely: Good, Needs Improvement, and Poor. This data is based on Chrome User Experience Report information. The tool also makes suggestions on how you can improve your site to reduce its load time. They are useful because page loading speed is currently one of the most important factors influencing the Google ranking.

It is also worth paying attention to the Public Data Explorer. It is used to view and visualize large data sets that may relate to many different areas, e.g. fuel prices, demographic indicators. The tool allows you to navigate between different views, share results, and compare individual information. Although Explorer was introduced in 2010, many people are still unaware of its existence.

There are also a few other tools that are not popular, but can be useful not only at work, but also in everyday life. This, for example:
– Google Keep – an application for taking notes, also works on phones. You can add photos, letters, and drawings to your notes, and copy them to Google Docs and share with others. The tool allows you to mark your notes with different colors and labels to keep everything in order.
– Arts & Culture – online service and smartphone application from the Google Cultural Institute. The tool allows you to search and admire the greatest works of art from dozens of countries without leaving your home. It is also a source of valuable knowledge. Arts & Culture has a lot of interesting features, such as spherical films, virtual tours of museums or turning your own photos into works of art.
– Google Flights – online flight booking tool. At the same time, it is a server that allows you to search for connections via external providers. To find your flight ticket, simply specify the type of flight ticket (e.g. one-way) and fill in other important information, including the place of departure and destination. In Google Flights, it is possible to use an interactive calendar as well as a price chart, which allows you to easily find the best offer for you.

Google is not only a search engine, although it is the basis of this company. Currently, many people cannot imagine everyday functioning without the tools they offer, because they often prove to be helpful not only at work, but also outside of it. Since many are available for free, you won’t have to pay extra for using them.

Regardless of what form of marketing activities you are interested in, cooperation with an agency or a freelancer usually starts with a brief. This is how SEM, SEO, digital, video, social media and even PR agencies work.

Marketing brief – definition

There is no one fixed form of how such a document should look. Most often, a marketing brief takes the form of a text document (doc / pdf), but it can also be a power point presentation or even a video recording (although it is a rather unpopular form). It is crucial that the brief contains all the necessary information about the planned activities / campaigns and the terms of cooperation.

Why make a marketing brief?

If we were to shorten the answer to this question to one sentence, it should be written that the brief is there to enable the achievement of the assumed goals. In marketing, almost nothing is binary. There are many different ways to approach the same topic or problem, and it is rarely the case that only one solution is correct.

The advertising brief allows the agency with which you may be cooperating to better understand what exactly you expect, what is your goal and what are the conditions for future cooperation (therefore the brief should contain, among others, information on the planned budget and scope of activities).

Let us take an example. You run an online store and your goal is to have more customers. There are many different ways to achieve this goal, from SEO to social media advertising to affiliate marketing. Will only one solution be right? Of course not! But maybe you, as the principal, have some requirements in this regard. For example, you may want to limit yourself to a performance marketing solution. This is the key information for the agency cooperating with you! Therefore, it should be included in the brief.

On the other hand, the brief is an extremely helpful document for you as well. It helps to focus on a new marketing project and rethink it thoroughly. It may turn out that in the brief, the agency will ask you for information that you did not even take into account (e.g. actions taken by competitors or previous marketing campaigns). Then it is definitely worth sitting down on this topic calmly and collecting more data. It often turns out that you gain a completely new view of your project and you may want to make some changes before sending an inquiry to the agency.

What should an advertising brief contain?

The brief actually consists of a list of questions prepared by the agency and the answers given by the potential client. We can distinguish 6 most important elements of each professional marketing brief. The general assumption is that the more information there is in the brief, the better. Here’s what to pay attention to:

Information about your company

The market context is crucial here. What industry and model does the company operate in, who its recipients are, what its products / services look like, who is the competition, in which countries it operates, how many employees it has, how it stands out on the market, why customers use its services, etc.

Information about your products / services

In the previous point, we were moving on a higher level of generality. Time to get down to the details. What products do you offer? How many are there? How do they stand out? What are their strengths and weaknesses? What do customers praise and complain about? What opinions / reviews does your product collect? Has it undergone any changes recently? How do you promote it? What does the sale look like?

Information about customers

You may have heard the concept of persona. This is a fictional character that has the most important characteristics of your customers. It can be said that this is such a model client created for the needs of marketing activities. In the description of the persona, it is good to include as many elements as possible that may be important for the campaign. Personas most often have a profession, a favorite way of spending time, everyday problems and challenges they have to face, a specific income and education, and sometimes even interests. The persona must be as specific as possible, but you cannot overdo it. Determining what such a persona eats for breakfast in most cases does not make much sense.

Information on the planned marketing campaign

What is the project about, what do you want to achieve, what activities you have taken so far, what marketing problems / challenges your company is facing, what the campaign is to be based on, what channels and solutions you expect, etc.

Budget and project duration

The agency needs to know how much money you have for all of this. Completely different tools will be in motion with a budget of $ 10,000, and completely different with a budget of $ 100,000. Accurate information on the subject of the budget allows for better planning of activities and their intensity. The duration of the project is also of great importance. Again, a campaign with a $ 100,000 budget for two months will be different to a campaign that is scheduled to run for a year with that budget.

The purpose of the campaign

It’s just tempting to write “more sales”, because that’s the ultimate goal of any business. But on the other hand, many marketing campaigns have different, or at least more specific, goals. This could be, for example:
– reaching a new group of recipients,
– building an image / recognition in a new communication channel,
– market education about a new solution / product,
– entering the foreign market,
– building and strengthening a specific image that the company wants to achieve.

That sounds a bit different, doesn’t it? Defining a goal is extremely important because it determines how the results will be measured. If your goal is to reach a new group of recipients, the measure of success will be the increased number of orders from people / companies meeting the given criteria.

The expected results and the way they are measured are also important. Firstly, the result must result directly from the set goal, and secondly, it must be adjusted to the expected activities. You cannot measure strictly image-related activities with the use of measures used in performance marketing.

In marketing, the term KPI (key performance indicator) is often used, i.e. key performance indicators. Such a KPI can be, for example, a certain number of new customers over a specified period, or a lower cost of acquiring a new customer.

Communication method and additional guidelines

This is a key issue in the case of large, international companies that have specific guidelines on how their brand and products are to be presented: in what context, in what channels, in what form. If your company has any requirements that are absolutely necessary, regardless of what will be done, be sure to mention it in your brief. These requirements most often relate to the presentation and use of a logo or a specific color, but it can really be any element.

The most common mistakes when creating a brief

Errors in creating a marketing brief happen quite often and usually result from a misunderstanding of the purpose of this document. What should you avoid when working on your brief?

Too little time spent creating a brief: let’s be honest, marketers are busy and often have little time for additional explanations, especially when something is obvious to them. However, spending extra time will translate directly into the quality of the proposal you receive, and then the campaign.

Too many threads / goals: the assumption should be: one brief, one campaign, one goal. If you overwhelm the agency with several different goals (not yet having much in common) and hundreds of ideas about what to do, there is no chance of successful cooperation. You must make the assumption that the brief is supposed to relate to one topic. If you want to achieve several different goals, or run several different campaigns, make several different briefs.

Performing agency work: by writing a brief, you become a patient and your agency becomes a doctor. The patient doesn’t tell the doctor how to treat, right? Likewise, you, as a customer, should not unnecessarily impose specific solutions that may not fit your problem at all. Give your agency scope for action and listen carefully to what it has to say.

Lack of accurate data: if the collection and analysis of marketing data in your company is limp, it may turn out that creating a brief is bordering on a miracle. In this case, go back to point zero and start by organizing your data. Both sides will benefit from this. Only with hard data in hand, you can proceed to constructing a campaign idea.

Too generic: if you answer “women aged 20-60” when asked about the target group, it is a bit too little. Then you need to consider, perhaps together with the agency, how you can specify the information they need to prepare a campaign proposal.

CUX (cux.io) is the world’s first UX Automation tool. It helps companies not only save the time that so far had to spend on independent and manual data analysis, but also shows how to maintain sales growth by predicting which customer behavior may inhibit conversion.

The tool identifies areas of user frustration that may cause conversion drops, filters heatmaps and recordings, and identifies behavior patterns. CUX eliminates the problem of independent search for problems on websites – it does it automatically, additionally selecting only those visits that are relevant to the business goal. UX Automation enables the analysis of user behavior on any type of device – from phones to smart TVs. In addition, CUX independently tracks all events on the website, thus not involving the customer’s IT department.

CUX free version
As part of the cux.io free trial period, you will have access to 1000 recordings of visits, which you can collect at any time convenient for you. Trial includes all the functionalities of the tool available in a paid subscription.

Paid version CUX
The CUX price starts at 49 euros per month. The final cost is influenced by: the amount of traffic on the website that we want to analyze and the data storage time (retention). When purchasing an annual subscription, 2 months are free.

CUX – how to analyze user behavior?

To start using the tool, it is enough to attach the CUX tracking code to the page you want to follow. This can be done using the integration with Google Tag Manager or Google Analytics. After starting the analytics, CUX automatically catches all the events on the pages, thus not involving you in setting technical parameters.

The most important of the CUX functionalities:

– Experience Metrics – proprietary metrics showing the frustration of users on the website. They are divided into: rage clicks, rage key presses, chaotic mouse movements, zooming and constant content refreshing.
– Recordings of visits – CUX analyzes entire visits, instead of individual sessions. This means that it tracks the user’s visit even when he opens many tabs or is inactive for a long time.
– Heatmaps – CUX generates heat maps for single pages and SPA (single page apps). The tool is also compatible with various types of devices – from phones and computers, to tablets and consoles, to smartTV and the so-called wearables.
– Conversion Waterfalls – CUX helps to track visitor behavior in various scenarios. In other words, Waterfall is a graphical representation of any sequence of steps visitors take on your site.
– Analysis in the context of a business goal – regardless of what your business goal is (sales, training registration, filling out the contact form, downloading an e-book, etc.), CUX will select for you only the data about user behavior that they have on it real impact. The number of goals for a project is unlimited.
– Automatic event catching – CUX is able to automatically capture events on the website, allowing code-free tracking of each stage of the user’s journey without the need to involve the IT department.
– Retroactive analysis – CUX allows you to create and modify conversion funnels even using historical data and without having to wait for new recordings to be collected.

Three levels of optimization

Working with qualitative data boils down to optimizing the real user path – not the one we dreamed of when creating the product! To make it as effective as possible, we divide it into 3 levels: marketing, product and conversion optimization.

In order to properly optimize marketing activities (directing traffic from external sources), we need to know exactly what is happening to our users along their entire path. Where they land, what they see, how they react. So we optimize based on observation.

How do we go about optimizing the customer journey in the context of the product? We shorten it! Why? Customers – those online in particular – do not always have a strong purchasing incentive. It is not uncommon for them to be driven to the side of your product or service by their impulse. The longer the path to conversion – the more time for the user to change their mind!

Conversion optimization does not only consist of the last steps of the sales funnel (cart, checkout). For our improvements to make sense, we need to take a few steps back and look at the entire customer journey – from marketing communication to product interactions.

Analysis in the context of the goal

The advantage of CUX for us with other behavioral analysis tools is that it filters all results in the context of your business goal. Regardless of what will be your main goal (Sales? Filling the form? Registration for training?), The data read through the prism of its implementation are much more valuable.

Imagine your business goal is for customers to fill out a contact form – this is the main place where you sell. Setting the goal “Send contact form” will allow you to automatically filter out those visits that show the achieved goal. Thanks to them, you will be able to improve the contact process, spot problems that your users are struggling with or change the page layout so that they convert more and faster.

Event analysis

To make the data you analyze meaningful, accurate and relevant to your business goals, create extensive conversion funnels based on events. What? Completely any! These can be clicks on specific elements on your website, filling out forms, entries to specific websites or coming from specific links, e.g. campaign links.

How do you go about an event-based analysis?

– Start with the whole – check the “global” paths of your users, compare, see which are doing better.
– When you notice a big drop, take a look at this place in detail. Watch the visits, create a funnel for this particular fragment on the page.
– Remember that the sequence of steps you set in Waterfall is important, and when counting conversions, we take into account the execution of individual steps in the order set by you.

Heatmap analysis

As you probably know, the heatmap graphically shows the most important activities on your pages. Every action – like clicking or mouse movement, scrolling, chaotic movement – adds color to the area. To draw reliable conclusions from the heatmap analysis, try to take into account those for which min. 250 events. On pages that contain various dynamic elements (such as pop-ups, drop-down menus, hoover), remember that they may not be captured on the heatmap. However, do not forget to consider them from an analytical point of view – perhaps the rage clicks that “fly” on the heatmap relate to these elements.

Analysis of recordings of visits

A truth that entrepreneurs often forget: analytics is not just watching random recordings! When you start working on recordings, keep a business goal in mind and filter only those visits that meet it. There is no point in wasting precious time on meaningless recreations.

Always start your analysis from general to specific and look for patterns of behavior. Watch the visits until the picture of your users’ habits begins to form a complete picture in your head. So how long? Usually, a dozen / several dozen visits are enough for the pattern to start clearing up. You can also use Experience Metrics in CUX to start with the behavioral patterns we have identified (rage clicks, zooming, refreshing the page, etc.).

FAQ

How is CUX different from Hotjar?
CUX not only combines all the functionalities of analytical tools (such as Hotjar), but also automates the data analysis process, which makes it an innovation in the user behavior analytics market. Unlike Hotjar, CUX is able to present a complete picture of data – both quantitative and qualitative – and interpret it in the context of a business goal.

Will CUX be useful for industries other than e-commerce?
Of course! The analysis of customer behavior will benefit not only e-commerce, but also businesses in the SaaS and B2B model, companies providing marketing services, software houses – all industries in which the customer comes into contact with a digital product. In addition, CUX is able to facilitate the work of various departments and teams within the company – from marketing, through sales, IT, content creation, to product development and management.

When is it worth analyzing user behavior?
We often come across the erroneous assumption that behavior analysis comes in handy when we see that the website is not working properly. Yes, this is a good time. But not the only one. Studying the behavior and introducing minor implementations on their basis at every stage of the digital product’s life helps to almost immediately increase the level of conversion or prevent its decline.

What’s the CUX price?
The cost of a paid subscription starts at 49 EUR / month and depends on the amount of traffic on the site and the customer’s required data retention time. In addition, CUX provides additionally paid technical and analytical onboarding, personalized workshops, webinars and bootcamps as well as ready-made website audits.

What is CTR – basic information

The assumptions behind CTR are very simple. It is a ratio that shows how often users click on the link they promote after viewing your content. Thanks to this, you can carefully check if a given ad is working well. A high score usually means that potential customers found the content helpful and factual, which prompted them to take the next step, which is to click on the link. A low one may indicate that the message is not encouraging, misleading or targeting the wrong group of people. CTR is an indicator that also applies to organic search results, and in this case it works according to exactly the same principles. Shows what percentage of people who saw your page in a search engine decided to visit it. Since Google introduced the rule that sponsored links are displayed above organic ones, they have become an even more effective supplement to SEO efforts. According to analyzes carried out by the WordStream portal, as many as 65% of users who decide to buy choose the links included in paid ads.

How to calculate CTR?

Whether it’s an organic CTR or a PPC campaign, the click-through rate is based on an uncomplicated formula. Two values are taken into account. It is about the number of clicks divided by the number of impressions. The result obtained must be multiplied by 100 to obtain the percentage value. For example, you launched a Google Ads campaign for your website and after some time the ads were displayed, the statistics say that 1000 people saw them, and 100 of them decided to click on it and move to your website. This means that the CTR is 10%.

What CTR is good?

There is no clear answer to this question, as it depends, among other things, on the industry in which you operate. However, it is worth knowing the average values that can become a benchmark for your work. According to research by WordStream, the average CTR is around 2% for a search ad and 0.35% for an ad displayed on your website in the form of a banner or other ad formats. These figures do not seem very high, but still reaching them can be quite a time-consuming challenge. Especially in the case of organic traffic. All results exceeding these values are already above average and prove well-conducted marketing activities.

CTR versus Predicted CTR – see the differences

Expected CTR is an auxiliary data that is useful when creating an ad. Their task is to calculate the likelihood of clicking a link using certain key phrases. However, please note that the eCTR value is predicted and does not take into account other factors that affect ad performance such as ad position, format or device on which it appears.

Importantly, eCTR is taken into account by Google when determining the Quality Score for a given ad, and thus may improve its positioning. Approximate values for Predicted CTR are “above average”, “average” and “below average”. This allows you to see if the content you create will have a chance of achieving the expected success in a given form.

Improving eCTR – how and why?

While Expected CTR is all about forecasted data, it cannot be ignored. Improving this indicator contributes to increasing the Quality Score of the ad in a short time, which in turn will be helpful in increasing the value of the correct CTR. Already at the stage of creating the advertisement, you should ensure that the eCTR is average or above average. In the event that the values ​​of this indicator are lower, you need to re-analyze the key phrases used in the ad. They may be poorly chosen or the content is insufficiently saturated with them. You also need to remember that eCTR is a variable value and the fact that you have achieved above average does not mean that it will be consistently at that level. For this reason, you should regularly check this indicator and analyze the strength of the keywords used in the ad, so that in the event of changes, you can react early and modify the content. As in the case of other marketing activities, also in this case it is also worth carrying out A / B tests and paying attention to the activities of direct competition.

Does CTR affect other indicators?

Clickthrough Rate is not only an analytical value that allows you to decide whether or not you should make adjustments to the advertising content. High CTR translates into measurable benefits. The first and most obvious is that more clicks mean more leads. This allows you to generate more traffic on the website and improve conversion rates. If this is not the case, and despite a high CTR, you still have a low conversion, the problem is probably not the advertising content itself (as it encourages you to click), but the content of the page it refers to. This may involve, for example, offering a product or service that does not match what the ad is saying. It is important that, according to research published by Clutch, as many as 33% of users click on advertising content based on how closely their content is related to the phrases they search. The solution to this problem may also be excluding key phrases, the use of which in the search process will block your ad from showing. For example, if you mark keywords such as “new car parts” as negative in a situation where you only offer second-hand equipment, you will reduce the risk that someone who is looking for only unused parts will click on your ad. That person will certainly not make the purchase, and you will have to pay for clicking them. According to the Hubspot blog, the average conversion result from advertising, without distinguishing between specific industries, is 2.7% for search ads and 0.9% for ads displayed on pages.

CTR also affects another indicator. It is CPC, i.e. cost per click. You will set the maximum cost when creating an advertising campaign, but it can often be much lower. The more users click on your ads, the more the cost of maintaining them is reduced. Hence, this translates into real savings.

Does CTR affect website ranking?

It has not been proven that CTR itself is a ranking factor for a website. Search Engine Land reports that the statements of Google employees over the last 10 years have repeatedly confirmed that the multiple factor has little or no impact on positioning. On the other hand, sites that rank high in organic search results also tend to have a much higher CTR than the lower-ranked competitors. It is therefore a correlation that cannot be ignored.

Sales automation – what is it?

At a certain stage of the company’s expansion, proper sales management requires a certain change of mind – or rather, the willingness to delegate some responsibility to special software. Software devoid of the human factor, of course, will not replace the salesperson in convincing the customer that this product or service will be the best choice for the lead – at least not at the present stage. However, it can revolutionize the company’s approach to sales organization. After all, it cannot be denied that the “traditional” model of sales management has several disadvantages, of which two are in the lead:

– Sales specialist’s time is limited – the more small sales-related obligations a salesperson has to fulfill, the less time (and energy) he has to actually sell;
– Even in the best organizations, leads are sometimes “wasted” – for example, when they were not communicated to the right person at the right time or their potential was misjudged.

The Sales Automation software allows you to eliminate, or at least significantly reduce, the damage caused by the above-mentioned points. It saves the time of the sales department on all “fronts” and – properly configured – deals with the organization and classification of leads. All this is done with the inevitability and immediacy of a computer program. In short, the Sales Automation module in HubSpot:

– Improves productivity by replacing the salesperson in many necessary organizational tasks;
– He makes sure that the lead is not “lost in action”;
– It ensures consistency of sales data between all departments in the company;
– Allows you to associate a given lead with activities that he performed on the company’s website – for example, he visited specific subpages or completed a given form;
– Offers the ability to send internal messages to all members of the sales department;
– It allows you to see the entire history of cooperation with a given lead – conversation records, logs of activities performed, etc. on a clear timeline.
– In conjunction with the Marketing Hub, it enables full automation of e-mails – for example, automatic dispatch of an upselling offer, reminders about the need to settle an invoice or a request for an opinion on a product / service.

What does our Head of Sales Donald Cooper say about HubSpot Sales?

HubSpot enables me to manage my sales team with greater efficiency. Detailed data analyzes and non-standard reports allow you to study the sales effectiveness of salespeople and observe their ability to build relationships with customers. Thanks to the possibility of tracking leads on our website in real time, I can select the most engaged ones and configure the appropriate e-mail notifications for my team. This is just a drop in the ocean of possibilities that HubSpot offers us. It is definitely worth using them to develop your business.

It should not be forgotten that while Sales Automation in the right hands is an advanced tool that can be a catalyst for the dynamic development of the company, the software will not be able to use its capabilities without proper configuration. Sales automation is a powerful ally of the merchant, but without it is nothing more than galaxies of ones and zeros. The introduction of this type of software to the company must therefore take place in a thoughtful and organized manner, and all people who will use Sales Automation in the company should be properly trained. Don’t worry – in the vast majority of cases it pays off.

Sales Automation CRM

The most important element of Sales Automation is certainly CRM (customer relationship management) – software for managing customer relations. The times when all related processes were organized using Excel’s spreadsheet should be rightly called the past – the CRM system can be compared to the transition from a cab to a modern car.

HubSpot Free CRM as part of a wider ecosystem perfectly meets the needs of enterprises in establishing and maintaining relationships with potential and current customers. What is it about?

Sales automation in HubSpot – for the merchant

Let’s start from the beginning, i.e. adding contacts to the lead base and initial selection. The marketing module in HubSpot allows you to develop a personalized workflow. In this way, based on the source from which the lead comes, the data he provided and the activities he performed on the website, it is possible not only to automatically enter it into the contact database, but also to categorize a given lead.

People who have participated in, for example, a company-organized webinar on a specific topic, will rather be interested in such a service or related options, rather than in another part of the offer. The source of the contact may also be advertising on Facebook or Google Ads, the form on the website and many others. There are many options for classifying leads thanks to the almost complete customization – other examples are categorization by position (with a CEO with a high probability the conversation will look different than with a junior specialist), the size of the company and any other value you set.

The Sales module in HubSpot allows you to create message templates with personalized tokens, thanks to which the system can automatically fill in such elements as company name, name or position. This provides a noticeable time saving in relation to writing content, and even the typical copying of a template from another source and adapting it to a given lead. HubSpot does it for you.

What’s more, thanks to the e-mail tracking function in HubSpot, the trader will see in the system that the message was opened by the addressee, the link in it was clicked or the file attached to the message was downloaded (notifications can also be displayed on the desktop in the form of push notifications).

If the lead ignores the sales email, the sales chances drop, but are still more than zero. The Sequence feature in HubSpot Sales allows you to automatically send several messages at specific intervals to remind a potential customer of the offer. And when the dialogue is established, HubSpot will immediately remove the contact from the list and stop sending any more e-mails.

Thanks to the integration with the Google calendar or the calendar available in Microsoft Office 365, HubSpot will also help the salesperson to arrange a meeting with a potential customer. It is enough to send a link with the available hours to the lead, and the lead can quickly and conveniently click on a suitable date. The meeting will automatically appear in your calendar.

Sales automation in HubSpot for a manager

HubSpot is also a powerful convenience for leaders of sales teams. In many organizations, reporting is a very time-consuming (and often necessary) job. HubSpot has a solution for this – customized reports can be automatically generated and then sent via e-mail to members of the sales team, management board or other people associated with the process.

Another advantage of HubSpot as a CRM are the enormous possibilities of automatic categorization of leads. From basic classification options – for example based on company size, location, industry or type (B2B / B2C) to fully definable custom fields that can be useful in a given activity. What’s more, with HubSpot you can also create a scoring system for potential customers.

What is it about? Thanks to the recording of various events and the possibility of adding your own fields, a given lead can be subject to automatic evaluation. For example, failing to pick up the phone several times will result in receiving negative points, and reading the article on the subpage of a specific service will result in a positive ranking. You can extend the entire algorithm with even such elements as e-mail address analysis – if the customer is potentially interested in a service or product with a high price, and the company e-mail is on a free domain, it can be initially assumed that the cost probably exceeds the customer’s capabilities.

With the right number of factors and giving them the right weight, HubSpot can present the potential of cooperation with the client using a percentage value. Of course, it will only be an auxiliary indicator, but if properly configured, it will be surprisingly effective in scoring.

HubSpot and the power of integration

Even the best designed and configured CRM system would be of little use if it could not be integrated with other services. Enterprises use many external services for various purposes – from lead acquisition, to analytics, to logistics and many more. In the case of sales automation, HubSpot can be integrated with different types of software, used in principle at each of the steps mentioned above.

– For example, Sales Navigator will help in “catching” leads,
– LeadSpace or LeadGenius can be useful in obtaining information,
– When arranging calls, apart from the Google and Microsoft calendars, you can also use Calendly or Arrangr,
– In the analysis of sales calls, it is worth taking an interest in tools based largely on artificial intelligence: these are, among others, Wingman or Avoma,
– ClientPoint or PandaDoc will work well in developing valuations and sales proposals,
– In report automation, your (and HubSpot) ally will be, for example, QuarterOne.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg – the number of tools you can integrate with HubSpot is truly impressive – and sales automation is just a slice of the platform as a whole.