Author: Franz Malten Buemann

Local search is powerful for small businesses: 46% of all Google searches are looking for local information, which means if your business isn’t optimized for local search, you could be missing out on potential customers who are ready to shop in your area. In short, local SEO is critical if you want your business to stay relevant.
To help you optimize your business for local SEO, we’ve created a comprehensive guide, which will cover local SEO tips and tools.
By the end of the guide, you’ll have a firm understanding on how to optimize your business to reach potential consumers who use local search to choose which products or services they’re going to buy.

To gather information for local search, search engines rely on signals such as local content, social profile pages, links, and citations to provide the most relevant local results to the user.
With local SEO, businesses can use this to position their products and services to local prospects and customers who are searching for them.
1. Optimize for Google My Business.
Google My Business has become the creme de la creme of local search — since Google understandably feels most comfortable sharing content it can support and verify, Google My Business is their tool to help your business meet Google’s needs. 
To ensure you’re optimized for Google My Business, you’ll want to:

Create and verify a Google My Business page
Use Google Posts within your account
Encourage your customers to share reviews online
Respond authentically to reviews, specifying location. For example, “We appreciate your feedback on

in [city, state]. We value your input and look forward to working with you again. Thank you from the [full company name] team.”

If Google can verify your business as authentic, the search engine could potentially reward your business with a coveted sidebar space in Google local search.
Don’t just do this for the SEO, either. By having reviews and keeping your contact information and operating hours up-to-date, you’re improving the experience for potential customers to find you. Finding current information is important to consumers, now more than ever, due to 2020’s disruption in consumer shopping behavior and business operation.
To learn more about using Google My Business, check out our full post here.
2. Engage on social media and add posts to Google My Business.
Google considers content shared on social media more important now than ever before.
Now that you’ve carved out a beautiful Google My Business page, share the page on social media, further aligning social and search.
3. Ensure your name, address, and phone number are consistent online.
You’ve got to make it easy for people and search engines to find you. To do this, set up your NAP, which stands for name, address, and phone number (with area code). This should be included as crawlable HTML text on your site.
Avoid the common mistake of only including the NAP within an image — images can’t be crawled from search engines like HTML text. The most common location for the NAP is in the footer or header of the site.
4. Optimize online directories and citations.
For United States companies, these four map data aggregators provide a large amount of the map data for Apple, Yelp, Bing, Google, Trip Advisor, and more.

Express Update
Neustar Localeze
Foursquare
Factual

Consistency is key: verify that your citations are consistent and complete across these four data aggregators.
Discrepancies like misspellings, abbreviations, lack of suite number or wrong phone number can be problematic.
If Google can’t determine which information about your business is correct, it may not show your business at all in search results.
Additionally, be sure to remove any duplicate listings you find. Bonus points for emphasizing a Chambers of Commerce membership in your community, which will garner you an external inbound link.
5. Perform a local SEO audit.
Once you have the fundamentals down, it may be tempting to put your foot on the brake. However, SEO is an ongoing and intuitive process. Instead of stopping there or simply making changes and seeing what sticks, it helps to perform a comprehensive audit to see where your website stands and what you need to work on to achieve your goals. A local SEO audit may include the following:

Google My Business Audit – How does your Google My Business appear in the SERPs? Is the information accurate?

Google Search Console Audit – Is your site crawlable? Does it have any errors that would hinder indexing?

On-Page SEO Audit – Does your site accommodate all the on-page SEO elements that help ranking?

Citation Audit – Are all of your citations correct in the top business directories?

Competitor Analysis – How does your site match up with your competition’s? Are there any gaps that you need to close? How do you match up in terms of inbound links, content, design, and positioning?

Website Audit – How well is your website performing?

6. Improve your internal linking structure.
Although external links pointing to your site are ideal (which I’ll discuss soon), adjusting your internal linking structure will also boost your SEO rankings.
Why does internal linking matter? It does the following:

Supports website navigation
Assists with information architecture and website hierarchy
Distributes page authority and ranking power among pages

If you want to improve your internal linking structure but aren’t sure where to start, check out Kissmetrics’ The Seven Commandments of Internal Linking for Top-Notch SEO.
7. Optimize URL, title tags, headers, meta description, and content.
When it comes to content, every new blog post is a new indexed page for your site, a new page on which to target a geographic search phrase, and a new opportunity to get found in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
Every time you write a piece of content, you need to optimize the content for search engines by using high-volume keywords in the URL, title, header, meta description, and body. If you’re having trouble coming up with geo-targeted content, consider highlighting customer success stories and case studies.
8. Add location pages to your website.
If you have more than one brick and mortar location, create location pages. Location pages provide readers with your name, address, phone number, store hours, unique store descriptions, parking/transit information, promotions, and testimonials from happy customers.
It’s also important you avoid duplicating content across multiple location pages. For single location businesses, create a locally descriptive About Us page. You’ll get big time bonus points if you add a Google Map to your website on your respective location page(s).
9. Create local content.
Google continues to get smarter, which means content creators are now able to truly write for users, not search engines. But while writing about general topics will attract a wide crowd, sometimes it’s more important to hone your focus and write about local or industry news to attract a local audience.
Be the local authority for your industry by promoting local industry gatherings, news, employees, and other educational content on your blog. Think of top-of-the-funnel content that goes beyond what your business sells.
For example, if you’re a local security company and you’re trying to attract businesses that are new to the area, create a helpful resource to get these businesses well-acquainted with your city. A map of local service providers or a calendar of city-wide events could both provide value for your persona and contain highly relevant on-page local signals.
10. Ensure your website is mobile-friendly.
Local search and mobile search go hand in hand (61% of all Google searches are performed on mobile).
Some of the most common ways people will use your site in a mobile environment is to look up reviews, find directions to your location, and search for contact information. In fact, “near me” searches on mobile have increased 250% since 2017 (Think With Google).
Make it easy for your prospects and customers by making your site mobile-friendly.
11. Get inbound links with relevance and authority.
Inbound links are incredibly powerful opportunities to boost your local SEO — every inbound link tells Google you’re a legitimate company, and inbound links can also raise your domain authority. Here are a few ways to get inbound links:

Sponsorships or Partnerships
Guest Blog Posting
Scholarships

Start with your own personal network, which may include the Chamber of Commerce, business improvement districts, licensing bureaus, trade associations, resellers, vendors, and/or manufacturers and other affiliates.
Consider sponsoring a webinar or meet-up, hosting a community event, promoting something local you love, and building relationships with prominent people and influencers. Additionally, learn to feel comfortable reaching out to partners to see if they can feature you on their partner directory.
Also, being a guest blogger can help attract links. Talk to and about (positively, of course!) other people in your industry, and act as a resource provider for the community. If you’re an active participant in community conversations, the buzz around you grows in the form of inbound links, social media growth, and media coverage.
12. Participate in your local community. 
The more you participate in the local community, the more digital PR you’ll receive. Partnering with a nonprofit on a campaign, having a volunteer day in your organization, sponsoring an event (even an online one!), or appearing in the local media as an authority in your industry are all ways to earn press, brand awareness, and inbound links.
For example, given that .edu links are the bee’s knees for domain authority, why not earn some links by featuring a scholarship in your geographic region? It should be relevant to your industry, send the right signals to your domain (given the backlinks from schools) … and make you feel good, too! Moz built up a solid guide on the steps to success for effective scholarship outreach.
Local SEO Tools
Now that we’ve covered how to optimize your business for local SEO, let’s explore some useful tools you can leverage to improve your ranking in the areas where it matters most.
1. Whitespark Local Citation Finder

A local citation is any online mention of the name, address, and phone number for a local business.
Citations matter because they help surface local businesses in online search, and when local businesses actively manage their citations to ensure data accuracy, it promotes trust of these online listings.
Whitespark knows this realm well — really well. Whitespark offers local listing management, recommends where to list your business, examines your competition, and robustly builds and monitors your citation growth for better local search rankings.
2. Screaming Frog

This desktop program crawls websites’ links, images, CSS, script and apps from an SEO perspective. Curious if you have any 404’s? Wondering about missing meta descriptions or H1’s? Screaming Frog will analyze up to 500 URLs for free and offers an unlimited paid version for $200/year.
3. Moz Local

Less expensive than most of its counterparts, Moz Local will ensure your business listing has been verified on Google and Facebook, and distribute your listing across the search ecosystem.
Additionally, Moz Local will collaborate with data aggregators to help push listings, ensuring your business gains visibility.
4. Ahrefs

Ahrefs helps with backlink checking, which is important as these links (which are directed toward your website) serve as an indicator of website authority.
Ahrefs also offers competitor analysis, keyword research, and insight into the anchor text other websites use when backlinking to your site.
5. Buzzstream

BuzzStream facilitates earning local backlinks, which helps you identify and build relationships with local influencers by researching influencers, tracking conversations, and providing reporting insights into your outreach campaigns, team performance, and link placements.
6. BrightLocal

BrightLocal is a comprehensive SEO tool suite specifically built for local business marketing needs.
The tool can help you generate and monitor reviews on local sites, understand your local search performance, and analyze nearby competitors.
BrightLocal also offers client access and white-labeled reporting — making it a solid fit for agencies and brands alike.
Local SEO is an important part of any SEO strategy for local businesses. If you have a storefront or service area, local SEO will help your audience find you when they search online.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in April 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

In 2021, smart home systems and devices are more impressive and all-encompassing than ever.
Using a smart system isn’t limited to asking Alexa to tell you the weather or play that new Drake song — now, you can use smart devices to grill chicken at your next family barbecue, turn the lights off in the living room while you’re watching a movie, or vacuum your floors.
Your home devices provide a sense of convenience, but they can also tackle more serious tasks, like acting as your home security system when you’re out of town. In other words, they aren’t just for fun anymore — they also fulfill some substantial needs.
The Difference Between Smart Devices vs. Smart Systems
Before we get into our list, it’s important to define our terms. A smart system is the overarching command center that controls your individual products — think Alexa or Google Assistant. Essentially, a smart system is what you speak to when you want something to happen. A device, on the other hand, is an individual product that reports back to that system — think, Amazon Echo or Philips Hue lightbulbs.
Now, let’s delve into our list of the best smart home devices and systems of 2021, so you can decide for yourself which systems and products will best enhance your life.
Best Smart Home Systems
When looking to purchase a smart-home system, you want to look into reviews and its integrations.
While the reviews will show you how good or bad the technology is, the integration information will show you how many products you can actually connect your system to. 
As you’re researching integrations, you should also consider any smart devices you already have that might be compatible or incompatible with the system. Today, most good smart home systems are powered by state-of-the art technology and offer a long list of third-party integration possibilities. For example, Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant connect to smart thermostats like Nest or Ecobee — not just thermostats made by their own companies.
If your devices all connect well together, work well, and are easy to use, your smart home experiences will run much more smoothly.
Here are four major smart home systems that we recommend.
1. Amazon Alexa

With more than hundreds of millions of compatible devices, Alexa is undoubtedly one of the most comprehensive smart home ecosystems available today. While you have likely heard of using Alexa in Eco-speaker form (“Alexa, what’s the weather today?”), you might not know that Alexa is now built into plenty of other smart products, including thermostats and TVs.
Alexa makes every aspect of your smart home easy to access and control. You can use Alexa to speak to apps like Spotify just as easily as you can ask her to turn off the lights. Since Amazon’s ecosystem is one of the most prevalent in the industry, most smart products integrate seamlessly with Alexa, including products made by Philips, Samsung, Nest, and Schlage — Alexa can now close your garage, lock your doors, and adjust your home’s temperature. To know if Alexa will work with a certain device, just look for the ‘Works with Amazon Alexa’ tag.
Ultimately, Alexa’s ability to integrate and speak to most other smart devices and apps makes her one of the best choices for your smart home.
2. Google Assistant

If there’s any true runner-up to Alexa, it’s Google Assistant. Even though Google Assistant has less third-party integrations, it can often answer questions and complete commands Alexa can’t, thanks to Google’s major ownership of the search engine space. Google Assistant has an accuracy score of 92.9% while Amazon Alexa scores at 79.8% (ZDNet). Ultimately, Assistant wins when it comes to understanding how people naturally speak.
For instance, if you the Assistant “I don’t like this song” on Spotify, it will skip to the next one, while Alexa will simply tell you, “Thumbs up and down are not supported on Spotify.” Small differences like this could sway you towards Google, since it’s often more helpful (and less literal) than Alexa.
Assistant can also integrate with products from most major brands, including Philips, Belkin, August, Nest, and popular apps such as Spotify and Uber.
3. Wink Hub

Wink Hub is touted as the “first smart home hub designed for the mainstream consumer.” Unlike Alexa or Assistant, Wink doesn’t have any brand loyalty, allowing you to pick and choose different smart product brands and merge them seamlessly with one another.
Wink Hub 2 supports smart home protocols including Bluetooth LE, Kidde, Lutron ClearConnect, Wi-Fi, Z-Wave, and more. If you’re looking to create a fully integrated smart home with kitchen and wall appliances in-sync, this might be your best option. You can also download the Wink Hub app and control commands, like light switches or garage door, from your phone on-the-go.
4. Samsung SmartThings Hub

This Samsung system unites a wide variety of smart devices from different brands including smart thermostats, Wi-Fi router, lightbulbs, and security devices. Users with the smart system get a SmartThings Hub wall mount and can get full access to the smart devices connected to the hub through the SmartThings IOS or Android app.
Samsung’s SmartThings Hub has been growing its own smart-device offerings for the past few years. In fact, the Hub’s product lineup includes the addition of the SmartThing Wi-Fi plug, SmartThings Lightbulb, and SmartThings Cam.
Through the SmartThings Hub, you can also set compatible smart devices to do various actions like turning on or off when you walk in or out of a room. While you can give voice commands to the SmartThings wall hub or app, you can also integrate and Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant to the system. 
1. Best Speaker: Amazon Echo (4th Generation)

Price: $99.99
If you’re looking for a relatively affordable device to cater to your everyday needs, you probably don’t need to look further than Amazon Echo. The speaker connects to Alexa to play your favorite music, make phone calls or send messages, answer questions, and set alarms for you: “It’s 6 p.m., time to head to your tennis lesson.” It also connects to other smart products in your home, so you can use it as your liaison between you and your smart TV.
The speakers are capable of being synced for multi-room sound, and the Echo has advanced voice control. With the Echo, you can turn the TV on, order a pizza, and create a shopping to-do list — without ever leaving your couch.

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2. Best Lights: Philips Hue

Price: $49.99/bulb
The Philips Hue bulbs enable you to control both intensity of light — dimming or brightening on-command — and the color of your lights. You can create special color-coordinated moods (i.e. choose the “energize” theme on your app for a specific room you’re in, or sync it with your music). You can also set color-coordinated alarms, ensuring you wake up every morning to a bright pink bedroom.
These bulbs work with most smart home systems, making them arguably the most flexible option. If you don’t want color, you can also purchase Philips Hue White.

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3. Best Light Switch: TP-Link HS220

Price: $18.99
Philips Hue bulbs and similar smart lights are fantastic and effortless — until someone flips a light switch, in which case, your bulbs won’t work until you flip it back.
For true ease-of-use, consider buying smart light switches, which you can control from your phone or smart home whether or not your physical light switch is up or down. Using the app Kasa, you can create scenes and smart actions — for instance, you might tell the app you’re “watching TV downstairs,” and the switches will automatically turn off all upstairs lights.
TP-Link HS220 works with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, but you might need to consider other options if you primarily use Apple HomeKit, Wink, or another smart system.

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4. Best Thermostat: Ecobee SmartThermostat

Price: $249.99
Ecobee allows you to control air temperature with voice commands, but unlike other smart thermostats, it also works as its own Amazon speaker (rather than simply working with an Amazon speaker), so it can do many of the same things your Alexa or Assistant can do, including play music, shop, and control other devices. Of course, if you already own a smart speaker, you might want to consider a cheaper thermostat option.
Ecobee integrates seamlessly with apps and other home ecosystems like Alexa or Apple HomeKit. Plus, it’s able to control the room you’re in, rather than the room it’s installed.

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5. Best Security: NetGear Arlo Q

Price: $84.99
While some of these smart devices are more for convenience and entertainment, the NetGear Arlo Q is a truly useful tool for home security. The NetGear Arlo Q records high-quality video and audio, and even produces exceptional quality images of people in pitch-blackness.
You can customize whether your camera automatically records when you’re not home or set it to a time-based schedule for when you’re at work. While it’s on the pricier side, it offers seven days of video and audio backup for free, making it a worthwhile investment compared to some of the other smart security systems.

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6. Best Grill: Char-Broil Digital Electric Smoker, Deluxe

Price: $299
Anyone who grills regularly knows the inconvenience of it — walking in and out of the house to check the meat, hoping the temperature is hot enough but won’t burn your steak, and adding coals or lighter fluid when necessary. This tool handles all that, alerting you on your smart device when your grill is preheated, what the internal meat temperature is, and when your meat or fish is fully cooked. The 725 square-inch cooking space and four internal chrome racks allow you to grill for both large and small occasions.

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7. Best Outlet: ConnectSense Smart Outlet

Price: $59.95
A smart outlet can help you control even your most basic appliances. During the initial install, you specify the device that will be plugged in so that you can control its functionality from the app. A small change like this can make a big difference in your home.

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8. Best Vacuum: Ecovacs Deebot N79S

Price: $164.99
I’m personally willing to pay triple this price for any device that can vacuum my floor for me, but at this price, the Ecovacs Deebot N79S is a pretty impressive deal. It integrates with smart home systems and other apps, offers a manual steering option, and cleans surfaces surprisingly well. It also has a long battery life.

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9. Best Television: LG Smart TV

Price: Varies based on screen size and features.
LG was the company to offer Alexa and Google Assistant connectivity in its smart TVs.
With a smart TV, you can connect your streaming services like Netflix and Hulu, your cable box, and other video devices all in one place. Many smart TVs, like LG’s products, also offer voice control capabilities that allow you to ask the TV to search for a movie or show. 
If you’re just starting to develop your smart home and only want a basic smart TV with integrations to major streaming services, you can purchase an LG TV with 4K, Google Assistant, and Alexa capabilities starting at $479.99.

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Smart devices can enhance your productivity and make life more convenient. Plus, the technology is getting less expensive. A few purchases can make your home a smart home. 
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in June 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Your brand’s team went on Facebook Live and now the live has ended. Instead of leaving that footage to collect dust in your video library, you can repurpose it.
Think of live content like an item of clothing in your closet. You wouldn’t wear a shirt once and throw it out, right? That’s because you know you can style it in many different ways depending on the look and feel you’re going for.

Live content follows the same idea. You may think that once your live Facebook video has ended, it’s no longer usable. But in fact, you can use that same video to produce 10 more pieces of content. It’s all about reframing it to fit your goals.
With that in mind, let’s dive into how to download your live videos on Facebook and extend their shelf life.
Can you download Facebook Live videos?
Yes, you can download Facebook Live videos but only on a computer. Facebook does not currently allow users to download their live videos to their phones or other mobile devices.
The first thing you can do after downloading your video is share it on your timeline for followers who may have missed the live session. You can then use a transcription app, like Descript, to get a written version of the content, adding to your audio and visual formats. From there, you can brainstorm ways to extend the video’s shelf life.
The main benefit of repurposing live content is saving time and money.
“Live can be a great way for businesses who are light on resources to make video content. While lives can be complicated, they can also be as simple as a person in front of a camera,” says Kelly Hendrickson, social media marketing manager at HubSpot. “The biggest benefit of a live is the low cost and low production needs.”
You can save a lot on production costs by re-using past footage and building from it instead of starting from scratch.
Tips On Repurposing Your Facebook Live Content
1. Don’t force it.
Repurposing content only works if it’s valuable to your audience.
Hendrickson highlights that the question to ask when repurposing any content is, “Is this valuable to my audience?” With live content, there’s a second layer to it. You now have to ask if live content is the most effective way for your audience to get this value.
“There is a balance between providing value in the most digestible way and creating content in a sustainable way for your business,” she says. “If your audience could take the value easier in a still image or a quick text post, that will be a better option.”
She also adds that before you decide to use the live content to create another video, dig into your data.
“If the answer isn’t video, don’t force it because the algorithms won’t give you brownie points for putting your best effort forward,” Hendrickson says. “They are going to serve your audience what performs best for them.”
While you may know where your audience consumes media, they may have different expectations and behaviors on each platform. So, before scheduling that post on social, make sure it aligns with what your audience is looking for.
2. Get usage rights from talent.
Before you start repurposing, make sure your team has gotten prior approval from the talent featured in the live video.
“You often cannot repurpose live content without a contract from the talent who agrees to this, either going into the live record or after the fact,” says Jamee Sheehy, director of video at HubSpot. “If someone has agreed to one live piece of content and then there’s 20 different cut downs of it from Instagram to YouTube, that’s not a good thing, you need to agree on usage.”
The contract should include the following details:

The timeframe of the usage – Usage rights can range anywhere from one to 12 months.

Where the content will be repurposed – Brands will need to specify if the content will be used for organic social media posts, paid social campaigns or on digital marketing channels.

Once you have these details ironed out, it’s important to share them with your marketing team to ensure compliance across all channels.
3. Create a blog post.
One of the best ways to repurpose live Facebook videos is by creating blog posts from the key points discussed during the live.
For instance, let’s say Bike World sells bicycles and hosts a live with an influencer known for their outdoor adventures. Let’s say you mainly discussed bikepacking tips, biking communities and the best biking trails in the world during the live. You can take each topic and turn it into a blog post for your audience, including quotes from that influencer.
You could also include a video and/or audio snippets in the article to add more depth to your posts.
4. Get snippets for social media.
Just because your live video was originally on Facebook doesn’t mean it has to stay there.
You can reformat your content to fit on other platforms where your audience lives, like Instagram or TikTok. Instead of reposting the full video, take snippets of the best moments from the video.
“During a live, you’re there for the live feel, the random trailing off topics, the moments. Find the substance of the talk and edit to those,” said Sheehy. “Once you make an edit out of that, add graphics to fill out the story if something got lost in translation, or to add something that wasn’t talked about in the live.”
One thing to keep in mind when repurposing content on other platforms is formatting. You want to make sure you adapt the video frame to the platform so it fits the screen accordingly. For instance, the dimensions for Facebook Live videos are different from those on Instagram Reels. As such, you’ll need to create a platform-specific version.
You may also need to adapt the content for the platform. While a video snippet with cool graphics may work well for a short TikTok video, that approach may not work so well on Twitter. For that platform, it may be better to write out a stand-out quote from the video instead, as it’s a text-heavy app.
To generate the best results, you’ll have to adapt the content to the platform.
5. Use the audio for a podcast.
What better way to use audio than incorporate it into a podcast? It’s one of the most popular ways people are consuming information these days.
While your video may not work well as a full podcast episode, you can use snippets from the video to include in your podcast series. For instance, if you interviewed someone in your live video and your podcast series has an interview segment, it could be a great way to integrate that audio.
However, if the audio from your live isn’t so great or the conversation relies heavily on visual elements, a podcast may not be appropriate.
6. Upload to YouTube.
If you want your live video to be easily accessible to your audience for a long time, upload the video to YouTube.
Similar to social media, it allows those who are newly introduced to your YouTube channel to freely explore your past content. They’ll also get to enjoy the off-the-cuff feel that you only get through live videos.
Keep in mind that YouTube has strict copyright rules. If your live video features music or other content not permitted under fair use laws, you may have to edit that out of your video before uploading it.
In most cases, it’s best to plan out what content you will repurpose before you start your live video. That will give you direction on what to cover during your live to maximize the material you’ll get to use on other platforms.

Now that we’re spending more time than ever at home on our computers, it’s a great time to brush up on webinar etiquette.
Webinars give brands the chance to connect directly with their audiences. On the flip side, consumers get to increase their knowledge on a topic. It’s a win-win when done correctly, but not all webinars go smoothly. I once attended a webinar on email automation tips that was actually a full product demo. Yikes.

Then, you have situations where the presenter is late, or the attendees are having a little too much fun in the chatroom.It doesn’t exactly make for the best experience for either side.
So let’s find out how presenters and attendees can contribute to more productive webinars.
1. Set the tone.
Every webinar format is different. For example, some are education-based, with the presenter only engaging with the audience for questions. In other cases, the setting is more interactive.
That said, let your audience know what you expect of them early on.
Send a reminder email to your attendees a few days before the webinar and include a section on guidelines. Be sure to answers the following questions:

Are attendees expected to have their cameras and microphones on or off?
Is participation encouraged? If so, how?
Is there any prep work?

You can also remind your attendees of these instructions at the beginning of the webinar, as people are logging on.
2. Present what’s expected.
Imagine you order a medium-well steak at a restaurant and instead, you get a piece of chicken. That piece of chicken might be delicious, but it won’t matter because that’s not what you ordered.
Meeting expectations is very important when attempting to gain trust from your audience. For webinars, there are few things more frustrating than anticipating a presentation on one thing and getting something completely different. Switching gears can cause confusion, and lead to high drop off rates and low engagement.
In addition, each webinar type serves a purpose and caters to a unique audience. For instance, workshop attendees likely don’t have the same intentions as the ones attending product demos.
With this in mind, resist the temptation of turning your webinar into a promotional opportunity (or anything else) if it’s not on the agenda.
3. Do a practice round.
Technical difficulties are a bummer. They interrupt the flow of the presentation and can be hard to recover from. One way to prevent them is by practicing beforehand.
First, get familiar with the hosting platform you’ll be using. Learn where the key features are, such as how to:

Share your screen.
Play audio and/or video clips.
Spotlight attendees and adjust their audio/video settings.

You may consider having a moderator who will assist you during your presentation to monitor the chatroom and help move things along.
Once you feel confident navigating the platform, do a trial run for the presentation from start to finish. Doing so will let you know how much time to dedicate to each section to stay on schedule.
4. Read Q&As out loud.
When you attend a presentation in person, there’s typically no guessing game involved when someone asks a question because you can hear it being asked. Online, things work differently.
Depending on the hosting platform you use, you will likely have a Q&A feature that allows attendees to ask questions directly to the host. This means that other attendees won’t know who asked a question and what the question was.
As such, presenters should always repeat questions out loud before answering them, so that the audience understands the context of the answer. However, keep the attendee’s name anonymous unless the attendee has requested otherwise.
5. Make the webinar accessible.
Webinars can be great sources of information but can lack the accessibility features needed to reach all audiences, including those who are deaf, hard of hearing (HoH), and visually impaired.
Start by reviewing your hosting platforms. Applications like Zoom and Google Hangouts have built-in live captioning and transcription features. You can also send your attendees the presentation slides ahead of time, which makes it easier for non-native speakers to familiarize themselves with the content.
Depending on your budget, you can hire an interpreter to sign your presentation for your deaf and/or HoH audience. If that’s not possible, look into video relay service providers that will connect your audience to interpreters during your presentation.
For the presentation itself, use high-contrast colors to make it easier for visually impaired attendees to see your slides.
6. Record the session.
When hosting a webinar, you may only have a percentage of your registrants attend the live session. Due to scheduling conflicts, many people rely on video recordings to review the sessions they missed.
While it’s not absolutely necessary, it’s a great way to provide value to users who are interested in your brand but are unable to attend live sessions. You can limit access to the recording for a week or two following the live session and add a password to access the footage for added security.
1. Be on time.
Webinars typically follow strict agendas, which means there’s very little room to catch up if you’ve missed a part of the presentation.
To take full advantage of the webinar, be sure to be on time. There is usually a one- to three-minute grace period for attendees to log onto the hosting platform.
To play it safe, join the webinar a few minutes early in case you have trouble logging in. This will give enough time to reach out to the webinar organizer for help. You can also set reminders in the days leading up to the webinar to ensure you’re ready when the event starts.
2. Chat to amplify, not distract.
Think of the “Chat” box in a webinar like a classroom. Except, in this case, you can’t whisper to the person right next to you. Everything you say is loud enough for everyone in the room to hear and engage with.
With that in mind, your input should only be to amplify what the presenter is saying.
For instance, let’s say you’re attending a webinar on email marketing automation. The presenter is explaining the benefits of setting up email sequences once a lead takes a specific action. You could chime in the chat to add how effective that practice has been for your brand.
However, it wouldn’t be so helpful to introduce a conversation about email click-through rates or dive into your experience using a particular automation platform.
As a rule of thumb, if it’s not in line with the presentation, leave it out of the chatroom.
3. Don’t interrupt.
As a presenter, interruptions can really throw you off your game. It disrupts your thought process and it can take you a second to get back on track, no matter how seasoned you are.
Un-muting yourself to add your input should only be done if the presenter has opened the floor to it. As a professional courtesy, do not interrupt the presenter unless they explicitly state it is welcome.
Instead, wait for a call-to-action. The presenter might have a dedicated slide for questions and comments, or they might ask out loud if anyone has anything to add.
4. Avoid self-promotion.
Self-promoting during someone else’s webinar is like blowing out someone else’s birthday candles, it’s in poor taste.
If prompted, it’s appropriate to mention your brand as it relates to the content of the presentation. What you should avoid is attempting to direct other attendees to your brand through your website and social links or other strategies.
By following a few simple steps, you can help create a more positive webinar experience that everyone enjoys.

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Creating effective email marketing campaigns for clients gives your digital marketing agency a competitive edge in a crowded market. But it’s not enough just to manage email campaigns for clients. You need to offer more, whether to compete with other agencies who are eyeing up your clients or to persuade your clients not to move email operations in-house.
Agencies must step up with the value that supplements the automations themselves – the strategic planning, platform expertise, auditing and higher-level reporting that go beyond day-to-day, campaign-level reporting and management.
Persuading customers to add automations and strategic planning time can be a challenge, though. Successful agencies draw the line that connects adding services and business outcomes – higher revenue, reduced costs, streamlined workflows that allow in-house team members to move on to more productive and profitable ventures.
Marketing automation helps drive the kind of value customers need to see in order to make a successful case for additional investment. Read on to discover how.
3 ways to pitch marketing automation to clients
A value-added strategic approach should include proposals to persuade clients to add marketing automation to the client services your agency can provide more efficiently and effectively, whether as a partner to an in-house team or as a 100% outsourced service provider.
Campaign Monitor’s guide to email automation represents an excellent introduction to the functions and value customers can expect when they move their focus from a constant round of one-off email campaigns to a strategically based program that revolves around personalized and repeatable communications.
1. Show how clients can expand messaging to prospects and customers, make more money and build engagement without adding team members.
Here’s the message your clients need to understand: Inbox fatigue is real. It’s exacerbated by a steady stream of general messaging with no content that speaks to customer interests, solves their problems or recognizes where they are in their journey with your client’s brand.
Automated messaging sounds cold and impersonal, but the results create highly personalized emails. That’s because the system uses behavior, preferences and other data to create unique messages that speak to customers where they are on their individual journeys with the brand.
2. Show how clients can save time and money and harness the value of their list sooner by partnering with an agency.
New forms of automation, like artificial intelligence and machine learning, take personalization and relevance to even higher levels, but they’re not easy to implement at the customer level without a well-trained staff. That’s what your agency can provide.
Adding automation services to email strategy and operations through your agency allows your clients to gain all the benefits without investing in a platform or committing extra time to setting up, testing, and launching a program.
Your agency has done all the grunt work already and should have people who are trained to get the most from multiple platforms. This frees you from having to learn the ins, out and intricacies of different email services.
Partnering with your agency allows customers to benefit from your experience without spending extra time and money on training.
3. Work up examples of automated messaging programs that show clients the path to increased revenue and engagement.
Many email and ecommerce or CRM platforms already have basic forms of marketing automation baked in through welcome messages, purchase confirmations or abandoned-cart programs.
Once again, though, these often get the one-off treatment, often planned without an overall strategic plan tied to outcomes or goals. An agency team well versed in both automation and strategy can move clients into more sophisticated models of messaging automation that go farther into structure, email segmentation, real-time messaging and deep personalization.
Demonstrate your email expertise with your knowledge of varying levels of campaign complexity and database integration, like Campaign Monitor’s Salesforce email integration.
Our guide to email automation shows your clients how you can create messaging that speaks directly to your client’s biggest problems or major goals.
Here are three problem/solution scenarios you can help your clients resolve.
Marketing Automation Scenario #1

Problem: Inactivity begins early in the customer cycle.

Solution: An automated onboarding email series.

New customers are usually the most active customers on a mailing list. So, if new customers aren’t even opening emails right away, much less clicking and converting, that means your client doesn’t connect with them at the most important time in the email relationship.
Sending a welcome message as soon as possible after opt-in is pretty much table stakes these days, but you can make the case for automation by showing your client how to add value with a multi-email onboarding series.
This series starts by saying “Thanks for opting in” but then goes on to set expectations for content and frequency, show the benefits of opting in and even add a little sweetener (a purchase incentive, an educational download) that should propel the new customer back to the website to browse and, eventually, buy.
Automation allows you to set the interval between messages, switch in an email that goes only to customers who don’t click on any of your onboarding series, or adjust messaging based on where, when or how the subscriber joined the list.
This lets your client send one message to brand-new customers and another to new customers who opted in after buying (and, thus, represent a higher immediate value to the company).
This email series from The Fifth includes a welcome, a reminder to use the new-subscriber incentive and an educational email that explains the company’s value proposition and company history.

Marketing Automation Scenario #2

Problem: Subscribers aren’t buying

Solution: A lead-nurturing campaign

Besides helping to reduce inactivity, a welcome series can push new subscribers back to the website to buy (or to register for an account or event, download content, or whatever the client’s goals for new customers might be).
Getting that first conversion can be tricky. You can create an automation that detects which subscribers need a gentle prod to convert and move them into a separate messaging track without requiring team members to monitor statistics and move groups around manually.
This email from Raise addresses that first move directly by sending non-buying subscribers this targeted email:

Marketing Automation Scenario #3

Problem: Staying visible in the inbox without sending another promotion or discount

Solution: Send a birthday greeting

First, a few stats:

Birthday emails have a 481% higher transaction rate than promotional emails.
Birthday emails generate 342% higher revenue per email than promotional emails.
Birthday emails have 179% higher unique click rates than promotional emails.

A birthday email can be the simplest automated email to set up and one of the most effective when done right. But you still need to create a strategy first (increase frequency, build engagement to reduce inactivity) and then configure the email.
Our birthday email marketing guide has plenty of great ideas you can use to create a sample campaign for your clients. Here’s one from Birchbox:

Wrap Up
Clients may object to marketing automation on price point. Adding a service increases their cost of doing business with you. That is why it’s crucial to prove the long-term value of using automation.
Marketing automation can increase revenue, cut resource costs, and give them time back to focus on growing their business.
Showing reluctant clients success from other client work will move them closer to the consideration phase.
You also can start small. Show improvements with a basic application. Add a second email to a welcome message to create a series. Bump up an abandoned-cart reminder series from two to three emails. Launch a basic birthday email. One email might be all you need to move the needle.
It’s all about results.
The post Differentiate Your Agency With Email Marketing Automation appeared first on Campaign Monitor.

There’s a long list of marketing strategies digital agencies can offer. Regardless of industry, niche, or market, email marketing is a consistent top performer.
Many messaging tools have come and gone over the years. Social media has also experienced a meteoric rise. Despite these new and flashy platforms, good ol’ email remains strong in 2021. According to tech market research firm, Radicati Group, email users will balloon to 4.1 billion by the end of the year. Whatever industry or niche your client may be operating within, email remains a good way for them to connect to their market.
The sheer number of email users is only one benefit to offering email marketing services. It’s not a ‘one-and-done’ offer. Email marketing represents a great opportunity to up-sell your services. We have all been reading and sending email for years. Any email marketing service will provide value to your clients for the foreseeable future.
Email marketing offers your clients a time-tested strategy while providing you with a regular source of revenue. When done well, it’s a win-win for you and your client. But how much do you charge for email marketing? How can you make sure it’s a good value both for your agency and your clients?
A Delicate Balancing Act
Offering email marketing will make your services more robust. Yet you must factor in pricing. Charge too little, and you’ll be flooded with work. You could end up on the short end knowing how much work you need to do to create a quality email marketing campaign. Charge too much, and your clients may balk.
So, what should digital marketing agencies do to balance strategy and budget. be able to offer a beneficial strategy to clients without them going over budget?
Things to Consider When Pricing Your Email Marketing Services
Pricing your email marketing services is not as straightforward as it looks. Different agencies take into account different factors when coming up with their prices. There is no one price that fits all.
When deciding on your own pricing, here are some factors to consider:
1. Industry Averages
Email marketing providers charge anywhere between $80 to $250 a month for services. These prices depend on the tools they use, the size of the email list, and extra costs, such as copywriting.
While costs may seem steep for some, research shows that email marketing yields high ROI. Companies earn around $35 per dollar they spend on an email marketing campaign.
2. Your Level of Experience
How much experience does your agency have running a successful email marketing campaign? How many years have you provided this service? It may be hard to charge clients a premium for email strategy if you don’t have a track record.
The more email marketing experience you have, the higher you can price your services. You can qualify your rates by showing prospective clients case studies of successful past campaigns.
Earning certifications from noteworthy institutions and getting your digital marketing agency listed as an accredited partner of popular email service providers can also help bolster the level of experience you have creating and implementing high-converting email marketing campaigns. These will not only help you win more clients but also justify your premium rates.
3. Scope of Work You’ll Provide
There are many components to email marketing, which makes it highly flexible. You can price your services depending on how much work your client requires. You can offer pre-packaged services for clients who only need help getting started, or a complete package where you create, send and track the entire email marketing campaign.
You can create tiered packages. Provide different features at different price points. Show your clients what they can expect depending on the package they choose.
You can also keep the scope of work flexible. Allow your clients to select services such as buying email credits. This self-selected limit can keep their budget in line. where they can limit the number of emails sent for a particular campaign. This level of flexibility adds a self-serve element giving them the freedom to opt out at any time.
4. Pricing Model Your Digital Marketing Agency is Using
How do you invoice your clients for services rendered? Do you charge them by the hour? Do you adopt an upfront or a 50% down payment pricing structure? Compare your pricing model to digital agencies who include email marketing as a service. Adjust accordingly.
As much as possible, keep invoicing and billing clear for you and your client. People like clarity. If you make this new service smooth and seamless, they are more likely to agree to email marketing.
For agencies that charge by the hour, billing can be as straightforward as explaining how many hours they will add to your invoice. If you’re operating on a value-based pricing model, you can discuss what metrics to keep an eye on. The same goes for performance-based pricing.
Pricing is unique to every agency. Deciding how much to charge is an individual decision. Do your homework, and you won’t go wrong.
5. The Tools You’ll Be Using
Aside from the strategies you’re going to put in place, the tools you’re going to use should also factor into your pricing. The SaaS platforms you’re going to use in sending will come at a cost, usually increasing depending on the size of the email list.
If you don’t want to worry about ballooning expenses for tools, sign up for an account with Campaign Monitor. You can send an unlimited number of emails per month for as low as $29.
Depending on the client, you may also need to get an email hosting provider when carrying out an email marketing campaign. Using a secure email hosting provider is crucial to list health. You don’t want to open up your client’s valuable email list to spam and other malicious senders.
A guarantee that their list is safe and that their subscribers will never be spammed can work in your favor. Present it as a bonus and make it part of your new add-on service.
6. Human Resources
For your clients to get a return on their email marketing investment, you need to make sure the right person creates and analyzes the campaign. Having experts in email marketing, email copywriting, email design, and data science on your team should also factor into your pricing.
Client buy-in won’t be an issue when you have experts working on their campaigns. A crack team using cutting-edge technologies will also give them a competitive advantage.
7. Operational Expenses
Offering email marketing services will increase your agency’s workload, no doubt. from account managing to the cost to run your digital marketing agency. You need to take this into account when figuring out how much to charge for email marketing services.
You’ll also need to update your marketing to reflect your new email marketing services. This means updating your agency website.
Key Takeaways
Email marketing remains a solid strategy when it comes to digital marketing. With its high ROI, agencies and their clients will reap the rewards from successful email campaign.
To make sure you don’t feel shortchanged when offering this service, and your clients remain within budget, start with industry averages when deciding on pricing. From there, you can adjust depending on scope and how you price other services. Don’t forget to consider your cost of operations, human resources, tools, and the level of expertise you and your team provide.
When done right, and priced right, email marketing just might become your most valuable service offering.
The post Email Marketing Pricing: How Much Should Digital Agencies Charge? appeared first on Campaign Monitor.