What I Can Do For You As Your Digital Marketer

Dear _______,

It might be silly to say that everyone should start a blog (I don’t think it is for everyone) but if you think you have the slightest inkling to put your thoughts to screen then you should do it. Learn how to word your thoughts and teach others about the things that matter to you. I learned how to analyze content differently, I learned how to use my voice- I mean really use it. I learned how to write quickly and with purpose. My writing skills have improved drastically. I am so thankful for the experience and thought I would share my progress thus far.

Total word count: 13790

345 views from the U.S. 1 view from the Netherlands (I think this means I famous!)

147 visitors

Homepage 197 views

I’ve learned that your voice is one of the most powerful things that you own. You use its unique impressions to articulate thoughts, to express anger and love, to make others laugh and to define yourself.

Along with finding my voice through blogging I also learned about various topics such as SEO, A/B testing, digital analytics, html, email marketing, landing page optimization, social media marketing, inbound marketing, and the list goes on. I actually completed 3 different certifications- HootSuite, Hubspot, and Google Analytics. The experience challenging and rewarding, now leaves me feeling confident in my abilities.

Next quarter is my last quarter being a college student and I feel like I still have so much to learn and so much desire to learn. I plan to make this world my college campus, and my work will be the classroom.

As a new graduate I will have a fresh perspective… I want to talk about what I can do for you as a digital marketer. I don’t want to say it in the way you would write a standard 5 paragraph essay for a lit. class. I want to be real. I don’t always know what I am doing but I try. I try really hard. Not in one of those “try-hard” annoying kind of ways but in a hard-working-quick-learning type of way. I love to prove myself to others. I follow through when I say I am going to do something and I am 100% ready to put my career at the top of my priorities. I always keep a full plate and I have learned that I work best under tremendous amounts of pressure. Give me a task and I will figure it out, I will get it done and I will put real effort into it. If its marketing, I’m in. I love to learn about it and there is still so much to learn about it. I am ready to work somewhere with like-minded people where I can share ideas and build things. Build content. Give me a hammer and I will build a house. Give me a laptop and I will build an informative, lovely piece of content. Piece of soul. This letter was supposed to be to my future boss, or my dream employer. I don’t want to limit it to even that. This letter is for myself. A benchmark of how far I have come and a marker to look back on when I am far from here.

What a fantastic thing it is to educate yourself. I find so much worth in knowledge and I am ready- no I am at the starting line waiting for the bullet to sound, so that I can take off and follow my dreams. (Please excuse the can of cheezewiz I just sprayed everywhere)

Sincerely,

Jaclyn Celine

Google Analytics: Platform Principles

As of right now I am in training to become Google Analytics Certified! Woo hoo!

In one of my very first posts I talked about the importance of analytics. The post is short n’ sweet. Not very in depth. But it tells us the importance of analyzing. Later I posted about SEO and how it is best to combine SEO with Paid Search Advertising. I am starting to see a trend here… a Google trend. Google is one of the biggest players in the analytics game.

What is Google analytics?

It is a dashboard that tracks data and creates reports based off of the data collected. The reports tell stories about the success of your goals. Users use the tool to track different metrics and dimensions about your site/app traffic. Metrics are quantitative data and dimensions are qualitative data. The data is tracked using an SDK kit or JavaScript code depending on whether you are tracking traffic on an application or website. You can track data on any digital device that connects to the internet by sending the data to the Google Analytics platform for processing. You can even use configuration settings to better target, organize or filter data.

Understanding Basic Terms

The data is tracked by users and sessions. A user is a unique visitor and  this is tacked by using a unique ID for each new user. ID’s are specific to a device but can be edited to create one ID across multiple devices. A session is a collection of interactions/hits during a given time period. Users can have multiple sessions. A session ends after 30 minutes of inactivity.

Defining Goals

You use Google Analytics to track how often users complete specific actions. These are known as goals. Defining and creating the right goals for your business is very important. When a visitor completes a goal on your site or app Google Analytics tracks that as a conversion. The conversion is an action completed by a user that is of value to your business, for example a purchase, content download or newsletter sign up. Conversions are unique to your business depending on what is important to you. Google defines 5 types of goals. Below is a chart with an example of each type. Google Analytics also lets you add a monetary value to every conversion if you choose. This is a good way to put your goals into perspective and to see what is making money for your business and what isn’t.

Reporting

Most of your reporting will be done through the standard reporting interface. API’s are another reporting tool. Google gives you simple API’s to automate reporting by building an application that sends queries to the analytics interface. This can be complex and may not be right for you. You must be a capable developer to develop an application worth using. Reporting in Google Analytics is brought to you in table form consisting of columns and rows. Another consideration is reporting sample sizes. If you wish to have more concise data you will want to use a larger sample size. If you wish to have your reports calculated quickly then you may want to use a smaller sample size.

Google Analytics Certification

In just a couple of hours (under 2) I learned how Google Analytics works. After further studying I will be taking my certification exam and will be proficient in Google Analytics if I pass. The study tools and certification are both free! FREE! This is a skill that will set me ahead of my marketing peers. Analytics is engraved into every marketing process today and is such an important skill to master. If your considering a career in marketing and still do not grasp the analytic concepts or understand how to use the tools, I would recommend completing the free training and certification.

The Era of Multiscreen Marketing

As technology grows so does the range of devices we use. Marketing is challenged by a range of screens and devices to master. Comscore came out with an interesting white paper about the patterns of device usage, telling many insights into the ever changing multiscreen world. In 2013 smart phones alone surpassed desktops for internet usage taking the majority at 57% of all internet usage in the U.S. Even more is that app usage accounted for 85% of internet time spent on phones and the number of smart phone users grew by 24%. Smart phone technology had no revolutionary products in 2013 and is well into the late majority phase of the technology adoption life cycle yet the technology usage rates still has room for growth. There were still 83 million U.S. mobile users that didn’t adopt to a smart phone at the end of 2013.

In an interactive whitepaper by Milward Brown AdReaction, author(s) have created easy to read infographics showing how people spend their time across screens. The first visual was my favorite. It shows the amount of minutes people spend on the internet across screens.

Infographic by Milward Brown, AdReaction

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see, smartphone usage ranks the highest followed by TV, laptops, and tablets. Now that we know the importance of mobile and multiscreen marketing let’s discuss what we can do to improve in these areas.

Start with the Goal

If the goal is to optimize your website for mobile, then start there. I mean really start there. If you have already created a brand or personal website and know that your current model is working across digital platforms then this tip isn’t for you, but if your just starting out, looking for a site revamp or just need some help optimizing across screens, then listen up. Your website is your tool and multiscreen optimization is your goal, so you should start there. First create a site that is optimized for mobile and then test across different screens. If it works across screens then you have success, if not you may want to consider some other options to combine with your optimization.

Another option is to build a responsive website. Responsive Web design is the approach that suggests that design and development should respond to the user’s behavior and environment based on screen size, platform and orientation. So as visitors come to your site, the site adjusts automatically. Automatically is the key, this means that who ever visits your site will automatically be directed to the best version of your site depending on what device they are using at that time. Many create responsive sites from desktop optimized sites- this is fine and may work great for your site- but in an article, SEO guide to creating a great website, author MOZ recommends starting with mobile then building a site to respond to desktop/tablet screens.

Building separate sites for different platforms is another option. Moz argues that responsive is better but I could see a potential for separate. With separate you would be able to optimize by each platform. This option would be the most time consuming though and could lead to a miss of brand cohesion if the sites did not match up.

Eliminate the Slow Joe

Make sure that your visitors aren’t waiting around for pages or content to load. This can cut your site traffic and conversions considerably if your site is slow. People can’t and won’t wait for slow sites when we are conditioned for fast internet travel. This means that you need to check for and eliminate lagging content from your site, or replace lagging content with fast content. Oh and Flash is dead so get rid of it!! It will bring your site down!

Create an Application

Since app usage accounts for 85% of total internet time spent on smartphones I think we could all take a page out of Starbucks’ book. They’re doing something right with their addictive app that pairs quite nicely with their very addictive drinks. The company said that on average, customers pay for a purchase using a smartphone 7 million times per week, with mobile payments now accounting for roughly 16 percent of total transactions. If your company has the potential to work well with an app then you have a great opportunity for mobile optimization.

Test Across Platforms

Don’t be the big dummie that doesnt test and make sure that your site is running smoothly and is optimized across platforms. This means you may have to borrow some of your friends’ technology products or maybe stop by the local Best buy and test your site there. Collect data by tracking the engagement of your site’s visitors across platforms and react accordingly. As you know already the optimizing process is never over. So always analyze and test to keep an engaged audience across screens.