Category: EduCyber

The Digital Marketing Strategies Every Business Owner Should Know

Last week I opened my mailbox and saw a blast from the past. It’s a phone book. An honest to god phone book. Well actually it is just the yellow pages. But still, I am fascinated. Businesses still pay to have ads in the yellow pages in 2024. This is a shotgun approach to marketing that is impossible for you to target your customers, hoping simply that someone somewhere will open it and call your business. There is a much better alternative:

Digital marketing isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s essential for success for any business whether in the B2B space or in the B2C space. But for many business owners, the complexity of digital marketing can feel overwhelming. That’s where hiring a professional agency like EduCyber can make all the difference.

So let’s take a look at the core digital marketing strategies every business owner should know. This will not only help you understand what your business needs to thrive online but also why partnering with experts is a smart investment in your growth.

  1. Website Design and Optimization

Your website is the digital face of your business. It’s the first impression many potential customers will have, so it needs to be visually appealing, fast, and easy to navigate. However, a beautiful website alone isn’t enough; it must also be designed to convert visitors into customers.

Mobile Optimization: With an increasing number of users accessing websites via smartphones and tablets, ensuring your website is mobile-friendly is no longer optional—it’s essential. A responsive design ensures that your site adapts to any device, offering a seamless experience for users.

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO): A well-optimized website will guide visitors toward taking action—whether that’s making a purchase, filling out a contact form, or signing up for your email list. CRO focuses on creating effective calls-to-action (CTAs), optimizing landing pages, and improving overall user experience (by keeping it simple) to increase the percentage of visitors who convert into customers.

Why This Matters: A professional digital marketing firm ensures that your website isn’t just a pretty face but a powerful tool that converts visitors into leads and customers, helping you achieve your business goals.

  1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the most misunderstood buzz words out there with many mistaking CRO for SEO. SEO is the practice of optimizing your website to rank higher in search engine results, making it easier for potential customers to find you. SEO involves several elements, including keyword research, on-page optimization, and link building.

Why SEO Matters: Studies show that 70-80% of users ignore paid ads and focus on organic search results. That means if your website isn’t showing up on the first page of Google for relevant searches, you’re missing out on a significant amount of potential business.

Local SEO: If your business serves a specific geographic area, local SEO is crucial. Optimizing your website for local search helps your business appear in searches that include phrases like “near me” or the name of your city or town.

Why This Matters: SEO is a long-term strategy that keeps your business competitive in search rankings. A firm like EduCyber manages the ongoing process of improving your site’s SEO to ensure your business remains visible to your target audience.

  1. Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC)

While SEO builds organic traffic over time, Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising offers immediate visibility. PPC allows you to display ads at the top of search engine results or on social media platforms. You only pay when someone clicks on your ad, making it a cost-effective way to target specific customers.

The Benefits of PPC: PPC campaigns offer several advantages, including immediate results, precise targeting, and detailed performance metrics. You can tailor your ads to reach customers based on factors like location, interests, and even their search history.

How PPC Works: PPC campaigns require careful management of keywords, ad copy, and bidding strategies to optimize for the lowest cost-per-click (CPC) while maximizing return on investment (ROI).

Why This Matters: PPC can be highly effective when managed correctly. EduCyber ensures your campaigns are optimized for maximum ROI, allowing you to reach your ideal customers without wasting budget on ineffective ads.

  1. Social Media Marketing

Social media isn’t just for personal use—it’s a powerful tool for businesses to engage with their audience, build brand loyalty, show thought leadership, and drive sales. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and X (Twitter) offer businesses a way to connect directly with customers and showcase their products or services. 

Content Strategy for Social Media: Social media isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it tool. It requires consistent posting, engagement with followers, and maintaining a cohesive brand voice. In addition, you need to carefully consider which platforms to use and why. A well-planned content strategy can drive traffic to your website, build relationships with your audience, and ultimately, increase sales.

Why This Matters: Managing a successful social media strategy requires time, creativity, and expertise. EduCyber helps businesses create and execute tailored social media campaigns that resonate with their audience and drive measurable results.

  1. Email Marketing

Despite the rise of social media and other digital platforms, email remains one of the most effective ways to engage customers and generate revenue. With an ROI that far outpaces many other marketing channels, email marketing is essential for building relationships with both new and existing customers.

Personalization and Segmentation: One-size-fits-all email campaigns are a thing of the past. Today, personalization and segmentation are key to success. By tailoring emails to specific customer segments, you can send more relevant messages that lead to higher open and click-through rates.

Automation Tools: Automation allows businesses to send targeted emails without the need for manual effort. From welcome emails to drip campaigns that nurture leads, automation keeps customers engaged at every stage of their journey.

Why This Matters: EduCyber ensures your email marketing is not only effective but also integrated with your broader digital marketing strategy, helping you maintain consistent communication with your audience and drive results.

  1. Content Marketing

Content marketing is the creation and distribution of valuable content designed to attract, engage, and convert your target audience. High-quality content builds trust with your audience, positions your brand as an authority, and supports your SEO efforts.

Types of Content: Content marketing can take many forms—blogs, videos, infographics, case studies, and more. Each type of content serves a different purpose, whether it’s educating customers, answering common questions, or showcasing your expertise.

Consistency is Key: Successful content marketing isn’t a one-time effort. It requires regular production of high-quality content that addresses your audience’s pain points and needs.

Why This Matters: Developing a content strategy that resonates with your audience and supports your business goals requires time and expertise. EduCyber helps businesses create and execute content strategies that drive traffic, build trust, and generate leads.

  1. Analytics and Reporting

Data is the backbone of any successful digital marketing strategy. Without it, you’re essentially flying blind. Analytics allow you to track the performance of your website, PPC campaigns, social media efforts, and more, giving you insights into what’s working and what isn’t.

Key Metrics to Track: It’s important to focus on the metrics that matter, such as website traffic, conversion rates, cost-per-acquisition, and customer lifetime value. Understanding these metrics helps you make informed decisions and optimize your marketing efforts.

Continuous Optimization: Digital marketing isn’t something you set up once and forget. It requires ongoing monitoring and optimization based on the data you collect. A firm like EduCyber will track your performance and adjust strategies to improve results over time.

Why This Matters: Without proper tracking and analysis, it’s impossible to measure success. A digital marketing firm helps you stay on top of your data and use it to drive business growth.

Conclusion

Digital marketing is critical for business success in today’s online-driven world. While it’s possible to understand these strategies at a high level, executing them effectively requires experience, time, and expertise. By partnering with a professional digital marketing firm like EduCyber, business owners can focus on what they do best—running their business—while experts handle the complex task of driving results online.

If you’re ready to take your digital marketing to the next level, contact EduCyber today and let us help you grow your business.

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The Art Of Digital Marketing Is Science

The Art Of Digital Marketing Requires A Bit Of Science
Digital Marketing Takes Work

There are a lot of artists out there. They love to create beautiful campaigns that look and feel marvelous. Sometimes you will see a post or part of a campaign that makes you laugh out loud. That too is a good part of the art.

A picture is indeed worth a 1000 words and some of the best pictures make for artistic digital marketing that takes your breath away. And a video? Well if a picture is worth a 1000, a video is worth far more. Some of the most artistic digital marketing campaigns move you to like, share and comment.

And if digital marketing were a popularity contest, that might be enough.

But bringing in a bit of science to help you with your digital marketing campaign can actually help your business grow.

You remember back in science in high school? You create a hypothesis. Then you do a test. Then you measure the results. Then you draw a conclusion based on that and from there you can create a new hypothesis and let the science keep rolling.

How does that work?

Hypothesis:

If I create one blog every two weeks for twelve weeks around a new product that we make, and strategically share that on social media I’ve identified as platforms the target customer uses, I can increase sales 10%

Test:

Create six pieces of content, keeping it short, interesting, and using images  that are not stock images. Post one every two weeks to your blog, share on identified social sites, tagging others and using hashtags as appropriate.

Measure / Evaluate:

Well we found that posts where we focused on our clients got the most interaction and we actually generated three leads as a result of those two posts. We’ve already converted one. One is a bit dicey and likely won’t convert but the other is in the funnel and looking good.

Conclusion:

It seemed like the posting frequency was just about right and it really helped to have it all planned out in advance. If we can sustain this program, our sales should increase between 11 and 15% over last year.

That’s one example of how you can conduct a digital marketing campaign with science. What all was used in this example?

  • Content Marketing – creating unique content and posting it to a blog
  • Social Media Marketing – posting to social media websites using tags and hashtags to engage others
  • Conversion Rate Optimization Marketing – determining a conversion rate based on number of interactions that actually turn into business

Other types of digital marketing that should be considered:

  • Search Engine Optimization
  • Paid Search Campaign
  • Email Marketing
  • Paid Social Media Marketing (similar to paid search campaign)
  • 3rd Party Marketing (placing your ads / links on other websites)
  • Mobile Marketing (includes many of those above plus texting)
  • Affiliate Marketing (using influencers to promote your business)

The art of digital marketing is an important component but the science of digital marketing should not be overlooked. Over the last couple of years the phrase “follow the science” has been overused and abused. But integrating science into your digital marketing outreach is important if you want to be successful.

Remember, if you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there. If you take the extra steps beyond the art of digital marketing to get to the science, you will actually be able to measure success as a phase of the campaign ends.

If this all sounds great to you but you aren’t sure where to start, we can help. Call or Fill out our contact form to get started.

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The Road Ahead: Reopening

It doesn’t matter whether you are chomping at the bit to reopen or wish the government would keep things shut down until it is deemed safe, people are getting anxious. Even those wanting to stay in are getting cabin fever.

It is spring. The weather is getting nicer. People ARE going out. And every day more people are wanting to go out.

And that means that more and more businesses will be opening. How are you preparing, both personally and professionally for getting to what many are calling the new normal?

It is prudent, none of us wants people to die, it is just that some of us see the risks differently, to be prepared for the new normal. I’m not a fan of masks – the science, where it exists suggests that anything less than an N95 mask is more for show than for actual protection. But there ARE steps you can take to minimize the risk as you venture out:

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  1. Wash your hands frequently. (I can’t believe that has to be mentioned but, as it turns out, washing your hands protects you from bad germs.)
  2. When you’ve been near or in contact with others, avoid touching your face until you have washed your hands.
  3. Wash your hands frequently (see a trend here?) and when soap is not available, use hand sanitizer.
  4. Be extra sensitive to the senior population. Most of the deaths are in this population – protect your Mom and Dad – or grandparents, or whomever you have in your life that is older.

And for your business there are also several steps you should take to prepare to reopen:

  1. Move your communications, data, and email into the cloud. This will help for any work-from-home people you have as well as distributing your touch points – you don’t have to have multiple sets of hands touching your inhouse server if you don’t have an inhouse server.
  2. Update your policies – whether you interface with the public or just have staff that you want to provide a safe environment for, update your policies – in writing and make sure your staff and employees all understand them.
  3. Celebrate Your Uniqueness – Take the updated policy from step two and consider what is different from your old normal. Highlight the differences. Consider if there are steps you are taking that might be different or better than the competition.
  4. Tell the World – Now that you have a clear policy and understand what sets you apart, tell the world! One of the first things people are looking for right now, is what is your COVID-19 policy – are you open and what steps are you taking so tell the world. Post it on your website. Link to your post in your social media, update your profiles in social media and in search engines.
  5. Turn a negative into a positive. What  do we think about the current pandemic? It sucks. But instead of dwelling on the negative aspects, look at the positives. First of all, listen to your self-talk. If it is negative, shout it down. You got this. We can make it through. And we can get back to prosperity, where we were just a few short months ago.

Before you know it, we will be looking back on the beginning of 2020 as an aberration. But, much like the oxygen masks on planes, we have to first take care of ourselves before we can help others. So take care of yourself. And of your business.

And if EduCyber can be of any assistance, give us a call at 303-268-2245.

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Privacy vs. Business Intelligence

Here are some things any web site can find out about the visitor:

Data points I can know about you:

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Privacy on the Internet

  • Your IP address
  • Your physical location
  • Your computer name
  • Your operating system
  • Your browser
  • Your screen size
  • Your device (if mobile)
  • Potentially your phone number (if mobile)
  • How you got to my site (from search? From social? Referral? Typing the address directly in?)

Data points Google can tell me about you

  • What language you speak (or surf in)
  • Your location
  • Your interests
  • Your education level
  • Your age
  • Your gender

There are a number of things you can to protect yourself and to better control what information you share and with whom it gets shared.

The first and most obvious thing is to set privacy for social media sites. You should also set security on your mobile device(s) so that no one can access it if they find it. One of the biggest things you can do to protect your privacy is turn off all the convenient features on your mobile device like location awareness. You do lose the convenience but you do gain a degree of privacy – though keep in mind that as long as your cell phone is on, you are trackable.

Consumer reports has a list of 66 things you can do to protect your privacy. Try several of these to begin protecting your privacy.

One of the conundrums we face is who to let in to our “circle” and who to keep out. When I got my new phone with fingerprint unlocking technology, I was excited. But my son pointed out that Google now has my fingerprint.

As a business / web site owner, it is important to recognize that your visitors all want and expect some level of privacy. But we all want to understand the details of WHO is visiting the site, WHY they are there and WHAT they want to accomplish. Google, with its Analtyics tool, hides demographic and other data from you if there is so little of it that you could begin to identify actual people. Their idea if to give you broad information to understand the demographic groups that come to your site. But wow, wouldn’t it be cool to know that right now, Jim Adams, aged 39, with a wife, Naomi and two children in 1st and 3rd grade just clicked on a link in your web site – oh and by the way his phone number is ***. That info sounds great to business owners until they realize they don’t want the sites they visit to know that information about them.

If you are struggling to determine how much data to collect, how to interpret it, or how to organize the data, give us a call. We’d be glad to help. Reach Brian at 303-268-2245 ext. 4

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Managed Web Hosting

EduCyber offers something called managed web hosting but we have a unique way of handling it. Whereas other firms offering this service automate, automate, automate; we take the time to look at your site. We log in and make sure that your plugins are up-to-date.

Educyber Managesd Web HostingWe update plugins and core files to make sure your site is secure and has the latest features available. That alone is a huge comfort for our clients. We recently acquired a new hosting client who has a WordPress site and was scared to update the plugins in case something broke. We did the updates for him and verified that everything was working. We even discovered several plugins that weren’t being used. By uninstalling them we sped up the site and made it more efficient.

We provide several layers of security. Our web servers have a firewall that stops most of those with nefarious intent. For our WordPress customers we use a special plugin that stops hackers who try to get to the backend by guessing passwords for common user names like “admin”. With these and other tools not one of our sites has been hacked in years. We continue to follow and implement best practices when it comes to security to keep our customers sites up and secure.

We implement analytics. The tool of choice for several years has been Google Analytics. We make sure each site has analytics installed and functions. Then we even go through site performance every six months to help you understand what is happening on your site so you can make informed decisions about changes or proposed changes to your site.

We actively look for ways to help your site perform better. Since page speed is one of the things search engines look for, we make sure you are aware of what needs to be done to improve the speed or we will even go in and do it for you.

Since our tag line is “We partner with our customers to engage their visitors and convert them into clients” we work to make that partnering bit real. We want you to succeed. We do more than want though. We take concrete steps for you to help your site and your business be better with our managed web hosting service.

If you are already an EduCyber managed web hosting customer, who should you tell about us? If you are not yet a customer, give us a call today at 303-268-2245 ext 4 and we’ll get the process started.

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What is a Near Me Search and Why Should I Care?

You have all seen it. It is an integral part of search these days. You are out and about. You decide to look for a good place for lunch. Searching for “restaurants” works but if you want to be clear with your search, you can say “restaurants near me” and up comes the list. This is “near me” search and you need this for your listing.

While this makes a lot of sense for local sensitive places like restaurants, coffee shops or (my favorite) brew pubs, it is important for businesses all across the spectrum.

A mantra we often hear in business is “Shop Local” because by supporting local businesses we support local jobs. I know several people who will not go for coffee at Starbucks and will not have lunch at whatever the convenient big chain is. Instead they go out of their way to find the local coffee shop and independently owned restaurant to do business at.

Google Maps LogoIn the same way people go out of their way to select the independent hair stylist, the local plumber, the local cpa and yes a local (or at least domestic) web design firm.

Still not convinced it matters to you? Let’s dig in a bit deeper. From 2014 to 2015 the traffic from “near me” searches doubled. At the same time, Google’s organic listings are LESS likely to have the magic 10 on the first page or results, opting instead for, on average, 8.5 listings. So being ranked 9 or 10 in the “organic” listings can bump you from the first page but being near where someone searches for you can pull your site or business up.

How do you optimize your local business listing for near me searches? Here is a high level overview of what you need to do:

  • Claim your business if you haven’t already: www.google.com/business for Google or www.bingplaces.com for Bing (we recommend avoiding the Yext and YP type services that will do this for you – you’ll pay a lot for an ongoing service that usually just needs done once)
  • Make sure your address is IDENTICAL everywhere – on Google and Bing, on your web site, on any other sites or groups that might list you. This leaves no room for ambiguity as to whether it is the same business or same address. No ambiguity is a very good thing when it comes to search.
  • Complete the business profile as much as you can. Put in your hours. Put in all of the information that is asked for, including photos. Make the images be real photos of you and your office and your team.
  • Encourage happy customers to give reviews for you. If you Google your business, you should see it on the right. From there your customer can click on Write a Review and tell the world how happy they are with you.
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Custom Point of Sale Software

Is your retail business growing? Are you trying to better manage your inventory? Looking for a seamless way to integrate your processes to save time and money in managing your business?  R.I.S.E. might be the right custom Point of Sale software for you.

Retail: Handles all your needs at the point of sale – checkout, discounts, gift cards, 4791947 S 300X300 1overrides and more

Inventory: From purchasing to receiving to low stock notifications, the inventory component will help you manage your business more intelligently.

Sales: Track all your sales, getting the on time, real-time reporting you need to stay on top of your business.  Follow the order from quote to purchase order to sale and a lot more.

Ecommerce: End the agony of having a P.O.S. that doesn’t tie into your online presence. By integrating directly into your website, the ecommerce and POS both look to the same data in real time.

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Custom Development? What Does That Mean?

I often tell folks that EduCyber does custom web development. They nod their heads but I can tell they walk away wondering what exactly that means.

So let me give you an example of a project we just finished:

Denver Tux, a local tuxedo rental company had a software package that managed all its rentals and sales but the vendor was looking to get out the business and the software was no longer meeting their needs or being updated regularly.

Working very closely with the owner, we created a web-based system that lets Denver Tux manage all the complexities of tuxedo rentals. While the system is essentially a Point of Sale (POS) system dealing with rentals is far more complex. Once an order leaves the system – and remember an order can be very complex with pants, shoes, shirt, jacket, tie, cuffs, vest and more – that same order has to be able to be checked back into the system. Larger items like pants, vests and coats, are all tagged so it is important to know not that “a black vest” was returned but that the same vest that was rented to Groomsman A has just been returned.

We created the processes to manage all that and to also create all the reports desired. From a financial perspective, you can view daily sales, monthly sales and other customizable reports. You can also pull up and see who in wedding party hasn’t come in to be measured yet, or which tuxes haven’t been returned afterward.

I could go on, explaining how we’ve created solutions to handle tax, rentals and retail sales, employee clock in and clock out and much more. But suffice to say that if you need custom web development – or even custom development that might not be on the web – we can get you the solution that meets your specific needs.

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What I Learned from a 75 Year Old

Yesterday I met a man who walks five miles a day. He does this every day and has walked 14,000 miles. If you do the math, he’s been at it for close to eight years. He is 75 years old. By the time he’s 80 he plans to have walked a distance equal to circumventing the globe.

What did I learn from this discussion?

  1. The importance of consistency. It has been extremely cold here lately. He didn’t let that stop him (though he did walk inside). Every day. For close to eight years. Five miles. What have you done every day for the last eight years besides get out of bed?
    I’ll bet that after doing that every day, if he skips a day now, he feels it in a bad way. One of the things I see in Internet marketing and in business in general is a lack of consistency.  People commit to updating their site every week and do it religiously for two weeks. And then get sidetracked. Business development people commit to holding five outside meetings every week. And they do it really well for a month. But not, apparently, long enough for it to become a habit. Yet this older gentleman sticks to his routine and now it is a habit for him. A healthy habit that will help him age like a fine wine instead of a ripe banana.
  2. The importance of variety. I asked him what route he takes on his walks and he said it depends on the day, on the weather, on how he’s feeling and on whatever the day brings. Doing the same thing exactly the same every time, unless you work on an assembly line, gets stale rather quickly which then leads to a lack of follow through. By mixing things up though, you get a fresh perspective on life and on the task before you. Trying a new path to walk down, even if it is parallel to your normal path, can open your eyes to new possibilities.
  3. The importance of goal setting. At 75 years old many of us would suggest he slow down. Take life easy. Get a recliner. He could very well have said “I’m 75 and I just walked 14,000 miles, I’m taking a rest.” But instead he has a five year goal. And he’s already contemplating what to set after that. As the year winds down many of us are setting goals for the year ahead. But what about three years from now? Five? Ten? And yet here’s someone that is 75 and has a five year goal! Talk about inspirational!

What do these learnings mean to me personally?

  1. I am responsible for growing my company. That won’t happen if I’m not out talking to people, meeting new people, and revisiting existing connections and customers. But with a clear plan – instead of five miles a day I’m working on four meetings a week – I can set a consistency to what I do that helps my company grow in a healthy manner.
  2. Meeting with different kinds of people. We work with and target some distinct niches, such as tourism-based non-profits. By meeting with people that serve on boards, people from companies that serve non-profits and staff from the non-profits, I get clearer perspectives on what the needs and challenges of these organizations are which in turn makes us more valuable of a partner / vendor to these organizations.
  3. Setting goals is easy. “I want to earn $1,000,000 a year”. There. I set it. But setting realistic goals based on past performance and current conditions is perhaps a better path. And setting goals not based on revenue are very important. There is so much more to life than money. Whatever the goal that is set, it is important to not only set it but then to track progress towards the goal. If you say you want 30 new customers next year but at the end of the first quarter you only have three, you need to either change your goal or change what you’re doing to work towards that goal.

So whether you’re 75 or 25 (or somewhere in between), remember to be consistent in what you do, add variety as able and always set (and measure) goals.

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Six Reasons to be Thankful

We are thankful for:

  1. New connections. The first part of our tagline is “We PARTNER with our customers” and we are excited about all the new “partners” we have this year. EduCyber is delving further and further into innovating to help our customers get ahead and stay ahead.
  2. Strong relationships. EduCyber has a very high customer retention rate. We help our customers succeed over the long term. And they reward us by keeping their business with us. Very thankful!
  3. Our jobs. We love designing websites and developing websites. The challenge of determining a clear action step and then implementing it. Removing all the clutter and distraction so that visitors can move on to the next step. This takes great design and it takes great development.
  4. Our community. We are engaged in our business community through a wide variety of organizations but we are also engaged with our neighbors and friends through Sunday worship, Boy Scouts of America, Optimists International, and volunteering at different charities around town.
  5. Our health. There is a lot of confusion and unrest around healthcare in our nation. But we are thankful that we have our health.  Take each day as it comes – Carpe Diem!
  6. New challenges. One of the exciting things about being in the Internet Marketing realm is that what was true yesterday might not be true today. We love delighting our customers as we bring new technologies and new programming to bear to give them a site that helps them grow.

So from all of us at EduCyber to all of you – Happy Thanksgiving!

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