Category: Website Development

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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EduCyber Launches Two Websites

Last year EduCyber began working with Community Table to modernize and streamline their website. Earlier this year we launched that new site and continue to work with them as their organization grows and changes.

Create unique icons to organize services

As a part of the project, we created some specific iconography to help navigate through the site and provide a sense of place:

Iconography

Use existing tools for better communication

We also made sure it was setup with Google translate to help their key constituencies, no matter their native language, better navigate through the site.

Access the most searched for content in seconds

Part of the process of streamlining the site included having two prominent buttons, one for directions and hours that shows that in a drop down from anywhere on the site and a donate button to quickly help donors get to the right place.

If you or your organization needs to reposition yourself to better serve your people and better communicate your message, give EduCyber a call.

View the site

Website for global audiences

We serve far more than that front range of Colorado. With clients in Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska and more. Just recently we launched a new website for Concordia Lutheran School of Omaha, a K-12 private school in Omaha Nebraska.

Concordia Omaha

Are you ready to redo your site?

Let’s Talk

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EduCyber Launches New Website for Community Table an Arvada, Colorado Non-Profit

Arvada, Colorado, May 5, 2023 – EduCyber, a leading web development firm, is proud to announce the launch of a new website for Community Table, a non-profit organization dedicated to fighting hunger in Jefferson County. The new website, which can be found at www.cotable.org, is designed to enhance the organization’s online presence, improve user experience, and increase the community’s involvement in their mission.

The website features a modern design that is easy to navigate and provides visitors with information on how to donate, volunteer, and get involved with Community Table’s initiatives. Visitors can learn about the different programs and initiatives that Community Table has implemented to fight hunger in the community, as well as the impact of their donations and support.

“We are excited to have partnered with Community Table to build a new website that helps them further their mission of fighting hunger in the community,” said Brian DeLaet, CEO of EduCyber. “Our team is proud to have developed a website that will make it easier for people to donate, volunteer, and get involved with their important work.”

Community Table encourages everyone to visit their new website to learn more about how they can get involved and support the fight against hunger in Jefferson County Colorado. For more information, please contact info@cotable.org or 303-424-6685.

About EduCyber: EduCyber is a leading web development firm that has been providing high-quality web design and development services to businesses and non-profit organizations since 1998. The company’s team of experienced developers, designers, and marketers works closely with clients to deliver customized solutions that meet their specific needs. For more information, please visit ww.educyber.com or call 303-268-2245.

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Finishing Strong

Sometime in the first or second week of November, many business people slowly begin to checkout. It’s time for Thanksgiving and then Christmas and then New Years. It’s not time to close new deals or even to push to the finish on existing deals or projects.

But that is really just an excellent way to waste 1/10th of the year.

If it seems like your prospects or projects are beginning to taper off, here are five ways you can bolster your year and finish strong

  1. Review your website. Things change over the course of a year. Are the offerings / services / products displayed all still accurate? Anything new to add? What about personnel?
  2. Review your calls to action. Whether it is for your website or your social media presence or your online ads, are the calls to action generating action? If not, determine if you need more activity or better calls to action (or both).
  3. Check your traffic. If you have an established conversion rate (XX number of visitors generates X number of leads), is your traffic volume headed in the right direction? If you don’t know or don’t have a conversion rate, then you probably need to revisit #2 above. You should be able to measure visitors on your website, interactions on social media and how your brand and keyword phrases perform in search.
  4. Refresh your digital marketing goals. Social media, for example, can be a powerful tool for connecting with prospects but you need to have a clear plan. And remember, social media marketing is not a popularity contest. It isn’t the number of fans or followers but the quality of the connections and the way you interact.
  5. Hire a digital marketing firm to help you out. Sounds like a self-serving step but pause and consider. What are you good at? What do you enjoy doing in your business? If managing your website and your digital marketing is not high on the list, then why not turn to the pros who do enjoy it and are good at it?

Whether you are struggling to hold the line, growing like crazy or somewhere in-between, staying engaged all the way to the end of the year will yield benefits both for 2021 and to launch 2022 off to a strong start.

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Remaining Relevant

There is a lot of news noise right now. Rioting around the world. Recovering from a virus. Murder hornets. How to reopen. Will there be a second wave causing another shutdown? Oh, and the US has now returned to space!

How do you remain relevant with your customers and potential customers amidst all the calamity sucking up everyone’s attention?

Time To Engage
Remaining Relevant 8

Here are five keys to remaining relevant and continuing to flourish:

  1. Do not panic. If you make important decisions while panicking, you will regret it. Stay calm. Reach out to key vendors, customers and staff if you are in a difficult spot. But do not panic.
  2. Following closely on the previous point, stay the course. On March 9th, our outlook was rosy. The pipeline was filling up nicely and existing customers were ready to add new services. There was a two week period after that when things looked bleak as the pipeline emptied out and uncertainty ruled. But the spirit of free enterprise is strong in this country and our pipeline of new and existing customers began to fill again. You are not alone. Even businesses that are busier than ever understand that others are suffering. Stay the course.
  3. Communicate. Communicate to your customers what steps you have taken and are taking to ensure the safety of your customers and your staff. Communicate what is different. Our Church shot a series of short videos showing how things would work before, during, and after the service so folks can understand before they even go in the door.
  4. Leverage. You are not isolated and you have not been operating in a vacuum. Look through your contacts. Email or call people. I have received several very nice messages from my connections – messages just to connect and show concern. These are delightful and stick with you. Think about ALL of your contacts. Reach out to your LinkedIn connections. Try your Facebook friends. Of course go through your “rolodex” of contacts. Ask if you can help or if they need help that you might be able to do an introduction for.
  5. Get creative. My friend Mike Larkin started making videos. In a recent video he “introduced” his friends. He had printed off, for example, my picture from LinkedIn and my logo and had put them on a paddle board – showing my picture on one side and my business on the other. He proceeded to introduce several of his vendors and colleagues in the same way.  It is a delightful video that both shows he cares about folks and endears those of us mentioned to him.  Think about how you can do something similar – to both help others and draw your network closer to you.
  6. And of course there is a sixth key – use your website for each of these keys. Set it as the hub so that as the business climate, your people and your network know to come to your site for the latest and greatest.

You can remain relevant. It takes a bit of focus. Don’t be distracted by whatever the news is pushing as the latest thing to fear. Keeping your eye on your goals will help and of course, if there is anything EduCyber can do to help, let us know.

Between Maki and Brian, we know a lot of people. And we want to help. So whether it is something for your website or some other business need, let me know. Hiring? We know people. Downsizing? We know people. Need help with a local government? We know people. We want to help so let Maki or Brian know if there is anything we can do for you.

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Doing Business from Home

On a cold and snowy spring morning, while you are likely stuck in your “home office”, what can you do to advance your business? What can you do to grow when the whole world seems to have ground to a halt?

  • Pick up the phone. Call customers. Ask them if there is anything they

    Working From My Basement Office
    Working from my basement office

    need. When they say no, probe a bit. Just because they don’t need help with what you do or offer, let them know of your network. See if they have a need you might be able to help them meet through someone else.

  • Revisit your prospect list. Take some time with each person or company on the list. Think about what they do. Think about what they might need during this shutdown. Reach out to them, by phone whenever possible and appropriate, but by email or even snail mail where not, and offer something useful. Tips. Links to resources. Something that you can share that will add value.
  • Host an online gathering. Select several contacts whether it be customers, vendors, colleagues, partners or prospects. Set a time and host a gathering whether it be to address a specific topic or simply to share with each other about how you are coping and what is happening locally.

There is a lot happening. Every level of government seems to be rolling out programs, grants and loans to assist businesses large and small. Keep up with the current status – the grant and loan programs at the federal level are literally changing on a daily basis right now – and be prepared to share with your network.

And for you personally?

Breathe. My mother is in a memory care unit in another state. They are on lockdown, meaning my brothers can no longer visit her physically. When I call her now, she is usually breathless and has a high level of anxiety. Some of the time I can help her with the same advice I give to you. Breathe. Take a deep breath. All the way in. A bit more. Now exhale. Don’t stop. All the way out. Now do it again. I’ll wait. Now try it once more.

You got this. We got this. You are not alone.

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Leveraging Your Web Site During the COVID-19 Crisis

Web Site Review1
Leveraging Your Web Site During the COVID-19 Crisis 11

So you are unexpectedly forced into downtime. Can’t go to the office. Can’t go to the restaurant. Can’t go to the theater. Set aside the frustration for a moment. What can you do?

Remember way back when you were too busy to take the time to work on your site (last week)?

Now you have the time for you and your staff to revisit your website. You might be surprised. Earlier today we met with a businessman who had recently changed to a whole new website with a new URL. As we went through his site and his listings, we discovered that many of his social media and external sites linked to the previous site or to the previous email.

What things should you look for?

Basic five

  1. Is your logo and tag line current and up-to-date across all media?
  2. Is your name consistent on every page and on all your social media?
  3. Check your physical address. One thing search engines need is the same address where even “Ave.” and “Ave” can be seen differently. Make sure your address is absolutely identical. If you belong to any trade associations or chambers, check them as well.
  4. Look at your site on a phone. Does it look right on every page? Does the mobile responsive part work as expected?
  5. Review your color scheme. Does your site follow the scheme properly? Are all the colors matching your approved standards?

Intermediate five

  1. Request testimonials
  2. Request reviews
  3. Are your forms all working? Is there a next step after a form is filled out?
  4. Is the contact information accurate and up-to-date?
  5. Check for bad reviews on social – Facebook, Yelp, Google, etc.

Advanced five

  1. Are there any pages or content on your site that no longer applies to what you do?
  2. Are all of the images appearing properly? Do you need any new or different photos?
  3. Have you added any new services or products that are not yet on the site?
  4. Are your blog and social media profiles current and accurate?
  5. Is there a clear path or next step on each page?

Need help? We are available for phone or online support. Contact Brian at 303-268-2245 ext 4 or visit https://www.educyber.com/contact-us/.

We are the power behind your website.

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The Ugly Baby

Ugly Website

You’ve probably seen this – a parent who is so proud of their beautiful baby that the rest of the world is afraid to tell them the truth.

The same thing often happens with web sites. Especially websites put together in house. “We ‘birthed’ this site and it is gorgeous” is the mentality that folks have.

That is why it is so important to have others try the site. If possible you want to have impartial 3rd party folks try the site. We have had numerous folks come to us wanting to help make their “beautiful baby” better by tweaking it.

When it comes to websites, it is sometimes possible to tweak a good site to make it great. But it is never possible to tweak an ugly site to make it good.

What do I mean by an ugly site? Here are the most common symptoms:

20622187 S

  1. No call to action – just a lot of information but no way to act on it.

  2. Too many calls to action – we’ve seen sites with dozens of calls to action – sort of like walking into a crowded room and having everyone calling your name at once – makes you turn around and leave.

  3. Graphics that distract visitors from the call to action. If your call to action is on the left and you have pictures of people in the middle, looking to the right, visitors won’t look left, they’ll look right.

  4. Too much movement. Having an engaging website is to be desired. If you endeavor to engage by several different sections having movement, it is just distracting and leaves visitors lost.

  5. Unchanged in ten or more years. Yes, we regularly have clients come to us who have not updated their site in that long. And yes, by 2019 standards, they are ugly.

  6. Not responsive. Not unresponsive, just not responding to mobile devices. If your site doesn’t conform to responsive standards, it will look ugly on a phone. Just today – in July of 2019 – I came across a site that is not responsive. It just shows a much smaller version of itself. Drop down menus don’t work, hard to click on links because they’re too close together – just a mess.

If you have an ugly site though, there is a cure. We can help. We make beautiful web sites. And you will love the Return on Investment you get because that is how we design every site – with ROI in mind. Call 303-268-2245 ext 4 to turn your ugly baby into an integral part of your business.

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10 Next Steps for Your Website

Every web site, and every page should have a next step. Why does your business have a website? What is the purpose? These are the kinds of questions you should be asking yourself as you look at the pages on your site.

65025831 SSure it should look nice. Yes, it would be great to be optimized for search. But if you aren’t giving your visitors a next step, what do you think their next step will be? That’s right, they’re going to leave.

Many of the next steps are obvious. But some may not be. I click to a page called “Our Team” and see the profiles of key people in the organization. What is the next step I want visitors to take? Time to think  about what steps you want people to do.

  1. Call us. Well that was easy. But make it into a button. And put the code into the button so that when I visit the site on my phone and touch the button, it pulls up my dialer and all I have to do is push “call” to be talking to you.
  2. Email us. This is pretty simple too. Make a button with your email address. When someone clicks it, it should open a new email message to you in their email program.
  3. Request a call. If you have people requesting a call, make sure you set the expectation. Will you call right away? Next day? Don’t go longer than that. Within a few hours or next business day is ok. But in any case, set the expectation and then hold yourself to it.
  4. Download <our whitepaper>. But we don’t advocate for calling it a whitepaper. A lawn service or landscaping company might have “Download 10 tips to protect your yard during a bomb cyclone”
  5. View our services <or products>. Since every page should have a call to action, a simple next step like this is great on an About Us page or page that shows the staff.
  6. See what our customers have to say (video or written testimonials). This next step is good to help close the deal if the visitor is on your services or product page. They think it might be a good fit but they’d like to hear from people you’ve actually worked with.
  7. Learn how we have solved problems similar to yours (case studies). Story telling is a compelling sales method and a good next step from a variety of pages on your site. Move people to the page where you show you’ve actually helped real people solve real problems.
  8. Sign up for our newsletter. While email newsletters are kind of a pain – lots of folks sign up and then don’t read them – they are still a powerful sales and marketing tool. And once someone does sign up, even if they aren’t ready to buy, you now have a self-selected lead. That is as good as gold.
  9. View Details about our team. This is a particularly good next step if you are a service organization. Show your services and then the next step is to see who will be carrying out the service.
  10. Learn more about our process. Whether you are selling products and need to outline the process of completing and shipping the order, or selling services and want to help visitors feel more comfortable with the timeline and the next steps, having a next step be “View our Process” or something similar is very effective.

Take a look at your site. You probably have some good content on there already but if you go back and add some solid next steps, your site will be ready to help your business grow.

And while most of these are obvious, if you have an ecommerce site, here are 10 calls to action you should check your site against:

  1. Add to Cart
  2. Checkout
  3. Compare products
  4. View specials
  5. Call for pricing
  6. Filter products
  7. See related products
  8. Read reviews
  9. Buy now
  10. Redeem coupon
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Four Reasons Why You Won’t Want to Work with EduCyber

Yes, we’re telling you why you would choose NOT to work with us. Here we go:

  1. You want a website that looks just like your brochure

    Educyber Web Design2017If you see no difference between print collateral and
    your digital presence, then you probably don’t want to work with us. Your brochure is a great tool to hand out and leave behind after a meeting. Your web site though should be engaging and should always have a next step in order to deepen the relationship. If that isn’t what you are looking for, then you won’t want to work with EduCyber.

  2. You are not interested in measuring or considering ROI

    If you see your website as an expense and not an investment, you won’t want to work with EduCyber. Understanding how your web site fits into your marketing and sales is an integral part of our web design process. You can and should have an expectation of a return on that investment and we help our customers set and measure the return on investment. But if you just have a budget line that needs to be spent, you won’t want to work with EduCyber

  3. You want to hire a firm to do what you want, instead of wanting to partner with a firm that has strategic expertise in web design

    If your goal is having a firm that will place your pictures and your words right where you want them, regardless of how it translates in digital marketing, then we aren’t the firm you want to work with. With two decades of experience in helping customers craft messages and researching what does and does not work in user experience and design, EduCyber brings a wealth of information and insight to each project we undertake.

  4. You haven’t gotten new customers from your site so far so you don’t believe you can even with a redesign

    If your current site hasn’t generated a single new customer for you so you firmly believe that a web site can’t convert visitors into customers either, then you won’t want to work with EduCyber. When we hear that – and believe me, we hear it a lot – I like to add “so far” to the end of each sentence. “We’ve never gotten a customer from our site so far.” “Customers in our industry don’t come through the website so far.” “With our business model, we don’t get customers through our website so far”. And on and on.

Those who do choose to work with EduCyber become believers when their phone rings or the email, comes in and suddenly a connection from their website becomes a customer.

If the reasons above don’t apply to you, you might want to Work With Us.

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