Help Your Business Survive The

RECESSION EMAIL MARKETING

With These 5 Expert SMS MARKETING
STRATEGIES! What’s Best For Your Business?

10 Most Common
Why is
DIGITAL MARKETING PAGE SPEED
Mistakes & How to fix them! So significant?

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 Help Your Business Survive The

RECESSION EMAIL MARKETING

With These 5 Expert SMS MARKETING
STRATEGIES! What’s Best For Your Business?

10 Most Common
Why is
DIGITAL MARKETING PAGE SPEED
Mistakes & How to fix them! So significant?

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Contents
03 Welcome To
Email Marketing Vs Sms Marketing -
What’s Best For Your Business?
SMS or email marketing? In this ar-
ticle, we will breakdown the differ-
Clicks Magazine
ences between SMS marketing and
email marketing. We’ll explain each Thanks for checking out our 94th issue
strategy and demonstrate how they of Clicks, your online marketing resource
work, their benefits and drawbacks, when to use them, guide for small business. Each month
and whether you should hire the services of a digital we will be covering topics that resonate
agency for help. with local businesses just like yours.

Our goal is simple. We want to enable you

11
Help your business survive the reces- to do big things online, and it all starts by
sion with these 5 expert strategies!
breaking down the complexities of mar-
Economists predict that the Unit- keting your business online.
ed States will enter a recession by
late next year or early 2024 as in-
flation ripples through the global It doesn’t matter if you’re just starting out,
economy. With a recession on the horizon, businesses or an established business owner in your
and industry leaders are in uncharted territory. Is dig- local community, you can always benefit
ital marketing a good approach during an economic from increasing your brand’s
downturn? To put it simply, Yes and read on to learn ex- visibility online.
actly why!
To your Success,
17
10 Most Common Digital Marketing
Mistakes & How to fix them! Your Name Here
Digital marketing can help you pro- Your Title Here
mote your company, brand, and
products or services. There is an
audience to be reached online, as C L I C K S I S B R O U G H T T O YO U B Y
well as a reputation to be established. However, there
is more effective and less effective ways to approach (Your Business Name) is the leading small
digital marketing. Check out these common mistakes business marketing service in the (insert area)
to ensure you’re doing it right! for over (insert years). We help small businesses

22
connect with more customers online.
Why is page speed so significant?
If you want to build your business, you need
When it comes to the performance
of your website, page speed is vital. to market, it’s that simple. But you can lose
A shocking 90% of visitors will leave thousands of dollars if you don’t know what
a site if it takes longer than five sec- you are doing. So we urge you to take action
onds to load. The speed of a website has a significant with some of the strategies we recommend.
impact on user experience, SEO, and conversion rates.
Improving website performance is critical for attract- For a more “hands off” approach, we offer
ing visitors and keeping them engaged. Here are some affordable solutions that can deliver results.
steps that you can take with your developer to make We hope you enjoy this issue of Clicks and feel
your website load faster: free to reach out to us anytime.
For decades, email has been the preferred method for sending and receiving mass messages and
reaching audiences. Text (or SMS) marketing, on the other hand, is a quick, cost-effective way to
share promotions and updates with customers. So, which reigns supreme?
SMS or email marketing?

In order to figure out which strategy is right for your business you need to consider factors like:
cost, click-through rate (CTR), conversion rate, level of engagement, open rate, and ROI - just to
name a few.

In this article, we will breakdown the differences between SMS marketing and email marketing.
We’ll explain each strategy and demonstrate how they work, their benefits and drawbacks, when to
use them, and whether you should hire the services of a digital agency for help
 So What Exactly Is Email Marketing?
Email marketing is mass-sending emails to people (leads or customers) on your e-mail list. The
people on your list have chosen to be there. You send emails to inform current and prospective
customers about new products, services, discounts, and special offers. Consider it a direct method
of communicating with your customers in which you have their permission to send them promo-
tional information. Your email list should be one of your most valuable business assets.

The Benefits and Drawbacks of Email Marketing

Every day, approximately 125 billion emails are sent. Email marketing is an important part of any
business, and it works best for delivering more detailed information. It also has a much higher ROI
than many other marketing channels and is quite versatile. In fact, an email campaign can be used
for product updates, subscriptions, and promotions.
 Here’s why you should use email marketing:

It is reasonably priced - With a $40 profit for for every $1 spent on email marketing it’s still the
best ROI in the game for over 2 decades.

Emails have the ability to be personalized to the recipient - Any reputable email marketing
expert will tell you that this feature enables you to connect with your audience, thereby increasing
the email marketing conversion rate.

The versatility of email is unlike any other marketing tool - You can use emails to provide
detailed product information, make brief announcements, send reminders, welcome new custom-
ers, announce special offers, follow up with leads, or simply say hello to your target audience.

It plays on user habits and intent – 44% of consumers check their emails at least once per day.
People open emails with specific intentions, such as looking for updates, product information, cus-
tomer service, and so on. This is why email marketing is so important.

Emails are an excellent way to increase traffic to your website - You can increase the num-
ber of website site visitors looking for your products or services by using targeted email marketing
services. Using targeted traffic increases the ROI of email marketing.
 The Cons of Email Marketing

A crowded inbox makes it difficult to capture the attention of your consumer - Every day,
we all receive approximately 121 emails. When consumers sort through those emails on a daily
basis, it’s easy to put everything in the spam folder. In many cases your emails will end up in the
same folder as spam.

Emails can be prevented from inboxing – Email servers now have sophisticated filters. If your
email appears to be spammy, it may be blocked from reaching your recipient’s inbox. Any reputable
digital agency can assist you in crafting emails that are more likely to reach your target audience’s
inbox.

People can easily delete or unsubscribe from emails - People may delete your emails or un-
subscribe from your list for any reason like if they see messed up graphics, poorly written headlines,
unreadable text, or blocked images or content that isn’t relatable to them.
 What Exactly Is SMS Marketing?

SMS marketing is the use of text messages to communicate with customers. SMS, like email mar-
keting, is used to inform your audience about promotions, campaigns, updates, news, and more.
Before sending any promotional information, both SMS and email marketing ask for your audi-
ence’s permission. The CAN-SPAM Act and the Consumer Protection Act are the primary laws that
protect consumers from unsolicited SMS (TCPA). These rules and guidelines are followed by all
good SMS marketing examples.

SMS and email marketing are both owned channels. This means you can choose who receives
your emails or text messages. It also means you have control over the type of user experience your
customers will have.

You can send the SMS marketing examples listed below:

1. Promotional SMS: These are SMS messages that are intended to raise brand awareness, pro-
mote products or services, and boost sales.

2. Transactional SMS: These are text messages that contain information that your customers
require, such as delivery updates, product specifications, and order information.
 Pros and Cons of SMS Marketing

Here are some of the benefits of SMS marketing: response rate of up to 209 percent when com-
pared to social media, email, or even phone calls.
Your customers do not require internet - It’s
worth noting that 15% of Americans (52 million It has a high level of engagement - SMS, like
people) today have little or no internet access. email marketing, is a marketing channel with
This is a massive market that is beyond the higher levels of engagement than other lead
scope of any email campaign. generation strategies. higher engagement levels
suggests a higher SMS open rate.
It has a better response rate - On average,
text messages are read in three minutes. That’s a

Here are some of the drawbacks of SMS marketing:

It has a limited amount of content space - You It may erode customer trust - Customers can
have only 160 characters to work with. Deliv- easily lose trust with businesses that send them
ering powerful messages that short while still unwanted text messages or SMS that are poorly
packing a punch requires a pretty big vocabu- structured. Customers may become irritated if
lary. you send text messages at inconvenient or in-
appropriate times and It may also cause them
It’s more expensive - The cost of running an to opt out.
SMS campaign is higher than the cost of running
an email campaign.
 What Is the Difference Between
SMS and Email Marketing?
Which is better: SMS marketing or email marketing? Consider the following:

SMS EMAIL
Open Rate 98% 20%

CTR 29% 2.5%

Engagement High High

5 to 15 cents per SMS Monthly costs range from

Cost (usually sent to thousands of recipients) $9 to $1,000 a month

Av. response rate Nearly 85% is

Less than 3% considered spam

Message length 160 characters As long as you need

ROI $5 for every $1 spent $40 for every $1 spent

There are currently fewer Email marketing has been

Frequency companies running SMS around for decades and
marketing campaigns the market is saturated

The Answer: Omnichannel Marketing

Omnichannel marketing is the use of multiple licit feedback, promote one of your products,
marketing channels to increase your bottom and collect signups for your programs. Keeping
line. Your business has unique needs, so balanc- track of its usage allows you to stay within your
ing SMS and email marketing is recommended marketing budget.
for better results. You have a better chance of
capturing your audience’s attention if you de- Email marketing, on the other hand, is better
velop a marketing strategy that uses both in tan- suited to promoting multiple products due to its
dem. lower cost. It can be used for company updates,
newsletters, and a variety of marketing emails.
When should SMS marketing be used? It should
be used to respond to customer questions, so-

Working with a Seasoned Digital Marketing Agency

Finding the right balance between SMS and email marketing can be difficult, especially if you ha-
ven’t had much success with either. If you are looking to improve your SMS and email marketing
results, connect with us today. We can help you create a customized omnichannel plan based on
your budget and goals. Connect with us to learn more!
 Help Your Business Survive The

RECESSION
With These 5 Expert
STRATEGIES!

If you’ve watched any tv news broadcast lately, People will continue to look for products and
it’s no secret that the economic future is cloud- services online even if overall demand has re-
ed by uncertainties, with the COVID-19 epidem- duced, therefore your digital marketing efforts
ic still persisting, the ongoing crisis in Ukraine should not be shut down during a recession.
putting additional pressure on soaring interest
rates, and Chinese lockdowns potentially affect- In fact, this is likely the most useful marketing
ing supply lines. expenditure you can make during an economic
slump since it allows you to reach people who
Economists predict that the United States will are actively looking for what you have to offer or
enter a recession by late next year or early 2024 who most closely match your target audience.
as inflation ripples through the global economy.
With a recession on the horizon, businesses and Experts agree that a strong internet marketing
industry leaders are in uncharted territory. strategy is the smartest long-term investment
you can make to safeguard your company
Is digital marketing a good approach during an during a downturn in the economy. Reces-
economic downturn? sion-proof business marketing methods are
more important today than ever.
To put it simply, Yes!
 IT’S TIME TO PREPARE YOUR
BUSINESS FOR A RECESSION
If there is one thing that separates recession-proof businesses from the competition, it’s the fact
that they take action sooner, and start business planning for a recession before their competitors
do.

Have you started making plans for a recession in your business? Follow these digital marketing tips
to better prepare your business for a recession and safeguard your brand:

1. Improve Your Online Presence

Building and maintaining a strong online presence regardless of the economy is one of the founda-
tions of recession-proof companies. Maintaining a strong digital presence enables you to capture
a larger portion of the market if and when a recession occurs.

To stay top of mind with your target audience, invest in market research, create a mobile-friendly
website, hire a expert to help you with your search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click
(PPC) marketing.

With a recession on the horizon, establishing a stronger digital presence is even more important in
staying on potential clients’ radars online.
2. Do not reduce your marketing budget

During a recession, business owners must decide whether to reduce their marketing budget, sus-
pend marketing efforts, or double down on their digital marketing campaigns.

It may seem sensible to some to suspend marketing during a recession. Spending a lot of money
on digital marketing may seem counterproductive when revenues are down. Consider what took
place in 2020. Spending on digital marketing campaigns fell about the same time that 255 million
full-time jobs were lost globally. Due to lower ad earnings during the COVID-19 epidemic, even
Google had to cut its marketing budget by half.

So, why should you keep working on your digital marketing strategy and investing in digital mar-
keting services?

Businesses that continue to market throughout a recession are more likely to survive, according
to studies. During an economic downturn, many businesses reduce their advertising budget. This
is a opportunity to show that your business is stable even when things are hard. So continue your
digital marketing campaign efforts or, at the absolute least, dial them back slightly, but never fully
suspend them.

To keep business flowing, have a digital marketing strategy in place. If you decide to discontinue
your marketing efforts just know that it will be that much easier for your competitors to take a big-
ger slice of your customer pie.
3. It’s Time to Optimize Your Gather this info to create a data-driven strate-
Website... Now! gy. That way, you’ll know that any changes you
make to your website are more likely to affect
Check out your website. Is it generating leads for your bottom line.
your company 24 hours a day, or is there room
for improvement? If you’re not sure which parts 4. Maintain Your Social Media Efforts
of your website should be improved or updat-
ed, consult with a reputable digital agency - it’s During an economic downturn, many people
what they do! prefer to stay at home in order to spend less
and save more. This also implies that potential
Agencies normally will employ In-house con- customers spend more time on their mobile de-
version rate optimization (CRO) specialists who vices. This is an ideal time to use social media
perform in-depth website audits to evaluate marketing to attract new consumers and nur-
your website’s interactions and discover areas ture leads via your sales funnel.
you need to optimize to meet your goals.
Continuing your social media marketing during
Conversion rate optimization helps you make this time also ensures that your audience is
the most of your traffic by examining the data aware that your business is still present and ac-
from your website to improve the consumer ex- tive online. Whether you reduce the number of
perience. posts sent per week or your advertising budget,
a little can still go a long way to attracting new/
You will learn what pages are visited the most, existing customers.
where visitors spend the most time, which pag-
es receive the least engagement, cart abandon-
ment, and overall customer behavior.
5. Create Compelling Video Content

Certain web marketing approaches pay off tenfold due to their cost-effective, creative approach to
audience involvement. Video marketing is one such example.

Video marketing is still one of the most engaging ways to connect with your target audience and
deliver valuable information. It fosters trust and confidence in ways that text alone simply cannot.

Consider creating video content that is evergreen (always relative) and will continue to be useful
content for years to come. This ensures that your dollar goes further as opposed to spending more
on campaign-specific content.”

Share videos on your social media platforms. Request that customers create video testimonials for
you to use on your website. Allow followers to communicate with your brand and ask questions in
real time by live-streaming on Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube.

During a difficult time, Americans are more inclined to spend time online keeping up with friends
and current events. Video marketing is a wonderful way to engage with your target audience
where they spend the majority of their time and grow your customer base.

When done correctly, video marketing can be one of the most effective digital marketing ideas for
maintaining revenue during a slump.
 OPTIMIZE YOUR MARKETING BUDGET
AND CHOOSE YOUR PRIORITIES WISELY
Digital marketing is not like a light switch. You can’t just turn it on or off, it is a continuous process.

Even though the economy is struggling right now, you owe it to your team, organization, custom-
ers, and community to figure out how to source, sell, and optimize your business to get through
these uncertain times.

As a result, it is crucial that you begin improving your digital presence and investing in new digital
marketing methods that produce positive long-term benefits for your business.
 10 MOST COMMON
DIGITAL MARKETING
MISTAKES
& HOW TO FIX THEM!
We are currently living in the internet age, which means your business needs to evolve along with
it. Digital marketing can help you promote your company, brand, and products or services.

There is an audience to be reached online, as well as a reputation to be established. However, there

is more effective and less effective ways to approach digital marketing. Check out these common
mistakes to ensure you’re doing it right!
BAD PERFORMING WEBSITE DESIGN also be interactive. To get responses, submit
questions in the comments section. Include
A digital marketing-focused website should in- guest posts or interviews with researchers or
clude a call to action and a well-optimized land- other successful individuals in your field, as well.
ing page. Any promos or discounts should also Use this blog post writing guide to consistently
be prominently displayed. In order to convert produce the most important and relevant blog
visitors into successful leads, you must have an posts you can.
informative and engaging website.
FAILURE TO CONVERT WEBSITE TRAFFIC
NOT HAVING A BLOG INTO CUSTOMERS
Remember that you are not only marketing your Visitors to your website who do not convert
business, but also yourself as a trusted industry into customers are pretty much worthless un-
leader. Publishing blog content that is valuable, less they generate leads for you through word-
informed, and easily accessible will establish you of-mouth recommendations. The first goal is to
as a trustworthy voice. Furthermore, each blog get visitors to your site, but the second goal is to
post is another indexed page for your site, and convert them into customers. Create a plan for
more indexed pages mean your site will appear converting online visitors into sales and a refer-
higher in Google search results. ral program that encourages people to recom-
mend your business.
It is not enough to simply create a blog; it should
DIDN’T OPTIMIZE FOR MOBILE USERS HAVING LACK LUSTER CUSTOMER SERVICE
Mobile browsing accounts for over half of all If a visitor who has never done business with
web traffic globally. So, if you’re optimizing your you before decides to become a customer, they
site, don’t forget to optimize it for mobile users are taking a risk. Providing good customer ser-
as well, so that the load time is as quick as it is vice is vital for lowering that risk because 70%
on desktop. Make sure the design of your site is of consumers will continue to do business with
also mobile-friendly. you if they have a good experience.

NOT UTILIZING SOCIAL MEDIA Help should be easy to find on your site so that
people know they can get it. This could be a
You might think you can get away with not us- Contact Us page, a virtual chat, a helpline, or
ing social media. I’m sorry to tell you that you’re other options. Just make sure that if someone
wrong! It’s an essential way to turn leads into visits your site, they can easily get help if they
customers. Spreading your content, reaching need it.
your audience, and engaging with users will
help you promote your business online. But
don’t try to do it all yourself; learn how a social
media manager can help.
NOT OFFERING DEALS
According to a Retail Me Not poll, two-thirds of buyers made an unplanned purchase purely due
to a discount. Online discount coupons or limited-time deals are excellent pop-ups for your site,
particularly on the landing page or when visitors are about to abandon their cart.

SLEEPING ON YOUR COMPETITION

It’s possible that someone else is doing the same thing you are. Instead of pretending they don’t
exist, find a way to stand out. Identify what makes your business unique and showcase it on your
website and social media channels. You should make it abundantly clear how your business stands
apart from the crowd.

LACK OF SOCIAL PROOF

It’s a known fact that showcasing your happy customers increases conversions. If you want poten-
tial customers to purchase with confidence, use testimonials, case studies, and success stories to
demonstrate what your customers are experiencing. This will give potential customers that are on
the fence peace of mind and help to avoid any buyer’s remorse.
NOT KEEPING TRACK OF YOUR LEADS
Keywords, email blasts, referring links, social media, and other traffic sources can all generate online
leads. One of those sources may be generating leads that rarely convert into customers, but anoth-
er may be routinely generating them. This is critical information to have so that you may update
your strategy based on the data you know.

THE INFLUENCE OF DIGITAL MARKETING

To succeed, your business needs the right marketing tools and strategies. By adjusting your digital
marketing approach, concentrating on the right leads, and building an optimized website, you can
grow your business to its fullest potential.
 Why is

PAGE SPEED
SO SIGNIFICANT?

When it comes to the performance of your website, page speed is vital.

Your web pages must load quickly and seamlessly in order to lower your bounce rate and boost
visitor engagement.

In this article, we’ll explain why it’s important, and show you how to measure it.

According to Google research, every second counts when it comes to page loading speed. In-
creasing loading times from one to three seconds increases the likelihood of a bounce (the visitor
leaving immediately) by 32%.
A shocking 90% of visitors
will leave a site if it takes lon- As page load time goes from:
ger than five seconds to load.

The speed of a website has a 1s to 3s the probability of bounce increases 32%

significant impact on user ex-
perience, SEO, and conversion
rates. Improving website per-
formance is critical for attract- 1s to 5s the probability of bounce increases 90%
ing visitors and keeping them
engaged.
1s to 6s the probability of bounce increases 106%
Here are some steps that you
can take with your develop-
er to make your website load
faster: 1s to 10s the probability of bounce increases 123%

RUN A WEBSITE PERFORMANCE TEST

Website speed tests determine how well a website

performs. Testing a website on a regular basis can
help developers identify some or all of the areas
that are slowing down website performance, as
well as areas for improvement.

There are numerous high-quality site speed tests

for measuring performance, many of which are
free, such as Pingdom.com.

Google also provides PageSpeed” Insights for

more in-depth performance testing while Goo-
gle Chrome “DevTools” can also assist develop-
ers in evaluating the performance of their web-
site.
 USE A CONTENT DELIVERY NETWORK (CDN)
(CONTENT DELIVERY NETWORK)

CDNs increase website speed by caching content in multiple locations around the world. CDN
caching servers are usually closer to end users than the host, or origin server. Requests for
content are routed to a CDN server rather than the hosting server, which may be thousands of
miles away and spread across multiple autonomous networks from the user. Using a CDN can
significantly reduce page load times.

IMAGE OPTIMIZATION

Your imagery is a big reason your website speed takes

a hit. They typically take the longest to load on a web-
site because image files are larger in size than HTML
and CSS files. Image optimization can reduce image
load time. Image optimization typically entails lower-
ing the resolution, compressing the files, and shrinking
their dimensions, and many image optimizers and im-
age compressors are freely available online.
 LOWER THE NUMBER OF HTTP REQUESTS, IF YOU CAN

Most webpages will necessitate multiple HTTP requests from browsers for various assets on the
page, such as images, scripts, and CSS files. Many webpages will necessitate dozens of these
requests. Each request necessitates a round trip to and from the server hosting the resource,
which can increase the overall load time of a webpage. Furthermore, because the resources
are loaded from multiple providers, a problem with one of the hosts may impact the webpage’s
ability to load quickly, or at all.

Because of these potential issues, the total number of assets that must be loaded by each page
should be kept to a minimum. A speed test should also help identify which HTTP requests are
taking the longest. For example, if images are slowing down a page’s load time, developers can
look for a faster image hosting solution (such as a CDN).
 CACHE YOUR WEBSITE’S PAGES

Caching is one of the most effective meth- There are several methods for caching your
ods for speeding up your website. Caching web pages. This can be done at the server lev-
saves copies of your website’s files, reducing el, which means your host will handle it for
the amount of work required by the server to you.
generate and serve a web page to a visitor’s
browser. Another option is to use a caching plugin,
such as W3 Total Cache, a free WordPress
By requiring the server to use fewer resources plugin that makes caching web pages simple.
to load a page, caching your web pages can After you’ve installed and activated it, go to
help reduce Time to First Byte (TTFB). General Settings > Page Cache and check the
Enable box.

REDUCE THE USE OF EXTERNAL SCRIPTS

Any scripted webpage elements loaded from cause a webpage to slow down or not load all
elsewhere, such as external commenting sys- at once (this is known as ‘content jumping’ or
tems, CTA buttons, or lead-generation popups, ‘layout shifting,’ and it can be especially aggra-
must be loaded each time a page is loaded. vating for mobile users).
Depending on the size of the script, this can
 AVOID USING REDIRECTS AT TIMES IF POSSIBLE

A redirect is a process of sending both visitors and search engines to a different URL than the
one they requested. Redirects increase page load time by a few fractions of a second, or even
whole seconds in some cases. Every second counts when developing a website that is opti-
mized for performance. Redirects are sometimes unavoidable, but they should be avoided if
possible.

Remember that every second your website takes to load increases the likelihood that your vis-
itors will leave. If your website is running slow, how long can you keep running your business
while losing leads? Is it time to speed things up?
 Is Your Business

THRIVING or Just SURVIVING?

IF YOUR AUDIENCE CAN’T FIND YOU, THEY ARE FINDING YOUR COMPETITORS!

Dear Frustrated Business Owner,

Do you need more leads and sales for your business? Have you
tried other marketing services and only been left disappointed?

We can help you position your business online where your

customers are already searching.

Contact us for a FREE consultation. No strings attached.

Your Name,
Your Services

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and how you can help them reach their online goals!
Add your all to action and let them know what the next steps are going to be.

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