I signed up for Betamore’s Digital Marketing Bootcamp this winter for a refresher and to gain a few additional tips I didn’t learn while earning my degree. Three weeks later, I left the classroom with a Digital Marketing Bootcamp certificate, a yummy candy bar, and a head full of marketing tricks I had no idea existed. I was (pleasantly) surprised that I in fact don’t know it all when it comes to the digital marketing world, even if I’m fresh out of graduate school and immersed in it every day. Here are some key takeaways I scribbled in my notebook for future reference.
1. Conducting Effective Keyword Research
As Orange Element’s content developer, I’m in charge of creating content for our blog, social media, and other relevant platforms. In addition to content creation, I’m tasked with determining what keywords to use in our headlines, meta descriptions and more. I thought I had a pretty good idea of how to find the best keywords, but this class introduced new tools for even more accuracy and effectiveness: UberSuggest, Answer the Public, and Google Keyword Planner are all great resources to gather comprehensive keyword and topic ideas.
2. The Importance of H1 Tags and Keyword Placement
Before taking this class, I’d simply select a primary keyword and place it somewhere in the headline and body copy. Not a bad strategy, but there’s a smarter method to the madness. To improve search rankings, I learned, the primary keyword should ideally be in the main h1 headline, in the first 90 characters of text, and mentioned three additional times throughout the piece. But that’s not all: secondary keywords are also important for your overall site ranking and authority, and should be placed in h2 subheads (like the bold ones in this post) and at least once in the body copy.
3. Tools to Improve Digital Marketing Strategy
I always look forward to new tools that make my professional life easier. Our instructor showed us numerous tools to simplify our workflow, but two stuck out: Hotjar and Google Search Console. Hotjar provides HTML code to place into your website that produce user heat maps, visitor recordings, and conversion funnels, so you can get actual data about your user experience. Search Console is a free tool you can integrate with your Google Analytics to gather queries, traffic sources, and other search data to improve your search strategy.
4. The Best Questions to Ask Exiting Customers
While my background is on the agency side rather than B2C, it’s still useful to know what questions to ask website visitors to get the most valuable information about your business. I learned there are 3 questions to ask exiting customers (whether that’s via a popup form or chat box on your landing page) to discover any content gaps:
1) What were you looking for in today’s visit?
2) Were you able to find it? If not, why?
3) Would you like us to contact you? If so, leave your name and number and we’ll get back to you soon.
The lesson? Never assume you already know it all. Especially in the ever-changing digital landscape, new trends and tools emerge every single day. Everyone could use a refresher, whether that’s only six months after graduate school or ten years as a business owner. Consider signing up for a Google certification or taking in-person classes at community centers like Betamore. Your business strategy (and your brain) will thank you.
