These days, turning on the news can be disheartening. We are all doing our best to navigate this new world and it is very easy to get caught up in the fear of the unknown.  In between all of the scary and ever-changing headlines, though, it is important to remember that good things are still happening, especially when it comes to marketing. Here are some marketing techniques that are definitely still working for our clients: 

Google Ads

Since so many companies stopped advertising when states started enacting stay-at-home orders, the cost of advertising on Google dropped significantly. In fact, the average Cost Per Click (CPC) on Google dipped down to $2.76 while average click-through-rates (CTRs) have increased since February 2020. With costs so low for clicks, now is definitely the time to advertise on Google. The Google ads platform is incredibly versatile, which means we can stop advertising one service and start a completely new campaign in just minutes.

Since there are fewer competitors spending less money, when our clients advertise, these ads are being shown more, clicked on more, and lead to more phone calls and phone submissions for a lower cost. One of our clients brought in only 9 fewer conversions this month when compared to May 2019, with a staggering 72% decrease in cost and a 71% decrease in cost per conversion. Another client was considering cutting their advertising budget when COVID first came to America, but she held off and is now seeing an increase in business. 

Facebook Ads

Google isn’t the only platform that has seen lower advertising costs during COVID. While Facebook has experienced more users,  experts believe many small businesses will cut their marketing spend. This means lower CPC for businesses who are still planning to spend on Facebook advertising.

One of our clients ran ad campaigns for two educational blog posts on Facebook in January, one of which had a CPC of $0.24 and the other had a CPC of $0.42. This same client reshared these blogs in April with a lower budget and they had CPCs of just $0.17 and $0.31. Because fewer people are running ads on Facebook, the CPC on the same exact content dropped by 7-11 cents.

Brand Awareness

Brand awareness should always be an important focus of your marketing efforts. If you consistently remind your target audience that you are open and offering services, they will be more likely to remember your name when they need to utilize those services. One of our corporate clients specializes in buying and selling veterinary practices. In the fourteen months they have focused on digital marketing, each of their brokers reports they feel busier than they did at this point last year. They also recently had seven offers for one property in just one week and made the sale for $900,000 more than they expected to get! 

Even if you do not have any specific services you want to advertise every month,  you should consider running some brand awareness campaigns to help your current clients and potential clients keep your name at the forefront of their minds. Google display campaigns are specifically designed to spread awareness, which shows local pet owners that you are open and accepting clients.

Blogs

Blogs are always a useful tool when it comes to generating website traffic, and the analysts at Beyond Indigo Pets have noticed that they have been even more effective lately. One of our clients had a whopping 485% increase in website users year over year. With a little digging, our team found that eight out of their ten most viewed pages are different blog posts. These eight blogs generated more than 13,000 website page views. 

Even if you do not currently have time to create new topics, recycling older content can help you increase website traffic. One of our social marketing analysts pointed out that posting client-generated custom content like blogs on social media platforms like Facebook always gets better results than posting third-party education articles. Go through your blogging catalog and add some of your older posts that are still relevant to your social media posting schedule to bump up website traffic. 

PDF Forms

PDF fillable forms are useful tools when it comes to closing the information gap between digital marketing leads and conversions. Google and Facebook ads do not always have a clear trail to conversions, especially when some people see an ad and act without actually clicking on it. Adding these forms to client websites gives us that extra insight into results, and these results have been stellar. One of our clients had a 138% increase in New Client forms from May 2019-May 2020. Forms also let us see that another client had a 463% increase in conversions with a 75% decrease in cost per conversion. Encouraging clients to fill out forms on another client’s website also helped them see a 2,000% increase in goal completions year over year.

Beyond Indigo Pets is here to help you make the most of your marketing throughout the year. The goal of marketing during unsettled times is to lean into and keep your brand and voice in front of current and future clients. Contact us today for a free consultation.