5 Ways to Optimize Your SEO Strategy for Zero-Click Searches

5 Ways to Optimize Your SEO Strategy for Zero-Click Searches

In the age of instant gratification and shorter attention spans, consumers seek an even faster Google search experience to discover the answers to their queries. And it has become increasingly possible to find answers without a single click-through to a website.

In recent years, as many as 57% of mobile and 53% of desktop users don’t click on results on the search engine results pages (SERPs) — and that number is only growing.

Welcome to the rise of the zero-click search.

Here’s what you need to know about zero-click searches in 2024.

What Is a Zero-Click Search?

As the name suggests, a zero-click or “no click” search occurs when a search engine shows the answer to a request without the user having to click a single link or website to access the information.

They’re becoming increasingly common, as Google offers readily available and helpful information — all directly within the SERPs. As such, these search results are changing how users search for and receive information. 

How Information Is Delivered in a Zero-Click Search

There are several ways Google delivers info quickly and effectively in a zero-click search.

  • Featured Snippets: Featured snippets are the most popular type of zero-click content — and they come in various shapes and sizes, including paragraphs, tables, image packs, video carousels, lists, and more.
  • People Also Ask: Called PAA for short, People Also Ask automatically gives users additional questions related to their original queries and the associated quick answers. It’s the questions you didn’t even know you needed to ask!
  • Quick Answers: If you’ve ever searched for a time or currency conversion — or an answer to a math question — you’ve seen quick answers. These are common for searches that involve calculations but are also used for PAA and more.
  • Local Packs: That attention-grabbing map you see that lists the location, address, phone, hours, and more for a searched-for business is called a local pack. It’s part of the Google Business listings.
  • Knowledge Panel: Knowledge panels are automatically generated from multiple sources and show off a quick snapshot of information for entities, including people, places, organizations, and things.

How to Optimize for Zero-Click Searches

While zero-click searches are excellent and convenient for users, they can decrease website click-through rates and a decline in overall traffic. So, the uptick in these searches does present some challenges for website owners and businesses who want to drive traffic to their pages through a successful SEO strategy.

The good news is that you can evolve your digital marketing to accommodate and improve your website’s visibility on the search results page in several ways.

Here’s how to get value from zero-click searches:

1. Create Content for Featured Snippets

While you may be familiar with optimizing content and keywords to increase site traffic and Google ranking, creating content for featured snippets takes a slightly different approach. You’ll want to structure information in an easily digestible way and quickly answer the who, what, when, where, and/or why. It’s important to include visual assets, too — like video, photos, or infographics — to increase your chances of being picked up by Google’s algorithm.

2. Focus on Local

Because zero-click searches often strongly overlap with local search, it’s important to ensure you have a Google Business Profile — and that it’s up to date with contact information, business hours, location, and more. With accurate and consistent details, you have a better chance of earning a spot in the local pack on SERPs.

3. Think About Voice Search

With the rise of voice search, optimizing for this type of web query is important. Using conversational language in your website content can help you rank higher in a zero-click search. Also, it goes without saying that your site should be mobile-optimized.

4. Use Structured Data

Adding structured data to your web pages with schema markup — a form of HTML code — provides additional information about your content and boosts your search authority. As such, it’s essential for zero-click searches, as it can also impact what Google shows in its SERPs.

Google has a Rich Results Test that can tell you if your page supports rich results with the structured data it contains.

5. Don’t forget EEAT.

EEAT stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness — and it’s part of Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines. While it’s not a direct Google ranking factor, it’s a 

vital signaling concept to remember when considering your website content. 

Prioritizing EEAT will ultimately work in your favor for SEO and zero-click searches.

How to Measure and Track Zero-Click Searches

How can you analyze the impact of zero-click searches and track their results? A range of tools available can help with this, including Google Search Console, SEMrush, and Moz.

These tools are helpful because zero-click search and SEO best practices are constantly evolving and changing as Google algorithm updates continue to happen more and more frequently.

—

Adaptability is vital — and having SEO experts on your side can be helpful. At Denver Post Media, we specialize in content development and strategy that can enhance your visibility and impact in search and beyond. Learn more here.

How to Build an Email Marketing List That Gets Results

How to Build an Email Marketing List That Gets Results

Creating and building an email list with loyal, engaged subscribers is an essential investment for your business. That’s because email marketing remains a proven and effective tactic; the average ROI for email marketing is $42 for every dollar spent (DMA), and 73% of marketers rated their email ROI as “excellent” (SaleCycle).

Before we explore how to build an email list, it’s important to review the characteristics of good business email lists.

How to Build an Email Marketing List That Gets Results

High-Quality and Permission-Based

While it may seem like a quick fix to buy business email lists, this practice can negatively skew the truly engaged audience of your list (no matter how small it might be!). Often, purchased emails can include bots, spam accounts, or abandoned emails. Also, the people on that purchased list didn’t technically sign up, so they’re probably not going to be as engaged with your brand as you’d like. No one appreciates “spam,” and you should always follow marketing compliance guidelines for email.

Accurate and Updated

A good email list should be regularly maintained to ensure deliverability and engagement rates. This also means periodically curating your list to remove invalid or bounced emails!

Easily Segmented

Segmentation allows you to send targeted, personalized emails to specific groups that may have an affinity for a certain product, offer, or service. Segments can be based on demographics, psychographics, past purchases, engagement level, fundamental interests, and more. In fact, email segmentation can lead to a 760% increase in business revenue, according to Campaign Monitor.

Quantity

While quality is more important than quantity in email marketing, a more extensive list of permission-based, engaged, and accurate emails is always going to be better. That’s why it’s vital to consistently look for ways to build your list.

7 Easy Ways to Effectively Build an Email List

If you’re wondering how to create an email list for marketing, check out these seven tactics that can drive impressive results.

1. Offer Incentives for Signing Up

First and foremost, think of ways to encourage people to want to give you their email addresses. One of the most popular (and effective!) ways to get email addresses is through a lead magnet.

A lead magnet is usually a downloadable asset or a free virtual event that is relevant and actionable to your target audience.

Some ideas for a lead magnet include:

  • White papers
  • Case studies
  • Free webinar registrations
  • Free e-course
  • Worksheets or templates
  • Ebooks

The best lead magnet for your business will depend on your target consumers and marketing goals, but it can also be valuable to test a few different ideas to see what provides the best results.

2. Create a Customized Landing Page

A customized landing page can be helpful for your email incentivization and lead magnet efforts because it provides a central and dedicated hub where you can drive consumers to sign up. If you are utilizing a landing page, the experience should be easy and frictionless, with a clear and valuable offer message and call-to-action (CTA). The focus is on conversion — and you don’t want people to click away from the page until they provide their email.

Consider including an attention-grabbing headline emphasizing the benefits, short but effective copy amplifying the message, and a strong CTA.

3. Add Pop-Ups to Your Website

While website pop-ups may get a bad rap for being disruptive and irritating, they can be thoughtfully designed with a clear purpose. Therefore, they can work beautifully to build your list.

Pop-ups also provide an opportunity to promote a relevant lead magnet or another promotional offer or coupon savings offer in exchange for providing an email address. It’s an easy and effective tool to build an email list with an engaged audience already interacting with your website.

Don’t forget to make the CTA on the pop-up as friendly, clear, and aligned with your brand voice as possible. It should be attention-grabbing but easy to understand immediately.

4. Build an Opt-In Form Into Your Website

Another way to easily grow your email list is by adding an email sign-up form on your website pages, menu bar, and navigation.

This type of opt-in form can be a simple module that reminds site visitors to join your email list.

Again, you’ll want to use a strong, brand-aligned CTA about the value they’ll receive in exchange for providing their email address, such as a savings code, a lead magnet, or exclusive content and updates.

5. Run a Giveaway or Contest

A fun way to grow your email list — and generate a positive halo effect for your brand — is to activate a giveaway or contest that requires users to enter their email addresses. There are giveaway tools and website plugins, like Rafflecopter, that can help create this type of promotion.

You can also set up a landing page with a form fill to accept entries. Just ensure you provide an adequate opt-in marketing disclaimer so you can use those emails in the future!

6. Put Your Social Media to Work

You likely have at least a few social media accounts, so make sure you’re getting the most out of them when it comes to building your email list.

You can add an email sign-up button or opt-in form directly on your Facebook page and a link in your profile to platforms like Instagram and TikTok.

Social media accounts are also a great way to promote your lead magnet, giveaway, or contest to amplify awareness. To further increase reach, consider running a social media advertising campaign.

7. Consider an Email Marketing List Builder

Remember that many email marketing list builder services — like Hubspot, Optimonk, and Klayvio — might also be worth considering. These services require an additional financial investment. However, they can be helpful because many provide pre-built sign-up forms, pop-up capabilities, landing page creation, lead tracking and management, A/B testing, and more.

—

“Slow and steady wins the race,” is a good mantra for building an email list that will pay dividends in the future. While it won’t happen overnight, putting tactics like these into place to garner an engaged, relevant audience for your brand will help expand your list in all the right ways.

 

If you don’t know where to start, Denver Post Media has a team of local, trusted experts in content marketing, email, and social media to help you effectively build your email list and more. Check out our full suite of marketing solutions here.

 

8 Tips to Write a Killer Call to Action

8 Tips to Write a Killer Call to Action

“If you don’t ask, you don’t get.” Mahatma Gandhi’s famous words summarize the mission and purpose of a marketing call to action — or CTA.

But what is a call to action, really? It’s a short phrase that prompts a target audience to take a desired action — like purchasing a product, downloading a white paper, or subscribing to a newsletter. Some common CTA examples you’ve likely seen include Buy Now, Subscribe, Contact Us, Read More, and Add to Cart.

CTAs can appear anywhere on the user journey — from social media posts to emails, paid ads, landing pages and websites, blog posts, and more. In digital formats, they can be clickable buttons, pop-up boxes, or banners. They can even be as simple as a piece of hyperlinked text.

While CTAs are short and sweet, thriving businesses and successful marketers always give them attention. That’s because they are crucial in getting your target audiences to act.

A Good CTA Makes a Difference

The best, most successful CTAs will grab your audience’s attention, encourage action, combat decision fatigue, and inspire confidence in your business. That’s a lot for one little button! The true test of a CTA is if it increases conversions and drives traffic.

That’s why knowing how to write a CTA effectively and strategically is so essential. Here are eight best practices for creating irresistibly clickable CTAs that drive results.

8 Tips for Crafting Irresistible CTAs

Start Strong

This is not the time to beat around the bush. The best call-to-action phrases generally start with a strong action word or verb — an imperative that directs people to do something. Your words will vary based on the desired action. But clear, concise, and authoritative words generally perform best. For e-commerce, that might be “shop,” “buy,” or “order.” For content, it could be “download,” “read,” or “subscribe.”

Have a Value Proposition

Your CTA should also effectively communicate the value afforded to someone when they complete the desired action while also ensuring there’s low risk. You must entice people to know that what’s in it for them is worth the click. Popular incentives include things like saving money, lower rates, and exclusive access.

Create FOMO

Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) works like a charm in marketing — especially in CTAs. FOMO can be a valuable tactic because when people think they might miss out, they’re more apt to be motivated to action. Some of the most effective CTAs instill time sensitivity or urgency, which can look like limited-time-only offers, member-only access, and “while supplies last” messaging.

Write Supporting Text

CTAs are so short that you may be unable to communicate the complete value proposition in one button. That’s where supporting text enters the chat. This can take the form of content that comes before or after a CTA to help the intended action. It can be as simple as an additional tagline — or it can be a longer explainer copy. Its primary purpose is to reinforce the benefits of the CTA to inspire action among your audience and get them to click.

Customize to Device

Laptops, tablets, and mobile devices often have different user behavior and search intent, so customizing your CTA based on the device is a good rule of thumb. For mobile, experts estimate that 80% of searches for local businesses convert. You may want to create a more phone-call-centric CTA for mobile placements because people can use that CTA button to call for additional information or to complete a purchase.

Go Bold

While basic and clear CTAs are often effective, a bolder approach can also catch your audience’s eye. It could be a play on words — something that elicits a chuckle, an unexpected expression, or using a negative to motivate a person to action. The goal here is to command attention in a spirited way that still feels aligned with your brand standards.

Test Different Options

Knowing exactly what will grab your audience’s attention can be difficult. That’s why it’s a great practice to A/B test your CTAs to see what performs the best. You might explore a more standard CTA as one option and then throw in a bolder, more outside-the-box option to see what generates the greatest results.

Make It Stand Out

A CTA isn’t only about the words. The design, placement, and color of the CTA button or text can also determine if you catch or lose your audience’s interest. For example, CTAs surrounded by less clutter and more white space can increase conversion rates by 232%.

You also want your CTA to be clearly visible on a page or graphic. One way to do this is with bright or contrasting colors that stand out but still align with your brand. For example, studies have shown that a red CTA button consistently outperforms a green one.

The best CTAs are visible, clear, understandable, and catchy. They tell your audience exactly what to do and what they can expect.

At Denver Post Media, we specialize in generating clicks for our clients through dynamic marketing campaigns and killer CTAs that really work. Learn more here.

6 Ways to Improve Your Website’s Google Ranking

6 Ways to Improve Your Website's Google Ranking

Google gets approximately 99,000 search queries every second, resulting in about 8.5 billion searches daily and roughly 2 trillion global searches annually! 

As such, Google commands 92% of the mobile search engine market share worldwide, along with 72% of the desktop market.

All those zeroes are also why it’s critical to have a website that can compete — the first five organic results on a search page get 67.60% of all clicks, and the next five account for only 3.73%. It’s all downhill from there.

To get web traffic, you need to be near the top — and that starts with search engine optimization (SEO).

What is SEO?

The higher you rank in Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs) for your target keywords, the more people will visit your website or webpage. That’s where SEO comes in.

The goal of SEO is to increase the quantity of organic (non-paid) traffic your website content receives from search engines.

On-page SEO factors like content, tags, internal links, and even site architecture can help improve search visibility and increase traffic. Here are some ways to maximize your onsite SEO.

How to Rank Higher on Google in Six Steps

1. Be Relevant

Publishing high-quality, relevant, and authoritative content is a leading driver of search engine rankings — and there’s really no way around it. After all, Google’s main job is to show its users the best results.

Part of effectively creating that content means identifying keyword phrases your target audience might be searching for. These search terms will be integral to include in your content.

You can also check a webpage’s keyword ranking — its organic ranking position in search results for any given keyword — to see how it stacks up to others.

2. Write Strategically

While your content should flaunt expertise and relevance for your audiences, it also should prioritize SEO best practices. Threading the needle to achieve both of those objectives can be challenging.
Keep these things in mind:

  • Focus on readability: Content that is consumer-friendly, digestible, and easily scannable is essential so users can easily find information.
  • Try bulleted lists: Just like this list, bullets help readers more easily process content.
  • Don’t stuff keywords: Keyword stuffing is basically the overuse of keywords to improve website ranking quickly. But it will get you nowhere fast, so don’t try to outsmart the system.

3. Keep it Fresh

Yes, search engines want quality content with keywords used appropriately — they want you to update it regularly, too. It is a clear indicator of a site’s relevance. So, it’s crucial to audit your content regularly and update it where needed.

A blog is an excellent tool to keep a steady stream of fresh content — content that prioritizes your keywords — flowing into your site while helping to educate or inform your audience.

4. Optimize Images

While images, videos, and infographics may not be the first thing you think about when it comes to improving your site’s ranking, visual content can be an essential traffic driver when implemented correctly.

Images not only enhance text-based content, they send users directly to your site.

That’s because more than 36% of consumers use visual search when online shopping.
To ensure your images check the box, consider the following:

  • Image file size and format: Make sure to use image formats that are web-friendly and not too large to prevent slow site loading.
  • Customize file names and use alt tags: Always update file names and describe your images and videos with alternative text descriptions; it’s another way search engines can locate your page.
  • Mobile optimized: Just like your site, your images should appear correctly on mobile and be optimized to adjust to smaller screens.
  • Uniqueness: Not only do you want to ensure you can legally use your images, but it’s also beneficial to limit the use of stock photos that have frequently been implemented elsewhere.

5. Ensure You Have a Solid Foundation

Website architecture and page experience are not only important to your intended audiences, but they can also affect search engine rankings.

Google defines page experience as “a set of signals that measure how users perceive the experience of interacting with a web page beyond its pure information value — both on mobile and desktop devices.”

You want users to easily find products, services, and other information efficiently and effectively. Consider an easy-to-follow navigation menu, strategic internal links, and prioritizing your most important pages when evaluating your site architecture.

6. Don’t Sleep on Backlinks

A backlink is a link on another website that points to your content — and it’s surprisingly effective in helping your search ranking. That’s because search engines use several off-page signals to determine whether your site can be trusted — one of the leading signals is backlinks.

Backlinks legitimize your site to search engines. There are some vital link-building strategies you can try, including:

  • Link-worthy content: Creating valuable content will naturally attract links. This could be anything from infographics to free quizzes, downloadable assets, and other interactive pages.
  • Guest blogging: Getting the word out about your content and writing for other sites is a great way to extend your reach and get some backlinks in the mix.
  • Broken link auditing: Going on the hunt for links that no longer work on other sites and suggesting links to your pages as replacements can be a lot of work, but it will pay dividends.
  • Adding links: By adding your own set of relevant external links to your content, you’re also improving authority and credibility.

Multiple other on-page SEO factors can help improve your website’s ranking. But, if you want to know how to rank on Google in 30 days, there are no foolproof hacks.

SEO is a long game, and results don’t often appear immediately. You’re also never finished with SEO; it’s a continuous process that requires constant attention and improvement.

For all those reasons and more, SEO may seem overwhelming. At Denver Post Media, we’re in the business of helping brands and companies achieve their marketing and advertising goals — including SEO and website ranking.

Content Marketing 101: Everything You Need to Know

Content Marketing 101:
Everything You Need to Know

Steve Jobs said it first in 1996: Content is king. And countless marketers, strategists, and industry leaders have chanted this three-word mantra ever since.

While the digital landscape has significantly changed since the ’90s, one thing that remains the same is the importance of content.

In fact, great content is more critical than ever today — especially in a digital marketing strategy.

What is Content Marketing?

“Traditional marketing and advertising is telling the world you’re a rock star. Content Marketing is showing the world that you are one.” -Robert Rose, CEO and Chief Strategy Officer, The Content Advisory.

While there are many ways to explain content marketing, at its core, it’s about sharing your brand or company’s story in a way that feels more authentic and useful to the consumer.

The Content Marketing Institute (CMI) defines it as a “strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”

It’s not about pitching products or services. Rather, content marketing “provides relevant and useful content to your prospects and customers to help them solve issues in their work (B2B content marketing) or personal lives (B2C content marketing).”

Why is Content Marketing Important?

“These days, people want to learn before they buy, be educated instead of pitched.” -Brian Clark, Entrepreneur.

According to an eCommerce Foundation study, 88% of customers are researching a company through online content before they ever reach out.

But that’s only one of the reasons content marketing is so crucial to a company’s success.

Given that successful content offers a meaningful and compelling way for brands to engage with their target audiences, the benefits of content marketing are extensive.

When it’s done well, content marketing can help you accomplish many objectives and goals for your business, including:

  • Increased brand awareness, retention, and loyalty
  • Lead generation
  • Connection with an audience that avoids ads
  • Higher traffic, sales, and intended consumer action
  • Thought leadership to build credibility and influence
  • Introduction of corporate social responsibility goals
  • Amplification of other marketing tactics, including SEO, PR, and social media

How Does Content Marketing Work?

Content is anything that adds value to the reader’s life. -Avinash Kaushik, Chief Strategy Officer, Croud.

Because every single brand and company has a different story — and a unique value proposition or product to sell — content varies greatly.

Content marketing encompasses two major components: content creation and the distribution of that content.

Content Creation

Creating content is about getting your intended prospects and existing customers to pay attention by producing interesting information they care about — or that serves a purpose for them.

While blogs and articles might be the first thing you think about when it comes to “content,” content marketing can be much more. Here’s a quick (and still non-exhaustive) list of tactics:

  • Blog posts and articles
  • White papers
  • Case studies
  • Video
  • Product demos and how-to guides
  • Podcasts
  • Email and newsletters
  • Infographics
  • eBooks
  • Webinars and interviews
  • Quizzes
  • ROI calculators
  • Testimonials and reviews
  • Loyalty and rewards programs

Content Distribution

The distribution part of a content marketing strategy can include a range of marketing channels. It’s essentially any and all the places your target audience may be spending time or searching for content. This could include:

  • Website
  • Email
  • Direct mail
  • Social media
  • Paid digital marketing
  • Events

Who is My Target Audience?

“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” -Dr. George Berkeley

You can have the best content in the world, but if it’s not distributed to the right target audiences for your brand — and in the channels where they’re searching and paying attention — it doesn’t matter.

No one sees it, and it doesn’t make a sound.

So, to create the most effective content, you need to identify who you want to reach. You may need different assets and content types for various types of customers.

Your brand might have an ideal customer profile (ICP) and buyer personas representing your best-fit consumers.

If you don’t, you’ll want to consider demographics like age, gender, education, profession, income, family status, and geolocation. You may even layer in psychographics like values, personality traits, lifestyle preferences, hobbies, and more.

Creating and Implementing a Content Marketing Strategy

“Here’s everything you need to know about creating killer content in 3 simple words: Clear. Concise. Compelling.” -Demian Farmworth, Blogger.

The beauty of quality content marketing is that it works everywhere — and it should be fully and seamlessly integrated at every stage in your digital marketing funnel: awareness, consideration, conversion, and retention.

There are five essential steps to define your content marketing strategy:

  1. Know your business objectives and define your content goals.
  2. Identify your audience — and who you want to reach.
  3. Create the best-fit content marketing assets for that intended audience.
    (Remember: Content that is relevant, valuable, and authentic is vital!)
  4. Choose your marketing channels and publishing frequency to distribute your content.
    (Remember: It’s essential to reach your audiences where they are!)
  5. Analyze the impact and results and adjust accordingly.

Content Marketing “Cons” to Consider

“Traditional marketing talks at people. Content marketing talks with them.” -Doug Kessler, Co-founder, Velocity.

While we’ve talked about why content marketing is so important and beneficial, but what about the challenges?

  • It’s time-consuming.

Perhaps the biggest drawback is it can be time-consuming to ideate and brainstorm the quality content that will drive results, and then publish and analyze the results.

  • The results aren’t always immediate.

Often, content marketing can be more of a long game. It requires some testing and trial and error to discover what works best for your target audiences.

  • The results aren’t always measurable.

Speaking of results, they’re not always measurable either! While metrics like web traffic and online conversions can be quantified, it’s harder to quickly determine the impact of content marketing on brand awareness, loyalty, and even reputation.

  • It may require investment in outside resources.

Often, companies may need to outsource content like video, graphics, and more because they don’t have the expertise (or the time!) to produce it in-house.

How Can I Find a Content Marketing Agency Near Me?

If your company needs some support in content marketing strategy and execution, consider working with an agency specializing in content marketing.

The great thing about engaging with a content marketing agency is that they don’t necessarily have to be in your ZIP code to be an effective partner. Agencies work with brands worldwide to enhance their digital marketing strategies.

At Denver Post Media, we do it for our clients every day of the week.

Another great resource is the Content Marketing Institute, where you can connect with communities and find additional direction.

2023 New Year’s Resolutions for Marketers

2023 New Year’s Resolutions for Marketers

Want to Hit The Ground Running in 2023?
Start Here

Here at Denver Post Media, we care about your company’s success and with the new year beginning, there are a few vital steps you can take to ensure your advertising campaigns run as efficiently as possible in 2023.

1 – Website and Campaign Checkup

  • Evaluate the user experience on your website. Ensure your SSL certificate is up to date and your website is mobile friendly. This will lead to increased conversion rates and stronger brand affinity overall.
  • If you are using UTM codes for your digital marketing campaigns, check on your UTM codes and make sure they are labeled correctly for proper attribution. This is particularly important if UTM codes contain time-sensitive terms like a month, season or year.
  • If there are any pixels/tracking tags on your website, ensure they are still placed so that tracking is not interrupted.

2 – Creatives Audit

  • The new year is a perfect time to consider refreshing your creatives across the board. What learnings can we take from 2022 to inform our creative direction in 2023? What worked? What should be avoided? What new ideas can we bring to the table? Take the first quarter of 2023 to A/B test some new concepts. This should be an area for constant improvement throughout the course of the year. A key takeaway we often have in this process is that “more” is not always better. Keep your messaging clear, concise and enticing and let your website do the work from there.

3 – Target Audience Check-In

  • Is there a new demographic that you’ve noticed has been visiting your website more often lately, or engaging with your business content? Is there a new audience in general that could represent untapped potential for you in 2023? There is more data available than ever to understand the demographics and behaviors for audiences that are most likely to engage with your brand. Let’s do some target audience tweaking and let the data lead us to your most efficient targeting strategy.

4 – Explore Your Campaign Options

  • What suggestions has your strategy team (internal and/or external) given you throughout the duration of your campaigns, especially going into the new year? Think about these suggestions – now is the perfect time to implement them!
  • This could be as simple as budget reallocation or leveraging key takeaways from insights on geography, device type, day of the week and audience reports. Now could be the right time to add in a new brand awareness campaign to enhance an existing, conversion-focused approach (or vice versa). The important thing is to be sure you are understanding campaign results and overall trajectory against the initial goals of that campaign. Are things trending in the right direction? What can we do to work smarter?

5 – GA 4

  • In early 2022, Google announced the newest version of Google Analytics, titled GA4. On July 1, 2023, Universal Analytics (UA), which is the current version of Google Analytics, will no longer be available, which is why now is the best time to begin the process of switching your Google Analytics set up to GA4.
  • Here you will find a document with a step-by-step guide on switching from UA to GA4.
  • If you have any questions, concerns, or just want some guidance on beginning this process, please reach out to your Denver Post Media representative and we will be happy to assist you with this transition.

The digital experts at Denver Post Media are here to help you along the way with any of these resolutions and more. Whether a quick consultation, complementary analytics assistance or request for a smarter digital marketing plan in 2023, let us know how we can be of assistance!

Please contact a member of our digital team today to learn more.

Sean Stead
Digital Director
sstead@denverpostmedia.com

Dakota Nelson
Digital Account Specialist
dnelson@denverpostmedia.com

Claire Rubino
Digital Account Specialist
crubino@denverpostmedia.com

From everyone at Denver Post Media, Happy New Year!

What’s next for the media industry [in 2020] and it what it means for us at Denver Post Media.

This article, from Ad week, interviews 10 executives from within our industry posing the question ‘what’s next for the media industry [in 2020]’. After reading through their predictions, I thought, “what better way to kick off 2020’s first blog than than with my commentary on the themes laid out in the article and ultimately what they mean for us at Denver Post Media.”  

The executives almost all overwhelmingly believe we will see the reinvigoration of branding as a key KPI for most marketing strategies this year. As Pam Drucker (CRO/President, Conde Nast) put it, ‘Over the past few years, CMOs have sacrificed long-term brand building for short-term wins in a race to the bottom… [The] hyper-focus on ROI has led to overinvestment in digital and performance marketing as a substitute for brand building. While measurement will always be important, the pendulum is now swinging back to a focus on building connections with consumers’. While Drucker’s simplification of the past few years emphasizes the extremes associated with the Ad-tech boom (and undervalues the importance of ROI/ROAS focused campaigns), I think her point holds weight in summarizing how advertisers moved to ROI/ROAS focused campaigns for the sake of leveraging the new tech and ultimately (and possibly unintentionally) foregoing branding opportunities. 

As Druker’s outlook is from the POV of an advertiser/marketing strategist, a lot of the executives (coming from the publisher side) highlighted the importance of effectively connecting advertisers to audiences that are consuming content (media) on branded sites (like the Denver Post). While there are varying takes (in the article) on how publishers should produce and distribute content to not only increase the publication’s branding but also attract audiences that advertisers are hoping to connect with (Branded Storytelling vs OTT vs Interactive Mobile Experience vs Audio), I think Heather Dietrick (CEO, The Daily Beast) & Neil Vogel (CEO, DotDash) expressed the most straight forward outlook for each perspective: 

Dietrick: ‘If the 2010s [were] about social media disruption, which for publishers amounted to the dissolution of brand affinity in favor of the algorithms and the disruption of the relationship with the audience in favor of traffic growth, the 2020s will be about media owning its relationship with the audience, building brand devotion and leveraging loyalty.’

Vogel: ‘…whether it’s a print magazine, a broadcast network, a social network or online publisher, those who can deliver quality audiences with real intent to advertisers will win’

These perspectives are not new in the slightest – some may even say they are the foundation of advertising…advertise your brand to and where audiences are actively engaging. However, somewhere along the way, a lot of advertisers (and publishers) got distracted with the flashy new tech and convoluted verbiage that we saw an influx of campaigns simply not working cohesively to drive the correct results for their goals. This, in my opinion, is the reason we are seeing this regression of types with advertisers having to actively re-focus on branding when branding should have always been a KPI weaved into their ROI/ROAS campaigns as they are not mutually exclusive. 

With 2020 forecasting to be the year advertisers re-focus on branding, publishers re-evaluating their content strategies to reconnect with their audiences, and publishers and advertiser working together to connect the audiences to each respective advertiser…what does this landscape mean for the Denver Post? Luckily for us, it means opportunity. The Denver Post is primed to take advantage of these trends as we have the highest brand recognition amongst publications in Denver and already have a highly engaged and valuable audience available to connect to advertisers …it simply comes down to providing our advertisers with the correct solutions to produce the results they are striving for and hopefully melds the best of both worlds – branding and ROI/ROAS. If advertisers are looking to focus on their brand awareness is 2020, no problem we have an awesome content studio offering that leverages the existing Denver Post brand recognition and aligns the advertiser with their target audience through contextually relevant articles/series (what Dietrick implies when he says ‘leverage loyalty’). Are advertisers happy with their current ROI based campaign, but wants to expand their brand exposure? We have the solution it just depends on the vertical and how the additional branding tactic is implemented.

Regardless of which strategy you are moving towards in 2020, we welcome the opportunity to partner with you and develop an informed strategy based on your goals. Cheers to 2020, the year of the brand.