brand awareness – Page 2 – IFTS, Inc. Blog

Revitalizing Your Online Presence: Generating Phone Calls and Conversions

Is your online presence working for you?

In today’s digital landscape, a compelling online presence is the cornerstone of any successful business. It serves as a digital storefront, #1 salesperson, your biggest fan and more, enticing prospects to engage with your brand.

So – what entails a successful online presence?

There are 3 main parts:

Branding
Google Maps Optimization
Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

In this article, we will explore these 3 key elements that can transform your presence online into a powerful client-conversion machine.

Let’s get started!

Part 1 – Business Branding

Just as a compass guides travelers, a strong brand identity directs potential clients towards your business. It’s crucial to communicate the unique value proposition your brand offers.

However, rather than focusing solely on yourself, shift the spotlight to the benefits your clients will gain by choosing your services. On your website, create a captivating headline that resonates with their needs and aspirations. It should have nothing to do with you yet. People are always looking at the “What’s In It For Me” outcomes. So, let them know all of the great things that can happen when they work with you.

Then, use the subheadings to highlight features that reinforce these benefits. This is where you can talk about your knowledge, qualifications, past case studies and more. By following this strategy, you create an emotional connection, compelling visitors to take the next step on their journey towards conversion.

Part 2 –Optimizations To Rank Higher on Google Maps

There are 3 main factors that determine how your business ranks on Google Maps:

Location (how close you are to the searcher)

Location emphasizes your proximity to potential clients, ensuring they can easily find and access your business.

Relevancy (how relevant your business is to their search)

Relevancy demands that your Google profile and website are optimized to align with their search queries, demonstrating its value and relevance.

Prominence (how prominent is your website)

Prominence focuses on elevating your website’s visibility and credibility.

Ensuring that Google “likes” your site by adhering to search engine optimization (SEO) best practices will ultimately increase your organic traffic and conversions.

Since you can’t really change your location, focus on credibility and relevance.

Increase Credibility and Relevance

One great way to increase credibility and relevance is via social proof, like reviews or testimonials. This is always beneficial to you because if a prospect sees someone similar to them getting a good result with your company, they can picture themselves in that position as well.

The best part? You don’t have to toot your own horn at all.

Video testimonials are the best way to get social proof and can be easily done via Zoom. They are an invaluable asset that humanizes your brand, instilling trust and credibility. They can be posted in a myriad of places, such as:

YouTube
Your website
Google Business Profile
Rumble
Social Media
LinkedIn

…and more!

So, how can you obtain impactful video testimonials that convey the story of how you have positively impacted your clients’ lives?

Meet with happy clients on Zoom and ask them these simple questions:

What was the problem that you hired us to solve?
Why did you choose our company over everyone else?
What was the work that we did for you?
Were you happy with the results?
Would you recommend us to friends and family?
Anything additional you would like to add?

This question structure will create a great testimonial every time because it follows a story narrative. People love to hear stories in a particular order, so this should help your interviewee tell a compelling story.

Once the interview is complete, edit the video to enhance the quality and remove any portions that don’t make sense to include. This video can then be shared everywhere!

Additionally, don’t overlook the power of written testimonials.

Gather positive reviews from platforms like Google and incorporate them into your website, either as widgets, text or screenshots, to further strengthen your social proof.

Part 3 – Conversion Rate Optimization

Google can send you all the traffic in the world, but none of that matters if they don’t convert into clients.

So, how can you increase the conversion rate on your website?

There are many ways to increase conversion rate, but we are going to discuss 3 here.

1 – Make it as easy as possible to get in touch with you on every page

This includes having your phone number at the top of your website, making sure that the number is clickable, having a chat box for people that don’t want to call, and having a contact form for people that don’t want to chat. Make it impossible for someone to find a reason not to get in touch.

2 – Showcase trustworthy elements on your site

Be sure to have an SSL attached to your site so people know that their information is secure. You can further denote this with a padlock graphic on your forms.

3 - Have a quick loading website

Be sure that your website loads in 3 seconds or less. This will ensure that a prospect cannot get upset by the load time and leave your page frustrated.

Time To Get Started

Your website holds the key to unlocking your business’s potential, acting as a bridge between you and your ideal clients. Make sure that you have built that bridge as strong as possible by following the outline discussed above.

Need help implementing any of the optimizations discussed in the article? Let IFTS help!

Call 412.715.6266 or send an email to si@iftsdesign.com to get started.

Helping Your Painting Business Rank in the Google 3-Pack

When you search for a local business on Google, the first three results that appear are known as the Google 3-Pack. The 3-Pack (also known as the local pack or snack pack) is displayed with a map that provides the location of each business as well as basic information about each business. The 3-Pack is above normal search results, which makes it a valuable piece of real estate for any local business that wants to reach people who are looking for something in their area.

Let’s talk about helping your painting business rank in the Google 3-pack.

In our experience, a lot of phone calls come from just showing up below the map in Google when someone is searching for a painter.

The best part about this? These calls are coming to you free of charge. So, how do you get more of these free calls?

To rank in the 3-pack, Google looks at 3 things:

1 – How close your business address is to the searcher, or proximity

2 – How prominent your business and brand are online, or prominence

3 – How related your company is what the person is looking for, or relevance

Now, you can’t do much about the first one, so you need to concentrate on the other 2.

Let’s start with prominence.

For this, Google is going to look at how many other websites link to you online.

This isn’t about the quantity of links, but the quality of the links. So, you want to be sure to have links from all of the organizations that you belong to and if possible, from all of the charities that you participate in. These are the types of high-quality backlinks that Google is looking for.

Google is also going to look at a bunch of different online directories/citations and make sure that your name, address and phone number all match what is in your Google Business Profile and on your website.

If you’ve moved locations a few times, you may want to look into a tool like Yext to help you get that all straightened out. We also offer this service at our company.

Now, let’s move onto relevancy.

It used to be that the closer your company name was as seen in your Google Business Profile to the search terms that someone put in, the more likely it was that you would show in the 3-pack. However, companies started to game this system by naming themselves things like “Pittsburgh House Painters” in their Google Profiles. Once Google became aware of this issue, they replaced looking at the business name with looking at your reviews!

So, Google now wants to see detailed reviews about your company, and they will look at the keywords used within the reviews to determine the relevancy to a person’s search term.

For example, if someone in Oklahoma City was looking for someone to paint their living room, Google would probably expect words like “interior painting”, “painters”, and “OKC” to be in the review text.

So, what does this tell you?

You need to get reviews on a regular basis to establish the relevancy that Google wants to see.

Unfortunately, these can’t just be any reviews.

They need to be high-quality reviews that mention words that Google wants to see…which will help you get more free phone calls.

So, how do you accomplish this seemingly impossible task of putting words into people’s heads?

You’re not a magician.

Well, when you ask for a review via text or email, we have found that it’s good to provide a nice basis for them, which helps avoid writer’s block and allows you to put ideas in their heads…kinda like Inception, but without Leonardo DiCaprio.

As an example, you could send the following email:

“Mrs. Smith –

We hope that you found our service to be extraordinary. If that is the case, we would love for you to leave us a review.

To help you get started (and avoid writer’s block), we have found that the most impactful reviews answer these questions:

What work did we do for you and where are you located?

Was it done well?

Why did you pick our company?

What was the best thing about working with our company?

Would you recommend us to family and friends?

Please click here and it will take you directly to our Google Review Page: [Link]

Thank you for choosing us and we really appreciate you taking the time to leave a review.”

By asking these questions, you help guide them to use the words and phrases that will make your reviews relevant to most searchers looking for companies like yours. In addition, they will leave reviews that look non-spammy and well thought out.

The other thing about reviews is that you need to get them regularly…and this is for a few reasons.

Reason 1 – Google wants to see recent reviews to help with relevance

Reason 2 – Prospects want to see recent reviews to help them make a decision

In fact, almost 50% of people won’t even consider a review relevant if it was written over one month ago.

So, you’ll need to create a system that helps you get reviews on a regular basis. We have a whole video about this, which I’ll link to in the description.

As a bonus, you should respond to reviews to help increase your relevancy. In your response, it gives you a chance to mention the place you worked and what the job was. It also allows you to express your gratitude to the person that took the time to leave you a review.

So, in summation, ranking in the 3-pack requires 3 things:

Proximity
Prominence
Relevance

Because you can’t change the first one, be sure to concentrate on the second two to have the best profile possible and get more phone calls than your competition.

If you have any questions about the topic discussed in this article, or if you need help with ranking in the Google 3-pack, contact IFTS at 412-715-6266 or email Stacey Ivol at si@iftsdesign.com.

Creating Video Marketing Content With Canva: Useful Strategies For Your Small Painting Business

Creating Video Content With Canva: Useful Strategies For Your Small Painting Business, PART 2

Let’s face it, in the world of small business marketing, standing out can be tough, but is critical. In our last blog, we gave you the tools to create professional-looking videos with Canva, without needing a Hollywood production team.

But hold on to your paintbrushes, because in this article, we’ll be unleashing your inner creativity to make those videos shine brighter than a fresh coat of paint!

Let's Get Creative

Canva also allows small businesses and house painters to add text, graphics, transitions, and music to make their marketing videos more engaging and effective. These features can add interest to the message and grab the viewer’s attention.

Here are some simple ways to make your videos stand out from the crowd!

Got Graphics?

Graphics and text are a great addition to your marketing video and help you create a moving story for your brand. Try not to get too carried away with adding these elements to your video, though. You can always add more later! Start simple by doing the following:

Select the “Elements” tab from the toolbar on the left-hand side of the editing screen.
Choose the graphic or icon you want to add to your video and drag it onto the timeline.
Resize and adjust the graphic as necessary and position it where you want it to appear by dragging the corners of the purple box that appears when you select a graphic.
Click on the graphic to also customize the color, size, position, rotation, or transparency of it.
Repeat the process to add more graphics to your video as required.
The same steps can be applied for adding custom text by selecting the “Text” tab located on the same toolbar as the “Elements” tab.

Add Animation!

Animating graphics in Canva can add a lot of interest and movement to your marketing video. Animations can make your video look better and help you tell the story in a more exciting way. Here’s how to animate graphics in Canva:

Select the graphic that you want to animate by clicking on it in the editing screen.
Click on the “Animate” button located in the upper left corner of the editing screen.
Choose the animation style that you want to apply to the graphic, and adjust the animation settings as necessary. Canva provides a range of animation effects, such as fade-in, slide-in, and bounce.
Adjust the timing and duration of the animation by clicking on the “Animation length” button and setting the length of time you want the animation to last.
Preview your animated graphic by clicking on the “Play” button located in the bottom left corner of the editing screen.

*Pro tip* – Like graphics and text elements, animations should be used sparingly to avoid overwhelming the viewer with too many moving elements.

Timing is Everything

Timing is a critical aspect of video editing, and it’s no different when adding graphic elements to your marketing video in Canva. If the timing of your graphic elements is off, it can take away from its effectiveness and impact on your viewer. Therefore, it’s important to know how to change the timing of these elements in Canva.

You will need to navigate to the timeline tab located at the bottom of the editing screen. This is where all of the elements you have added to your video are displayed in order of appearance.
Once you have located the graphic element you want to adjust the timing for, simply click on it to select it. You will notice a tab with three dots appears above, and when you click on those dots, a new menu pops up with several icons, including a timer.
Choose the timer icon to show its timing, which is now displayed as a purple bar with a thumbnail of the graphic just above your video timeline at the bottom of the editing screen.
To adjust the timing of the graphic element, simply click and drag it to the left or right along the timeline.

*Pro tip* – keep in mind that the timing of your graphic elements should be in harmony with the overall rhythm and pacing of your video. You can experiment with different durations and timings to see what works best for your video.

Smooth Transitions

When you have more than one video clip in your video timeline, you can choose to transition between those clips in fun and unique ways such as fades, slides, pops and more! Transitions can help create a smooth or more interesting flow between the sections of your video. Here’s how to add them:

With your cursor, hover over the space between two clipped sections of your video. A plus icon will appear, as well as the transition icon.
Select the transition icon and a menu will appear with different types of transitions you can apply to your video.
Choose the desired transition style and it will appear on your video’s timeline between the two video clips.
While in the transitions menu, you can adjust the duration by dragging the slider bar that appears below your selection.
Repeat the process to add as many transitions as you’d like.

*Pro tip* – To add the same transition between each video clip, click on the “apply between all pages” button at the bottom of the menu to save time.

Music to My Ears

And last but not least, don’t forget about the audio. Your visuals might be on point, but bad audio can kill a video faster than you can say “soundcheck.” Make sure your audio is crystal clear and be sure to add music to your video to make it more engaging and emotional. Canva has a library of music you can use or you can upload your own. Just make sure you have the right to use it. Here’s how to adjust the volume of your video’s audio and add music:

Select the “Music” button from the toolbar on the left-hand side of the editing screen.
Choose the desired music track from Canva’s library or upload your own track.
Select the music track and a new audio timeline bar will appear below your video’s timeline.
When you click on the audio timeline bar an audio effects menu will show at the top of the video editing screen. Adjust the volume of the music by clicking the audio icon and dragging the slider in the volume tab.
Trim the audio clip as necessary by dragging its edges.

*Pro tip* – If the track you’ve added to your video is too short, simply click the ending point of the track in your video and add it again. You may need to adjust where the music tracks overlap so they are in sync.

Get Ready to Roll!

Once you’re done adding effects and editing the visuals, it’s time to review your work and make sure that everything looks perfect and is ready for export. To do this, you can use Canva’s play button located near the top left corner of the page to preview how your entire video flows together.

Made a mistake? No problem!

The undo button is also located near the top left corner of the page, or with Canva Pro, you can revert to a previous version of the video and go from there.

Once you’ve finished editing your video, it’s time to export it so you can use it for marketing purposes. Simply click on the “Export” button and choose your desired video format and resolution.

Canva offers a range of options, including MP4, GIF, and MOV. You can also choose the quality and resolution of your video.

*Pro tip* – Keep in mind, many social media platforms only allow videos of a certain length to be posted, so be sure to adjust accordingly.

This is the Way

Don’t be afraid to experiment with different types of videos to see what resonates with your audience. Try creating how-to videos, product demos, behind-the-scenes videos, or customer testimonial videos to see what works best for your business.

By using videos to showcase your products and services, share your expertise, and promote your events, you can increase engagement and reach a wider audience.

Now you’re ready to share your videos on social media, embed them on your website, use them in your email marketing campaigns, and start getting the most out of your video content!

With these tips and strategies, you’ll be able to create professional-looking marketing videos that promote your small business or house painting services that attract new customers and blow your competition away!

Remember, making videos should be fun and creative, so don’t be afraid to experiment and try new things. Happy video-making!

Need more help? Contact our social media experts at IFTS, and we will get the job done for you! Give us a call today at 412-715-6266, and we’ll get you started on creating videos that will take your business to the next level.