Blog

Sustainability is an increasingly popular topic. AEI Marketing is a predominantly remote office and has a smaller carbon footprint. It is important to us to preserve the beauty of the Lowcountry and emphasize it in our work. Our location provides us with the beauty that we highlight in what we create. We can only continue taking inspiration from our area if we all are aware of the effect we have on our surroundings. To read more about carbon footprints and to see how you can assess yours, read the article linked below!

https://www.fastcompany.com/90899551/this-free-tool-tells-you-the-carbon-footprint-of-your-home-or-office

Photo by Kres Thomas

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Performance and productivity are two of the most important parts of a business, but what about well-being? An article from Fast Company shares how well-being and efficiency have a positive correlation. It is essential to emphasize mental health and wellness in the workplace. We want to serve our community and exemplify these ideals in everything we do.

“Prioritizing employee wellbeing could transform companies, and the economy, in driving long-term business success.”

Read more about it in the link below!

https://www.fastcompany.com/90899166/the-business-case-for-investing-in-employee-well-being

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At AEI, we utilize technology every day. Finding what works for our objectives, whether it be Facebook, Instagram, or WordPress, we strive to use technology in the best way possible. In recent news, Fast Company shared an article on how small businesses can incorporate new technologies. We strive to exemplify these five steps in our everyday work. Read more about it below!

https://www.fastcompany.com/90824539/how-small-businesses-can-take-advantage-of-emerging-technology

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Apparently, the rumors of data visualization’s death have been greatly exaggerated … Salesforce is acquiring data viz company Tableau for $15.7 billion Learning on the job is probably the single most important factor driving your performance at work. You won’t know everything you need to about your job when you’re hired, no matter how good your education is or how much experience you had in previous positions. The road to learning starts with a willingness to admit what you don’t know and an interest in learning new things. Tableau allows design luddites to upload a spreadsheet and easily alter the graphical layout of information to make sense of data or just make it more aesthetically pleasing. That service is increasingly valuable, as big data emerges as an ubiquitous tool in the business world. “Tableau helps people see and understand data, and Salesforce helps people engage and understand customers,” said Marc Benioff, Chairman and co-CEO, Salesforce, in a press statement. “It’s truly the best of both worlds for our customers–bringing together two critical platforms that every customer needs to understand their world.” As TechCrunch points out, the news comes on the heels of Google announcing plans to acquire the data analytics startup Looker for $2.6 billion. Apparently smart data analytics, and clear, well-designed information are very much hot commodities in a world that is increasingly quantifiable. Amidst a year of high-profile IPOs, as Uber’s stock founders and Beyond Meat’s soars, it’s worth noting that Salesforce and Tableau are both publicly traded Silicon Valley companies that launched around 20 years ago. Some startups really do grow up   Read more

You’ll soon be able to buy a lot more stuff on Facebook. The social network is testing a shopping experience that allows users to buy items directly from business’ Facebook pages. The new shopping feature, first reported by BuzzFeed, will allow retailers to turn their Facebook pages into mini storefronts outside of their main websites. Facebook confirmed the new shopping features to Mashable Wednesday, saying it’s currently being tested among a small number of users and a handful of retail and e-commerce companies. In the shopping section, companies will show off products in a format that appears to be similar to the way photos are laid out. If you want to buy one of the products, the retailers will be able to choose whether the actual transaction will take place within Facebook or whether you’ll be redirected to the company’s website.

For those that choose to keep the shopping experience inside Facebook, the checkout process will be very similar to the one already in place on Facebook ads that use the buy button. Facebook spokesperson Mike Manning said it’s too early to offer a timeline for when it will expand more broadly to include more retailers or be surfaced to more users. He declined to name the businesses participating in the initial test, but noted there are a range of different-sized retailers and e-commerce companies currently involved. The news comes as other social platforms are looking to increase engagement — and, eventually, revenue — with native shopping experiences. Pinterest rolled out buyable pins earlier this year, and Google announced Wednesday it would be experimenting with a “buy” button in its search results. Meanwhile Facebook has been increasingly experimenting with payments and shopping features. The company added peer-to-peer payments in Messenger earlier this year, and rolled out a business version of Facebook Messenger that allows customers to interact with businesses, including retailers. Recent reports have suggested the social network is also in the midst of testing a shopping assistant feature for Messenger. It doesn’t sound like Facebook plans to make money directly off shopping transactions for now, but all these new shopping and payment-related features fall in line with the company’s larger goal of keeping users in its apps and website as long as possible. Read more

Ask us about copy-writing for SEO … (843) 227-0619! From Emarkerter: Marketers rely on search engine optimization (SEO) to improve search rankings, website traffic and lead generation, and in June 2015 research by Ascend2, 89% worldwide rated SEO successful at achieving these objectives. Further, in February 2015 polling by Econsultancy, fully 73% of in-house marketers and 76% of US agencies worldwide said SEO provided excellent or good return on investment (ROI), the first- and second-highest responses. Most Effective vs. Difficult SEO Tactics to Execute According to Marketing Professionals Worldwide, June 2015 (% of respondents) SHARE THIS More than seven in 10 respondents said SEO effectiveness was improving, and content was by far the most important factor in this. Fully 72% cited relevant content creation as the most effective SEO tactic. Unfortunately, though, it was also the second most difficult, at 46% of respondents. The second most effective area, keyword and phrase research, proved to be much easier at executing; however, this stresses content’s importance again, as these terms must relate to the content produced. Putting manpower toward frequent website updates as well as link building also ranked highly for effectiveness, though the latter was the most difficult to execute. While website URL restructuring was the least difficult, it was also the least effective. Outside experts can help marketers maximize SEO efforts and effectiveness. As such 81% of Ascend2 respondents outsourced some or all of their SEO tactics. Q4 2014 data from AdLift reaffirms the importance of showing up at the top of search results. Looking at the clickthrough rate (CTR) of US desktop organic search results on Google, average CTR for branded keywords in position one was 45.7%, vs. 11.6% for second and 5.4% for third. Similarly, CTR for nonbranded terms was 24.7% for spot one, vs. 12.8% and 7.4% for Nos. 2 and 3. Mobile showed similar results. CTR for branded keywords in position one was 46.4%, vs. 10.8% in second and 6.1% in third. For nonbranded terms on mobile, first position saw an average CTR of 27.4%, dropping to respective rates of 17.6% and 13.9% for Nos. 2 and 3. Read more

Some software development companies program with the theory that it is ok for end-users to get garbage information out of software if they put “garbage” in user input fields. (GIGO Programming). This is a very bad theory. Should end-users guess input formats such as pre-required date, and time formats? If the end user is confused by data field inputs – (1/1/16 or January, 1, 2016) then the software is a failure. Making it easy for end-users doesn’t happen by accident and it can be painfully expensive to tweak systems once $125 per hour programmers are working their magic! At AEI Marketing, we do extensive analysis of proposed software development projects; We document every intricacy of your system in advance. It is our job! As for GIGO Programming, these developers use the word “garbage” twice in their calling-card. We think that says all you need to know about their planning processes. Read more

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From Mashable

1. Integrated approach

A few years ago we relied heavily on fan page interactions. Now with the changes made we have seen dramatic drops in engagement through Facebook for our brand. To counter this we have taken a more integrated approach with all our social networks and started to use pins and tweets in A/B tests to gauge fan interactions. If something catches the attention of viewers, then we also share it on Facebook.

2. Great content

No matter what the algorithm is, great content will always rise to the top. We think about great content as information that our fans can use. An algorithm change impacts all businesses, not just ours. Focus on creating content that your fans love and will want to share — the best content will always rise to the top.

3. Don’t game

Our focus on any social network has always been about real engagement instead of vanity metrics. As every social network shifts to embrace quality over quantity, Facebook will only increasingly reward excellent content.

4. Staff engagement

We are definitely getting less natural engagement, but we’ve done a few things to offset it. Firstly, we’re beefing up staff engagement and sharing of our posts. Facebook won’t hide personal updates. Secondly, we’re working more with Facebook ads; they’ve been hit and miss so far. Finally, we’re putting money and effort elsewhere. Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, partnerships and on-the-ground marketing all drive people to our site, so that we’re not reliant on Facebook.

5. Email marketing

Social media is fickle yet necessary, but diversification is even more so. As a small business with Facebook as our number one source of referral traffic, the change hit us hard. But a few things are helping us keep ahead of the curve and outside the box. We don’t post just to post; however, we have found that posting 4-6 times a day increases engagement without paying. Our numbers are heavy on Facebook and lower on Twitter, Instagram, Youtube and Pinterest. We cross-promote with exclusive content, contests, flash sales and discounts to help spread the fan love. To this day, email marketing still trumps all social in regards to conversions. We incentivize email signups.

6. Autonomics

Autonomic (intelligent automation) tools are just now hitting the market but are already allowing us to maintain our edge and maintain strong, non-paid marketing efforts on the Facebook platform. Autonomic tools use big data and best practices to ensure your marketing sees the right people at the right time, with the right message. With continued changes to the Facebook algorithm, these tools will soon be the only way to use Facebook and avoid pay-to-play.

7. Timing and content

Facebook is changing the way we consume media. You used to be able to post a picture and have it go viral. Now Facebook is favoring content. If your business isn’t posting amazing articles that people will like, your EdgeRank will go down and your business page will fade into the dark. By posting at times when people read and click on articles, our business page has stayed ahead of the curve and we consistently see improvements in our Facebook interactions.

8. Diversification

No sweat. We’re beefing up in other areas of social media. We’ve really been flexing our muscle with Google+ and LinkedIn. With the time we that aren’t investing in Facebook for our social clients, we’re putting towards getting more dynamic and playful with Pinterest and Twitter. You know what they say about when one social medium closes…. See Complete Article Read more

At AEI Marketing we offer SEO Services to Hilton Head businesses: Increase your website rankings with professional Search Engine Optimization: Site Optimization – The careful placement of keyword optimized content and code to bring your website up to latest standards for the ever changing search engine landscape. This includes page speed optimization, XML sitemaps, alt tag additions, keyword targeted posts and pages, and much more! Website Submission – Registration to relevant search engines, social bookmarking portals and directories: building a solid base for all future SEO work. Link building for your website – The largest factor in your results: incoming links with quality anchor text  from related websites play a major role in your SEO ranking. Content Marketing, Blogging and Placements – Content development and creation, design and posting, custom articles and blog posts, all help establish your niche in the marketplace and  get more traffic to your site.  E-newsletters help you keep in contact with your customers, building your brand and increasing loyalty. Pay Per Click – The quickest way to the top, but without proper set-up and management, a huge waste of money. Let our certified technicians set-up and manage your PPC efforts. Read more