Tag: <span>Art Unlimited</span>

Tag: Art Unlimited

RECORDING – RT3 Special Webinar #2: This week’s buzz and tactics for running your virtual roofing business

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The Roofing Technology Think Tank (RT3) hosted their second webinar in its special series geared toward helping contractors successfully navigate running their businesses during the Coronavirus pandemic.


Topics include:

Commercial Roofing Technology Expert: Michelle Boykin, Rackley Roofing

  • How Rackley Roofing made their commercial roofing company 100% virtual and an update on how the first full week went

Residential Roofing Expert: Ken Kelly, Kelly Roofing

  • Technology that allows us to work from home and handling employee pay while at home
  • Securing materials for emergencies and for when things open up again
  • Leadership tactics and keeping employees focused and calm
  • Budgeting and cash preparation
  • Where I’m getting my information to make good decisions from

Commercial Roofing Expert: Steve Little, KPost Roofing & Waterproofing

  • Business and financial perspective
  • Update on the government programs and what he’s hearing from manufacturers and the industry

Marketing Expert: Anna Anderson, Art Unlimited

  • Google changes and opportunities with new NextDoor tools, renegotiating contracts for cost savings
  • Digital compliance, remote tools and virtual portholes

Sales Expert: Ryan Groth, Sales Transformation Group

  • How the market is responding overall to their efforts, in lockdown markets and non-locked down markets.
  • Best practices for sales leaders transitioning to virtual management
  • The technology and methods being used for prospecting and conducting sales appointments

If you missed the first webinar in the series, you can watch the recording here.

How to market your roofing company in a digital world

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By RT3 member Art Unlimited/Kandi Hamble.

We are living in an increasingly digital world. I can still remember life without the internet, and my how things have changed! Art Unlimited has been around longer than the World Wide Web, and now we find ourselves fully immersed in this fascinating, always changing digital space.

It seems like every day there is a new rhythm to learn, and we often see companies fail to thrive when they don’t keep up. This may seem like a scary monster to fight off, but it can be easier than you think to join the circus without going crazy. All you need is a plan. We’re here to help you with that plan!

Step one: Go digital.

Living in a Digital World

First impressions for your brand were once limited to yard signs, vehicle wraps, flyers, and direct mail – also known in the marketing world as ‘traditional marketing.’ However, when the first website launched in 1991, the marketing world began to shift. Having a presence online is no longer optional—it is necessary to thrive and grow.

Here are four areas we will discuss:

  • Internet Presence – having your own website and having company profiles on third-party websites (such as GMB, Yelp, BBB, etc) is an essential way to manage and share your brand.
  • Fresh Content – major search engines, like Google, give priority to websites which are always updating. Paying attention to your SEO and posting regular, quality blogs can assist in keeping your website ahead of the pack.
  • Social Butterfly – choosing 1-2 social platforms to have a strong presence in can give your brand visibility, and give you a leg-up on your competitors.
  • Paid Ads – having digital paid ads geared towards your dream customer can help you grow your brand and change digital interactions to in-person customers.

Benefits of Going Digital

We must continue to learn new things or risk becoming stagnant. A solid marketing strategy is no different. In the movie Tron, Dumont says, “All that is visible must grow beyond itself, and extend into the realm of the invisible.” Adding digital components to your marketing strategy may seem like growing into an invisible world, but they will give you enhanced visibility to potential customers and raise your brand awareness. Greater brand awareness can then bring you more leads while also lowering the cost to gain them.

Extend Your Internet Presence

If you don’t already, having a presence across the internet is a must to thrive in the competitive landscape of hardworking, talented roofers.

  • Your-domain-dot-com – A website with your company name as the domain is like a business office which is always open. Having your contact information, hours, available services, and photos of previous projects can help a person choose you over a different roofer. Adding one of the many AI bots means searchers can even ask questions – whether you’re manning the phones or not!
  • Third-Party Websites – Creating or claiming your company’s profile on websites such as Google my Business, Yelp, and BBB will give your brand an even further reach. Your information should be the same on each site, as well as your own. This will let search engines know you’re trustworthy so they start sharing your information in searches. It allows previous customers to leave reviews for potential customers to form a positive impression of your business before they even pick up the phone.

Creating Fresh Content

Search engine bots are constantly scanning websites to see what new information there is to be consumed by the billions of people entering queries. According to stats compiled by an internet statics company, Google processes over 7-10 billion search queries a day worldwide, and 15% of those queries have never been searched for on Google before. The algorithms used to find content to answer these searches are changing almost every day.

Is it any wonder that a website drops in search ranking when it is not publishing new content regularly? How can you stay on top of keeping your website current and relevant? The good news is you don’t have to make changes every day! Publishing 2-3 blogs each month about topics you are an expert in can go a long way. If you don’t know where to start or are crazy busy, you can hire someone to write and publish blogs for you.

Working on your website’s SEO value a little each month can also help immensely. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) can seem tricky, but let me explain it this way: Search engines are always on the lookout for answers to the questions they receive. SEO is making a website visible to the search engines (by updating relevant pages with the keywords and content people are looking for)…much like introducing friends at a party!

Becoming a Social Butterfly

Being a social butterfly generally means flitting from event to event, interacting with whomever you meet, and being an asset to the lives you are interacting with. Now, owning that strong social presence could include having profiles on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, or Pinterest, to name a few. We have seen how building a brand on social media isn’t often used by roofing contractors.

What does this mean for you? If you build your brand on one or two social platforms (no need to spread yourself thin!) you could have a presence and be an asset to your community in a place where your competitors aren’t focusing – giving you the upper hand and a pool of leads for your company!

Paid Ads

There is a right way and a wrong way to do paid ads. Knowing who your dream customer is and what they are searching for when they need roofing help can help you dial into where to place your ads and how to word them. As they are tooling around the vastness of the internet and seeing your brand in strategic places, they will start thinking of YOU when their roof springs a leak.

Growing your brand and converting digital interactions to in-person customers is a long-term process. Patience is a virtue, even in this digital age. If you want to learn more about how to include digital marketing in your strategy, give us a call today. Art Unlimited has the experience needed to assist roofing contractors across North America to help them create a solid digital presence and surpass their goals.

Stay up to date on the latest roofing industry trends when you sign up for the RT3 Smart Brief e-newsletter. 

Source: Art Unlimited

5 Reasons To Harness The Tremendous Power Of WordPress

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By RT3 member, Art Unlimited.

The Art Unlimited Programming Team has over 29 years of combined knowledge of building websites to fulfill our clients’ needs. We make our websites with WordPress, one of many website-building and content management platforms.29

Currently, WordPress is the largest website builder platform, holding 60% of the market share, which transfers to about 33% of all websites on the internet today. In fact, WordPress’s next closest competitors only hold 6 and 4% of the market, respectively (Joomla and Drupal).

WordPress sites host some of the biggest names, including Sony, Disney, PlayStation, and BBC America, but can handle your small businesses website as well.

There are probably a million reasons for WordPress domination among programmers, but here are the top five reasons the Art Unlimited Programming Team prefers WordPress.

1. Community Keeps it Free

“Free, you say? How can that be? Doesn’t someone need to make money from this?”
WordPress is more than a company; it’s a community. While this may sound hokey, it is very true. WordPress isn’t owned by one single person or business. They like to call themselves an “open source community.” It’s a group of tens of thousands of people who contribute to making the software. Anyone with a programming background can join the community. This community is also readily available for support and questions by its users. They even put on conferences multiple times a year! Once the software is made, it’s free for anyone to use and it is made to be copied.

2. A Plethora of Plugins To Do Practically Anything

The advanced features plugins add to a website are pretty cool. Most are free, but some have a minimal charge. Do you want to sell merchandise on your website? There’s a plugin for that. Do you want to put forms on your website? There’s a plugin for that (we really like Gravity Forms!). How about an event calendar? Yup, there’s a plugin for that also. WordPress has about 20,000 plugins made by the community, and you’re feeling adventurous, you can also try 3rd party plugins!
Before you install a plugin into your website, check the reviews and see what people are saying about it. Look for plugins with 4 stars and over 100,000 downloads to know they are good. You also want to check if the people who made it have a support team for questions. Some plugins are made and forgotten about, so make sure the plugin you pick is still being supported and is occasionally updated (within the last year) by the creator.

3. Own Your Website Files

This is the most exciting feature for our Art Unlimited peeps and something we’re most proud to offer. When we build you a website, we don’t own the files—you do! This is not something offered on any other website building platform. We will gladly host the files on our servers for you, but if you should at some point decide you don’t want us to host them, you won’t have to start from scratch! We can easily transfer them to you so you can continue to have your existing website. Other website building platforms insist on owning your files.

4. Easy to Optimize for Increased Ranking

Keywords and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) are always on our minds. When a website is lacking good SEO and the right keywords, search engines have a hard time finding it — which means customers have a hard time finding that website. WordPress includes an assortment of tools to help you incorporate keywords into your content. They even offer advanced features (plugins) which allow you to write specific metadata and descriptions for your pages. This will help the search engines find your pages, and even possibly move your website up in the rankings.

5. Google Prefers WordPress

According to digital.com, search engines like Google and Bing tend to rank websites which use WordPress higher than those which don’t. At one of WordPress’s conferences, Matt Cutts from the Web Spam team at Google presented, and says “WordPress is a fantastic choice, and solves ‘a ton’ of SEO issues, taking care of 80-90% of the mechanics of SEO.”

WordPress is a tried and tested website building platform we are proud to use! It helps us give a higher level of customer service to our clients. We can build custom websites which they own after we have built them. To learn more about our website building and hosting services, give us a call today!

Get the latest roofing technology news delivered right to your inbox when you sign up for the RT3 Smart Brief enews.

Source: Art Unlimited.

How To Manage Your Social Media Marketing

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By Art Unlimited.

Did you know that for 45% of consumers, social media is one of the first channels they go to if they have questions or issues?

This fact alone makes it essential to have a strong social presence and digital marketing strategy (after all, they need to see you’re active and engaged). We’re here to help you through the first steps of launching a successful social presence.

Social Media & Your Website

If you’re starting your social media journey because you want it to drive tons of website traffic and conversions, be patient! Social media is, by definition, social. Badly presented sales content won’t make people like you, especially if they don’t know you yet. It’s wiser to start with a focus on brand awareness, customer relationships, and showing your values.

It’s true that connecting your social channels to your website (and vice-versa) will strengthen your website’s SEO and increase website visits, but a successful social media strategy takes time, effort, and consistent engagement to grow.

Get a Handle on It

When you’re ready to start, even if you’re launching only one social channel at a time, try to claim a good username (handle) on any social media platform you may later want to use. Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, etc., are all good places to have a presence. As your brand or business becomes more popular, people are more likely to snatch up the good names and leave you with a long, messy handle.

Why Social Media?

Social media is not only another way to ‘be found.’ According to PwC, “Social networks are the biggest source of inspiration for consumer purchases, with 37% of consumers finding purchase inspiration through the channel.”

If you’re marketing to a younger audience, it’s worth knowing that social is the most relevant advertising channel for 50% of Gen Z and 42% of millennials.

Channel

The channel, or platform, of social media you use greatly forms the outcome you will receive from your marketing tactics. Places like Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter can allow you to send indirect messages to long-time customers as well as prospective clients.  The key is knowing what your message is! When you’re creating an account and planning out your content (whether for a week, a month, or a quarter), use this as your starting point:

[Social platform] is where {target audience} can find {what content}. 

A rural resort could fill it out this way:

{Instagram} is where {adventure-seeking 25-35-year-olds} can find out {about our fun vibes and local attractions/activities}

This can be the same for more than one channel, or it can be different for each one! As you watch your audience’s engagement rates, you may find the people you’re picturing aren’t the ones loving your content, and that’s okay too. In the world of social media, where a post rarely matters more than 24 hours, it’s vital to be flexible in your game plan.

If you don’t know which channel (or channels) to choose, start with this general guide:

  • Facebook –  97% of social advertisers chose Facebook as their most used and most useful social media platform in 2018, and Facebook is the second favorite platform for consuming videos after YouTube! Have a lot of video content and a slightly older demographic? Start here.
  • LinkedIn – Recognized as the top-rated social network for lead generation, LinkedIn is especially useful for B2B (business-to-business) companies. Why? It’s chock full of decision-makers.
  • Twitter – How many times have you heard Twitter is going out of style or that people don’t really like it? In truth, Twitter is still growing rapidly and becoming increasingly popular as a customer support channel! Twitter is more of a niche platform than some others, so it may be wiser not to favor this channel if you don’t have a schedule which allows you to engage with your followers in the moment.
  • Instagram – This platform is becoming increasingly popular for all ages, but over half their user base is people from ages 18-24! If you’ve got strong visual content (Instagram is all about photos) and a younger demographic, get started now! 80% of Instagram’s users follow at least one business account. Better brush up on your hashtags!
  • Pinterest – This visually pleasing, unique channel is usually the odd one out in a social media line-up, but 90% of weekly active users are utilizing Pinterest to make purchasing decisions. Also, it’s actually the 4th most popular social media platform in the US! They’re still growing, and they recently expanded their advertising options to make them more versatile for marketers. While your average tweet is relevant for about 18 minutes, content on Pinterest can often last 1-3 months!

Post

Your account is set up, you know your ideal audience, and you’re ready to roll! Except, what do you post? In your social media work, it’s important to strike a balance between fun, educational, and more business-oriented content.

Many social media professionals employ the 5.3.2 rule: for every ten posts you create, five should be interesting content from other sources, three should be educational, non-salesy, relevant information for your follower base, and the last two should be fun company-culture posts.

Unless you have a great deal to deliver to a warm audience, an outright sales call is almost never the way to go. Gain your followers’ trust, teach them how your product can solve their problems, and nudge them in the right direction so they’re free to seek you out when they’re ready.

Reach

The number of people who have seen your posts and updates is commonly called the reach of the post. Reach is tied closely to engagement; if people are engaging with your content, the social platform rewards it for being interesting by giving it better reach.

The more people see you on social media, the more people will be drawn back to your website. And even if they don’t convert off the first visit from social, or the second or the third, you’re in the front of their mind. They’re likely to Google your company by name and convert later!

Engagement

Engagement is when someone interacts with your social media account beyond looking and scrolling by. To engage, they click a link, like a post, retweet, swipe through photos, or comment on your posts. People are on social media to be entertained, so make sure your content appeals to them and encourages them to interact.

Schedule

You want to post when the most people are online, or just before they get there so your post is already nestled in the newsfeed. On most platforms, you’ll be able to find these activity metrics somewhere in the platforms own insights. While your social channel is new and hasn’t collected enough data to display these metrics, follow a guide, or in general, plan to post in the afternoon between 12 pm and 5 pm (stick to later times on the weekends).

To maximize the flow of traffic to your social media page, get in touch with Art Unlimited to help give you the right marketing techniques to get ahead of your competitors on the web (and on social media!).

Source: Art Unlimited

AMP: What Happens When You Harness This Awesome Technology

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By Ashley Rannikar, Art Unlimited.

Welcome to the digital age, where information can be transported across the planet and back in seconds, card catalogs are cute things of the past, and microwaves annoy us because making a bowl of Ramen can’t be finished fast enough. We have a need—a need for speed—and it transcends nearly every area of our lives, including on the web.

What is AMP?

When it comes to your website, AMP is an improvement to the present and a key to the future! AMP stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages. It is an open-source library which enables you to make your website simple, stunning, and freakishly fast on mobile devices. It’s supported on most websites and browsers and has been proven to increase web engagement significantly.

How Does AMP Work, and Why is it So Fast?

AMP takes the basic parts of a website (HTML, JavaScript, and caching) and optimizes them for speed and mobile-friendliness.

In regards to HTML, AMP takes what is already on the website and places some restrictions on it so the performance of the page is optimal. Because of those restrictions, custom coding or shortcodes are sometimes not displayed. Usually, it attaches itself to regular HTML tags. Though when necessary, it replaces HTML tags with custom AMP programming to create simpler patterns in the coding.

JavaScript is the coding that makes a webpage interactive, which is necessary if you want a great website. However, it can slow a website down significantly if the system gets hung up downloading the files. Adding AMP to your website ensures the elements on a page load asynchronously. This means parts of a page can load independently of one another, making the essential content render ultra fast.

Google AMP Caching is the key to speed. When a webpage has implemented AMP, Google caches the page in its system. Then, when anyone goes to view the page, Google can immediately serve them the simple, cached version without having to find and render the whole page from scratch.

AMP is like an instant dinner made by a fairy godmother. You ask for a website to load and bippity-boppity-boo, it’s right in front of you! No more slaving in the kitchen, waiting seconds upon seconds for your microwave to ding the arrival of your bulky, mobile-unfriendly website.

Speed is our need, but it is not the only benefit of having AMP installed on your website. Over the last several months, we have been implementing and tracking the effects of AMP across multiple websites. Take a look at the results we have found.

AMP Results

In measuring the effectiveness of AMP in our websites, we first looked to Domain Authority (DA). Domain Authority is a number calculated by Moz which projects the probability of a website ranking well in the search engine results page (SERP). It operates on a consistent scale from 1 to 100. The higher the number, the greater the likelihood of it performing well in the SERPs. In our SEO work, we’ve found that Domain Authority generally moves up and down very slowly and rarely jumps multiple numbers. To our surprise, AMP threw a wrench in this pattern.

Take a look at the graph above. Companies from the following states leaped in Domain Authority almost overnight! It took only a couple of months to gain a higher domain authority rather than a couple of years.

  • Florida – 9 points
  • Florida – 12 points
  • Georgia – 22 points
  • Michigan – 10 points
  • Minnesota – 12 points
  • Minnesota – 10 points
  • New York – 8 points
  • Oklahoma – 11 points
  • South Carolina – 12 points

Next, we look at the importance of mobile-friendly websites. Check out these stats compiled by Main Street ROI:

  • Out of all online traffic, 52.64% came from a mobile device in 2017.
  • By the end of 2018, mobile traffic will account for 79% of all traffic.
  • Over half of Internet users say they wouldn’t recommend a site that isn’t mobile-friendly.
  • If a site isn’t mobile-friendly, 8 in 10 customers won’t engage with it.
  • Conversion rates on mobile devices are up 64% compared to conversions on a desktop.

If you want your company to have a competitive online presence, there is no way around mobile usability. Even if your site has been built on a mobile-first platform, installing AMP still seems to significantly increase your chances of ranking better in search results. Google loves AMP because people love faster load times.

Respect Google. Love people. Have AMP installed on your website today. Contact Art Unlimited with any questions you have about getting AMP into your website!

Source: Art Unlimited