September 29, 2024

BY: JAMES MULCAHY

In today’s increasingly digital world, having a strong online presence is crucial for businesses of all sizes and industries. Whether you’re a small local shop or a large corporation, the internet is where most of your customers are searching for products, services, and information. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the key to making sure your business stands out online, helping potential customers find you easily on platforms like Google. Without a well-optimized website, your business can get lost in the vast sea of competitors, even if you offer superior products or services. SEO ensures that your digital presence is not only visible but also compelling to search engines and users alike. This is where attention to digital marketing is important and why Flowspace Marketing is here.

On-site SEO focuses on optimizing elements within your website to improve its search engine rankings. This includes creating keyword-rich content that is informative and relevant to your audience. For example, if you’re a bakery in Los Angeles, you’ll want to ensure that your website’s content includes terms like “best bakery near Los Angeles” or “custom cakes in Venice Beach.” Additionally, structuring your content with clear headings, optimized titles, and meta descriptions helps search engines understand the purpose of your site and rank it appropriately. On-site SEO also involves making your website user-friendly, with fast loading speeds, mobile optimization, and easy navigation, all of which contribute to a positive user experience and better search rankings.

While on-site SEO is critical, Off-site SEO is equally important. Off-site SEO refers to the actions taken outside of your website to improve its authority and credibility in the eyes of search engines. One of the main ways this is achieved is through building high-quality backlinks—links from other reputable websites pointing back to yours. These links act as votes of confidence, signaling to search engines that your site is trustworthy and relevant. Engaging in guest blogging, securing mentions from influencers, or getting listed on directories are all strategies that contribute to strong off-site SEO. Social media activity also plays a role; by sharing your content and engaging with audiences across different platforms, you can drive traffic back to your site and build a more credible online presence.

For businesses that serve local customers, Local SEO is essential. Local SEO helps your business appear in search results for geographically relevant queries, such as “plumber in Santa Barbara” or “restaurant near Los Feliz.” It involves optimizing your Google My Business listing, ensuring that your business name, address, and phone number are consistent across all platforms, and encouraging customers to leave reviews. Reviews, in particular, play a big part in how your business ranks locally, as they help build trust with both search engines and potential customers. By focusing on local SEO, businesses can attract customers in their immediate area who are ready to make a purchase or use their services.

Without a strategic approach to SEO, businesses risk falling behind competitors in search rankings and losing out on valuable opportunities. SEO is not a one-time effort but an ongoing process that requires regular updates and improvements. Monitoring performance through tools like Google Analytics and adjusting your strategies based on what’s working and what’s not is crucial for maintaining and improving your rankings over time.

In the end, SEO is about visibility and accessibility. A strong online presence, powered by effective SEO strategies, ensures that your business gets noticed by the right audience at the right time. Whether through optimizing your website content, building authority with off-site strategies, or targeting local customers, SEO is the bridge that connects businesses with their online audience in a meaningful and impactful way. Investing in SEO means investing in long-term growth and staying competitive in today’s digital landscape.

Learn more about Flowspace Digital Marketing's SEO service here. 

October 15, 2023

BY: James Mulcahy

Along with their advantages, e-commerce sites also have some disadvantages. Through e-commerce you can reach a global audience or at least a much larger audience than a physical store. Operating an online store is generally more profitable, with lower rent, utilities, and staff costs. Your e-commerce site is open 24/7, allowing customers to shop and browse at their convenience, potentially increasing sales.

Scaling a business online is relatively simple. A variety of processes can be automated, new products can be added and new markets can be conquered. You can collect and analyze customer data to gain insights into purchasing behavior, helping you to make informed decisions. Customers and business owners benefit from the convenience of online shopping, including easy product research, comparison, and payment options.

To effectively target your audience, e-commerce offers various digital marketing strategies such as SEO, social media marketing, and email marketing. It's easier to cater to niche markets and specific customer interests online because you can find and target your ideal customers more precisely and accurately.

However, the e-commerce landscape is extremely competitive, with numerous companies vying for attention. Technical knowledge of web development, security, and e-commerce platforms is required to create and maintain an e-commerce website. Online stores are vulnerable to cybersecurity threats like hacking and data breaches, which can lead to legal and financial problems.

Building trust with customers is more difficult online because there is no face-to-face interaction. Safety measures and good customer service are fundamental. Managing product storage, order fulfillment and shipping can be complex and expensive, especially for international deliveries. Handling returns and refunds can be more complicated in e-commerce, which can lead to customer dissatisfaction.

E-commerce is technology-driven, so any technical issues or server downtime can disrupt business operations. Effective online marketing often requires a budget and a return on investment can take time. E-commerce businesses face many complex regulations, including tax laws, privacy rules, and e-commerce regulations specific to their country or region. Providing excellent online customer service can be difficult because customers expect quick responses to their questions and concerns.

Starting an e-commerce site has potential for success, but it's not without its challenges. A well-planned strategy focused on customer trust and safety and a commitment to continuous improvement can help you overcome these pros and cons and build a thriving and profitable e-commerce business. Flowspace Digital Marketing (FDM) can play a valuable role in helping other businesses get started with Shopify or other e-commerce sites by providing a range of services and expertise.

We work with businesses to develop an e-commerce strategy tailored to their goals and target audience. This includes market research, competitor analysis and defining a unique selling proposition. While Shopify is a popular choice, Flowspace Marketing can help businesses evaluate different e-commerce platforms to determine which one best suits their needs and budget.

We design and develop e-commerce websites, ensuring they are user-friendly, visually appealing and optimized for desktop and mobile users. We can also set-up the necessary integrations and customize the site according to business requirements. We create and optimize product listings, including product descriptions, images and pricing. 

SEO is essential to e-commerce success. FDM optimizes product pages, metadata, and content to improve search engine rankings and visibility in search results. Managing PPC advertising campaigns on platforms like Google Ads and Facebook can drive traffic and sales. Flowspace Digital Marketing manages these campaigns efficiently. By leveraging social media platforms, FDM can create and manage marketing campaigns to reach a wider audience, engage with customers and promote products.

Content marketing can be used to inform, educate and engage with audiences. Flowspace Digital Marketing creates blog posts, articles, videos and other content to attract and retain customers. FDM manages email marketing campaigns to generate leads, promote products and recover abandoned carts. Improving website design and functionality to improve conversion rate is crucial. FDM utilizes A/B testing, analyzes user behavior, and implements changes to increase conversions.

Flowspace Digital Marketing can track and analyze website performance, sales data and customer behavior, providing regular reports for insights and decision making. If you want to manage certain aspects of the e-commerce site yourself, FDM can provide training and ongoing support to ensure business owners or staff use the platform with confidence.

E-commerce businesses must comply with various regulations and ensure customer data security. Flowspace Digital Marketing can help businesses stay compliant and implement necessary security measures. By offering these services and expertise, a digital marketing company can provide businesses with a complete e-commerce solution, from the initial planning stages through ongoing marketing and optimization. This support can be invaluable to businesses looking to succeed in the competitive e-commerce landscape.

Contact us today for more information.

info@flowspaceagency.com

(213) 819-2235

Published August 4, 2023

By: James Mulcahy

With all the legitimate fears regarding artificial intelligence, let’s focus in this blog post how AI solutions can be applied to business problems. When confronted with these problems professional teams want solutions that take minutes but without a user interface (UI) at their disposal the frustrations will mount. Scripts, API, and SQL entries are incomprehensible to non-specialists and even those with moderate tech skills will have to dedicate significant blocks of time to solving these problems.

Fortunately there are AI solutions easy-to-use and now available to free up management and staff to focus on what they would rather be doing. These tools can be installed on your servers or hosted on cloud-based Software as a Service solutions (SaaS) and are customizable, for example, allowing you to schedule tasks to run once at a pre-specified time and/or on a recurring basis. In addition, making sense of setting parameters is not the headache it once was, as AI allows you to set multiple parameters for single variables, supporting either freeform input or multi-select functionality in conjunction with selected options.

The UIs of these solutions offer dashboards with a studio of task creation and editing, while others support UI-based wizards at the same time. The most important consideration when deciding on a platform to host these tasks is to locate one which offers full support for editing and testing tasks. Your software developers will appreciate a UI which allows them to deploy directly from an all-in-one suite from the program’s command-line interface (CLI). 

For task runs, you will want a program that displays central processing unit (CPU) and memory usage charts for task runs. These are highly useful as they can be used to debug slow performance and out-of-memory (OOM) conditions. Additionally, the best UI’s have the capability to edit inline Python coding tasks on Windows to parity with all other operating systems on the market. Many AI tools automatically use Python virtual environments found within the project root when running Python tasks.

With so many options out there, you need a trusted partner who can help you select the right AI tools for your business. Schedule a quick conference call with a Flowspace Digital Marketing consultant today and let’s get your company to greater efficiencies and profitability!

James Mulcahy

Flowspace Digital Marketing

james.mulcahy@flowspaceagency.com

(213) 819-2235

Published July 30, 2023

By: James Mulcahy

Many companies focus on conversion rate optimization (CRO), which is an important metric, but we believe standard search engine optimization (SEO) techniques are still a part of an overall, balanced digital marketing strategy. CRO is very detailed and it is like catnip to detail-oriented professionals who love deep-diving into complex data sets. There’s a multitude of reasons to do such in-depth analysis which we will cover in this blog post while remembering the axiom of Occam’s Razor: the simplest answer is sometimes the best answer.

First, let’s look at some of the reasons why a more simple and straightforward approach is the genius approach. Search engine optimization typically starts with qualitative rather than quantitative research, which sometimes yields important insights. For example, let’s say you’re inspired to expand your client base and it occurs to you to search for barber shops in a particular geographic area. Your brain’s synapses are already firing, making connections and developing questions, all underneath your conscious awareness. This eliminates biases and more importantly, frees you to remove false limitations. 

What have you gained in the process? 

Without measuring anything, you now know more than you did before without really using a formalized technique. And you’ve pushed through a lot of unconscious resistance to pave the way to a smooth transition to more formal analysis and research. 

With all the noise out there in the ether of modern information exchange (also known as, “The Internet”), finding a good SEO specialist is tricky. Some will simply take your money and do absolutely nothing, while others will dedicate themselves to going all the way and above and beyond the call of duty. Mind you, we are not saying that the insights gained from qualitative research alone will solve all of a business’ problems, but nonetheless such data can yield useful, important, and sometimes indispensible information.

So how do we open the door to more formalized strategic thinking?

A business follows a standard life cycle, typically broken down in four stages: introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. In the first phase a group of people get together, exchange ideas, allow their creativity to flow, and try different things, since it is important that colleagues and collaborators get along and actually like each other. More formal agreements are typically established later as duties, pricing/compensation arrangements, and legal formalities are agreed upon. 

I like to think of a business marketing plan on both a macro- and a micro- level: Some element of your business might have it’s own life cycle and go through the four stages in a matter of hours, while other elements and the overall business plan have their own unique progressions over time. There are many ways to describe this phenomenon but hopefully you get the picture here.

Now, for the part you’ve all been waiting for. What about CRO, you might ask. 

Well, we never said not to pay close attention to CRO. On the contrary, the further you get into the life cycle of a business, such sophisticated analysis is necessary to keeping a competitive edge. The best way to understand CRO is to look at it in terms of pluralities. Conversions are measured every time a customer or prospect says yes to some predetermined call to action, which can be anything from clicking the sign-up button on a website form to actually paying for a service. Our minds need to feel that the efforts we put forth are yielding some result - so there is also a psychological benefit to giving ourselves credit for even the smallest gains, progressions, and successes.

So by all means, spreadsheet geeks, geek out to your heart’s content(s). Just keep in mind that sometimes the simplest, most obvious answer trumps mountains of high-level data, and the mark of a truly competent professional is one who can discern the difference.

E-mail your comments and questions to info@flowspaceagency.com.

Thanks for reading!

James Mulcahy

Flowspace Digital Marketing

info@flowspaceagency.com

Published May 31, 2023

By: James Mulcahy

Like all modern industries financial planning professionals utilize marketing and this includes development of a coherent digital strategy. Digital visibility is the goal and digital marketers who create digital content as eye-popping as physical billboards, flyers, and paper deliverables are the ones actually doing their jobs. Flowspace Digital Marketing understands this in reality better than any other digital marketing agency in Los Angeles.

To understand your target audience, we identify ideal client profiles. Flowspace conducts market research in this area which provides useful data to make decisions. Our job is to address your needs and wants as well as the pain points of your practice. Once we’ve defined the buyer personas of your ideal customer avatars (ICAs) an important element of a sound marketing strategy from which to gather insights will emerge.

We will help you to refine your messaging in order to create a resonant value proposition to build relationships with your target audience. From a broader perspective an engaging online presence with a well-thought out strategy includes the development of a visually appealing and user-friendly website along with advanced search engine optimization (SEO).There’s no avoiding social media so we will also work with you to establish a strong presence on various platforms with high-quality content such as blogs, videos, infographics and other material relevant to your target market.

Every business has different needs and many of the marketing decisions involved are subjective. It’s ultimately up to you how to budget for marketing campaigns but Flowspace helps you to sort through the noise of all the options out there. For example, are you considering pay-per-click (PPC) advertising on platforms like Facebook or Google Ads? It is extremely important to develop a strategy before deciding how much money to spend on these platforms. We know the questions to ask to make sense of the options to narrow it down to the best choices for you. 

Digital marketing in general is important for all industries and market niches - financial planning is no different. We encourage you to consider new strategies and adapt to the evolving digital landscape. The long-term benefits of an effective digital marketing strategy include happier clients, greater efficiency, and market competitiveness. Contact us today to schedule a free 15-minute consultation!

James Mulcahy

Flowspace Digital Marketing

(213) 819-2235

info@flowspaceagency.com

Published May 12, 2023

By: James Mulcahy

The Google ranking algorithm is difficult to understand but Flowspace Digital Marketing knows how to help. We stay on top of every trend in this area since no one’s business or website holds the same position indefinitely.

Google is secretive regarding its ranking factors and thus generic approaches can be misleading. Many who sell search engine optimization services claim that page speed, relevant keywords, link quality, and mobile-friendliness are the key to ranking high but the truth is Google’s standards are as subjective as they are analytical. There are always tricks that circulate on the Internet that sometimes actually work, the latest of which is the claim that switching from HTTP to HTTPS will boost a website’s status, since HTTPS sites are more secure. It certainly wouldn’t work against your site but such a narrow focus on one tactic might not be worth the time and effort.

Although in theory any business can do its own SEO, bringing on a freelancer from Flowspace Digital will save time and money in the long run. Google updates its ranking algorithms frequently, sometimes several times a day. A firm that specializes in digital marketing is more likely to get better results.

Here’s some fun but instructive historical background on Google’s algorithm updates (and thanks to Neil Patel for his meticulous research in this area). Google Panda (2011) targeted keyword stuffing and duplicate content, which was designed to reward original and quality content. Google Penguin (2012) went after outdated practices such as link directories and spam backlinks, again in an effort to reward quality content at the expense of link volume strategies. Google Hummingbird (2013) encouraged marketers to up their game with increased keyword variations. Google RankBrain (2015) furthered the push toward original and quality content by encouraging research, ranking pages on the degree to which they appear to most closely meet AND match a user’s search intent. The recent Product Review Update (2023) encourages extra effort in writing product reviews to make them more useful and instructive (although it isn’t clear who benefits from these changes, the product manufacturer, the reviewer, or both).

A good digital marketer tracks when Google releases new algorithm updates so you don’t have to do so. Flowspace Digital Marketing will adapt your SEO strategy with real time analysis and powerful artificial intelligence tools which provide numerous metrics that even seasoned professionals have difficulty decoding and interpreting. If you find that your SEO problems are so overwhelming that you can’t tell when careless traffic management is rapidly diminishing your judgment as evidenced by increased error rates, that’s when it’s time to ask for help.

Call or write today for a free consultation, from Flowspace Digital Marketing.

www.flowspaceagency.com

(213) 819-2235  

Published April 12, 2023

By: James Mulcahy

Somebody's in the way! In other words, your business has obstacles to online presence and prominence but we'll help you find the path safely and affordably. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one time-tested tool to bring eyeballs to your site by increasing your rank in search results as well as getting 5-star reviews from new customers. 

Flowspace Digital Marketing, a Los Angeles-based digital marketing agency, utilizes powerful analytical tools and strategies that, when deployed properly, will help you to identify key inefficiencies that are cutting into your bottom line. Furthermore, e-mail campaigns, sales funnels, ad copy, and other aspects of content creation, when designed with your needs and wants in mind, can produce a positive return on investment.

The ranking algorithm of Google (or any search engine) is the power behind deciding where you appear in search results. The end goal of SEO is to make it easier for your website to be found in searches and this is facilitated by technical and content practices. The key is alignment - lining up your website and the tools used to find it with the ranking algorithm. 

Traffic-driving keywords and quality backlinks must be carefully considered in order to drive traffic to your site, but more important, you want qualified customers who will actually spend money. In short, we will analyze your web content and structure and manage online business development campaigns, supported by expertise in specific markets, industries, and locations.

Data is everywhere and with effective analytics tools and strategies to make sense of facts, statistics, and information a business owner can gain an impressive edge over the competition.

Call or write today for a free consultation, from Flowspace Digital Marketing.

www.flowspaceagency.com

(213) 819-2235  

Published April 27, 2023

By: James Mulcahy

So change!

Of course it isn't as simple as that. Myself being a product of the old-school boiler room approach to selling, I can do a one-call close better than anyone, and still come out with smiling, loyal, and happy customers.

We might conceptualize all this as starting with three different bottom lines. #1 and #3 are positive, while #2 is negative. So look at the second dimension - it might be telling you something you actually need to hear and whoever recorded it may be right.

Effective as those old strategies are, evolution and change are inevitable. Some prefer the word modernity. Others progress. Still others, post-modernity. It's all semantics in the end but the end doesn't always justify the means.

Today we don't just look at the bottom-line and call it a day. We look at numerous metrics, emphasizing some, disregarding others. The old method of claiming victory because revenue - expenses equals profit while reliable, completely glosses over some fundamental steps and strategies in an overall business plan.

At the same time, it is impossible to account for every single expense, even if we know that it would be better that way. A positive ROI on one of your spreadsheets is triggering hidden expenses and those expenses must be considered and eventually accounted for.

Sell! Sell! Sell! the sales managers used to scream. And they were right - just get the freakin' sale! But even they know if they never say it openly that getting customers in the door ain't enough and they will only succeed when working with a highly-developed marketing strategy.

Utilize content strategy maturity (CSM) to understand the strengths and weaknesses of your team, and achieve even better outcomes. It is also a highly-effective strategy to identify inefficiencies cutting into your bottom line. It has been proven that one individual can do the work of 40, and the cost-benefits of that are pretty obvious.

Attracting your business' target audience with high-quality content can yield excellent marketing outcomes. However, the ideal process is time-consuming, but not insurmountable. Being nice and kind to everyone is important, but holding firm to your values, as exemplified by inflexible standards, are equally important.

In addition, scaling and segmentation are important elements of an overall business plan. Scale up the content created for your strategy and increase your results by investing in specialized freelancers. Customized content for different niches will help you to reach your ideal customer avatars (ICAs).

Setting goals, having access to qualified experts, and streamlining operations are all crucial. Rock Content, a digital marketing blog, offers an assessment of content strategy maturity. Check it out here:

https://interactive.rockcontent.com/content-strategy-maturity-quiz?utm_source=pushnews&utm_medium=pushnotification&fbclid=IwAR1E49u1WGg0NQpM9sZAr86e_u6ejN54IRBrk_4ZSgGh_xkfi45IxON7LjM

Published April 28, 2023

By: James Mulcahy

Content creators and truly creative people always prefer to do things themselves. I'm the same way but the reality is we're not always right to avoid applying artificial intelligence to compose ad copy, marketing videos, reels, and other types of sales content.

There are advantages and disadvantages to using AI to create content. 

Numerous AI tools are being introduced that are getting noticed in the news and social media. Rock Content reports that "AI-assisted tools, as well as chatbots, are expected in fact to be the future of content and marketing." 

One the most compelling pros is the ability to optimize content and this includes social media posts and media articles. However, not all AI-generated content is reliable and useful for answering inquiries and creating positive results.

Knowledge of old-fashioned research skills are crucial.

Still, most professional creators agree that AI tools help rather than hinder their work. AI might take the place of rock n'roll and those of us who really get that will declare "AI is here to stay!"

One example of early AI success in marketing comes from the example Nordbecker Beer, the most successful beer brand in the world. Getting that sex sells the shitbox ad agency came up with a winner!

"Whip out Your Nordbecker" was the jingle that captured the hearts and imaginations of Americans worldwide.

Let's take a cue from beer, and let them AI bots go!

May 1, 2023

By James Mulcahy

The term free-market capitalism is loaded since regulation by definition establishes obstacles to business transactions. The Internet is wide open with little to nothing in the way of prescribing clear penalties for nefarious activities. Self-regulation is the best practice whether in the form of policy itself or business practice.

In real life, someone might joke around about wanting to "bump someone off." What to do if an honest individual thinks the one telling the joke might be serious? The Centers for Disease Control reported in 2006 that only 5.01% of all deaths were accidental. It means essentially that the other remaining deaths were almost 95% deliberate. That 95% was murdered since there is no grey area between an accidental death and a deliberate one. 

Artificial intelligence's moral hazards are perhaps simpler to understand, since it is obvious that an individual with bad intentions will do bad things with these powerful tools. For example, geolocation tools simplify navigation in a powerful way but these apps can be manipulated by those with violent intent to main or kill people. The risk that anyone with enough money can buy the most powerful AI algorithms to destroy their competition is one that regulation would mitigate. 

Neil Patel, who writes an Internet blog on similar topics, has also studied the legal and ethical problems of artifcial intelligence. "We’ve seen it before with emerging technologies, like social media and digital advertising. It can take years for laws to catch up with them. Why would the use of AI technology in digital marketing be any different?" I like Mr. Patel's blog because it is obvious to me that he actually does his homework. He goes on to discuss potential opening moves in the direction of regulation. He acknowledges the possibility of retroactive legislation. "Just imagine: widespread use of AI technology in digital marketing only for laws to be enacted at a later point in time. While those laws may not be retroactive, entire digital marketing firms would be disrupted at the change in status quo."

Risk management is a course that should be taught in high school alongside other topics which stimulate and evaluate competency in higher order and conceptual thinking. I doubt that more than 1% of Internet influencers who promote million dollar business opportunities actually know anything about the products they sell or have any intention of actually providing the promised services to their clients.

The moral hazards of risk management in the financial services industry have been studied and analyzed and the same seriousness should be applied to digital marketing.  The reality is these algorithms are too powerful to leave in the hands of disturbed people. Let's call the problem of digital marketing algorithm abuse. 

It is only scam when the salesman is dishonest. Some might take my argument even further and apply it to regulation itself.  Nefarious persons should not have access to powerful regulatory and legislative tools. 

Read Neil Patel's blog entry on the advantages and disadvantages of AI here: https://neilpatel.com/blog/disadvantages-of-ai-marketing/