The Quickest and Easiest Way to Enhance Your SEO in Malaysia

Even the most skilled SEO professionals still have trouble positioning their businesses on search.

Why?

Search engines constantly evolve. Take Google for example, every algorithm change impacts all SEO strategies. This is ever more real for Malaysia SEO.

What used to work before, does not work today. Now, the devil is in the details.

There is a never ending list of possibilities that can effect your SEO. One detail we noticed, which is often overlooked, is in your choice of web host.

*In this article we'll use Google search as the guiding principle, because Google continues to maintain the largest market share for search globally at 90% (Business Insider Article). 

How does your choice of web host affect you? (4 ways your web host is affecting your rankings.)

1. Site Speed: This is important. Google places an emphasis on maintaining a good user experience. The best web hosting providers never slow you down.
2. Uptime: Ranking on Google is dependent on users finding your content relevant to the topic they are searching for. Having your website down often discourages users from relying on your content. The best web hosting providers ensure 99.9% uptime.
3. Server Location & Performance: This is directly related to Site Speed. The location of your servers relative to the location of your search audience affects your site speed. The best web hosting providers ensure servers which are always performance and location optimized to deliver results quickly to your search audience.
4. Backup to prevent Data Loss: Although remote, this does happen. Google needs to index your data for it to suggest relevant search results. Having no data affects your search ranking. The best web hosting providers automatically back up your data over intervals, ensuring you recover quickly.

Here's proof to support our claim.

Google has released a General Guideline to help us to understand what are the quality standards Google looks for when indexing a site.

Under "Help visitors use your pages": Google suggests the importance of optimizing your page load times (recommending these tools to check: PageSpeed Insights and Webpagetest.org).

Exercise: Find the best web hosting that will improve your Malaysia SEO.

Here we'll put it all together to help you:

1. Prioritize Site Speed, Uptime, Server Location & Performance, and Periodic Backups.
2. Choose a reputable web hosting provider that can scale as your internet needs grow. 
3. Price alone shouldn't influence your decision. Rest assured the web hosting space in Malaysia is very competitive and generally web hosting in Malaysia is affordable.
4. Find a web hosting provider in Malaysia that gives you service-level guarantees (SLAs). SLAs give you an additional layer of assurance.

If you are interested in what we do: 

We run a web hosting service in Malaysia which prioritizes Site Speed, Uptime, Server Performance, Free Backup and a 99.99% SLA. Learn more.

To learn more about Google and their algorithm changes:

1. MOZ covers the history of Google's algorithm change here..

Read More

How You Can Be More Efficient With Email At Work

..Runs into the lift

..Rushes out to the door

beep..8:59am "phew, just on time"

Boots computer.. "first things first, gotta check email to see what's the status from Atikah and Wong"

This daily routine sounds familiar doesn't it? I'm attached to checking email constantly. This isn't surprising because email has been and continues to be the most popular form of communicating for businesses.

Times are changing, and there's an increasing amount of options for workplace communications options. Apps like Slack and Workplace by Facebook are changing the way for workplace communications. However, there are some that still prefer having a conversation in person, where apps like Skype help to streamline the distance gap.

Even with an increasing number of new technology, email isn't a thing of the past -- at least not yet --. Increasing options of communications is making it trickier to remember the right "etiquette" when emailing.

Email helps us to recap, reconcile and remember important conversations and helps to streamline when there's too much going on. Until a new more organised approach is introduced to the world and is universally accepted, email is staying, and that's why it's important to make effective use of email.

"Read on. Here's a quick and easy list of Do's and Don'ts to help you maintain effective use of email."

How to use your email in the workplace effectively

The Do's

1) Personalise

It's really important to personalize your emails, no one likes talking to a robot. You should come to realize that the person who is receiving your email is a real life human being, not a computer robot that is processing your request. Adding some personality to your email will make it easier for the person receiving it to relate better with your email's intended purpose.

2) Adapt

There's a saying that different people respond differently and these reactions are largely bound by the characteristics of the person. Here's an example, what if you sent a data focused email to someone who isn't motivated by data. This person receiving this email would not know how to adequately respond to your objective, because there's a disconnect. Learn to adapt your writing style, content body, etc. to the person receiving it. This will greatly increase your email's effectiveness.

3) Always check before clicking "send"

This should go without discussion, really. It's actually very shocking to receive an email that has not been checked. Spelling errors, and grammar mistakes are not game changers. However, if your email had been written in a manner you did not intend it to be and its been interpreted wrongly, this would demotivate the receiver from cooperating with your intentions.

4) Check your email on your own time

Like with most tasks, email shouldn't be treated any differently. Some emails are urgent and require immediate response. However, more often than not most emails can wait and I do encourage you to take the time to think carefully before responding.

5) Keep your inbox clean

It's shocking. How everyone is not making an effort to ensure that they're email inbox is sorted and kept tidy. I've witnessed the amount of wasted time anyone goes through when backtracking their email to search for urgent information. Here's how you can clean up the mess.

---

Email is still an important tool for business communication today. Take advantage of the sheer amount of email use everyday by implementing strategies to harness its wide user base. Learn more here.

Read More

2018 Happy New Year from EVERWORKS

Happy New Year from EVERWORKS!

Read More

5 Marketing Resolutions to Start Your Business's New Year Right

Its that time of year again, you're here probably because you are looking for new year resolutions for your marketing campaigns that you'd like to follow through on.

Take a second to think about what you've accomplished throughout this year and what you are going to resolve to accomplish this coming new year. Maybe you've thought of ways to better manage your time or come up with fun ideas for team outings.

1. Focus on mobile.

Mobile is huge period. This shouldn't be an option for Malaysian businesses anymore it should be a point of focus that is serious for businesses to consider.

2. Make your website responsive.

This shouldn't even be a topic of consideration, but with many Malaysian websites still old and not updated it is time that you consider updating your website and not leaving it untouched since the mid 90's

3. Adjust your social and email strategies to work with SMS

Social and the leverage of influencers are the buzz at the moment, be wise with your selection and choose one to prioritize on. The age of social is upon every business and it is going to stay. Keep up or lose out.

4. Take a look at your buyer personas.

All the resolutions in the world would not do you any good if you have not narrowed down your list of potential buyers. You can send them mix messages or messages that do not relate to them at all. Look through how you ca re-engage with your list and better engage with them.

5. Consider a homepage revamp.

Although you might have already put in a great deal of time, effort, and resources to making a top-tier homepage, a change in buyer persona or a change in trend could mean it is time for a facelift. The Internet is constantly evolving and so are your buyers. Keep up with them buy making sure that relevant content is consistently communicated to them.

Read More

Avoid Making Mistakes with a Micro-Influencer (5 Questions to Ask Before Hiring)

Asking for recommendations continue to evolve, and even in the realm of SMS this continues to innovate and grow.

Once upon a time we may have asked a neighbor to recommend a product or service, 47% of millennials now turn to social media for recommendations and reviews before deciding on a purchase.

However, these consumers aren't always going to the social media accounts of major brands. Most of the time, they are visiting the profiles of a specific group of personalities that they relate to or follow. These personalities are "Influencers".

As discussed previously here, SMS marketing is an important piece of your marketing channel that can drive you great click through rates and open rates, and Influencers can drive social legitimacy.

Also consider this: Close to 40% of Twitter users alone have made a purchase as a result of the use of influencer marketing -- combine this with your SMS marketing campaign and the result is limitless.

Many of us when we think of influencers, you might be thinking of A-list personalities and celebrities. Take Yumi Wong, for example, who helped catapult the brand LANCASTER.

There is a good chance that celebrities might significantly grow your sale and help you to achieve your marketing targets, but let's face it: not every brand can afford their price tags. It's reported that Kylie Jenner gets $400,000 for a single promotional Instagram post. That's ~RM1,600,000 per post.

Why us Micro-Influencers?

Micro influencers might seem to be counter intuitive, it might make sense to leverage on an influencer with a large reach compared to those with only a few thousand.

This isn't necessary.

A study done by Markerly, puts this evidence to the sword as it the converse relationship was found between the number of followers against the level of engagement.

"Conclusion: With a large number of followers engagement rate actually decreases."

Finding the right Micro-influencer for your business

Wit so many micro-influencers, it's no surprise that a lot of marketers highlight that finding the right one as their biggest challenge.

Here are 5 questions you'll need to answer very carefully

1. What are your goals?

The first thing as with most things to consider. What are you trying to achieve? Do you want to generate more leads then look for micro-influencers that frequently host contests or giveaways on their social media accounts.

2. Who are the micro-influencer's followers?

Look at the followers as these will be the list of people you want to reach, and look at how well they align with your brands buyer personas. Some things you can consider are:

Where are the majority of the micro-influencers's geographically located?

Are they mostly male or female?

Which type of posts resonates with them the most?

3. What kind of content does the micro-influencer produce?

Micro-influencers create their posts based on their own brand and image and you will want to compare this against the image you want them to associate with your brand. It's important to make sure that this is aligned. 

4. Are they already working with your competitors?

How did the audience respond to the post? Was there anything mentioned by the micro-influencer about your competitors' products that you can use to your advantage or avoid?

5. How many platforms to they use?

Although a bulk of influencers are on Instagram, there are many of them that are equally active on their own blogs and other social media channels. This is good for your as the more platforms a micro-influencer can use to promote your content, the better it is for you.

Use influencers to drive better legitimacy for your SMS marketing campaign. Implement your SMS marketing campaign now with EVERWORKS affordable, and professional service.

Read More

5 Unorthodox Holiday Marketing Ideas for Your Business

Every year, without warning holiday marketing campaigns are everywhere the floodgates open and countless businesses rush to cash in on the holiday spending frenzy. There are numerous holiday emails, social media posts, and TV ads -- everyone is rushing to get a piece of the pie.

It might seem like during the holidays the marketing gets out of control, but some brands actually do it very, very, very well.

They don't just chase typical promotional campaigns, but they strive to create campaigns that actually delight customers. This actually helps the brands to stand out amongst the holiday "noise". They evoke emotion and connect people with their loved ones.

Here are 5 of our favorites:

1. Coca Cola

Here's to peace on earth. Or at least in the mall. #TasteTheFeeling

A post shared by Coca-Cola Canada (@cocacola_ca) on Nov 23, 2016 at 5:05am PST

2. Hotel Tonight

Ready for the holidays? Grandma’s inflating your air mattress & checking it twice. Maybe this year you should visit, not stay. #HotelTonight pic.twitter.com/gWZUU8T8qg

— HotelTonight (@HotelTonight) November 22, 2016

3. Dollar Shave Club

The DSC Holiday Shave Set is such a perfect present, other gifts can't handle it.

A post shared by Dollar Shave Club (@dollarshaveclub) on Nov 17, 2016 at 5:25pm PST

4. Edeka

5. John Lewis

Merry Christmas from us at EVERWORKS. Hopefully this inspires you to create more creative SMS Marketing campaigns!

Learn more about how we can help you deliver your SMS Marketing campaigns here! 

Read More

7 Examples that Drive Conversion through SMS

SMS is a neglected marketing channel that should take more prominence in your marketing pie and there's evidence too with a 99% open rate and a 36% click through rate it's hard to see why not.

There are other marketing channels that are effective, but there are few that boasts the numbers that SMS delivers. There's a hidden gem that most people miss out on the notification messages that you send out when confirming orders or requests from customers.

As discussed previously, its important to establish authentic relationships with people and only when they are willing to receive notifications from your brand should you ever approach them. It's the established trust that gives you permission to build an engaging conversation with your customer. While we are all busy with building new lists it's common for us to forget about nurturing the lists that we've spent so much effort acquiring.

Delivered SMSes to willing brand participants is often overlooked and there's a big opportunity for you to take advantage of here. But how? Through short snippets that pique interest to discover value add-ons that is specially on offer to them.

7 Examples that Drive Conversion through SMS

1) Promote and upcoming event or conference

Having a simple call-to-action in your SMS can drive more registrations, increases live stream attendances, and improve post event follow ups.

We all know how much time and effort is put into setting up for an event, why not reach out to already interested people through SMS.

2) Share a new Ebook or Industry Report

The easiest way to provide consistent and meaningful value to your customers is to pass along helpful content. Any interaction that you may have with your customer is an opportunity to do this -- plus sharing thought leadership content builds trust and establishes credibility.

3) Share a Case Study

To keep customers engaged in your pipeline, share a case study, specific use case or testimonial and feature a customer the prospect can relate to or identify as a credible brand.

4) Drive more registrations to your next event

Need more attendees? Include a subtle call-to-action is an easy way to get the word out.

5) Let customers know about product offerings or discounts

Chances are you already send a lot of notification SMSs out and this is a great way to include a short snipper promoting any offerings or discounts that you may have.

6) Convert leads to Opportunities

Personalisation is important, and this can't be emphasized enough. People who sign up to your lists are likely to be thirsty for more information. Include a CTA for the "next step" and this could greatly improve your chances at converting your leads.

7) Include a video link to spice it up

We know that SMS has superb open rates and click through rates, why not capitalize on this. Typing words sometimes doesn't just cut it, the message isn't fully interpreted. It's tough to establish a real human connection. Best way to do this, try video. In our experience video produces the highest engagement rate by far.

SMS should be your next trick up your sleeve

Continue to strive for personalized and relevant content, as this would work better chances for your sales efforts. Make sure you target the right audience too and this would lead to better outcomes for your team. Create your own SMS campaign today.

Read More