Custom Bulk USB – How Google Analytics and Customer Feedback Drove Custom USB Changes

Updated Info added at 2/21/2017 at 8:27 a.m.

At the end of the article, we post additional information on what we have learned in the past three years:

• Better WordPress them for mobile readibility
• Using more images and videos due to mobile viewership
• Lessons learned to help YOU promote your business — with both flash drives and better online marketing

Original article, May 2014

Michelle and Umer, worked closely with marketing and tech consultants. They analyzed their 2013 custom flash drives sales results and concluded that they needed to quickly move to an all-device-friendly website. Additionally, an improved online marketing strategy was an imperative.

Other companies and organizations around the world are coming to the same conclusion. As OTG (on the go) B2B clients and consumers use more mobile devices such as iPhones and Android cell phones, tablet PCs, phablets (large cell phones nearly the size of tablets). They will continue to use traditional laptops and desktops to search the web and conduct business.

What we learned from Google Analytics

Michelle Graham and Harvey head up front-end operations for Custom Bulk USB  (marketing, sales, billing) and Umer Qureshi leads the back end (designed and technology). Working closely with their investors and a small cadre of marketing, tech and data analytics consultants which also included Google data experts, they made a number of key discoveries:

• Google Trends data correlated well with website visits, quotes and sales.
• Customers told us they  had strong privacy and security concerns and wanted to talk to live person.
• Recent changes to Google algorithm was impacting SEO. The company has discovered several new updates to the search algorithm and is testing new online marketing methods. We discovered ways to use quality content and back links to be more in line with how search engines are driving website traffic.
• While long-tail keywords (e.g., “2gb custom flash drives in Florida”) vs short-tail (e.g., “flash drives”) represented a lot of onsey-twosy sales, long tail keywords were better. There were a handful of 6-10 keywords searched for in different combinations by potential customers that represented the bulk of all sales.
• Mobile traffic vs desktop visitor traffic to the website was nearly doubling each year over the past two years.
• The New Age of Marketing is fully upon us:  don’t interrupt people, intercept them when they are ready to learn more and buy.  This led to better use of content marketing and keyword analysis; as well as upcoming improvements to social media and big data analytics for small business.

Custom Bulk USB Moves to a User Friendly Responsive Site

In response to client feedback and data analysis, Michelle and Umer have taken the first steps in redesigning the website and online marketing strategy.

• We moved to a WordPress content management system (CMS). As it allows you to create a responsive (a website that adjusts itself according to device screen size), user friendly website along with the plugins facility to make extensions.
• Umer found WordPress platform to be more SEO (search engine optimization) friendly.
• He developed a simpler more useful content strategy (focused on information our visitors could use)
• We incorporated more long tail keywords into content strategy.

End of May 2014 section

Update added at 8:26 on 2/21/2017:

We have made several adjustments to our marketing strategy to improve our performance on Google.

1.Ensure our content was written so that it can be viewed in 1 column to ensure better mobile readability.

This is a very critical step.  Another step that we add when publishing is seeing how the page looks on a mobile phone.  Is the picture to large that it distorts the words and other images on the page?  Also when posting a video on the page, make sure the video isn’t too large to be viewed on the mobile web browser.

2. To include more images in our content so that our readers can better retain the information from our posts.

The human brain is better at seeing images and hearing sounds.  A picture does really speak a thousands words.  A picture can also help people understand the words you have posted on your page.  If the audience doesn’t understand your content, the audience will go the website in which they can gather and retain the information from that website.  Your SEO will also be better if you hae pictures relevant to the content you’re posting.

3. Include content that will help you promote your business more cost effectively

This ties into the second point about using images.  An extension of this point is in posting videos.  Most of the internet is now comprised of short videos.  A 1-2 minute video is good enough to get your point across and not lose your audience.