Showing posts tagged with: oahu advertising agencies

May 8, 2023

How to Select The Best Hawaii Advertising Agency for Your Business

If you’ve landed on our Hawaii Marketing Tips blog by accident while searching for Team Vision Marketing, please visit our homepage, creative portfolio or client video testimonials.

How Do I Select the Best Hawaii Advertising Agency?

Updated: May 8, 2023

Team Vision Marketing is a full-service advertising and marketing agency that has been serving Hawaii clients for over 25 years. We thought it might be helpful to provide Hawaii businesses with an insider’s perspective on the key things you should look for when searching for a new Hawaii advertising agency. Here are our 9 key recommendations.

1. First, decide which specific marketing services you need.

Find an ad agency that specializes in those specific marketing services. If you only need a logo, there may be one graphic design agency that really shines in logo design and you might want to go with them. If you’re in need of a full-service advertising agency to handle all of your advertising and marketing needs, then search Google for Hawaii Full-Service Advertising Agencies and start there. Every agency has their core strengths from branding and web design to social media management, graphic design and digital marketing, and you’ll want to find the one that best meets your specific needs.

2. Get client referrals.

Direct Referrals: When you’re looking for a new agency, try to get referrals from their existing clients, and ideally from someone you know within their client’s company directly. Cold calling an agency’s client might yield similar results to a typical employee reference (most HR managers are going to give you the safe answer and not ruin the employee’s chances of getting the job). You’ll want to talk to someone in the client’s organization that you know and who will give you the straight story on how well their advertising agency performs for them.

Video Testimonials: Good agencies with a solid track record will normally offer client video testimonials on their web site. Video testimonials are much better than simple text testimonials because you don’t really know who is behind the text only testimonials, who actually wrote them, and how sincere they really are. Video testimonials take time out of the client’s day and it really puts their reputation on the line. In our experience, if clients are willing to make the effort to do a video testimonial for an advertising agency, they sincerely have a strong relationship with that agency and believe in their referral.

 3. Make sure the advertising agency handles accounts similar to yours.

Let’s face it, if you run a Hawaii luxury hotel brand, it will be really helpful if you hire an agency that has previous experience in managing the full-service marketing for a Hawaii luxury hotel. This is not to say a good agency can’t learn a new industry or business, but guess who is going to be the one to have to teach them… and pay for their learning curve? If you are looking for a new advertising and marketing agency and need them to get up to speed and running quickly, it makes the most sense to hire an agency that has handled an account similar to yours.

4. Whatever services an ad agency is selling to you, make sure they are executing them well for their own business.

We call it putting your money where your mouth is. If an agency claims to be great at web design, check out their own web site and make sure it is top-notch. If they claim to be great at social media, check out their Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and other social accounts to make sure they are active, innovative, and check on their user engagement levels. If an agency claims to be great at search engine optimization, make sure to search for some key industry phrases (i.e. Hawaii advertising agencies, Hawaii Marketing Agencies, Hawaii Branding firms, Hawaii social media agencies, etc.) on Google Search and see where they show up in the results. A good advertising and marketing agency will utilize all the key marketing tools and services they are selling to you (after all, an agency is a business and needs to market itself) and they make sure their marketing programs are high quality– since it is a representation of what they can do for you. Sometimes agencies will use the excuse that they are “too busy with client work to maintain their own marketing,” but this is another good indication that the agency may not have enough resources to handle your business needs.

5. Make sure there is a personality and cultural fit between the advertising agency and your company.

In our over 20 years of doing business in Hawaii, we can tell you that each client has a very unique personality. Without mentioning names :), some clients are extremely easy to work with, some are difficult, some are very complimentary, some are micro-managers, and then there are others that trust in your expertise and let you run with everything. These same characteristics mentioned above apply to agencies  as well. Here are our recommendations on how to address the agency culture issue.

Meet the key team members. You will want to meet your main contacts for each of the major departments: Account Service Executive, Creative Director, Media Manager, Social Media Manager, Web Manager, Production Manager. In addition to the formal pitch meeting, set up a casual get to know you lunch. Ask questions to each team member and let their personalities unfold. When agencies and clients work together intensely on major ongoing projects, flexibility, multi-tasking, the ability to handle stress and problem-solving skills will all come into play. Make sure your prospective agency team members possess most of these traits.

Ask their clients about the agency’s personality. It will be hard to gauge an advertising agency’s personality in one or two meetings, so the best thing you can do is get client referrals. Call and ask their existing client’s things like: Are they easy to work with? Are they flexible? Are they reasonable with their billing and do they charge rush charges? Do you trust them? Are they fair? Can they react quickly when it’s needed?

 6. Review an agency’s portfolio of work.

An established full-service advertising agency will have an extensive portfolio of advertising, graphic design, web design, social media, digital marketing and search engine optimization portfolio examples. They will also have examples of each of these core services for different clients in different industries which will give you a good feel for their quality and consistency across a range of clients. Most agencies will offer these portfolios on their web site, but others may require you to go into their office to view them. This alone could be another sign of whether or not the ad agency is a good fit for you. If your company is a technology forward company, you might not be a good fit for an agency who doesn’t practice that same type of thinking in the day to day operation of their business.

7. Make sure your ad agency understands the Hawaii market.

A growing trend we’ve seen over the past ten to fifteen years is Hawaii clients using mainland-based advertising, web design and social media firms. In some cases, this works out just fine. In other cases, we have received many client complaints about the “lack of understanding of our culture, our market, our language nuances (i.e. use of okina and kahako).” If your business is a Hawaii business that caters to locals and visitors, we recommend you hire a local Hawaii advertising agency. The reason, you likely want your business to be branded as local and authentic, and not the typical “palm trees and hula skirts” representation often developed by non-local agencies. In addition to just understanding the overall Hawaii market, an experienced advertising agency that has worked with clients on the different islands of Oahu, Maui, The Big Island of Hawaii, Kauai and Lanai, will understand that there are also different cultural nuances for each island. This becomes very important when executing campaigns in local island markets.

8. Don’t hire an agency solely based on their past, look toward their future.

Yes, ideally you want to choose an advertising agency that has longevity and a proven track record in the Hawaii market, but you don’t want to choose an agency that has outlived its success and one that is resting on its laurels. Find out how well the agency understands and utilizes technology. Have they consistently demonstrated a leadership position in the marketplace for adapting to, and implementing, the latest technologies in web design, social media, digital displays, etc.? Technology is advancing more rapidly than ever before, so you want to hire an agency that has proven it has the ability to guide you through future changes.

9. Don’t choose by price alone.

Look, we’ve seen it all and can only offer you advice based on our experiences. Don’t always go after the lowest bid. Many times, less reputable agencies will lowball the initial bid to get the business and then try to increase fees later on. Other agencies may truly offer a low price, but are you getting the same level of service you would have received from the agency charging a little more? Going for the low-cost agency could result in downgrading the quality of talent on your business (the B Team) and provide you with a lower quality product. Instead, pay the agency fairly and increase savings by improving operational efficiencies. You are hiring an agency for the quality of its creative products and services, so don’t undermine that by tightening the reigns too tight on compensation.

We hope you found these tips helpful on “how to select the best Hawaii advertising agency for your company.” If you are in the process of looking for a new Hawaii advertising agency, we kindly ask that you consider Team Vision Marketing as an option. We’re more than happy to be tested on the nine initial criteria we provided above. And in the meantime, you can check out our client video testimonials and our extensive web site portfolio.

Hear from Harry A. Saunders, President of Castle & Cooke Hawaii, on his 20 years of experience working with Team Vision.

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May 1, 2023

How AI Will Transform Marketing

2023 is here, which means that as a Hawaii business owner, you’re seeking to learn about the planned marketing trends for the new year and beyond.

In this blog post, we will dive into a high-level overview of how Artificial Intelligence will transform the way in which we execute marketing programs from now forward.

If you’ve landed on our Hawaii Marketing Tips blog by accident while searching for Team Vision Marketing, please visit our homepage, creative portfolio, or client video testimonials.

How AI Will Transform Marketing

At Team Vision Marketing, we believe that artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the way businesses market their products and services, and it’s only going to become more integral in the years ahead. From personalizing advertisements to optimizing ad spend, AI is revolutionizing the world of marketing and smart marketing agencies will begin learning about, and incorporating, AI strategies into their marketing programs.

So, what does the future of AI in marketing look like? Here are a few predictions:

  1. Personalization will become even more sophisticated: AI can analyze customer data to create personalized experiences for each individual user. This includes personalized ads, emails, and even product recommendations.
  2. Chatbots will become more prevalent: Chatbots powered by AI can handle customer inquiries and provide personalized responses in real time, freeing up time for human customer service representatives to handle more complex issues.
  3. AI-powered content creation will become more common: AI can analyze data to create personalized content that resonates with specific audiences. This includes blog posts, social media posts, and even video content.
  4. AI will be able to optimize ad spend: AI can analyze data to determine which marketing channels are most effective, allowing businesses to allocate their ad budgets more efficiently.

At Team Vision Marketing, we are excited to leverage the power of AI in our marketing efforts. Here are a few examples of how we are planning to incorporate AI into our Hawaii advertising client’s marketing programs.

  1. Personalize advertisements: We will use AI to analyze customer data and create personalized ads that are more likely to resonate with specific individuals.
  2. Optimize ad spend: AI helps us determine which marketing channels are most effective, allowing us to allocate our ad budgets more efficiently.
  3. Use chatbots to improve customer service: Chatbots, powered by AI, can handle customer inquiries and provide personalized responses in real-time, freeing up time for our human customer service representatives to handle more complex issues. We are already using AI-powered chatbots through third-party click-to-chat applications and we plan on exploring a deeper integration of this technology in the coming year.
  4. Create personalized content: We use AI to analyze data and create personalized content that resonates with a specific audience- such as this blog post, for example.

In conclusion, the future of AI in marketing is bright, and we at Team Vision Marketing are excited to be at the forefront of this exciting new technology. We are confident that our use of AI will allow us to improve our marketing efforts and provide better experiences for our Hawaii advertising and marketing clients. To learn more about our full-service Hawaii advertising and marketing agency, please visit www.www.teamvision.com. View our extensive creative portfolio at www.www.teamvision.com/porfolio.  View our client video testimonials at www.www.teamvision.com/clients

Here at Team Vision Marketing, we stay on top of the latest news and trends in advertising, marketing and social media to ensure that our services will help our clients achieve their annual business goals.  For more information on our marketing services, please check out our portfolio.

If you’re looking to step up your digital marketing and advertising efforts, reach out to Team Vision, Hawaii’s leading digital marketing and advertising firm serving clients on Oahu, Maui, Kauai, The Big Island of Hawaii, and Lanai.  We’re more than happy to help!

 

Contact Us:

Phone: (808) 536-0416

Email: info@www.teamvision.com

Web: www.www.teamvision.com

Hear from Bruce Barrett, VP of Sales & Marketing at Castle & Cooke Hawaii, on his experience working with Team Vision Marketing.

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Call Us Today at (808) 536-0416.

March 20, 2023

Everything You Need to Know About Instagram’s “Hidden Likes” Test

Everything You Need to Know About Instagram’s “Hidden Likes” Test

If you’ve landed on our Hawaii Marketing Tips blog by accident while searching for Team Vision Marketing, please visit our homepage, creative portfolio or client video testimonials to learn more. Otherwise, please continue reading.

We all saw this coming, but in case you missed it, Instagram just launched its game-changing “Likes-Free” test update to the whole world.

Tests for the “hidden” Likes started last April in Canada and then rolled out to Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Ireland, Italy, and Brazil, resulting in mixed feelings. Recently, Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, announced at the WIRED25 Summit 2019 that the test was expanding to the U.S., and now it’s in effect for a small group of users in every country. So far, there is no news about how long the tests will last or if the update will be permanent.

WHY IS INSTAGRAM TAKING AWAY OUR LIKES?

Instagram wants to promote a healthier environment for all of its users. According to Mosseri, the purpose of a “Likes-Free” Instagram is to depressurize the platform and make it less competitive. Moving away from likes will help users “focus more on connecting with people that they love, and things that inspire them…”

Many studies and reputable news sources have shared that interacting with social media platforms can incur negative psychological problems, especially with young audiences.

– NBC News reports that a recent study, published by the American Psychology Association, found that individuals reporting symptoms consistent with major depression increased by 52% in teens and 63% in young adults age 18 to 25 from 2009 to 2017.

– U.S. News states that “Young people who spend more than 3 hours a day on social media are susceptible to depression, anxiety, and other illnesses and are more likely to internalize bad feelings about themselves,” according to a study by Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.

– CNN shared a study published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health journal which found that content posted on social media can hinder the healthy sleep and exercise of young people.

ARE MY LIKES DISAPPEARING FOREVER?

We put quotation marks around “Likes-Free” and “hidden” for a reason. No, Likes will not totally disappear from your posts. Instead, Instagram is removing the public’s view of the Like count and replacing it with a preview of mutual followers who liked the post. Although, Instagram users can still see their Likes and other posts’ Likes by clicking on “others.”

Preview of Hidden Likes on Instagram

HOW WILL THIS AFFECT MY BRAND? WILL THIS KILL INFLUENCER MARKETING?

Naturally, brands and influencers are feeling nervous about the negative effects of this update as it rolls out. Some brands predict that their engagements will decline and some influencers are boycotting Instagram for “hiding” Likes because it will affect their brand deals.

But here at Team Vision Marketing, we see that “hiding” Likes will bring good change to how brands and influencers market themselves on the platform. Plus, Instagram has assured the public that the “disappearing Likes” shouldn’t affect your brand’s current engagement rates.

We predict that this “no Likes” update will produce non-vanity based – and therefore more valuable – engagement metrics, including comments, impressions, reach, and rise in merit. Ryan Detert, CEO and co-founder of Influential, shared with Emarketer.com that his company’s analytics sees no correlation between Likes (a vanity based metric) and sales. Instead, brands should focus on attention metrics, like views and reach, which analyze how users engage with content.

Our digital marketing firm also foresees that the update will not only see better, more authentic influencer marketing strategies, but also nurture stronger relationships between brands and influencers. Vice President of Marketing for Stoli Vodka, Dave McNulty, says on Emarketer.com that “hiding likes shouldn’t negatively impact how brands work with influencers… [because] successful content is a result of brands building real relationships with credible influencers and giving them the creative license to be authentic with their audience.”

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING TIPS FOR A “LIKE-FREE” INSTAGRAM

This new update is all about building a healthier community on social media, so naturally, social media strategies will need to be more focused on engaging with the audience or cultivating your brand’s community. Here are some social media marketing tips centered on community building for your brand to try out:

– Share something valuable for your audience to engage with, like comedic posts (see our #DreadedAgencyRequests posts) or tips and market statistics.

– Get personal with your fans. Try posting more community-based content, like office life or team bonding activities. Inviting your audience to experience your company culture will evoke sentimental feelings with your brand and foster brand loyalty.

– If you do rely on influencer marketing, develop authentic – not gimmicky – social media marketing campaigns. Also, make sure you are building a relationship with an influencer that fits your brand and can help you engage with your target audience.

– Sponsor a reaction/review video.
– Fit your brand or product within the influencer’s passions or brand, like Fiji Water’s BodyWoreWhat.
– Partner with an influencer who is advocating for a cause that your product or brand can relate to.

– Make your content thought-provoking or irresistible for your audience to share their opinions on. This type of content can include the following:

– Posting a Story with a poll, question, or a multiple-choice sticker.
– Posting a “Question of the Day” post.
– Hosting an “Ask Me Anything” session.
– Hosting a “Reaction to your assumptions” session.
– Hosting a Live Stream.
– Asking your followers to share their opinions or favorite things about your brand or products in the caption.

– Keep the discussion in the comments going. Instead of just saying “Mahalo for your comment!”, reply with a question or a conversation-starter. After all, a strong social media community is all about continuous interactions with your audience.

– Engage with your audience and the people you follow. Stay active in liking, commenting, and interacting with other posts, especially with the ones your brand is tagged in.

– You can take this tip a step further by interacting with posts on the Explore tab! Browsing through the Explore tab is a great way to find new audiences to build relationships with.

– Spotlight your top followers. Repost and share your top followers to your feed. Use this to express your appreciation for their love of your brand and products. It’ll make your spotlight followers feel good and encourage the rest of your audience to want to start sharing their love for your company.

If you need help with your Hawaii advertising, marketing or social media management for 2020, send us an inquiry via our web site. You can also check out our extensive portfolio to see our most recent creative works in our portfolio – from social media campaigns to logo designs. Team Vision Marketing is one of Hawaii’s leading full-service advertising agencies and digital marketing firms, helping local brands on Oahu, Maui, The Big Island of Hawaii, Lanai, and Kauai.

 

Contact Us:

Phone: (808) 536-0416

Email: info@www.teamvision.com

Web: www.www.teamvision.com

Hear from Bruce Barrett, former VP of Sales & Marketing at Castle & Cooke Hawaii, on his experience working with Team Vision Marketing.

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Contact Us for Help with All Your Marketing Needs

Call Us Today at (808) 536-0416.

June 14, 2020

Social Media Marketing Trends

2020 is here, which means that as a Hawaii business owner, you need to learn about the planned social media marketing trends for this new year.

In this blog post, we will dive into six predictions and  social media marketing tips for 2020 that your brand should consider trying out in the new year.

If you’ve landed on our Hawaii Marketing Tips blog by accident while searching for Team Vision Marketing, please visit our homepage, creative portfolio or client video testimonials.

1. likes are out and posting authentic content is in

If you haven’t heard already, Likes are “disappearing” from Facebook and Instagram posts, a solution that Facebook hopes will decrease bullying and the pressure of getting the most likes. Of course, Likes won’t totally disappear, instead, organic and sponsored social media posts will show Likes from people who you follow, which Facebook is calling “Likes with content.”The date when this major update will roll out in the US is undetermined, but seven countries have recently undergone testing.

social media, instagram, 2020 instagram trends, social media trends, instagram likes, hawaii, hawaii social media marketing

Not only will this update help decrease the negative psychological consequences of being on social media (and Facebook’s bad PR), but it will also change the way social media influencers and brands post and evaluate their engagements. Team Vision Marketing sees that the update will inspire users to post more authentic and relaxed content.

2020 Social Media Recommendation: We recommend posting content that your audience can connect with and  that will evoke deeper interactions, like customer testimonies. Get inspired with our blog post on the different types of social media content that can help boost your engagements. This is how your brand will generate stronger leads and cultivate a community on social media.

2. Video Marketing will be shorter and more entertaining

As we head towards video oversaturation on social media feeds, brands have to become savvier with what kind of video content to produce in order to engage their audiences. For 2020, we predict that more brands will engage in posting quick, entertaining clips to promote their products and services. This might come in the form of a Story video ad, a quick step-by-step tutorial, short live streams, short “shows” and “skits”, and more.

We feel that social media video marketing is heading in this direction because we know that younger markets, like Gen Z, prefer using short audio and video snippets to communicate on the web and mobile. In fact, WhatsApp reported that 100 million of their users use the in-app video chat. Not to mention, TikTok, a 15 to 60 second short video based social media platform, is a mega hit with younger age groups with 500 million monthly active users globally.

2020 Social Media Recommendation: We recommend that your brand run tests on what type of video content will perform best on your feeds and Stories. Maybe post a word-of -the-day video, where you share helpful industry terms, team introduction videos, or clips from a recent company event. Read more about the growth of video marketing and vertical video tips on our recent marketing tips blog posts.

3. ADA Compliance will become a must on social media

ADA compliance standards are making progressive legal steps on the web. According to the LA Times, the Supreme Court will allow visually impaired consumers to sue retailers if their websites are not accessible.  Although ADA compliance regulations are not strongly managed by the government, companies are now ensuring that their web sites are optimized to provide “full and equal enjoyment of the goods and services… of any place of public accommodations” to visually impaired customers.

Although this important mandate is currently being enforced with online retailers, it will eventually be enforced on social media platforms, as well. We already see evidence of social media platforms taking the ADA compliance trend seriously on Facebook and Instagram, where users are now able to add Alt text to their visual content.

Not sure what an Alt text is? An alternative text or Alt text is an HTML attribute in the form of a word or phrase that describes the visual content it’s assigned to. Screen readers will read this text, making the content accessible for the visually impaired. For the non-visually impaired, the alt text will become visible if the content cannot be rendered.

2020 Social Media Recommendation: Start adding Alt Text to all of your visual content, keep your eyes out for developing ADA features for social media, and stay informed on the ADA compliance standards.

4. 2020 will be the year of e-social media commerce.

With Instagram’s newly launched shopping product tags, shopping posts, and the addition of the “buy now” button on sponsored ads, we predict that e-social media commerce will become more mainstream in 2020. Despite being in its infancy, the adaptation of direct transactions through the app feature has already proven to be promising. According to Instagram, the product tag attracted 130 million people to tap on it every month, which is an increase of 90 million over last year.

2020 Social Media Recommendation: Combine engaging content with the Instagram product tags. For example, instead of posting just a photo of a product, post a shot from a recent photoshoot, an aesthetic flat lay, or repost a photo of a customer using your product.

5. Product searches will become more visual on social media

Pinterest’s CEO Ben Silbermann claimed that “the future of search will be about pictures rather than keywords.” We also see the awareness and use of visual search becoming more mainstream on social media in 2020 as the e-social media commerce trend kicks off. This will make conversions through social media even more convenient and favorable.

If you find yourself asking what a visual search is, Team Vision Marketing is here to break it down for you. Instead of typing “drone camera and accessories” into the search bar, you can snap a photo of the desired product or highlight a part of an image to conduct a search. You will then be directed to an image based search results page showing similar products.

2020 Social Media Recommendation: With this developing social media feature, we recommend that, if possible, you make the image file name, Alt text, and image title as descriptive as possible and include popular image search keywords. You will also want to look into running ads on Pinterest, where there are reportedly 600 million Pinterest Lens searches every month.

6. Niche social media advertising is on the rise

In 2020, we predict that brands will invest in more of their advertising budget into niche social media advertising networks, like Pinterest, Snapchat, Amazon, and Twitter. These smaller advertising platforms have already seen big movements in their advertising revenue.

  • Pinterest reported a 62% year over year revenue growth in its second quarter earnings release.
  • SnapChat reported a 48% increase in total revenue from the prior year, coming in at $388 million.
  • Amazon reported a 37% year over year growth in its “other” (AKA advertising) revenue category, which earned $3 billion in revenue in Q2 of 2019.
  • Twitter reported a 21% year over year growth, with earnings of $727 million for Q2.

This means that advertising network titans, Facebook and Google, will face a decline in growth in 2020.

  • Facebook’s ad revenue grew 28% compared to the previous year’s quarter.
  • Google grew 16% in the second quarter of 2019.

However, Google and Facebook’s market share still dwarf their growing competition with Facebook coming in at $16.62 billion and Google at $32.6 billion in the second quarter of 2019.

2020 Social Media Recommendation: Look into advertising on Pinterest, Twitter, Amazon, and SnapChat. Advertising on multiple platforms is a great way to extend your brand awareness to different audiences. Learn more about advertising on Amazon here.

Here at Team Vision Marketing, we stay on top of the latest news and trends in advertising, marketing and social media to ensure that our services will help our clients achieve their annual business goals.  For more information on our social media services, please check out our portfolio for our recent social media marketing projects.

If you’re looking to step up your digital marketing and advertising efforts, reach out to Team Vision, Hawaii’s leading digital marketing and advertising firm serving clients on Oahu, Maui, Kauai, The Big Island of Hawaii and Lanai.  We’re more than happy to help!

 

Contact Us:

Phone: (808) 536-0416

Email: info@www.teamvision.com

Web: www.www.teamvision.com

Hear from Bruce Barrett, VP of Sales & Marketing at Castle & Cooke Hawaii, on his experience working with Team Vision Marketing.

Recent Blog Posts
Contact Us for Help with All Your Marketing Needs

Call Us Today at (808) 536-0416.

November 9, 2019

Your Guide to Google Rich Search Features

If you’ve landed on our Hawaii Marketing Tips blog by accident while searching for Team Vision Marketing or Hawaii Advertising Agencies, please visit our homepage, creative portfolio or client video testimonials for more information. If you’re here to learn more about SEO strategies, please continue reading.

Is your business looking for more effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies to improve your online presence and search engine results? A critical SEO strategy that many small businesses overlook  is Google Rich Search Features or Rich Snippets. Using these enhanced search features can help boost your SEO ranking and drive web site traffic.

What are Rich Search Features?

Rich search goes beyond the typical page title, page URL, and meta description optimizations. It  displays information extracted from your web pages that can help make your web site look more attractive on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) based on specific schema markups, which are snippets of code that help Google’s algorithm read your site’s content. Rich search results can include reviews, images, contact information, carousels or other elements. You may have already noticed other sites using these rich search features, as seen in the comparison below.

Basic Vs. Rich Search Feature

Hawaii SEO - Basic Google Result Feature - Hawaii SEO
Basic Google Result Feature
Hawaii SEO - Google Rich Result Feature
Google Rich Result Feature

In this article, we provide an overview of our most recommended rich search features that your brand should consider adding to your website. That being said, implementing rich search features on your web pages requires some technical knowledge. Contact us if you would like more information or assistance with your Hawaii SEO needs.

Why Use Rich Search Features?

Rich search features are used to enhance the SERP, making information about local businesses and content more discoverable and easier to access. Companies who take advantage of rich search features are not only able to gain access to prime SERP real estate at the very top of the search results page,  they can also have their content displayed in an enhanced designed container to draw attention.

This can help boost your SEO ranking, increase organic click through rates (CTR), and potentially boost conversions.

How to Implement Rich Search Features

Each search feature has its own code to help Google crawl through the information and translate it into its designated feature design. This gives you the ability to control what information will be displayed in the enhanced search feature. Read the introduction to structured data on Google Search Developers to learn the standard guidelines required by Google Search and the specific guidelines for your content type and any enhancements.

It’s important to note that there is no guarantee that your page will appear on the SERP with its assigned specified feature. This is because search features depend on many factors, including the search device type, location, and whether the Google algorithm thinks the feature would provide the best search experience for the user.

Recommended Rich Search Features to Use:

Reviews

Your brand should consider adding the review rich search feature markup because reviews are so influential for conversions. According to a 2016 PEW Research Center study, 82% of Americans read online reviews and 51% trust their accuracy.

Once the structured data is added to your site, it will show up as an aggregated or singled out star rating on the SERP, as seen below. Depending on what code you use, your brand can also feature how many reviews were made, display the percentage of people who gave you high star ratings, and more.

You can also create a review snippet in the Google Knowledge Panel, an information box that appears on Google when you search for entities.

Hawaii SEO - Google Review Rich Result Feature
Review Rich Result Feature
Hawaii SEO - Google Review Rich Result Feature
Review Rich Result Feature on a Google Knowledge Panel

Business Listing

We highly recommend that local Hawaii businesses add schema about your business information, including contact information, business hours, reviews, price scale, address, and so on, to show up prominently on the SERP. Google uses this information to populate a large Knowledge Graph that may appear in Google Search Results or on Google Maps. In addition to adding your business information, you can also add a Call-to-Action button like “Book an Appointment.”

Tip:

  • To yield the best results, complete your Google My Business profile to strengthen your local business presence.
  • Make sure the information in your local business schema matches up with your Google My Business profile.
Hawaii SEO - Google Local Business Rich Result Feature

Product

If you manage an e-commerce website, we highly recommend your company take advantage of the Product schema markup. Google will use this information to display detailed product information in rich search results and Google Images, including the product’s price, availability, and review ratings directly on the SERP.

Using this rich results feature can help your brand attract potential customers. We recommend that you regularly update and maintain your product information to attract more potential customers.

Tips:

  • Use markup to highlight a specific product, like a bestseller.
  • Do not use the product schema markup on a category or list of products.
Hawaii SEO - Google Product Rich Result Feature

Top Stories

This feature is ideal to use if your site has a blog page. This feature can show up as a rich result or rich result list, such as headline text and larger-than-thumbnail images, depending on the code you use (see example below).

Tip: When structured data is combined with Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), your rich results can provide search audiences with a better experience on mobile by having the content exhibited in a Top Stories carousel, host carousel, and in visual stories. Our team highly recommends adding AMP codes in addition to rich search markups to your web pages because 141.9 billion searches are were made on mobile so far in 2019, according to Statistica.

Hawaii SEO - Google Top Stories Rich Result Feature

Events

Have an upcoming event? Instead of relying on a Facebook Event or an EventBrite post to spread the word, use the event markup so that users can easily discover  your events through Google Search Results and Google Maps. With these code snippets, your brand can share the address, date, time, Call-to-Action button, and more.

Additional Tips:

  • Do markup for multiple day events correctly by specifying the start and end dates for the event.
  • If there are several different performances or keynote speakers on different days, each with individual tickets, add a separate event element for each performance or lecture.
  • Don’t promote non-event products or services as events. For example, “A Hotel Package for 5 nights or more” is a non-event product.
  • Don’t promote short-term discounts or purchase incentives, such as: “Cheap trip to Hawaii — buy your tickets now.”
  • Do not promote business hours as events.
Hawaii SEO - Event Rich Result Feature combined with AMP
The Event Rich Result Feature combined with AMP

Social Profile

Use this schema to add your brand’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media profiles to the Google Knowledge Panel. By signaling Google to add your social media profile to the SERP, your channels are getting much desired exposure. As we mentioned in our 2019 SEO Tips blog post, optimizing your social media efforts will drive a lot more traffic to your web site which can positively affect your SEO rankings. Utilizing the Rich Search Features can result in your website gaining more traffic, brand awareness, and social media followers.

Video

Add structured data to your video content to make it easily discoverable on Google’s Search Page. The Rich Search Result can include a description, thumbnail URL, upload date, and duration of your video. You can also add additional structured data to enhance your video preview with a video carousel, which displays multiple videos that you’ve produced.

Tip:

  • There is a structured data option available for live stream videos. Once added, your live stream video feed could show a “Live” badge right on the video card during the time it’s live on the search results page.
Hawaii SEO - Google Video Rich Result Feature

How-To

This markup is great to use if your brand has tutorial blogs or if you have posted a tutorial for your product or services. Use the How-To structured data to alert Google that your content is a How-To post. Depending on how you mark it up, the instructions will show up in either an accordion or carousel format. If properly labeled, your marked up How-To content may be eligible to be featured on the How-to Action for the Google Assistant or voice search, which can help your site reach the right users.

It’s important to note that optimizing for voice search is a trending SEO strategy that Google users find convenient for searches on trivia questions, recipes, how-tos and more. Not convinced? Here are a couple of voice search statistics:

  • 50% of all searches will be voice searches by 2020, according to comScore.
  • 6 million Americans used a voice-activated assistant device at least once a month in 2017, reported by eMarketer.

To learn more, check out our recent post on Google voice searches.

Hawaii SEO - Google How-To Rich Result Feature

Logo

Use the Logo markup to provide Google with the correct company logo to use in the rich search results for your company. This markup is also a strong signal for Google’s algorithms to show the logo image in Knowledge Graph displays, as shown in the example below.

Hawaii SEO - Google Logo rich result feature

Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) Snippet

Brands can use this type of markup to display their FAQ page in the FAQ Rich Search snippet, which is different than the Q&A snippet. If properly labeled, the FAQ pages may be available as a rich search result on Google Assistant, which means that your content is available for voice searches.

Additional Tips:

  • Don’t use the FAQ mark up for advertising purposes.
  • Make sure each question code includes the entire text of the question and the answer code includes the entire text of the answer.
Hawaii SEO - Google FAQ Rich Result Feature

By deploying rich search features, your business can make its website content more discoverable and easier to access on the search results page, making it possible to earn a higher SEO rank and increase organic click-through-rates and conversions. These are just a few of the many ways your brand can beef up your SEO. To learn more, reach out to Team Vision Marketing. We’ve been a leading full-service Hawaii advertising agency, Web design company,  and digital marketing firm for over 20 years. Take a minute to view some our client video testimonials and hear directly from our key clients on how we’ve helped grow their businesses, or check out our most successful digital marketing and advertising projects in our portfolio.

 

Contact Us:

Phone: (808) 536-0416

Email: info@www.teamvision.com

Web: www.www.teamvision.com

Hear from Harry Saunders, President of Castle & Cooke Homes Hawaii, on his experience working with Team Vision Marketing.

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