Latest news with #SEO
Associated Press
8 hours ago
- Business
- Associated Press
216 Marketing Expands National Reach While Strengthening Its Local Roots as a Top Digital Marketing Agency
CLEVELAND, OH / ACCESS Newswire / July 16, 2025 / 216 Marketing, widely recognized as a top digital marketing agency for local businesses, has launched a newly redesigned website at The updated site highlights the agency's expanded service offerings, AI-driven tools, and national availability-all while continuing to champion its proven local-first strategy for lead generation. Founded in 2016, 216 Marketing has built a reputation as one of the best digital marketing agencies for small to mid-sized, single-location businesses. The agency specializes in driving consistent inbound leads through tailored SEO strategies, high-converting websites, and transparent campaign performance. Its work has earned high praise on G2, where the agency holds a 4.9-star rating and continues to receive glowing reviews from satisfied clients. 'Hands down the best digital marketing agency we've worked with. Our visibility skyrocketed-and the leads followed.' - Verified G2 Review, June 2025 New Website, Expanded Services, Same Local-First Focus 216 Marketing's redesigned site provides a modern experience for business owners seeking clear, proven marketing support. Key offerings include: The agency's signature Suburb Surge SEO™ framework has become a go-to for single-location service providers looking to rank across multiple nearby cities-without opening extra offices. It's already showing measurable results across numerous industries like legal, home services, healthcare, real estate, and more. Why 216 Marketing is Considered a Best Digital Marketing Agency With nearly a decade of experience and a consistent 5-star reputation, 216 Marketing is trusted by businesses looking for real, local impact. Clients cite the agency's ability to simplify digital strategy, deliver transparent results, and act as a true partner. Visitors to the new website can easily schedule consultations, request a free SEO audit, or explore service packages tailored to their local growth goals. About 216 Marketing 216 Marketing is a full-service digital marketing agency based in Cleveland, Ohio. Since 2016, the agency has supported small to mid-sized businesses across the U.S. with SEO, paid media, website development, and strategy. Frequently named among the top digital marketing agencies for local business growth, 216 Marketing helps clients build visibility, generate quality leads, and scale sustainably. Contact Info: Brett McIntyre 216 Marketing 22441 Fairlawn Cir #5 Fairview Park, OH 44126 [email protected] (216) 505-1118 SOURCE: 216 Marketing press release
Globe and Mail
a day ago
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Marketing Signals Unveils AI Search Optimization Service to Elevate Digital Discoverability
Online performance marketing agency Marketing Signals announces the launch of its AI Search Optimisation service, a brand new offering that's designed to help brands dominate the evolving AI-powered search landscape. As traditional SEO and paid channels adapt to the emergence of AI Overviews and large language models (LLMs), businesses must rethink their digital presence. Marketing Signals' new service integrates organic search, paid search, and the latest in AI-driven discovery to deliver a unified, future-proof strategy. An overview of the Marketing Signals AI Search Optimisation service includes: • Competitive edge in AI search: The service empowers brands to position themselves prominently within AI-generated search results by leveraging the capabilities of LLMs. • Unified search presence: Ensures consistent visibility across AI search, organic rankings, and PPC campaigns, creating a seamless brand experience. • Future-proofed SEO strategy: Adapts dynamically to changes in search algorithms and user behaviour, safeguarding visibility as AI search evolves. • Scalable, AI-led strategies: Enables low-risk testing of emerging search technologies while maintaining proven organic and paid campaign infrastructures. • Enhanced visibility & brand awareness: Targets users where they naturally discover information, whether through AI snapshots or traditional search formats. Commenting on the latest offering Gareth Hoyle, Managing Director at Marketing Signals, commented: 'AI search is not just the next phase in how users discover information; it's fundamentally changing the search landscape. Our AI Search Optimisation service equips brands to lead with visibility, adaptability and scale. By blending AI-driven tactics with trusted SEO and PPC performance, we ensure our clients are not only keeping pace, but truly ahead.' Marketing Signals encourages ambitious brands ready to explore the AI search frontier to connect and discuss how the new service can be tailored to their goals. For more information on how Marketing Signals can help your business with its AI search optimisation, you can get in touch with the team on their website. Media Contact Company Name: Marketing Signals Contact Person: Max Hammond Email: Send Email City: Manchester Country: United Kingdom Website:
Forbes
a day ago
- Business
- Forbes
Selling Financial Services Online? Forget SEO, Introducing GEO
Marketing teams are discovering their old SEO strategies are no longer effective in the new age of ... More Generative Engine Optimization. The digital playbook that has governed Wall Street's marketing efforts for the last 20 years, an $80 billion industry known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO), is now obsolete. The relentless pursuit of the top spot on a Google search results page is being superseded by a more profound and disruptive force: Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). For anyone working in financial services today, understanding this shift isn't just about staying current; it's about staying relevant. As customers, from retail investors to institutional clients, increasingly turn to AI assistants for instant, synthesized answers, the battleground for visibility has moved. As noted by the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and others, the goal is no longer to achieve a high ranking but to gain "model relevance." This means being the trusted source cited within an AI's direct answer. This change will ripple through every department of a financial services firm, demanding a radical rethinking of how products are sold, expertise is communicated and trust is built. Consider the broad implications across the industry: Asset Management A marketing team's success will no longer be measured by clicks to a mutual fund's landing page. Instead, the critical question becomes: When a user asks an AI, 'What are the best-performing sustainable investment funds?' does the AI cite your firm's ESG report and mention your specific ETF by name? This requires a strategy focused on getting fund commentary, performance data and manager insights into the financial news and data ecosystems that train these AI models. Retail Banking For product managers, the focus must shift from keyword-based web copy to comprehensive, conversational content. Research shows that user queries in large language models are significantly longer and more detailed than in traditional search. When a potential customer asks a chatbot, 'What are the best mortgage options for a first-time homebuyer with a low down payment?' the bank whose detailed guides, transparent fee structures and customer testimonials are ingested by the AI will win the recommendation. Wealth Management Research and analysis teams now have a new channel to assert their influence. Their market outlooks and white papers must be optimized not for search engines, but for summarization. The goal is for an AI to quote your firm's chief economist when asked about inflation forecasts or to reference your analyst's sector report when summarizing a market trend. Investment Banking Even in this relationship-driven field, digital reputation matters. An M&A team's public-facing deal tombstones and industry analysis can feed AI models. When a CEO or journalist asks an AI, 'Which firm has the most expertise in fintech M&A?' the answer will be shaped by the digital trail of expertise your team leaves across reputable platforms. To thrive in the post-SEO world, firms must pivot from chasing algorithms to building verifiable authority. This is no longer just a task for the marketing department. It requires a coordinated effort between product specialists, compliance teams, analysts and communication leaders to create a deep, interconnected web of trustworthy information. The firms that successfully make this transition will not just attract the next generation of clients; they will become the foundational knowledge sources for the new age of digital finance. Fore more like this on Forbes, What Is Agentic AI And What Will It Mean For Financial Services? and The Data Centers Powering AI Boom In Financial Services.
Time Business News
a day ago
- Business
- Time Business News
Best Marketing For Small Business In 2026
Marketing your small business in today's hyper-connected world isn't just about flashy ads or viral videos—it's about strategy, consistency, and connecting with your audience authentically. With limited budgets and time, small businesses must choose the most effective methods to grow visibility and revenue. So, what is the best marketing for small businesses in 2025? Let's break it down in this practical, action-driven guide. Small business marketing thrives on personalization, local connections, and building trust. Unlike large corporations with deep pockets, small businesses often operate within tight geographic or niche boundaries. This means every marketing dollar must count—and messages must resonate with a highly targeted audience. From rising ad costs to algorithm changes on social media, small businesses face stiff competition. There's also the constant juggling act of managing operations while trying to keep up with ever-evolving digital trends. That's why clarity, simplicity, and strategy are more important than ever. To define 'best,' we look at return on investment (ROI), customer engagement, lead generation, and brand awareness. What works best will depend on your specific goals—are you trying to drive foot traffic, increase online sales, or build a loyal customer base? There's no one-size-fits-all. For example, a local bakery may benefit more from Instagram and community events, while a freelance web designer might need SEO and Google Ads. Understanding your audience's behavior is critical. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok remain powerful tools for engagement. Use them to share behind-the-scenes content, customer stories, and promotions. For local businesses, geotagging and community hashtags can significantly boost visibility. Email is one of the most cost-effective tools with a high ROI. Personalized emails that offer discounts, updates, and helpful content keep customers coming back. Organic search traffic is gold. Start by optimizing your website with local keywords and building a blog that answers common questions your customers ask. Content marketing builds trust and long-term brand equity. Attending or sponsoring local events builds relationships and community goodwill. Word-of-mouth and trust-based marketing still thrive in smaller circles. A well-placed flyer or a clever guerrilla marketing stunt can still grab attention—especially in places like coffee shops, gyms, or libraries. Google Ads work well when your customers are actively searching for your service, while Facebook is great for brand awareness and targeting interests or demographics. The best strategy often combines both, depending on your goals. Don't forget retargeting—reminding visitors about your business after they leave your site. Geo-targeting also helps ads reach local audiences only. Make sure your Google Business Profile is up to date, with photos, service details, and accurate hours. Posts and updates also help your visibility. Encourage satisfied customers to leave reviews. High ratings improve local rankings and attract new customers searching nearby. Influencers with smaller, loyal followings are more affordable and often have better engagement. Collaborate on product shoutouts or giveaways. Word-of-mouth remains powerful. Offer customers a discount or freebie for every new client they refer. Basic graphic design, content writing, and social media scheduling are valuable DIY skills. Free tools like Canva and Buffer can help. If you're scaling and need a professional polish—or more consistent ROI—it might be time to bring in experts for SEO, ads, or branding. Track metrics like conversion rate, cost-per-click, bounce rate, and customer lifetime value. These indicators reveal which strategies deserve more investment. Use Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, or tools like HubSpot to monitor performance. Regular reviews help pivot strategies quickly. Restaurants : Use food photography and weekly specials on Instagram. : Use food photography and weekly specials on Instagram. Retail Stores : Flash sales, seasonal discounts, and email coupons. : Flash sales, seasonal discounts, and email coupons. Service Providers: Testimonials and before-and-after case studies work well. Tailor your voice, visuals, and promotions based on who you're serving. The more specific your niche, the easier it is to stand out. Host live Q&As on Facebook or IG. Start a referral program. Run social contests or polls. Prioritize strategies that give the most return. Often, that's SEO, email marketing, and consistent social media content. A cohesive, professional look builds credibility and trust. Consistency across platforms strengthens your brand identity. In today's saturated market, even the unboxing experience can be a marketing tool. Custom packaging, especially embossed boxes, adds a tactile, premium feel that reinforces brand identity and improves customer retention. Whether you're shipping homemade candles or boutique skincare, high-quality packaging can turn one-time buyers into loyal customers. Time is money, especially when you're wearing multiple hats. Marketing automation tools like Mailchimp, Buffer, and Hootsuite help you schedule posts, send emails, and track analytics—all in one place. For social media management, Later and Canva Pro offer user-friendly interfaces and templates for non-designers. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools like HubSpot (free version), Zoho CRM, and Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) allow you to manage leads, segment audiences, and send personalized email campaigns without breaking the bank. Define your goals – e.g., brand awareness, leads, conversions. Identify your target audience – demographics, interests, behaviors. Choose your platforms – based on where your audience hangs out. Set a monthly budget – track every expense. Create a content calendar – plan blogs, emails, and social posts. Measure and adjust monthly – review KPIs and optimize. Flexibility is key. If an ad campaign underperforms, pause it. If a blog post drives a spike in traffic, double down on that topic. Small businesses that win are the ones that adapt quickly. A local pet grooming service doubled its client base by offering first-time customers a 10% discount and encouraging them to post photos of their pets on social media with branded hashtags. doubled its client base by offering first-time customers a 10% discount and encouraging them to post photos of their pets on social media with branded hashtags. A handmade jewelry store boosted holiday sales by investing in Instagram reels, showing the behind-the-scenes crafting process and running flash sales via Stories. One small bakery spent hundreds on Facebook ads with little return—until they realized their content lacked strong calls to action. Once they added limited-time discounts and clearer messaging, clicks turned into sales. Content marketing and email newsletters tend to provide the highest ROI over time. They're low-cost, easy to implement, and help build long-term relationships. Track metrics like website traffic, conversion rates, and customer feedback. Tools like Google Analytics and email open rates give clear indicators of performance. Both have value. Digital marketing offers broader reach and analytics, while traditional methods can build strong community ties. Choose based on your audience and goals. Most experts recommend spending 7–10% of your revenue on marketing. Start small, measure results, and scale what works. Very. It helps humanize your brand, build trust, and reach customers directly. Focus on 1–2 platforms where your target audience is active. You can absolutely do it yourself, especially with so many free tools available. But as you grow, consider hiring help for advanced strategies like SEO, paid ads, or branding. So, what is the best marketing for small businesses? The truth is, it depends on your goals, audience, and budget. The most successful small business owners test different strategies, track results, and adapt. Whether it's social media, SEO, packaging with embossed boxes, or email campaigns, the key is consistency and authenticity. Start small, stay focused, and you'll see big results over time. TIME BUSINESS NEWS
Forbes
2 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Predictive Loyalty: Using AI To Anticipate Customer Behavior
Boris Dzhingarov, founder of ESBO Ltd, leads a global Digital PR & SEO agency dedicated to enhancing brand awareness and visibility. A decade ago, loyalty programs were largely reactive affairs: You bought a coffee, scanned a card, received a stamp and hoped the brand would remember you next time. Today, the calculus has changed. Generative AI and predictive analytics allow companies to infer what a customer is likely to want days—or even weeks—before they ask. Starbucks' Deep Brew engine, for instance, now tailors rewards (registration required) to specific member cohorts, boosting visit frequency and spend. This shift from hindsight to foresight raises a pivotal design question: How do firms balance hyper-personalization with the privacy expectations of consumers who have grown wary of data sharing? From Points To Predictions: How AI Re-Imagines Loyalty Predictive loyalty blends several strands of data science. Behavioral signals (past purchases, channel usage), contextual inputs (time, weather, location) and unstructured cues (social chatter, reviews) feed large language and sequence-modeling networks. The models return a probability that any given customer will perform a next action—visit, churn, upgrade—and the brand intervenes pre-emptively. Salesforce recently showcased 'agentic' AI that resolves 84% of service queries automatically and spins these insights into proactive product recommendations for partners. For loyalty teams, the real allure is real-time agility: Rewards can flex by the minute, nudging behavior without the delays of traditional quarterly campaigns. Essentially, AI is driving a move away from tiered point schemes toward fluid, event-driven experiences where value surfaces precisely when the customer is most receptive. Winning Trust In A Permission Economy Yet the very intimacy that makes predictive loyalty seductive can trigger alarm bells. In Cisco's 2025 Data Privacy Benchmark, 64% of global respondents worry about inadvertently exposing sensitive information through AI tools, even as nearly half admit to feeding personal data into them. Deloitte's Connected Consumer survey echoes the tension: Enthusiasm for generative AI co-exists with a demand for transparency, accountability and explicit consent. Balancing these forces starts with data minimization and clarity of value exchange. Brands can lean on 'zero-party' data—information customers volunteer in quizzes or preference centers—because it sidesteps the creepiness of unseen tracking and remains under the consumer's direct control. Where first-party behavioral data is indispensable, privacy-by-design frameworks help: differential privacy to add statistical noise, federated learning to keep raw data on devices and encrypted identifiers instead of email addresses. The regulatory backdrop is equally influential. Europe's GDPR may grab headlines, but Singapore's PDPA, California's CPRA and other local statutes converge on similar imperatives: purpose limitation, explicit disclosure and the right to be forgotten. Companies that operationalize these principles not as compliance hurdles but as product features—think 'adaptive consent' toggles inside a loyalty app—gain an authenticity edge. Qualtrics' 2024 Global Consumer Study found that when consumers trust how companies handle their personal data, they are "8 percentage points more likely to be comfortable with companies using each personal data type to personalize their experience." Designing Intuitive, Not Intrusive, Experiences Predictive loyalty thrives when it feels like a natural extension of context rather than a sudden pop-up. Three design pillars stand out: A well-timed nudge can outperform a perfectly segmented but poorly timed blast. For example, a supermarket app detecting a user's dwindling pantry staples can surface a reorder coupon on Sunday evening when habitual meal planning occurs. The insight matters more than how many demographic boxes the shopper ticks. Opaque algorithms erode confidence. Simple disclosures give customers a peek into the logic and the option to dismiss the suggestion. Think along the lines of: 'We noticed you usually replenish at 30-day intervals; here's 10% off if you re-order now.' Starbucks' Deep Brew helps teams with "inventory, supply chain logistics and replenishment orders," further positioning AI as a helpful tool rather than a surveillance agent. Customers should be able to tell the system when it gets the prediction wrong. A single-tap 'not relevant' button doubles as a training signal and a reassurance that the brand is listening. Importantly, opting out of hyper-personalization should not lock users out of the program entirely; a baseline tier with generic rewards should remain, keeping the door open for future re-engagement. Measuring Success Beyond Redemption Rates Traditional key performance indicators like enrollment, points breakage and email open rates fail to capture the nuance of predictive loyalty. More instructive metrics include: • Anticipatory Satisfaction: Post-interaction surveys asking whether an offer arrived at the right moment gauge the emotional resonance of timing. • Consent Stickiness: The percentage of members who maintain advanced data-sharing permissions over time serves as a proxy for trust. • Prediction Efficacy: Comparing model forecasts to actual behavior uncovers bias and drift, ensuring that personalization continues to add value rather than amplify errors. A Future Built On Permission Culture must evolve, too. Brands need continuous listening, not one-off campaigns. Cross-functional teams—think data, ethics, user experience (UX) and legal—are becoming standard. Predictive loyalty reduces friction: A refill arrives or a voucher appears at the right time. But this precision can feel intrusive. The best brands treat data as borrowed, make AI visible and prioritize long-term trust. Brands must go beyond simply anticipating needs and truly make progress toward respecting boundaries. Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
