In a moment you will learn how to build a personal brand and what are the advantages of this approach to your image. But let’s start with the basics. What is a personal brand associated with and what does it depend on?

Personal brand – what is it?

We can briefly say that a personal brand is the way other people perceive you, perhaps working in the same sector or in the same field. The image of an expert is the most frequently chosen image pursued by people working on a personal brand. If you are active in marketing, this image is very beneficial. We’ll tell you a little more why this is so in a moment.

A personal brand consists of everything that is related to your work and knowledge. Some items worth mentioning are:
– experience;
– education;
– profiles in social media (mainly LinkedIn);
– people you know and work with;
– the publications you create (blog, articles, social media entries);
– events in which you are participating;
– projects that you carry out.

Of course, there may be more such elements, but these are basic. As you can see, building a personal brand is actually a lifelong process. A personal brand is created over time and is constantly evolving. Donald Trump is a good example. Previously, he was seen as an ambitious entrepreneur operating in the hotel sector. Today, the vast majority of people know him as the controversial president of the United States.

It may be the same with you! Even if you started out in finance, it doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to develop in marketing. Many people built a personal brand in their forties or even later. It all really depends on what you are aiming for.

Personal brand: why build a personal brand?

Short answer: to help you achieve your goals. Let us consider for a moment what the image of an expert gives you? Let’s say people see you as an SEO guru. You have earned this position with your hard work – for several years you have been publishing regularly both on your blog and on social media. You give interviews and statements to the media and industry reports. You are a speaker at marketing events. How can you “cash” this output?

Most often, you are faced with three options:

A. You can start your own business that will operate in the area you specialize in. Because people associate you, there is a good chance that you will quickly obtain lucrative contracts and you will not run out of orders for many years ahead. This option was chosen by, for example, Neil Patel. He is currently creating an agency that helps clients grow on the Internet. When you enter his website, you will see that practically everything is branded with his image – from services to blog entries.

B. You can become a recognizable freelancer and provide your services to the largest companies or conduct training. If “managing” a large company is not your dream, you can still work independently and on your own account. A good example here is Kurt Thomas, who runs a blog and website under her brand name. Kurt specializes in WordPress and has built a strong brand and recognition in this market. And all this without the “back office” of a large agency!

C. You can continue to blog and earn money on it. The mere fact of blogging, as long as it is regular and high-quality work, opens the way to many business opportunities. Probably the best example here will be Mark Lee from the blog How to Save Money. Thanks to his blog, Mark has gathered a huge community with over 156,000 fans on Facebook alone. He also published two books on which he earned huge money. It proves that a good blog idea combined with persistence can be a good source of income.

Are any of these options better? No, everything really depends on your expectations and preferences. A personal brand should be built so that you are satisfied with it.

Personal brand: advantages

People who enjoy a solid personal brand take part in interesting and well-paid projects. During the negotiations, they dictate the terms. Both large companies and advertisers want to cooperate with them. This means that – sooner or later – you will not need a permanent full-time job to support yourself. New development opportunities will open up for you, and how you use them depends only on you.

Certainly, an important advantage of a strong personal brand is that you do not have to convince anyone to cooperate with you. Your image has done it for you before. So if you are competing for an important client or looking for partners for a new project, you can expect others to be eager to work with you. Remember that a strong personal brand translates into trust that is key in business. People trust you because you know what you are doing and get good results. And it is crucial in building a personal brand.

Personal branding: the goal

As we have already mentioned, the goals of personal branding depend only on you. You can set yourself the goal of creating a thriving company or agency that will give you a decent income. You can strive to become an influencer or a person who makes money by training others. You may even want to have your program on TV or publish a book – today the possibilities are virtually endless. It all depends on how successful you will be in your endeavors.

Personal branding

Personal branding is, in short, a process to help you build and maintain the right personal brand. You can do it in person or use external support from a branding agency or personal branding consultant. Regardless of which path you choose, you need to be aware that building a personal brand is a long process (years, not months) and does not have to be successful. Why?

First of all, due to the huge competition and the multitude of communication channels. Regardless of what field you want to cover, there are surely dozens of other people who are doing exactly the same as you.

Does that mean it’s not worth trying? No way! However, if you want to be successful, you must first of all have a well-thought-out strategy, implement it successively and be patient and persistent. Let’s talk more about the strategy itself.

Personal branding strategy, or how to start building a personal brand?

First, start with a solid analysis of yourself. Ask yourself a series of questions:
– What do I do / what do I want to do?
– Why is my job / knowledge useful?
– Do I know how to interest others with it?
– Do I have evidence of the effectiveness of my solutions?
– How do I want to promote myself and communicate with others?

Do I have the time and resources to build a personal brand instead of doing something that will bring a profit right away (or: do I have the strength to build a personal brand after hours?).

These are just a few questions that will give you a good starting point. Consider point five in particular. You have blogs, podcasts, newsletters, social media entries, YouTube recordings, webinars at your disposal – choose the channels where you feel good. And not all at once.

The next step is to identify the places of action and build the so-called plan content. Especially at the beginning, it is worth feeding the blog / channel with entries so that it does not look “poor” when someone views it. Plan your first 10-15 publications and start creating and uploading them to your channel. Only when something starts to happen on the channel, you can think about the next step, i.e. promotion.

That’s right, today it will be extremely difficult to build a personal brand without any advertising. You will just get lost in the crowd, even if you have something important to say. Performance marketing works the fastest, i.e. actions focused on a specific result (clicks, views, newsletter subscriptions, etc.).

The next step is to show yourself in the industry. You can try to publish guest posts on other blogs and websites, attend events and meetings, and even participate in forums and groups on Facebook. The point is for as many people as possible to associate you and value your contribution.

Finally, let’s say about one more element that is extremely important when it comes to building a personal brand.

The key to success: unique, interesting knowledge and an equally attractive way of communicating it

We have to say it openly – you will not succeed without it. If your posts are simply a conglomerate of what you find online, don’t count on success. People are looking for effective solutions and unique knowledge supported by experience. Therefore, it is best to first gather a lot of knowledge and experience yourself, and only then pass it on to others. Copy-paste here won’t work.

What about the way of imparting knowledge? This is something that must come naturally to you. If you are embarrassed by the performances in front of the camera – give it up. People will quickly sense that you are not at ease. Choose a channel that will help you spread your wings. And constantly work on your workshop. Wonder if what you write about is interesting and well written? Will the reader get any real benefit from reading the post or watching this video? If not, be sure to correct it before posting such material.

What is organizational culture? Definition

Organizational culture is believed to be an integral part of the workplace and plays a key role in it. There are many definitions of this concept. According to economists, it is “the appropriate organizational climate and management method, a system of incentives, qualifications, and interpersonal relations.” According to E. Schein, the culture of an organization can be called a pattern of basic assumptions discovered, invented or developed by a group during its confrontation with its internal problems or with the problems of the environment. There are many other definitions, but they have common points from which it can be concluded that the organizational culture expresses patterns of behavior, norms and values relevant to the company. It has various functions:

– enables the integration of employees,
– determines the manner and time of criticizing people in power, and the decisions they make,
– allows you to understand the strategy and assumptions of the company, as well as to identify its basic goal,
– increases employee involvement,
– defines the boundaries of the group, and additionally the criteria for accepting and rejecting it,
– allows you to avoid aggressive actions and negative emotions, and soothes conflicts.

Organizational culture is based on various disciplines, such as organizational sociology, social psychology and anthropology. It makes it possible to distinguish a given company from others on the market, and also attracts people with similar values.

Components of organizational culture

The aforementioned E. Schein distinguished three elements of organizational culture, that is: artifacts, norms and values, as well as basic assumptions. They should be compatible with each other. Artifacts are conscious, visible, but also artificial cultural creations that require interpretation. They are divided into several types:

– linguistic – this group includes both the language, history and legends of the company,
– behavioral – ceremonies, employee behavior, rituals,
– physical – items characteristic for the company, dress code, technology.

Norms and values are an element more durable than artifacts, but also more difficult to observe. These include:

– a specific image,
– company strategy and goals,
– features desired in employees,
– organizational structure,
– management style.

In turn, the basic assumptions are considered to be the foundation of any organizational culture. This element is the most durable of all three, and at the same time the most difficult to notice. It mainly includes:

– the nature of man and the environment,
– the company itself,
– the company’s relations with the environment,
– interpersonal relations.

Types of organizational cultures

There are different lists presenting the types of organizational culture. One of the most popular models is the one developed by K. Cameron and R. Quinn in 2006. It is considered universal, according to him, there are four types of organizational cultures:

– Klan – otherwise family culture, typical of local, small businesses. They all share similar personality traits, share the same values, and maintain friendly relationships. Great emphasis is placed here on employee involvement and team building, but also on tradition and loyalty. In the culture of the clan, an important role is also played by freedom of action and a partner-like attitude towards clients.
– Market – popular in particular in very large sales companies. It puts emphasis on getting tasks done and improving results. There is a lot of competition between employees and leaders. Hostile attitude towards competition, sometimes also towards the customers themselves, is a common phenomenon in market culture.
– Hierarchy – the opposite of the clan culture, there are many professional levels and well-defined structures and rules here. The leader ensures that the employees are correctly following the procedures. It is a bureaucratic and formalized culture, characteristic of international corporations. Problems and situations that arise are usually solved at a given level.
– Adhocracy – it is characterized by innovation and creativity. The exercise of power is exercised by people who have the greatest knowledge in a given field. The culture of adhocracy is dynamic, focused on constant development and adaptation to the changing reality. Employees are encouraged to new ideas and experiment.

Another division can be found in many studies on this subject. It distinguishes three cultures:

– Normative – the company’s employees fully agree with its goals. They are committed and fully devoted to their tasks, and they often treat the workplace as a second home.
– Coercion – the opposite of normative culture. People work in a given company for financial reasons. It is true that they follow the applicable rules and values, but do not identify with them. This makes the level of employee involvement low, they have no hesitation to leave the company when the opportunity arises.
– Utilitarian – one could say that it is situated between the culture of coercion and the normative one. Employees are involved in their duties for financial reasons, but wages are not their main motivation. There is therefore a certain bond between them and the company.

The organizational culture begins to take shape at the moment of establishing the company. It is very often influenced by the personality and approach of the business founders. It is worth remembering that each enterprise is influenced by various internal and external factors. Organizational culture may change accordingly. Of great importance is, among others the age of the employees and their character traits. Usually, younger people are more risk-prone and open to changes, thanks to which the company becomes more dynamic. On the other hand, older employees attach importance mainly to the sense of security and tradition. The industry, competition in the market or even the value system of the society are also important for the organizational culture.

Why is organizational culture important and how to create it?

The culture of the organization greatly influences the way the company operates. It determines not only the types of relations between employees, but also determines the way in which it is perceived by customers. Not every person using the offer of a selected company knows its system of values. However, it can be easily seen when employees are involved, conscientiously fulfill their duties and, above all, care about the right approach to customers. It is thanks to the organizational culture that everyone can experience the values and the code of ethics adopted by a given company. Thanks to it, the company also gains a chance to stand out from the competition. It is not uncommon that the elements of the organizational culture have a decisive impact on customers’ purchasing decisions, so everything should be carefully prepared.

More and more often it is said that organizational culture plays an equally important role as a good operating strategy. Even a very original business idea will not be successful if the right organizational culture is not built. However, many entrepreneurs have doubts about how to do this. You should pay attention to, among others on the selection of people for the team, but not only in terms of knowledge, competences and skills. It is also necessary to take into account whether future employees agree with the values on which the company wants to focus. Other important aspects include:

– consistency (between what is said in the company and what happens later),
– specifically formulated standards and expectations,
– skillful listening to employees, using their creativity and talents,
– establishing clear rules, respectfully,
– encouraging employees to discuss (especially about what works for the company and what doesn’t),
– discussing failures and learning from them for the future.

In the era of a pandemic, supporting employees has become even more important in the context of creating organizational culture. They may feel stressed and insecure about the future, and have problems finding work-life balance. For this reason, it is important to pay attention to their mental health and make them feel safe. This shows employees that regardless of the circumstances, they can count on their company and are an important part of it.

Neglecting the individual elements that make up the organizational culture may affect the fate of the company. There is a risk that it will develop too slowly or not at all, and therefore will not be successful. An underdeveloped organizational culture means that employees are not motivated to work, there are also other problems such as avoiding active action, lack of willingness to improve oneself and the entire business, or a negative image of the company outside. Its construction is a long process, which requires finding the golden mean between too rigid approach and giving too much freedom. It is worth spending a lot of time and taking care of every detail to create or redefine the organizational culture. This will facilitate building your position and gaining an advantage over competitive enterprises, as well as creating space for employees to increase their efficiency.

The examples of how different organizational culture can be. When asking about role models, experts often point to companies such as Google, Danone or Apple. Each of them developed their own scheme of action allowing them to achieve successive successes. Entrepreneurs should be aware that the organizational culture largely determines the way their businesses operate, and the management’s approach has a key influence on its shaping.

The term real-time marketing is mainly used to describe the concept where the brand actively tracks social media and the entire network for the possibility of interacting with the audience by talking about current events and popular topics. Brands that have already decided to implement RTM practices refer to this concept as a true performance lever, thanks to which they generate better sales results and increase their publicity. Before we look at the concept from the practical side, let’s take a look at the definition of real-time marketing.

Real-time marketing – what is it?

RTM is a strategy that uses real-time data, on the basis of which marketers create content for the benefit of a given brand. Rather than creating an advance marketing plan and executing it on a schedule, real-time marketing creates a strategy focused on relevant, relevant trends and immediate customer feedback. The use of such a method in communication allows:
– arouse the interest of Internet users,
– gain publicity,
– increase the dissemination of published content,
– establish direct communication with current and potential customers,
– get greater audience engagement.

The essence of real-time marketing is not to create content that will suit the nature of your business, quite the opposite. This strategy relies on the company’s ability to use new and popular non-industry news for its own benefit.

Real-time marketing – How does it work in practice?

RTM can be compared to marketing that takes place every day in physical stores. When you step over the threshold, the seller greets you and tries to understand your needs, then offers you the item that best meets them. The household appliances stores operate in a similar way, offering TV sets at promotional prices during the FIFA World Cup.

In the first case, the seller tries to understand your needs in order to present you a product that will satisfy you immediately and encourage you to buy. In the second, the store uses a very popular event to awaken in you the desire to buy a TV that will make sports emotions unforgettable. Each time the store directly adjusts the current promotions, advertising or the way of communication to real time in order to finalize the sale. Moreover, this strategy tends to build consumer loyalty, because if the seller offers a product that is perfectly suited to his needs, the customer will be satisfied and come back to him. Real-time Marketing works just like that, only on the Internet, where the customer is not physically standing in front of the seller.

How to prepare for real-time marketing?

Implementing real-time marketing doesn’t mean managers have to spend their entire lives staring at phones 24/7 and alerting you every time something happens. RTM requires a much greater degree of organization and appropriate preparation. New processes and work approaches should be designed, tested and implemented. It is not an easy matter. A brand should be ready to implement methods that will allow it to respond to a global trend or the needs expressed by a local customer in just a few minutes.

Before applying real-time marketing, it is also essential to thoroughly study online customer profiles and shopping paths. Companies must follow consumer habits as well as know their sociodemographic, behavioral and geolocation data. Only after arming yourself with such key information, you can start developing an effective RTM strategy.

Planning of RTM

The real-time marketing strategy is based on news. It is therefore important to be up to date with the latest news, information or trends. First of all, it is worth establishing a yearly publication schedule, taking into account holidays or other celebrations. This can be extremely helpful. Of course, it is impossible to predict in advance what will happen throughout the year, so the RTM campaign plan should be as flexible as possible.

If your company decides to implement real-time marketing, it is important to regularly research the most popular hashtags or topics covered on the Internet. In addition, you also need to be prepared to engage with audiences who are likely to react to your content. When sharing an article on a topic, you need to be ready for questions from consumers about the material you have published. Only a quick answer will allow you to build trust between the brand and its recipients and will use the potential of RTM.

Time is money, i.e. the faster you react, the more you gain

RTM requires you to distribute your content at the perfect time. Publishing too late exposes you to the fact that no one will pay attention to your post or article anymore. Real-time marketing needs to be immediate in order to impress audiences by causing laughter, comments, reactions, and responses, both pleasant and less affectionate. However, it’s worth remembering that publishing too early can cause yours to be forgotten before they gain visibility. Knowing when to publish will come with practice.

Advantages of real-time marketing

Real-time marketing is a powerful lever for sales and publicity. Consumers love to be close to events and information, and in particular to express their opinion on them. Therefore, a company that starts the RTM game and gives its audience something to comment, think about, or a reason to smile has a chance to:
– build a closer relationship with consumers, overcome barriers through brand humanization,
– gather a committed community around the brand,
– generate interactions, arouse curiosity in recipients,
– increase competitiveness, demonstrate expert knowledge and become a key player in the industry.

According to a survey by Paraphrase-Online.com, brands using real-time marketing can increase their conversion rates by 26%.

Can RTM be harmful?

Each strategy has its advantages and disadvantages. RTM can also do harm if the brand only uses this strategy. When reacting to current events, there is no room for planning, which may reduce the quality of the content. Moreover, in the case of RTM, it is difficult to predict the reaction of Internet users. The published content may be received very well or the opposite. This may be due to too hasty publication, or simply the content will not appeal to the audience. That is why it is so important not to rely only on RTM and, above all, to create content that will be valuable to the recipients.

Good examples of real-time marketing

Some brands quickly realized the importance of creating ads that reach their audience and get immediate responses. Let’s take a look at the most interesting examples of real-time marketing:

OREO REAL-TIME MARKETING – SUPER BOWL
Oreo is a great example of successful real-time marketing. In 2013, the brand made a hype on Twitter, addressing Super Bowl XL VII viewers who had been plunged into the darkness for 34 minutes. The message “You don’t need light to bite your cookies” has sparked the enthusiasm of millions of football fans, both inside and outside the stadium.

STAR WARS REAL-TIME MARKETING
Loyal Star Wars fans who purchase tickets and plan their costumes months before launch inspired marketers around the world to harness their creative potential and surprise audiences with stunning marketing gimmicks. The popularity of Star Wars was perfectly used by the Japanese airline ANA, which prepared for the premiere, equipping the crew with quite unusual outfits and accessories:

Duracell also capitalized on the popularity of Star Wars by creating a Duracell Star Wars ad, then stoking the emotions of audiences with the announcement “the most powerful alkaline battery in the universe”.

REAL-TIME MARKETING: BANKSY
The loud event, which was the deliberate destruction of the painting “The Girl with a Balloon” just seconds after the work was auctioned in London, was also not overlooked by the masters of real-time marketing. It didn’t take long for the brands to react.

RTM rebounded with hiccups

Sometimes an idea presented in a conference room may sound great, but when the moment of implementation comes, it turns out that even if carefully thought out, it turns out to be a failure. One of the most devastating failures is Pepsi, which in 2017 wanted to advertise to make their product a symbol of cultural unification. The idea was not bad, but the film in which Kendall Jenner by handing a policeman a can of soda tries to resolve the stalemate between the protesters and the police in the Black Lives Matter turned out to be a scandal. The spot was ridiculed on social media, parody on SNL and quickly removed.

Another RTM mistake on social media concerns the Cinnabon brand, known for its confectionery products. After the death of the late Carrie Fisher, Cinnabon decided to pay tribute to the actress on Twitter by posting an artwork of a Star Wars character made of famous cinnamon rolls. The tweet received a lot of negative responses and was labeled “tacky” or “shameless self-promotion.”

Can RTM help with SEO?

A conscious RTM strategy in social media can support SEO by generating organic search results. By tracking popular topics that are relevant to your brand communication and publishing content that relate to them, you can effectively drive traffic to your site. Real-time marketing allows you to build a closer relationship with users, and thanks to a bit of creativity and humor, it will warm up the brand image. In addition, RTM allows you to create content that is eagerly shared by Internet users, and this will not be indifferent to search engines. As a result, real-time marketing allows you to expand the reach and gather new recipients.

There is no doubt, however, that creating a good RTM combined with content marketing requires in-depth analysis and knowledge of the target group. There is no single recipe for successful real-time marketing. Successful brands are those that make the most of their consumer knowledge and multi-channel marketing strategies combined with constant observation of what is happening on the internet. It’s worth experimenting and drawing conclusions to be successful and build effective real-time marketing.

CUX (cux.io) is the world’s first UX Automation tool. It helps companies not only save the time that so far had to spend on independent and manual data analysis, but also shows how to maintain sales growth by predicting which customer behavior may inhibit conversion.

The tool identifies areas of user frustration that may cause conversion drops, filters heatmaps and recordings, and identifies behavior patterns. CUX eliminates the problem of independent search for problems on websites – it does it automatically, additionally selecting only those visits that are relevant to the business goal. UX Automation enables the analysis of user behavior on any type of device – from phones to smart TVs. In addition, CUX independently tracks all events on the website, thus not involving the customer’s IT department.

CUX free version
As part of the cux.io free trial period, you will have access to 1000 recordings of visits, which you can collect at any time convenient for you. Trial includes all the functionalities of the tool available in a paid subscription.

Paid version CUX
The CUX price starts at 49 euros per month. The final cost is influenced by: the amount of traffic on the website that we want to analyze and the data storage time (retention). When purchasing an annual subscription, 2 months are free.

CUX – how to analyze user behavior?

To start using the tool, it is enough to attach the CUX tracking code to the page you want to follow. This can be done using the integration with Google Tag Manager or Google Analytics. After starting the analytics, CUX automatically catches all the events on the pages, thus not involving you in setting technical parameters.

The most important of the CUX functionalities:

– Experience Metrics – proprietary metrics showing the frustration of users on the website. They are divided into: rage clicks, rage key presses, chaotic mouse movements, zooming and constant content refreshing.
– Recordings of visits – CUX analyzes entire visits, instead of individual sessions. This means that it tracks the user’s visit even when he opens many tabs or is inactive for a long time.
– Heatmaps – CUX generates heat maps for single pages and SPA (single page apps). The tool is also compatible with various types of devices – from phones and computers, to tablets and consoles, to smartTV and the so-called wearables.
– Conversion Waterfalls – CUX helps to track visitor behavior in various scenarios. In other words, Waterfall is a graphical representation of any sequence of steps visitors take on your site.
– Analysis in the context of a business goal – regardless of what your business goal is (sales, training registration, filling out the contact form, downloading an e-book, etc.), CUX will select for you only the data about user behavior that they have on it real impact. The number of goals for a project is unlimited.
– Automatic event catching – CUX is able to automatically capture events on the website, allowing code-free tracking of each stage of the user’s journey without the need to involve the IT department.
– Retroactive analysis – CUX allows you to create and modify conversion funnels even using historical data and without having to wait for new recordings to be collected.

Three levels of optimization

Working with qualitative data boils down to optimizing the real user path – not the one we dreamed of when creating the product! To make it as effective as possible, we divide it into 3 levels: marketing, product and conversion optimization.

In order to properly optimize marketing activities (directing traffic from external sources), we need to know exactly what is happening to our users along their entire path. Where they land, what they see, how they react. So we optimize based on observation.

How do we go about optimizing the customer journey in the context of the product? We shorten it! Why? Customers – those online in particular – do not always have a strong purchasing incentive. It is not uncommon for them to be driven to the side of your product or service by their impulse. The longer the path to conversion – the more time for the user to change their mind!

Conversion optimization does not only consist of the last steps of the sales funnel (cart, checkout). For our improvements to make sense, we need to take a few steps back and look at the entire customer journey – from marketing communication to product interactions.

Analysis in the context of the goal

The advantage of CUX for us with other behavioral analysis tools is that it filters all results in the context of your business goal. Regardless of what will be your main goal (Sales? Filling the form? Registration for training?), The data read through the prism of its implementation are much more valuable.

Imagine your business goal is for customers to fill out a contact form – this is the main place where you sell. Setting the goal “Send contact form” will allow you to automatically filter out those visits that show the achieved goal. Thanks to them, you will be able to improve the contact process, spot problems that your users are struggling with or change the page layout so that they convert more and faster.

Event analysis

To make the data you analyze meaningful, accurate and relevant to your business goals, create extensive conversion funnels based on events. What? Completely any! These can be clicks on specific elements on your website, filling out forms, entries to specific websites or coming from specific links, e.g. campaign links.

How do you go about an event-based analysis?

– Start with the whole – check the “global” paths of your users, compare, see which are doing better.
– When you notice a big drop, take a look at this place in detail. Watch the visits, create a funnel for this particular fragment on the page.
– Remember that the sequence of steps you set in Waterfall is important, and when counting conversions, we take into account the execution of individual steps in the order set by you.

Heatmap analysis

As you probably know, the heatmap graphically shows the most important activities on your pages. Every action – like clicking or mouse movement, scrolling, chaotic movement – adds color to the area. To draw reliable conclusions from the heatmap analysis, try to take into account those for which min. 250 events. On pages that contain various dynamic elements (such as pop-ups, drop-down menus, hoover), remember that they may not be captured on the heatmap. However, do not forget to consider them from an analytical point of view – perhaps the rage clicks that “fly” on the heatmap relate to these elements.

Analysis of recordings of visits

A truth that entrepreneurs often forget: analytics is not just watching random recordings! When you start working on recordings, keep a business goal in mind and filter only those visits that meet it. There is no point in wasting precious time on meaningless recreations.

Always start your analysis from general to specific and look for patterns of behavior. Watch the visits until the picture of your users’ habits begins to form a complete picture in your head. So how long? Usually, a dozen / several dozen visits are enough for the pattern to start clearing up. You can also use Experience Metrics in CUX to start with the behavioral patterns we have identified (rage clicks, zooming, refreshing the page, etc.).

FAQ

How is CUX different from Hotjar?
CUX not only combines all the functionalities of analytical tools (such as Hotjar), but also automates the data analysis process, which makes it an innovation in the user behavior analytics market. Unlike Hotjar, CUX is able to present a complete picture of data – both quantitative and qualitative – and interpret it in the context of a business goal.

Will CUX be useful for industries other than e-commerce?
Of course! The analysis of customer behavior will benefit not only e-commerce, but also businesses in the SaaS and B2B model, companies providing marketing services, software houses – all industries in which the customer comes into contact with a digital product. In addition, CUX is able to facilitate the work of various departments and teams within the company – from marketing, through sales, IT, content creation, to product development and management.

When is it worth analyzing user behavior?
We often come across the erroneous assumption that behavior analysis comes in handy when we see that the website is not working properly. Yes, this is a good time. But not the only one. Studying the behavior and introducing minor implementations on their basis at every stage of the digital product’s life helps to almost immediately increase the level of conversion or prevent its decline.

What’s the CUX price?
The cost of a paid subscription starts at 49 EUR / month and depends on the amount of traffic on the site and the customer’s required data retention time. In addition, CUX provides additionally paid technical and analytical onboarding, personalized workshops, webinars and bootcamps as well as ready-made website audits.

Changes in SEO strategies – the natural sequence of things

When you think about an SEO strategy, first of all, you have to accept the fact that it is impossible to create a long-term action plan that will work without corrections. Google’s environment is very volatile – new updates of the search engine algorithm are constantly coming out, which often significantly change the rules of the game. Additionally, what worked on 100 similar pages may not necessarily work on page 101 as well. Therefore, changes in the strategy of activities are completely natural and even advisable if the chosen path does not bring results. Positioning is about constantly monitoring the effects, modifying, correcting and re-measuring the results. A properly selected strategy is therefore flexible and may change over time if changes in the algorithm or simply the specificity of a given website require it.

Clearly set priorities are essential

Most websites require many changes in various fields at the beginning of positioning – some of the corrections are purely technical, others require modifying and expanding the content or taking care of external linking. Such modifications cannot be made entirely in a week, month or even six months. Hence, SEO strategies should prioritize tasks to be performed, identifying those that are most urgent and those that can be introduced next.

The best strategies are divided into stages, thanks to which the client knows what to expect from a positioning agency. Not all changes are visible to the naked eye to someone who is not a specialist in a given topic. On the surface, it may seem that the positioner is doing nothing, while he is doing a lot of work necessary to improve the visibility of the website. Such changes take time, especially if the website is extensive, has many tabs, and has been modified frequently.

White hat SEO only!

Properly constructed SEO strategies focus only on good positioning practices, without assuming any prohibited actions or those resulting from the so-called the gray area. Attempts to take shortcuts and trick Google’s algorithm may result in the filter being imposed – either automatically or manually by an employee – and this causes the page to stop showing up in search results. Of course, you can try to remove the filter, but even if it is successful, the page drops in the search results, and restoring its good opinion in the assessment of the algorithm is extremely difficult.

What activities do you need to watch out for? For example, Google does not recognize the automatic mass generation of links to a page on unrelated websites, forums or blogs. Attempts to deceive search engine robots by presenting them with a version of the page other than users, or trying to “hide” texts on the page (eg creating white text on a white background) are badly seen. These types of naming activities are Black Hat SEO and should be avoided entirely.

SEO strategy – the role of cooperation

All changes introduced by the positioner must be accepted by the client, and the sooner the acceptance takes place, the earlier the website begins to achieve results. In addition, there are also such activities that the client must carry out on his own according to the recommendations of the positioning company. For example, the loading speed is very important for the visibility of the website, while some customers use slow and emergency hosting, which limits SEO possibilities. Then it is on the customer’s side to change the service provider, because without it, other activities become much less effective.

Sometimes the system on which the website was created is also a problem. If the client uses a proprietary solution or a less popular CMS, it may turn out that it lacks the functionalities necessary to improve the visibility of the website. In such cases, it is necessary to transfer the website to another system, which the client also has to do with his own resources. At this point, however, it is worth mentioning that such action must take place in cooperation with an SEO specialist who prepares recommendations on how to carry out the change so as not to lose the power of the website.

Cooperation must be based on trust

A mistake of many clients is blocking some of the changes recommended by the positioner. Most often it concerns interference with the content on the website, adding new content or changes in structural data. Lack of consent to some activities does not completely eliminate efforts to increase the visibility of the website, but it does not allow the website to use its full potential and achieve optimal results. Therefore, when deciding on services in the field of positioning, it is worth choosing a proven agency that you can trust. Then the client can be sure that all changes recommended by the positioner are necessary and work to the benefit of the website. Agreeing only some of the actions listed in the SEO strategy generally does not bring any satisfaction or measurable benefits to any of the parties.

However, it is important not only that the client can trust the SEO specialist, but also that the positioner can trust his client. SEO strategies cannot be fully implemented if the client makes changes to the website on his own without informing the SEO company about it. Such actions can destroy months of SEO work and cause an immediate drop in the visibility of your website. What activities are we talking about? Most often it concerns changing the CMS without prior information, changing the URLs of subpages, deleting subpages or deleting content on the website.

Linking strategy – an integral part of your SEO strategy

A very important part of the SEO strategy is the so-called off-site SEO, i.e. acquiring external links to the website. These types of links can be obtained from various sources, including online forums, product catalogs, back-end sites or through platforms selling sponsored articles. Less common methods of getting links are also possible, such as exchanging guest posts with bloggers or linking to a page on social media. However, it is important to remember that only good quality links give the website power – from thematically related websites, highly rated by algorithms. Therefore, the selection of linking sources is one of the most important elements of an SEO strategy. It is also important to schedule the publication of links – too many links that appear at the same time can alert the algorithm that starts suspecting us of unfair practices.

The strategy of building a link profile must be closely tailored to the industry, and even the specificity of the positioned page. It should also be preceded by an in-depth analysis of the competition’s link profile – on the basis of such information, we can decide what can be done better and how to expand the collection of links to gain a competitive advantage thanks to them.

What does an SEO strategy consist of?

The SEO strategy should include all the activities that will be carried out to position a given website on Google – both on the website itself and outside it (external linking). Its main elements are:
– a list of keywordsfor which the website will be positioned – it should contain all the keywords whose positions will be monitored by the positioner. Such a list is prepared by the agency in cooperation with the client, who can determine which areas of activity are the most important for him and which subpages, product categories or the products themselves are crucial for him from a business point of view.
– website architecture optimization plan – this means building a category tree, layout of website navigation, organizing tags, etc.,
– technical optimization plan for the website – that is, all those activities that are to increase the loading speed of the website, improve its responsiveness and user-friendliness. The purely technical changes include such activities as: code minification, graphics compression, implementation of browser caching, entering structured data, creating sitemap.xml, setting redirects, implementing canonical tags and many others,
– content development strategy on the website – at the planning stage, it is necessary to determine which page tabs should be enriched with new content, whether it is worth introducing space for additional content (e.g. blog or news), at what stages of work individual content will be added, etc.
– the concept of building a profile of external links – this means selecting sites for linking, determining how many links should be obtained and when to publish them,
– a plan for building a network of internal links – that is, creating links on the website to other subpages of the positioned website. A well-developed internal linking strategy makes it easier for the user to navigate the site and find the information they need.