Consumers instantly recognize your company’s logo, jingle, products, and even your color scheme. That’s a great indicator that you have cultivated strong brand awareness, And it’s great news for your business, seeing as how 77% of consumers report that they are “likely to make purchases” based on brand names alone. 

Those that reach peak recognizability can transcend niche categories and become synonymous with the types of goods they produce. Just take the word “soda,” for instance. For many, brands like Coca-Cola and Pepsi almost immediately spring to mind. 

The thing is, there are likely plenty of customers out there who may still not be familiar with your business, products, or value proposition. Pulling them into your marketing fold means generating even more effective buzz.

Luckily, in this first edition of the new Galactic Fed Growth Hacking series, our team is providing practical tips for raising brand awareness so you can stay at the top of your game. Whether you want to maintain a dominant position in your market or gain ground on the competition, these tips will help you sprint toward your goals!

What Is Brand Awareness?

In simplest terms, brand awareness refers to the recognizability of your company and its product based on its name, logo, color scheme, and other such marketing elements. 

However, generating brand awareness is about more than simply letting customers know your company exists. You want consumers to associate your products, brand, and logo with positive experiences and perceptions. 

Whether you plan to revive an older product line or service or intend to launch a new one, it’s important to maximize your brand awareness through dedicated campaigning and reinforce it in all of your marketing efforts. Showcase the value you provide and be consistent in the way you present your company.

10 Growth Hacking Tips to Boost Brand Awareness

While you may not be able to achieve Coke or Pepsi’s level of market dominance, you can still work to turn your product into a household name with these growth-hacking techniques: 

1. Be Consistent With Your Branding

First and foremost, you must ensure that your visual identity is consistent across all platforms and marketing materials. Consistency in things like your logos, colors, and fonts helps in making your content and products easily recognizable.

But still, you need to remember that your voice is more than just the colors and logos you choose. Your values (and the ways through which you exemplify them) also play a critical role in how consumers perceive your business. 

2. Create Great Content

Your customers are the lifeblood of your business. But what sort of value are you providing to them outside of the goods you sell? If you can’t come up with an immediate answer, it may be time to reevaluate your content marketing strategy.

Through content marketing, you can educate, inform, or entertain your audience. With that in mind, take the time to create valuable assets such as blog posts, videos, infographics, and podcasts that showcase your expertise and offer solutions to your audience’s problems. 

3. Monitor Social Media Engagement

A notable 47% of marketers struggle to create impactful social media strategies for building brand awareness. 

To that end, one great way to assess your social media success involves monitoring customer engagement and general sentiments toward your brand. Use analytics tools to detect trends and proactively address any concerns about your products or services.

Additionally, maintain an active presence on social media platforms relevant to your audience. Engage with your followers by responding to comments, sharing user-generated content, and participating in relevant conversations. 

4. Seek Out Influencer Partnerships

According to Shopify, 69% of consumers trust influencer recommendations. Adding influencers to the mix can, therefore, make a huge impact on brand awareness and business growth. However, it’s important to choose influencers who align with your target audience and have similar followings to your own. 

You don’t have to partner with mega influences who have millions of followers, either. Micro-influencers (those with follower counts in the tens of thousands) can be great assets for connecting with niche markets and increasing your visibility. 

5. Revisit Your SEO Strategy

No matter how sophisticated your marketing strategy becomes, there’s never a point at which you’ll “outgrow” the need for search engine optimization (SEO). It is a never-ending process, and that means you should continuously work to improve your skills and stay ahead of your competitors. 

Periodically revise your SEO efforts and ensure your website is ranking well in organic searches. You’ll need to use relevant keywords, create high-quality content, and optimize meta tags.

Don’t neglect the technical aspects of SEO, either, like page load speeds and overall accessibility. Google considers these factors when assigning your site’s ranking, and you will fall on its and other search engine results pages (SERPs) if your website is clunky. 

6. Don’t Sleep On Email Marketing

In a world of fancy campaigns and high-production content, some brands treat email marketing as an afterthought. Don’t be one of them. Email delivers an average return on investment anywhere between 3600 and 4000% for every dollar spent! 

Furthermore, email campaigns are both cheap and effective, especially when you use them to complement your other brand awareness efforts. For maximum impact, remember to segment your audience and create distinct mailing lists for each consumer category. 

For example, prospective customers who have never made a purchase from your business should be placed on a distinct mailing list. You can create a different list for loyal customers and yet another for individuals who abandoned their shopping carts before finalizing their transactions. 

7. Be Proactive About PR

Depending on your industry, it may be a good idea to build relationships with bloggers, journalists, and media outlets. These partnerships can help secure press coverage for your brand. 

For example, if you have a good relationship with a major media outlet and are preparing to launch a new product, your business could publish a press release to generate buzz. 

If you encounter any public relations (PR) headaches down the road, these connections will help with damage control as well by telling the whole story of the incident. PR is equal parts promotion and protecting the brand reputation you’ve worked so hard to cultivate. 

8. Participate in Events

Host or sponsor events that align with your brand values and target audience, such as industry conferences and trade shows. 

If you operate a small to mid-sized business, you can even use local community events as a means of forming strong community relationships. Doing so will showcase the value you provide to the area and encourage community members to support your organization. Of course, just remember to choose causes that are consistent with your stated mission, vision, and beliefs.  

9. Start a Referral Program

Happy customers are some of the best brand ambassadors. Creating a referral program incentivizes already-satisfied consumers to turn their friends and family to your business. 

There are no one-size-fits-all referral programs. When creating your program, choose a framework that is simple, easy to sign up for, and economically viable. Points-based programs can be a great option, as they gamify the referral process and get customers excited about unlocking rewards by racking up a higher score.

Alternatively, you can offer discount coupons for both parties involved in a referral. For example, if one of your loyal customers talks a relative into ordering $100 or more of your goods, you could reward both people with free shipping or discount codes. 

10. Leverage Partnerships and Collaborations

Lastly, form strategic partnerships with other brands or businesses that complement yours. These could involve co-hosting events, cross-promoting products, or launching joint marketing campaigns. 

By pooling your resources and taking advantage of customer base overlap, you and your partners can magnify your reach and generate high-quality leads for one another. Referring past customers to each other can be particularly impactful, as a satisfied client will likely trust the recommendations of another business. 

Join the Galactic Fed Growth Hacking Series

Alone, any of the brand awareness strategies listed above can help you get noticed and acquire new customers. But when you combine multiple tactics, you’ll accelerate your company’s growth trajectory and achieve your revenue goals. 

Leverage the power of brand awareness to achieve sustainable growth and market dominance today by following along with the Galactic Fed Growth Hacking series. Stay tuned for more exciting insights that will support your business goals!

The post Fed Fix Growth Hacking: 10 Effective Ways to Build Brand Awareness appeared first on Galactic Fed.

When Russian forces began invading Ukraine on Feb. 24, millions of residents were forced to flee the country for safety. According to an NPR report, “ten million people have left their homes” with “more than 3.6 million refugees fleeing to neighboring countries.”

In the last few weeks, Galactic Fed co-owners Irina Papuc and Zach Boyette and Galactic Fed employee Sorina-Elena Andresan have been working tirelessly in collaboration with marketing agency Nectr and Erin Murphy to aid and safely evacuate residents in need. As a global company, Galactic Fed has a network of remote workers who have been able to offer support all around the world. All coordination and communications have been done through Whatsapp and, so far, the initiative has successfully evacuated 11 women and children, including one baby, from Ukraine.

Nearly $70,000 in funds have been raised by Murphy, Irina, and Zach. Both Irina and Zach have also pledged to cover the refugee’s costs for up to six months while continuing to work toward helping more people. We are so proud of our team for banding together to provide support to those who need it most. Sorina-Elena herself has been on the ground in Ukraine during the process of evacuation. She retold the heroic story of helping refugees successfully escape danger and flee to the Netherlands.

The Journey to Cluj-Napoca

The family in need consisted of one grandmother, five mother, and five kids. They were initially evacuated from Ukraine to Moldova before being transported to the Romanian border at Costesti. In Costesti, the family spent a few hours in tents until the team was able to find a group of volunteers. The volunteers took care of them for the next two days offering them food and shelter. The refugees were told that the closest city from where they could get a train was Botosani. The team then began working to transport the family there.

Upon arrival, they were offered good food, shelter and water. Throughout the entire process, the family was very happy and grateful to stay in a warm and safe place.

The family is seen bundled up and holding their belongings in Costesti as they wait for volunteers to find them a safe and warm place to stay.

After a few days of staying in Botosani, the family was able to get a train to Cluj-Napoca. The weather was very cold and they were all very tired and hungry from the 11 hour journey. Thankfully, the team was able to provide them with a three bedroom apartment fully equipped with food, water, hygiene products, medicine, clothes, toys and more. For the first time in two weeks, the children slept through the night. This quiet, warm and safe place would be their new temporary home.

After a long train journey, the family had finally arrived in Cluj-Napoca. Tired, hungry, yet still immensely grateful, they were eager to see their new home and enjoy its safety and warmth.

Enjoying Cluj-Napoca

Over the next few days, the family was able to enjoy their time in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. They went to the park where the kids were able to play with Romanian children. With voice translator apps, they were able to communicate.

The kids were able to just be kids at the Romanian park. Running around and playing with others their own age, they felt a sense of normalcy.

The team bought them new backpacks and gave them money to buy new shoes in the future, as they were worried there wouldn’t be enough space to fit them in their luggage. The family was able to dine at McDonald’s, where they were kindly offered the food for free. They were taken to Tauti Monastery where the mothers prayed and the children were offered warm food and cookies. They were even able to visit a small zoo.

The mothers are seen praying at the monastery while the children enjoyed their sweet treat.

Throughout the entire journey, many people who came in contact with the family wanted to help in any way that they could. It was heartwarming to see people from different backgrounds and different countries come together to offer shelter, food and bright smiles. During their time in Cluj Napoca, the family seemed a bit more relaxed and optimistic. With the imminent danger behind them, they were able to breathe a sigh of relief and begin feeling hopeful for the future.

A Bump in the Road

On March 14, the family was scheduled to leave Romania and fly to Austria. The team was under the impression that any Ukranian passenger would be able to fly to any European country with only their identification. However, the WizzAir flight company notified them that Austria was not accepting passengers without passports. The team then had to rethink their whole strategy.

Fortunately one team member, Victoria, was able to secure some free flight tickets to the Netherlands. Other tickets had to be paid for, but there is still a small chance that WizzAir will reimburse at least part of the money lost. Due to this, the group had to split up and take separate flights. On March 17, six people were able to leave after taking the necessary COVID-19 tests.

One mother prepares to take the necessary COVID-19 test in order to board the flight to the Netherlands.

They were given money for personal expenses and were smoothly able to board the plane. After arriving in the Netherlands, they settled into their new house where many volunteers provided them with food, clothing and other necessities. The second group left on March 19 and thankfully did not face any issues with the plane either.

After a stressful few days, the entire family was successfully able to board their flights and land safely in the Netherlands.

Finding Safety in The Netherlands

The family has now settled into their new home in Hulst, Netherlands. The town hall from Hulst will be giving them some money every week to help with basic necessities and food. The housing is not temporary and the family will be able to stay in this safe place for as long as they need.

The family is finally able to feel a sense of peace in their new, inviting home.

Once the law of benefits and work are approved, the adults will begin searching for jobs. The children are already attending school and have been very quick to respond to the new environment. Throughout the entire process, the family has extended immense gratitude and thanks for the opportunity to live safely away from war.

The family has settled into their new space and is now able to rest, relax and enjoy.

At Galactic Fed, we believe in using our talent and skills for good. Evoking positive social change and making a difference in the world is an important and essential part of our company. The work to help Ukrainian refugees has been an ongoing effort of our non-profit arm, Galactic Good. With Galactic Good, we partner with agencies and freelancers to provide these services and work toward helping those in need.

The Galactic Fed team, along with Nectr and Erin Murphy, are still looking to assist refugees in need by any means possible. Financial contributions are essential to continuing this mission. Respectfully, we ask that anyone in a situation where they are able to donate, donate here. We look forward to continuing this necessary and impactful work.

The post Galactic Good: Supporting Ukrainian Refugees Displaced by War appeared first on Galactic Fed.

Andrea Dela Paz, Galactic Fed Paid Media Specialist, tells us all about her experience as a home-grown FedHed and shares how businesses can better leverage Google Ads for growth. 

Paid Media Encourages Continuous Learning

Andrea was recently recognized in the first cohort of The FedHead Awardees for her positive impact and outstanding performance in Q3 of 2021. She was the recipient of the 2021 Rockstar Award for her invaluable contributions to the Galactic Fed team.

Not only is Andrea a FedHead Awardee, but she is also purely home-grown talent at Galactic Fed! For the last three and a half years, Andrea has been helping clients take their growth up and to the right. As a star in the Galactic Fed galaxy, we just had to ask her to give us a peek inside her brain and find out more about her paid media brilliance. 

Prior to starting her career in paid media with Galactic Fed, Andrea worked in Human Resources and Recruitment. She was excited to take the leap into digital marketing and embrace the challenge of learning a new skill from scratch. Andrea was also drawn to the ever-changing landscape of marketing that meant she would never grow stagnant in her line of work. 

Despite being a 2021 Rockstar, Andrea is actually most proud of her contributions to defining some of the “Galactic Fed Way” internal processes. On top of that, she is proud to be part of the Galactic Fed team that manages one of our tenured clients, Alma, and helped them expand their reach to generate high-quality leads. 

Andrea takes continuous learning seriously. When she’s not working on a client account, Andrea is reading up on industry trends, shadowing other account specialists, and communicating with the Galactic Fed team. 

Why Google Ads are Critical for Every Business

When you open your internet browser and fire up a search engine, where do you start? If you’re like Andrea—not to mention 90+% of internet users—you turn to Google or Facebook to find pretty much anything you’re looking for. 

Google Ads can have great benefits for any kind of business. For instance, the Google platform has a massive reach (up to 5.4 billion searches a day). When a consumer needs an answer, they often rely on a few Google searches to give them that answer. When they are looking for a product, service, or solution, they do the same. In addition, Google ads allow brands to set up highly-targeted ads that reach the right audiences at the right times, using a wide range of ad types. 

Google ads campaign types include:

• Search – appear on results pages when a person enters a query
• Display – appear on a vast number of websites within Google’s Display Network
• Video – video ads will show up on YouTube and Google’s Display Network
• Shopping – appear based on a store’s product data
• Apps – promoted across campaign types using content from an existing app

For businesses with steep competition, Google Ads can help them position themselves among their competitors so they can stand out in the marketplace. 

Another benefit of Google Ads? They are suitable for large and small businesses, for brick and mortar to global businesses, and from low to high marketing budgets. Anyone can run Google Ads, at any stage of growth, and see results as long as they use the right strategy! They can design campaigns specific to the business goals from brand awareness, lead generation, sales, and more.

Google Ads are great, but Andrea does have some words of advice for businesses that have never worked with them before: “Reflect on your business and what you want out of running Google ads,” she suggests. Andrea adds, “I would also highly advise starting as focused as possible, to avoid overspending at the onset.”

According to Andrea, the best way to stay focused when you’re starting out with Google Ads is to:

• Start with a strong group of keywords
• Keep to specific targeted geographic areas
• Limit ads to high-traffic times of the day
• Hyper-target audiences in your demographic

Andrea also stresses that before starting a new Google Ads campaign, businesses must first audit their paid media processes.

The Importance of Paid Media Audits

A paid media audit can uncover tactics that aren’t working or reveal new opportunities for a business. While it’s common to conduct an audit at the onset of campaign builds, it’s equally important that businesses undergo regular paid media audits. This helps a brand ensure that its marketing efforts are still aligned with its goals. An audit will show your team how current campaigns are performing and help you identify ways to scale up based on what strategies are already working. 

A good, in-depth paid media audit should include:

• A summary of the account’s current performance
• Usable and profitable insights regarding the different aspects of the account
• Recommendations for how to optimize the account
• Possible areas of improvement moving forward

We asked Andrea to share her process for conducting a Google Ads audit, and she was more than happy to tell us her (not-so-secret) secrets. 

Step-by-step: A Beginner’s Guide For Auditing Your Google Ads Campaigns

Unfortunately, there is no definitive process for doing a Google Ads audit—every audit we do at Galactic Fed is different depending on the scale of the account. It can take as little as 30 minutes or more than two hours to really get a sense of an account’s performance. Galactic Fed Google Ads audits are done layer by layer, from reviewing account settings to ad group structure, ad copy, and targeted keywords. 

If you’re auditing your own Google Ads account, you can use this easy step-by-step list to make sure you’re reviewing the most critical components. 

Step 1: Determine your goals.

If you cannot provide a clear vision for your Google Ads strategy, you probably won’t be able to run successful campaigns. Make sure that your goals with Google Ads align with your overall strategy, and are achievable using this paid media platform. 

Here are some questions to consider:

• What are you trying to accomplish with Google Ads?
• How can Google Ads support your company goals?
• Which KPIs will you track?
• What metrics are important to your marketing strategy, and how will you measure these?
• Have you linked your Google Ads account to your Analytics account?

Step 2: Review your account settings and campaign structure settings.

Now that you have defined your goals, you need to make sure your account and campaign structures are set up correctly.

If you’re starting from scratch or restructuring your Google Ads campaigns, this might be called an “account build.” This step encompasses checking all of the nuts and bolts of your campaign, such as budget, location, and ads scheduling. If these foundational pieces are set up incorrectly, your ads campaigns won’t be successful. 

Here are some questions to consider:

• Is your budget sufficient?
• Does your bid strategy align with your budget? 
• Are your ads being delivered to the right targeted locations and audiences?
• Is device targeting important for your campaigns?

Step 3: Improve your ad group structure.

When you’re organizing your Google Ads groups, follow this policy: organize early and often. Seriously! If your ad groups are hard to navigate, they will be even more difficult to pull insights from. In the world of Google Ads, more specific ad groups are better (i.e. fewer than ten keywords in a single ad group). 

Here are some questions to consider:

• Do your ad groups have 10+ keywords in a single group?
• Can you restructure your current ad groups to simplify the structure?
• Are you using single keyword ad groups (SKAGs)?

Your Quality Score could even be improved by making these changes. CXL conducted a study that found that SKAGs increased CTR by 28.1% in two months. A simple fix can go a long way!

Step 4: Look at your Google Quality Score.

Google’s Quality Score rates your ad and keyword combinations on a scale from 1-10. A higher score indicates to Google that your ad is relevant, likely to get engagement, and leads to a high-quality landing page. Knowing this, you can analyze your scores by campaign, ad group, and keywords to determine where you’re experiencing poor performance. Use this information to optimize your campaigns or pivot ad spend.

Here are some questions to consider:

• Are your current keywords delivering below-average performance?
• Does your ad offer relevant messaging for your audience?
• Is your ad copy strong enough?
• Is your landing page loading quickly?
• Is your landing page mobile-friendly?
• Has your landing page been set up to convert visitors?

Step 5: Make improvements using audit findings.

Overall, Andrea notes that the most common audit findings are usually related to campaign structure—specifically how keywords or ad groups are organized into manageable and highly optimizable structures. Audits are not intended to scrap your current strategy completely, but to find areas of improvement that can be fixed to optimize your performance. 

Google Ads Advice Every Business Should Follow

It’s no secret that we love using Google Ads at Galatic Fed! However, no one can ever truly be a master of Google Ads. Do you know why? Google Ads is an ever-changing platform. Not one best practice can be continually relevant in days to come. 

However, whatever is the current trend or best practices in Google Ads, businesses should always ensure that their account or campaigns are highly organized. As long as campaigns and ad groups are in a good structure, analysis of performance will be a breeze, and implementing optimization will be a quick fix (and not a daunting task). 

How Alma Increased Leads by 264% Using a Targeted Google Search Strategies

Andrea is no stranger to conducting a Google Ads audit and implementing changes to boost performance. Let’s take a look at the success story of Galactic Fed client, Alma. (You may recognize this as the client Andrea mentioned earlier.)

Alma is a two-sided marketplace for therapists who want a platform for hosting their private practices. Alma helps therapists manage their practices while also connecting clients with the right therapist for their needs. With the growing number of providers, Alma approached Galactic Fed to create a strategy that would bring in consultation leads to meet provider growth. The paid media team identified Google Search Ads as a prime channel for boosting lead numbers. 

The Galactic Fed team started building their B2C campaigns in March 2020, targeting only audiences in New York City. Since then, they have vastly expanded the market into 13 states and have scaled up spending to $100K a month, with an average of 1,700 leads.

This is just one example of what is possible when your business invests in a Google Ads strategy. If you’re ready to connect with an expert like Andrea to start growing your brand using Google Ads, contact us today!

The post FedHead Feature: Paid Media Specialist Andrea appeared first on Galactic Fed.

Aira Panganiban, Galactic Fed SEO Operations Manager, tells us about her journey into the SEO world and offers invaluable insights for businesses that want to grow their organic traffic for long-term growth. 

Everything You Need to Know About Technical SEO Audits

Aira was recently recognized in the first cohort of The FedHead Awardees, which honors inspiring team members who demonstrate above-and-beyond performance. For her contributions as a leader, go-getter, and all-around awesome team member in the Galactic Fed galaxy, Aira received the 2021 Rockstar Award.

As one of our first ever FedHead Awardees, we asked Aira to share more about her role at Galactic Fed, including how her work in SEO is critical for businesses and where she starts with a site audit for clients. Aira even provided some insider tips she uses for boosting organic search traffic.

Aira started working in SEO in 2017, but her ties with Galactic Fed go back further. She and Irina, co-founder of Galactic Fed, previously worked together at a different organization where they established a great working relationship that prompted Aira to join the Galactic Fed team.

When Aira first joined Galactic Fed, her main tasks included prospecting and quality assurance. However, she soon transitioned to a managerial role that pushed her to master technical SEO. Now Aira is applying her skills and expertise to performing site audits for Galactic Fed clients and boosting their organic traffic.  

SEO Is Always Evolving, and So Should Your Strategy

Aira’s passion for SEO stems from the ever-changing nature of the work. Search engine algorithms are constantly evolving, meaning that SEOs are always paying attention to best practices and new tactics for organic growth just to stay on top of what is happening in the world of search! 

As Aira puts it, “The constant changes in SEO make everyday work more challenging and interesting.” 

This is also the reason it’s often difficult for small, busy companies to maintain an effective SEO strategy on their own. 

Why Every Business Needs to Invest in SEO

At Galactic Fed, SEO isn’t something that’s “nice to have.” SEO is a necessity. All businesses should use SEO in their marketing—“Of course!,” Aira chimes in—because it’s the best way to understand and reach potential customers. So ignore those unhelpful SEO myths you’ve heard floating around the digital marketing space, and take Aira’s advice: invest in organic traffic. 

SEO helps businesses improve their website user experience, which, in turn, helps build relationships with an audience. A bad user experience can turn a visitor away from your website indefinitely. A good user experience will leave a positive impression on your visitor and create a sense of loyalty for that visitor. 

As Aira put it: “More loyal customers mean more growth for your business.”

Our clients like the sound of that!

Not to mention, nearly two-thirds of online experiences begin with a search engine, and 28.5% of Google users click the first organic result on the SERP. There are a lot of incentives for improving SEO and giving growing businesses a competitive edge!

When it comes to investing in your SEO strategy, the best approach is to start early and update often. In the fast-paced world of digital marketing, SEO is like playing the long game. Your investment now will set you up for long-term success. That means you can expect more (inexpensive) organic traffic in the future that brings in high-quality leads. 

SEO Technical Audits Help Websites Achieve Maximum Results

SEO doesn’t have the same glitz and glamour as paid media usually does, so technical SEO needs don’t always stay at top of mind for businesses.  However, if a business wants to grow its organic traffic consistently, it will want to keep up with SEO best practices to achieve maximum results. 

According to industry experts like Aira, companies should do technical SEO audits because it will help determine whether your website is optimized for search engine traffic by:

• Identifying broken links
• Maintaining optimal page load speed time
• Keeping an eye on user-friendliness
• Analyzing the status of your website content

Since algorithms are constantly changing, businesses should regularly schedule a full website audit—at least quarterly, but ideally monthly. If there are any major updates or changes to your website in between audits (such as a template change, adding or removing sections of your site, or a site rebrand), you should conduct a technical audit to catch issues before they affect organic traffic. 

If a website is left unaudited, a business will miss critical issues that need to be addressed, resulting in lost opportunities for visibility and growth. 

Conducting a Technical SEO Audit the Galactic Fed Way

Aira’s process for conducting a technical SEO audit (a.k.a. The Galactic Fed Way) identifies SEO issues according to the impact they can have on a website. For example, a broken link on the website is considered a high-priority issue because it affects traffic and user experience. On the other hand, updating keyword density in website content is a low-priority issue.

The 5-Point Technical SEO Audit Checklist

1. Find broken links and status code errors. Broken links are links on your website that simply don’t work. Cleaning up broken links adds value to your website by removing irrelevant or frustrating distractions for visitors. Getting rid of broken links can improve user experience and make content on your website easier for visitors and search engines to discover.
2. Improve page speed optimization. Page load speed is important for SEO because it has a strong correlation with bounce rate. In other words, the longer a page takes to load, the more likely it is that the user will leave the site without interacting with it. Google will register this behavior as a “bounce,” which directly negatively affects search rankings. Identifying slow page load speeds with an audit helps site administrators catch pages where visitors are dropping off. The best place to start is Google PageSpeed Insights. 
3. Improve mobile usability. Many website visitors will browse your site on their smartphones. This is why search engines care about the mobile-friendliness of your site. Mobile-friendliness is a direct ranking factor for Google, so it’s important to make sure that every key page type on your site passes Google’s mobile usability test. 
4. Crawl your website to find easy-to-miss issues. Some site issues, like page speed, are hidden in plain sight. Other issues can only be uncovered using an SEO tool (unless you’re prepared to spend hundreds of hours manually auditing every element of your site). Screaming Frog, an SEO tool that provides insights into your website performance, allows you to view all of your website’s internal and external links, response codes, URLs, metadata, and directives…and that’s just scratching the surface. For an even more thorough audit, use a secondary SEO tool to cross-check your crawl report. 
5. Conduct a user interface (UI) or user experience (UX) visual audit. Your website should be easy to navigate and enjoyable to browse. If users get frustrated with the layout or organization of your site, they may leave and never come back. The goal of the visual audit process is to identify those areas that are causing grief for site visitors and look for ways to help users accomplish the goals they want. A UX audit can improve more than your SEO rankings—you may also experience higher conversion rates, as well.

What to do After a Technical SEO Audit

A technical SEO audit helps businesses identify important issues with their sites. After that, it’s time to implement improvements. 

So how can you know which action items get first priority? SEO expert, Aira, indicates that it’s beneficial to report every issue identified in an audit. Using this information, she can categorize each action item according to its impact on the website’s health so that clients know exactly which high-impact points need immediate attention, and which can wait. 

What else should businesses do after an audit? According to Aira: be patient. It can take between six and twelve months to see improvements in traffic after making site changes. In the meantime, it’s important to stay patient and keep running regular audits to stay in Google’s good graces. 

Technical SEO Best Practices for Every Business

Finally, we asked Aira to share some technical SEO best practices that every business should follow. Here’s what she had to say:

• Make sure you have a sitemap! Having a sitemap can improve your SEO, as they are essential for search engines to crawl and index your website.
• Make sure pages you want people to find can be indexed in Google. If your pages aren’t properly indexed, they can be easily missed.
• Set up redirects to current versions of a page when you set up a new page or update a URL. If businesses do not do this properly, their visitors may end up with a “page not found” error and leave the site. 
• Always fix and update broken links to improve user experience. Broken or old links are a high-value, low-effort fix that almost anyone can do. 

Galactic Fed has a team of SEO experts like Aira who are helping companies across all industries grow their organic traffic using data and up-to-date best practices. For more information about conducting a technical SEO audit on your website, contact us today!

The post FedHead Feature: SEO Manager Aira & Why You Need an SEO Site Audit appeared first on Galactic Fed.

They say hindsight is 2020, and that’s especially true as we look back at the last 12 months in the Galactic Fed Universe. We wanted to take a moment to celebrate and appreciate all that the last year has brought us. We’ve had impressive growth, welcomed some outstanding crew members aboard the Galactic Fed ship, and have so many reasons to be excited for what’s to come in 2021.

But first, let’s take some time to reflect.

Staying light years ahead

Keep going; keep growing. And in 2020, we did. We added to Galactic Fed in many ways; in people, in processes, and platforms. Our team continued to grow, allowing us to work with more brands and help more companies grow, too.

We were fortunate enough to expand our Galactic Fed family in almost every area of our business;  especially SEO and Paid Media team members! We also created new roles in recruiting, admin, communications, and content – and we only continue to expand.  

We updated our Galactic Fed Way protocols. We continuously evaluated our systems and processes and enhanced our internal onboarding to ensure we’re setting staff and clients up for success. Finally, we expanded our online community through our platforms, such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and our newly launched Instagram. If you’re doing so already, give us a follow and #JoinTheFed!

And the award goes to…

The results are in! In September, Galactic Fed was recognized as a Clutch Top B2B Company of 2020. Clutch list ranks companies based on their industry expertise and ability to deliver the highest quality products for their clients, and we’re honored to have been selected. One of Galactic Fed’s core values is “hyper-focused in our zone of genius,” and when it comes to B2B services, we strive to be the best. We are so happy and proud to be recognized and commit to continuing to offer an out-of-this-world experience for all of our clients.

Out with the old, in with the new

In July, we rebranded and relaunched the Galactic Fed website. We enhanced our intergalactic brand with a fresh sitemap, custom illustrations, and weekly blog articles (65 & counting!) Our new look was a natural evolution that came with the expansion of our growing brand and we wanted a look and feel to reflect our futuristic, playful, and scientific approach to growth marketing. 

This rebrand was more than just colors and characters; you can expect to see additional guides, tutorials, testimonials, and more as we move into 2021. Overall, this helped to create a universe that is uniquely ours and memorable for all those who enter our world – with more content being added every week.

Success on Apple.com

We were ecstatic to learn that in November, our Apple Search Ads campaign with client, Varo Bank, had such excellent results that it was featured on Apple.com – a huge win for the Galactic Fed team. 

Galactic Fed partnered with Varo to create an Apple Search Ads campaign to increase sign up conversions and gain customer insights, all while lowering costs. In-depth knowledge of Apple Search Ads best practices, combined with clear, defined goals, allowed Varo to get the results they were looking for.

“Galactic Fed is the best paid media agency I’ve worked with. They are extremely proactive, great communicators, and at this point, they are part of our team. I would highly recommend them to both companies looking to augment their in-house paid team, as was our case, and companies looking to delegate all of paid media to an agency.” – Kasia Mikoluk; GM of Growth, Varo. 

Galactic Fed in the news

In 2020 we were able to increase our media presence through a variety of mediums. More importantly, we could share the values that Galactic Fed holds dearly, such as entrepreneurship, the advantages of remote work, and traveling, working, and maintaining a healthy life balance. Here are some of our favorites:

Galactic Fed Co-Founder & Managing Partner Irina Papuc was interviewed on The Maverick Show podcast, where she talked about living with Buddhist nuns, teaching English in Taiwan, motorcycling through Nepal, sleeping in yurts in Kyrgyzstan, crossing the Caspian Sea, and co-founding Galactic Fed. Have a listen here.

Zach Boyette, Galactic Fed Co-Founder & Managing Partner, was also interviewed on the same podcast. He talked with host Matt Bowles about bootstrapping Galactic Fed to nearly 100 staff in 3 years and choosing to live in a new location every week. Check it out here.

We were also able to share our expertise in all things SEO, Paid Media, Growth Marketing, and Entrepreneurship in online publications and interviews. Here’s a couple worth mentioning:\ \ Top 6 Lessons Gained While Building Remote Marketing TeamsWe Spoke to Zach Boyette of Galactic Fed About How to Build a Successful Service BusinessWomen of the C-Suite: “It’s Essential to Build a Team That Trusts One Another,” Says Irina PapucWhy you should prioritize your employees over your clients

Onwards & upwards

2020 was an interesting year for everyone and looked a little different for us, too. Despite it all, we are both proud and grateful that we had such a fantastic year and that we’ve been able to grow, share, and allow others to join our world. And, of course, we are excited that we have so much to look forward to in 2021. Happy New Year!

The post Hindsight is 2020: The Galactic Fed Year in Review appeared first on Galactic Fed.

Fed·er·a·tion /fedəˈrāSH(ə)n/:  an organization or group within which smaller divisions have some degree of internal autonomy.

At Galactic Fed, we are a Federation. A group of talented individuals, joined together from different worlds, united under the flag of enhancing the human experience. That is our cause; that is our creed. We are proud to be more than just a place to work, but a place to thrive.

Our Federation is made up of some fantastic members from around the world (12 countries and counting, to be exact.) Our deep-rooted belief in remote work has led to a mosaic of personalities, cultures, perspectives, and ideas – and we welcome them all.

We strive to empower and entrust all those who come aboard the Galactic Fed ship to use their talents and grow their skills, led by ship captains Zach Boyette and Irina Papuc. Recently, Irina was interviewed by Authority Magazine as a part of their series of strong female leaders, entitled “Women of the C-Suite.”  

Irina spoke about the nature of our diverse Federation: “it is an overall fascinating experience of building an international company and getting to know the team, who hails from a dozen+ different countries where our employees are at any given moment. Also, since Galactic Fed’s founding, our team members have collectively traveled to close to 70 different countries! We love sharing photos and experiences from different cultures. Even during this pandemic, when many folks are cooped up in their homes, we still retain this international flair.”

With this in mind, we recently interviewed one of Galactic Fed’s newest members, Aine Fatima, who joined us as a Paid Media Specialist. Aine hails from Pakistan, is a mother, business owner, and certified digital marketing trainer. In addition to working with Galactic Fed, she is the Founder and Chief Trainer of Ainething, where she provides digital marketing training and consultation to businesses, individuals, enterprises, or anyone who’s looking to build an impact in digital space.

Aine has focused on teaching digital marketing skills to women in Pakistan and is passionate about creating job opportunities and viable career paths for them by enhancing their digital media expertise. Find out a bit more about her background, inspirations, and why she joined Galactic Fed:

Thank you for chatting with us! We are so happy to have you on board. Please, tell us about your education and career path that led you to the digital marketing world?

I am an Electronics & Telecom Engineer by education, but I never enjoyed engineering. I always scored well in business subjects throughout my student life. One fine day, about 11 years ago, I was sitting in my university’s library and thought of and created a random Facebook Page that was a big hit and got me some tremendous organic following. This was when I realized that maybe social media (now digital media) is my thing. After graduation, I landed a job in an internet marketing agency, and since then, I haven’t stopped.

What made you want to become a trainer and share your digital marketing skills, particularly with women? 

There is no greater feeling than transferring your knowledge and learnings to those who need it the most. I became a trainer when I realized that I love giving back to my community, especially women. I love teaching new media/digital marketing skills to women because there is something special about each one of them. They are super talented, have great business ideas but lack direction. I love to give that direction so that they can kickstart and boost their businesses and ideas online. 

Why is it important to teach these skills? What are some real-world lessons people can learn from digital marketing?

It is important to teach these digital skills so that women and everyone who learns digital marketing feels empowered. Digital Marketing not only helps these students land a job, but it is also one of the essential skills in this day and age. It can help one become a freelancer, a smart worker, or pursue their online business. 

What is some advice you’d have for someone interested in getting into digital marketing but doesn’t know where to start?

My advice to all those who’d like to learn digital marketing would be to start reading and understanding the basics. There are hundreds of ‘free’ online tutorials and lessons available online to choose from. 

Do you have any inspirational stories from any of the women you’ve helped teach these skills?

One of my students was on a long career break after her marriage. She loved cooking and baking. She took one of my training and was so motivated and pumped up that she launched her home-based food business online, and she now has an online community of over 40,000 people.

What do you view the future of work looking like for women in Pakistan?

The future of work for women in Pakistan is challenging, to be honest. However, with the rise of remote jobs and digital skills, – I am sure more and more women in Pakistan will join the workforce. 

How do you balance being a female entrepreneur, a full-time mom, a committed professional, and a trainer?

It’s not easy. Managing and juggling multiple life roles is very tough, but you can conquer any obstacle when you love what you do. For me, my family is a great support as well. They let me follow my passion and dreams and support me in any way they can. 

What are some of the most important lessons you’ve learned through your career?

The most important lesson that I have learned during my career would be to “NEVER GIVE UP.” You will fail! It’s inevitable. But what’s important is how you buckle up and get back in the field – only better – and stronger.

What made you interested in joining Galactic Fed?

When I first discovered the company and followed it, it looked very promising, but it’s only when I joined and started working here that I realized what I was missing all these years. I am super impressed with the processes, environment, people, and overall vibe of the company. It’s like a family I just found, and I won’t let go!

Outside of Galactic Fed, what are some of your future goals? 

Outside of Galactic Fed, I want to keep pursuing my dream of empowering Pakistan’s women and youth on Digital Skills. I plan to build a community of women where they can learn, share, and feel digitally empowered!

Who inspires you?

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – She’s fierce, hardworking, focused, successful, and famous – she’s everything I aspire to be. 

How can people follow you and your journey?

I have a personal brand called AINETHING. I often share my stories/journey over there. Follow me on Instagram www.instagram.com/ainething  or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ainething. 

The post Women Empowerment Through Digital Marketing: Story of Aine Fatima appeared first on Galactic Fed.

When Zach Boyette and Irina Papuc co-founded Galactic Fed, the idea of a remote-first growth marketing agency was still futuristic. Looking back, it has been crucial to the agency’s success and rapid growth. With this remote aspect came the freedom to design a framework of calls and meetings that made sense. This framework led to Galactic Fed’s (almost) no call internal policy.

In a recent podcast interview, Zach said, “Galactic Fed is challenging the status quo of the 9-5 office job and proving that large, fully remote companies can be successful. We believe great work can be done from anywhere: our employees live across six continents in 10+ different time zones. We have implemented a slew of unconventional management tactics, including a strong emphasis on written communication, with nearly zero internal phone calls.” 

Three years later, we are big believers in the powers of this limited call policy. Let’s find out why:

Minimizing phone calls improves communication

Yes, that’s right. Creating a remote company culture with an almost no-call policy improves internal communication overall. How? Well, for starters, it creates an environment where team members are deliberate and intentional with their communication. We know what it’s like when a meeting gets derailed and runs too long because your colleague got sidetracked, and the thing that was supposed to improve communication has destroyed it. 

Because we don’t spend hours sitting in virtual boardrooms, we use communication tools like Slack and Asana and can get straight to the point. At Galactic Fed, we’ve seen the benefits of having a culture of over-communication. 

Limiting the number of internal calls does not mean a decrease in communication—quite the opposite. Co-Founder & Managing partner Irina Papuc said in a recent interview, “over-communication is key, so use different media to adapt to various learning styles. Working remotely brings with it the challenges of productive collaboration without a physical office. We need to be mindful that people learn and absorb knowledge in ways unique to them, and there are endless tools at our disposal to manage this.” 

She went on to tell Authority Magazine, “encourage the team to follow certain protocols, such as making themselves available in Slack during normal work hours Monday to Friday, and be clear when and if you need a response by a certain time. Encourage the team to practice over-communication that is, assuming that what reads as a clear text to the writer does not necessarily provide all the context to the reader. Give your colleague a chance to ask questions in a Q&A doc, and answer them promptly.”

By cutting out the fluff of “meetings that could have been emails,” you leave space for clear communication that is conducive to moving projects along and ultimately accomplishing more for your business.

Less calls creates happier, higher-performing employees

One of the reasons Galactic Fed strongly believes that remote work is the future of work is its emphasis on work/life balance. Not having to work your day around back to back meetings or “can you jump on a call real quick” messages means employees can genuinely own their day. And what happens when staff feel personally satisfied with their company and work? Well, they do better work. 

A study conducted by the University of North Carolina gave valuable insight into  how meetings are related to employees’ satisfaction with their jobs (even when removing other variables such as supervision and salary.)

They found that instead of enhancing or improving collaboration and communication, meetings contribute to the opposite. The study surveyed 182 senior managers in a range of industries and here’s what they found: 

• 65% said meetings keep them from completing their work.
• 71% said meetings are unproductive and inefficient. 
• 64% said meetings come at the expense of deep thinking. 
• 62% said meetings miss opportunities to bring the team closer together. 

Then, compare these unfortunate numbers with a study conducted by Harvard Business Review who surveyed a financial consultancy three months after the managers began to rethink and reduce their approach to meetings:

• 42% increase in employees perception of team collaboration
• 32% increase in feelings of safety to speak up and express opinions
• 28% increase in overall team performance
• Employees ratings of satisfaction with work/life balance rose from 62% to 92%

It’s time to re-evaluate these routine meetings’ effectiveness and look at the data that clearly shows us that employees need a change. Take it from us, a happy team is a successful team, and having our team feel satisfied at work is one reason why Galactic Fed has been able to scale so quickly.

Fewer meetings results in increased focus

One of the most significant downsides to constant calls and meetings is that it prevents staff from being able to focus, especially “deep work.” Deep work is a term coined by Georgetown University professor Cal Newport. This term is used to describe the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. To compensate for this, employees often find themselves coming to work early, staying late, or using time on the weekends to accomplish tasks. 

Ultimately, meetings and calls should serve as a support system to get more work done, but every moment spent in an unnecessary meeting cuts into time for solo work, which is necessary to be creative and efficient.  

Too many meetings interrupt this flow of concentration for employees. When it comes to poorly booked or unplanned meetings, LinkedIn found that “most employees anticipate these interruptions and, for their own sanity, simply don’t work on anything at all before the meeting. This pre-meeting dead time severely affects productivity and morale.”

Although many companies would agree in theory, recent research has shown the opposite. One study showed that meetings have increased in length and frequency over the past 50 years, to the point where executives spend an average of nearly 23  hours a week in them, up from less than 10 hours in the 1960s. If you’re operating in a 40-hour workweek, that leaves less than half of the time to accomplish tasks. As the renowned management consultant Peter Drucker said: “too many meetings are a sign of a bad organization.” 

In addition to our (almost) no call policy, Galactic Fed relies heavily on asynchronous communication, which is “the transmission of data, generally without the use of an external clock signal, where data can be transmitted intermittently rather than in a steady stream.” Essentially, async communication is communication without the expectation of getting an immediate response. Combining these two elements allows our team to remain focused on their work, our clients, and our ever-growing success.

Why an (Almost) No-Call Policy?

We refer to our “almost” no-call policy because, of course, there are situations when hopping on a call or setting a meeting serves its purposes and is an efficient way to move forward with a project or task. 

Whether its a weekly check-in or a one-time call to connect, there are some things we’ve learned you can do to make sure you get the most out of your calls when they do need to occur:

• Require an agenda: when we say “agenda,” we don’t mean who is running the call or who is taking notes. We mean ensuring all calls/meetings have a clear objective and purpose that’s sent and established in advance. What is the point of this meeting? Is it a brainstorming session? Status update? New project assignment? Team building exercise? No staff should be connecting to the call without explicitly being aware of what will be taking place. 
• Have quiet hours or days: for the most part at Galactic Fed, meetings occur Tuesday through Thursday. Mondays and Fridays are generally quiet days, where everyone has large amounts of time to work, stay focused, and cross off items on their to-do list. This also restricts having days with a single meeting that breaks up concentration and planning and keeps staff from staying online late or working weekends.
• Consider a monthly/quarterly all-hands instead: instead of multiple small meetings during the week, consider having a larger, more extended, less-frequent all-hands meeting each month or each quarter. At Galactic Fed, we hold an all-hands meeting for our larger teams once a quarter. These 1-hour meetings allow everyone to connect, celebrate wins, update on high-level projects, and align priorities moving ahead. These meetings save everyone time, boosts morale, and enforces our Galactic Fed culture of having time to work on what matters. 

The Future of Work

At Galactic Fed, we recognize that these policies were once viewed as “unconventional” but are now imperative to finding and keeping top talent and running a thriving business. Working remotely and having an almost no call policy goes beyond a “nice to have” and has been shown to have drastic positive or negative results, depending on how full your teams’ meeting schedule is.  

By protecting employees’ precious time and calendars, you will send the message of choosing real productivity over the appearance of it. Invest in your employees and business today by making decisions that increase communication, happiness, and focus. This is the future of work, and at Galactic Fed, the future of work is now.

The post Why Galactic Fed Has an (Almost) No Call Policy appeared first on Galactic Fed.

At Galactic Fed, a remote-first digital marketing agency, we know how to make working remote work for us.  Our agency was founded on remote work principles, and our Co-Founders Zach Boyette and Irina Papuc, believe deeply in the benefits and freedom of working from wherever you want. In some cases, that includes airports, mountaintops, and sandy beaches. 

But beyond having a sturdy remote work infrastructure, we’ve been able to create an organization with a distinct and established company culture – we call it the Galactic Fed Way. It’s a culture that is apparent from day one, that focuses on empowerment, and that celebrates every person aboard our ship. It took some trial and error, but once we found our footing, we took off.

The importance of company culture

Why bother trying to foster a company culture through remote work? While for starters, it’s good for business. Having a corporate culture that attracts top talent can lead to 33% more revenue. More importantly, it’s what keeps employees happy and remaining with the company, and satisfied employees who feel appreciated are a considerable advantage. (It’s one of the reasons Galactic Fed has an insanely low turnover rate.) 

Recently, while most of the corporate world was (and is) troubleshooting how to transition their board meetings to Zoom calls, Galactic Fed remained thriving thanks to our established remote work practices and our emphasis on connection through company culture.

What is company culture?

For the official definition, BuiltIn tells us that it is “the set of shared values, goals, attitudes, and practices that characterize an organization.” Or, in non-corporate speak, we prefer the definition given by Paul Spiegelman: “Company culture is not the office foosball table.”

The idea of the company and corporate culture varies depending on which office you’re in and which employee you’re speaking to. Ideally, company culture is the environment created by an organization that can establish a sense of purpose between teams and departments, generate more revenue, and ultimately turn employees into advocates. Traditionally, this was achieved through several tactics, such as:

• Team lunches
• Meditation sessions
• Training workshops
• Office parties
• Offsite retreats
• Corporate awards
• Theme days
• Friday Happy Hours

While these strategies serve a purpose, they need to be evaluated as we see a huge shift to remote work, and most likely will continue to as remote work becomes the norm. And that makes the team lunches a little harder to organize. 

Let’s take a look at some of the tried and tested ways that Galactic Fed has successfully infused our corporate culture into our completely remote company:

Understand that remote work is an advantage

This point is a critical element in establishing a real, meaningful culture at work. It also means understanding that remote work is a serious benefit compared to the traditional 9-5 office culture, and instilling that belief across your organization is imperative to its success.

When COVID-19 came on the scene, and a whopping 77% of the American workforce went remote, it was commonly viewed negatively in the corporate world. The outdated idea of remote work and what it looks like made the C-suite nervous: images of employees sitting in their pajamas with their laptops at an arm’s length away while the tv blasts created doubt. 

The upside to this is that COVID-19 and the subsequent impromptu remote workforce it created showed that employees were happier, more productive, and less likely to quit when working remotely. 

Source: OwlLabs

Galactic Fed has always been a remote-first company since its inception. The company itself was founded on the idea that great work can be done from anywhere in the world (yes, anywhere) and that this allows companies to hire the best talent, wherever they are. This put us in the extremely fortunate position to be relatively unaffected by COVID when it came to making last-minute workforce adaptations, something we are incredibly grateful for. 

In a recent interview on The Maverick Podcast, Galactic Fed Co-Founder Zach Boyette talked about precisely this: “We can hire the best people, whether that’s Canada, the US, Romania, Philippines, Brazil, wherever may be. We really try to focus on getting the best people wherever they are. And that allows us to move really fast.

Locally-based agencies haven’t been able to scale very fast because they have to find people from where they are, and that just really slows them down.”

Establish your company values

To promote your company culture, you first need to define what that looks like for your organization. This is a crucial cornerstone of any business and should be treated as such.  46% of job seekers cite company culture as very important when choosing to apply to a job – and this is exacerbated in a remote setting if you haven’t laid a concrete foundation. These can also be used from a recruitment perspective to determine if potential employees align with your company values. 

At Galactic Fed, we have employees worldwide, which means different backgrounds, religions, perspectives, and values. We knew we needed to create core values that were attainable and resonated with our diverse crew. Here’s where our ship landed:

• Futuristic: we remain on top and ahead of industry trends and scientifically test them to see what will work for our clients.
• Mathematical and growth-oriented: growth marketing is a science, and we take the scientific approach to testing hypotheses and analyzing data to achieve big-time growth.
• Radically honest and approachable: we are straight-talkers with our staff and clients and keep both “doors” and communication open at all times.
• Hyper-focused in our zone of genius: we know what we do, and we do it well, and the same goes for our employees. We employ each of them to own their talent and be their best.

You’ll notice these aren’t your typical “respect” and “collaboration” types of core values. Those principles should be the baseline of any modern company, so diving deep into the DNA of your business allows you to solidify the standards to build on. 

Create opportunities for connection

Another perk of remote work culture is that it leaves room for a lot of creativity since you’re not bound by an office’s four walls. We understand the barriers some people face when it comes to making sure employees feel connected; after all, they may be working from different continents. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t ways to make sure there is meaningful relationship-building taking place. 

For example, this past summer at Galactic Fed, we held a walk-a-thon, where our international staff was divided into teams with colleagues they didn’t typically work with and had a friendly competition to see who could out-walk the other teams from the previous month. And for some friendly competition, the winners were awarded a bonus on their paycheck. It creates the perfect atmosphere where employees can have conversations that aren’t work-related, with a healthy dose of team building. 

As this article is being written, we are in the middle of a company-wide Photo Competition. Again, we separated our awesome employees into teams, assigned each week a different theme for a month, and had staff submit their best photos. Everyone then got to vote on the winners.

Source: Galactic Fed

Not only is this a fun way to engage with other departments, but it is also a way for people to share their interests, hobbies, and home life. These are just a few ways you can recreate that “watercooler talk” and encourage staff to connect in ways other than follow-ups and deadlines.

Plus, this goes beyond a fun competition, it fosters connection and allows employees to feel part of something bigger than their desk at home, and that’s what transforms employees into brand ambassadors. 

Optimizing the onboarding process

One of the trickiest parts of remote work and establishing a distinct company culture is onboarding. We all know how it goes in a physical office – lots of face to face meetings, in-person training, and often someone to shadow or go to when questions may arise.

Onboarding needs to be a well documented and thought out system in the remote world since often employees will be self-administering some or all of their training documents and processes.

At Galactic Fed, we set up a clear onboarding process and schedule, custom made to each employee, and their specific role. This includes what their first weeks and months will look like and also establishes clear goals and KPIs to track and measure their success. 

Source: TalentLyft

In a recent interview with Authority Magazine about managing remote teams, Galactic Fed Co-Founder Irina Papuc said, “Encourage the team to practice over-communication, that is, assuming that what reads as a clear text to the writer does not necessarily provide all the context to the reader. Give your colleague a chance to ask questions in a Q&A doc, and answer them promptly. Set up brief calls when needed to untangle any misreads quickly.”

In the Galactic Fed universe, when a new team member joins, it’s the policy for them to have calls with the individuals they will be working with and members of our leadership team. These calls aren’t your typical introduction call – there’s a strict focus placed on NOT talking about work-related items. It’s a great way to have a virtual coffee chat with new team members and emphasizes the importance of getting to know each other outside of work duties. 

We understand that daily work can be deeply enriched when you’re connected with your colleagues. That’s why included in the onboarding items for every new employee, Galactic Fed includes the action item of “make three new friends.” This fosters company culture beyond what’s on your to-do list and ensures everyone has some form of relationship with each other. 

Treat individual achievements as a team celebration

As a growth marketing agency, we are continually staying updated about industry trends, courses, and certifications. And as experts in our fields, we are committed to always improving our skillset. 

This means our staff is always improving through various courses, training, or skill enhancement, and we make sure that the whole team celebrates any single win. Check out the image below to see a pretty common occurrence aboard the Galactic Fed spaceship. This is what happens when a new team member passes a Google Ads exam or levels up their certifications: 

Source: Galactic Fed

This recognition of individuals allows team members to feel appreciated and seen and serves as motivation for everyone else. While this may be a typical concept for those in office, celebrating wins remotely ensures staff can have their moment and be recognized for their determination since they won’t be sharing hallways and lunchrooms with their colleagues. 

If you lack that company culture and connection, these simple yet extremely effective practices will send the message that you are invested in your team’s professional progress. Remember, if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. 

The post How Galactic Fed Established a Distinct Remote Company Culture appeared first on Galactic Fed.

Our very own Galactic Fed Co-Founder Zach Boyette sat down Matt Bowles, host of The Maverick Show Podcast from the Maverick Investor Group. The podcast interviews industry experts on topics like world travel and entrepreneurship. Matt and Zach and talked about adventures from Zach’s digital nomad life, scaling Galactic Fed to a multinational brand, the best ways to rock remote work, and how to create an awesome company culture. We rounded the best bits for you to learn a bit more about one of the captains of the Galactic Fed spaceship.

On his first entrepreneurial endeavors:

Matt: So let’s go all the way back though. Now, Zach, I’m really curious about your background. Where did you grow up and what kind of entrepreneurial tendencies did you have as you were coming up that put you on this trajectory?

Zach: So I grew up in Signal Mountain, Tennessee, a small mountain outside of Chattanooga, Tennessee. I love it there, it’s super beautiful. I wouldn’t say I did a whole lot that was entrepreneurial related, at least until college. I went to Vanderbilt University in Nashville, and started the first of two major college entrepreneurial ventures.

The first was a student run newsletter called Recruiter Panda. I recruited about 20 students to help me write a blog. I didn’t really have any revenue goals in mind and didn’t make much, but it was fun along the way. My second one was a do it yourself, drag and drop website builder for people to make personal websites like ZachBoyette.com, called Recsy.

This was around the time when Squarespace, Wix, Weebly; those companies were getting big. So I coded the entire thing along with my Co-Founder, Marissa, and basically taught myself Ruby on Rails and how to code. I was coding for like 16 hours a day, all of senior year of college and into my first job. I actually had this couch that I would sit on that had a hole in it from me just sitting there coding basically all night. So I’d say those are my first entrepreneurial ventures.

On getting his start:

Matt: So from there, what was your trajectory after college? Did you go into the corporate world or straight into entrepreneurship?

Zach: I tried to do both at the same time as best I could. When I graduated school all my friends were going to senior year, beach week and going to have fun down in Panama City. Me and my Co-Founder went to a Hackathon instead, which was pretty nerdy, but fun.

And then we lived in Nashville for a couple of months after school, when everyone else was traveling Europe, and basically all day. I realized from that first venture that it’s not just all about making the perfect product, it’s not about having the most beautiful code, while that is extremely important.

If you build it, people won’t just come, you really need to focus on marketing, sales, those sort of things are quite important. That’s what I got into for the rest of my career. I was running that company while I was in Cincinnati, working for Proctor and Gamble.

I really liked the people I worked with. I would say I’d always been really interested in technology. And if I wasn’t doing the entrepreneurial thing full time, I wanted to be in the tech space at least. So I went and worked for Google which was really great and I enjoyed my time there, but I guess that was my last stay on the corporate journey.

On working for Google:

Matt: How was that working for Google? Can you share a little bit about that experience?

Zach: Google is great. The people I worked with were some of the smartest in the world, of course, they recruit top talent from all around the world.

I was based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Actually a lot of people don’t know, but this is the third largest office that Google has in the US. The first being San Francisco, the second being their New York office.

I got really close with the other Google people there and I’d say my “Google alumni network” is very strong as a result of that. I really, really enjoyed Google, but I knew that I was still interested in the entrepreneurial path and also increasingly important in my life at this point was the remote work path.

On finding balance as a digital nomad:

Matt: I’m curious when you got into the digital nomad lifestyle, you had seen it and you thought it was completely epic and you really wanted to do it. So how did you balance and negotiate and navigate the lifestyle and the work that you had to put in?

\ Zach: I saw some people in my Remote Year group that viewed it as a year abroad. Like, I never studied abroad and this is my chance to do it. I discovered this lifestyle in college and I’ve viewed Remote Year as my intro to being a as-long-as-possible digital nomad.

For me, work always came first. I’ve always been a very disciplined work oriented person anyways. I would just feel bad if I’m not working very hard. So behind the glamour of Instagram and stuff, it is a very strange lifestyle sometimes. I would say it can be quite tough if you’re working American time zones. But at the end of the day, what’s really important to me is just putting work first, always, no matter what, even if I have some really cool plans or something like that, if some issue comes up with my team or clients, I will always put that first.

On the birth of Galactic Fed:

Matt: I would love to ask you a little bit about the founding of Galactic Fed. Maybe just start with what was the impetus that inspired you to start Galactic Fed.

Zach: I’ve always been really interested in marketing. My initial startup company couldn’t quite find traction and the right product market fit. So, other experiences like working at P&G, Google, and running the paid media team at Toptal I realized my love for digital marketing. I loved working with Google ads, Facebook ads, SEO, but I wanted to do this for more people, I wanted to have a more scaled impact, and I wanted to be able to help a lot of different companies grow.

So, starting an agency made a lot of sense for me because I have a background in this space. I told my colleagues at Toptal that I was leaving, and discovered that my colleague, Irina Papuc, was also leaving to start her own agency in the same space – so it was a perfect fit for us to join as co-founders. I focused on paid media, she focused on SEO. With our similar approach it made sense for us to join forces, and Galactic Fed was born.

On his Co-Founder and Galactic Fed Managing Partner, Irina Papuc:

Zach: We’d only actually met once in real life at an offsite in Florida. That was the only time we’d met before, but we kept in good contact since then. She’s brilliant. Probably the smartest person I’ve ever met. She’s actually a physicist at CERN where they discovered the Higgs boson prior to starting her SEO journey. She traveled From Taiwan to Afghanistan on foot, hitchhiking basically the whole way across the Eurasian continent.

We had really similar ideals, we’re both very mathematical in our approach and very interested in travel as well. She recently charted this course from Istanbul all the way down to Ethiopia, traveling by boat, and spent time with the village tribal leaders in one of the places she was at.

She bought this satellite internet box and it was working the whole way. She didn’t miss a single call for Galactic Fed anyways. So we left Toptal and we were like, this makes sense for us to start up together.

On Galactic Fed’s services:

Matt: Can you share a little bit about how you have refined the services and offerings of Galactic Fed? What exactly do you offer specifically to businesses?

Zach: So what we call ourselves as a Growth Marketing agency, but what I mean by that is there’s some marketing agencies out there who are really focused on getting eyeballs, having a big splashy campaign. They are more of a PR focus and are driving people to look at you and recognize what you do.

That’s important of course, but what we really focus on is revenue growth. Going from 1000 to 2000 to 4000, 16,000, 32,000, 64,000 dollars per month and really scaling up your business as fast as possible.

We do almost exclusively Paid Media and SEO. Paid Media refers to basically all of the online ads you see: that’s Google ads, Facebook, Instagram ads, LinkedIn, Reddit, Quora, Twitter, et cetera.

SEO is basically what you see on Google. So the organic results you type in, like “Buy Red Nike shoes” and you see a listing for that. That also goes into writing content, and blog posts, all sorts of things that really help growth hack companies from zero to one. We’ve scaled what we offer over time, but one of our core pillars is “hyper-focused in our zone of genius” and we really try to stick to that.

You know, we know what works well. We know what helps companies grow. And that’s what we really try to stick to.

On mistakes companies make with digital marketing:

Matt: What would you say are some of the biggest mistakes that companies are currently making in these areas?

Zach: There are a lot of agencies out there that use strange tactics that typically don’t work, which often turns people off from this sort of industry. I’ll start with Paid Media. One mistake people make is trying to go in and do it all themselves with no knowledge of how it works.

And you’ve got to think that with this paid media side, you are literally paying Google or Facebook money per click. So you’re saying I’ll pay $5 per click every time someone searches for “buy red shoes” or something like that. And Google and Facebook have spent a lot of money trying to convince people that they can do it themselves.

That they can go in and set up marketing campaigns themselves that will produce a lot of money. And sometimes it works right. Especially for local businesses, easy stuff, but people try it out on their own for complex basis models for B2B SaaS, or other things that require a lot more complexity and they fall flat on their face.

So I’d say one big mistake is just, you know, not having expert help, obviously not trying to just plug ourselves here, even if you’re not at an agency level, just hiring like a small local freelancer to help you get things set up, I think it’s quite important.

On how Galactic Fed is different from other agencies:

Matt: So there’s obviously a lot of digital agencies out there, how is Galactic Fed differentiating themselves in a crowded space?

Zach: Great question. There are a billion other marketing agencies out there, and I know that. One of the common things we’ll hear is when companies come to us and say “we just had a terrible experience in this space with the last agency we hired, how can we trust you? How can we believe that you guys are different? You might have a slick sales pitch and you sound like you’re good, but how do we know?”

Our focus has really been in the like Silicon Valley startup type mentality. That’s where Irina and I grew up, working at companies like Toptal. But if you take this sort of approach of testing small, scaling from there, being really creative and thinking outside the box, that’s the kind of approach that we try to take to everything.

And it typically works really well. And again, just being really honest and open and transparent with our clients has been really helpful for us. You know, we found that trying to have a cookie cutter, one-size-fits all approach doesn’t really work in this space. You need to make sure that you’re customizing your approach while also having best practices.

On successfully being a remote-first company:

Zach: We can hire the best people, whether that’s Canada, the US, Romania, Philippines, Brazil, wherever may be. We really try to focus on getting the best people wherever they are. And that allows us to move really fast.

Locally-based agencies haven’t been able to scale very fast because they have to find people from where they are and that just really slows them down. I’d say another thing that’s allowed us to grow really fast and just keep our employees happy is just that we prioritize employees over our clients.

At the end of the day, like I’m building this company to make my employees enjoy their lives as well, I think that people really appreciate that. We’ve had very, very low turnover, extremely low attrition, hardly much at all. That’s allowed us to retain a lot of institutional knowledge. It’s allowed us to grow really fast. So I think that’s been really helpful for us really to try to practice what we preach since we’re a growth marketing agency.

Check out the full interview HERE.

The post Behind The Scenes: Zach Boyette on the Maverick Show Podcast appeared first on Galactic Fed.

You can be a hero, too. Let’s face it: hospitals need more life saving medical equipment to fight the spread of COVID-19. Life looks and feels very different from how it did 3 months ago, and seeing the impact of this virus around the world led Galactic Fed to one important realization: we need to do something.

So what do you do when you want to help? You set a goal. We set the goal to help the worst hit cities gain access to tools and equipment as fast as possible, places like Denver, Nashville, Phoenix, Houston, Philadelphia, Kansas City, and Chicago. Hospitals desperately need this PPE equipment to contain the spread of the virus, and ensure the professionals risking their own lives stay safe. That’s why Galactic Fed, with our superhero network of marketing experts, has set off on a life saving mission to raise money to deliver equipment to the real heroes.

We knew we couldn’t accomplish such a big goal without some help. We are proud to partner with Project C.U.R.E{:target _blank}., an organization dedicated to providing PPE and medical supplies to those on the front lines. They coordinate the delivery of life saving equipment like gloves, hand sanitizer, bleach wipes, eye protection, face shields, PPE equipment and n95 masks to hospitals.

Galactic Fed is, as our name implies, a Federation – a group of top marketers around the world combining their forces for the greater good. In this case, we used the power of the Fed to partner with Project C.U.R.E and tap into the infrastructure they already had. Achieving a big goal seems a lot more achievable when you enlist the experts and show people where to donate during COVID-19.

As the COVID-19 landscape is changing by the day, even by the hour, we are working with Project C.U.R.E. to ensure medical and personal protective equipment are going to the areas hit the hardest in our local and international communities. We know that millions of front line workers are feeling the extreme weight of the situation right now, and we want to ensure they get exactly what they need to continue being heroes.

It’s often in times of crisis and chaos that we see the best of humanity. It’s a compelling paradox, that within tragedy there can be much triumph. At Galactic Fed, we wanted to do our part to contribute to this triumph. With the amazing help of Project C.U.R.E, we know we can reach our goal and help the real superheroes who are saving the day. Help give safety, help give hope, help a hero.

You can help – right here, right now.

Here’s how you can get involved today:

1. Visit the #HelpAHero webpage and choose your donation amount. 100% of net proceeds go directly to the cause through GoFundMe. All donations are issued a tax receipt.
2. Your donation goes towards life saving medical equipment that is shipped to cities most affected by COVID-19.

Share this link with your friends and coworkers, with the hashtag #HelpAHero

The post Galactic Fed’s COVID-19 Initiative: #HelpAHero appeared first on Galactic Fed.