These days, when someone wants to buy a product or service from a business, they turned to Google for information.
If a business has lots of good reviews and very few neutral or bad reviews, they’ll be much more likely to move forward.
But even a single bad review can throw a wrench in things.
Obviously, as a business owner, you have good motivation to delete those bad Google reviews and improve the visibility, reputation, and sales of your brand.
So what's the best way to do it?
Google reviews are relatively short business reviews left by other people who have patronized your business, at least ostensibly. Users can find your business through a basic search, click to view your Business Profile, and write a review based on their experience. Users typically have to be signed into their Google account to leave such a review.
People have the option of rating your business on a scale of 1 to 5 stars, and they have the option to leave a more qualitative review as well. Once submitted, the review will automatically be scanned and evaluated; if it seems to be spammy, harassing, or otherwise unacceptable, it's going to be weeded out. Otherwise, the review will become publicly available.
Users have the option to delete or edit their reviews at any time. However, as a business owner, you don't have much direct control over how Google reviews get posted or what happens to them once they're up. You can always leave comments and feedback, and you'll have the option to contact users directly, but you can't easily or directly delete negative Google reviews.
Why are Google reviews so important for local businesses on Google Maps?
· First impressions. For starters, Google reviews are a solid foundation for the first impressions of most people researching your brand. Google reviews are extremely visible and highly valued by users investigating various businesses. An abundance of good reviews can make them feel more comfortable patronizing a business, while even a small number of bad reviews can make them second guess their decision. Individually, this may not seem like much, but it can accumulate to have a massive impact on your business. According to one report, even a single bad review can cost you up to 25 percent of your total business revenue.
· Due diligence. Your savviest customers are going to do their due diligence before they even consider buying from you. They're not just going to look at your star rating; they're going to read the details of each review posted about your brand. If something distasteful catches their eye in a bad review, they may float to a competitor for the sake of safety.
· SEO value. Reviews also play a role in your search engine optimization (SEO). Having more reviews and better reviews is a positive signal, supporting you in the local rankings especially. A single bad review won't be enough to tank your entire SEO strategy, but you should generally strive for as many good reviews as possible. Finding a way to limit, delete, and prevent bad reviews can help you rank higher in search engines and generate more organic traffic overall.
Now to the main point: how are you supposed to delete Google reviews?
Remember, there's no way for a business to delete bad Google reviews directly. However, businesses do have the power to flag Google Reviews for human evaluation. If a bad review violates any of Google's policies, you can flag it, and hopefully, a human evaluator will decide to remove it.
These are some of the reasons you can flag a bad Google review:
· Off topic. Google wants reviews to be focused on reviewing. They encourage reviewers to write about the direct experience they had with the brand, rather than venturing off into personal opinions, speculative territory, or slander. If you feel that a bad Google review is not fully topically focused on the experience of your business, consider flagging it for removal.
· Spam. Google is pretty good at catching spam, but every once in a while, something slips through the cracks. If a Google review seems like it's hawking another product or if it's so low quality that it could easily be mistaken as spam, flag it.
· Conflict of interest. There are also policies in place to control conflicts of interest. If you can demonstrate that this bad review was written or facilitated by a close competitor, you can probably get it removed. Anyone with a financial interest in smearing the reputation of your business you should not be posting bad reviews about it.
· Profanity. Again, Google is usually good at catching negative reviews with excessive profanity, but sometimes, things slip through. If an inappropriate review features offensive language or obscenities, you'll be in a good position to have it removed.
· Bullying or harassment. One of the more nebulous policies of Google is a firm stance against bullying and harassment. This is a somewhat subjective standard, so it can be difficult to prove. If Google is too strict with this standard, bullying and harassment can persist indefinitely, but if Google is too lax with this standard, almost every negative review would be removed under the pretense that it's harassing the business owner. The line isn't always clear here, but if you sincerely believe that this review is more focused on attacking, threatening, or otherwise damaging your business than it is spreading honest information, flag it.
· Discrimination or hate speech. You should have no trouble getting a negative review removed if it includes any language that could be interpreted as discriminatory or containing hate speech. If someone insults you or your business due to race, ethnicity, religion, or other characteristics, flag the review and get it removed.
· Personal information. Google also has a policy against sharing personal information. If you find any sensitive information in a bad review, you can probably flag it for removal.
· Not helpful. Perhaps the most ambiguous category here is describing a review as “not helpful.” Obviously, Google wants all of its publicized reviews to be helpful to the people reading them. If a review is not helpful because it's not clear, because it's too obviously subjective, or because the details are too unbelievable, it's clearly not helpful for the people reading it. Be ready to justify what you think is not helpful about this review before you flag the review for this.
Remember that Google has built-in, automatic screening systems to identify problematic and negative reviews, so it's quite rare to find a Google review that’s publicly posted and in violation of one of Google's policies. Not every bad review for your business is going to be flaggable.
Obviously, there are some problems with this approach:
· No straightforward process. Unfortunately, the process is not always straightforward. You may have an issue with a bad review that was left for your brand, but it may not fit neatly into any one category for flagging for removal. In some cases, you may not be able to flag a bad review for anything.
· A slow process. If you do flag the review, it can take some time for someone to evaluate it. In the meantime, customers and prospects will be seeing and considering the review. Even if the review does eventually get removed, it can do some damage in the meantime.
· Unreliable results. There's no guarantee that the flagged review is going to be removed, even if you have a genuinely good reason for flagging it. Unfortunately, results here are highly unreliable.
· The Streisand effect. The Streisand effect is an internet phenomenon in which a person's attempts to bury or obfuscate a piece of information end up generating more attention on that piece of information. If your business relentlessly tries to hide or bury bad reviews, you might end up bringing more attention to your business and those bad reviews. Sometimes, the best course of action is to simply respond and let the negative review stand.
Instead of simply deleting every bad Google review you find, or bending over backwards to find ways to flag Google reviews for human evaluation, consider using the following strategies as alternatives for dealing with bad Google reviews:
· Authenticate and investigate. Take some time to investigate the review and authenticate what it claims. For example, if someone complains about the quality of the spaghetti you served them on Thursday night, and your receipts show that nobody ordered spaghetti on Thursday night, you'll have a basis for flagging the review – or responding with evidence that the review is in bad faith. The more information you can gather, the better.
· Respond in good faith. Consider responding publicly to the negative review and do so in good faith. Remain polite, accommodating, and concise in your response. In some cases, it's a good idea to apologize; in others, it's a good idea to provide supplementary information to properly contextualize the claim. For example, you may apologize that the customer didn't get the experience they want but point out that they arrived at your establishment five minutes after closing.
· Reach out to the customer directly. If you feel comfortable doing so, you can reach out to the customer directly. Ask them if there's anything you can do to resolve the problem or make up for the bad experience. In many cases, customers will be willing to take down their bad reviews in exchange for a refund, or replacement, or some other incentive. This isn't bribing someone to take down a negative review; Instead, it's an attempt to fix an underlying problem or offer a resolution where there wasn't one before. Again, be polite and straightforward in your communications with them.
· Follow up. If you don't get an immediate response, or if the customer doesn't take down their bad review, consider following up with them, especially if it's an inappropriate review. In private communications, you can move the conversation forward and hopefully work out a mutually agreeable course forward. If you can't make any progress, consider posting publicly that you reached out in private and offered to make things right. Even if users encounter the bad review, they'll see that your company genuinely cares about its customers and will try to resolve issues if they arise.
· Update your business practices. Even if you don’t fully understand or agree with the person who posted the negative review, there’s probably something you can learn about your target audience from this engagement. What can you change about your business to prevent this type of bad review in the future?
· Get more positive reviews. One of the best ways to drown-out negative reviews or fake reviews is to find a way to scale-up your positive reviews. The more positive reviews you get, it will dimish the impact of a couple of negative or fake Google reviews.
No business wants to get bad Google reviews, but even the best businesses must contend with them from time to time. If any bad Google reviews violate Google's policies and best practices, you can easily flag them for manual review and removal. Otherwise, there are plenty of alternative strategies that can help you mitigate and control those bad reviews.
Google reviews are just one aspect of your digital marketing strategy and overall online presence.
Juggling them with all your other priorities, like SEO, PPC ads, and social media marketing, can be challenging – which is why so many businesses choose to work with a comprehensive digital marketing firm for consulting, execution, and overall support. If you’re ready to get started, contact us for a free consultation today!
We recently had an opportunity to work with a leading video production company, in pursuit of higher search rankings, more organic traffic, and more leads.
And at the risk of sounding arrogant, I think we knocked it out of the park.
In this brief case study, we're going to take a look at the strategic elements that helped us allow this video production company to see better results – and show off the fruits of our tactical approach.
Running a video production company isn’t easy.
This video production company, in particular, faced two massive challenges.
First, the video production industry is extremely competitive. There are literally thousands of agencies and individuals specializing in video production competing for a finite amount of online visibility – and a finite number of clients. Getting visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) for such highly contested keywords and phrases isn't exactly a cakewalk.
Second, this video production company relied almost entirely on word of mouth for lead generation. There's nothing wrong with word-of-mouth advertising or leaning heavily on referrals from previous clients, especially when you do good work. But it's not especially consistent at generating leads, and it's definitely not very scalable.
This company knew they would need to change things if they wanted to succeed in this competitive digital marketing world.
That's where we came in.
The most important elements of our campaign included:
· Initial analysis. We started with an initial analysis, examining the structure of their website, their current target keywords and search results positions, and their current efforts with onsite content and offsite link building. We wanted to pinpoint promising areas for development and get a feel for the efforts they've already made.
· Highly targeted link building. From there, we began a highly targeted link building campaign. Rather than trying to build as many links as possible, we aimed for quality over quantity and tried to acquire only extremely high authority, very relevant links. We ended up building 47 links on referring domains with high domain authority and topical relevance to video production.
· Valuable keyword targeting. Similarly, we focused on only the most strategically valuable keywords and phrases, identifying keywords that were high in search volume, high in relevance to prospects, and relatively low in competition. This way, we could maximize the value of our efforts.
· SEO page tuning. We also practiced SEO page tuning heavily for this client. In case you aren't familiar, SEO page tuning is a strategy focused on making hundreds of little tweaks to target pages to make them more relevant and more authoritative in the eyes of Google and other search engines. Even tiny adjustments, like adjusting phrases and reorganizing page sections, can make a massive difference. Thanks to Google’s new content search ranking identifier, it’s easier than ever to analyze exactly what’s missing from your internal pages so you can tweak them to perfection.
· Internal linking. Additionally, we prioritized an overhaul of internal linking. Google loves to see websites with intricate, intuitive internal linking networks, as this facilitates a smoother user experience while simultaneously making it easier to understand the purpose and relationships of each page.
· 18 months of growth. We continued our efforts for a stretch of 18 months, gradually and iteratively adjusting our approach as we gathered more data about our client’s performance. By the end of this 18-month campaign, this video production company was in a much better digital marketing spot.
Here are the most important results we have to show as results of our efforts:
· Top rankings for “video production.” Our client now ranks in (or close to) the top position for keywords similar to “video production,” alongside major competitors who have 13 times their revenue. They can now contend with some of the biggest names in the industry.
· Dominance of valuable keywords. Our client also ranks in the top 5 positions for each of their most desired and targeted money terms. These keywords and phrases are highly relevant for leads and prospects, making top rankings even more valuable.
· A 7x increase in traffic. From the start of the campaign, our client saw a sevenfold increase in traffic to their website. That means seven times as much visibility, seven times as many potential leads, and seven times the total impact of the website.
· ~7 highly qualified corporate leads per week. This video production company had practically zero consistent leads before we got involved. Now, they get on average seven highly qualified corporate leads every week.
We helped this video production company completely revolutionize their approach to SEO, traffic generation, and lead generation.
And they’re not alone.
In fact, they’re just one of hundreds of companies and individuals we’ve guided over the years.
And you could be next.
If you’re ready to see massive increases in your search visibility, traffic, lead flow, and sales, the first step is a free consultation with us – so reach out today!
The bidet and SEO industries have a lot in common.
We’re both involved in cleaning up messes.
We’re both interested in providing better user experiences.
And we’re both interested in experimenting with the latest technological advancements (even if it’s not always comfortable at first).
Though admittedly, achieving “number 2” in SEO means something very different than it does to the hygienic folks in the bidet industry…
Still, when an emerging bidet brand came to us with lofty aspirations and a desire to reach number 1 in the SERPs, we jumped at the chance.
It was an opportunity for us to show just how much of an impact a solid SEO strategy can make.
And boy, did we deliver.
The bidet industry presents some interesting challenges.
It's a growing industry, as more people in the United States discover the many benefits of using a bidet, rather than wiping with toilet paper. That's good for business, but it also attracts a lot of competition. Breaking into the space would require us to bear down, analyze the obstructions, and push with enough force to overcome them.
On top of that, this particular client was a fairly new brand with minimal name recognition, practically no domain authority, and a single, fresh deposit in their SEO efforts.
These challenges were significant, but we could never leave a brand behind – especially a brand that supports behinds.
It would have been a dereliction of doodie to “spray and pray,” targeting general audiences with unfocused keywords and phrases.
Instead, we put our efforts into targeted precision.
That meant choosing only the most valuable potential keywords for our client to target, thus maximizing our effectiveness and minimizing costs. The keywords we selected were highly relevant to the industry, relatively minimal in competition, and yet affiliated with high search volume.
This golden ratio is ideal for any SEO strategy. You need keywords and phrases that are relevant, capable of facilitating organic traffic, and still approachable. This way, you can speak to the right audience, rank faster, and accumulate as much traffic as possible.
A few weeks later, we were on a roll.
· Strategic analysis and keyword research. Everything started with a strategic analysis, combined with keyword research. We wanted to know everything there was to know about bidets, including how they work, who uses them, who's selling them, and how we could attract the most attention to this particular brand. Once we had a good game plan in place, everything became much looser and easier to pass.
· Onsite content support. Developing good content, or as we called it, making vowel movements, is always a crucial part of an SEO strategy. That's why we spent some time analyzing and supporting onsite content efforts. This particular client already had a thriving (and punny) blog, but we helped advise and fine-tune the content for SEO purposes.
· Onsite technical optimization. We also assisted with technical onsite optimization, analyzing internal pages for technical performance, keyword support, and more. With hundreds of ranking factors considered by Google, technical onsite optimization is hard to practice without an experienced SEO provider assisting you.
· Offsite content and link building. The heart of this campaign was in offsite content and link building. Writing and publishing offsite articles with various relevant publishers helps to increase your domain authority and page authority, ultimately increasing the subjective authoritativeness of your brand and thereby increasing your rankings. After even a few months of consistent external publishing, this bidet brand began to see positive momentum in the SERPs.
· Ongoing critical analysis. We’re not party poopers, but sometimes, it’s important to acknowledge the limitations of our own efforts. SEO is as much of an art as it is a science, and it requires some analysis and tweaking to be successful. We kept a close eye on our progress, especially in the first few months, so that we could learn from our efforts and adapt. Ultimately, this allowed us to achieve much more for this bidet brand.
Like a constipated accountant who couldn’t budget, some of our clients lack the resources necessary to support a higher-level campaign. But with even a modest budget, we can offer a collection of strategies capable of helping your brand achieve sustainable SEO momentum.
It was a splash hit from the start — flushing away any lingering doubts about our SEO strategy.
· An increase in overall ranking keywords by 10x. We were able to multiply the total number of keyword rankings for this client by a factor of 10. In other words, they rank for a number of keywords in order of magnitude larger than what they started with.
· Top 10 rankings for the bidet industry’s 5 most competitive keywords. From bottom to top, we cleaned up the rankings. This brand is now on page 1, in the top 10 rankings for all 5 of the most competitive keywords in the bidet industry.
· 300x impressions. For each impression this brand had before we started, it now has more than 300. Thousands and thousands of people are seeing this brand for the first time.
· 10x leads. With the sales pipeline officially unclogged, this brand saw a tenfold increase in leads. And we expect this is only the beginning.
· 4x sales. As you might imagine, this had a very positive impact on sales. Now, this bidet brand has 4 times as many sales as it did – and it's selling more on its website than it is on Amazon.
· Massive email list growth. As an added bonus, this bidet brand has seen massive email list growth. As more people discover and visit this brand’s website, the list continues to naturally expand.
As this bidet brand’s top competitors continue to circle the drain, we’ve been redoubling our efforts.
With a broader spectrum of target keywords, more onsite refinement, and of course, more content, we can push these results even further.
Perhaps you found the humor in this article corny. Perhaps you only liked a phew of our jokes.
But when it comes to delivering some of the best SEO results in the industry, we're quite serious.
If you're interested in a free consultation, with far more details and far fewer puns, contact us today!
Have you ever had to manage a fleet of vehicles for business?
It's hard work.
We've never done it, personally, but we're becoming increasingly familiar with the demands of such an operation.
Maintaining a fleet of vehicles effectively requires constant attention to inspections, conditions, warranties, and more – all while trying to keep costs minimal.
A good fleet maintenance software platform can help in all these respects, but it can't help you unless you know it exists.
That was part of the problem for the fleet maintenance software company that came to us with hopes of accelerating to the top rankings in relevant search engine results pages (SERPs).
It was our pleasure to get behind the wheel and take the fast track to greater organic traffic.
Today, they're one of the best and most visible fleet maintenance software companies on the market.
So how did we get there?
Digital marketing is more accessible, yet harder than ever. With so many key competitors fighting for the top spots in SERPs and so many ranking factors to keep track of, it's not straightforward for a business owner to devise or implement an effective SEO strategy.
Admittedly, it's not hard to reach rank 1 for a keyword, assuming you don't have preferences for what that keyword is. There are plenty of long-tail phrases that are unpopular and undesirable enough that even a modicum of SEO investment can put you in the top spot.
But this isn't good enough for a fleet maintenance software company that wants real leads and real sales.
If we were going to truly help this team of fleet maintenance professionals, we would need to adopt a much more strategic, targeted approach.
We had a need for speed – a genuine desire to see results as quickly as possible.
Of course, we were somewhat limited by the nature of SEO, which requires months, and sometimes years of effort to see meaningful results.
That's why we started an 18 month campaign, so we would have plenty of time to flesh out our strategy – and still prioritize relatively quick results.
· Strategy and keyword analysis. In the SEO world, everything starts with a strategic analysis. We took a look at the fleet maintenance industry, including competitors, and did a close examination of strategically viable keyword targets. For this campaign, we wanted to focus heavily on keywords that were directly relevant to the brand and its customers. There was no reason to try and achieve rankings or traffic for audiences that weren't going to be interested in buying the product.
· Technical onsite optimization. Good campaigns also rely on technical onsite optimization. We need to make sure that our clients’ websites load consistently, quickly, and across all devices and browsers. We also need to make sure to fulfill as many technical ranking factors as possible.
· Onsite content development. Strong onsite content is still an ideal foundation for any SEO campaign, as it lends itself to higher website authority, more relevant keyword optimization, and better opportunities for inbound linking.
· Offsite content and link building. Much of our work focused on establishing a more powerful superhighway leading to this client's website. We developed content featured in a wide range of different offsite publishers for this client, building links throughout the process. This offsite work supported visibility, referral traffic, and of course, higher authority that could lead to higher search engine rankings.
No SEO campaign is without its minor hiccups and deviations. In fact, this is a critical part of the process. As we closely analyzed our own methods and our client’s performance, we were able to learn more about this unique SEO niche – and eventually deploy the tactics necessary to help this fleet maintenance software company dominate their top competitors.
Some of the most impressive results of our efforts include:
· Exclusively relevant keywords. Some brands can afford to target general audiences. But most people aren't business owners, and most business owners don't have a fleet of vehicles to maintain and manage. Accordingly, we knew we needed to be as specific and highly relevant as possible in our optimization campaign. We targeted relevant keywords almost exclusively, prioritizing and highlighting only the keywords most likely to result in sales.
· 2.5x increase in organic traffic. As a result of our combined SEO tuning efforts, we were able to provide this client with a 2.5-fold increase in organic traffic. In other words, this client is now seeing two and a half times as much traffic from search engines as they were before this campaign started. And because we exclusively targeted relevant keywords, we can be reasonably assured that this traffic is chock full of qualified leads and potential buyers.
· 3x increase in total ranking keywords. We were able to multiply the number of total ranking keywords for this client by a factor of three. They're now appearing in searches for three times as many keywords and phrases. Almost any relevant search for this type of product will feature this brand.
· 4x increase in ranking keywords in positions 1-4. Visibility can be a tricky thing in SEO, as high rankings are disproportionately valuable. For this fleet maintenance software company, we were able to achieve a four-fold increase in ranking keywords in positions 1-4. Positions 1-4 represent roughly the top half of the first page – and websites in these positions receive the lion’s share of the traffic for a given query. These high rankings are largely responsible for the massive increase in organic traffic we were able to provide this client.
Are you ready to hit the road and leave your competitors in the dust?
Are you looking for only the best results for only the most relevant target keywords in your industry?
We’re ready to copilot.
If you’re ready to start the conversation or searching for a digital marketing agency, reach out for a free consultation today!
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The broad strokes of search engine optimization (SEO) are relatively easy to understand, even for lay people.
Google and other search engines want to reward good content, and they want to provide users with relevant content for their needs.
Accordingly, good, relevant content makes it to the top of search engines.
If you want to achieve the highest rankings possible within your domain, you'll need to write lots of relevant, useful content for your target audience. You'll also need to support that content with a host of different SEO strategies, including technical optimization and link building.
But in today's hypercompetitive online marketing environment, the fundamentals alone aren't enough to guarantee you success. Instead, if you want any page of your website to dominate the competition and rise to the top of the search engine results pages (SERPs), you'll need to incorporate SEO tuning.
But what exactly is SEO tuning, how is it so reliable, and how do you practice it for your internal pages?
We hope to answer all your questions and more in this guide.
SEO tuning is a specific set of strategies in the umbrella of search engine optimization.
These strategies are designed to help you fine-tune and polish an existing page, ultimately supporting it in terms of its ranking potential and relevance to your audience.
Chances are, if you've been operating a website for some time, you have lots of strong pieces of content that need just a little bit of extra help to reach the upper echelons of the SERPs.
The strategies in SEO tuning include things like cutting ineffective content, including more relevant keywords, minimizing keyword cannibalization, and fixing small technical issues.
Additionally, SEO tuning calls your attention to specific ranking factors and qualities of your page, so that you can maximize its likelihood of ranking highly for relevant queries. These include things like:
Note that SEO tuning isn't about creating new pages, nor is it about completely overhauling existing pages. Instead, it's about taking solid, reliable pages on your website and fixing the little issues that might be holding them back.
You can think about it as taking a page that ranks as a B or B+ and moving it to an A or A+.
Why does SEO tuning work?
For starters, SEO tuning can help you with the following:
It's also important to recognize the current landscape of SEO.
These days, the SEO field is incredibly competitive, even for relatively obscure fields and niches. Even if you have a piece of great content on your website, there are probably a dozen other websites that offer content of similar relevance and quality. If you want to reach page one, or even rank one for a given keyword phrase or query, it's imperative that your page is as polished as possible.
At the highest competitive levels, even the smallest changes can make a big difference.
On top of that, companies that heavily invest in SEO often suffer from redundancy and pages that overlap in their pursuit of goals. SEO tuning provides you with an opportunity to separate your strategic targets and remain focused on your most important objectives.
How do you tune a page for SEO?
The easy answer is to work with the team of SEO experts, like those of us here at Marketer.co. We can help you identify the most valuable pages of your website, brainstorm about strategically valuable keyword targets, and ultimately conduct analyses that lead us to the best SEO tuning strategies for each page.
But if you choose to do the work on your own, you need to keep the following concepts in mind:
Everything starts with an SEO tuning audit. Essentially, this phase is about identifying potential page targets of your website and evaluating them in terms of SEO performance. There are SEO tuning software tools available to help you do this; these will often provide you with specific recommendations, based on the content of your website.
However, it's also possible to conduct this audit on your own.
When evaluating pages of your website, look at:
Once you have a list of valuable page targets, take a look at the following:
Once you have a full analysis in place for a given page, you'll be able to devise a plan for how to make changes to it. If you're working with SEO consultants, or if you've used an SEO tuning tool, you'll likely have specific recommendations to work with. Otherwise, you'll need to brainstorm solutions on your own. Depending on the current status and position of your page, there are probably many things you can do.
The process of applying these changes can be somewhat tedious and repetitive, but remember that every tweak inches you closer to SEO ranking perfection.
Many people think SEO tuning is all about adding new, better content. But in many cases, the stronger move is to surgically remove things that aren't working.
For example:
Once you remove everything compromising your SEO ranking potential, you can focus on tweaking what already exists and adding more.
Pay especially close attention to the following:
The final step is to measure and analyze your results. Keep in mind that Google’s index updates only periodically, and it may take several weeks or months before your changes take full effect. Schedule an analysis in the future to see if your changes have increased your pages’ rankings, traffic, conversions, and other dimensions of performance; if they haven't, analyze why and consider starting from scratch.
So the solution is to tune your pages for SEO as much as humanly possible, right?
Not necessarily. There's such a thing as “too much of a good thing” in most areas of life, and SEO tuning is no different.
Google doesn't want pages that are tuned to technical perfection, necessarily; it also wants authentic, user-centric content. If it becomes clear that you're artificially manipulating your rankings, or if your content becomes so tuned that it reads as robotic or mechanical, it could end up hurting you more than helping you.
These are just some examples of how:
These tips and strategies can prevent you from overtuning your articles for SEO:
We’ve helped a wide range of clients achieve next-level SEO results, and one of the best tools in our arsenal is SEO tuning.
Here are a few of the best success stories we have to offer:
SEO tuning is hard. If you have hundreds of pages to optimize for, it’s even harder. That’s why we make every effort to help our clients navigate this space – and tune their pages for ranking perfection. If you’re interested in a free SEO tuning audit, or if you need help executing the finer directives of your SEO strategy as a white label SEO reseller, contact us for a free consultation today!
This past year, we had a massive opportunity to help a Fortune 100 company with their SEO efforts.
We’ll call it “Company A” for the sake of discretion.
As you can imagine, Company A was no stranger to SEO.
The marketing team at Company A had been managing a robust SEO strategy for many years – and they had a lot to show for it. They had strategically important target keywords, a relatively high domain authority, and an impressive spectrum of keyword rankings worth showing off.
But they wanted more. Naturally.
So they came to us. And we helped them spearhead a new campaign that pushed their search engine dominance even higher – and set them up for even more momentum to come.
Let’s take a look at how we helped a Fortune 100 company increase their keyword rankings by 45 percent.
Our initial engagement focused on consulting and strategic analysis. We wanted to understand Company A’s current goals, philosophy in marketing, and previous SEO efforts.
After a few meetings and a deep dive into their existing strategic targets and needs, we collaboratively developed a strategy we felt would make the biggest impact.
3 Months
So far, our campaign has lasted 3 months. That's not a lot of time in the SEO world; it's ample to see meaningful results, but the best campaigns last many years.
Still, we wanted to make the most of the time we had and prove that our efforts were worth continuing.
1 Vital Page
Company A had 1 particularly important internal page in mind for development. Naturally, we also wanted to build the company’s domain authority more broadly.
6 Vital Keywords
We decided to focus our efforts on 6 vital keywords with strategic value for the client. Each of these keywords had significant search volume, a high degree of relevance, and a host of powerful competitors vying for them.
If we wanted to increase rankings for these keywords, we would need to make our efforts count.
4 Waves of Link Building
Our role in this campaign was, primarily, link building.
Our link building efforts unfolded across 4 separate waves, each with a blend of diverse offsite targets. The goal was to build links across a variety of different websites with different DA scores – and maximize relevance to readers and publishers. We also mixed up our publication schedules and timing to make sure our links would be as natural and organic as possible.
Now for the juicy part – the results.
How much did Company A benefit from our new campaign?
First, let’s talk about their most valuable target keywords.
We’ll anonymize the keywords for the sake of discretion. For each keyword, we’ll show you the original ranking, the gain in ranking (in parentheses), and the final ranking (in bold).
· Keyword 1. 13 (+11) > 2
· Keyword 2. 18 (+16) > 2
· Keyword 3. 22 (+19) > 3
· Keyword 4. 11 (+1) > 10
· Keyword 5. 100 (+93) > 7
· Keyword 6. 16 (+7) > 9
Note that these keywords are highly competitive, head keywords. All 6 of their most valuable keywords are now on page 1, despite none of them being on page 1 before our efforts – including 1 keyword that barely made it to page 10.
On top of that, we led an increase in Company A’s total number of keyword rankings. Company A went from 1,812 ranking keywords to 2,627 today – a nominal increase of 815, or 45 percent.
The page we targeted started with an authority score of 52, and by the end of our campaign, it rose to 57, an increase of nearly 10 percent.
Our results for Company A speak for themselves.
But can we replicate these results?
We’ve had hundreds of engagements with hundreds of clients who can attest to that – and you don’t have to be a Fortune 100 company to benefit from our help.
At Marketer.co, we can help you with everything related to SEO and marketing, including:
· Strategic consulting. Arguably the most important part of your campaign is the strategy and research that happens before you develop a single piece of content. We can help you evaluate your current strategic position, including your domain authority, page authority, keyword rankings, and more. From there, we can help you develop a holistic strategy to achieve your SEO and marketing goals.
· Keyword research. It's important to recognize your most strategically valuable target keywords, based on their relevance to your business and your audience, their search volume, and the level of competition contesting them. Otherwise, you may not achieve your full potential in generating organic traffic or new revenue for your business.
· Content development. Content has been at the heart of SEO for more than a decade, and it continues to be the most important component of your strategy. We can help you not only figure out what types of content you need, but also develop those pieces of content on your behalf. We specialize in both onsite and offsite content.
· Link building. When it's time for link building, we can help you tap into our massive network of publishers to find only the most relevant, highly authoritative, trustworthy referring domains. Whether you're just starting out or are competing with some of the top names in the industry, we'll help you boost your authority numbers and rise to the top of the SERPs.
· Peripheral strategies. As our name suggests, we’re about much more than just SEO (though it is one of our greatest offerings). We can also help you with practically any peripheral marketing or advertising strategy, such as PPC advertising, social media marketing, and email marketing. Many of these strategies complement each other, so it pays to have a dedicated partner who can help you with all of them.
If you liked this case study, you'll really enjoy this bidet marketing example where we took a NEW bidet brand from zero to page one on Google in 18 months.
If you’re interested in learning more about how we achieve such impressive results for our clients, or if you’re ready to get started with a free consultation, contact us today!
You want prospective clients to find your law firm.
There are many ways to facilitate this, but the best is to optimize your presence in search engines.
After all, most of your clients and prospects are primarily using search engines for researching lawyers and law firms for their needs.
But here's the thing.
Chances are, most of your competitors are already outranking you in search engine results pages (SERPs) for queries relevant to your niche.
And as you might imagine, higher rankings get not only more visibility, but more traffic and more prestige as well.
If you want to earn that visibility and traffic for your own law firm, you'll need to find a way to outrank your competitors. Search engine optimization (SEO) can help you do this. But an SEO strategy without keyword research is like a boat without a rudder; it may be powerful, but it lacks direction.
Accordingly, keyword research is typically the first step of any SEO strategy, and it's certainly the best place to start as a law firm.
So what exactly is SEO keyword research? And how do you practice it?
In SEO, keywords (and by extension, keyword phrases) are words and phrases that people enter into search engines like Google as a search query.
For example, “lawyers” is technically a keyword, though most people don't search this broadly. “Personal injury lawyers near me” is a much more common keyword phrase, as is “How to choose the best personal injury lawyer.”
If you can optimize your web presence for phrases like these, you'll increase your chances of ranking in the SERPs produced for these queries.
SEO keyword research is the process of analyzing various keywords and phrases for the sake of finding the best possible targets. Some SEO keywords are more valuable for your law firm than others, and for a few different reasons; some keywords are more relevant to your organization, some are more popular search terms, and some are easier to optimize for.
The process usually begins with some simple brainstorming, which you can do even if you don't have much SEO experience. Think about what your law firm represents, what types of customers you serve, and what those customers might search for if they're looking for a business like yours.
Most people start producing a list based on their brainstorming efforts, then they turn to the power of specific keyword research tools that allow them to gather more data and come up with new ideas.
You can figure out the best keywords for your law firm to target by studying the following metrics:
· Relevance. Relevance is largely a subjective matter. You need to choose SEO keywords that are relevant to your organization as well as the clients and prospects searching for it. Otherwise, there isn't much of a point in receiving the traffic.
· Search volume. Within the realm of relevant keywords, you should also choose keywords and phrases with relatively high search volume. Search volume tells you how many people search for this keyword or phrase within a given time period, usually one month. The higher the search volume, the more people are searching for it, and the more traffic you'll receive if you can rank at the top for that keyword or phrase.
· Competition. That said, choosing only the keywords with the highest search volume is a surefire recipe for failure. That's because you also need to consider the competition; keywords with high search volume often have high competition, making them difficult or even impossible to rank for. Keywords with lower search volume may not get as much visibility or traffic, but you can reach rank one for those terms quite easily.
Ideally, you'll select a host of keywords and phrases that are highly relevant to your organization, with high search volume, and minimal competition. These perfect keywords are unicorns, however, so you may have to make some compromises.
Your strategic keyword targets are going to inform every element of your SEO strategy, including your onsite optimization, your content creation, and even your link building. You'll use them to create new pages of your website, inform the topics for your blog posts, serve as anchor text for your links, and more.
You can start the keyword research process by simply getting into the mind of your ideal target client or prospect. What is this person looking for? What has this person recently experienced? What types of things would they enter into a search engine if they were either A) interested in services like yours or B) could benefit from services like yours?
Already, you can likely come up with various ideas directly related to your area of expertise. For example, people might search for things like “family lawyer,” “divorce attorney,” or “custody agreement lawyers near me.”
But if you want to go a step further, you should also consider the types of questions that people ask search engines related to legal matters. Think of things like “what should I do if someone is suing me?” or “how do I create a last will and testament?” Consider all the things that your prospects and clients ask you when first meeting you.
If you're struggling to come up with ideas, or if you just want to flesh out your list even further, look to online resources that specifically support questions and answers related to legal matters. Avvo, Justia, and Lawyers.com are fantastic resources for this.
Keep a list of all the keywords and phrases you've generated. Most experienced SEO professionals do this in a spreadsheet, making it easier to manage SEO keywords both now and in the future.
As your list expands, you can consult other tools designed for keyword brainstorming. SEMRush, Ahrefs, Google Trends, and Google Keyword Planner are good places to start. All you have to do is enter a handful of keywords and phrases, and these tools will help you generate even more ideas.
In the course of your brainstorming and development, be sure to highlight keyword variations and related searches. For example, if you came up with the keyword idea “divorce lawyer,” you should understand that “divorce attorney,” “divorce law firm,” and “divorce legal help” are all functional variations of that query.
Each variation and related search can function somewhat on its own in your SEO strategy, though it is worth noting that due to semantic search, Google often blends semantically similar keywords and phrases together.
Don't worry about anything else at this point; just focus on cultivating a large list of potential keywords and phrases that are relevant to both your organization and the clients and prospects it serves.
At this point, you should have a long, borderline comprehensive list of keywords and phrases that are highly relevant to your law firm.
Now, your job becomes whittling that bulky tome down to a more manageable list. Many law firms and lawyers start with a list of about 20 keywords and phrases, but feel free to increase or decrease this according to your budget and your goals.
The two primary factors you'll need to consider beyond relevance are search volume and competition. The best targets are ones with high search volume and low competition, but these are understandably rare, due to the attractiveness of high search volume keyword terms in such a competitive industry. You'll need to decide for yourself how to balance these; most lawyers and law firms choose a diverse mix of “low hanging fruit targets” with low search volume and low competition along with “long-term goal” targets with high search volume and high competition.
Head keywords, or relatively short keywords and phrases, like “DUI lawyer,” typically offer very high search volume, but also high competition. Long-tail keywords, or longer search queries, like “How do I get out of a DUI?” typically offer very low search volume, but also low competition. The best SEO campaigns include a mix of both in their keyword targets.
Local keywords, as you might expect, are keywords and phrases that also include some geographic element. For example, these are search queries like “real estate lawyer Ohio,” “real estate lawyer Cleveland,” or even “real estate lawyer near me.”
These keywords and phrases are especially valuable for local SEO – the practice of optimizing your law firm for local searches. Local SEO is very similar to national SEO, but with some extra considerations for local search results.
Optimizing for your geographic location can be an easy way to avoid big competition and maximize visibility for the people geographically closest to you. Just keep in mind that in addition to optimizing for local keywords, you also need to optimize your local presence, such as by cleaning up your local citations and maximizing the quality and number of local reviews for your law firm.
Local SEO is a complex topic that requires its own article, but suffice it to say that most law firms do benefit from having at least a handful of local keywords among their strategic targets.
If you're hoping to get more out of SEO keyword research for your law firm, these tips should give you a good start:
· Work with the pros. We've tried to make this guide thorough, yet accessible. It should help you understand the basics of keyword research, but as you probably understand, SEO keyword research is better performed in the hands of an experienced professional who knows what types of keyword targets work best. If you have the budget for it, we advise you to work with SEO professionals for your keyword research needs.
· Consider budget and scope before beginning. There is no such thing as universally applicable keyword research. That's because each business has a unique budget and a unique scope. What works for a small, local, boutique law firm simply isn't going to work for a large, more generalized law firm. Make a plan for your budget and the scope of your SEO campaign from the beginning so you can choose better strategic targets.
· Triangulate the truth with multiple tools. Unfortunately, keyword data isn't perfect. It's constantly in flux, and different tools use different methodologies for providing you with data. Accordingly, it's good to triangulate the truth by using multiple tools to cross-reference each other.
· Understand search intent (and cater to it). Google is all about serving user intent. When someone asks a question, Google tries to find them an answer. When someone is obviously searching for a certain type of business, Google tries to find businesses that match those defined criteria. Accordingly, the better you understand search intent, and the better you cater to that intent, the better results you'll see.
· When in doubt, go narrow. A small number of very focused keywords is possibly the best way to start any SEO strategy. This way, you can use your budget on keywords that are extremely relevant with low competition; even if these searches don't generate much volume, you can at least get some early results to fuel the rest of your campaign. This is also a great way to stress test your SEO strategy; if you can't increase your rankings with very niche keywords with limited competition, you'll need to make some changes before you increase your budget and scope.
· Study your competition carefully. It's also a good idea to understand your competition. Go beyond simply looking at the competitive rating of various curative phrases and try to understand the tactics your competitors are using to optimize for them. What types of articles are they writing? Where are they building links?
· Optimize with caution. Keyword stuffing is the practice of deliberately including keywords in your content for the explicit purpose of manipulating your rankings. If done excessively, it leads to a much poorer user experience and can actually work against you, earning you a penalty that precludes you from advancing your SERP rankings. When optimizing for your strategically valuable keywords, do so with caution.
· Measure your results. Finally, be prepared to measure your results. You won't know how effective your keyword targets are until you put them to use and objectively observe their impact.
Keyword research is never easy.
It’s even harder in a competitive market like legal services.
That’s why it’s valuable to trust your keyword research – the foundation of your SEO strategy – to competent professionals with expertise in your niche.
We’re waiting for you. So don’t hesitate to reach out today – and find out how we can help your law firm dominate the SERPs!
Marketing heads and major decision makers within Fortune 500 companies are responsible for using consumer data to make better decisions.
You need to understand who your consumers are, how they think, and how they make purchases if you want to persuade them. This much is obvious.
But currently, we live in an age of hubris. That's because we live in the age of big data and AI. This combination of technologies entitles us to more data from more sources than ever before, and it enables us to crunch those numbers at record speed.
It's only natural that CEOs, CMOs, and other executive authorities feel like they're on top of the world. Now, every decision can be based on data.
But there's a problem.
There are massive consumer data blind spots holding Fortune 500 companies back.
And if you want to maintain your market dominance, you'll need to learn how to recognize and avoid them.
What do we mean by “consumer data blind spot?”
To put it succinctly, a consumer data blind spot is any error, inaccuracy, missing piece, or misinterpretation in your data sets or your interpretation of data that leads to a meaningful disconnect. Furthermore, because these are blind spots, you aren't aware they actually exist.
As an example, let's say you're buying T-shirts for a group of 10 people. You know the sizes of 9 of those people, so you know that there’s 1 data point missing.
But what you may not realize is that 3 of those people wrote down the wrong shirt size, or that 1 of them lives in a foreign country where shirt sizes work a bit differently.
These are blind spots.
Keep in mind that blind spots aren't just related to inaccurate or incomplete data. They also exist in the context of processing, analyzing, or interpreting data. Our example doesn't work here because T-shirt sizes are unambiguous and require very little high-level consideration. But more complex data sets for more abstract decisions are ripe with opportunities for misinterpretation and botched analysis.
If you want to make better decisions for your business, you need to be able to uncover and either eliminate or account for these blind spots.
So let's look at some of the common blind spots that plague modern business leaders.
Survey creators typically understand the importance of sampling – and getting responses from a representative audience. However, there are fundamental limitations to what surveys can tell you about customers.
Most notably, not everyone likes to participate in surveys. In fact, some people absolutely refuse to do it under any circumstance, even if you bribe them. You may receive enough survey responses to feel confident that you have a representative sample, but that representative sample will always disproportionately reflect the types of people who choose to participate in surveys. Even if it's only slight, this effect can become noticeable on larger scales.
This is especially noticeable in political arenas, where people with certain political beliefs are inherently less likely to participate in surveys. This is one reason why election polls are seemingly becoming less accurate with time, despite better tools and a better understanding of statistics to help us gather and analyze the appropriate data.
Also, we need to understand that customers participating in any kind of survey or feedback mechanism may be incentivized to give responses that don't necessarily align with their true thoughts and feelings. For example, an especially nice person might be unwilling to give a poor review of their experience because they don't want to get the customer service representative who helped them into trouble – or a person having a bad day may give a disproportionately bad review because of their emotional state at the time.
This effect becomes even more exaggerated when you attract more customer feedback through the use of incentives. For example, if you offer your customers a $5 gift card as a reward for completing a survey, you'll naturally attract many people who don't want to waste their time filling out a survey but do want the $5; they're not going to think about their responses very much, as they just want to get the survey done and over with.
This doesn't mean that you can't use surveys, focus groups, or structures for collecting customer feedback. On the contrary, these can be very good sources of consumer data. However, you need to account for this uncertainty. Just because most of your customers are leaving positive feedback doesn't mean you're making the best possible impact.
Most of you reading this will already be familiar with confirmation bias, but it’s an important concept that bears repeating for a very crucial reason: many people believe themselves to be exempt from this effect. In fact, many people believe themselves to be exempt from biases in general. It's only natural, as this is, in itself a bias: the illusory superiority effect.
As a refresher, confirmation bias is the tendency for people to exaggerate the importance of pieces of evidence that align with their preconceived ideas and downplay the importance of pieces of evidence that don't align with their preconceived ideas. It's a way of using the data to validate your preexisting conclusions, rather than to challenge them or naturally guide you to a new conclusion.
In our experience, confirmation bias is an insidious and notorious effect in the higher echelons of Fortune 500 companies. Instead of starting with a neutral view, leaders often form assumptions, then look to the data to try and prove themselves right.
In some ways, this is actually a byproduct of competence, knowledge, and experience. If you've spent the last 30 years in a certain niche, perfecting your professional skill set, you can and should feel confident about your abilities. You'll also develop a kind of sixth sense for the industry, giving you a legitimate way to “feel things out” even without data.
However, this can also lead to overconfidence and arrogance, causing leaders to assume that their assumptions are correct – and unintentionally ignore pieces of data that disagree with them.
Fortunately, there's a somewhat easy fix here. Even if it's only temporary, you have to assume the opposite of what you actually believe – and try to prove your initial assumptions wrong. In other words, you need to flip confirmation bias’s effects on its head, disproportionately weighing evidence that disagrees with you. If you can't possibly prove yourself wrong, you know you're onto something.
Organizations have also developed a tendency to ignore or underplay outliers. Outliers are data points that don't conform to trends or expectations. For example, let's say that 95 percent of your orders arrive at their destination between 3 and 5 business days after shipping. However, there are some orders that arrive in only one business day, and there are a couple of examples of orders that arrive after 25 business days.
In this example, it's easy to see that the outliers need to be examined. What caused such a massive delay in the shipments that took 25 business days? Why did that happen? How can you prevent it? Even if it only happened to one person out of thousands, it's still something that warrants looking into.
At scale, and in other matters, it's easy to write off outliers. And in some cases, it may be genuinely appropriate to do so. However, generally, it's important to at least acknowledge the presence of outliers and determine why they are outliers. Doing so can help you better understand the mainstream trends even better – and possibly help consumers who are otherwise neglected or ignored.
Black Swan theory, developed by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, seeks to examine and explain human behaviors related to major, surprising, transformative events that seemingly emerge out of nowhere. For example, nobody saw the 2008 financial crisis coming – and yet, with the benefit of hindsight, everyone becomes an economics expert who insists that the signs were all there.
The truth is, before a major, disruptive event, even the best experts in a given field are unsuspecting. After all, the status quo is the status quo for a reason, and the longer that status quo has existed, the longer we assume it will continue into the future.
But if you want to better understand your audience and make better decisions within your organization, you need to understand that Black Swan events can and do happen – and they tend to happen when you least expect them.
These events are, by nature, unpredictable, so don't bother trying to predict them. Instead, assume that major disruptive events can occur within your target demographics, such as a sudden shift to adopting a new technology or making significant spending cuts.
The proper way to approach this is to make your business agile and ready to respond to almost any conceivable crisis. Assume that you don't know and can't predict everything, and be ready to shift on a moment’s notice.
Blind spots can also emerge as a byproduct of overrelying on data. Yes, data is objective and it's the perfect foundation for decision making. However, if you treat data as a God and you assume that decisions can be made with raw data alone, you'll set yourself up for failure.
· The limitations of quantitative data. First, you need to understand that quantitative data does have limitations. Just because the solution looks good on paper doesn't mean that it works well in real life, and at the same time, not everything can be easily quantified. If you ask a person how happy they are on a scale of 1 to 10, and they say 6, what the hell does that actually mean? Different people can mean different things with the same number, so while it's not totally useless, it's also not perfectly accurate. We simply can't rely on quantitative data for everything.
· Historical data vs. future data. Second, you need to understand that historical data doesn't necessarily predict future data. Today, we have powerful data analytics engines fueled by machine learning and AI, but these tools can only help us project existing trends into the future; predictive analytics engines can't magically predict new technologies that emerge or consumer behavioral patterns that evolve. Just because something has trended a certain way in the past doesn't mean it will continue to trend that way in the future.
· Overconfidence. For the past couple of decades, writers and analysts everywhere have been extolling the virtues of “data-driven decision making,” and for good reason. But this has sort of poisoned leadership mentalities in Fortune 500 companies in various industries; leaders have come to assume that raw data is everything, and that it can be trusted inherently on every matter. This overconfidence makes blind spots worse, since you'll have no reason to actively search them out.
So far, we've looked at general and relatively timeless factors related to consumer data blind spots. But now, we need to turn your attention to an upcoming, specific event.
Despite several delays, Google and other major tech companies are preparing for the imminent death of third party cookies. If you've been relying on third party cookies to fuel your marketing and advertising campaigns, this is going to cause major ripples in your understanding of consumer data. If you haven't already been preparing for this shift, you're behind schedule.
Already, most organizations have begun to reoptimize their internal approach to gathering and analyzing consumer data. They're relying much more on first party data as well as internal financial data to better understand campaign performance and appeal to their customers more effectively.
We'll close out this article with a brief list of tips that can help you correct consumer data blind spots generally, as we only covered a small fraction of potential blind spots in this article.
· Rely on many independent sources of data. Blind spots shrink and eventually disappear when you gather data from more diverse sources. If a combination of surveys, focus groups, statistical analysis, behavioral analysis, and competitive research all tell you the same things, you can generally trust them.
· Blend quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitative data is great, but you also need qualitative data if you want to truly understand your consumers. Don't just ask them to rate their satisfaction on a scale of 1 to 10; prompt them for comments to explain their reasoning for the number they selected. It takes more time and it's more abstract, but it can lead you to better conclusions.
· Zoom in on outliers. Your natural inclination is to gloss over or completely ignore outliers. But instead, you should zoom in. Oftentimes, outliers hold the most critical pieces of information for better understanding a topic.
· Predict the unpredictable. You can't predict Black Swan events. But you can operate under the assumption that there's always a Black Swan event on the horizon. Consider the types of disruptions that could significantly influence your consumers and your organization, and develop strategies to respond to these disruptions with agility. Building more resilience into your organization is a useful auxiliary approach as well.
· Always estimate certainty fairly. Finally, approach your analyses and your decisions with a conscious, deliberate estimation of your certainty. How certain is your conclusion, based on what you know? This forces you to study areas of limited knowledge and more accurately assess your own understanding.
Are you interested in tackling your consumer data blind spots?
Do you need help better understanding your audience, your competitors, and the strategies you need to get an edge in the modern era?
Marketer.co is here for you. If you’re ready to take the next step, contact us for a free consultation today!
At Marketer, we know from experience how important it is to stay on top of the latest developments in the marketing industry. New trends, new technologies, and new techniques are always emerging – and it’s often difficult to fully grasp and utilize them ahead of the competition.
We have a great team here who helps us do it. But we’ve decided to make that team even bigger.
We’re therefore thrilled to announce our strategic partnership with Marion, a distinguished marketing and design agency with a storied 40-year history in Texas. We see this alliance as a fusion of Marketer.co's innovative digital marketing strategies with Marion's extensive experience and creative prowess, setting a new standard for comprehensive digital marketing services.
Hopefully, you know us already. We’re Marketer – a dynamic marketing agency dedicated to creating human connections through strategic, data-focused digital design.
In other words, we provide excellent marketing and advertising services to businesses like yours. Our ultimate goal is to deliver consistent, predictable growth via digital strategy workshops, brand architecture, user interface design, lead generation, SEO analysis, and more.
Marion is an award-winning, full-service marketing and design agency headquartered in Houston, Texas, with additional offices in Austin and Dallas/Fort Worth. They partner with clients to either supplement their in-house marketing department or serve as their fully outsourced marketing department.
Already, you can see why we get along so well.
So what exactly are we trying to accomplish here?
· New service offerings. For starters, each of our agencies has different areas of expertise and different services in which we specialize. By supporting each other with our own greatest strengths, we can offer our clients a wider range of versatile marketing and advertising services. Together, we may even be able to explore entirely new territory.
· Truly omnichannel marketing. A downstream effect of this is that our clients will have access to marketing strategies that are truly omnichannel. Modern marketing strategies do best when they aren't artificially tethered to a narrow range of communication mediums.
· Creative collaboration. Marketer and Marion both have impressive teams that include experienced leaders, niche experts, and creative masterminds. When we start putting our heads together in more collaborative endeavors, our creative ceilings are going to grow much higher.
· Successful customers. Ultimately, we hope that our strategic partnership is going to help more of our customers find success. Clients of both Marketer and Marion should find themselves with better services, more options, more creative output, and ultimately more visibility, more brand trust, and more generated revenue.
Tim Carter, our own Chief Revenue Officer, shared his vision for the partnership: "Our collaboration with Marion is a strategic endeavor to bring together our digital expertise with their rich history and creative success. We really believe that this partnership is going to change the way businesses perceive and engage with digital marketing."
"Joining forces with Marion not only expands our capabilities but also deepens our commitment to delivering excellence and innovation in every digital marketing campaign,” said Samuel Quincy Edwards, Chief Marketing Officer here at Marketer. “We are setting a new benchmark for what clients can expect from their marketing partners."
This partnership is possible because Marketer and Marion each have such powerful respective strengths – without significantly overlapping each other.
Nate Nead, CEO of Marketer, highlighted the synergy between the two firms: "This partnership with Marion aligns perfectly with our mission to provide end-to-end marketing solutions that are both innovative and effective. Together, we will redefine industry standards and drive unparalleled success for our clients.”
We may not be able to dictate the future of marketing, but we might be able to help lead it.
And we can definitely use our new partnership to help our customers see better results along the way.
If you’d like to learn more about our partnership, or if you’re just interested in seeing how Marketer and Marion can help you see better campaign results, contact us today!
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Sales teams tend to have a diverse mix of people.
They may all have similar backgrounds and follow a similar methodology, but they're all unique individuals with unique strengths and weaknesses.
Accordingly, major companies typically have standout sales “superstars” capable of landing humongous accounts and keeping them indefinitely. They're the most valuable members of your team, by far, which is great – but it also introduces a vulnerability.
If those sales superstars choose to leave, either because they find a new opportunity or because they no longer enjoy their work, it will leave a massive, gaping hole in your sales strategy.
So what are the best approaches to retain those sales superstars?
Let's take a look at the sales rep retention problem from a high level.
The superstars on your sales team are simply better than everyone else. This is probably due to a combination of factors, such as getting more done in less time, having more charisma to persuade others, or utilizing a more eclectic knowledge of your clients’ needs.
Whatever the case, these are the people who can land the big accounts. These are the people disproportionately responsible for your sales team hitting its goals for the quarter. These are the people who keep the revenue flowing.
In other words, they are massive value creators that you can't afford to lose.
Your top sales reps also succeed in retaining your best clients. And while retention is typically cheaper and less effort intensive than acquisition, you can't afford to neglect it as a critical part of your sales strategy. If your top sales reps leave, they may take some of your clients with them, or motivate other clients to jump ship.
That means in addition to losing revenue generation potential, you'll also be losing a chunk of your client base.
So your sales superstars are valuable. Why is this a problem, exactly?
It's because everyone else knows how valuable they are.
Your sales reps know how valuable they are. Your competitors know how valuable they are.
This opens the door to two distinct paths for departure.
First, your sales superstars could choose to leave on their own volition. Even if they're making a lot of money and are succeeding in their role, they may feel pressure to change roles, change companies, or drop out of the workforce altogether. And it's much more common than you think: it’s estimated that 25 percent of sales reps are planning on leaving within the next 6 months.
Second, your sales superstars could be headhunted and recruited by your top competitors. These reps already have knowledge, experience, and proven capabilities, and they won't need much training or education to thrive in a new role. This makes them highly attractive targets for recruiters, who will often be willing to offer those reps more compensation than you currently do.
Obviously, every sales superstar is different, and there are many complexly interwoven motivations that could cause each one to leave. But the better you understand those motivations, the more likely you'll be able to retain the sales titans who make your marketing and sales strategies successful.
In the sections that follow, we'll be analyzing various individual problems that are likely to affect your sales reps. After that, we’ll summarize the generalized strategies that can help you resolve many of these problems simultaneously, enabling you to retain your top sales staff.
First, we have the burnout problem. If you work in a role long enough, eventually, you're likely to grow tired of it. This problem is compounded by jobs that are especially difficult, stressful, or time intensive.
Sales can be difficult, stressful, and time intensive simultaneously, so it's no wonder why so many sales reps have one foot out the door. If one of your reps is disproportionately responsible for the success of the business, and they have more responsibilities than their peers, they may feel even more burnout.
If the problem gets bad enough, they may leave on their own. But even if the stages of burnout are just starting, a sales superstar will be much more likely to leave if contacted by a recruiter.
So what can you do about this?
· Proactively recognize (and address) the signs of burnout. Some burnout signs are obvious. Others are less so. If you wait until your sales rep is having a panic attack or showing up to work with permanent bags under their eyes, you're going to lose them. Instead, you need to be on the watch for burnout signs early and often. Does this person seem less engaged with their work? Are they more irritable? If you notice these signs, take the time to address them.
· End toxic work expectations. American companies sometimes pride themselves on hard work. This alone isn't a bad thing, but it can become toxic in high doses. If you expect your employees to work through the weekend, work long hours, respond to emails late at night, and tackle other burdensome responsibilities for the sake of proving what a hard worker they are, you're effectively pushing your top workers away. End these toxic work expectations and give people more flexibility.
· Encourage, rather than merely tolerating, time off. The best way to prevent or stave off burnout is through time off. Many Fortune 500 companies readily allow their employees to take time off work for occasional breaks and vacations, but there's a big difference between tolerating and encouraging time off. Don't just allow it under extreme circumstances; actively push your top sales members to step away from the job and destress.
· Prioritize meaningful engagement. Burnout is also solved with enough meaningful engagement. If your sales rep is consistently engaged with their work, they probably won't be motivated to leave anytime soon. Different people engage with their work in different ways; some people want more challenging work, while others want more creatively stimulating work, for example. Your job is to find what motivates your top employees and give it to them more specifically.
· Shake things up. Excessively repetitive routines can cause anyone to experience burnout, even if they generally love the contents of those routines. That's why it's important to shake things up from time to time; cycle through different responsibilities, give your sales rep exposure to new environments, and help them feel like every day at work is truly unique.
Less commonly, sales superstars leave because of compensation issues. This doesn't necessarily mean you're underpaying them, but it does mean a competitor is willing to pay them more. If a sales rep notices a discrepancy between their actual value to the organization and what they're earning, they're going to be motivated to close that gap, no matter how much you're paying them nominally.
That's why it's important to:
· Stay tuned to the competition. Keep a close eye on the sales strategies of your competitors, to whatever extent you can. How much are their top salespeople being compensated? How much are they offering when headhunting others? Can you stay competitive with them?
· Increase pay and/or commissions. The most direct solution to this problem is to increase pay or commissions for your top sales performers. If this sales rep is as valuable as they seem, it will probably be worth it. If it's out of budget, you'll have to come up with an alternative strategy to make it more worthwhile to stay in your organization.
· Consider adopting new benefits. New benefits, such as more robust health insurance or better retirement programs, can incentivize sales reps to stay, even if their core compensation doesn't increase. But again, this isn't going to fit all budgets.
· Offer flex time and other intangible benefits. If money is tight, consider rewarding your best sales employees with intangible benefits like flextime, extra time off, dedicated parking spaces, or other smaller rewards. They may not seem like much, but they can seriously add up, especially in combination with other strategies in this guide.
Sometimes, your sales superstars become motivated to leave because of a culture fit problem.
Unfortunately, there isn't much to cover in this area. If a sales rep has been with your organization long enough, you can rule out culture fit as a problem (unless you've undergone a serious change in your workplace culture since they arrived). After all, they wouldn't have stayed this long if they had a problem with how you run things.
Also, if a sales superstar does begin to grow resentful of your workplace culture, there isn't much you can do. Unless you're planning on uprooting and changing your entire workplace culture for the sole sake of this individual, the better path for both of you might be allowing the departure to take place.
Many employees rank autonomy as one of their most important priorities, and a major goal for their career. People generally want to be in control of their own work; they want to set their own goals, pursue their own objectives, and do work the way they want.
If your top sales staff members feel they don't have enough autonomy, they're going to be more susceptible to head hunting and voluntary departure.
Here's how you can combat that.
· Encourage more independent decision making. Give your sales reps more freedom and opportunities to make their own decisions. These don't have to be huge, company-wide decisions; even small decisions, when made independently, can make a person feel more autonomous.
· Allow time for personal side projects. Google once famously allowed employees to dedicate 20 percent of their time, or about 1 day a week, to work on personal side projects of their choice. It didn't slow down productivity by much, yet it gave employees a strong sense of autonomy. It also resulted in the birth of many new innovations, which continue to make google a lot of money to this day. Consider giving your sales reps more time and flexibility to work on things that they think are important.
· Loosen up mandatory requirements. You can also cut back on anything that's mandatorily required. As an example, daily sales huddle meetings can be productive, but top performers can also feel like they're stale or a waste of time. Make them optional for anyone exceeding a certain performance threshold. Generally allow your employees to work however they want to, as long as they continue exceeding performance expectations.
· Give your best salespeople leadership roles. Consider giving leadership responsibilities to some of your best salespeople. Have them train or mentor new sales reps. Have them develop new strategies. Ask them to give talks or seminars. People in leadership positions tend to feel much more autonomous.
Most employees want to feel like they're on a consistent growth trajectory. If your job hasn't changed much in 10 years, what reason do you have to stick around?
Some people want growth and progress for their own sake, as these represent interesting changes that keep things from getting too stagnant. Others want growth and progress so they can earn more money and perform better.
Either way, you can solve the growth problem with tactics like the following.
· Pay for training and education. As long as you have the budget for it, consider paying for additional training and education. Even if your sales reps are learning things that aren't immediately and obviously tied to sales, this is a valuable strategy for showing your employees that you're invested in them.
· Offer cross-departmental collaboration. You can accomplish something similar by allowing more cross training and cross-departmental collaboration. Your sales reps will feel more integrated in your business if they get to witness and work with other departments, and they'll learn and grow as a result.
· Optimize for flow with appropriate challenges. A flow state is a psychological phenomenon in which a person is deeply immersed in the work they're doing. To achieve this, a person must be sufficiently challenged without being overwhelmed – and they must be genuinely interested in the work they're doing. Work with your sales reps to create conditions that allow them to achieve flow more consistently.
· Establish clear trajectories for long-term goals. Most of your top performing salespeople will have individual, unique goals of their own. They may want to start their own business someday, rise to the top of your organization, or accomplish something specific within the sales realm. These people are going to be much more committed to your business if you give them a clear, unchanging trajectory for achieving those long-term goals. In other words, if your employees feel like they're taking consistent steps toward their long-term vision, they're much more likely to stick with you.
The final problem is potentially the most important: it's the “problem ambiguity” problem.
If you don't know what kind of problems your top performing salespeople are facing, or worse, if you don't even know that problems exist, you won't be able to solve those problems effectively.
That's why your first course of action should be working aggressively to determine which problems, if any, are affecting your best salespeople.
What tips and tricks do we have to help you with this?
None. There are no shortcuts. You have to figure this out. Ask lots of questions. Make lots of observations. Get to know your salespeople, inside and out. Do this, and it's only a matter of time before you figure out what the problems are.
We've covered many individual tactics that can help you resolve different problems affecting your sales superstars, but these strategies are some of the best for preventing and solving multiple problems simultaneously:
· Conduct stay interviews. Most companies regularly practice exit interviews. This is an opportunity for employees to reflect on their experience and share their honest opinions about the environment and conditions in which they work. These can be valuable, but they aren't going to help you retain salespeople, since they've already decided to leave. Instead, conduct stay interviews, picking the brains of your best salespeople to discover their true sentiments before they're even tempted to leave.
· Get to know your reps individually. Similarly, it's important to get to know your reps individually. Even among the top performers, you'll find a shocking amount of diversity in terms of strengths, weaknesses, perspectives, and values. Different sales reps are motivated to stay for different reasons, so you'll need to discover the right ways to appeal to each employee.
· Allow autonomy and flexibility. Autonomy and flexibility make your salespeople feel empowered, independent, valued, trusted, and rewarded for their work simultaneously. And as top performers, they've certainly earned them.
· Offer rewards commensurate with contributions. Finally, make sure you're rewarding your top sales representatives at a level commensurate with their contributions. Depending on the nature of your organization, this may or may not be an easy equation to calculate. Sure, you can probably afford to pay your sales rep a bit less than they’re actually worth – but what happens when one of your competitors steps in to outbid you?
Your business is built on the backs of your sales reps and marketers.
Your teams are incredible.
But they don’t – and shouldn’t – have to do it all by themselves.
At Marketer.co, we have some of the best marketing minds in the industry – and the resources to support businesses of any size or scale.
If you’re ready to partner up and improve the performance and capabilities of your sales and marketing departments, we’ll be waiting for you.
Are you a CMO?
Or do you aspire to one day become a CMO?
If so, we've got some potentially bad news for you.
Fortune 500 companies and other large businesses are starting to reduce, and even eliminate their internal CMO positions.
What's causing this?
Is this trend going to continue?
And how should you adapt as a marketing professional?
UPS, Etsy, Walgreens, Lowe's, Hyatt Hotels, McDonald’s, Johnson & Johnson, Uber, and Lyft are just some of the major companies that have recently eliminated or reduced their standalone CMO positions. There are some similarities in circumstances and approach between these companies, which we'll explore in future sections, but as you can tell, these are very different types of companies. CMO cuts aren't relegated to 1 industry, nor are they relegated to specific types of companies.
In general, sentiments around the CMO position are weakening as well. The title doesn't generate as much respect as it used to, and organizations are rethinking whether it's even a necessary role to fill.
Why is it that CMO positions are falling out of favor with these large, industry dominant companies?
There are several possible explanations, which intersect in interesting ways.
· Technology and automation. For starters, we're living in an era of profound technological advancement. We have more marketing automation tools than ever before, AI is working its way into almost every marketing and advertising platform, and with the right approach, a marketing department can use these foundational technologies as a source of inspiration and leadership.
With better technology, a company can lead from within, analyzing data and generating ideas to see better results. And with the help of automation, there are fewer needs for human marketers. Naturally, if you rely on sophisticated technology to make marketing decisions, you won't need a human in charge of those decisions anymore.
· Integration of marketing responsibilities into other roles. We're also seeing the integration of marketing responsibilities into other roles. Half a century ago, marketing was an independent silo; developing marketing messages and advertisements was a unique art, often separated from the rest of the business. But today, almost every business operation has an element of marketing to it.
Recruiters and HR professionals need to make sure the company is presented in the right light. Product developers need to align their vision with the brand. And almost everyone in the organization plays at least some role in improving the visibility and reputation of the company. Because of this, marketing departments are being loosely broken up and reintegrated into other departments. This is an especially noticeable effect in combination with the rise of technology and automation; in many businesses, the CTO can do the work of a CMO.
· Declining prioritization of marketing. In some ways, we're seeing a decline in the prioritization of marketing, at least from a high-level decision-making standpoint. Most businesses still rightfully recognize marketing as an important priority, but they see it as subservient to other priorities.
We can see this manifest in the rise of a new type of CEO; CEOs of Fortune 500 companies most commonly come from high-level financial positions, rather than high-level marketing positions. Accordingly, finance takes precedence over marketing in most of these businesses, and CEOs make decisions with the company's bottom line and financial operations as top considerations.
· Generalization of C-Suite responsibilities. Similarly, we're seeing the broad generalization of responsibilities all across the C-Suite. Chief officers of independent departments are expected to understand the inner workings of the business across multiple departments and at multiple levels.
Because of this, we may see a radical transformation of the entire C-Suite over the next decade or two. Soon, individual chief officers from different departments may fade in favor of high-ranking, general decision makers.
· Simple cost cutting. Notably, many companies that have recently cut CMO positions – including UPS and Etsy – did so on the tail end of disappointing financial reports.
It's not uncommon for companies to cut sales and marketing expenses in the wake of an economic recession or difficult financial times, so the decline of the CMO position may be more associated with temporary financial difficulties than a permanent change in how marketing is viewed.
· Higher C-Suite turnover. We've also noticed that C-Suite turnover is higher than ever before. These positions are highly demanding, highly stressful, and yet highly sought after, so it's only natural that people want to leave at a higher rate than they do in other positions. Still, this can't possibly explain the entire phenomenon, as CMO positions are being reduced or eliminated more frequently than other positions in the C-Suite.
So does this mean that CMOs are about to go extinct?
Probably not. Despite the rising trend, only a small percentage of Fortune 500 companies have taken the step of formally eliminating or reducing their CMO positions. With so many potential explanations for this behavior, it's unlikely that this is the start of an irreversible trend.
Still, we must acknowledge that the CMO role is changing, and so our perceptions about marketing in general. This isn't necessarily a bad thing for marketing professionals or businesses, but it's something we should work to understand and acknowledge.
If you're a decision maker of a major business, you might be toying with the idea of reducing or eliminating the CMO position in your business for some of the reasons we've listed above.
So is a CMO reduction the right move for your business?
That depends heavily on your unique situation.
We can address a few important considerations here.
First, if your company is experiencing financial hard times, or if your growth has stagnated, your first instinct may be to cut expenses related to marketing and advertising. However, this is usually a bad move. Marketing and advertising are the foundation of your organization's growth, so cutting spending in these departments is likely to make your financial challenges even more difficult.
Instead, it's typically better to reallocate how you invest in marketing and advertising. Replacing or augmenting the CMO position may be a better idea than eliminating it, and investing in different strategies may be a better idea than removing all marketing investment.
Second, it's important to evaluate your organization’s priorities and how those priorities relate to each other. Is marketing one of your top priorities? And if so, do you see it as a standalone, independent department or as something that's closely integrated with other departments?
If you view your company's marketing as being more related to technology than traditional marketing and advertising, it may make sense to do some departmental shuffling. And if you want to make more financially impactful decisions, it may make sense to prioritize your financial leaders over your marketing leaders.
If you do decide to reduce or eliminate your CMO position:
· Take some time. We understand that it’s tempting to cut sales and marketing if your company is going through hard times, but it’s important to avoid knee-jerk reactions. Take some time to analyze your organizational structure and your long-term priorities before you make a final decision.
· Appoint a final authority on marketing-specific issues. If you do eliminate your CMO position, you'll still need a final authority on issues specifically pertaining to marketing. Make sure you have a leader or advisor in a position to do this. If all else fails, you can roll these responsibilities into the CEO position.
· Clearly define and organize your marketing responsibility distributions. Create a clear hierarchy and a cohesive system for organizing the distribution of marketing responsibilities. Since you won't be cutting marketing and advertising altogether, these tasks need to be concretely disseminated. For example, you may assign certain marketing responsibilities to your data and technology departments.
· Ensure your C-Suite executives have marketing skills (or a suitable alternative). In pursuit of a more generalized C-Suite, it makes sense to hire executives who have marketing skills and experience. Failing that, they should be adaptable enough to learn and respond to marketing concepts competently.
· Employ the best technology (with human oversight). Today's best marketers are the ones who can make the best use of available technology, so make sure you're employing powerful data analytics and automation tools to this end. Of course, it's also important not to put too much faith in technology; make sure you still have human leaders overseeing their responsible use.
If you're reading this as a CMO, or as a prospective CMO, you might be concerned about the integrity of your job – or the feasibility of your future aspirations.
As we said earlier, it's unlikely that the CMO position is going to be eliminated permanently across all businesses. So in that respect, you shouldn't be too concerned about losing your career trajectory at this time.
However, we can offer some advice on how to survive the coming changes to marketing departments and leadership positions in the next several years.
· Think beyond marketing. Today’s CEOs are less “Chief Executive Officers” and more “Chief Everything Officers.” CEOs have to be generalists capable of incorporating insights from many different departments into their business decisions. If you want to thrive in the C-Suite and use your marketing expertise in a genuine leadership role, you need to think beyond mere marketing. Adopt skills and experiences that allow you to mix your marketing expertise with technology expertise, financial expertise, and business development expertise. Even if CMO positions get cut with greater frequency, you'll always have a place in leadership suites.
· Become a data analytics master. Today’s top marketing results are a byproduct of correct interpretation and application of data insights. Accordingly, you should strive to become a data analytics master. It's on you to become familiar with the latest technologies and advancements in the realm of gathering and analyzing data – and if you can do this, you'll not only be a more effective marketer, you'll also become a more effective business decision maker.
· Compete with CTOs. If CMO positions are no longer available, why not try to become a CTO? Chances are coming you're already intimately familiar with the technologies necessary to make a business competitive in the modern era, so why not expand that area of your skill set? Doing so could easily future proof your career, enabling you to carry your marketing expertise into technology roles or potentially allowing you to flourish in a slightly different career path. Technology experts are likely to be indispensable for decades, if not centuries to come.
· Aggressively pursue better results. Remember, many modern CEOs come from a financial background, and they care about the company's bottom line more than anything else. In many cases of CMO positions being cut, reductions came only after disappointing financial results. If you want to retain your marketing prestige and seek higher marketing roles in these powerful organizations, you need to prove your value. Relentlessly pursue better marketing results, however you can to justify your worth.
· Take risks to innovate. Similarly, it's important to take risks to innovate, as complacent, traditional CMOs are the ones on the chopping block. Yes, taking risks could expose you to new vulnerabilities, but that's what it takes to be a valuable, effective leader in today's marketing departments.
· Don’t be afraid to switch jobs (and companies). Finally, don't be afraid to jump ship prematurely. If you don't like the direction your company is heading, or if you have concerns with how marketing is being treated, don't hesitate to switch jobs and/or companies. Job hopping is one of the best ways to increase your salary and improve your status, generally.
Marketing is changing.
Technology is evolving.
And businesses everywhere are trying to adapt in anticipation of whatever happens next.
In this confusing, exciting, and somewhat overwhelming era, it pays to have a marketing partner who's just as experienced and agile as you are.
If you're ready to start the conversation, reach out today for a free consultation.
As a personal injury lawyer, you do good work.
But if you want to make more money and thrive in this highly competitive environment, you'll need a plan for attracting more clients.
Obviously, you can't stage more accidents – nor would you want to (we hope…).
But what you can do is implement a strategy to increase your visibility, increase traffic, and eventually land more clients who have suffered personal injuries as a result of someone else's negligence.
Digital marketing is the way to do it.
But unless you got a dual degree in law and business marketing, you may not know where to start.
That's where we come in.
With our guidance, and a bit of help, you can become the architect of your own digital marketing strategy and take your personal injury law firm to a path of consistent growth.
Marketing poses a handful of difficulties for personal injury attorneys.
Everywhere you look, from the billboards on your commute to the ads displayed in your search engines, you'll find ads from personal injury attorneys with cartoonishly serious faces and stubborn insistence that “you deserve compensation.”
Fair enough.
But this makes it hard for you, a competing personal injury attorney with similar, if not better credentials.
· How do you reach your people? You're probably looking for a specific target demographic. Maybe you specialize in specific types of personal injuries, like those associated with car accidents and truck accidents. Maybe you cater to a specific local demographic. Whatever the case, you'll need a strategy in place to reach only the most relevant people to your personal injury practice.
· How do you stand out? It’s one thing to make your brand visible. It’s another to make your brand stand out in a crowd of similar competitors. And in the personal injury field, there are plenty of competitors to contend with. How on earth are you going to stand out and make your message seem unique?
· How do you get value out of every dollar you spend? Anyone can see impressive marketing results if they spend enough money on visibility and placement. The real trick is to get the maximum amount of value out of every dollar you spend. Spending millions on a campaign to generate a few hundred leads pales in comparison to spending thousands on a campaign that generates almost as many.
Digital marketing is a huge umbrella, which is partially why we're so confident in saying that it's the ideal solution for generating new business as a personal injury attorney. Through a combination of strategies in the online world, you should be able to make your services more visible, reach a more relevant audience, and generate more traffic and leads with minimal inputs.
Some of the most popular and effective digital marketing strategies for personal injury attorneys include:
· Search engine optimization (SEO). Search engine optimization (SEO) prioritizes increasing your rankings in search engine results pages (SERPs). The higher you rank, the more visible you are, and the more traffic you generate. Developing content, building links, and fine-tuning the technical aspects of your website are the most important tools in your arsenal here.
· Content marketing. As you might be able to already tell, content marketing and SEO go hand in hand; it's almost impossible to see SEO results without good content, and the benefits of your content will increase as you gain more traffic from SEO. The goal of content marketing is to create an inbound stream of interested, relevant people and persuade them to take action when they read about your services.
· Pay per click (PPC) ads. PPC ads are so named because they allow you to place ads, while only paying for the results you actually see. You can place these ads in search engines, social media platforms, and many other places online, capitalizing on very specific types of people with strategically targeted ads.
· Legal directories and referral networks. You're likely already participating in some of the online legal directories and referral networks that exist. If you're not, now is the time to get involved; this is a digital marketing strategy, too.
· Email marketing. Consistent email marketing doesn't quite offer the immediate impact that SEO and PPC ads do, especially in the personal injury field, but it's so cheap and easy to get started, it might as well be part of your digital marketing arsenal.
· Social media marketing. It's free to claim a profile on social media and start posting, so it pays to get involved here as well. It's a great channel for distributing your content, reaching new people, and establishing your expertise.
· Influencer marketing. Similarly, some personal injury attorneys benefit from practicing influencer marketing. The general idea here is to collaborate and work with highly visible people who are at least somewhat relevant to your practice.
Each of these approaches has something to offer and specific limitations. As a simple example, SEO is extremely cost effective in the long term, but takes a while to start up, while PPC ads start up immediately with lower long-term cost effectiveness (at least comparatively).
Accordingly, it's usually in your best interest to incorporate a variety of different digital marketing strategies in complementary functions.
In simple terms? Use a bunch of channels at once.
Why is digital marketing so effective for personal injury attorneys?
· Accessibility. Anyone can get started with digital marketing, even with little to no marketing skills or background. Placing PPC ads and writing online content is instantly accessible, even if you're not immediately highly effective. If you're willing to work with a digital marketing agency (wink wink), you can get access to polished, professional work and a sound, high-level strategy even if you're working with a limited budget.
· Cost effectiveness. The results you get from a competent digital marketing strategy more than pay for the initial costs. Careful planning and a commitment to ongoing fine-tuning entitles you to an impressive return on investment (ROI).
· Strategic versatility. As you've already seen, digital marketing offers practically unlimited strategic versatility. There are dozens of channels and tactics to choose from, and you can combine them in an infinite range of arrays. On top of that, each tactic offers ample flexibility; for example, you can choose to produce content covering any number of different topics using any number of different tones, voices, and persuasive techniques.
· Omnichannel options. If you want to dominate the digital landscape in your personal injury niche, you can take advantage of an omnichannel approach. Essentially, this means taking advantage of many channels simultaneously, relying on the same underlying digital marketing philosophies and architecture to dictate your practice throughout all of them.
· Adaptability and scalability. Don't like the way your strategy is going? Change it. Want to generate 10 times as many leads? Scale up. Digital marketing offers both adaptability and scalability, so your strategies can grow with your business and you'll never be left in a stagnant, unchanging purgatory – unless you choose to stay there.
· Data and analytic potential. We also love digital marketing for personal injury attorneys because of the data and analytic potential. The digital environment means you'll be able to measure hundreds of different variables and compare them at your leisure; you'll instantly be able to recognize which of your strategies are most effective and which ones are falling flat, so you can adjust your approach and budget to incrementally increase your efficiency.
Note that all of these benefits increase with time spent and experience gained.
You might be happy with the digital marketing results you get right away, but you're going to be floored by the results you get after many years of diligent, continued effort.
If you want any of your digital marketing tactics to be successful, you're going to need to abide by these golden rules:
· Get to know your audience. There’s simply no substitute for proper market research. Your target audience is people who need a personal injury attorney, yes, but who are these people? Where do they live? How do they think? How can they be persuaded? The better you know your audience, quantitatively and qualitatively, the better your ads are going to be.
· Differentiate your brand. As we mentioned, there are thousands of personal injury attorneys fighting for digital spaces online – and they’re all advertising at least as aggressively as you are. The solution is to differentiate your brand; there are tons of personal injury firms out there, so what makes yours different? Types of cases? Size? Expertise? Client service? Find a way to concisely communicate your distinct advantages to your clients.
· Create a high-level messaging strategy. All your ground-level digital marketing tactics are going to be limited in effectiveness by your high-level marketing strategy. What is your brand identity and how should that manifest across channels?
· Set specific goals. You’ll perform much better if you have specific goals in mind. What does “success” look like to you? How high of an ROI are you targeting? What are the most important metrics for your success and how much do you want those metrics to rise?
· Go omnichannel. There are too many awesome digital marketing channels and tactics to artificially limit yourself to one or two. If you go omnichannel, you’ll build up a much more robust presence – and you’ll end up seeing much better results.
· Control your spending. In digital marketing, you get what you pay for. You probably understand; if a personal injury attorney is charging a flat rate of $10 for their services, you would advise your clients to be skeptical. But at the same time, blindly throwing money at digital marketing isn’t going to yield the results you want. You need a significant budget, but one that's thoughtful and controlled; in other words, you need to spend money strategically.
· Work with pros (when possible). It's typically a good use of money to work with a professional team of digital marketing experts. While it's technically possible to go to the DIY route with digital marketing, we make no promises for the results you can see on your own.
· Measure and analyze. How can you tell if a strategy is working? How do you know which aspects of your approach to update and improve? Data. You need to measure and analyze everything, and use objective data to fuel your future strategy.
· Adapt. Digital marketing is always changing. You'll have new competitors, new business considerations, new knowledge, and new platforms to contend with. If you don't adapt, you won't see your full digital marketing potential.
There are many legal directories worth considering, but most of them share a similar purpose and offer a similar path to entry. You'll usually have to pay for this exposure, but it's typically worth it to get listed on at least a handful of these directories.
One of the most important strategies for success here is to fully flesh out your profile:
· Your profile picture. People want to see who they're working with! Include a professional headshot every time.
· Your headline. You may have a lot of impressive credentials and a history of winning cases, but some people don't have the attention span to make it that far. That's why you need a punchy, immediately compelling headline.
· About You. Once you win them with the headline, you can detail all those credentials and past experiences. Show off what makes you both competent and unique.
· Videos. Today's internet users prioritize visual content over written content. Regardless of your personal feelings on that, you should include some photos and videos in your profile.
· Reviews. Do you have happy clients? Show off your best reviews and testimonials here.
· Contact information. And of course, make sure you have reliable, up-to-date contact information available for anyone who wants to reach you. Offer multiple communication channels to cater to unique individual preferences.
Content marketing and SEO are complementary and mutually beneficial strategies that strongly synergize with each other. In fact, you'll see incidental SEO benefits just by developing any content.
But you don't want just any content. You want to see the best possible results.
That means you should focus on the following:
· Analyze your top competitors. Spend time reviewing what your competitors are doing. In some cases, you'll want to replicate their tactics so you can leech off of them; in other cases, you'll want to differentiate your strategy to mitigate their influences. In all cases, you can learn a lot simply by looking at what your rivals are already doing.
· Choose strategically valuable keywords. In SEO, your results are going to be fundamentally limited by the keywords and phrases you choose to target. Ideally, you'll select keywords that are high in search volume and low in competition, capitalizing on the biggest stream of relevant traffic for the lowest amount of effort. Sounds like a good deal, right?
· Develop high-quality content consistently. The quality of your content has a massive impact on your results, dictating your effectiveness and optimizing for both relevance and authority – but also influencing what readers think of your brand when they encounter it for the first time. Provide value, be original, engage with your target audience directly, and maintain a consistent publication schedule so you're always putting out new stuff.
· Capture and capitalize on interest. SEO mostly focuses on getting people to your website, but content should also focus on motivating visitors to take action. Aptly named calls to action (CTAs) embedded in your best content pieces can help you do this.
· Build links. Link building is indispensable for any SEO campaign. Links are the only consistently reliable way to build your authority and perceived trustworthiness so Google ranks you above competitors writing about very similar topics. Be warned, however; a sloppy or manipulative approach to link building can actively work against you, so you'll need to use white hat tactics and exercise caution for sustainable results.
· Get local. Many personal injury attorneys benefit from focusing on local dynamics. Local SEO relies on many of the same tactics as national SEO – but it demands some attention to other areas, like optimizing local citations.
PPC ads are a strong foil to any SEO strategy, given their propensity for immediate startup and incredible targeting potential.
Here's how you can get started with some excellent momentum:
· Thoroughly research keywords. Your keyword targets are important for SEO, but they're arguably even more important for PPC ads. Choosing the wrong keywords could put you in front of the wrong audience, wreck your budget, or both. Accordingly, keyword research needs to be your top priority, especially early on.
· Develop a budget and bidding strategy. Do you want to practice automatic bidding or manual bidding? Should you optimize for clicks or cost per acquisition? And of course, if you're totally unfamiliar with digital marketing, your first priority is probably figuring out what the hell we're talking about. If you're feeling overwhelmed at this point, don't worry, it's a bit natural. But once you get into the mix, you'll need to dig deep to develop a thorough budgeting and bidding strategy.
· Start small. PPC advertising is a long-term scientific experiment, and it's unlikely that your very first efforts are going to be efficient, or even effective. Accordingly, you should aim to start small and only scale up once you have some data to work with.
· Refine your copy. Good copywriting is the difference between a game-changing PPC ad and a stale, mediocre one. You'll need to work with experienced copywriters or commit to ongoing AB testing to develop a proper approach and ad copywriting rhythm.
If you want to be an effective personal injury attorney, you should devote most of your time to your practice – and let your marketing be handled by dedicated professionals.
That’s why we’re here.
We help personal injury attorneys like you with digital marketing and client acquisition – so you can focus on doing what you do best.
Ready to learn more? Shoot us a message today!
Lawyers love mass tort cases.
In the context of mass tort action, law firms can help hundreds, and sometimes thousands of clients pursue similar courses of action against organizations that have wronged them. If you get things right, you could have a steady stream of highly specialized clients, a repeatable approach to save yourself effort, and a path to much greater revenue generation.
But there's a problem.
Your would-be clients may not even know you exist.
In fact, they may not even be aware they have a legal service need.
Long before you start working on their case, you need to make yourself visible. And you need to make your specialization better recognized.
For that, you need mass tort marketing.
In other words, you need to devise a strategy for how to position your law firm in a mass tort case – and how to reach the people who need your services the most.
How do you do it?
Educated, experienced lawyers tend to be extremely logical, skilled in writing and communication, and creative when it comes to problem solving. These skills can help in the context of marketing, but most lawyers don't have the marketing experience necessary to put together a coherent strategy for marketing their mass tort expertise.
These are some of the biggest pain points that mass tort marketing introduces:
· High-level strategy. Many lawyers, especially inexperienced ones and ones working for small firms, have a haphazard approach to marketing; they typically spend money frivolously, trying out a variety of tactics to see what works and what doesn't. While experimentation is important, this borderline mindless approach is an exercise in frivolity. Instead, you should have a high-level strategy to service the foundation for all your tactics. This way, you'll be able to use your marketing dollars more effectively – and you'll be able to coordinate all your efforts under a single, philosophically cohesive umbrella.
· Big competitors. In the mass tort world, you'll likely be going up against some of the biggest law firms in the country. Depending on the size and scope of your law firm, that might mean directly competing with organizations that have far more experience and resources than you do. How can you get an equal or greater amount of visibility in this situation? How can you possibly convince clients to go with your firm if it's smaller and less recognized?
· Effective spending. You also need to spend money in a way that leads to the greatest possible results. There are dozens, and possibly hundreds of different tactics that can help you promote your law firm and attract new clients. However, not all of them are going to yield the same return on investment (ROI). Part of your job as a law firm marketer is finding the best possible applications for your marketing budget. That means estimating, and later objectively measuring, the performance of each tactic you add to your portfolio.
As you might imagine, mass tort marketing can be as complicated as you make it.
There are thousands of little variables to consider, and even more once you drill down into individual marketing tactics.
But to start things off as clearly as possible, you should focus most of your attention on two main pillars:
1. Your target market. First, you need to thoroughly understand who your target market is and how they make decisions. The better you understand your target market, the more effectively you'll be able to market to them. You'll have a better understanding of which platforms they use, how easily they're persuaded, what types of communications and messages work best for them, and what their biggest pain points are. With a specific outline for your target demographics, you'll be able to reach the right people with the right messages much more consistently.
2. Your unique value proposition. A unique value proposition (UVP) is a concise description of the problem your business solves, and a presentation of the elements of your business that make it unique in the market. If you can nail your unique value proposition, your marketing messages and advertisements will be much easier to develop and they'll end up being much more persuasive. Your goal here is to figure out why your target demographics would choose your law firm for help – and what makes your law firm so different than the law firms of your rivals.
The first step on your journey is probably going to be market research.
After all, if you don't know who your audience is, you won't be able to reach them, let alone persuade them.
Admittedly, it's a bit of a pain. But it's a necessary step if you want your marketing materials to be genuinely effective.
There are two main types of research to practice in the realm of market research: quantitative and qualitative research. You can also pursue research with original research or perusal of primary and secondary sources. All of these approaches have something to offer, so use a combination to fully develop your understanding of what makes your target market tick.
Quantitative research focuses on numbers and other objectively measurable pieces of data. You can use surveys, census information, and other sources to pull these numbers. Once you do, you can analyze the data to form conclusions about who your market is and how they think. For example, you can figure out what types of people typically take a certain prescription medication and how they feel about that medication.
Qualitative research isn't as precise, but it's equally important. You can practice qualitative research with extended surveys, focus groups, and other approaches that allow you to engage with samples of your audience directly. Here, you'll rely on anecdotes and subjective information to get a better understanding of how these people think and feel.
If you have the resources and experts to do it, you can practice your own research internally. However, most law firms practicing market research for mass tort marketing rely on a combination of primary and secondary sources to gather the information they need. Start with the primary and secondary sources (Census.gov and research groups like Pew Research are great places to start), then practice original research to fill in whatever gaps you find.
By the end of your mass tort market research, you should have a much more thorough understanding of who your audience is. You can even develop customer personas to solidify your assumptions into characters that you can use as models for all your future marketing and advertising efforts.
Once you have this understanding, you can work on differentiating your law firm in the mass tort marketing world.
Think of it this way. Your clients have options. Why should they choose you?
You need a positioning strategy that shows people not only why your law firm is valuable, but why it's unique in this particular context. Showing them your JD degree and insisting that you're a “really, really, really good lawyer” probably isn't going to be enough.
These are a handful of ways that you can choose to differentiate yourself.
· Size. Big law firms carry more prestige, and in many cases, deservedly so. If you have a large number of lawyers on your roster, or if you have a practically bottomless pool of resources to draw from, point those advantages out. Conversely, if you have a smaller law firm, that might actually be a selling point; depending on your target audience, they may actually prefer working with a smaller, more approachable organization.
· Experience/competency. You can also differentiate yourself by demonstrating raw experience or competency. For example, if you have lawyers on your team who used to work for the defendant, you can claim to have some inside knowledge and practical experience that your competitors can't match.
· Support. People are often uncertain and skeptical about pursuing mass tort cases. You might be able to differentiate your law firm and persuade people to take action with your legal services if you can offer them an unparalleled level of support. Giving people more empathy, compassion, and a genuine human connection can make a big difference.
· Approach. Do you have a different approach to mass tort cases than many of your rivals? Are you employing a different legal strategy or theory? Reference it and explain why it's advantageous.
· Results. Results often speak for themselves. If you have a long history of getting clients amazing results, show off those results in your marketing materials.
At this point in your mass tort marketing strategy development, the prerequisites are out of the way and you'll have a solid foundation on which you can build your marketing tactics.
But before you go any further, you should spend time refining your core message and the skeletal structure of your overall marketing approach.
To this end, you can focus on the four Ps of marketing, which you probably learned if you took any marketing or business courses in college:
· Product. Your product is what you're selling. Obviously, you're selling your legal services. But what exactly do those legal services include? What makes them different? Why do people need them? And why are they worth the money?
· Price. How much are you charging for your product? You may not want to publicize your fees in your initial advertising, but you should at least be able to justify charging clients for your services – and convince them that it's at least worth moving forward with a free initial consultation.
· Place. Should you advertise with billboards, paid search ads, TikTok videos – or a combination of all three? Are you targeting people in a specific geographic location? If you already know who your target audience is, it shouldn't be hard to make initial decisions regarding placement. Just keep an open mind, as some channels offer more opportunity than they first seem to offer.
· Promotion. Next, you'll need a promotional strategy. What messages, images, and other persuasive content elements are going to persuade your audience? What objections do your clients typically have and how can you overcome those objections? Where and how often are you going to circulate your messages?
You know who your target clients are.
So how do you reach them?
For most law firms, the answer for effective mass tort marketing is to combine both narrow and broad targeting approaches.
Narrow targeting approaches are all about refining your target audience so that your messages reach only a narrow band of highly relevant people. For example, you can use pay per click (PPC) ads to reach people who meet an exhaustive list of demographic criteria.
Narrow approaches are advantageous because they prevent you from wasting time or energy on people who don't need your legal services. They offer an extremely refined, highly targeted approach, but at the same time, they're somewhat limited in capacity and they can be expensive on a per-lead basis.
Broad targeting approaches are all about reaching a very wide audience, often capitalizing on very inexpensive marketing tactics to improve your name recognition and potentially reach people you wouldn't be able to reach through more targeted approaches. For example, you might send physical mail or emails to tens of thousands of people who might be good fits for your legal services.
Broad approaches are complementary to narrow approaches, in many cases reaching people who are practically unreachable through narrow approaches. They're relatively inexpensive, especially on a per-lead basis, and they can be excellent for guiding people through your sales funnel.
In the modern era, law firms need an omnichannel approach to be successful.
In other words, you need to practice mass tort marketing across many different channels, including physical and digital channels, as well as traditional and novel channels.
Why?
Different people, even within the exact same demographic cohort, live their lives in different ways, using different channels as they go about their days. If you want to cast the widest net and reach the greatest number of highly relevant leads, you can't restrict yourself to a single channel.
Additionally, your competitors are likely already using an omnichannel approach. If you artificially limit yourself by only pursuing a narrow range of channels, you'll be putting yourself at a disadvantage.
On top of that, each marketing channel has strengths and weaknesses. Using many channels simultaneously is a way of diversifying your portfolio so your results are more consistent.
You need good relationships with your clients. It's good for client retention, quality reviews and referrals, and even learning more about your target demographics so you can market to them more effectively in the future.
In pursuit of better customer relationships, you should have a customer relationship management (CRM) platform in place. Similarly, you should also have a consistent, detailed intake process to handle leads as they're introduced to your law firm and as they begin to receive your legal services.
There are many possible approaches here, but any of them are valid as long as you're collecting customer information consistently and in a singular, accessible location. The more data you gather, the more you'll be able to learn and improve your approach.
One final note here: it's critically important to measure your results so you can improve your mass tort marketing efforts in the future.
Whatever channels you use, whatever tactics you try, and whatever gimmicky copywriting tricks you mess around with, you should objectively measure your results and compare those results to your spending. The gold standard for law firm marketing success is overall ROI; the higher the return on your investment, the more effective the strategy.
Over time, you’ll eventually weed out all the underperforming tactics in your strategic wheelhouse – and you’ll multiply your investments in thriving, proven tactics.
You’ve read our introductory guide, so you know what it takes to develop an effective mass tort marketing campaign.
Unfortunately, this article can’t do the work for you.
But fortunately, we can.
Reach out today for a free consultation – and let us help you get the inbound mass tort leads you need to beat your top competitors!
If you want to be seen online, you need your website at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs).And if you want to be at the top of the SERPs, you need backlinks.Unfortunately, backlinks are hard to build on your own.You need to develop content. You need to build publisher relationships. You need to practice outreach. And you need to follow up.
It's a lot of time and effort that isn't guaranteed to make you successful.
That's why link building agencies and link building services exist.
Competent SEO experts have the knowledge, experience, and resources necessary to help you build all the links you need to dominate the competition.
The big problem is that there are too many link building services to choose from. Darn.
Now obviously, not all of these link building services are worth using.
So, we saved you a couple of steps.
We've done the research, so you don't have to, and we've compiled a list of the 20 best link building services that are currently available.
It's hard to overstate just how valuable links are in the SEO industry.Backlinks pass “authority,” a measure of trustworthiness, to your site. The more links you have, and the better those links are, the higher the authority of your site is going to grow. And the more authority your site has, the higher it's going to rank.
On top of that, link building can provide you with greater brand visibility, referral traffic, and even new partnerships and connections.
Taking advantage of link building services enables you to get all of these benefits without spending hundreds of hours of your own time tuning for SEO or working tirelessly to hire the perfect internal team.
The only downside is that some link building services use unscrupulous or predatory tactics, ultimately harming your site more than helping it.
Since Google has really stepped up its efforts in cracking down on low-quality content and links, these types of services are getting rarer and rarer.
But it's still important to do your research and find the best link building services you can afford.
What criteria are we using to declare the best link building services available?
We haven’t personally used all of the link building services that we’re about to list. Instead, we’re basing our assessments on publicly available information about each organization.
These are some of the best link building services that money can buy:
Yes, we put ourselves at the top of the list – why wouldn’t we? SEO.co and Link.Build are based in Seattle (with satellite offices across the country) and is a full-service SEO agency, offering consulting, link building, content development, onsite SEO, and other SEO services.
We’ve been serving everything from local startups to Fortune 500 enterprises since 2010 and we have an undying commitment to ethical, value-centric link building. If you’re ready to outwrite and outrank the competition, contact us for pricing and more details today!
LinkDoctor.io, in Sheridan, WY, currently has more than 138,000 keywords on page one. With decades of combined industry experience on the team and a deep knowledge of best SEO practices, LinkDoctor.io can help almost any site with natural link building services, across a wide range of niches. Pricing is available upon request.
Rhino Rank, located in Shrewsbury, UK, popularized the concept of “curated links.” With an uncompromising focus on quality and clients all over the world, Rhino Rank has been helping clients achieve global reach since its founding in 2017. Prices are highly competitive for the industry, with average price per link ranging from $42-200, depending on DA.
Siege Media is a fully remote marketing and PR agency that offers both passive and active link building services. It handles everything from initial research and outreach to link placement and quality assurance. Areas of specialty include fintech, e-commerce, and SaaS. Link building strategies are developed for individual clients, and pricing is custom.
BlueTree, located in Chicago, IL, is a digital PR agency that focuses primarily on SaaS and tech companies – but offers link building plans for a variety of businesses. Utilizing existing relationships with tech publications and a robust editorial approach, BlueTree is dedicated to building domain authority and organic traffic. Plans start at $2,500 per month.
uSERP, located in Denver, CO, is a full-service link building agency that relies on white hat, ethical outreach strategies and “quality over quantity.” With strategic direction stemming from content gap analysis, URL analysis, and other data-centric approaches, uSERP works with lean startups, major corporations, and everything in between. Plans start at $10,000 per month.
SureOak, based in Brooklyn, NY, serves industries including B2B services, SaaS, fintech, education, e-commerce, insurance, and healthcare. It offers a variety of link building services like editorial link insertions, link analysis, link reclamation, toxic link management, and even white label link building. Plans start at $2,000 per month.
Page One Power, headquartered in Boise, ID, is primarily focused on B2C clients – and has more than 12 years of experience serving them. With full SEO services, Page One Power can help you with onsite optimization, content development, and, of course, link building. It also offers white label services to other agencies. Pricing is custom.
Neil Patel is both an individual and the functional name for his marketing agency. Located in San Diego, CA, Neil Patel serves almost every imaginable business with high-quality content, onsite optimization, and link building.
Patel’s blog currently has more than 4 million links pointing to it – a powerful demonstration of what good content can do. Pricing is custom.
Green Flag Digital, also located in San Diego, CA, typically serves clients in SaaS, medical, real estate, and e-commerce, and exclusively practices ethical link building. They believe in trustworthy, genuinely helpful content – and they have a proven, 10-step process to ensure their clients get the best evergreen links possible. Campaigns start at $3,000.
FATJOE, in Cannok, UK, serves clients in fields like retail, manufacturing, tech, and advertising. It relies on organic, ethical outreach and specializes in content syndication. Clients get access to a dashboard where they can view and analyze results in real-time – and white label link building services are also available. Pricing is a la carte, based on the services you need.
The HOTH, based in St. Petersburg, FL, gets its name from the acronym “hittem over the head,” and strives to build natural, traffic-generating links for their clients. Using both offsite content and social media, the HOTH has a signature link building method that’s especially powerful for social media content. Pricing is custom.
LinksThatRank follows a 23-step process for quality control and maintains a blacklist that filters out the types of sites that Google typically frowns upon.
Every link placement is designed to meaningfully improve your chances of ranking – and you’ll receive a report when the work is done. White label services are available. Pricing ranges from $177 to $327 per link.
eCommerce Link Builders, in New York, NY, practices link building with a focus on return on investment (ROI) and quality over quantity. Through their plans, you’ll get access to blogs relevant to your niche, premium content creation, and exhaustive quality control. Link packages start at $1497 per month, but custom plans are also available.
Authority Builders, located in St. Pete Beach, FL, offers a robust dashboard where you can place orders, monitor progress, and generate reports to view your results. You can choose the websites where you want to build links – and they even offer a 365-day money-back guarantee. Pricing is custom.
Get Me Links, founded in 2019, offers services that include guest posting, niche edits, link packs, tiered links, and local links, so you can customize a full campaign that covers all of your needs. All you have to provide is a target URL and desired anchor text; Get Me Links handles the rest. Guest post links start at $160 per link.
Loganix, with locations in Vancouver, Seattle, and Honolulu, has access to a diversity of different publishing websites, including Forbes, Mashable, and Backlinko. Their guest posting services are the main draw, but they have a wide range of other SEO services that can help your business rank. Pricing starts at $200 per guest post.
Love to Link is an exclusively white hat link building agency that primarily uses guest posting as a link building tactic. They have a full team of in-house writers and their links are vetted to ensure they bring SEO value to your brand. Pricing starts at $139 per guest post, and services are available as packages or a la carte.
Samurai Marketers, in New York, NY, uses real-world data to acquire links from Google-approved websites across a wide range of different industries and niches. Each link is thoroughly vetted – and clients get access to a totally hands-off experience, with no requirements for developing new onsite content. Pricing is a la carte, and varies based on DA.
Outreach Labs is a fresh-faced agency that offers a mixture of digital PR and blogger outreach to acquire links.
It’s a tech savvy agency run by Ajay Paghdal, a seasoned link building veteran with over 10 years of experience.
They offer their clients full transparency through live dashboards, weekly reports, website approval and pricing based on website quality. Pricing is tier-based, depending on the website quality.
Link building is an investment.And as long as you choose the right partner, it's an investment that will almost certainly pay off.Here are some reasons to consider investing in or hiring a link building service:
However, it's important to note that not every link building company is created equal.Quality matters more than quantity when it comes to backlinks and off-page SEO.
Black-hat or spammy link building practices can actually harm your website's reputation and rankings. When considering link building strategies, prioritize those that focus on ethical (e.g. broken link building), white-hat practices and emphasize the importance of relevant, high-quality backlinks.
Everything begins with a conversation.So, if you're ready to talk about your current link building strategy, or if you just want to know more about how we can bring the best links to your website, contact us today!
So, you've finally decided to take the plunge.
Or maybe you're just curious about learning more about the platform.
Either way, you know that TikTok marketing has a ton of potential.
But how exactly does TikTok marketing work?
Does this the right move for every business?
And how do you get the most out of your TikTok marketing and advertising strategy?
TikTok is a social media platform that focuses on highly shareable, engageable video content.
Users can create videos from scratch or modify existing videos, then share those videos with their friends and followers. The platform allows for videos of up to 10 minutes, but most people on the platform focus on making much shorter, punchier videos. TikTok users are much more likely to engage with a video that's less than a minute long, so most creators prioritize this.
TikTok marketing is a strategy designed to take advantage of the explosive popularity of this app to showcase your brand, your products, and your services.
Much like other social media strategies, you can use organic posting to build a following and nurture your biggest fans. You can also use paid advertising to reach new people and cut out the messy middle work.
TikTok marketing isn't guaranteed to be effective, and it's not the best medium for every brand. However, there's enormous potential here – and with the right strategies, you can greatly amplify your overall marketing reach.
Not convinced that TikTok marketing is a good idea?
Let’s take a look at some of the statistics:
As you can see, TikTok is an extraordinarily popular app, and it seems to be growing in popularity with each passing year. At the same time, a tiny minority of marketers are currently using TikTok, representing a potential competitive advantage for you.
One important thing to note is that TikTok is disproportionately favored by young people. The user base of TikTok skews very young, and older adults are more likely to have negative feelings about the app.
Keep this in mind; if you're not interested in appealing to children and teenagers, this strategy may not be viable for you. Or at the very least, you'll probably find better results with other social media apps and mediums.
Creating a TikTok business account is easy. After creating a normal account, go into your account settings, select “Manage account,” then choose “Switch to Business Account.
”From here, you'll be able to create and post videos to your business account and leverage the power of TikTok Ads Manager.
How do you create TikTok videos?The app allows you to make novel modifications to videos, adding stickers, sound effects, specific lines of dialogue, filters, and tons of other special features. When creating a video, you'll have the option of pulling in a video saved on your phone or filming a new one from scratch.
Either way, once you have a video captured, you can modify it as you see fit. The app is designed to be simple and intuitive, so you should have no trouble experimenting with some of the interesting and dynamic effects available to you. Additionally, new effects are being added all the time, so there's always new material to explore.
Once you're done editing, you can review the video and post it to your TikTok business account.If you need further help creating videos for the first time, TikTok has some excellent guides worth reading.
The biggest decision you'll make in TikTok marketing is deciding whether to pursue organic marketing or paid advertising.
TikTok organic marketing is all about trying to reach people naturally, as if you were an average TikTok user. You'll create videos on a regular basis, share them with your followers, reach out to new people, and eventually build a following. From there, you can create videos on any topic and rest assured that your content will reach a large chunk of your audience.
TikTok makes it easier than most social media platforms for your content to reach new people, since it algorithmically chooses content to display in a section called “For You.” In this section, users can review carefully curated videos that match their interests and personality.
Once your content starts to become successful, you'll start showing up in “For You” sections of regular users, introducing them to your brand and potentially drawing them into your audience.
These videos are selected based on a number of criteria determined by TikTok, including:
Organic marketing is effective because it generates natural, genuine interest in your brand and its products. However, it can also be difficult, inconsistent, and unreliable.
Even if you make amazing content, there's no guarantee it's going to reach the people you want, and no matter how engaging you are, your content will never reach 100 percent of your following. On top of that, it usually takes months, if not years to build up a strong following.
That's why many TikTok marketers turn to the world of paid advertising as an alternative.
If you have any experience with bidding on ads in Google Ads or a similar platform, TikTok Ads Manager is going to look familiar to you. The ads manager utilizes a bidding system, allowing different brands to competitively bid on ad placements.
There are several types of ads to choose from, including:
Additionally, you can bid in a number of different ways:
Compared to organic marketing, paid advertising on TikTok is a practical guarantee of results; if you pay money for ads, you'll get a specific number of impressions, views, or clicks in return. It's also much faster and easier to scale, as long as you have the budget to do it. However, users may not be willing to engage with ads as much as organic content, and the strategy can be expensive for some users.
If you’re familiar with content marketing in general, you already know some of the most important fundamentals that will lead you to success in organic TikTok marketing. But here are some additional tips that can help you find success:
These tips can help you find more success with a paid TikTok advertising strategy:
If you can't stand the idea of learning yet another new social media platform, or if you just feel overwhelmed at the marketing and advertising possibilities of TikTok, your best course of action is to work with a marketing agency.
Your marketing agency can help you with every step of the process, from helping you set campaign goals to helping you film and edit successful videos for distribution.
If you're interested in learning more about how a TikTok marketing agency can help you, or if you're ready for a free quote, contact us today!
Do people like your brand?
Do people even know your brand exists?
Without a solid digital PR strategy in place, they might not.
You can offer the best products and services. You can hire the best people. You can have an exceptional track record for customer service.
But none of that is going to help you if you don't have the visibility and familiarity necessary to take your brand to the next level.
That's why digital PR services exist.
But with so many digital PR firms and agencies to choose from, it's hard to know the best fit for your organization.
So what are the best digital PR services available?
Digital PR takes many forms, and usually involves promotion across many different digital channels. This includes search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, link building, relationship management, content marketing, press releases, and more.
The end result is that more people become acquainted with your brand, you earn respect as a thought leader or similar authority, you generate more traffic to your website, and you ultimately cultivate a bigger stream of revenue.
Of course, all this is only possible if you execute your digital PR strategy effectively. That means reaching as many people within your target audience as possible, differentiating yourself from the competition, building your reputation as an expert, and keeping expenses to a reasonable level.
With the best digital PR services in the world, your job becomes much easier.
As digital PR experts in our own right, we have enough knowledge of the industry to make evaluations of digital PR services.But in an effort to remain as objective as possible, our selection criteria are as follows:
These are some of the best digital PR services currently available:
Of course, we need to mention our own digital PR brand – Marketer.co. Obviously, we care a lot about SEO and digital marketing, but that’s really only the beginning. With our team of seasoned experts, we offer consulting, content marketing, link building, PPC advertising, and a host of other services. Every client is unique, so we don’t have a “one size fits all” package, but if you’re interested in putting together a comprehensive digital PR strategy for your brand – contact us today!
Impression focuses on “creative, measurable digital PR strategies focusing on business goals.” It has won several awards, including “best use of data in a content campaign” from the UK Content Awards 2022 and “best use of PR in a search campaign” from the Global Search Awards 2022. Pricing is available upon request.
Siege Media has earned a reputation in the realms of content marketing, SEO, and PR because of its commitment to quality. With a focus on industries like Fintech, eCommerce, and SaaS, Siege Media provides stellar digital PR efforts to a wide range of clients – and more than 6,000 pieces of coverage every month. Pricing is available upon request.
Aira is a UK-based digital PR agency that serves B2B and B2C brands alike, utilizing creative thinking across a variety of channels to build brand visibility and familiarity. It creates and sustains valuable relationships to support greater traffic flow – and offers thorough reporting to prove its results. Pricing is available upon request.
Dofollow.com is a link building and digital PR agency that uses powerful backlinks to support SaaS and other businesses interested in growth. This agency prioritizes relevance and uses AI-powered search to connect clients to the best PR opportunities online, forming a positive relationship between businesses, publishers, and of course, Google. Pricing is based on DA of referring domains.
Go Fish Digital uses in-depth data analytics to drive its content strategy. This digital PR agency primarily serves retail, B2B, travel and leisure, and real estate organizations, and uses a mix of SEO, link building, influencer marketing, and general online reputation management to serve its clients. Pricing is available upon request.
Green Flag Digital uses resource page link building to promote its clients and produces content that’s valuable both for clients and the users who read it. Adhering to the priorities of publishers, users, and clients allows this digital PR agency to thrive in an increasingly competitive world and its 15-step PR process helps it remain consistent. Pricing is available upon request.
uSERP, as you may have guessed from the name, uses a unique blend of content marketing, SEO, backlink building, and traditional PR strategies to earn more visibility and traffic for its clients. By focusing on thought leadership, experience, and trustworthiness, uSERP gets results for its clients – and proves those results with objective metrics. Pricing is available upon request.
Power Digital Marketing specializes in influencer campaigns, but it can help you with a wide range of different digital PR needs. In fact, most of its clients pursue total omnichannel support, which includes coverage in SEO, social media, content marketing, CRO, and other forms of PR. Pricing is available upon request.
NP Digital was recently celebrated as the 2023 Global Performance Marketing Agency of the Year and is known for its leadership in the digital PR space. Offering a wide range of digital marketing and PR solutions, NP Digital caters to a multitude of clients in almost every imaginable industry. Pricing is available upon request.
MacNaught Digital is a smaller digital PR firm on this list, based in Saddleworth, Greater Manchester. Primarily focusing on tactical link building, this agency uses many different link building strategies and content creation to support their clients. However, MacNaught Digital tends to be selective about the clients they choose to accept. Pricing is available upon request.
Loganix offers services across the digital marketing and PR landscape, including SEO, local SEO, content marketing, PPC advertising, link building, and conventional PR management. It’s home to a robust team of specialized experts and offers plenty of flexibility, as you can customize your own plan. Pricing is available upon request.
Omniscient Digital is primarily a content marketing and SEO agency, but it uses a wide variety of mediums to form a cohesive, overall PR strategy for their clients. Focusing on brand reputation and organic traffic, Omniscient Digital prioritizes measurable results. Pricing starts at $8,000 per month.
Builtvisible is a UK-based, independent digital marketing agency that relies on data to drive its digital PR and SEO campaigns. Its signature approach incorporates elements of many different marketing strategies and channels, all focused on storytelling and positive reputation building. Pricing is available upon request.
Digital Olympus brands itself as a “relationship-based” link building agency. Their main strategy is connecting with bloggers, influencers, and thought leaders in a variety of niches to secure better placement opportunities for their clients. They have options for a wide range of clients across most industries. Pricing is based on the DA of referring domains.
Shout Bravo is a UK-based digital PR agency that offers services related to digital PR, content marketing, and influencer marketing. It has experience with clients in sectors like healthcare, technology, fashion, finance, and entertainment, but it’s open to other types of clients as well. Pricing is available upon request.
WeOutreach is a link building services agency that promises to increase your organic search traffic by 30 to 100 percent in 6 to 12 months. They have excellent link building practices, but few other services, so if you’re interested in many aspects of digital PR, they may not be the best fit. Pricing is available upon request.
BibiBuzz is a fun-named digital PR agency that provides its clients with a diverse mix of PR strategies, with a special focus on SEO, content marketing, and link building. Content is at the core of everything they do – and they specialize in finding ways to subvert or overcome the competition. Pricing starts at $5,000 for a package of 10 links.
Help a Reporter Out, or HARO, is an organization that facilitates connections between journalists and experts. For free, you can sign up as a source and automatically be notified of potential opportunities where you can share your expertise with journalists. It’s not technically a digital PR agency, but because of its incredible PR potential, it deserves to be mentioned here.
Are you interested in the benefits of getting HARO links, but reluctant to invest the time necessary to get the job done? Consider working with Reporter Outreach. Reporter Outreach is a digital PR firm that helps brands connect to journalists so they can get more positive exposure for their organizations. Pricing starts at $2,999 per month or $300 per link. Digital PR is a nightmare to manage.
That is, unless you have a reliable digital PR agency working on your behalf. With the right team, PR becomes easy. And your brand reputation will begin to flourish. Are you ready to launch a digital PR strategy of your own? Are you ready to see what your brand is capable of when it reaches peak visibility and popularity? Then let’s start the conversation. Contact us today!
Customer churn is an all-too-real challenge for SaaS companies. This blog will review minimizing customer churn and how to maximize its success financially and operationally.
Moreover, we will look at strategies that address the root cause of churn, best practices on enhancing user onboarding and training, creating a personalized user experience, utilizing engaging email campaigns, leveraging analytics to monitor usage patterns, and impacting customers' decisions using offers or incentives.
When implemented thoughtfully these techniques together with proactive communication can help reduce customer Churn dramatically while enabling the business to grow sustainably.
Customer churn can occur when a customer becomes dissatisfied with a company’s products or services, finds a substitute product that provides greater value, or simply ceases to be interested.
In the SaaS industry in particular, problems such as user neglect of features they subscribed for, complex pricing plans, competing technologies overshadowing an existing product and dissatisfaction due to inadequate customer service contribute drastically to customer churn.
Understanding these factors nonetheless is key because it helps create strategies to mitigate their negative impact offset by other rewards or incentives where applicable.
Identifying customer churn patterns and warning signs in a service-based business can be vital to successful retention. Tracking usage and customer traffic help spot any areas of decline when compared to usual activity.
With the right tools, validations like first or next days active can also alert businesses about customers who are exhibiting traits of potential churn. Additionally, other key indicators such as failed payments or adoption lags among user groups will identify users most likely to exhibit behavior akin to those already leaving.
By spotting present warning signals early on, team leaders are better positioned not only to ensure that things won't fester but have a plan ready to prevent the impending dive in profits due to customer losses.
Churn refers to the percentage of customers who have stopped using a business's service. Calculation of churn rate must take into account how long it takes a customer to become inactive within a certain period of time.
It is then used as an indicator of whether or not the company has been successful in retaining its existing customers. A high churn rate implies bad customer retention and can be financially damaging as it affects future revenue from existing customers, thereby impacting overall profitability and growth potential.
Improving the quality of products and services is a key way to reduce customer churn in SaaS companies. By releasing high-quality, bug-free products and providing fast, reliable support services, businesses can establish trust with their customers while creating value.
Product/service updates should meet users' evolving needs as these ensure that customers get the newest technology features and remain satisfied.
Enhancing user onboarding and training is a critical strategy for minimizing customer churn in SaaS companies. User onboarding should be streamlined, utilizing mock-ups and information videos to smoothly transition users into using their product or service quickly and efficiently.
Additionally, setting up tutorials on basic features will serve as extra support for those who didn’t absorb all the knowledge previously covered from the video instructions. Offering ample personalized customer success programs can further help provide hands-on instruction when navigating new solutions with customers.
Providing excellent customer support is essential for SaaS companies looking to reduce their customer churn. This includes being available with timely, educational, and effective responses from knowledgeable reps when a customer requests assistance. Establishing SLAs (Service Level Agreements) that offer response times comparable to industry standards will help ensure customers have an efficient experience.
It’s important for these prompt interactions to happen throughout their lifecycle and not just at the time of purchase. Real-time reporting tools also can be used to measure the performance levels of staff as well capabilities like account management under specific departments within an organization.
Collecting and analyzing customer feedback is essential for uncovering key insights needed to reduce churn. Effective ways to do this include gathering customers’ opinions through online surveys, reactions from support inquiry conversations, and social listening activities.
Also gathering qualitative data such as anecdotes provides an in-depth understanding of user pain points which can inform product development decisions. Without regular analysis, action-oriented solutions may go unrealized leading to a low level of customer loyalty and higher rates of churn.
Creating personalized customer experiences is a great way to build customer loyalty. Through personalizing experiences, companies can cater the experience and content on their websites and products according to each unique individual customer's behavior and preferences. Customers feel valued when they have a more tailored experience that caters directly toward them as an individual, instilling trust for the company in turn.
Customer Success Programs are aimed at providing personalized experiences and long-term relationships with customers. They involve delivering meaningful value, cloud-based services & support, increasing customer engagement and satisfaction, prioritizing individual needs, setting up goals aligned with the customer’s desired outcomes, and developing a plan to meet those objectives. Having such programs can drastically reduce customer churn rates for SaaS companies.
Companies look to incentivize customers through discount offers, exclusive benefits, and special promotions. Additionally, having customer reward programs provide long-term benefits such as getting continuous feedback, being quick to spot warning signs of drops in satisfaction levels, etc., ultimately helping retain happy loyal customers.
Staying connected with customers should be a priority for any SaaS business in order to address their ongoing needs, prioritize technical and customer support, provide attentive feedback, and preempt potential risks.
Developing open channels of dialogue is essential for understanding customer requirements and motivating them to stay engaged with the product or service over time.This can be accomplished via regular email contact, personal outreach via phone or live chat, virtual meetings with key personnel at the company as appropriate and actively responding to online reviews posted by users.
Email campaigns and newsletters can help foster customer relationships by providing tailored content to a specific audience and encouraging them to take advantage of product or service offers.
Companies should ensure emails are worded clearly, concisely contain CTAs, track data points like opens and click-throughs and conform with GDPR requirements. Finally, leveraging dynamic segmentation in order to present customers with relevant messages will enhance the user experience.
Platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook provide great opportunities for measurement, engagement, support, and feedback. By responding quickly to inquiries through direct messages and hosting online polls or surveys, SaaS companies can further strengthen their connection with the target audience.
Social media is also a space to get feedback that improves processes like onboarding, customer service, or user satisfaction which in turn will help reduce churn rate.
Analyzing levels of engagement, frequency of use/purchase, abandonment rate, etc., can shed light on current strengths and weaknesses in the customer journey.
This data can be used more effectively to target them through campaigns or activities to improve trends as well as forecast potential risks before they arise. Knowing how your customers engage presents powerful opportunities for continual optimization and growth.
By leveraging usage data, demographic information, and historical performance metrics, businesses can identify key risk factors allowing them to employ targeted strategies for retaining customers long term.
Utilizing machine learning models and predictive analytics allows organizations to get a better understanding of how their users’ behaviors affect future results— reducing customer churn rates while increasing revenue growth potential in the process.
Analytics is a powerful tool that SaaS companies—big or small, new or established—can use to track customer usage patterns and determine why customers may be experiencing difficulty with their products. This information can then be used to customize features and benefits, refine operational processes, and implement corrective actions.When incorporated into existing strategies for customer retention, analytics enriches the sophistication of risk analysis to create more informed decisions about customers and facilitate better-responding interactions within that vital relationship.
Derisking customer churn requires more than a one-size-fits-all approach. Successfully tackling customer churn in SaaS companies requires continuous optimization using data and analytics.By enhancing product quality, onboarding/training, gathering feedback, building loyalty programs, implementing proactive communication strategies, and tracking usage patterns, businesses can limit their risk of churn and overall safeguard long-term success within their services.With the correct strategies in place, your business will be continually optimizing itself for continued growth.
It is essential for businesses today to prioritize customer experience (CX) if they wish to remain competitive and achieve long-term organizational goals. Thanks to its wide range of efficient features, Zendesk has been a standout in modern customer service platforms that can help towards this goal.
Through sophisticated ticketing management systems, omnichannel support, knowledge bases for self-service, advanced analytics, and reporting capabilities among other benefits – organizations have seen its value in helping them improve their overall CX.
In this blog, we will delve into these advantages and explore real-life case studies featuring companies that successfully leveraged Zendesk’s abilities as part of their integrated CX strategy. We want to be the source by which businesses understand how modern customer service is done and unlock the many benefits that Zendesk can provide for them.
Zendesk is a cloud-based customer service platform that streamlines ticket management and provides omnichannel support. It offers numerous features, capabilities, and integrations that cater to organizations of all shapes and sizes.
Users can forego legacy on-premise systems and benefit from improved scalability at affordable costs. Zendesk also makes it easy for businesses to customize settings so vendors can tailor the system according to specific requisites or software integration solutions with other app companies.
Its key features include multi-channel ticketing so customers can review previous tickets, automation tools such as advanced filters, rules, macros & triggers to help streamline response times; an integrated knowledge base; preconfigured workspaces suited for different job roles; plus AI-supported conversations and advanced analytics for tracking trends.
Add-ons like portals, integrations, and API are also included in the package that enables customization of workflows and provides tailor-fit experiences for superior satisfaction.
Zendesk allows businesses the opportunity to access top-notch features regardless if they’re just starting out or looking to go global.
User permissions make it possible for company administrators to manage employee roles, while powerful automation options enable complex workflows with minimal manual involvement. Overall, Zendesk provides unparalleled flexibility that serves both large enterprises and small businesses alike.
The ticketing system organizes customer queries into an efficient structure in order to prioritize tasks and increase team efficiency quickly and reliably. It automatically sorts customer tickets according to their content, severity, closeness to resolution, SLA timeframes, or other factors.It also offers cross-domain integration support for multiple products related. Furthermore, Zendesk provides customized queues which allow teams to organize customer queries using predefined policies -taking another burden off team members’ shoulders while ensuring purposeful responses every single time.
Personalizing customer experiences has proven to be an effective way of creating relationships between brands and customers, which is why it is essential for businesses to use data and insights about their customers.
With Zendesk, businesses can maximize user engagement through segmented communication, tailored advertisements, and targeted conversational techniques –all enabled by containing customer data points from consumption habit to previous communications.
By using these insights on comportment across the customer journey, personalized interactions can effectively build better trust with customers that result in strong loyalty over the long run.
Using Zendesk's customer insights allows companies to use customers' personal data and interactions history to deliver more tailored experiences that exceed expectations. Additionally, Zendesk proactively encourages deeper engagement through personalized messages based on contact preferences.
By prioritizing the unique needs of each individual customer, tangible results can be seen through improved relations with more satisfied patrons helping your business succeed.
By leveraging customer data and insights within Zendesk, businesses are able to provide personalized experiences that strengthen relationships with customers. With this enhanced level of customer engagement, businesses can drive more repeat business while achieving greater success with their CX strategy.
For example, powerful features like real-time list imports enable companies to pull unique data in order to develop personal product recommendations for each individual customer. These personalized interactions eliminate waste and improve the relevance of support for every party involved, fostering greater trust and loyalty on both ends.
Data collected from customer interactions can be incredibly valuable in helping businesses make data-driven decisions in their CX strategy. With Zendesk’s advanced analytics for reporting, businesses are able to collect a wealth of customer insights they might need to devise the optimal CX programs.
Through its insightful reports, detailed stats, surveys reviews, and even heatmaps many complex interaction patterns can be identified efficiently which helps focus organizational resources on areas that need it most.
Advanced Reporting and Analytics Using Zendesk's reporting and analytics capabilities, businesses can gain vital insights into customer behavior. This data is useful for identifying trends, recognizing gaps in service offerings, gaining efficiency, and uncovering patterns that help identify areas where improvements need to be made.
Armed with relevant information around KPIs such as the number of tickets logged or time to resolution, businesses are empowered to make informed decisions associated with their CX strategy.
Zendesk integrates with many popular business tools to streamline customer service processes and automate support operations. Thanks to open APIs, Zendesk can easily be used in conjunction with more than a dozen live chat channels as well as other software modules like web analytics and marketing automation.
Combined with its omnichannel capabilities and customizable design functions, customers have great flexibility in customizing their Zendesk settings however they need them for ultimate efficiency.
Zendesk is also compatible with various CRMs and enterprise-level databases, so larger business teams benefit from superior data handling capabilities that maximize CX strategy impacts.
Tailoring services to suit specific business needs is critical in delivering exceptional customer experiences. Zendesk offers various customization options and integrations so businesses can precisely align their CX strategy with objectives at all times.
These features empower companies to build a service platform designed specifically according to their own preferences, ensuring every customer request or query is handled smoothly and efficiently.
Integrations and customizations are great ways to maximize scalability and efficiency. Zendesk is compatible with many third-party tools, making it easy for businesses to connect their platforms together seamlessly while guaranteeing optimal user experience.
Businesses can also tailor Zendesk according to specific needs so processes like customer data management and support services become more streamlined.
Zendesk has an advanced set of feedback and survey tools, this service enables companies to create custom surveys tailored to meet their unique requirements.
Through reporting and analytics, customers can evaluate the response data quickly in order to detect pain points, improve the customer experience, and strengthen relationships with existing customers.
Surveys are an essential tool for understanding customer satisfaction and measuring experiences against customer expectations. With the help of Zendesk, businesses have access to automated surveys which allow customers to provide feedback and insights efficiently.
Companies can use this data to identify pain points, measure success and make further improvements in their CX strategy.By using these beneficial features, companies gain deep insight into their customers' needs – allowing them to be aware of any areas that require attention quickly and easily so they can consistently meet or exceed customer expectations.
Continuous improvement of customer experiences is critical for a successful business. By leveraging data from customer feedback and surveys provided by Zendesk, companies can identify areas where customers are encountering difficulties or dissatisfaction.
With this valuable insight, businesses can then develop and implement changes to continuously optimize CX, resulting in higher customer satisfaction rates and long-term loyalty for the brand.
Zendesk offers a great platform for businesses to implement an innovative and efficient customer experience strategy. It helps organizations with omnichannel support, tailored experiences, personalized engagements as well as knowledge base resources which will empower customers and drive loyalty.
Additionally, it gives companies the ability to track their customer support performance via analytics and feedback tools in order to continuously improve their CX. Thus, by using Zendesk, businesses have the potential of transforming customer interactions while redefining excellence in CX management.
The key to a successful brand is visibility. In today's highly competitive digital-driven marketplace, gaining traction and recognition as a business requires more than traditional advertising tactics.
There are effective strategies available for even the smallest of start-ups to increase their reach and become visible and familiar on an array of platforms.
In this article, we will explore 5 proven methods to elevate your brand’s visibility with advice from industry experts such as customer advocate programs, content creation, thought leadership techniques, partnerships development and influencer marketing campaigns.
The power of customer advocacy has been the secret to success for many organizations. Consumers trust third-party recommendations more than pointed marketing messages, so elevating your brand through loyal advocates is an effective way to increase visibility and credibility.
By delivering extraordinary experiences for customers at every point in their journey, networks of supporters will develop around your products and services, resulting in improved loyalty and sales growth for your business.
Deliver exceptional customer experiences to generate more customer advocacy for your brand. Increase their loyalty towards you by creating enjoyable and satisfying experiences that stand out from the crowd.
Use incentives such as discounts, promotions, and reward systems for returning customers in order to encourage them to come back and share their positive reviews with family, friends, or on social media.
Doing so will help increase brand visibility through word-of-mouth referrals which amplifies reach far beyond branded marketing efforts.
Loyalty programs allow organizations to reward customers for their loyalty and advocacy for a product or service. Such programs encourage more customers to return and purchase again. This type of program ignites conversation which increases brand visibility and frequently deepens customers' engagement with the organization.
Additionally, these types of strategies can motivate upsells, help strengthen customer relationships, develop referrals, and cultivate loyal brand advocates over time. Implement compelling rewards that drive your bottom line metrics while motivating consistent advocacy for your business objectives.
Shareable content not only helps spread the word about your product or service but also drives profile visits, followers, conversions, and web traffic. Shareable content should be of value to the consumer and capture their attention while retaining its originality.
When crafted wisely it creates resonating engagements through social media shares that increase reach exponentially, resulting in more eyeballs on the product and educating consumers in an exciting way.
A key step in crafting shareable content is to identify your target audience. This involves research into defining what type of people would be interested in what you have to offer and which digital channels they use as well as understanding the themes, ideas, and values that resonate most with them.
You can also create buyer personas to further segment by demographics, interests, etc. Doing this gives you a better picture of who your content reaches so you can continue catering it to those individuals for maximum visibility benefits.
Content should then be developed with an understanding of the purpose behind the piece, such as informing or entertaining consumers. Visual elements, like high-definition images and videos, also help contribute to content that people enjoy engaging with and feel compelled to share.
By incorporating these elements into creating compelling stories for readers, brands can start widening their audience reach across platforms regardless of whether organic or paid tactics were used.
Social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook are invaluable avenues for boosting the visibility of your brand. Leveraging hashtags related to your niche is key in being up-to-date with industry trends but also making sure that you’re quickly showing up on searches within networks.
In addition, running contests and actively responding to comments can strengthen meaningful connections between prospects and current customers alike without even spending any money.
Creating thought leadership content can help establish your brand as a knowledgeable and reliable authority on important topics within your industry. Identify relevant topics that are trending or provocatively highlight hot industry issues in order to draw attention from readers and position yourself as an expert.
Create valuable and insightful original content with resources such as infographics, videos, or articles which will engage with your target audience. Utilizing guest posting on other websites, along with partnering with key influencers or experts within the field, can also help strengthen the established trust of your brand.
Identifying relevant industry topics for creating thought leadership content is essential for brands looking to raise their profile and establish themselves as go-to references within the landscape.
Through research, constant conversations with leading players in the field, and staying up-to-date on trends, you’ll be able to identify areas of opportunity where your expertise can fill a gap.Public relations, having an angle when developing content, and connecting what is already popular to shareable trends are important considerations bottom lines when identifying relevant industry topics.
Crafting valuable and insightful content is an essential component of earning attention for your brand. Generating thoughtful insight or research on industry trends and topics related to your company helps demonstrate expertise, serves up fresh perspective, and adds life to your marketing mix.
It also helps you build trust with both customers and search engine algorithms. In order to create valuable content that will help elevate your visibility it’s important to understand what information would be helpful or interesting - then aim to answer those questions in a collaborative way.
Utilizing guest posting and influencer collaborations is an effective way to elevate brand awareness. When you create blog posts for other publishing platforms, it can help expand your reach far beyond your existing network. It also provides you with the ability to tap into the audiences of like-minded sites.
Collaborating with well-respected influencers on various campaigns gives brands access to a wider engaged audience that may be interested in different types of content than their own followers. Approaching key influencers whose specialty aligns closely with your brand’s message helps increase the likelihood of having strategic partnerships that reap impressive results for both parties.
Building strong connections can help boost one another’s visibility and potentially elevate reach, creating a profitable alliance regarding scalability efforts.
Partnering with complementary brands allows access to additional segments of the industry and thrust recognition from different demographic audiences; all in sustainable agreement terms that create harmony between brand integrity while standing out in the market through joint ventures.
When working together, each team puts their individual resources to good use for a bigger cause - meaning greater collective success given by leveraging collective strengths between the partners.
Partnering with complementary brands and businesses is an effective way to extend your brand reach to new audiences. Start by identifying key demographics, competitive landscape, and influencers’ preferences in the same industry. This will help you source high-relevancy synergies between peers or even major companies.
From there critically evaluate passion levels from each side to ensure that gaining access to the other party’s customers is reciprocal. Meanwhile, possible avenues of collaboration demeanors such as promotional deals for one another's customer base or logistical crossovers can bring both brand visibility and increase potential sales returns.
Collaborative marketing campaigns offer opportunities for brands to work with complementary businesses, leveraging each other's audiences to reach a broader and more targeted audience. This often involves aspects of product promotion or cross-channel advertising which both businesses benefit.
For example, partnering with a local restaurant when promoting a clothing line may gain additional exposure from the restaurant's network of loyal customers. Additionally, using contests and giveaway campaigns can be an effective way to jointly drive traffic and create buzz around both companies’ products or services.
Co-Creating Products or Services can be a great way to elevate your brand's visibility. It offers the unique opportunity to combine resources and ideas from two different organizations towards creating something innovative.
It allows for amplified reach since you are partnering with an established brand that has an existing customer base who are likely interested in what new product you present together.Working together helps generate more credibility as customers view this collaboration as a sign of trustworthiness in each respective business. Also, new collaborations create newsworthy announcements which help attract press coverage that increases exposure further boosting visibility for both brands.
The power of influencers cannot be underestimated when it comes to increasing brand visibility. Influencers have established relationships with their audiences and have the potential to create a wave of publicity for brands when they promote products or services.
Allowing influencers to share honest, creative ideas can bring genuine and highly engaging content that often goes viral quickly among audiences.
Beyond simply giving exposure, working with an influential figure enables greater access to networks; offering invaluable insight in understanding target markets on a much deeper level than otherwise available.
Identifying and partnering with key influencers is an essential strategy for leveraging the power of influencer marketing and increasing brand visibility. Connecting your brand to influential people allows you to reach broader audiences as these people have established credibility and influence within your target demographics.
The best way to find relevant influencers is through research – start by simply searching social media platforms, and digging into what content they are posting and who their followers are. You can also benefit from paid tracking services that analyze logos, items, or topics mentioned in shared posts to identify those most actively promoting your product or service.
Crafting an authentic Influencer campaign is key to successfully leveraging the power of influencers. Start by identifying your target audience, researching what kind of content resonates with them, and gathering insights about which influencers are most suitable for your campaign goals.
Craft a compelling story for you and your chosen influencers to amplify authentically across various platforms – this should include social media posts, videos, webinars, or free trials as well.
Use creative promotion angles so the influencer can show their audience while staying in line with your brand's core message and objectives. This promotes credibility while sparking organic engagement from real people toward your offering.
Measuring the impact of an influencer marketing campaign is essential to mastering and optimizing the tactic. As such, it's important to establish well-defined KPIs and metrics for each individual campaign and quantify the incremental change in brand visibility that resulted from the partnership.
A/B testing can be useful here to prove whether or not influencers had a positive or negative effect on engagement, with a specific focus paid to reach metrics, subscribers gained through collaborations and overall website performance.
With data at hand, brands will able to refine their approach targeting those influences that demonstrated success at driving engagement thus ensuring maximum relevance for future campaigns.
Gaining visibility and increasing awareness of your brand is an ongoing effort. You may use several strategies to improve your brand’s image, such as partnering with like-minded companies, crafting meaningful content with thought leadership initiatives, or leveraging the power of influencers in your campaigns.
Additionally, keep customer experience top of mind by demonstrating exceptional care practices and setting up loyalty programmed to motivate customers to become advocates for your brand. With consistency and adaptive measures, you can reach a larger audience who will anticipate engaging with your brand again.
Integrating customer and relationship management (CRM) systems with help desk solutions not only reduces the governance costs of operations but also improves process efficiency and eliminates manual work. This blog will explore why combining Zendesk with a CRM can be extremely beneficial for businesses wanting to streamline their efforts in customer service.
Specifically, it will discuss five primary advantages integration offers: enhanced customer experience, increased efficiency and productivity, comprehensive reporting and analytics, streamlined workflows and collaboration, as well as cost savings.
Integrating these tools will enable business owners to form efficient strategies while allowing customers the best level of experience possible—knowing that they are supported through meaningful interactions that bolster further success at every step of doing business.
Integrating Zendesk with CRM presents a number of benefits for enhancing the customer experience. Chief among them is the seamless flow of data between both systems.All interactions between a customers and support teams are updated automatically across every platform, providing agents exclusive visibility into past communications and complete records. This helps quickly resolve multiple cases in the least amount of time rather than combing through previous tickets manually.
Furthermore, this two-way integration between support and sales eliminates manual errors and processes with its real-time synchronization of data, allowing increases speed and accuracy while satisfying customers faster.G
Integrating customer profiles from Zendesk and your CRM system provides businesses with a more comprehensive understanding of their customers.
Access to information such as past purchases, service histories, support tickets and contact details provides agents with the full context necessary to provide personalized support and clear communication.
With an all-in-one platform housing integration data points, each team including marketing, finance and sales can collect current customer insights that help them conduct accurate analysis while allowing for streamlined interactions.
Personalized support and improved issue resolution are direct advantages that come from integrating Zendesk and CRM platforms.
Through a single connected ecosystem, unified customer information is accessible to any agent, allowing for more informed interactions without having to search through multiple databases.
As well, contextual communication escalates problem-solving by assessing an individual customer’s issue in relation to their existing broader history with the business. This deep visibility can be used as the underlying foundation for detailed personalized support experiences.
With data automatically synced between the two systems, customer service agents are able to swiftly access customer evidence from any device or area involved in an authorization process within seconds.
This allows organizations to serve more customers quickly, boosting agent productivity overall and creating time savings across all steps of the workflow. Centralized login management also pops up tied-in leads and affiliated memberships directly so agents don’t have to make manual changes anywhere else at hand- making processes automatic reduces complexity while managing privacy rules quicker.
Integrating Zendesk with a CRM enables businesses to automate the creation of tickets and update customer data. This eliminates manual data entry work, reduces repetition, and simplifies ticketing processes.
In addition, it becomes easier to track customer conversations across an entire organization. Plus, agents receive all the needed information instantly – eliminating delays in issue resolution and improving the overall efficiency and productivity of both support teams and customers alike.
Having Zendesk into a CRM platform empowers customer service agents. It allows them to identify information quickly for a personalized customer experience with increased efficiency and productivity.
This is made possible through the use of centralized unified platforms of access, eliminating time-consuming work of having to switch from one system to another during interactions with customers, enabling faster response times and custom support messages tailored more effectively for quicker resolutions.
Ultimately this leads increased profitability due to avoided overhead expenses around ticket issues or spent hours dealing with repetitive tasks, particularly as your sales team gets larger and more complex (e.g. when you combine outside value-added resellers along with an internal sales team)
One of the main advantages of integrating Zendesk with CRM is its ability to produce comprehensive reporting and analytics in order to gain more precise customer insights and customer success.
Combining support and sales data enables companies to access an all-encompassing picture of customers such as their past transactions, behaviors, preferences, interactions history, feedbacks etc., creating unique customer profile.
This kind of detailed information can help business strategize better and customize marketing campaigns for enhanced engagement with current or potential customers.
Integrating Zendesk with your CRM gives businesses the advantage of comprehensive reporting and analytics capability, allowing them to harness customer data available from both services. With custom fields, unique filters, segmentation tools and in-depth analytical reports, businesses can gain valuable insights into customer trends and manage complex behavior patterns.
Data enables more informed decisions that improve customer service goals and overall sales strategies significantly. Integration greatly reduces duplicate efforts by syncing conversation logs between Zendesk and customers which result in increased cost efficiency and improved resource management across teams.
Data-driven decision making can be hugely beneficial in streamlining customer service and optimizing sales strategies within Zendesk and CRM systems.
Having access to comprehensive reports and analytics from a combined platform enables businesses to gain actionable insights into customers’ preferences, buying behavior, issues that need addressing, resources allocated to certain areas of customer support/sales, and how changes in those areas can impact the bottom line.
With such knowledge at their disposal, management teams can make smart decisions based on data rather than trial-and-error tactics to maximize value for existing investments while strengthening relationships with clients instead of damaging them through outdated methodologies.
Synchronized customer information across teams and departments is a critical step in achieving successful integration between Zendesk and CRM systems. When enabled, there is an automatic flow of relevant data from both sources within the same system.
This helps break silos faced by marketing, support representatives believe sales reps - creating a unified platform for collaboration on issues facing customers. Syncing up customer datasets ensures consolidated and easily accessible customer profiles - bridging insight gaps created by structurally isolated applications.
The goal of streamlined workflows and collaboration is to ensure efficient customer service that leads to better customer retention. Integrating Zendesk with CRM can incubate an environment for teams in both support and sales departments allowing them to resolve customer issues collaboratively.
This coordinated approach spurs communication throughout different areas making sure that remedial solutions are delivered in the most all-encompassing way possible.
Collaboration between customer support and sales teams is an integral step for ensuring seamless customer experience.' By integrating Zendesk with CRM, businesses can empower agents to explicitly communicate their relationship histories and current interactions. This opens up pathways for coordinated responses as communications are centrally stored in the customer’s shared profile across departments.
With a clear 360-degree view of customers obtainable by both teams, representatives can engage in real-time decision making based on agreed upon procedures. Integration boosts collaboration through effective communication and coordination amongst sales and support staff--enhancing personalized service offered to customers.
Time and cost savings are key each time customers decided to integrate their Zendesk and CRM 10 products.
By doing so, businesses can expect to reduce the need for numerous manual tasks due to the optimization of customer experience interactions as well as administrative overhead makes things easier on companies who might otherwise require extra advisors or vendors.
The integration provides an easy way to manage sensitive client information with fewer resources required by automation, which ultimately leads to enhanced profits an increased competitive edge.
Integration between Zendesk and CRM systems has the power to transform industries. Enhancing customer experience, increased speed, comprehensive reporting, streamlined collaboration among departments, and ultimately cost savings are only some of the many advantages this kind of integration can deliver.
Companies use these integrated platforms for successful targeting prior to sale arrangement due to more efficient communication with leads and priceless data insight providing the desired boost in sales.
Combining both this robust customer service and powerful client management solutions not just allows flexibility but forms an intelligent platform that can empower companies to maximize progress towards business objectives upfront — vastly increasing productivity and aiding exponential growth.
User-Generated Content (UGC) is a powerful form of online expression created by consumers that carries an immense impact on communities and the digital marketing industry.
Rapidly popularizing in the digital age, UGC has been widely acknowledged for its authenticity, credibility, and engagement– three invaluable core traits that modern content consumers have come to demand.
Through varying forms such as text reviews, photos videos and more, UGC continues to captivate audiences and strengthen customer relationships with brands all around the world.
User-generated content (UGC) comes in various forms such as text, images, videos, reviews, etc. It is generated and posted by individuals rather than businesses or brands in the digital space.
Text UGC typically includes status updates, blog posts, forum comments, and discussion threads while visual UGC consists of images and photographs shared on social networks and video streaming platforms. Reviews are another form of UGC often seen in consumer product marketplaces such as Amazon or eBay where customers share their feedback about specific products or services.
All of these different types of user-generated media allow users to express themselves freely which helps create a sense of authenticity with viewers leading to enhanced engagement for companies and advertisers alike.
User-Generated Content (UGC) is generally created and distributed by non-professionals, driven by members of a community or worldwide audience. Compared to traditional branded content alternatives, UGC is more trusted and labeled as credible since it does not begin from the brand itself.
Further, UGC has no advertising or promotional intent but instead yields genuine reactions that reflect user perception simply for feedback or storytelling standards.
Being produced voluntarily with passionate beliefs towards products, services, and topics in today’s digital environment are different from producing contracted works with companies regardless marketing strategy being engaged.
User-generated content, or UGC, such as reviews and testimonials, is a powerful tool to build trust and credibility with customers. Customers are more apt to trust and believe content that comes from real customers rather than any given company’s “official stance” on their products or services.
This transparency builds a level of trust with users as they inherently believe that the content originates from other consumers who genuinely experienced said product or service thereby increasing consumer confidence before a purchase.
As such retaining good ratings through user-generated feedback remain vital for businesses wanting nothing less than customer satisfaction and effective reach in marketing efforts.
User-generated content (UGC) is an effective tool for enhancing engagement and interaction with the audience. By encouraging product reviews or by creating social media campaigns rooted in visuals/testimonial stories, UGC provides an excellent opportunity to attract more customers and drive conversations online.
As fans are sharing their feedback publicly on their own channels for other buyers to see, it helps further build trust from a third-party perspective. Furthermore, using interactive UGC such as polls, challenges, sticker promotions etc., can help foster discussions around the brand while generating a larger natural reach of its products or services.
User-Generated Content (UGC) is playing an increasingly important role in modern marketing and online communities. One of the most significant benefits of UGC is its ability to strengthen brand loyalty and advocacy for businesses. By allowing customers or fans to share their reviews, stories, photographs, etc. relating to a particular product or service with other uses on social media platforms or otherwise, it encourages engagement among them while strengthening overall awareness of the company’s brand offerings.
These promotions have been proven time and again to create authentic customer relationships that ultimately lead to long-term loyalty toward a business.
Leveraging user-generated content (UGC) for cost-effective marketing can bring numerous advantages. Engagement with consumers directly drives brand trust, strengthens advocacy, and increases the promotion of products or services while reducing traditional costs in advertising or promotion.
Consumers driving conversations about brands encourages them to interact with these conversations naturally, spreading the campaigns and erasing the strain and worries of ROI from brief window paid methods.
Organic customer interactions benefit companies as UGC generates more credibility than traditionally branded content, building more consumer confidence at a lower cost which results in a bigger impact on target audiences.
Creating a community-driven environment is instrumental to encourage user-generated content (UGC). This can be achieved by implementing measures that engage the audience and foster, an interactive setting.
A commitment has to be shown in actively managing online discussion forums along with responding promptly to feedback from UGC contributors. To motivate higher participation, businesses should acknowledge contributions or offer rewards for consistently high-quality UGC.
Within the context of promoting such an open, transparent platform, visibility needs to be brought to those collaborations and discussions taking place on various social media platforms as well.
In order to generate and sustain user-generated content (UGC), businesses should provide incentives for their contributors. This could be in the form of special discounts, vouchers, and deals - essentially offering a reward in return for good quality content.
Additionally, aligning UGC campaigns with corporate social responsibility objectives can further motivate customers to engage through their own meaningful contributions.
Companies should also ensure that they recognize and appreciate contributor efforts by often thanking them problem messages, newsletters, or socially on social media platforms with values they endorsed have earned along the way.
Using social media platforms for UGC promotion is an effective way to encourage community contribution. Businesses can leverage the broad reach of popular mediums such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to inform potential contributors about existing opportunities and involve them in conversations related to content generation.
Furthermore, the creation of contests, quizzes, polls and other activities can act as incentives that motivate deeper engagement from users alongside incentivizing traffic back onto the business's website or service.
As such, utilizing social networks with a tailored approach helps generate brand loyalty while generating user feedback on trends which then allows reflection on any changes required when making decisions with regard to marketing campaigns or digital product native development.
Negative or inappropriate User-Generated Content (UGC) can damage the reputation of a brand or business. UGC should, therefore, be monitored and moderated to remove any hurtful comments and other harmful content.
Tools such as keyword filters need to be implemented to identify toxic content quickly. Careful responses rather than deletion will also help to mitigate risks from negative posts.
Additionally, it is important for companies to ensure their copyright policies are clear for UGC so that creators know what kind of channels they can use when their work appears on another's platform without authorization.
To ensure the quality and authenticity of User Generated Content (UGC), businesses must identify their target audience, establish clear content guidelines for UGC contributions, curate submitted content for accuracy, engage meaningfully with contributors, respond to negative comments quickly and respectfully, protect copyrights and uphold legal regulations.
Additionally, multi-step review processes often need to be implemented prior to UGC publication in order to meet high brand standards. Businesses can also utilize resources such as pre-moderation tools or artificial intelligence algorithms that automate UGC moderation tasks.
User-generated content (UGC) can bring many positive benefits to brands. However, attracting UGC also presents certain challenges and risks, such as addressing legal and copyright issues.
Any brand working with user-generated content should take steps to mitigate potential risks associated with usage rights, intellectual property concerns, or plagiarism -- ensuring that nothing posted violates the terms of service established by platforms hosting the content.
It may be beneficial for a brand to create a comprehensive set of legal safeguards against any violation before leveraging user-generated content in order to protect itself from potentially costly problems down the line.
Having a set of rules and regulations in place is key to effectively curating user-generated content. Clear guidelines ensure that appropriate policies for collecting, moderating, and organizing UGCs are defined.
These allow companies to maintain reasonable control in the operation process while protecting their brand from risks associated with hosting UGCs such as lawsuits of plagiarism and offensive messages.
Companies must provide users with decision-making clarity among permissible and unacceptable content by having evident terms on use cases. They should continually assess the content review goals they have set to stay compliant with government laws too.
When trying to encourage engagement, user flow, and interesting experiences for customers, moderating user-generated content without stifling creativity is essential. Businesses should take care to set refined rules yet provide the opportunity to partake in creative online conversations.
Designers can create engaging conversation topics or blurbs by creating comments connected with images instead of just captions below images. This teaches users how to make use of the tools provided and hooks other users’ creative juices with inspiring material, running campaigns that really come alive from a mod ecosystem.
Responding to UGC an engaging with contributors is one of the key best practices for managing user-generated content (UGC). It affirms people’s involvement, feelings, and opinions while also strengthening mutually beneficial relationships between businesses and their fans. Acknowledging UGC shareholders helps increase customer loyalty by making them feel valued.
Additionally, response gives a brand or business insight into different dynamics within the ecosystem of its community. To maximize results, promptly replying to high-quality UGC will help amplify and motivate more effective contributions from active fans.
User-generated content has become indispensable for businesses and brands to engage with their audiences on an entirely new level. Common activation UGC can build trust, strengthen customer loyalty, and extend the potential influencer network.
With the right discretion and incentives in place, companies of all sizes have the chance to give empowering experiences to communities online who wish to express themselves—allowing creativity to blossom while managing risks responsibly.
UGC is now an essential marketing tool that no business should overlook — offering immense value as a method for forging stronger relationships with customers made up of authentic experiences they can relate to.
Customer success and marketing are two separate functions that need to be considered for any business’s success. While marketing focuses on bringing new customers, customer support leads efforts for existing customers, such as providing assistance and nurturing relationships.
When deployed together, the impact these functions have proves worthwhile: integrating impeccable customer support with strategic marketing enables businesses to stay competitive in an increasingly saturated market.
This blog post delves into how customer service and marketing can work together as a team—how they twist around modern trends to understand your current client base while also inspiring investigations of prospective ones before looking at few case studies of organizations that have utilized both conversions effectively.
Customer support is an important component in helping companies maintain loyal customers. When it comes to customer service, teams typically go beyond traditional concepts such as solving basic customer service requests, by demonstrating care towards the customers.
Customer support can be valued as building blocks of loyalty within your physical business locations and digital units alike.
Customer service executives strive to wire excellent customer experience through various channels such as phone lines, online chats, emails etc., endeavoring to make every value hint inspire a spirit of quality from brand innovation down throughout all Levitt’s employees and customer relation processes.
Customer support teams have a variety of responsibilities vital in strengthening customer relationships.
They need to address customer inquiries, resolve service issues, and guarantee service quality through effective management of the customer's journey all while ensuring enjoyable interactions with customers.
Further, they must nurture feedback provided by each client to better anticipate individual needs and further develop personalized relationship building in an effort to secure long term loyalty.
Marketing seeks to attract potential customers on an ongoing basis by delivering information about a product or service in a consistent manner through multiple channels.
Content marketing, digital advertising, public relations, social media, organic SEO, and direct mail can all be utilized in capturing an audience's attention and eventually driving traffic either online or offline.
Companies collaborate diligently to craft tailored messages that speak points of value with the intent to increase brand loyalty by actively seeking out outcomes meant to maintain steady interests from different members joining the customer universe.
Marketing channels play a pivotal role in dramatically increasing lead generation by broadcasting targeted messages across channels customers frequently visit. These channels can range from search engine optimization (SEO), email marketing, social media campaigns, advertisements, and more.
Doing so will preferably attract the attention of potential customers while broadening the scope and range of communication with leads through agile segmentation to improve customer acquisition efforts.
Besides this, integrated channel automation enables marketers to facilitate a seamless transition between return visits and first sight shoppers through further engaging content experience.
Done correctly it facilitates an efficient cycle to generate high-quality leads.
Having a strong brand authenticity is essential for successful marketing efforts. Customers must recognize the value of a company's product or service before making purchase decisions, and that recognition usually stems from having an identifiable character over time.
Companies must create unique messages and visuals to communicate their brand purposefully in order to stay competitive in any industry—a strong brand authenticity should not be underestimated when trying to reach potential customers.
Customer support and marketing disciplines share common goals, such as providing value to customers, supporting evolving customer needs, attracting new clients and driving brand awareness.
Ultimately the goal is to create a framework within which marketing initiatives are efficient and effective while ensuring that these activities positively affect and improve experience customer service objectives.
The primary objective of both customer support and marketing is to ensure a great customer experience. Therefore, it’s useful for companies to integrate these two key departments in order to make their services even more efficient.
Through effective communication, teams from both sides work together to identify problems and offer solutions that allow customers feel valued and respected.
In this way, customers are more likely they remain loyal supporters of a business in the long run thanks to collaborative efforts from teams who understand the importance of optimizing customer service.
Great customer support helps brands build loyalty and assurance among customers which leads to long-term positive relationships for mutual growth. Exceptional customer service can encourage customers to actively promote and advocate the brand through referrals, reviews, and social media posts.
Word-of-mouth recommendations is a reliable way of reaching out to trust which can translate into more conversions thus boosting marketing efforts.
Customer testimonials and reviews play a big role in creating trust between customers and the brand. They allow potential customers to gain better insight into what it is like to do business with the company, and understand its culture, values, and product/service delivery.
Therefore, encouraging current customers to share their positive experiences along with candid responses from surveys held is invaluable in helping convert more leads down the funnel as satisfied ones drive valuable word-of-mouth recommendations.
Help make customer loyalty stick by consistently delivering on your brand promise, putting emphasis on building trust, and providing helpful advice along the way. Offer personalized experiences, rewards, discount codes, or other incentive programs to keep them coming back for more.
Be sure to respond time and sincerely when customers have recourse or feedback; address any questions/issues thoroughly and follow up frequently until a resolution is pronounced. Leverage customer surveys and social media networks with probing to ensure positive user experiences.
All of these measures will emotionally motivate customers to flow easily from satisfaction toward advocating for your products or services - turning them into ongoing marketing champions of admirers across all channels.
Brandon fostering collaboration between customer support and marketing can prove beneficial for businesses in numerous ways.
Improved brand awareness, customer engagement and loyalty are just a few direct benefits that stem almost directly from effective communication between these two divisions ensuring they understand a company's goals and operations better together enriches the user experience through more communicating effectively maximum opportunity of turning these customers into promoters and brand ambassadors.
This team-oriented approach puts its focus on deep knowledge resources reveal customer behavior, thus affording significant insight into optimal interactions while improving quality as well as time management outcomes.
The key to fostering collaboration between customer support and marketing teams is open communication. Having regular meetings; assigning responsibility-sharing tasks, efforts in campaigns or launches across departments to build knowledge of overlapping domains; frequent communication channels like email groups, and internal messaging apps like Slack that promote consistent communication; ensuring all information sharing is timely and organized — are strategies can help create a seamless connection between the two departments.
Of course, such integration must come from leadership with quality decision-making skills at the core that clearly demonstrates both confidence and competence in linking customer success & marketing goals profitably.
Uniting customer success and marketing agency teams promote long-term business relationships, enhanced customer experiences, improved brand presence, and consistent marketing messages.
Customer feedback provides valuable insights which can inform efforts of both organizations while seamlessly integrating provides a single platform for customer interface that yields a deeper understanding of the consumer.
By combining knowledge and tactics from both sides to create understandable journeys structured around essential consumer information amplifies potential rewards for organizations aiming for high growth in the future.
Personalized marketing has become invaluable for companies targeting consumers today. It means leveraging data and preferences to anticipate, generate, and segment content tailored specifically to individual needs.
Crafting personalized messaging can benefit consumer engagement in terms of targets who feel both connected with the company as well as valued themselves which increases loyalty and thus sales conversions in the long run.
Here we will identify key benefits of tailored customer marketing, best practices regarding effective implementation, use of the right technologies (including programmatic advertising), successful case studies that harness its power, and strategies to overcome any existing challenges across this area.
It then ends on an overall takeaway of why such Marketing is important today enabling lasting brands and tremendous growth opportunities.
Tell customers today to expect effortless, personalized experiences with direct relevance to their interests. By understanding customer wants and needs through data collection and analysis combined with specially tailored marketing processes, companies can effectively offer an improved and highly personalized customer experience.
Relevance beyond functionality is the new normal in attention-deficit digital times - tailoring offerings aids in developing a sense of trust leading to better satisfaction given customers enjoy feeling unique.Plus, by addressing any relevant issues quickly loyalty will build up immediately improving chances for further sales while efficiently managing cost factors related to retention rates over engagement returns.
Personalization brings multiple benefits to a business, particularly increased customer engagement and loyalty. By developing tailored content and offers, customers will recognize greater relevance and value.
Personalization also sparks positive emotions that reinforce relationships by equipping people to form an intimate connection with their favorite brands.
This leads to improved customer sentiment resulting in trust over repeated purchases; creating the basis for successful engagement strategies, stronger Consumer Brand Interdependence (CBI), and great opportunities for word-of-mouth advertising.
Delivering quality messages that evoke pleasant memories or elicit sympathetic responses specific to expected user details is critical in maintaining excellent rapport between businesses and their loyal consumers.
Personalization significantly improves conversion rates and sales in businesses. Due to custom messages tailored to customers’ individual interests, likes, and purchase histories, they feel more connected with the company and are more likely to invest in its products or services.
Relevant content designed especially for these customers supports brands such purchase items of greater value and even buy multiple times.
As an outcome, this generic measure such as conversion rate shoots right up paving a bright path forward for a strong business presence o larger targeting audience base leading towards higher revenue growth.
Personalized marketing allows businesses to convey the values of their brand while encouraging enhanced engagement with current and potential customers.
With personalized campaigns, companies are able to increase both brand trust and customer loyalty by giving individual recognition that builds emotional connections.
Brand perception is significantly heightened studies have shown by utilizing tailored engaging content that associates itself from data context to personalized shopping recommendations.
Personalization offerings can also allow new businesses to rely more strongly stand out in competitive market segments and differentiate themselves based on these sentiments to embrace widespread customer appeal.
Collecting and analyzing customer data is an essential component of successful personalization strategy. Data-driven insights — such as buying behaviors, interests, preferences, and online activities outline the criteria to inform targeted campaigns and tailor campaign messages for the right audience consistently.
Gathering high-quality data from various sources including your corporate website's metrics can help segment user groups accurately thus presenting further customization correlation analysis to drive engagement.
Existing customer data analyses further integration into emotion with real-time optimization capabilities offer better user experience opportunities throughout all regards along the personalized marketing journey efficiently.
Segmenting target audiences is key to successful personalized marketing. Companies should categorize their users in different cohorts based on their profiles, purchase intentions, behavior, and interests.
This deeper understanding of who you are speaking to leads to more relevant messages and advertising tailored specifically for each individual strategy segment. Doing research about your audience before creating a marketing message ensures that your specific content stays engaging no matter what grouping it touches upon.
Exploring the customer data collected and properly segmenting the target audience would lay the foundation for customizing highly relevant content and marketing messages accordingly.Such personalization in messaging can be tailored to different consumer segments(age, gender or geographic), aimed at nurturing relationships while anticipating purchase behavior—making customers feel that they are being truly heard with content delivered specifically for their needs and interests.
Highly customized online experiences allow marketers to provide products better aligned with a consumers' specific wants & needs, greatly increasing engagement and satisfaction as well as transforming closer business relationships with customers.
The utilization of advanced technologies and automation in personalization helps deliver marketing content at high speeds, scale, with precision and consistency.
AI algorithms facilitate predictive analysis of customer behavior, scanning hundreds of data points to target the right consumers at the exact right time with relevant messages.
Marketing automation tools automate complex processes so marketers can easily manage and nurture automated campaigns including email & social media marketing creating more personalized interactions than ever before.
Additionally, leveraging facial recognition adds another level to customer identification allowing brands unmatched information security components coupled with dynamic pricing solutions for improved sales outcomes.
SourcePersonalized email campaigns can be highly effective for improving customer engagement and conversions.Customizable messages and content can be tailored to individual customers or segments in order to build meaningful relationships with them, while utilizing dynamic data targeting allows businesses to deliver more relevant and contextual marketing material.
This approach has seen excellent results when optimization assessments are regularly done, especially through A/B testing techniques.Personalized emails also enable marketers to track customer behaviour such as open rates, click-throughs and sales which provide invaluable insights that enhance future campaigns.
Dynamic website content and recommendations provide customers with personalized suggestions quickly that are best aligned with what the customer is looking for in terms of products or services. This capability allows customers to access only recommended items, streamlining their browsing experience and saving time.
Customers feel more cherished as facets of them are understood better by marketers when used as central elements of digital experiences such as reviews and sharing products on social media networks with simplistic click-through processes.
It also helps to add humor to keep it entertaining for consumers, which is what we like to do with our case studies, including this marketing case study for a new bidet brand.
Tailored product recommendations and offers are becoming more and more prevalent in marketing methods. Understanding customers beyond just demographics, spending habits, on-site behavior, and past purchases drives valuable insights that inform better recommendations essential for success in offering personalized experiences and engaging customers in products or services catering to individual preferences.
Automation systems such as AI, facilitate data integration of insights from multiple sources and increased dramatically customer interest- converting designs of tailored websites and coupons directly to improved momentum around individual brand experiences.
Adaptive advertising and retargeting are some of the most powerful tools in personalized marketing. This type of strategy involves different ads being served to customers based on the past purchase behavior they show.
By re-engaging prospects that have already shown an interest in their product or service, companies can maximize relevancy; going beyond audience segmentation and turning passive viewers into those ready to buy right away.
With a high return on investment and solid conversion rates, adaptive advertising is a must for businesses wanting to stay competitive and succeed today.
Leading brands face the uphill battle of ensuring data privacy and security while utilizing customer information to gain insights for effective tailored marketing.
As such, businesses must strenuously adhere to cybersecurity best practices including encrypted sharing of data collect in reliable digital systems integrations, protecting connotation servers, and utilizing best cybersecurity breaches proactivity seals.
Businesses need to develop clear strategies towards creating various a trusted relationships with customers whilst building a committed following by monetizing collected data its adequacy.
Balancing personalization with ethical considerations is one of the key challenges businesses face while embracing personalized marketing strategies.
Companies must ensure customers are provided with content in alignment with privacy laws, regulatory guidance and industry codes.
Also, regarding sensitive subjects such as race or gender, marketers should make sure they do not cross boundaries or risk upsetting a segment of their consumer base.
When utilizing personalized marketing tactics, overcoming technological limitations can be a challenge.
Software and systems exist to automate customer segmentation for content creation, but organizations often rest on what’s known locally, and their knowledge is lagging behind with regards to automation versus manual processes.
But software isn't everything, particularly if you begin to scale your sales outside your internal organization. However, when augmented by identified experts in the relevant fields they are stepping up. This helps drive targeted outcomes that reflect new technologies that’ll boost organizational effectiveness.
When using an approach tailored to one persona and overlooking the individuality of each customer, people may be weary or resistant to any change or diversification.
Companies should highly focus personalized marketing initiatives around enrolling customers into participation by engaging them through open conversation via various platforms in order to gain support from their clientele base.
It’s shown that building strong relationships yields improvement across factors of customer value, satisfaction, and customer service impressions.
Through education, businesses introduce ideas towards getting their team onboard with changing behaviors streamlining responses normally generated by manual processes allowing more time for individual approaches.
Personalized marketing has emerged as an essential tool in engaging customers and boosting Brand experiences. By collecting and analyzing customer data, segmenting audiences and customizing messaging to suit user behavior can lead to improved sales conversion ratios, and higher loyalty rates and create a seamless interface between companies’ products/ services and buyers.
Companies need to take necessary steps towards delivering personalized marketing solutions while balancing privacy concerns with staying true to deeply held values for ethical considerations.
As such marketers must continually process consumer data, sharpen strategies for better outcomes on their digital usage models, and embrace emerging technology support advancements far beyond mere automation processes all geared at enlivening the personalized approach of marketing outlets attempts.
Want to know how to use Reddit for explosive growth? Growing your website, product, or brand with Reddit done right can lead to tremendous success – but a slight mistake can cause unbeatable losses. The basic strategies are: engaging through comments and creating posts.
This guide provides an interactive way for acquiring useful know-how when it comes to growing leaps and bounds through Reddit.
Let's discover how users can learn, understand, and implement essential tips needed for successful digital marketing on Reddit that other platforms struggle reaching already!
Gaining attention on Reddit is straightforward with its upvote/downvote system and uniquely engaging user base. Featured high-quality content gains plenty of engagement through comments and new increase in Flair which encourages more attention from like-minded individuals of similar interests.
This level of engagement doubles as organic advertising for what rewarded those who share new perspectives, humorous takes that captivate readers, and insightful Twitter threads worth having backed discussions on months later.
It’s one thing to post great content, but if it gains the response you want; chances are people will recommend it more organically when given the chance or the ripple effect begins to change conversations around how brands use modern mainstays strategically for their benefit both public discussion (and growth).
To really stand out from other users there needs to be quality content marketing that sparks people's attention.
Writing content that resonates beyond relevance will show others you are passionate about the content and worth tuning into more regularly so there is greater long term gains than a blip of excitement.
Quality content in fact also implies a certain ‘authoritative’ stance to both views imbibers as pertains solution seekers so they are presented perspectives from one accountable source rather than gather assorted argumentized data evaluations combined.
Leaving insightful and helpful comments is invaluable when wanting to engage with the Reddit community in order to grow. Comments that are respectful and bring a higher level of thought provide vibrancy and attract more interest from other users.
Participating in conversations wholeheartedly provides trustworthiness as well, making it much easier for informational sharing among members.
Providing Insightful Advice in your comments is one of the most effective strategies for growing on Reddit. Quality, genuine advice builds credibility and is recognized by potential subscribers.
This will help you establish yourself as an expert thus boosting prospective subscriber engagement. Pertinent information about a topic grabbed from authoritative sources proves especially advantageous to appeal to subreddit members.
Reddit users take great pride and exhibit strong passion when discussing the topics close to their hearts.
Reddit provides an easy way for passionate communities of living gamers, artists, chefs, hikers - or about any other subject under people’s sun - to come together in one centralized platform.
This sheer enthusiasm to talk, comment and share makes Reddit highly attractive when it comes to building engagement and authority within that particular topic.
Reddit's highly engaged user base makes it an ideal platform for niche-focused growth.
With loyalty and expertise on specific topics, the network of users celebrates initiative and praises enough value creation to greenlight even the narrowest products offering results.
Good quality content can reach a large group of people in no time which sets Reddit as a unique environment to intercept possible targets with inspiring answers or shares from already connected people elevating chances easily and significantly.
The key to making the most out of Reddit is to not over-promote your website. Steer clear from excessively promoting yourself as it will make people doubt your intent and purpose there. One poster featuring a link to your page should be more than enough, especially since many users prefer longer comments.
Optimally keep them around 100ish words for meaningful engagement and authenticity. Adding engaging content builds that necessary credibility which attracts potential subscribers naturally and with ease.
Visibility on Reddit is highly important for gaining attention and new subscriptions. Increasing your visibility means more people are exposed to your posts, drives user engagement, and boosts your activity on the platform.
High-visibility posts demonstrate that you have established a presence in the subreddit community, contributing value through knowledge and regularly sharing resources related to the topics. Try upping personal success rates with top posts by testing different strategies to find out which works best for you.
Creating posts on Reddit is a great way to gain exposure and increase sign-ups for your business. To prioritize visibility, you will have the most success if you strive for top posts in subreddits where users are interested in focused subject matters.
There have been numerous accounts of personal success stories of people completely transforming their user count after being featured as a top post - numbers going from 40 active users per day to over 1 million gaining followers!If done well, taking part in conversations or posting engaging content can be lucrative for your company thus leading to explosive growth so do not miss out on this excellent opportunity.
The most essential part of crafting effective posts for Reddit is the catchy headlines. Good titles serve as vital hooks to get potential readers on board and drawn into whatever subject is covered further down in the post's body.
Headlines need to be captivating, informative, attention grabbing but not overly sensationalist or misleading - anything off-topic could very quickly turn away actual and potential viewers.
Aiming for creative but succinct title formats is key when hoping for larger online engagements with audiences through Reddit.
When crafting posts to use as part of our growth strategy on Reddit, it’s important to recognize which essential questions we need to answer in such a post. Make sure every necessary question is addressed: answering who, what, when, where, why, and how.
Incorporating answers which evoke curiosity will help the reader to become more engaged with the topic while boosting the post’s traffic potential.
In order to draft effective answers for each question without distracting from our ultimate promotional message we must define clearly enough that visibility isn't affected, give precise details and definitions yet purposeful signals towards sales opportunities at once - consequently creating a ‘clickbait effect’ enough for curious users craving intuitive innovation gaining accelerated growing impressions on total post significance stability.
Marketing on Reddit should be done subtly, as its user base can detect and quickly respond to overly promotional or sales/marketing-related content.
It's essential to provide real value with every piece of content - only successfully proving your worth will open the opportunity for any textual promotion. This strategy is best undergone correctly and tastefully with a professional approach.
Your advice & feedback on topics gain trustworthiness and encourages engagement from readers, smoothing out integration of any further Company or product information provided within future posts or comments regarding the site.
ChatGPT is a powerful tool for content generation on Reddit. It automates the process of creating dynamic, unique content which can be used to engage audiences – all with minimal effort.
ChatGPT can source bold statements, and lines well beyond what seems human actually to evoke curiosity into one’s post and comment while making sure of smooth literacy for higher effectiveness targets that only marketers aim.
With its slicing and shattering features, ChatGPT helps sever any web headache when pushed against a lengthy content activity course. Our platform becomes its audience's unseen arm hence giving growth objectives an optimistic stimulus.
Reddit is a powerful platform for any business wanting to increase visibility and reach new subscribers organically. Through comments and posts, it is possible to engage authentically with Redditors and develop relationships that will result in long-term impact on growth.
By utilizing ChatGPT content creation features it is simple to compose interesting and compelling posts that keep users engaged both now and in the future.
With focus, strategy, and determination your business can unlock the extraordinary potential of Reddit for massive success. Take control of your growth today by uniting with Reddit's dynamic community!
The ability to create and maintain strong customer relationships is instrumental in any business’s long-term growth and stability.
Despite this, many organizations struggle with positioning themselves as problem solvers rather than product pushers.
As such, companies must be armed with knowledge on how to discover their customers’ needs in order to develop strong relationships that last a lifetime.
This understanding starts off by being familiar with the concept of customer success – a highly valuable approach within the commercial landscape known for helping brands ensure improved outcomes by focusing more heavily on meeting challenges particular to services provided and offering tangible solutions customers can trust.
In this article, we'll discuss further why investing in creating strong customer relationships motivates revenue growth yet outlines of frameworks and case studies illustrating real-world true stories are essential so this is the topic being dived deeper upon.
Customer success is a holistic approach to secure long term, mutually beneficial customer relationships by helping customers reach their desired outcomes from the product or service they have purchased. It centers around understanding common goals and needs to ensure success for both the customer and the company.
This means delivering a quality end-user experience service that speaks to every stage of customer interaction; making queries quick and easy to navigate, optimizing services where necessary, resolving problems quickly, and ensuring expectations are achieved along with warnings on occasions when they may not yet be met.
Customer success plays an integral role in helping businesses overcome their growth hurdles. Customer success acts as a proactive catalyst to ensuring customer delight and improved customer retention because of its ability to keep ROI levels high and churn low.
To safeguard future revenue streams, the key is to invest in advanced technologies, such as big data analytics tools, sentiment analysis bots or chatbot-powered AI to understand customers’ needs accurately in order to build tailored plans aligned with these customer needs while improving product access.
Satisfaction involves providing the customer with value throughout their journey and ensuring they consistently benefit from ending up making the purchase.
Maintaining loyalty requires setting expectations correctly, right from the initial engagement to repurchase, replacing lost items quickly, and enabling intuitive user experiences. Capitalizing these efforts into generating word-of-mouth marketing is instrumental for building strong customer bases.
Collecting stories of mini wins from the users which satisfied their immediate needs answers to evolving possibilities for B2B/C enterprise level gains like Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence.
Identifying and understanding customer needs and goals is integral to establishing lasting relationships. To achieve this, companies need to gain insight into their customer’s broader business objectives by gathering feedback from customers and processing data from surveys, interviews, and attendee tracking.
Additionally, creating opportunities for personal connections through networking and events can help cultivate a better level of trust in the customer-brand relationship. By distinguishing customer expectations over time organizations are then able to provide a tailored experience that fosters brand loyalty.
Highly competent customer service and support should always be made a top priority for businesses wishing to build meaningful relationships with their customers.
This means promptly responding to inquiries, offering personalized marketing interactions and assistance, seeking out ways of problem-solving in operational issues quickly and smoothly, as well as seeing the customer journey through to satisfaction.
Transparent due diligence must likewise be employed throughout this process; honest reviews or feedback from customers can reinforce further trust established looking forward.
To truly endear oneself with its stakeholders, optimizing a stellar performance of Customer Service Analysis ought then be integrated into any organization for long-lasting fruition.
Proactive engagement and personalized interactions are key points to achieving lasting relationships with customers. Companies engaging in proactive communication- such as check-ins or follow-ups, creating engaging content, or providing impactful incentives – indicate that they understand customer needs and goals.
Investing the effort to show customers you value them increases customer satisfaction, and shows appreciation for their loyalty while enabling future successes and development of transactions towards better experience delivery as an organization.
Continual value delivery and product optimization are important elements to sustain lasting relationships with customers. Organizations should strive to continually offer customers sustainable value to ensure that they remain engaged and consistently satisfied with their earned rewards.
Businesses must improve and refine products, as well as provide post-purchase support in order to guarantee maximum customer satisfaction throughout the relationship cycle. Ongoing feedback loop systems, user-friendly technology, predictive analytics can help organizations create tailored experiences for different kinds of customers base and meet dynamic customer expectations.
One key benefit of customer success is increased customer retention and reduced churn. By building lasting relationships with customers, businesses are able to engage proactively and identify needs in order to deliver top-quality service and optimize their product/services.
Reducing churn means companies access repeat purchases from existing customers, leading to a continual drop in bottom-line marketing costs associated with gaining new clients. In addition, happy consumers refer their peers further creating a sustainable stream of word-of-mouth which grants businesses establishing d connections that turn into long-term financial gain.
Customer success is an integral part of achieving success in business, as it engages with customers early and often to ensure they are satisfied. Fulfilling customer satisfaction leads to strengthening brand loyalty among the customer base.
Companies leveraging successful customer success strategies effectively focus on long term relationships over short-term gains from sales, display a deep regard for their customers' wellbeing, and listen & act upon pertinent feedback that drives improvement opportunities benefiting the entire organization.
As such, improved satisfaction levels via well-implemented plans and processes through strong service operations lead to increased transaction volume with established customers.
Building lasting relationships with customers is essential for any business, which means customer success strategies should always be at the forefront. Generating positive word-of-mouth and referrals relies entirely on the customer experience that is satisfactory or ideally better than what they have anticipated.
Therefore, enabling customer success should aim not only to satisfy current customers but also prompt praises from this handful of happy users who legitimately adore your product or service and beliefs that would encourage further referrals.
Customer success significantly contributes to the overall revenue growth and profitability of organizations.
Implementing a customer success strategy allows companies to effectively track customer loyalty, minimize churn rate, offer treatments that meet customers' specific needs, offer timely support and suggest newer features or scaled versions over time that increase the returns on investment (ROI).
Furthermore; Word-of-Mouth marketing from happy clients is an invaluable asset so boosting repeat business drives additional spending opportunities thus improving those all-important revenue figures.
In order to effectively realize customer success, building a customer-centric culture is essential. Organizations need to create this focus on understanding customers behind initiatives across teams and introduce a “customer first” attitude when making decisions and developing strategies that include product development, onboarding and operations.
Being able to identify with the customer means employers lay a strong foundation for trust from the customers before truly unlocking traction efforts, enabling businesses to require success as developers of outstanding value solutions and service experiences.
When implementing a customer success strategy, it is important to establish clear goals and metrics. Goals should focus on improving customer retention and satisfaction while metrics measure progress against those goals such as longevity, up-sell and cross-sell rates, quality of relationships, or net promoter scores.
Establishing key performance indicators (KPIs) for customer success will help identify areas needing improvement or resources that could be allocated elsewhere to increase ROI.
Additionally, setting SMART targets - ones that are Specific and Analyzable, Measurable precision targets can lead the organization towards hitting team objectives too!
Technology can play a significant role in an effective customer success strategy. Leveraging data from customer feedback, interactions and surveys allows businesses to increase insights into each individual customer's journey and communicate product developments more accurately.
Moreover, by automating parts of the support process with intelligent systems like chatbots or AI-driven feedback analytics tools businesses further quantify efficacy while reducing costs associated with manual support efforts.
Ultimately, incorporating such technological solutions eliminates one less area of disharmony and creates trust for customer relationships built along secure transformation paths centered when implementing a full‑spectrum Customer Success strategy.
Training and empowering customer success teams are key components of any successful customer success strategy. Providing both on-the-job education as well as formal training programs is essential to ensuring that both new hires and veteran team members have the knowledge and skills necessary to actively collaborate with customers, understand their needs and objectives, provide exemplary service, optimize their investments in your products or services, and build lasting relationships.
When internal and external (resellers) sales teams are equipped with proper tools such as Empathy Maps, Strengths Assessments & Customer Requirement Docs they will easily be able to offer experiences that exceed customers' expectations and result in long-term loyalty.
In conclusion, customer success is essential for building lasting relationships with customers that result in high satisfaction and loyalty levels.
By understanding customer needs and goals, proactively engaging and providing personalized interactions, and training an empowered customer success team to deliver continual value to the customers, businesses can ensure deeply desirable outcomes such as regular referrals, increased retention rates and ultimately more profitability.
Thus, it’s highly recommended – for any business of any size – to make customer success a top priority when planning their strategies.
Crisis management is an essential concern for many companies, especially during unknown and unexpected events that can harm operations or damage customer service.
An effective approach requires digital systems constructed to monitor all data in one centralized platform – much like Customer Relationship Management (CRM) integrations provide.
CRM determines relevant data about customers such as inquiries, interactions, preferences and feedback – making it crucial for emergency planning ahead of time – not just “after the fact” when confronting crisis before it becomes a marketing nightmare.
Identifying the nature and impact of the crisis is an important step in leveraging clear, effective crisis management solutions. Knowing the type, severity, causes, effects, and scope of a given incident is essential for formulating strategies appropriate to meet these challenges.
During this process, stakeholders should assess any potential legal implications or financial losses that need to be taken into consideration. Trend analysis may be used to gauge customer opinions as well as observe warning signs regarding future events prior a crisis becoming imminent.
As responses are implemented over the duration of a crisis it will also be critical for organizations to continue assessing how the crisis impacts customers and stakeholders, as the situation can change rapidly.
Analyzing the challenges and potential risks is important when trying to manage a crisis. It helps identify issues that need to be resolved quickly, as well as those longer-term problems related to damaged relationships, reputational damage, supply chain disruptions, etc.
In order to effectively analyze these challenges and potential risks of a crisis, it is essential to look at both internal and external factors such as market trends, customer expectations, competitor activities, and organizational processes.
Data can provide useful insights into any number of different areas, so organizations should dedicate resources into gathering customer feedback and insights in order to gain a better view of the environment. By doing so they can take proactive steps towards creating effective strategies that address these challenges and risks.
CRM systems have powerful capabilities for collecting and organizing pertinent data related to a crisis. This includes capturing customer information, preferences, and past interactions so that tailored assistance can be provided during the situation.
At the same time, tracking customer experience with the crisis helps provide greater insight into how it is being managed from reactions on social media or web queries to calls made to customer service lines.
By storing all this information in one compliant system, businesses enabled with CRM can facilitate better crisis management by organizing, categorizing, and analyzing communications for quick decision-making.
In order to efficiently manage a crisis using CRM tools, effective communication and collaboration methods must be employed. Using the CRM software’s asynchronous and synchronous interaction capabilities, teams can structure their internal collaboration efforts by setting direct lines of communication with colleagues without having to contact each other individually.
This increases accountability, and involvement and decreases delays in resolving customer service issues. External stakeholders should also be communicated with regularly regarding the crisis, especially customers who will need timely notifications about progress updates or solutions so that they can feel as if their concerns are being taken seriously.
CRM solutions also have collaborative features for expanding upon or refining current analyses, and simplifying document sharing capabilities across the team network which will optimize time management and organizational efforts during a crisis.
Customer support and engagement are key areas of crisis management that can be effectively managed with CRM solutions.
Participation from customers is often invaluable for uncovering areas to take corrective action in the time of a crisis, and deeply understanding customer perspectives can provide insights during negotiations and public relations initiatives.
CRM tools enable organizations to quickly respond to customer inquiries as well as proactively reach out with helpful advice or information related to an ongoing situation.
By employing personalized assistance at scale, teams can ensure affected customers receive acknowledgments and helpful resources. At the same time, tracking customer sentiment can be a powerful way to measure success post-crisis period as well. All of these actions aim to build trusting relationships between customers and organizations during unstable times.
Crisis management scenarios are unpredictable and each may present different needs in order to efficiently protect brand authenticity, minimize damages as much as possible and bring operations back to normal.
CRM solutions must therefore be adapted accordingly to meet the dynamic demands of an issue or situation.
During such events, companies should consider revisiting existing CRM processes and workflows that align with their goals by including customized policies for managing a particular case of crisis, such as customer support strategies tailored for special customer groups or communication plans which are more suitable for resolving the issue at hand.
Building precise processes with uniquely tailored objectives should make the overall crisis management activities more effective and help to steer away from returning to same disastrous events in future.
It is important to identify and tailor customer communication in crisis scenarios. This can prevent further damage and disruption both on the customers’ level as well as the reputation of a business; CRM tools facilitate this customization process.
Relying on automated emails, SMS, phone calls, or host notifications makes marketing personalization easier by gathering real-time data from any existing customer database. Customers can be segmented based on their needs within the given situation to yield more effective engagement than ‘mass mailings’.
It is also important to ensure the frequency of contact is not too overwhelming and that only personalized announcements, updates, or call-outs have value at a time of crisis.
The goal should be for these responses to appear as an individual call out from the brand in sight of providing direct outreach; between balancing technical capabilities and human appeal alongside relevant disclaimers and informed decisions lies finding a healthy approach tailored just for each customer.
When faced with a crisis, it is important to adjust existing CRM strategies in order to better manage the situation. That includes monitoring and measuring the performance of national CRM solutions during the crisis.
Monitoring how clients use the customer-facing applications provides immediate feedback which can be used to change or adapt resources as needed. Equally as vital is measuring analytics related to engagement, response time accuracy, average wait times for support inquiries, and overall customer satisfaction scoring.
A clear understanding of these measures helps make more informed decisions and allow agencies to continue optimizing their CRM strategies for future crises. Knowing which resources are being used or not used will also help with strategic decision-making that will reach both the performance targets as well as financial obligations expected from stakeholders.
Having a clear crisis management plan should be the first step towards successfully maneuvering any complex situation.
When creating this plan, it is critical to incorporate CRM tools and strategies for data collection and organization, communication and collaboration, customer support and engagement all in one place.
The plan should ensure that the right stakeholders have access to the data they need as well as ways of responding quickly to incoming customer inquiries or feedback over various mediums.
Ensuring CRM system resilience and scalability is essential for navigating through a crisis. When facing chaotic environments, fluctuating demands, or unexpected events, your CRM should be able to adapt on the fly to provide continuous support.
To make sure your organization is prepared take steps such as verifying backup systems in place to restore data quickly if needed, scaling security features for increased activity when managing customer information or delving into detailed statistics flexibly relevant to the situation at hand.
One of the best practices for navigating a crisis with CRM solutions is to continuously learn and improve based on experiences. Developing a post-crisis analysis can help identify areas where better decision-making and communication have prevented, minimized or mitigated environmental damage, customer dissatisfaction and operational losses.
Best practices such as real-time analytics should be also taken into consideration to monitor external links, detect patterns in customer data, analyze behavior or track marketing campaigns throughout the crisis.
Continuous learning gives us insights that shape our processes and strategies in order to better tackle future crisis situations while enhancing customer service excellence.
CRM solutions provide an invaluable aid in managing a crisis. Organizations can effectively harness the power of CRM to collect customer data, streamline internal communication paths, coordinate with external influencers and stakeholders, and provide timely responses to customer concerns.
By crafting an effective plan incorporating CRM tools alongside other crisis management resources, publishers are better prepared for traversing a corporate emergency when one arises. Time-sensitive, agile, customer-centric operations should always include properly executed CRM processes as part of their crisis management plans.
With the advancements of technology within the financial advisory industry, customer relationship management (CRM) integrations have become a practically indispensable tool for advisors. A well-designed and easy-to-use CRM system allows financial advisors to more effectively manage their clients’ data in order to provide timely service and better product recommendations.
At the same time, there is also the added responsibility of ensuring thorough security measures are put into place to protect sensitive client information from unwanted exposure.
Firms must abide by specific industry-wide security regulations designed out of consumer demand for such protection, making security compliance in CRM systems essential for successful operation within this sector.
This article will explore various aspects of how to ensure proper regulation compliance with CRM systems when it comes to managing customers’ data and preserving clients’ privacy.
Advisors in the financial services industry must comply with stringent security regulations which protect confidential client data. These industry-specific regulations are designed to ensure a secure environment that prevents, detects and responds to incidents related to unauthorized access or misuse of confidential information.
Advisors must take additional measures by meeting regulatory requirements when leveraging third-party applications such as CRM systems. All regulatory studies should be carried out carefully before launching such an application and the team has to make sure these conditions are taken into account for consistent monitoring.
When implementing security measures in CRM systems for financial advisors, data encryption and secure storage practices are essential steps. All confidential client information needs to be encrypted both at rest (in databases, files, etc.) and in motion (during transmission). In addition, ensuring the secure storage of this sensitive data is vital.
Businesses should take adequate precautions to protect their servers against malicious actors seeking unauthorized access by using firewalls and other defensive solutions such as network segmentation or role-based authentication mechanisms.
Monitoring system activities on a regular basis can reveal any suspicious events that might indicate an attempted breach. The use of credential rotations and multi-factor authentication also stands to harden these defenses against possible threats.
When it comes to securing CRM systems for financial advisors, access control and user authentication methods are vital components. Access control mechanisms like role-based or attribute-based permissions limit the scope of system activities that each user can perform within a service or application.
User credential authentications limit access based on user identity, roles and attributes through local authorities such as directory services and single sign-on providers.
Systems should require complex passwords with two-factor authentication and monitor automated login attempts, potentially blocking them completely if needed.Installing rate limits helps manage unexpected burst loads from malicious bots attempting to gain unauthorized login information. Additionally, policies ensuring test production environment segregation help avoid security lapses that arise from administrator errors.
Financial advisors are held to strict security requirements in order to protect client data stored within their CRMs.
Regular monitoring and auditing of systems will help monitor any suspicious activity, identify potential patterns which may indicate a breach, ensure firewalls and other security tools remain secure against malicious attacks, as well as analyze user credentials for timely updates or revocations.
Additionally, automated programs can be systematized for testing the reliability of encrypted transactions entered into the CRM database that must exceed both national and industry standards established to safeguard sensitive information.It can also simulate cybersecurity events that might otherwise go unrecognized simply because time leaves organizations vulnerable without preventive protocols committed.
It is essential for financial advisors to ensure compliance with client data protection in their CRM systems. A crucial component of this process is putting in place robust privacy policies and consent management practices.
Financial advisors must make sure that clients fully understand the collection, storage, usage, sharing or retention of their personal information and grant the necessary consent before proceeding with any activities related to such data processing.
These explicit client consent should be documented properly and financial advisors also need to ensure they are able to revoke and update such consent through accessible website functions or an easily contactable member of the team. Regular monitoring should also occur to ensure complete adherence to these practices in order to preserve their reputation as a trustworthy advisoruser data.
Ensuring compliance with client data protection is an important part of securing CRMs for financial advisors.Technology that enables secure data transmission and communication protocols brings additional layers of security to protect confidential information from outside sources or malicious actors who would use it for unsavory purposes.
Secure communication channels such as TLS can encrypt in-transit traffic, while authentication and authorization methods like OAuth or OpenID Connect will help verify the legitimacy of users trying to access a system and enforce conditional access rules accordingly.
Additionally, larger organizations may require extensive Identity Access Management (IAM) systems designed explicitly to manage identities across multiple accounts within the company’s infrastructure securely using sophisticated credential technologies.
When it comes to client data protection in CRM systems for financial advisors, incident response and breach notification procedures should be of the utmost importance. Financial firms must have policies and plans in place to quickly detect, investigate, assess, contain, mitigate, and remedy security incidents or data breaches.
This includes having contacts available who are knowledgeable to help guide an organization through the conduct of any investigation dissemination within regulatory guidelines. It is also important that compliance officers are well-informed about incident response processes for mitigation purposes.
Any remaining susceptible information or protocols should also be taken into account coordinating a timely local and/or global notification before any kind of sensitive information becomes compromised.
Training and education on security best practices is essential for advisors in the financial industry leveraging CRM systems. Advisors must remain educated on the applicable security regulations and have a comprehensive understanding of data protection policies.
Training should cover topics such as updating authenticators, avoiding untrusted links, compliance requirements for handling client data, utilizing secure passwords and storage measures, avoiding public networks, potential breach notification duties and procedures that needs to be followed, etc.
Training should emphasize responsibility towards making sure clients' interests are met by following the updated security guidelines at all times.
Providing ongoing training is an essential part of ensuring security compliance in CRM systems for financial advisors.
Training should be designed to enhance the overall security awareness levels of staff and emphasize specific security requirements applicable to their job roles, including system access control procedures and secure storage practices.
Financial advisors should also receive regular updates as regulations evolve over time, so their knowledge stays up-to-date with industry standards.
The key to fostering a culture of security compliance lies in training and educating financial advisors about the importance of following industry-specific confidentiality regulations.Training must go beyond merely giving theoretical concepts, by articulating how data protection plays out for practice management tools like CRM systems.Ongoing education will ensure that employees understand the organization’s key security policies and protocols and equip them with the skills needed to implement appropriate controls.
In conclusion, implementing security safeguards in CRM systems is essential for financial advisors to ensure compliance with industry regulations and to protect sensitive client data.
Ensuring adherence to security guidelines requires an active involvement from advisor organizations including the adoption of secure data storage, access control, and Privacy policies as well as user training and education on cyber threats.
Regular monitoring needs to be implemented along with incident communications procedures in case of any suspicious activities otherwise the risks related to Data leakage or breaches could inflict serious damages both financially and reputationally. Ultimately advisors must recognize that they have a responsibility to continually safeguard their client's confidential information.
Inbound marketing is an effective strategy for attracting, engaging, and converting potential customers into paying clients.
Unlike outbound marketing—which relies heavily on cold-calling or print and broadcast ads—inbound marketing draws attention with helpful content that appeals to target audiences through organic channels like search engine rankings or social media interaction.
Building relationships by earning a customer's trust can then further pave the way to eventual conversions. Adopting strategies such as targeted content, optimization techniques, email automation, split testing, personalization, customer communication and feedback, and web analytics can have a significant impact in the long-term for any business.
In this outline, we will review some of those key components to better understand how they make up part of an effective inbound marketing plan.
Attracting a target audience is an essential part of successful inbound marketing. Crafting valuable and engaging content is a great way to accomplish this objective. Good content includes valid information, solutions, advice, or assistance given in an interesting format that engages viewers.It should be focused on the customers' needs while being up-to-date with trends and eliminating any possible confusion for readers navigating through the webpage. Additionally, it's important to include the ability to share it through popular social networks as well as keywords and links that improve user experience and search engine visibility.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a key component of an effective inbound marketing strategy. Through SEO, businesses can tailor their content to match customers’ search intent.This is done through optimizing elements such as page titles and descriptions, keyword usage, competitor analysis & backlinking tactics that together help boost a website's organic ranking in search engines—while driving relevant traffic and new leads to the website.
As part of a comprehensive digital presence, SEO should be monitored and adapted regularly to ensure the optimal performance of a website on search engines. Taking a holistic approach to SEO helps create visibility, builds online authority and boosts ranking on different engines.
Social media marketing is an essential component of a successful inbound marketing strategy. Through platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, companies can drive more targeted traffic to their website and content by building relationships with target audiences.
Engagement activities such as developing compelling content strategies, providing interactive experiences on various channels, and running campaigns that align brand positioning with promotions can be utilized.
It's also important to listen & respond appropriately to customer comments or inquiries in order to build cohesive connections between brands & customers. Additionally, leveraging influencers and participating in conversations around trending topics can broaden reach.
Taken together these tactics create an atmosphere interwoven in all aspects of a customer's needs, desires & activities yielding high-valued associations and conversions.
Call-to-action (CTA) placement and effectiveness are key factors in engaging and converting visitors through an inbound marketing approach. CTAs guide site visitors to act on desired outcomes such as fill out a form, downloading content, or become a customer.
Placement should be within easy user reach, and CTAs should be able to stand out among page elements. Depending on goals webpages can feature multiple CTA butters that may offer different incentives for different visitor segments.
Additionally, creative alignment of CTA features such as color, size, text, or contrast can drive improved conversion rates.
Landing page optimization involves creating webpages customized to engage and capture the visitor's interest.
The landing page should include clear, concise messaging with a relevant, personalized headline along with relevant information to help the visitor take Action (CTA). It's also important to add visuals that can effectively communicate beneficial features of the product/service.
By including persuasive copy, value-driven content and an intuitive user experience on the landing page it can create opportunities for visitors to convert by submitting contact forms or taking other desired action. This in turn can create valuable sales leads and increases the rate of conversion.
Lead generation and nurturing is an important component in engaging and converting visitors to inbound marketing. A lead magnet, such as a giveaway or free resource can be used to capture leads on landing pages with forms prompting visitors to volunteer their contact information in exchange for something of value.
This content should also be optimized with CTAs that are exaggerated, highlighted, and relevant to the page context and messaging. Once customer data is collected, it should be nurtured through targeted email campaigns using automation tools based on behaviors set by the audience.
Building customer relationships is a critical part of keeping ongoing customers and sawing lasting success or steady growth for any business. Email marketing and automation are two key aspects in achieving this relationship-building goal.
Email marketing begins with effective campaigns that have relevant content tailored to personalize the user experience, using automated segmentation which targets individual customers based on their interests.
Through email automation tools, businesses can track how engaged customers are along the way, enriching constantly promoting loyalty and upselling opportunities while delivering personalized messages. Properly managed, email automation creates better user interactions that increase returns and leads in the long run.
Personalization and segmentation are key aspects of customer relationship building. By segmenting your contacts based on different criteria such as their interests, location, behavior, and purchase histories, you can target distinct groups of customers with tailored content that is most relevant to them.
Personalization involves taking this customization component even further—for instance by changing concepts in the email header or call-forwarded message according to the individual user's profile information. In doing so, companies have experienced higher click rates and lower unsubscription rate.
But personalization can get more difficult if you scale your sales with resellers. Systemization in these cases will be paramount.
Customer feedback and engagement are important for building successful customer relationships. By actively responding to customer inquiries, feedback, questions and complaints, companies can demonstrate a commitment to meeting the needs of their customers.Additionally, regularly engaging with customers on social media platforms and reviewing website analytics and metrics gives businesses valuable insight into ways they can further improve their products or services. All this enhances the user experience which will result in increased customer loyalty.
Tracking website analytics and metrics is a core component when it comes to analyzing the performance of an inbound marketing strategy. This data allow marketers to gain insight into key performance indicators such as website traffic, average time spent on-site, bounce rates, and submission conversions.
By keeping track of these trends over time, they can make informed decisions on how best to optimize their approach -- identify what topics are engaging visitors most effectively or develop messages that resonate more deeply with potential prospects. As is essential to any marketing endeavor, the use of data to drive decision making is just as important in the world of inbound.
A/B testing and experimentation is a key component of inbound marketing. It is the process of comparing two or more versions of content, like website designs, ads, emails, landing pages–anything with multiple variations–to determine which one yields better results.
This experimenter-versus-control approach offers insight on how to improve user engagement and quickly optimize returns on investments.
Testing enables thorough data collection which can further help guide future decisions by showcasing successful changes so that they might be scaled even further.
A/B testing isn’t complex, but the benefits from continuously refining and optimizing digital campaigns is substantial and cannot be overlooked in a successful marketing plan.
Continuous improvement and optimization of an inbound marketing strategy is a key component of success.
Testing such as A/B testing allows for measuring data objectively and accurately, helping to optimize your customer journey from start to end. Tracking website analytics and metrics can enable marketers to make continuous improvements.
Additionally, most email marketing systems offer powerful reporting formulas that allow for tailoring campaigns to their target segments.
Leveraging this, together with meaningful feedback from customers, lets companies respond quicker to trends or changes in the industry. With continuous optimization using this data it can help achieve marketing goals quicker and more evolved, and maintain them over time.
In conclusion, inbound marketing is an effective and well-rounded method of identifying target audiences, engaging qualified leads, building meaningful customer relationships and optimizing for lasting results.
Spurred by the efforts of introducing relevant content, using SEO techniques on pages & posts that have CTAs guiding visitors towards signup forms/pages; analytics feedback help gauge what's working while email automation can take care of nurtured relationships with key customers.
Ultimately, spread across multiple channels it helps foster sustained capabilities even as marketing trends keep shape-shifting and adapting requires vigilance.
Having an email marked as spam will have a negative impact on your email deliverability, and more importantly – your credibility.
It is crucial to take the necessary steps to avoid reaching the spam box when it comes to sending your plan for newsletters, promotional emails, or other campaigns.
In this blog, we will explore how to understand why contacts opt for marking marketing emails as spam in the first place, along with various strategies you can put into practice perform in order to lower instances of being marked represented in junk mail folders online.
When a contact marks an email as spam, they are indicating that the content of the message was not relevant or desired and they don’t want to receive it again. Sending emails with complete strangers on your list is seen as a "cold email," appearing uninvited and irrelevant.
Furthermore, people make assumptions about why you sent such an email in the first place - possibly suspecting phishing or attempted scams.
Be sure all contacts on your email lists have already exhibited some engagement before receiving promotional messages; wholesale blasting should be as targeted as you can make it for representing yourself and your business rightly.
Over frequency of emails is one of the primary reasons contacts may mark the mail as spam.
These messages often take on a promotional or solicitation nature, which can end up feeling too aggressive and intrusive to contacts if they don’t have the chance to control how often they receive mailings.
When someone realizes the sheer number of emails filling their inbox is mostly directed from an organization they were only vaguely interested in signing up with—or thought entirely opted out—they are likely going to click straight onto ‘marking as spam’ instead.
One main reason why emails may be marked as spam is the difficulty in unsubscribing or opting out.
If a subscriber is fed up with receiving too many emails within a short period of time, they'd resort to simply clicking on mark it as spam, which communicates their clear unwillingness to receive any kind of further updates from this sender.
If this happens, not only will other ones see your content immediately flagged and refused chipping slightly away into your sender’s reputation.
Additionally, considering personal privacy policies, companies have recently been viewed more cautiously about how the setup data management processes can interrelate with customers' intelligence.
When contacts mark emails as spam, it is typically due to the perception that the email is unsolicited or irrelevant. It can also be triggered by an excessive number of emails causing recipients to disengage and hit the spam button.
To prevent this from occurring it's important for email marketers to give people options to choose how frequently they receive emails.
Along with channeling relevant and dynamic content, another element affecting whether an email will be marked as spam is addressed with distrust or suspicion of intentional malicious threats like phishing or scam attempts. This occurs when senders fail to authenticate their domain and appear unrecognizable from a sender name perspective.
Providing valuable and relevant content is a crucial strategy for avoiding the spam button. Segmenting your email list is an important element of this strategy because it allows you to target messages more precisely according to demographic data and engagement scores.By taking the time to segment and place recipients into different lists based on particular interests or shared characteristics, messaging can be tailored with higher relevancy so contacts only receive information that relates back to their preferences.
This shows recipients they are not wasting their time; whatever they receive from you fits in well with what they're interested in.
Personalization and customization of content are essential for standing out in crowded inboxes. Emails should contain tailored messages that reflect a desired contact’s interest or align with past purchases surefire way to spark their attention. Additionally, specialized offers can be sent to various contacts based on profiles like loyalty meters, demographics collected during sign-up, etc.
This enables trust and encourages higher engagement rates which improve the overall reputation of the sender whose campaigns remain under rapport while performing better than emails with only generalized features.
Personalization not only stands out from traditional broadcasting channels but it has also been seen very positively by especially Gen Z customers in achieving email success.
In order to improve the chances of emails not getting marked as spam, marketing teams should be aware of and avoid providing excessive promotions or sales pitches in their emails. Sending out too many messages and “pitching” products will result in irritable recipients and higher levels of suspicion of the emails being sent.
Instead, focus the content on valuable information that is relevant to their needs such as useful tips, research findings, suggest resources or items that may interest them, fresh ideas based on current industry trends, and event invitations.
Including elements that can be considered educating rather than commercializing adds exceptional value to customers and could go a long way sometimes stirring apprehension instead of which clients have capabilities exist for opting them out from receiving such mail swiftly.
When setting expectations with your contact during the email subscription process, it is important to be clear about the information provided by subscribing and how often they will receive emails. This sets a precedent for remaining authentic in the messages that follow and builds trust with recipients who are members of your list.
Asking if people want to opt-in boosts engagement from followers as it guarantees reputation and transparency between them and you – showing up follow-up you make for people keep an engaged touchpoints list right off the bat.
Email can approve interaction when done carefully; let contacts take control too on how often they’d like to hear from you, such as daily, weekly, or wider gaps over high-frequency outreach.
Informing customers is better than a surprise add–in on their communications. This better sympathy increases who open opens the mailbox downwards the feature lane. People view frequent emails differently— give subscribes acceptable intent subsets by talking with them in created salutations on knowledgeable scope ways.
When sending emails it is important to provide an easy way for your contacts to unsubscribe. To do this, visibility and consistency of the location and wording of unsubscribe links are key. Consider adding an unsubscribe link near the top with plain language such as "unsubscribe" or "manage email preferences.
"You can also ensure that attendees of events receive only relevant emails by adjusting current calendars or opting for one-off campaigns.
Furthermore, unsubscribed contacts should be immediately suppressed so they no longer receive messages from you – not just removed in later editing cycles as this shows that you listen to their feedback.Finally, make sure all information regarding opt-out procedures is easily found on each page and compliant with global data protection standards like GDPR or CCPA.
Once your emails reach potential customers it's vital to make sure the unsubscribe process is easy and sympathetic.
This maintains your brand image as customers demand unique treatment from companies that consider each customer's journey needs closely. Prospects should never have to search too hard for a ‘one click’ unsubscribe link, they can be found in every email either at the top or bottom of each mailing sent.
The process must ensure data privacy; personal data should only include material going with making unsubscribing, like an optional survey or social media sharing field left blank if desired.
It's of the utmost importance to honor unsubscribe requests promptly. Once a request for those emails to stop is received, senders must implement it immediately and not include the contact ever again on its list or carry out any sales communication attempts. It should also never be difficult to ask to opt out as this could lead to contacts feeling frustrated and that their preferences are not being listened to.
Taking steps to make sure to allow subscribers simplified access to prominent ‘unsubscribe’ links in all emails ensures compliance with anti-spam regulations and maximizes brand credibility by sending users only content they openly want even if it isn't often occasioned they expect it every time.
Authenticating your email domain is an important element of building trust and credibility when it comes to preventing emails from being marked as spam.By authenticating your domain, you work to ensure the messages received by subscribers are indeed from you. Doing so prevents impersonal or malicious parties from masking themselves with a false sender status through protocols like SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and DKIM (DomainKey Identified Mail).
Through server verification processes and using DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication Reporting & Conformance), you can better protect yourself against incoming phishing attacks, which in turn will help further establish yourself as a reputable, trustworthy sender in the eyes of both clients and ISPs.
Using a recognizable and consistent sender name helps build trust with email subscribers and demonstrate the legitimacy of your message.
All emails sent from your domain should bear consistency in their “from” address displaying both name and fun or Company. Using obscure field names, random characters or numbers gives recipients the impression that the sender may be hiding their true intent which creates uncertainty about why they are receiving an email.
Additionally, using vaguely familiar names commonly seen in sample phishing scenarios will increase the possibility of landing under spam filters as well as increase mistrust abroad email contacts. Take an honest and transparent approach to deeply engage contacts by representing oneself when sending out messages instead of relying entirely on automation.
To remain credible and protect email deliverability to inboxes, it is important for businesses to avoid being marked as spam.
Key strategies to avoid labels of the proverbial spam button include providing valuable content via automated list segmenting and personalization, managing email frequency with recipient considerations like engagement metrics in mind, streamlining uniform unsubscribe links/processes always honoring unsubscribes promptly.
Additionally, maintain trust by authenticating your domain leveraging recognizable sender names upon implementation of relevant authentication protocols that also tie into regularly pruning unengaged contacts utilizing a double opt-in preceding contact entering an OSL or MPS ahead dispersal for maximum leverage whatsoever campaign one seeks runs arise onward.
Making the most of your existing technology starts with your tech stack—an interconnected and integrated suite of business tools, technology products, and software applications.
Finding partners like Value Added Resellers (VARs) can help you unlock the power hidden within these resources.
VARs also represent another channel for sales optimization within your organization.
This outline discusses exactly how processes such as identifying current needs, evaluating potential VARs, leveraging expertise to tailor solutions, and optimizing workflows are effective strategies for taking an existing tech stack and transforming it into a valuable asset- capable of delivering immense value to businesses now and in the future.
A Value Added Reseller (VAR) is a company or partner that provides specialized services to help businesses get the most out of their technology.
These customized services typically include configuration, integration, training, and maintenance in order to maximize the value of existing systems or newly purchased solutions.
By executing cost-effective processes and standards, VARs are able to abstract complexity away from businesses that would need extensive development resources otherwise.
VARs furthermore give businesses access to expertise on new technologies right away in order for them to remain competitive as markets evolve over time.
Value Added Resellers (VARs) offer specialized services and customized solutions designed to address specific business needs.A partnership with a VAR can bring many benefits, from a deep understanding of the latest tech trends and optimizations to cost savings due to enhanced buying power.Furthermore, many technological components become intertwined which increases complexity; innovation often lifts one side while weakening other segments.
Value-added resellers (VARs) provide specialized services and solutions to effectively enhance tech stack investments. They offer cloud computing, on-demand storage, server installation/ configuration services and more.
What sets VARs apart from traditional service generators is their team of software developers/designers, systems integrators, and IT professionals with deep technical expertise that enables them to assess existing systems before suggesting necessary packs accordingly making them commendable partners for most stack growth cases.
Their planning prowess also helps businesses select solution packages carefully that grow accurately as workload demands—while paying attention to budget restrictions sensibly.
When evaluating your tech stack, the first step is to properly identify existing technology needs and gaps. Start by pinpointing how current solutions are helping or hindering workflow processes. Envision what features or technologies could add additional value and create opportunities for growth in the future.
There may be cases where unmet needs aren't solved through current hardware or software unless it's modified - recognizing these situations and determining if a VAR partner can make implementation easier is key in making sure you get the most out of your technology investments.
Evaluating your tech stack begins with understanding what you already have in place. Assessing the effectiveness of existing solutions enables you to identify any areas of improvement or optimization, from application usage and performance to cost efficiency and security.
Look for ways in which existing technology can be streamlined to maximize productivity or improved to meet changing customer expectations and business needs.
By tracking and analyzing key trend metrics over time, you better understand how current solutions are being used—and why they’re not effective in certain cases—in order identify valuable opportunities for growth with VARs.
When evaluating your tech stack, it is important to determine where improvements and optimizations can be made.
Strategies should focus on identifying existing technology needs and gaps, assessing the effectiveness of current solutions, pinpointing inefficient processes, and taking the time to actively evaluate these opportunities for enhancement.
Through a thorough assessment of the tech stack utilization, this way critical areas within IT that require optimization can be mapped out accordingly.
Researching and identifying potential Value Added Resellers (VARs) can be a daunting task. To make the process easier, first, try to identify mobile application platform vendors that are consistently known for high quality customer service. Next, contact specialty electronic distributors who may have already vetted current providers in order to provide performance data from former customers.
Additionally, neighbors, colleagues, or other business connections may be able to provide firsthand accounts of their experiences working with local VARs. Finally, an exhaustive Google search for ‘best tech stack VARs’ can yield results of highly targeted thought leaders in each region.
Taking the extra time to research possible value added resources now will pay critical dividends down the line toward technological success and competitive advantage over aging rivals.
When researching and identifying potential Value Added Resellers (VARs), it's important to evaluate them on their expertise and industry experience in order to get the most out of the partnership. Consider factors such as sector track records, reputations, client base demographics, and locations.
VARs must fully understand your niche environment so they make suitable technological recommendations and promptly address potential problems or complaints.
Additionally, determine how current tools or techniques that will be beneficial for your prospects and objectives can best integrate with the existing technology infrastructure under their guidance.
When researching potential value added resellers (VARs) to partner with, it is important to look at both their technical and competitive capabilities. It is also essential to review how well they will fit your tech stack and business goals.
You'll need a VAR that can not only deliver the research and implementation services required but also if they pair well with your existing technology infrastructure and provide custom solutions for any unique needs you have.
Take into account factors such as the cost of goods sold, various product offerings from vendors, support services included in packages, or add-ons offered to replicate features within existing systems already established by current providers. Select carefully so you make the most of your partnership!
When collaborating with Value Added Resellers (VARs), it is essential to establish clear communication channels and expectations.It is important for all parties involved to be aware of information-sharing processes, timelines, responsibilities assigned to both the VAR and client company, approach that will be taken, standards of performance as well any deadlines related to project completion.A successful collaboration between VARs and clients can only be achieved with respect, and professional courtesy towards one another during every stage of the process.Although resources are limited for many businesses in tumultuous times like these, it is in their best interest that clear lines of information flow have been established from the very beginning.
When working with Value Added Resellers, it is crucial to set clear project scope and objectives in order for collaboration to achieve optimal results. All parties should define the outcomes they are expecting from partnering up as well as tasks that need to be completed beforehand.
This will give added clarity on time frames and benchmarks along with what components of the technology stack require customization leaving plenty of room for flexibility and reliability throughout this process.
Additionally, expectations should also impede communication skills, service availability, response times, and contact methods as agreed upon in a contract before any work begins.
Successful integration of comprehensive and robust tech stack solutions requires specialized expertise. Value Added Resellers (VARs) help ensure efficient, tailored integrations that are customized from the ground up to identify each business’ unique needs and goals.
Through discussions of desired outcomes and current challenges with VAR vendors, various onsite implementations can be executed to deliver turnkey powerful experiences ripe for optimization.
This collaboration which leverages VARs' expertise is essential in order to make the most of existing technology investments.
VAR-assisted strategies mean businesses attain bespoke solutions offering the maximum value-added potential for long-term success.
Leveraging Value Added Resellers (VARs) for tech stack optimization is a great way to architect customized solutions--tailored specifically to the unique needs of businesses.
Partnering with VARs allows organizations to benefit from customized solutions ranging from software integration and content-sharing capabilities, as well as tools enabling automation and the optimization of processes.Equipping entrepreneurs with effective technologies helps drive revenue growth and prevent unnecessary headaches wasted researching valuable up-to-date IT developments on their own. When business functions are better managed, competitive advantages and profitability can be observed in any line of work.
Partnering with a professional Value Added Reseller (VAR) allows businesses to accelerate workflow processes for tech stack optimization.
VARs bring capabilities such as advanced strategies, specialized coding and experienced development skills needed for customization and effective integration of different tools into one optimized network that fits their business requirements.
These solutions can further reduce operational cycles and shape new ways of working by automating tasks, making them cost-efficient keeping track of customer data for improved business analysis moving forward.
The long-term result will be streamlined workflows providing convenient access to data and unlocking more potential in the current technology within an organization’s ecosystem.
Implementing performance metrics is essential for assessing the money, effort, and time invested in a collaboration with a VAR. VARs often provide oversite but may not understand specific business objectives and plans of customer success to reach an organization's technology goals.
It will associate costs per hour rate with the goal of being able to realize better design or cost efficiency validation after installation & setup activities based on task-related values input by personnel-related involved activities such as custom coding utilized benchmark that offers explainable concise detail allowing a clear way track progress improvement process easily monitored.
Successfully leveraging a Value Added Reseller (VAR) is heavily reliant on feedback and close communication.
After VAR services have been implemented, it's important for businesses to collect customer and employee feedback to measure progress.
Initiative surveys can be set in place strictly dedicated to evaluating a range of questions concerning customer experience or satisfaction regarding specific developments or improvements from the VAR partnership utilization.
Using this data to further bolster arrangement concepts allows for any arising issues, both big and small, to be immediately addressed in real-time minimizing future headaches when scaling tech stacks.
Whether it’s within individual departments or overall enterprise solutions an insights-driven workflow shift will always assist with obtaining quicker results more monetarily beneficial.
In order to ensure tech stack optimization remains viable into the future, the establishment of a yearly maintenance protocol and review session is necessary.
By monitoring data gathered throughout the lifespan of integrating Value Added Resellers (VARs) into tech stack solutions, insight will be gained expanding potential optimizations.
Depending on market demand and daily processes adjustments should be made to optimize VAR partnerships improving business outcomes while maintaining reasonable revenue margins even if incident costs equate for investments in unfamiliar areas.
Partnering with a qualified Value Added Reseller (VAR) is an impactful way to gain access to specialized tools, custom-designed solutions, and additional support. Making sure that the VAR shares industry knowledge and expertise in addition to having system compatibility with your tech stack are critical factors when selecting a partner.
By taking all of the necessary steps outlined here, you will have set up the mechanism for maximum optimization and ROI enhancement from leveraging value added services for your tech stack. As always — measure success continuously to keep growing long-term.
Integrating various software with CRM systems is an essential element for businesses looking to increase their operational efficiency.
Such integrations offer organizations more expansive and mature capabilities and enable better communication between management and value-added functions like marketing automation, analytics, payment processing, and customer service assurance —making them necessary tools eCommerce businesses are leveraging in an ever-evolving digital landscape.
In this article, we discuss the ten essential CRM integrations—such as email campaigns, social media managers, and project management software—businesses should consider taking the volume of their operations up a few notches while improving business growth over time.
SourceIntegrating email marketing software with CRM can help maximize customer communication and increase lead generation.Email messages delivered consistently to the right prospects, improve both conversion rates as well as customer engagements that result in sales.There are warm leads who have interacted with the organization before; sending personalized marketing messages through integrations helps teamwork easier and quicker to reach potential buyers at the perfect time right in their mailboxes.An informative newsletter sent regularly reinforces customer relationships while providing updates when needed for keeping customers updated about the progress.
Email marketing tools provide businesses with the ability to manage communications and campaigns with existing and potential customers across multiple email accounts efficiently.Popular examples of email marketing software programs include Mailchimp, Constant Contact, Sendinblue, Benchmark Email, Zoho Campaigns, SendGrid, and Emailybuddy.These solutions allow users to run custom campaigns through forms or automated task sequences―making it easy for organizations of all sizes to utilize this powerful digital marketing channel from one central place.
SourceEnhancing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems with social media management integrations helps businesses better track how they interact with customers on each platform.By connecting a CRM to social tools such as Hootsuite, Sprout Social, and eClincher, companies can aggregate conversations from all their channels into one location for streamlining marketing and customer service activities.Such integrated data furnishes marketers with advanced analytics offering highly customized insights about pipeline opportunities in real time and helping prioritize or automate when needed.
Social media management tools are some of the most important CRM integrations, as it provides businesses a chance to monitor and improve their presence on multiple social networking platforms.Popular choices include Hootsuite, Buffer, Sprout Social, and Sendible for managing accounts across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and others.As well as allowing users to comment and reply directly from CRM system notifications within these integrated tools; real-time collaboration is further enabled by enabling access roles based on user qualifications to allow multiple team members access on the fly without disrupting privacy or data integrity rules.
SourceStreamlining customer support with CRM integrations is essential to ensuring a seamless customer experience with your CRM. With the right integration, you can dramatically speed up your response times and allow team members to collaborate more efficiently to help customers reach resolutions faster.
Examples of popular customer support & help desk solutions that integrate well with CRM systems are Freshdesk, Zendesk, and Helpshift which provide comprehensive ticketing functionalities primarily aimed at managing feedback from customers on digital channels like calls, emails, etc.
Additionally, these support tools feature automated questionnaires and specialized detailed user profiles that give agents further insights into client relationships when servicing tickets for help or assistance inquiries.
Common features offered by such integrations include ticketing, service automation, personalization services, KPIs tracking, omnichannel intelligence private channels or live discussion panels.Popular customer support and help desk options include ServiceNow Customer Service Management (CSM), Zendesk Support Center Suite of Products and Freshdesk multi-channel CSE software platforms.Implementing these services can drastically improve the quality of the user experience for both employees and customers alike.
Project management software offers businesses a wide array of tools, such as task delegation and resource management tools that help them increase operational efficiency.
Using these specialized systems, organizations can track progress at every stage within a project in order to identify potential challenges along the way and resolve any sustainability issues quickly.
Integrating project management software within CRM technology enables instantaneous collaboration among team members and helps to bridge shortcomings with existing models for data communication delivery.
Project Management Software involves connecting a CRM system with task management systems to help improve performance and optimize execution.Choosing the right software for these purposes can help streamline complicated business processes, generate valuable reports, discover opportunities, and save money and time.Popular project management tools for this include Asana, Trello, Basecamp and nTask are all user-friendly platforms that enable collaboration between stake holders for different roles related to marketing operations in businesses.
Integrating an e-commerce platform with your CRM can boost sales and improve customer experience.Through this integration, users can easily check out customers' order details stored in the CRM while they are shopping online and use essential data collected to improve the customer service process.This integration smooths the purchasing flow between businesses and their customers dramatically.Additionally, insights into customer purchasing behavior sent back from the same platform are directly transferred to insights for nurturing leads inside of a CRM.
Integrating a powerful e-commerce platform with your CRM system can help to enhance customer experience, boost sales and convert visitors into buyers. Popular options include Shopify, Magento, and WooCommerce.Some platforms offer direct integration while for others you may need specialized services like extensions or APIs. All of the solutions boast industry-leading payment security features, responsive design capabilities that make the checkout process smooth on any device type, and 24/7 technical support should you need it.
Integration 6 for enhanced business efficiency via CRM is marketing automation software. By integrating marketing automation tools with the customer relationship management system, it's possible to automate many of the redundant and manual tasks associated with customer outreach communications.
This frees up more time to provide a better level of service to current customers while allowing employees to focus their efforts on analyzing trends or honing campaigns to target new prospective buyers.
Popular examples of automated marketing include sales and special promotions emails along with lead nurturing campaigns tailored towards prospects' own needs and interests.
Collaboration and Communication Tools, involves utilizing CRM integration solutions to enhance team collaboration in the workflow.
This type of integration can streamline communication between staff members as well as allow for better allocation of tasks and resources.
Popular software options include Slack, Google Hangouts Chat, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and numerous others. By having integrated systems such as these into your CRM better performance can be obtained from team collaborations which creates increased efficiency no matter company size or industry.
Integrating accounting and invoicing software with CRM systems are becoming a necessary ingredient for many businesses striving to meet customer demands.
This CRM integration simplifies financial operations management, including extending estimations of costs in contract features to support deal velocity whilst creating richer, more accurate financial insights.
Specific capabilities offered by this type of integration feature heavy balance sheet workflows, and automation attached form submission processes into deals tracking modes safely and preserve sensitive banking information securely.
Accounting and invoicing software can be integrated with CRM to streamline financial processes. Software like Quickbooks, FreshBooks, Wave, Zoho Books and Sage offer features such as order creation, billing automation, invoice organization and tracking revenue that make it easier for businesses.
Integration of these popular accounting solutions into a CRM system makes business more efficient by synchronizing data across platforms and avoiding duplication of customer information entry.
This simplifies bookkeeping automatically providing customers with an accessible yet secure database for digital payments as well as clearance functions.
CRM systems comprise customer survey and feedback tools, designed to gather valuable data insights that can inform decisions and measure customer satisfaction. These integration tools simplify the process of conducting polls, ratings, and surveys for speedy responses from customers.
Some popular options include Survey Monkey, QuickHelp Feedback Surveys, Client Checker Insta Survey etc.
Implementing customer survey integrations into business processes allows improving the past performance analysis to improve the future ones thus yielding better customer experiences and streamlined operations overall.
In conclusion, engaging the right software integrations for your CRM system is pivotal to enhancing business efficiency. The 10 integrations outlined above spell out an important suite of tools that provide everything from improved customer service and data insights to automated marketing processes and streamlined team collaboration.
Regardless of the shape or size of a company, selecting the functionality-rich integration tools best suited for operational needs will help take their services yet another level up.
Customer relationships are at the heart of today’s successful organizations. Reaching consumers, understanding their needs and preferences, and building their trust—these tasks demand robust strategies optimally leveraging customer data.
Achieving organizational excellence is often a combination of careful management regimes such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and measurable experiences delivered to end customers—known as Customer Experience (CX).In this outline, we will examine the differences between CRM and CX, lingering mixes of disbelief, and where strategies are proactive around customer-centric tactics to really build solid relationships.
CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is a business strategy and technology that coordinates customer data and interactions across departments.
It enables organizations to better understand customers, facilitate streamlined communication between all stakeholders in the customer relationship lifecycle and uncover opportunities for growth ensuring a strategic deliverance of effective service or product values.
Core components of CRM focus on efficient data storage helping manage customer information, an analysis capability providing deep insights into behavioral challenges, as well as the building feature enabling tailored encounters plus outlined commitment metrics.
CRM, or Customer Relationship Management, is one of the most powerful tools organizations have for understanding customers. It offers valuable insights into customer behaviors among various product lines and services they interact with, which fundamentally assists marketers in building personalized customer journeys and experiences at every touchpoint.
CRM tracks how customers are using what the brand is providing and makes marketing functions more responsive to expected styles of consumption patterns amongst their target user base – making it easier to quietly evaluate strategic opportunities like acquisitions or partnerships that inform desired channels for future growth.
Ultimately, fully integrated CRM software can provide insights that determine where the most effort is needed to focus on customer engagement requirements – this allows businesses to maximize returns on their investments in meeting individual customers’ diverse and converging preferences and expectations.
CRM (Customer Relationship Management) has become essential to managing customer interactions effectively and efficiently. CRM systems are designed specifically to collect customer data, track sales leads, and capture customer feedback.
With the right CRM software in place, businesses can analyze their performance as well as improve their relationships with existing customers.
Key features of all successful CRM systems include comprehensive customer histories; interaction logs; multi-channel support capabilities; design customization and scalability options; automated workflows or processes — and CRM applications can track company and industry data, forecast customer activity, and set objective-based performance incentive plans as well.
In terms of benefits, companies utilizing a good CRM solution can gain invaluable insights into their customers’ behaviors while target market analysis reveals unknown sales leads and growth engines that support deeper growth & opportunities armed with this knowledge. Furthermore, 24/7 processes enable faster service with higher customer satisfaction rates thanks to careful algorithmic tailoring taking place across each individual customer experience.
CX (Customer Experience) is a broader concept compared to the narrower focus of CRM. It focuses on dealing with every customer interaction and offering positive experiences throughout their journey at each touchpoint – starting from awareness to the acquisition of value and leading towards providing support and retention.
Pioneered by Don Peppers in the early 90s, it involved understanding customer behavior at all points of contact between them and the company, to better understand and respond to later interactions. Hence CX encompasses a vast range of activities that let organizations augment user delight and loyalty.
Simply put, CX is an approach that unfailingly meets set alignments to customer expectations while shaping as many interactions with the purpose of delivering quality experiences.
The customer experience (CX) is a marketing process focused on improving the long-term relationships between a company and its customers, primarily through analytics and strategies that encourage personalized customer interactions at all points throughout the customer journey.
Customer experiences involve direct efforts to enhance the overall customer journey with personalized activities that promote greater satisfaction and loyalty as well as stronger connections to an organization.
This might include providing extra value for customers with introductory offers or discounts for repeat purchases, attentive delivery services, online help features that allow quick resolutions to customer queries, or other tailored touches. Above all, an effective CX strategy must ensure that all of the customer interactions throughout every touchpoint remain comfortable and empowered for both the brand and the customers themselves.
Customer Experience (CX), largely focused on customers’ interactions within and before/after the purchase of a product or service, can provide crucial insight that cannot be gleaned from other data points.
CX allows businesses to build a genuine connection with their customer base by creating personalized experiences they will enjoy more, as well as introducing unique features and benefits in an effort to increase value for the target audience.
Customers satisfied with these processes appreciate feeling valued, and in doing so, strengthen business and brand loyalty, strengthen engagement levels, and form long-term relationships.
Advancements in digital progress have given rise to more customers expecting higher customizations of offers and increased investment in customer experience can tremendously increase loyal identifiable consumers rather than the acquisition process. Ultimately, CX boosts customer loyalty by facilitating intangible value to increasingly drive transactions over direct discounts and promotions.
CRM and CX have different yet somewhat overlapping objectives. In general terms, customer relationship management looks to help organizations maximize the value of their customers and efficiently manage customer data while optimizing sales cycles through controlled contact nurturing.
On the other hand, customer experience (CX) aims to enrich customer interactions as this often does more to support business goals such as growth rates, expanded product portfolio, unwavering brand loyalty, and repeating customers - all balanced against maximum profits from resource allocation than anything in CRM can really deliver. CRM is the platform driving those yields meanwhile, CX particularly focuses on stretching organization performance and outcomes to distinctive levels through highly satisfying customer frontline engagement designed to promote long-term retention.
Customer Relationship Management is a tool designed to help businesses manage all aspects of customer data and relationships. It captures, stores, and uses important customer information such as sales histories, preferences, and behaviors to continually thrive off developing customer relationships in an effective way.
As the data is actively used to contribute positively throughout multiple levels it also becomes useful with increased benefits maximizing customer experiences holistically, sustaining correlations over repeat visits is foremost focused from prevalent analytics ensuring relevancy doesn't weaken preventing downtime.
CX (Customer Experience) is a broad, holistic approach to enhancing the interactions, experiences, and relationships that customers have with a business. It looks at the end-to-end customer journey in its entirety.CX considers many aspects of engaging customers such as services offered, available products or features they will benefit from, integration among all facets of the customer experience (front & back offices), customer feedback, persistence and continuity between engagements, and technologies used for integrated communication channels.
With its focus on improving tangible and intangible customer touchpoints, CX attempts to fulfill the desires of customers and strives to leave a lasting positive emotional connection.
CRM and CX are distinct concepts, however, the two overlap in many areas. While CRM focuses on nurturing and forming valuable customer relationships, CX serves as a holistic approach to optimizing an overall superior experience.
While CRM captures important data about customers such as individual contact details or buying preferences, CX leverages this information to also add humanizing elements through personalized engagements that enrich customer experiences.
By combining CRM’s segmentation abilities and CX’s value-adding sentiment, businesses can benefit from improved customer insight. Utilized in harmony, CRM and CX cultivate sincere and valuable relationships essential for driving real customer loyalty.
CRM and CX are interconnected but have different trends. The integration of CRM with customer practices is key for improving their CX. Enterprise-level customer relationship information in a CRM system allows businesses to synthesize a sequence that leads clients from engagement all the way through mastery.
Customer profiles included in the CRM provide companies with data on investments made, behaviors faced, response channels used as well as preferences used throughout the customer journey. Companies leveraging this kind of information can identify consumers’ needs and expectations allowing them to then deploy marketing and service models that tackle these problems effectively.
This leads to better customer experiences across multiple tracks. Therefore, engaging customers through their preferred paths while managing consumer encounters via CRM mechanisms allows businesses the leverage they need to achieve more efficient CX processes.
The ultimate goal for any organization is to create a meaningful connection between its customers and its brand. The link between customer relationship management (CRM) and customer experience (CX), although distinct, must synergize closely in order to maximize impact.How can CX inform CRM effectiveness? As opportunities are presented, CX should drive the global ideology governing personalized reconciliation that comes secondary o understanding what drives a consumer’s intent or ambition which goes straight into lead-scoring structures managed by visualization strategies in analytics and surveys from product feedback forms.CX puts customers at the heart of CRM efforts, helping to drive social ROI as well as proactively prioritize engagement opportunities woven between targeted campaigns based on past purchase data - allowing businesses to effectively focus tactics closer to achieving desired goals driving progress that meet customer ambitions and understand customers' brand perception.
Integrating CRM and CX initiatives can be beneficial for optimizing customer relationships and overall user experience. Identification of key touchpoints, as they emerge, helps to ensure a unified brand experience across every potential customer interaction.
Leveraging existing customer data collections into meaningful insights helps drive organizational strategy, allowing companies to focus both on performance optimization in iterative releases and opportunity identification when it comes to new marketing campaigns, product feature suggestions, or service upgrades.
With feedback loops built into these approaches, progression is natural; from course corrections to task automation and lead engagement processes. As data evolves over time, analytics pertaining to customer teams, their histories, preferences, and indicators of product or service engagement can be made available administratively — gaining accuracy with ongoing technological advancement.
Having a thorough knowledge of the differences between Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Customer Experience (CX) is essential for enterprises wishing to be successful in their customer-first methodology.
CRM, by concentrating on tracking information about customers and managing existing connections, establishes a backbone for further individualized interactions.
On the other hand, CX reviews the complete dealings between customers and your product or service to build extraordinary experiences that stimulate confidence and happiness from users.
For businesses to maximize customer relationships and experiences, CRM and CX must come together as one. By alignment with the two initiatives, a customer-centered culture is created with resultant improvements in satisfaction and long-term growth that can yield incredible results.
Considering the interconnectedness between CX and CRM, consolidation of their approaches ensures success in delivering an unparalleled experience for customers.
Software vendor-reseller partnerships are a type of strategic collaboration between software vendors and resellers.
It is beneficial for software companies to enter product growth agreements with third parties, to broaden their customer base, expand to new geographical markets, improve customer support and generate more revenue (or at least diversify income streams).
This article looks at five key reasons why these collaborations serve as an integral part of professional practice in the software industry.
The success of such partnerships greatly depends on proper communication between vendors and resellers about business objectives, customer segmentation strategies and market feedback precedents.
By establishing successful relationships based on mutual goals and equal contributions by both parties, companies can achieve significant expansion in sales while simultaneously improving the quality of service they offer customers.
One of the primary advantages of software vendor-reseller partnerships is the ability to access a much larger customer base thanks to a reseller's existing networks and relationships.This extended reach means that vendors are able to tap into customers in new and unexplored markets which in turn could result in potentially higher sales volumes without having to generate such risk themselves.
Resellers also provide valuable local context when addressing changing dynamics within different geographic areas, making it easier for vendors to adjust product features or positioning strategies according to market trends.
Vendor-reseller partnerships enable software companies to tap into their reseller partners' existing relationships and networks.
By leveraging those connections and building relationships with reliable distributors, vendors can access an extended customer base across different regions without the need of setting up a physical presence in each area.This allows them to increase their market penetration cost-effectively while also benefiting from referrals by satisfied customers through referrals, generating more sales volume and boosting overall revenue.
Software vendor-reseller partnerships can open up unexpected opportunities for software vendors to expand their geographical markets. For example, resellers may already have an established network of customers and the local knowledge that makes entering new markets smoother.
Therefore, partnering with a well-known local dealer in a foreign country would help the software producer strengthen its own entry into the market. Additionally, leveraging the connections between different reseller partners across different countries is also beneficial while trying to enter those new global regions to maximize reach and access to an extended customer base.
All in all, this collaboration method helps amplify growth potential with greater efficiency and cost-effectiveness than going out on the market alone.
Resellers have in-depth expertise when it comes to selling high-value software products to prospects and marketing those products across different channels.This allows vendors to tap into the resellers' knowledge base about preferred communication styles, buying preferences of customers, local market insights, and any upcoming trends – all beneficial traits that help boost unit sales with optimum revenue outcomes.
Software resellers bring valuable industry knowledge, key networks, and specialized skills to the software vendor-reseller partnership.
This enables more targeted sales and market reach for software vendors: by understanding customer needs and presenting tailor-made solutions to customers with specific preferences - instead of a one-size fits all approach - overall sales volume is increased and revenue generation is most effectively maximized.
Software vendors that partner with resellers benefit significantly from their ability to generate increased sales and revenue.
Resellers highly skilled in selling and marketing software can have an immensely positive influence on vendor unit shipment growth, helping them broadly reach customers with the right solutions that meet many potential targets in one fell swoop.
By allowing access to a large tail of low-dollar through more specialist markets, multiple venues for success may ensue as profitably.
Resellers can serve as important local support systems for customers of software vendors. They provide customers with answers to pre-sales inquiries and offer post-sale assistance, increasing both response rates and satisfaction, and allowing businesses to develop better relationships with their end users.
Whether logging concern calls or having questions removing technical complexities, resellers tend to act responsively and personally creating admiration from customers who benefit from such expertise.
Software vendors rely on resellers to provide direct customer support. Resellers have the expertise and contacts needed to offer valuable pre-sales and post-sales support — helping customers with product selection, installation/configurations, problem resolutions, maintenance programming, and more.
This enables software vendors to boost their customer satisfaction rates while providing enhanced service offerings with added convenience and personalization that stakeholders find invaluable.
Software vendor-reseller partnerships enable better customer support and service, such as providing faster response times and more personalized assistance for end-users.
Resellers act as local point of contact in order to provide pre and post-sales support, meaning customers receive solutions that are tailored to their individual requirements. Delivery time is also optimized thanks to the closer relations between reseller and customer meaning results can be achieved faster and at a higher satisfaction rate for all involved.
Resellers provide unique insight into software markets and customers through their contact with customers, recognizing items like preference, usage patterns, perceivable issues, and potential product advancement.
This valuable information helps vendors make key decisions to notice market opportunities more accurately post-launch, optimizing products already on the market such as version changes or localization efforts.
Enhancements at the feedback loop level can guard customers’ loyalty levels with continual learning from in-demand advancements driven by rebranded reseller deliveries
Gathering feedback from resellers is a key benefit of software vendor-reseller partnerships that allows vendors to gain insight into product performance and customer satisfaction levels.
Resellers play a valuable role in obtaining important data about the entire industry such as reviews, ratings, pain points, trends areas of improvement, and more.
By utilizing this valuable information learned through these kinds of interactions with local customers, vendors are better able to identify deficiencies in their current offerings and address emerging needs amongst the end user base quicker than ever before.
Mutual business growth is one of the key advantages that arise out of a software vendor-reseller partnership. Through joint initiatives and co-marketing efforts, both parties benefit from shared resources and knowledge to help enhance their respective brand images.
Joint business development activities can take the form of organized events or conferences where vendors showcase products to potential customers while resellers pit their local expertise and networks in strengthening market reach for new software solutions.
Mutual business growth through the sharing of resources and knowledge by software vendors and resellers helps both parties better position their respective products in the market.
Through effective collaboration, Information Technology companies can develop joint initiatives to increase brand visibility, maximize market potential, generate sales leads, and take on more business opportunities (in the form of proposal responses, etc.).
They also get access to expand into different geo-locations that would otherwise not have been possible in the absence of such partnerships. In this way, understanding each other's strengths resulting from resource-sharing can lead to greater business success.
Software vendor-reseller partnerships allow for both to make the most of their respective skill sets, grow their business positively and successfully reach even more customers.
Whether it's reaching customers with specific needs and preferences, providing faster pre-sales and post-sales support, or pooling resources to use market insights to improve products, there are many attractive mutual benefits associated with such alliances.
Overall, collaboration between software vendors and resellers is essential for sustainable growth in the industry – strategic partnerships act as a stepping stone to expand into new markets, generate more revenue and ensure customer satisfaction.
Inbound marketing centers on attracting potential customers to a business’ website or offering using online content, search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing tactics, and email messaging—all of which promote brand authenticity and help businesses build responsive relationships with their audiences.
Outbound marketing, however, tends to apply more traditional means of advertising such as TV-spot advertorials, radio promotions, direct mails, etc., in an effort to send the desired message directly to audiences.
Still relevant these days, it is mainly used for speeding up promotion and obtaining tangible results quickly on engaging customers. Comparing both marketing tactics to find out the right strategy that works is instrumental given their respective characteristics that may affect outcomes differently.
As such, we will provide guiding questions enterprises can ask themselves before formulating a sound and efficient marketing agenda through discussing both inbound and outbound approach features foremost ahead of evaluating budget returns or analyses of competitive landscapes and conducting evaluation exercises.
SourceInbound marketing involves creating, distributing, and optimizing content within online channels using tactics like search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, email campaigns, etc.
Content is tailored to engage and create useful buying experiences for prospects by educating and informing them about potential products or services at the earliest stages of consideration, establishing connections & level of trust in the form of brand authority. The overall goal is focused on having leads find your businesses instead of trying to seek after them directly which constitutes direct sales as part of outbound marketing.
Content creation and distribution involves the creation of topics/stories related to your brand, addressing customer questions or needs. These pieces are placed across various web channels such as blogs and social networks.
Content not only establishes authority but raises awareness for products extended by a brand leading to higher interaction with customers. Content strategy also adds fuel to internet metabolism promoting better engagement with article readers diversifying through quality distribution flexible format resources leveraging an integrated utilization having targeted connection availability to rapidly reach multiple geographic regions just on touch in recent trends/changes.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is an important strategy for inbound marketing. This strategy involves optimizing content to increase its rankings within search engine results pages, as well as improving the overall visibility of a website.
To do this, technical measures need to be taken such as structure and coding of a website, speed optimization, and quality evaluation of links so that they are compatible with specific latencies and if possible reduce loading times or targets blocking certain IP addresses.
Additionally, there are SEO tools such as image optimization, keyword targeting, and competitor tracking which help drive higher visibility with search engines like Bing, Google, and Yahoo.
Social media marketing is a key inbound marketing strategy comprised of targeting and engaging customers through social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and more. It's an effective way to spread brand awareness, increase website traffic, promote products or services, and even build relationships with prospective consumers.
Social media can leverage user-generated content to showcase customer feedback of the brand and allows brands to be portrayed in real-time highlighting the impact it’s making among current followers within their chosen industry or niche areas.
Email marketing is a key inbound marketing strategy, and it involves sending branded messages to customers through emails with useful content such as tips, offers, promotions, etc.
It requires data collecting via subscribers list in order to push relevant messages tailored to individual customer interests or specific behaviors they exhibit online.
To optimize its effectiveness email marketers need to utilize segmentation techniques and pay attention to incorporating precise CTAs links onto the message forms.
This boosts chances for higher levels of conversions and enhances the overall quality of user experiences contained within the confined digital environment in direct correspondence with the entire brand.
Inbound marketing has the power to attract qualified leads by drawing interested customers in through targeted content and using effective tactics like SEO, social media, email campaigns, and more.
By producing relevant content that your audience wants and needs, you are able to tailor your messages to inform prospects seeking particular knowledge related to your product.
SEO is another great way of attracting qualified leads since it makes it much easier for potential customers interested in that topic or term to find related offers, articles, news items, and other informational pieces on the front page of search results.
Building Brand authority is one of the main benefits of inbound marketing. Creating a consistent appearance across all platforms, such as Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, enables customers to identify the brand from a glance. Publicizing successful strategic relationships perfects this notion - customers are much more likely to recognize (and trust) that they can receive superior services from high-caliber partners.
Inbound tactics are also irreplaceable for sustaining engagement with leads on an ongoing basis through nurtured content interactions;
Additionally, visitors who respond positively should strongly consider joining marketing mailing lists and/or similar subscription-based services so as to remain in the loop for when new offerings become available.
Cognizance of these distinctive capabilities bolsters customer retention rates which solidify the position of the company within their respective industry.
Inbound marketing initiatives, specifically targeted content distribution, can play an integral role in building strong relationships between businesses and their customers.
Content shared through blogs and emails aimed at catering to the needs of customers yields improved brand loyalty, more revenue from customers over time, and a greater chance for these same current buyers to recommend more pleased patrons in their contact circles.
By regularly providing accessible and relevant information curated just for valued buyers, repeated exposure with obtaining higher speed desired declarations of commitment by existing clients leading to repeat visits.
Furthermore, customers offering further prospects due to endorsements has been consistently found a long-term result stemming from the successful adoption of up-to-date information technology aspects combined with targeting content strategy creation in active inbound marketing practices.
SourceOutbound marketing is a type of traditional marketing approach that involves actively pushing products, services, or content to target audiences through paid advertisements and stronger calls-to-action.
Common strategies include print and TV ads, cold calling, direct mail campaigns, telemarketing, and different promotional activities such as trade shows and events. The goal for outbound efforts is usually more oriented toward general exposure than tailoring individual interactions. It sometimes requires higher costs and specific resources, but can still be effective if the target audience is defined correctly.
Traditional advertising involves using TV, radio, or print mediums to transmit ads to a wide audience. It relies heavily on standing out from the rest and creating persuasive messages that can capture viewers’ attention. Companies often pay external outlets, such as newspapers, magazines, billboards, film theatres, etc.; for space to publish their advertisements.
Benefits of traditional media include immense reach (even globally) more timely results and high impact levels due to its interactive capabilities and user involvement in receiving campaigns; especially when compared to digital media.
Additionally, core systems (e.g. TV programming) important in lots of industries rely on ads-related investments and payments due to their profit models, affixing used traditional mediums as well determinant elements for certain marks reaching success and notoriety among their audiences desired.
Cold calling can be an effective outbound marketing strategy for businesses to reach their target audiences and communicate the features of a product or service. It allows companies to try and make connections with potential customers or clients, establish a relationship with them and enter into selling dialogue directly.This method gives businesses the opportunity to expose themselves face to face as well as greatly improve customer acquisition prospects since results remain unknown until contacted sometime later and persuasion may be successful.
Furthermore, timely actions are guaranteed since companies can receive a response during or right after the conversation. Despite all these advantages, this strategy comes with difficulties and when customers reject immediate purchase propositions trust might be undermined in the long run.
Direct mail is a key outbound marketing strategy that involves physical letter distribution directly sent to recipients through the mail.It allows marketers the chance to speak to consumers on a personal level and stand out much more vividly compared to most digital media.
Direct mails in return hold more attention which provides plenty of opportunities such as generating leads, upselling products, or igniting communication between customers and prospects; whereas other outbound strategies can just act as pure brand exposure only.
While it’s overwhelmingly convenient that other digital outbound strategies exist and become popular, direct mail can still be effective and shows show-through in daily life eliminating all competition most of the time.
Outbound marketing often involves traditional forms of advertising, such as TV and radio spots, print advertisements, direct mail campaigns, and telemarketing (also known as telephone sales). Telemarketing is particularly strategic because its personal touch offers access to qualified leads while building relationships with existing customers.
This helps companies boost sales directly or drive traffic to online assets where consumers can find more product details.
Skilled telemarketers are equipped with detailed product information, making effective objections – one call at a time– allowing telemarketing to effectively convey important messages faster and remain data-driven operations.
Outbound marketing is a popular choice for businesses looking to meet wider audiences of potential customers and get greater brand awareness.
Compared to inbound tactics like content creation, SEO, and social media advertising, traditional offline techniques typically allow the business to communicate its message further and faster.
While these more proactive strategies may come at a higher cost than those produced with digital technologies by companies without an equally robust digital presence, the major advantage of the higher reach and brand exposure makes it worth considering.
One of the key benefits of outbound marketing is that businesses can achieve quick results and often notice an immediate impact on their brand recognition and lead generation.
Outbound content works best in what is known as a “push” system; this type of strategy forces current or prospective customers to take action or see products take potential leads down the funnel toward purchase faster than with inbound tactics.
Traditional options such as TV ads, direct mail, telemarketing, and cold calling guarantee vast, rapid coverage of a target market across strategies from different input channels while reaching potential customers regardless if they are actively searching.
Ultimately, these proven strategies enable products and services to be seen by the right people with their unique messaging in a shorter period of time.
Outbound marketing is often an effective way to reach a larger scale of target audience, especially for certain industries and groups.
Its traditional methods such as radio, TV, and print advertisements can broadcast messages over large geographical regions resulting in a greater market pie through brand name recognition.
Cold calls offer doorstep access to numerous leads that could be found outside the internet link-ages demographic while telemarketing or even direct mail helps with exhausting efforts in finding suitable demographics.
Outbound strategies are usually applied when launching new products to boost exposure to the various target niches amidst the constant transformational needs of the audience's influence and behaviors.
Inbound and outbound marketing differ significantly in terms of approach and targeting. Outbound evidence-based on blanket methods, with advertisements, cold calls, etc targeted generally at a wide audience without consideration for their needs or abilities.
In contrast, inbound enables companies to build tailored buyer personas based on careful analysis of an objective’s best potential audience.
This allows it to target users unknown but interested in the provisioned solution as well as retarget current leads giving them content specially written and including crucial information aligning it with the correct conversion tactics.
In comparing the cost-effectiveness and ROI of inbound and outbound marketing, it is clear that both strategies offer value. Inbound marketing tends to focus on long-term success with higher ROI.Its methods, such as SEO, content creation, social media marketing, etc., cost less money up front although they require time and effort for effective implementation.
Outbound digital tactics can quickly drive moderately scaled targeted orders and campaigns at a lower cost than their counterparts in traditional channels; however, the ROI is short-lived or may require subsequent campaigns.
Customer engagement and relationship building is a key difference between inbound and outbound marketing strategies.
Inbound marketing allows for long-term relationships to be built by creating quality content that attracts new customers, as well as retails existing relationships with current customers. Outbound methods are typically used to outreach potential audiences, but oftentimes the interaction ends once conversions take place.
Thus, inbound campaigns can create deeper customer relations when consistently applied over time; whereas results from outbound methods may dim easily if not followed up regularly.
When assessing their inbound and outbound marketing strategies, businesses should pay special attention to how customer behavior and preferences are changing over time.
Today’s consumers appreciate personalized experiences which is why inbound marketing can be beneficial as most of its tactics have the potential for personal customization.
Overly generic outbound initiatives lack faster results but still require a considerable budget to remain competitive against newer ways of reaching customers such as messaging apps or podcasts. Without an appropriate transformation of traditional strategies, profitability can suffer if campaigns fail to keep up with ever-changing consumer behavior.
When deciding which digital marketing strategy works best in unfamiliar territory a business should pay close attention to its goals and who they want to reach.
Though both inbound and outbound offer benefits, the nature of each will determine if either is suitable for meeting intended objectives and consumers' needs.
Establishing basic decisions such as budget or time allowance should be taken into serious consideration when selecting either tactic– inbound requires strategic, long-term planning while outbound pops off gains faster through experimentation.
Undoubtedly, investing adequate time in researching both tactics and circumstances ahead of conducting either path is invaluable information to have when embarking on an uncertain marketing quest.
It’s imperative to carefully examine available budgeting so that campaigns are tailored effectively to enable maximum efficiency. Depending on financial plans, either excess untapped funds can be allocated towards certain strategic areas or creativity improvements can boost rewards without huge outgoings.
Analyzing industry trends and competition is essential to finding the proper strategy for a business. Because each industry sector has its own unique trends, responsibilities and challenges, analyzing key industry influencers is useful in developing effective solutions to get desired results.
By looking at successful strategies of key competitors as well as up-and-coming brands in the field, businesses can gain insight into what works best within their specific sectors-- such as understanding customer needs and how competing products are marketed fiercely yet comfortably fitting within internet regulations.
Combining inbound and outbound marketing can provide businesses with more comprehensive results. Such a strategy works by complementing one another, for example, using targeted email campaigns in combination with social media marketing or offline events to drive the desired response from end users.
Both should be continually reassessed  based on changing consumer behavior, industry trends, competition levels as well as any newly emerging technology or platforms. By combining both segments under one omnichannel approach, companies will have better resource utilization which maximizes return on investments.
In conclusion, inbound and outbound marketing strategies can work together to further the success of an organization. It is essential to assess each tactic based on the KPI (Key Performance Indicators) meant to provide beneficial results for the company’s needs.
By choosing carefully which strategy should come first involves curating why it fits perfectly with its target market and that it provides lucrative profits followed by maintaining said technique when scenarios change continually or adjusting another alternative for optimal exposure all throughout.
Ultimately, developing a comprehensive approach featuring a mixture of inbound and outbound marketing will undoubtedly bring successful returns for businesses striving to survive the multitude of available options in today’s digital industry.
AI chatbots have revolutionized our approach to communication and customer service in many industries. They are powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to generate dynamic, intelligent responses based on keywords or phrases detected in the conversation.
By leveraging Natural Language Processing (NLP), AI chatbots can better understand specific contexts and deliver tailored answers accordingly.
ChatGPT is an advanced AI platform that takes this a step further with its diverse capabilities, offering users more accurate information retrieval and refined conversations even for complex challenges.
ChatGPT is revolutionizing the landscape of AI chatbots through its advanced natural language processing (NLP) capabilities.
Utilizing a large-scale transformer model trained on an extensive dataset of dialogues, ChatGPT provides high accuracy and understanding for human conversation and generates text that is fluent in style with improved cohesion across conversational turns.
It has also been optimized for both open ended dialogue scenarios as well as specific query resolution systems. Leading language models like these are essential in building the foundation for more sophisticated and effective chatbot systems that understand human language in a natural manner.
Through deep learning algorithms and preceding context sequences, ChatGPT-generated responses are able to draw associations across conversations from a number of nodes simultaneously to better provide solutions or understandings.
For instance, when asked follow up inquiries such as "What about X?", ChatGPT can draw on its recent discussion points and add pertinent answers accordingly in the same overall conversation thread.
Furthermore, these kinds of conversational abilities allow fewer interruptions from us humans and create a more natural, lifelike interaction
ChatGPT's NLP capabilities are revolutionizing how complex conversations and queries are handled by AI chatbots. With its advanced language understanding and generation, it is now more adept at understanding contextual cues which enables it to provide detailed, accurate responses based on specific user inquiries.
The system also has enhanced memory robustness resulting in millisecond responses regardless of the nature or depth of the query.
As each request increases in complexity, the technology maintains highly efficient transaction speeds while providing superior customer service in a natural, engaging conversational style.
SourceChatGPT offers a natural and engaging conversational style to users. With its complex understanding of dialogue and immersion in language advancements, it produces accurate, prompt, and detailed responses that stimulate individuals as though the chatbot was a real person.
Additionally, ChatGPT features social skills such as recognizing emotions which aids in a more interactive user experience by making users feel comfortable with talking.
By continuously learning from interactions with people ChatGPT is able to enrich its knowledge of vocabulary as new expressions or terms are used in conversations, and keep up with language trends.
Therefore ChatGPT executes conversational AI interactions seamlessly, Elevating customer service while simplifying manual tasks for staff.
Enhanced user experience through personalized responses has pushed the boundaries of AI chatbot interaction for customers. ChatGPT responds in an even more natural and engaging tone customized to each conversation or thread.
Conversations are extended by proactively providing customers with relevant information requested and also suggested results as per their conversations to speed up response times. Customer engagement is improved when bots can target key interests, naturally adjusting conversation pacing and content based on current responses.
ChatGPT is equipped with the ability to handle multiple user queries simultaneously. This allows organizations to save time and improve efficiency by handling an entire conversation as one query rather than individual statements.
The tool also provides users with highly relevant, accurate responses quickly while providing a natural conversational intuition that puts humans at ease. In addition, it offers personalized marketing responses based on individual interaction history which empowers even more engaging interactions between chatbot and user. To ensure effective learning integration too, feedback is recorded from every interaction.
SourceThe adoption of AI-enabled chatbots has enabled organizations to move promptly and accurately turn around customer inquiries.
Expanding an agent's domain knowledge base is integral in providing timely and accurate responses that draw on a comprehensive base of information such as product features, services, industry trends, or technologies.
To avoid silos between model specializations, chatbot developers are now turning towards ChatGPT for sophisticated and multi-domain training modules which can collectively inject context to user queries from varied topics.
The ability to access vital, up-to-date information improves the effectiveness of AI chatbots. ChatGPT empowers this by providing comprehensive training on diverse topics and industries ranging from cognitive science and natural language processing to health care and sports.
Furthermore, webhooks in ChatGPT allow for real-time integration with external APIs enabling the quick transition from mere knowledge acquisition to practical implementations such as complex Q&As for customer service solutions or automated report generation in enterprises.
All this make it easier than ever before to take advantage of advancements in a huge variety of domains and stay totally up-to-date.
ChatGPT has the ability to extend its area of knowledge beyond the conversational domain. Not only can it remember earlier inputs and conversations, but it is also able to synthesize additional related data from external sources.
The training datasets feed into ChatGPT’s topic-specific knowledge bases, which allow its responses to be more accurate and relevant in real-world applications. Training on diverse topics also allows ChatGPT’s accuracy and wealth of language skills within any area or industry to evolve.
Advancing ethical AI practices is an important element in harnessing the full potential of chatbots. Unbiased and inclusive responses must be ensured at all times to avoid misframing data.ChatGPT through its training approach ensures that specific policies are embedded within response metrics when responding to user queries, offering valuable protection against discrimination and imbalance powered by prejudicial classification systems from chatbot responses.
To ensure the responsible deployment of AI chatbots, measures must be taken to mitigate potential risks associated with malicious use. ChatGPT features a continuous review system designed to identify any inappropriate or possibly harmful content among user responses.
Through its automated monitoring and reporting capabilities, it can alert stakeholders about suspicious behavior quickly and accurately in order to take corrective action right away.
Advancements in ethical AI practices seek to ensure responsible navigation of the complex opportunities and challenges presented by new technologies. Mitigating risks associated with malicious use becomes increasingly important as individuals interact with chatbots on a regular basis.
To prevent adaption or manipulation of the conversational system, extra measures need to be put into place, such as reputation protection techniques and code obfuscation to reduce digital footprints.
ChatGPT's detection systems allow developers and users to actively monitor for misinterpreted instructions, off-policy behavior and misuse of data, giving the AI technology greater reliability and peace of mind.
Pioneering Continuous Learning and Adaptability is a key capability of ChatGPT. It allows for an artificial intelligence chatbot that can naturally evolve to become smarter, faster, and more accurate with age in response to user interactions. By “learning” from each interaction it gains understanding and recognition of patterns so that future conversations are tailored to the user’s preferences.
In addition, it seamlessly integrates new data without having to repeatedly adjust its training datasets while constantly striving to provide better results as a result of feedback from user interactions.
By learning from each user and conversation it participates in, ChatGPT is able to build up knowledge in order to provide expected responses with improved accuracy rates and an ever-advancing level of capability.
This process is facilitated by advanced architectures that draw from comprehensive training datasets containing millions of conversational utterances to allow the ChatGPT bot to better understand contextual nuances and intent.
Ongoing feedback loops between users, trainers, and domain experts work hand-in-hand with the learning framework to ensure an ongoing dialogue, enabling the system to continuously learn new skills and deep dive into domain-specific knowledge.
In addition, the chatbot can be trained on a continuous basis through leveraging adaptive learning enabling models to evolve at an unmatched rate.
Through continual training with relevant datasets combined with feedback from users, ChatGPT evolves its responses in order to offer personalized services and greater accuracy.
With advanced conversational machine-learning techniques, this AI-powered chatbot is efficient at spotting subtle changes in understanding human interactions and adapting its response accordingly—ensuring that user questions are answered quickly and accurately according to their current needs.
This is an invaluable and revolutionary capability that moves AI chatbots closer to "real-world" levels of conversational ability and problem-solving.
The potential for misinformation and false information propagation is an important limitation of AI chatbots, specifically ChatGPT. Without proper implementation of ethical AI practices, results generated by the chatbot may have inaccuracies or convey prejudice implications, both of which can lead to a skewed user experience.
Machine learning algorithms ingest learnings from large volumes of data and signals from previous conversations - as such, maintaining accuracy requires being extremely selective in the type of data used as well as employing rigorous integrity checks during training sessions.
Addressing ethical concerns and biases when deploying AI chatbots is a critical component often overlooked. Questions surrounding data privacy, questions of purposeful or accidental implicit bias, and other moral issues can reduce user trust levels.
Tackling those types of ethical concerns requires technology to conform to certain values such as conduct rule decision orientations. Additionally, by enhancing transparency and building auditing capabilities we could gain better insights into awareness from users on potential unfairness cues produced by chatbot interactions.
Data security and user privacy remain the foremost challenges when it comes to developing and deploying AI chatbots. This becomes even more problematic where real-time data that is fed into these chatbot systems holds private information and needs to be encrypted.
Balancing compliance with regulation standards like GDPR along with engineering limitations brings forth complexities that need to be taken seriously if building trust is important. Moreover, a single infringement could lead to reputational losses or legal issues down the line for companies using or connected with an AI Chatbot system proving its essential importance.
ChatGPT has shaken up the field of AI chatbots, transforming it from a limited technology hub to an innovative powerhouse. Its advanced language understanding and use of NLP give ChatGPT significant capabilities in user interaction, domain knowledge, ethical practices, and continuous learning.
With the right tools and strategy put in place for how they are used responsibly and ethically, ChatGPT is truly an exciting breakthrough that holds great promise not only inside the current realm of chatbots but for so many other future possibilities with artificial intelligence technology.
Regulatory frameworks must be implemented to ensure appropriate usage while preserving user privacy and security. As this space continues to progress there will remain more obstacles yet also opportunities ahead - all thanks to ChatGPT’s revolutionizing influence on AI chatbots.
Accurately predicting sales revenue is now evidently more critical than ever in today's competitive marketplace.
An effective sales outlook empowers organizations to develop their tactics, set prudent objectives, and maximize their selling functions.
To aid them in this process, businesses are now relying on one eminent tool - Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems. This composition will delve into the benefits of CRM for guesstimating sales and how it rewards businesses financially.
CRM, an acronym that stands for Customer Relationship Management, is a collection of tech tools and software that help businesses efficiently maintain customer records and manage sales strategies.
These products have become crucial to the progress in sales forecasting. The system also supervises underlying marketing activities necessary for companies who wish to develop long-standing relationships with their target customers.
Predictions of future sales volumes, revenues, and trends have undergone a revolution due to the arrival of CRM systems. Previously done manually based on underlying data and market studies this led to estimation mistakes or time lags.
But through them, a focal point was given which is hoard customer intelligence, market research as well as marketing information making accuracy in forecasts easily achievable.
CRM systems provide businesses with improved data management by consolidating customer information into one database.
This gives sales teams quick and convenient access to shopper interactions such as purchases, inquiries, and support requests. By analyzing these findings, more reliable decisions and predictions can be obtainable for business operation objectives.
The use of CRM systems for sales forecasting can prove to be highly beneficial by allowing the centralization of stored customer data. Instead of having such information spread across multiple spreadsheets, and documents, or even stored with individual sales representatives as is typical in a traditional system, a CRM offers businesses reliable and accessible storage for their client records. This creates fewer chances for inconsistent or duplicate data while supplying timely access when needed.
Sales teams can leverage the power of a single source of truth for customer information, from which records can be accessed and updated in real-time. This enables them to gain a holistic view of every customer's background, likes, and activities with the business.
When necessary, salespeople are able to quickly access vital data about the customer includes their purchase histories, conversations they had with them before, and any current opportunities or problems they may have. Acting on this knowledge helps create personalized strategies for selling to customers and engaging them proficiently.
A CRM system not only enables centralized customer data but grants fast access to the history of sales.
This means that with some simple clicks, managers and representatives can utilize reports exhibiting commerce behavior in total time frames as well as Revenue, product expressiveness, and variant tendencies from selling.
Exploiting past sales figures makes it possible for companies to view seasonally relevant info, and market movement outlines, and assess how varied phenomena exercise consequences on average deal volume. In receiving this intelligence CEOs and their corporates are inclined to optimize accurate forecasts leading them towards organizing more prosperous sales practices sooner rather than later.
The myriad benefits of a CRM system for sales forecasting are evidenced in its ability to track every customer interaction.
Seamless logging with the system means that all customer contact is not overlooked, thus allowing sales representatives to go deeper into critical analytical information related to captured leads and orders placed.
Through monitoring each connection, they can optimize interactions with customers and strengthen their relationships - elevating conversions much more effectively than ever before.
By leveraging the capabilities of a CRM system, businesses can precisely forecast and track their sales. All necessary information—sales data and customer profiles—can be connected within one hub, enabling detailed assessment of customers’ attitudes and behaviors that could influence how they respond to different marketing strategies or promotions.
With this insight at hand, firms can optimize their efforts in terms of both product offerings and marketing campaigns according to what could be most appealing to respective consumers for higher conversion rates and successful sales outcomes.
Leveraging the historical sales data stored in their CRM, businesses can utilize past sales patterns and trends to inform future projections for sales.
Knowing the impact of recurring seasonality, buying cycles, or external factors on historical success provides actionable insights which lead to optimized marketing strategies and greater revenue potential.
Companies can plan around active periods, identify growth opportunities in new segments, and preemptively recognize when existing market share is decreasing.
Altogether this helps businesses redirect operations accordingly so that they may most effectively spend buyers' resources and maximize their overall accuracy with forecasting abilities.
CRM systems can help companies to identify leads and potential sales opportunities with better accuracy in prediction.
The evaluation of customer data such as interactions, buying behaviors, and engagement insights across channels contribute to CRM's ability to determine more prospects with higher conversion and repeat purchase rate chances.
This allows sales teams to focus their resources on those expected to have the highest worthiness instead, of optimizing projected incomes along with conversion rates.
Using a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system for sales forecasting offers a significant benefit, as it simplifies data sharing among team members.
If done manually, exchanging of spreadsheets or reports usually caused control problems, and discrepancies in the figures and had no easy way to anticipate further developments.
With CRM, the transport of information is centralized and obtaining made accessible to those who were permitted, while stimulating teamwork and ensuring everybody receives only updated selections of sales values.
CRM systems provide valuable real-time visibility of sales progress, providing teams with an invaluable resource to manage and monitor their performance, as well as adjust accordingly in a timely fashion.
Basically, this means sales representatives can log their activities--such as updates on opportunities and tracking the progress of leads within the system--and instantly share the results with managers and other staff members from different departments.
This data creates further unrestricted transparency of vital components such as customer journey analytics and revenue tracking for management; it is a clear indication that CRM software aids organizations in increasing collaboration efforts too.
As a whole, having increased automation backed by improved accuracy significantly bolsters team productivity with minimal effort involved.
The combination of a CRM system with effective coordination between sales and marketing teams can lead to successful sales forecasting.
Sharing information through the CRM provides insights from both sides that help them align their efforts to reach business goals—marketing departments benefit from impressions about many aspects, such as campaign effectiveness and customer wishes; and sales departments have input on lead/customer quality, preferences, and trends.
The unified nature of this collaboration brings increased accuracy in predicting sales driven by marketing strategies.
SourceThrough the utilization of comprehensive sales estimates administered by the CRM solution, companies can generate educated decisions in terms of resource delegation. This incorporates assigning representatives, forecasting marketing costs, and designing inventory levels - all based upon highly precise sales projections dedicated to intensifying productivity.
The forecasts presented from using a CRM system efficiently allow businesses to assign their personnel to where they are needed most; for example, if hefty expansion was anticipated among a certain division, additional employees could be placed there in order to capitalize on any emerging opportunities.
Being able particular market segments and delegate resources accordingly allows one to circumvent spending needlessly while also increasing efficiency within operations simultaneously.
Businesses leveraging CRM-based sales forecasting benefit from improved accuracy and the ability to identify underperforming sales territories. Instead of relying on manual processes, CRMs generate automated reports that accurately reflect marketing efforts and correctly forecast future sales.
Through visualizations and reports highlighting geographical differences, businesses use this data to refine strategic plans to ensure successful performance in all territories.
Companies can easily identify areas where additional investments or changes must be made; such as adjusting marketing campaigns, enhancing training materials, or redistributing resources.
By proactively addressing deficient sales regions in areas in a timely manner, firms develop efficient strategies to drive better results across the board while also exploring lucrative new avenues for growth.
A CRM system can be leveraged to significantly streamline sales workflows through the automation of repeated activities such as scoring leads, data input, and friendly reminder implementation.
Subsequently, there's much less burden on manually completing tedious manual tasks and much more on contributing tangible value to conversations with potential buyers for increased closure ratios which ultimately results in improved sale estimate accuracy.
Thanks to this increased efficiency from automated features, staff may dedicate nearly all their time into higher-value operational areas used for winning and retaining clients continually.
A CRM system can track comprehensive performance data to show the efficacy of sales strategies. KPIs such as conversion rate, deal size, and sales cycle are all displayed in real-time.
This allows employers and teams to know where improvement is necessary. For instance, if there’s a lack of success concerning one product or service - more investigation behind root causes can then be applied to improve its overall performance rates.
With metrics in hand made readily available this way too, businesses may also well adjust forecasts beforehand according to need.
A streamlined lead tracking process afforded by CRMs gives more historical precision to determine if campaign promotions are a revenue-making tactic. Using this program, entrants procured through promotional blitz courses or processes external can be attributed into a centralized system easily.
All parties involved can qualify these prospects, and define within time acceptances with continuity consistently; resulting in sure prospects becoming mere paying customers directly long term.
Using a CRM system instantly raises sales forecasting accuracy and efficiency. Dynamics of tracking customer info, anticipating goal-attaining trends, and squeezing down lead management all legitimize businesses' outlooks for understanding today’s agile markets when sticking with an efficient platform instead of attempting on-your-own abstract judgment.
Traits including enhanced data organization, automated sales support, and complete visibility equip collectors with gold standards within collective analytic dynamics and resource prioritization ability fostered from advancing systems algorithms ultimately ensuring successful options manifold occurrences by end performance deep dives.
Instagram is undoubtedly one of the most popular social media platforms worldwide and has massive potential for businesses. From Reels to Instagram Shopping, there are numerous tools and tactics that can be used to help amplify your brand presence on this platform. Whether you’re a seasoned marketer or looking to tap into the industry for the first time, mastering the tricks of Instagram can help give you an edge over your competitors as we head toward 2023.
From unlocking all-important insights into how best to use Instagram Live streams to maximize engagement through captions and crafting consistent story content, this guide will cover everything you need to know about taking advantage of its features.
Explore how launching campaigns with Reels could level up your position as influencers explore connecting more with their audience, revolutionize your Instagram shopping journey by optimizing that user experience and use smart analytics to inform your posting strategies.
In this solid foundation-giving overview sprinkled with exclusive tips, you can harness the power of video content, captivating stories, and hacks that will come in handy for brainstorming creative ideas to bring life again into an Instagram account. Discover more of these latest tricks as you immerse yourself in acquiring hands-on strategies here!
Instagram Reels enable you to explore and unleash your creativity. With the music, effects, and easy-to-use editing tools on hand, Reel makers can experiment with a wide variety of formats without ever having to leave the app.
Short videos (15 -30 seconds in length) give you more space to be creative with bold ideas when compared to normal IG posts which are usually only limited to text and image uploads.
Whether it’s duets, split screens, or side-by-sides - take your post-game up a notch and make your content stand out amongst other accounts by finding fun ways to convey meaning in fascinating visual presentations for greater lasting engagement from today’s GenZ audiences!
SourceInstagram Reels are the latest buzzword on Instagram. Think of it as an improved version of TikTok that leverages AI and can be fully integrated with your already existing business or presence.
Reels allow you to tell a unique, creative story 15-30 seconds at a time—providing swift opportunities to increase engagement rates and social rewards. Whether it’s striking visuals or witty remarks, harness the power of viral videos made famous through reels while putting a spin that is true to your brand's voice or tone.
As long as the video is entertaining and captivating enough, there’s no limit on how much traction this type of content can have! Strategizing around memorable image/video combinations allows for more engaging and interactive content that promotes sharing within audiences.
Give this tactic a shot to maximize the return in terms of likes, and followers, and increases engagement with reels!
Organizations should incorporate Instagram Reels in their content strategy to make the most of the creative opportunities offered. Here are a few tips for harnessing this engaging medium:
By utilizing Instagram Reels in their content strategy, brands can access powerful engagement metrics that will help them gain insights into their growth trajectory on the platform.
For businesses, Instagram Shopping is the ultimate tool to unlock the potential of their social media presence. Setting up on Instagram for Shopping couldn't be easier. Businesses first need to have a business account and a Facebook page linked to the account, where they can receive payments through their corresponding Catalog Manager.
After that, users set up product tags by assigning Shop categories like Shirts, Artwork & Prints, or Potted Plants in their Catalog Manager icon within the More tab on Instagram which will fill with an array of data needed from them including pricing info and payment methods used for checkout. Updating user shortcuts also allows customers immediate access to purchasing.
Instagram has become a powerhouse for e-commerce sales due to its expansive user base. Companies can keep track of trends on the platform and identify areas where they can capitalize based on the insights derived from this data.
It is key to ensure your followers are engaged with ads, content, and posts as this will determine whether they visit your online store regularly or not. Furthermore, utilizing strategies such as Instagram Shopping and targeted post work well for reaching different segments of an audience interested in particular product categories as well as for launching products on a larger stage.
Researching consumer behavior specific to Instagram offers greater visibility into what works best in engaging with consumers interested in purchasing items through websites linked to the platform’s profile page.
By pinpointing these decisive elements businesses can tap into the e-commerce boom of Instagram and ultimately promote products in a more meaningful way.
Instagram Shopping brings e-commerce opportunities to the world's biggest photo-sharing platform.
Businesses can set up an Instagram store and use tags to link products with their posts, making it their shoppers easier than ever to buy from them. With features like shoppable stories, personalized product recommendations, targeted ads, and analytics tools, businesses can amplify their reach while collecting crucial purchase data about their customers.
By leveraging insights gained through Instagram's analytic services, business owners will be better equipped to tailor campaigns that coincide with customer interests and behaviors. Ultimately this enables small companies the opportunity to engage consumers on a larger scale while increasing their sales potential in a highly competitive landscape!
Engaging potential customers with FOMO is increasingly common in the digital age, and Instagram Live is a great way to leverage this marketing strategy. Through live video streaming, boost engagement amongst followers by inviting them to participate in games or contests that are exclusive to the “when” they jump on board.
Additionally, host virtual Q&A sessions or impromptu showcases of product lines followed by exclusive discounts catering to viewers present. Use stories leading up to the day of your events when formal registration processes aren’t used.
Let your target market know something special can be expected if only they show up just for that time frame—or simply put a tradeoff offer slated for expiration within 48 hours attached before packaging it all neatly into a fresh post.
Creating a sense of urgency is key on Instagram Live as people value immediacy and timeliness. Being on top of trends and staying consistent with post frequency can help boost engagement.
Encouraging interactive elements such as polls or Q & As not only draw viewers in but will put your audience at the center of an immersive experience. Gamifying lives to award exclusive access to discounts also helps customers take action quickly and drives higher turnout for your events.
By weaving subtle reminders into conversations throughout live streams, like “really perform a simple task before it’s too late” or “there are limited numbers left…” you create incentives that motivate customers to act fast and convert more prospects to loyal fans.
Do you want to maximize your presence on Instagram? Take advantage of Guides, a powerful and versatile feature that connects people with knowledge around topics they care about.
Partnering up with influencers is an excellent way to reach new audiences. Introducing Guides helps provide context and inspiration for your posts by publishing stories, articles, recommendations, and product collections-all available through Instagram's native format.
Whether sharing useful insights or highlighting notable locals within your city’s scene, Guides are the perfect medium to make lasting connections with genuinely interested followers.
The structure of Guide-posts allows creativity while compelling users to explore more content in intuitive ways by simply swiping through slideshows stylized like magazine covers embedded directly in each post description page.
Creating an Instagram Guide is a powerful way to establish yourself as an authority in your niche and connect further with your audience. A well-crafted Guide contains informative, precise advice so potential customers can learn from it and become more invested in you or your product.
Start by introducing the subject of the Guide and then providing specific, step-by-step instructions using sections to break down complicated topics into manageable pieces of information. Visuals are incredibly important when creating Guides – include helpful visuals so readers can get a better image of what you’re suggesting for them to do or accomplish.
Lastly, use clear language that will be easy for even beginners in the topic to understand. If done correctly, Guides have the power to show expertise while delighting potential customers. Don’t be afraid to experiment and get creative in order to engage your target audience.
SourceIn order to maximize the impact of your content while keeping engagement and visibility high, it’s important to analyze and optimize your posting schedule. This means assessing what times of day generate the highest levels of engagement from followers, identifying the topics or media types that do well for your brand, as well as analyzing how often you should post based on both insights and intelligent experimentation. Use quarterly or monthly audits to determine trends in viewership levels according to the weekdays/weekends.
Your audience shifts over time so you must keep track regularly to ensure that they are engaging with new posts at an active cadence—too many posts can yield diminishing returns but too little might make them lose interest.
Thus, balancing quantity versus quality is a continual game throughout your social strategy, but an optimized posting schedule is a solid start for success.
Analyzing insights and analytics is key to creating an effective Instagram posting strategy. Utilize the data to understand which content resonates with your followers and when they're most active on the platform.
Pay special attention to posts that perform well and improve upon them in future publications by experimenting with visuals, story structure, text captions, hashtags, etc., With this information you can fine-tune customized approach that meets your particular needs; tailor-making the profile setup process will save time in crafting inspiring ideas and formulate content plans.
Leveraging insights & analytics is key for elevating your game in the ever-evolving world of Instagram— enabling long-term growth success will follow.
Video content has become increasingly popular on Instagram throughout the years, with its integration into Reels and Stories for easy access and convenient playback. Embracing this trend is a great way to create interactive and engaging experiences through visuals that won’t just steal an audience’s attention, but also make them stick around.
Utilizing powerful video editing platforms such as InShot or Capcut allows you to craft captivating videos in no time at all! Promote your brand message through short instructional clips from ‘how-to’ videos to square previews of your products or hold Q&A sessions with behind-the-gen scenes “watch party” reels.
Create meaningful viewership by stirring up excitement whilst tapping into one of the most powerful and effective online marketing channels.
Visually engaging videos can captivate your Instagram followers and drive unprecedented engagement. To stand out on a heavily saturated platform like Instagram, encoding such attractive visual features into brief micro-videos should be an utmost priority for businesses.
Sharing relatable content increases the appeal and steadier viewership hence allowing you to tell stories or take the users through your experiences – giving them a true taste of what their purchasing moment could be like; this will restore every glance with trustworthiness while maintaining amusing vibes which is naturally more overwhelmingly attention-absorbing than plain texts.
In addition, suitable music parts across an informative video help instill emotions that photos evidently lack and set just the exact brand narration you wanted from the beginning!
SourceWhen it comes to captivating audiences on Instagram, sometimes less is more. A well-crafted caption that strikes the balance between concise and emotive can tell a powerful story in just a few words.
This doesn’t simply mean typing what’s directly happening in the photo - use telling details to share insight into how you or whoever else is in your photo was feeling at that exact moment.
Why not create curiosity and humanize stories by conveying personal moments or with humor? Creative visuals plus mental images are highly engaging and evoke empathy, drawing eyes toward your post and acting as an extension of your brand messaging. Keep captions short yet impactful for pleasing results!
In order to strengthen the connection with your followers, you should engage and connect with them by crafting captivating stories through Instagram captions. Think beyond a "hashtag" momentum - telling viewers the story behind your posts helps evoke an emotional reaction that draws both loyalty and engagement truly worthwhile.
Try writing short copy in paragraphs about why you chose a particular photo or color palette for example. Make sure the message resonates well with audiences’ needs and positively talkers up your brand voice; adding meaning displays transparency which gets customers along on this journey of understanding rather than dispelling stanchly of thoughtless abandonment.
Furthermore, engaging new minds and sparking sweet memories is possible when words are carefully chosen as it says “words conjure tongues–be wise in intention”. Unique captions, unique experiences also; tagging supporters should not be exclusive to teams and family and can trigger words of appreciation just as satisfactory.
The introduction of Instagram Reels, Live streaming, Guides, Shopping opportunities, and video content has made mastering Instagram a competitive sport. It’s important to stay up-to-date with the latest tricks and hacks on this evolving platform.
Fully incorporating these advancements and updates into your content strategy doesn’t need to be a daunting endeavor – just set aside some time for research and creative exploration.
Start by leveraging the power that Instagram Reels have to offer in terms of creativity, engagement, and boosting reach using features such as shopping services and live videos based on a structured posting plan complete with insights and analytics – elevating above all else, adding captions with intrigue will tell an impactful story: one filled with compelling emotions that touch readers will go beyond the costless like.
With purposeful action and diligent effort, these Instagram hacks of 2023 will help take your business to a whole new level – elevating your engagement, staying ahead in the trends corridor, and enjoying newfound success all as you mold the future within this prized platform.
Ever since ChatGPT launched, marketers have been using it to scale their content creation.
For SEO in particular, AI-generated content seems like an excellent way to speed up the content marketing process and significantly cut costs. Unlike the black hat article spinners of the past, ChatGPT (and similar tools like Jasper and Google Bard) produce intelligent, original content that reads as if it were written by a human. To the untrained eye, it’s hard to tell the difference.
So, why would you want to detect content created by artificial intelligence? If the output reads well, what’s the problem?
The issue boils down to quality. AI-generated content might read well, but it lacks depth and nuance. It can rank well in the search engines, but it’s not likely to provide adequate value for a visitor unless the topic is something extremely basic, like instructions for removing a carpet stain or directions to a business. Unfortunately, if you publish content made just for search engines, it will be considered spam by Google.
You may have heard that Google considers all automatically generated content to be spam. This was their position at one time.
In an Office Hours video from April 1, 2022, John Mueller clarified Google’s official position on automatically generated content, and stated, "If you're using machine learning tools to kind of generate your content it’s essentially the same as if you’re just shuffling words around… for us it's still automatically generated content and that means for us it's still against the webmaster guidelines, so we would consider that to be spam.
"Google’s official stance has since changed. On February 8, 2023, Google announced that AI-generated content is not against their guidelines unless it’s created to manipulate search rankings. Useful content created by automation is perfectly acceptable.
Despite the well-written nature of generated content, it can be detected easily.
AI-content-generating algorithms are basically a glorified form of predictive text, where the system knows the words most likely to come after one another. To detect AI, this process is reverse-engineered, where the system predicts the most likely word to come before a certain word.
Even though AI content is allowed, you might want to avoid publishing it to your website. If you hire writers to create content for you, and you’re not sure if they’re using an AI tool, here’s how to detect it.
One of the best AI content detectors is GPT-2 Output Detector. It’s free and you don’t need to register for an account. This particular tool is highly accurate and allows you to paste in more copy than other tools.
This tool uses a scoring system of real/fake, so the higher your content scores as real, the more likely it was written by a human. This tool doesn’t seem to have a character limit, but the more content you paste, the longer it takes to analyze.
Another great tool to use is GPT-Writer. Although some people have said it isn’t as accurate as other tools, it depends on the subject. For some content, this tool scores human-written samples as 100% human-generated content, while other tools score the same content at 98% human-generated.GPT-Writer limits samples to 1500 characters, but that should be enough to get the information you need. If you aren’t sure, run multiple samples.
AI-Detector – Content at Scale is another highly accurate tool and has a 2500 character limit, which is more than enough to get a decent analysis.
There are a few tools that don’t make the cut for reliability, but you may find them useful. The first one is AI Detector Pro (the free version).
Your input is limited to 200 characters, which may not tell you much. However, the paid options might be more beneficial. Even so, with accurate free tools like GPT-2 Output Detector, there’s really no reason to pay for a tool unless you need the extras, like reporting.
Originality AI is a plagiarism and AI detector, so you get the best of both worlds with this tool. However, some people have said it was really easy to alter a little text to bypass the detections and get a human score.
Often, when people use AI tools to generate content, they keep the headings intact or alter them by a word or two. You can reverse engineer an article by plugging one heading at a time into some AI tools to see what content is generated. If the content was written using the same AI tool you’re using, each heading will likely generate text that can also be found in the body of the article you’re investigating.
For example, say the article you want to verify contains the heading, “Why is AI content bad?” If you type this heading into Google Bard, you’ll get several bullet points in response. If the content of those bullet points also appears in the article either word-for-word or very similarly, you can be fairly certain it was written using AI.
You can also plug in full paragraphs from the article in question. If the AI tool returns content that is also found in the article, it is more than likely AI-generated.
Tools are great for detecting AI-generated content, but you can also use manual methods. Here are some things to look for:
Although you don’t need to worry about AI-generated content hurting your search rankings simply for being AI, there are several reasons to avoid it:
There are two main ways to avoid using AI content: to spin scraped content and to fill space on your website.
Scraped content is spam and spinning scraped content is plagiarism. Google has algorithms that can detect scraped content that has been altered by an AI tool. Publishing scraped content has always been considered spam, and using ChatGPT or any other tool to alter it is still considered plagiarism. In other words, don’t steal other people’s content and use AI to rearrange it to make it look original because Google will know.
Another use case to avoid is filling space. If you’re generating long articles to populate your blog or other website pages just to fill it out, you’re probably not providing value to visitors.
Back in December 2022, Google announced a Helpful Content system update that promised to detect and suppress content made for search engines and promote websites designed for humans.
Many people noticed a drastic drop in rankings after this update, even sites with high-quality human-created content. It’s too risky to use AI tools to populate your website for the sake of filling space. You’ll waste your time, money, and you probably won’t rank.
Poor-quality content that doesn’t provide value isn’t going to rank whether it was created by a human or ChatGPT. Google can tell the difference between AI-generated content created to manipulate search rankings and content that exists to provide value to web visitors. If you choose to use AI tools like Jasper, ChatGPT, or Google Bard, be responsible.
There’s nothing wrong with AI-generated content as long as it is helpful and provides value to your visitors. As long as you follow Google’s E-E-A-T Guidelines (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness), you can rank AI content in the search results just like any other page.
With the emergence of advanced digital communication channels, customers now have more direct access to great services and expect a superior experience than ever before. Today's companies have adopted a whole new set of tools such as social media platforms and messaging applications to meet their customers' expectations.
One increasingly popular method is text message-based communication which boasts an array of instantaneous and convenient customer interactions unprecedented by any other prior method.
This article focuses on the role of text messaging in elevating customer experience through increased participation from both businesses and customers alike, invaluable personalization options, faster resolution of customer issues, enhanced loyalty towards brand names, along with improved efficiency for enterprises.
In today’s world, companies expect to provide a high-level of customer service that exceeds the customers' expectations. As technology has developed over time, traditional methods of customer communication have evolved alongside these advances. These traditional methods include an array of options such as phone calls, emails, or in-person interactions.
Depending upon the situation and needs, these can be great ways for businesses to interact with their customers and resolve issues quickly. Furthermore, in comparison to modern digitally-savvy alternatives such as text messaging or social media conversations, their personal touch natures give users ample room for meaningful understanding by both parties.
Therefore employers need to take into account different styles and preferences when finding the perfect balance between technological developments in interaction systems coupled with more personal approaches
The ever-changing technology landscape has transformed the way businesses communicate with customers. Initially, traditional methods such as phone calls and emails were used for customer communication; now digital channels including social media and messaging apps have risen in prominence.
One of the most popular ways that companies are connecting with their customers is through text messaging - immediate, secure, low cost, and accessible. Text messages provide a more personal touch to customer interactions than other plans of communication due to their easy customization options allowing businesses to meet customer expectations with convenience and efficiency.T
ext messages are also impactful as it decreases response times significantly improving customer satisfaction and loyalty helping create trusting relationships built around dependability.
Text messaging offers customers instant and convenient communication with businesses. It can enable customer requests to be fulfilled in near real-time with messages, replies, follow-ups, and notifications all exchanged quickly. This substantially cuts down the wait time for alerting customers of their status or gathering feedback from them.
Unlike traditional channels like phone calls which require synchronous participation from both parties, text messages permit asymmetric conversations since one side may not necessarily respond right away while still taking advantage of the convenience factor associated with texting.
Customers are more likely than ever before to choose it as an easy method of getting answers and resolving any issues instantly due to its simple setup process and instantaneous delivery under normal circumstances.
Text messaging has opened up countless opportunities to increase the accessibility and reachability of businesses in customer communication. Business texting services have enabled customers to contact entrepreneurs virtually anytime, from anywhere.
This one-touch process eliminates waiting on long call queues and puts customers in direct contact with texting firms that can meet their needs right away - whether it’s being drafted for sales inquiries or receiving questions about a product or service.
Businesses can leverage text messages both proactively and reactively, tasking agents with responding quickly to customers’ questions while also taking maneuvers towards giving advice or means by which submitting offers they can take advantage of.
Text messages enable organizations to provide prompt responses that build strong relationships between them and their customers—leading to increased engagement rates and higher customer satisfaction.
Text messaging provides businesses with a host of personalization and customization options. Through segmenting customers and splitting messages, businesses can send more targeted content to the right recipients based on their individual interests or needs.
Businesses can also integrate automated questions in text message conversations in order to gauge customers’ experiences, preferences, response times, or follow-up messages as needed. In addition, businesses may utilize AI to recognize unique customer needs through a variety of contextual cues extracted from the conversation itself.
All of these features enable businesses to tailor their communications with each client using hyper-personalized content relying on indirect dialogue – something that was rarely if ever possible until recently.
Text messaging has proven to be an effective customer communication channel, offering a range of benefits for customer service organizations. One such benefit is the positive impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Customers appreciate how quickly and easily they can reach out via text messages, as received responses typically lag within minutes. As customers get accustomed to these immediate interactions, they come back looking for more cozy digital relationships from companies.
Consequently, with its concise yet personal messengers aligned towards quick resolutions for customers’ queries and complaints companies could eventually build up loyalty over time resulting in increased transaction volume while locked customer churn reduces bringing spiraling metrics around the table!
SourceObtaining customer consent for text messaging is a critical part of ensuring a great customer experience in this medium.
Customers should be made aware of the communication method and asked to voluntarily opt-in to SMS messaging. Every message should provide an opportunity for customers to unsubscribe from receiving further communication and that element should appear prominently within each message’s body.
Organizations are legally obligated to acquire express consent from customers prior to sending promotional messages via text, so companies must invest time in setting up systems that help ensure people agree legitimately and at their own will to receive them.
Doing so not only demonstrates respect for the potential customer base but likely also limits any legal liabilities that may arise from choosing an automated communication system as well.
In order for businesses to leverage the full potential of text messaging in customer experience, it is essential that secure and reliable messaging platforms are implemented. This means that communication between customers and business owners must remain both protected and private at all times.
In addition, a stable platform is needed to ensure messages receive prompt delivery as well as interactive elements like push notifications, image recognition system integration, two-way communication capability and advanced analytics tools.
Businesses should place an emphasis on sharing compelling content with customers throughout their respective journeys to differentiate themselves from plenty of alternative solutions currently available on the market.
Crafting effective, concise, and engaging text messages should be a priority in customer experience via text messaging. Messages need to be polite yet net to the point. Clarity is essential - metrics like read rate can help assess effectiveness.
Messaging interactivity could take effect, leading to improved open rates; thereby personalizing conversations with the customers themselves, further leading to huge business gains.
By sending personalized and tailored gifts and experiences aligned with their interests, customers can form emotional bonding limits thus enabling sway of motivation towards positive outcomes for businesses as well.
Utilizing automation and AI for efficient text message handling is a key best practice in improving customer experience through texting.
Automating tasks, such as relevant follow-ups via text messages or personalization offers, can free up customer service agents’ workloads while also delighting customers with fully personalized service. AI-driven tools can be used to track customer preferences and detect sentiment from conversation data which supports a tailored response to individuals.
By using machine learning algorithms, chatbots can understand complex natural language processing queries making users feel connected better. Automation and AI help companies handle high volumes of texts faster with improved accuracy and personalization which both leads to higher efficiency effectiveness and increased customer satisfaction levels throughout the user journey.
SourceCreating an effective customer experience with text messaging means striking a balance between automation and personalization. Automation can streamline processes and standardize communication, but provide few opportunities for connection and engagement with customers.
By balancing automated responses with personalized messages from the customer service team, companies can convey more of a human touch in their conversations while reducing the labor time required for responding to common questions or inquiries.
To successfully balance these elements, companies might help identify commonly requested services or items to open texts that impart an immediate “human” voice but direct user queries towards conversational AI solutions if further detailed information is requested.
Additionally, since almost all activities including text messages exchanged are tracked it could help contact centers quickly know which interactions passed over chatbots or with fuller human appeal and alter assistant automation to materialize a balanced response profile.
Ensuring timely responses and resolution of customer queries are key when utilizing text messaging for customer experience. It is important that organizations address customer inquiries as soon as possible since delayed response times can harm a business’s reputation and lead to losses.
To increase responsiveness, businesses should use dedicated ‘support lines’ for incoming texts and set up an escalation process for unresolved issues. If the backlog is high, applicants should have easy ways to reschedule conversations or book appointments via SMS itself at alternate dates.
Businesses must also use automated bots within chats when appropriate in order to more quickly answer frequently asked FAQs from customers so consumers get immediate feedback on generic queries or quick solutions even when no representative is online.
Monitoring and analyzing customer feedback should be an integral part of any company’s text messaging platform.
Doing so allows businesses to gain insightful information on their requirements, as well as measure the effectiveness of current communication strategies. It also enables companies to identify potential weaknesses or areas for improvement such as in response times, delivery rate, use of automation et cetera.
This can help ensure customers are satisfied and that issues are addressed quickly and accurately. Because customer feedback is such a powerful tool, it is advisable to ask fewer questions through more complex messaging rather than break down surveys into multiple messages which will waste time for customers.
Companies should continually update their tools and technologies to avail both qualitative and quantitative feedback metrics, collecting inquiries from different sources for a broader view.
With thorough monitoring and analysis over time, companies can more knowledgeably improve customer experience through text messaging while continuing growth in an ever-evolving competitive environment.
The widespread popularity of text messaging as a primary mode of communication has posed some important questions about potential barriers to adopting it in customer experience.
Most notably, certain demographics may remain excluded from using this technology due to language and literacy challenges, economic constraints, or lack of technical access such as cell phones.
Additionally, businesses should be mindful of the appropriateness and effectiveness of channels for different types of communications - they may not be best suited for confidential conversations or sensitive topics.
It is also important for companies to actually understand when to leverage these modern means Customers may become rapidly overwhelmed by receiving massive volumes of text messages.
Text messaging can be particularly sensitive when it comes to protecting customer data. Companies must ensure that their chosen messaging platforms and solutions are secure, implement strict technical protocols for data encryption, and limit a user’s access to protected data depending on their role and responsibilities.
Additionally, businesses should make sure adequate permissions settings exist for all users of the platform or application, that individuals are assigned unique usernames/logins with appropriate passwords and security questions in place, and establish clear policies around message access history.
Lastly, customers need to be made aware of privacy measures present by companies which involve creating documentation on what personal information is collected via text messaging communications and how it is safeguarded by the business.
When it comes to managing and controlling message volume and customer expectations in text-based customer interactions, businesses should focus on producing quality over quantity of messages. Setting up automated reply features with predefined templates can help streamline response times whenever possible.
But at the same time, allowing for some level of customizability or personalization by staff can free up resources that would otherwise be spent responding to individual customers’ queries. Additionally, setting clear expectations upfront helps set realistic standards of communication for users such as message delivery frequency and timespan for expected replies.
Utilizing AI insights coupled with predictive analytics to adequately prepare company messaging strategies can effectively reduce overloads as well as ensure a satisfactory ongoing experience for customers.
The use of text messaging for customer experience is continuing to evolve. Emerging technologies are making text messages even more engaging, efficient, and effective.
Businesses can take advantage of advanced features such as rich conversations with images and animated content, voicemail integration, scheduled responses, and lead segmentation.
Additionally, AI-powered automation can improve communication timeframes by providing customers with quick answers to their questions. By leveraging these often overlooked solutions companies can not only boost customer satisfaction but also provide a unique customer engagement platform that will stand out from other organizations in its field.
Furthering the application of tech-savviness within communication realms will drive Business success in Customer experience in many successful ways.
In conclusion, this article examined the growing role of text messaging in customer experience. It revealed its numerous advantages over traditional business communication channels and explored various best practices to maximize the potential benefit that businesses can derive from text messaging associated with enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty while also improving efficiency and productivity within a company.
Today’s businesses must embrace SMS communication as it has become increasingly important for enhanced customer experience in order to stay competitive and successful.
The changes brought by SMS technology present an exciting opportunity but also pose some difficulties which require careful thought and strategic planning ahead to reap its many benefits fully.
Creating compelling content that resonates with your target audience is essential to any business's success. It brings immense benefits from building relationships, promoting brands, marketing products and services, to improving return on investment (ROI).
In this outline, we will trace through the complete process of creating attention grabbing and highly engaging content for reaching intended viewers—starting from understanding the expectations of assigned groups all the way to analyzing practice's impact on final results.
Chances you have manufactured something astounding are turning every intention enclosed here into successful work carefully tailored to your target viewers.
Defining your target audience is a vital first step in content creation. Start creating detailed buyer personas to help you better understand user segmentation, by gender, age, and other demographics. Collect as much information as possible by reviewing recent sales data or surveying your active customers directly for customer insights.
Analyzing your audience's demographics, interests, and behaviors is vitally important in crafting compelling content that will resonate with readers. To do this effectively you need to gain an understanding of who will be consuming the content you create—their options, hobbies, needs etc.
Analyzing these data points gives a strong insight into preferences guiding what successful resonating content looks like! Utilize analysis methods such as social media research or consumer surveys to develop more seeking population clusters within your overall target audience sphere for clearer market segmentation.
Focusing resources to further tailor and optimize messaging will help ensure maximum engagement from target audiences.
Creating buyer personas is an important step in understanding your target audience and formulating a content creation plan. By creating a buyer persona, you can more easily visualize those whom you’re aiming to reach. Drafting out well-defined personas makes easier the task of finding customers to which high-converting personalized initiatives should be targeted.
Identifying trending topics within your industry can greatly help to create engaging content that resonates with your target audience. Utilizing various keyword research tools as well as analytics such as Google Trends and competitor watch apps are all beneficial in gaining insight into topics related to your products or services which would interest readers.
Consulting closely with incoming inquiries and customer feedback will help shape emerging trends and continuously update the market intelligence of online conversations around products or services oriented areas.
SourceUtilizing keyword research tools is an important part of researching relevant topics for your content strategy. Keyword research will help you to understand the specific words/phrases that resonate with your target audience's demographics, interests, and behaviors. This insight into their search queries can be used to propel your content plan by creating optimized topic sets which stand to attract maximum attention from searchers in the search engine results page (SERP). Tracking key terms and carefully digesting current trends related to major topics can go a long way in delivering content that appeals to your audience.
Analyzing your competitors' content strategies can give insights into the most successful types of content and topics to engage your target audience.
Conducting an audit allows you to determine the areas where you need to focus content writing efforts in order to differentiate yourself from other players in the industry.
Recognize aspects such as their frequency, style, distribution channel and level of engagement with followers, and use such knowledge to create a unique yet useful value proposition for potential customers.
The importance of crafting attention-grabbing headlines cannot be overstated. Essentially functioning as an advertiser for an average reader, it must incite enough interest to prompt them to partake and read whatever they’re met with on the other side. An effective headline puts important information front and center and compels readers to click through.
Creating powerful headlines presents consequent opportunities provided the job is done correctly beyond elevating figures of engagement individuals have along their communications with prospective customers within businesses everywhere save traditional offline locations.
When writing headlines that capture your audience's attention, consider working on pertinent numbers and statistics. Integrating figures allows readers to tangibly comprehend a particular concept or idea which provides a notable impact mindset into taking ultimate action! Additionally, leveraging any research- paper cite creates validation and structured recommendations essential to calibrate consumer trust.
SourceVisuals and multimedia elements help put context behind your writing, keeping your audience engaged while also selling the benefits of a message or prompting action. High-quality graphics or videos have been shown to boost engagement significantly by breaking up text-based content (even user generated) and appealing visually to viewers.
Moreover, diagrams provide visual depth into otherwise abstract concepts when used throughout an article or as infographics at the end for highlighting key points. Utilizing visuals wherever possible captures our mental —when done correctly— making it well worth the investment to have professionals handle your multimedia needs.
Creating content that resonates with your target audience successfully involves understanding and incorporating high-quality visuals and multimedia elements.
Images, illustrations, photographs, videos — all should be optimized by on-brand tones in color palette and messaging. Videos also contribute immensely to consumer engagement to leverage visual components effectively: evoking users' emotion with voiceovers or making audio enrich your brand message that cannot be conveyed some other way are essential over presentations of text-dependent statements alone. Professional graphic designers could go far toward the creation of narrations and display meaningful humanized visuals to capture attention.
Encouraging feedback and engagement from your target audience is an effective way to create interactive, authentic content that amplifies the reach of your message. Inviting listeners or readers to express their opinions strengthens trust between you and potential customers while generating interesting discussions on hot topics in the market.
Allowing online comments encourages debate between those with a similar perspective and leads to more informed conversations about brand values for loyal followers. Be open to constructive criticism in order to maintain credibility since well-thought-out suggestions may unlock ideas you have not yet considered.
Responding promptly to feedback from your target audience engages a two-way dialogue that further helps cultivate relationships between brands and customers. Going beyond simple replies, dive into deeper conversations by being helpful, honest, and true to your brand's identity in every communication you have with customers.
Utilize available support channels (e.g., emails, social media DMs) for a quick response either publicly or privately as appropriate -- such engagement then indicates to customers the importance of their input to help create positive changes and solve their needs factors that can form positive customer expectations.
Utilizing audience feedback is a key component of crafting effective content for your target audience. By extracting real-time extensive feedback through surveys and polls, you can gain automated opinion moments for improvements to enhance projects – be it policies, websites, or services.
Reviews like these generally become helpful insights that carry immense value as far as increasing digital presence on relevant platforms goes in the development of relationship establishment.
Utilizing analytics tools to measure content performance is key to evaluating the success of any strategy. Key metrics such as page views, engagements, and conversions are tracked and analyzed in order to measure how effective the content was in reaching its target audience.
Tools like Google Analytics provide powerful insights into the ways audiences engage with content which can be used to inform outbound campaigns. Knowing detailed metrics allows marketers to better fine-tune campaign plans for more efficient and productive strategies down the line.
Tracking key metrics such as page views, engagement rate, and conversions is essential in refining and improving content performance.
Utilize advanced analytics tools to gain useful insights on user behavior, content virality, commonly used words, and other features that can play an important role in composing successful—and stimulating—content for your target audiences.
Measure how well each piece of content resonates with them according to factors like audience location or device used to view the piece.
Creating resonating content that helps to connect with and engage your target audiences can be a daunting process. However, the benefits are equally as rewarding - both in terms of brand awareness and increasing conversions.
By putting ample time into understanding your target audience, researching relevant topics, crafting compelling headlines, developing storytelling narratives around your topic matter, implementing visual and multimedia elements judiciously, and encouraging feedback from readers along with promotion strategies – your content creation efforts will pay off through improved website traffic and future followership.
The data-driven sales approach is a modern approach to sales usually powered by technology and data. Leveraging big data, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML) tools today, digital businesses are able to focus their resources on more targeted opportunities with higher returns.
The advantages of such strategies span from improved capability in decision-making processes expanded customer understanding, enhanced sales effectiveness, and higher return on investment for companies.
By integrating the thoughtfulness of human agents with powerful technologies capturing important insights, innovative businesses have begun threatening traditional approaches that once reigned in the market
.Even though approaches like this may seem at times intimidating due to its fast-paced pace ever-changing environment, having a lack of proper adaptation ability can result in lags behind increased competitive enterprises.
We will be examining the different advantages and challenges that come with adopting a data-driven sales approach, thoroughly discuss the improved efficiencies seen in this area of operation, and provide initiatives to follow through on such implementation.
Therefore, it can be argued that an optimal data-driven sales tactic is key for success today; by highlighting its potential impact on business performance including lead generation, conversion rates, and customer communications quality together with cost savings.
SourceAdopting a data-driven sales approach provides businesses with robust insights that can be used to inform decision-making and shape their marketing campaigns.
With real-time access to accurate customer data and analytics, employers can stay closely aligned with what the marketplace wants, look for trends in purchase behavior, target specific leads more effectively, and eliminate the guesswork normally associated with age-old methods.
This helps facilitate informed decision making on-the-fly which enhances business strategy by identifying potential paths to increase profitability or disrupt the market before fixed strategies become obsolete. Improved decisional visibility offers unprecedented agility when dealing with competing deadlines and even completely unanticipated market surprises.
SourceData-driven sales approaches enable businesses to increase their understanding of customer behavior and preferences. Accurate customer data derived from the analysis can be used to segment customers and optimize campaigns for improved engagement.
Customer profiles with detailed insights can equip marketers with further intel on how best to market products and services, as well as provide personalized responses through the meticulous study of customers’ behavior in terms of purchases, browsing history, interactions, etc.
Through customer segmentation, businessmen analyze gathered information to rethink buying journeys that boost results like conversions. A more solid understanding acquired by data-driven marketing allows companies to offer product bundles tailored carefully to complementary services clients want or need most often and will value highly.
In that way, it leads businesses to present the most customer-oriented experience possible and enables eliminating guesswork in people targeting and nurturing along their journey with the brand. The result is satisfied customers who engage more efficiently with companies according to their stated needs, leading to better overall ROI per individual buy.
SourceSales performance optimization is a key advantage of using data-driven sales approaches. The use of accurate, real-time data enables targeted decisions and actions to be taken for optimal outcomes. Data can be analyzed to discover trends and patterns to assist in creating effective customer segmentation.
This insight helps sales teams engage with customers more effectively by providing tailored services that are better suited to their needs, leading to improved client satisfaction.
Predicting the most valuable leads as well as future opportunities boosts company revenue potential, while optimizing existing processes often results in increased sales efficiency saving time and relevant resources.
With enhanced predictive analytics for sales forecasting providing a competitive edge all parties involved will profit from this approach‘s implementation securely on track toward a successful end goal attainment.
Improved efficiency and productivity are one of the major advantages achieved with a data-driven sales approach. Using accurate and real-time data, businesses can efficiently streamline their sales processes, eliminate guesswork and manual labor, reduce errors, save time and resources, and move quickly towards greater ROI and efficiency goals.
Automation further helps by automating routine tasks so that they take less time, are less prone to human error, and are more cost-effective in terms of resources.
This helps create better customer experiences as customers' needs are met faster without any need for manual effort which in turn improves sales conversions as well as customer satisfaction and loyalty scores. Overall these efficiencies play an important role in driving peak performance top-line growth over the long term.
SourceData-driven insights can serve as a powerful competitive differentiator when used effectively. By leveraging accurate insights generated from data analysis, businesses have the potential to gain a valuable edge over their competitors.
Teams can identify trends in customer behavior and anticipate market changes quickly. This information allows them to adjust strategies and react to external factors with agility before their rivals even recognize the opportunity.
Data-driven approaches also lend themselves nicely to identifying unexplored revenue sources or untapped markets, bringing fresh value that rivals cannot replicate easily. Ultimately, data-driven solutions can be an invaluable asset for gaining a real competitive advantage within any sector or industry.
SourceAdopting a data-driven sales approach offers numerous benefits, including increased revenue and ROI.
Businesses can use it to identify high-value leads and optimize their strategic practices to maximize returns on investments. Data-driven insights help companies segment customers and tailor their marketing efforts to specific target groups. Additionally, businesses benefit from improved forecasting that enables them to create sales strategies that yield maximum profits.
Overall, with accurate customer and product analytics along with automation of routine tasks, firms are able to improve lead generation while increasing conversion rates—ultimately generating higher revenues in the process.
SourceThese days, businesses are collecting data from diverse sources and platforms. As such, it’s more important than ever to ensure that this data is of high quality and reliability, as bad or greasy data can lead not only to increased costs in trying to capture accurate information but unreliable analyzed trends.
Companies need to identify key internal dashboard metrics as well as external indicators for an effective operations structure. Cross-checks should also be performed regularly against historically validated statures sectioned off into demographic areas through empirical modeling adaptation measures.
Additionally, a detailed review of the business software must take place routinely in order to mitigate any potential mal technics that could possibly sabotage the vigilance margin through deploying surveillance authorities over notable technical anomalies discernible by sufficient proficient remediation speed only partaken utilized and united through universal protocols.
By doing so, companies small and large can ensure that as more data is collected it will be of the highest quality and accuracy.
These days, businesses are collecting data from diverse sources and platforms. As such, it’s more important than ever to ensure that this data is of high quality and reliability, as bad or greasy data can lead not only to increased costs in trying to capture accurate information but unreliable analyzed trends.
Companies need to identify key internal dashboard metrics as well as external indicators for an effective operations structure. Cross-checks should also be performed regularly against historically validated statures sectioned off into demographic areas through empirical modeling adaptation measures.
Additionally, a detailed review of the business software must take place routinely in order to mitigate any potential maltechnics that could possibly sabotage the vigilance margin through deploying surveillance authorities over notable technical anomalies discernible by sufficient proficient remediation speed only partaken utilized and united through universal protocols. By doing so, companies small and large can ensure that as more
The handling of private customer information and the need for secure data protection are prominent concerns when proposing a data-driven sales approach. Accurate personal data—such as financial transactions, addresses, email IDs, and birthdates—must be highly secured from unauthorized access to provide customers with privacy and due trust.
Having safeguards in place during storage and transmission is highly recommended when dealing with sensitive challenges like cybersecurity threats, identity theft, or personal data breaches.
Businesses must adopt strong encryption protocols meant to strongly discourage malicious or potentially damaging activities found within their database networks. Companies likely also should invest adequate resources into early detection of possible risks that endanger stored customer data profiles as tackling them back may come out tedious later on.
Integration of data sources and systems is an important challenge to consider when starting a data-driven sales approach.
Although obtaining analytics can enable companies to make faster, smarter decisions, getting these resources into one comprehensive platform won’t be instantaneous — it takes time and focus.
All systems created in different platforms must be coordinated together and both workers and managers shaped with up-to-date skill sets. The architecture might range from clean IT integration processes sharing small encapsulated chunks of information that rely on mature architectures.
Ongoing training and skill development is essential when implementing a data-driven sales approach. In order for businesses to optimize data-driven methodology, individuals need to understand the technical skills necessary to analyze complex data sets and to interpret those findings into actionable strategies that produce effective outcomes.
This is one area where outsourcing via value added resellers (VARs) can be beneficial for scaling your systems.
Employees must also possess a keen understanding of all relevant software applications as well are appropriate methods for tactically applying distribution techniques.
Ensuring professional development through ongoing education will help ensure that all personnel remain abreast of changes in technology regardless of their level within the organization.
Data-driven sales approaches can provide a clear competitive advantage. By collecting and analyzing customer data, businesses can personalize their messages and offerings to increase customer satisfaction, loyalty, and ROI.
Additionally, these approaches offer tremendous benefits from improved decision-making to optimization of sales performance for businesses that view data as an asset.
In order to capture the most value with this many companies need to address the important data challenges such as quality control, privacy issues, and integration of systems while staying apprised of industry regulations and trends.
Overall, investing in a comprehensive data-driven approach will help companies stay ahead of emerging market conditions and ensure sustainable growth across new channels with maximum profitability.
Interactive content is indeed an increasingly important part of marketing strategies in the digital world. As modern consumers become acclimated to digital content on their devices, they are seeking methods of engagement and new visually appealing experiences.
Actually, taking advantage of this industry shift at a high level gives brands a competitive edge and a greater possibility for success. Although there are obvious benefits associated with using interactive content in campaigns, many marketers also face challenges when it comes to developing high-quality implementations due to difficulties like usability issues or executing desired designs even with exhaustive user testing.
This article explores effective strategies for overcoming these challenges while creating amazing interactive experiences within marketing campaigns to realize maximum potential.
Interactive content is a method of creating engaging experiences that allow users to interact beyond passive consumption.
Examples can range from building calculator apps that encourage questioning, fostering educational transformations through personalized assessments, sharing polling surveys for determining the appeal of certain services and ideas, and inviting engagement into fun quizzes or puzzles, among many others.
On a larger scale, they supplement engaging information journeys tailored solely towards choice customer imprinting as you learn more about their wants over definitive requirement choices walls evolving accordingly.
Interactive content is a great way to capture and engage the attention of customers. The most common benefits include enhanced user experience, improved customer engagement, and added brand exposure.
Interactive content gives users novel ways to control how populates information for them allowing them to shape their brand perception. Introducing an interactive element in marketing such as feeds, games quiz allows the marketers' story to resonate easier with hard-to-reach audiences such as Gen Z and Millennials.
When developing interactive content, mobile/cross-platform compatibility is one of the biggest technical challenges for marketers.
The software and code used to create an experience may need slight or even substantial changes made across different devices and platforms. Being aware of it ensures smooth design compatibility.
The necessary redirects will be invisible to the user while ensuring an optimized performance.
Integration with existing systems and technologies is one of the technical challenges faced when implementing interactive content for marketing. Sites must be built or modified to accommodate the unique interactions required by the content.
Additionally, most businesses operate in an environment that involves multiple complex services and systems due to their increasing reliance on technology for almost all business processes thus integrating a new interactive piece into the existing infrastructure can provide difficulties because of its interactivity component.
One of the main challenges in using interactive content (especially if it's user generated content) for a marketing campaign is securing adequate resources and technical expertise.
Limited resources often put financial constraints on technology use, while insufficient skills for coding can leave advancement and implementation at a standstill.
Technical knowledge must go beyond coding of websites or other digital platforms into calculations information control infrastructure and data communication between related elements of the generally complicated network attempting interactive experience.
When it comes to designing interactive content, creating visually appealing and effective experiences is key. It requires some creative thinking to actively engage users when providing them with information. Content should appeal to an agile audience, balanced with the user’s experience and marketing goals in mind using intuitive designs that are easy for visitors of all backgrounds to understand meaningfully.
Additionally, brand designs help create recognition of posted media, and ensure the design aligns the theme with stories from functional details as far as metaphors for interactions are concerned with interface markings that on some middle respond prompts to action.
Designing interactive content is not always an easy task. One of the key challenges faced is balancing user experience with marketing goals. Marketers must make sure that content marketing meets their objectives, without losing focus on creating a great user experience.
Including too much branding can take away from user interaction and engagement while avoiding promotional messaging altogether could have unfavorable performance results.
This requires careful guiding and feedback to maintain an effective balance between both user experience and thematically appropriate commercial elements.
Design challenges result from crafting great UI/UX while also planning effectively to ensure content is consistent, stylish, and purposeful. It’s especially important to keep accessibility in mind when creating interactive content so it can be optimized for users no matter the device or platform used – this includes providing features like audio feedback or built-in screen readers.
Evaluating usability should be a priority throughout the process too – analytics combined with user tests will allow marketers to understand how well users interact with an experience and make needed modifications to maximize visibility, boost brand loyalty, and increase conversions.
When it comes to creating interactive content, one of the biggest challenges to consider is generating ideas. Brainstorming can greatly assist in this process - thinking up creative new angles or ways of approaching topics and making them fun or useful for whatever audience they’re designed for.
It isn’t always straightforward but when considering existing challenges, resources, goals and target audiences, approaching these conversations with business objectives in mind would help generate powerful and engaging ideas.
Creating content that is both relevant and valuable can pose one of the main challenges of creating interactive content for marketing purposes.
Developers need to learn what audiences are looking for and build product-centric experiences. Additionally, marketers should look beyond branded products or sales material, such as brochures or whitepapers when crafting these user-focused experiences which add value to their conversations with customers.
It is also necessary to take advantage of specialized data sources through APIs in order to power a stronger connection with niche markets while consistently updating earlier content if necessary.
Finally, consultants can provide additional support as successful interactive campaigns require organization, test runs, and the application of other insights.
Aligning interactive content with the overall marketing strategy should heavily factor into a successful implementation. This challenge requires looking at what your target audience needs and filling that gap no matter how broad that influence may be.
By understanding consumer behavior related to interacting digital formats, you won't just make the experience specialized for one group but will also create something unique and incredibly user focused.
That will set it apart from all other engagements found via competitive marketing cues or industry efforts alike. Analyzing placement asks marketers to gather insight on the staying power of interactive experiences that remain within a consumer’s reach online.
Defining clear goals and objectives for interactive content is key to achieving a successful outcome. By setting objective measurements, marketers can set expectations for the levels of engagement, conversions, or leads needed to judge success. When defining a goal it’s important to ensure that the data yielded is aligned with KPIs and ROI expectations.
The objectives should also create a view to accurately measure customer behaviors over time at different stages along a customer journey funnel, ensuring adherence to brand strategies no matter how small.
It is often important to understand the target audience when creating interactive content in order to maximize the effectiveness of any marketing activity. This starts by conducting thorough research into their needs, preferences, and motivations, and making sure this pricing, info architecture, and design tightly caters to that understanding.
Additionally, when building detailed customer profiles it is helpful to create relevant variables from which standard hypotheses can be formulated for themes that may appreciate customized colorful content experiences versus those that prefer quick “tap through” activities.
An essential best practice when integrating interactive content into a marketing strategy is promoting it through the appropriate channels. It’s important to ensure that the target audience is aware of it so that diversity among users and engagement metrics can be met.
This usually implies using known advertising/distribution structures such as teasers on social media or sent via platforms like newsletters, promo offers on organic posts featured in websites & applications, and lastly, disruptive formats and displays including influencers said offerings.
In order to understand the impact that interactive content has on marketing performance, it’s important to track results and measure how effectively various initiatives led by newly implemented user interactions perform.
Specific tracking measurements commonly compared may include metrics such as access points vs fulfilled engagements, engaged users/time spent viewing, conversations created via social media with subsequent growth in organic followers, or direct metrics registered through performance objectives established at the initiation of the adoption process (i.e any launches projected revenues).
Embarking on interactive initiatives is not a one shot deal; marketers need to track campaign analytics in order for them to be effective.
Leveraging user feedback and cross-channel comparisons gives you the ability to assess how your interactive content is performing among the target audience, as well as internet users more widely, allowing you to continually update existing campaigns or improve content for future endeavors.
Taking instances as learning experiences encourages experimentation and encourages changes as per the feedback received.
This article has looked at the importance of interactive content in successful marketing campaigns, diving into obstacles that can prevent proper implementation and exploring methods for success.
Challenges faced when using interactive content include technical challenges, design issues as well as content creation strategy development.
Best practices were highlighted to be sure to define objectives and understand target audiences while measuring effectiveness when introducing interactive content. Using illustrative case studies a more concrete look into making use of this powerful form of digital marketing was established; proving that with thoughtful implementation, positive outcomes can be expected.
For these — and countless other reasons — interactive content should continue to feature more progressively in modern digital marketing strategies.
The landing page has played a critical role in online marketing over the past several decades. It continues to do so today, despite powerful changes taking place in digital markets and new trends emerging constantly.
Although there is a significant debate on the continued relevance of landing pages for modern marketers, overall they have adapted along with shifting consumer behavior forms.
The traditional purpose of landing pages is to coach website visitors into taking the specified action or converting, for instance purchasing a product. Typically they feature short and powerful messages which specifically compel audiences towards that final goal.
Common elements found in most traditional style landing pages include persuasive headline texts, images/videos illustrating benefits, white space limitations used intentionally with device-friendly visual designs maximizing convertibility rates etc.
In order to access everything detailed on the main topics an external read-more link or text can be included blocking up viewers long enough to figure.
As the internet becomes more mature and the sophistication of user devices is explored further, changes in technology sparked new digital marketing trends that also altered traditional roles of landing pages. Practitioners rapidly adopted click automation, analytics platforms, and delivery systems to employ the need for balance between process digitization and customer appeal.
Effectual responses to customers must be ubiquitous, swift personalization based on competitive conditions with provided essentials run intricate interactivity through the fundamental structure of well-maintained strong dynamic menu-driven content which served as the fruitful groundwork for impact and progress.
With advancements in digital technology, more consumers expect targeted and engaging experiences tailored to their individual preferences. Landing page design features such as interactive stories, personalized CTAs, and product recommendations based on user activity suggest optimized and intuitive navigation due to augmented intelligence processes.
Singing analytics are helping users produce detailed social marketing personas further improving scalability.
Such aspects are dramatically enlarging the end-consumer's scope for improvement as companies become genuinely customer-centric from handing out interruption banners or scripts insisting on a flash sale.
The emergence of innovative digital marketing trends and technologies has driven the evolution of landing pages. A notable advancement in this regard is conversational marketing, which utilizes artificial intelligence-driven chatbots to simulate human interactions with customers.
When used as part of an overarching acquisition strategy within web-based campaigns, chatbots can substantially improve user experiences by engaging visitors more effectively and authentically.
Moreover, good AI chatbot design allows companies to guide conversations successfully for conversion-driving outcomes that would otherwise be unattainable through generic website forms.
Landing pages have evolved beyond their traditional designs to keep up with new trends in technology and online marketing. As part of this evolution, social media platforms and messaging applications are integrated more heavily with these landing pages.
Now users can fill out forms easily on a simple web page responsible for collecting data such as account creations or product sales information, using their previously logged-in profiles from popular social networks like Facebook or Twitter.
Pre-chat interfaces for frequently asked customer questions via live chatbots (mesOTM) are also being incorporated in modern landing pages to establish leading user interactions.
Landing pages are still highly relevant in today's marketing realm. They retain their purpose to deliver a customized user experience distinct from general banners found elsewhere that tries to drive the reader towards conversions.
As businesses realize what’s effective for informing, intriguing, or even nudging prospects and customers down a purchase connection funnel- it necessitates will target content using responsible and tested engagement metrics.
Conversion optimization on landing pages has become increasingly important as an effective lead-generation asset. These pages not only enable the capture of quality leads, but also go even further and assess website engagement gains resulting from design changes, strategic content adaptation, and more.
Landing pages can host a multitude of advanced quantitative or qualitative metrics like page speed tests, split mobile testing campaigns, or CRM data to name a few.
Landing pages are integrated as a necessary component to track and measure the effectiveness of digital marketing campaigns.
Those analytics give companies insights into user behavior, and ROI which can be used to constantly improve optimizations over time.
Campaign outcomes could range from viewing a page or repeated services/purchases. Specific platform analytics such as Google Analytics can advice on alterations.
The importance of landing pages has increased for organizations that seek to improve their online presence through search engine optimization (SEO) tactics.
Landing pages can play an influential role in garnering a website higher organic search rankings while being competent tools for managing, tracking, and monitoring customer traffic generated from relevant keywords.
Aside from delivering targeted leads to links featured on a business’ advertisements, using specific landing page content also helps companies rank far better than opponents found under related keywords.
The public's attention spans continue to decline in an increasingly digital and immersive age. As user impatience also grows, businesses must be more strategic and accommodating with their offerings. For landing pages to remain relevant, a balance between persuasion and anticipation for enhanced customer visits must exist — if this doesn't happen the likely result will reduce interest from online audiences.
Interactivity understanders prompt users to more creative engagement as they complete key action verbs along their pathway towards conversion rather than reading overwhelming or time-consuming walls of text.
Therefore, reducing user impatience by solving a hurdle for the ultimate "clickability" begs developers to give consideration when building funnels intended with conversion optimization in mind.
The role of apps and mobile-first interactions continues to grow in an interconnected online world.
Its decentralized architecture means that users are no longer reliant on individual landing pages with preset elements but rather move from one “service silo” to the next thanks to direct app-based communications via messaging applications, chatbot services, and other service architectures.
This leads to fragmentation which strips traditional roles from landing page functions such as awareness and conversion optimizations.
The Argument Against Landing Pages' Relevance includes changes that marketers are seeing as a result of immersing consumers within different platforms.
This notion is prominent in today's world where multimedia, especially videos, provide businesses to engage more audiences inducing deeper loyalty and trust.
Video-based content gives any prospective customer the overwhelming effect since it has more messages absorbed visually.
The fragmentation of modern online platforms and channels is often considered to be a significant reason for the purported decline in the relevance of landing pages.
In this day and age, we are more typically using specialized mobile apps directly aimed at certain platforms or services, as opposed to viewing content through websites that may contain multiple pages.
Also, customers' attention towards marketing material is fractured across various platforms and providers and such plays heavily into the usage frequency of rooted landing pages.
As online interactions become increasingly accessible, modern users demand smarter and more enjoyable user experiences.
Emergent advances in artificial intelligence (AI)and conversion rate optimization impact natural language processing and have forced Landing page creators to focus on emotional engagement that masks commercial agendas.
Such advancements bring successful conversational interfaces - with effective responses - tailored to provide user satisfaction.
To summarize, it is clear to see how landing pages have changed with the times over the past few decades in particular.
Technological advances and evolving user demands and preferences mean that engaging experiences must remain an integral medium within digital marketing efforts.
While there might, indeed, be some valid critiques on the relevance of employing typical web-based landing pages these days, these should not be taken as relegating them obsolete from modern online interaction and engagement courses.
Instead, they should be considered capable connectors on a dynamic-sized path - that adapts responsive actions based on customer cognition behavior. As it stands, targeted, adapted landing pages remain the ideal transition points when maneuvering customers for conversion within a dedicated user-defined site experience.
If your landing pages aren't working, get in touch. We can help!
In today’s digital landscape, content marketing plays a critical role in the success of any business. Despite its importance, however, there are many companies that are actually reluctant to invest in it or rely too much on luck when attempting to generate quality traffic from their campaigns.
For that, the purpose of this article is to provide readers with an inside look at essential strategies for achieving content marketing success and how they can plan ahead for long-term accomplishments rather than relying solely on chance outcomes.
By letting us come with you in exploring these fundamental pillars we hope that you'll gain the necessary knowledge needed so your investments turn out not only cost effective but also altogether successful by becoming informed users of what works best specifically tailored towards each individual entity's unique circumstances.
Luck is usually seen as an undeserved fortune that falls out of the sky temporarily allowing a person or organization to succeed beyond expectation.
However, luck in content marketing has become synonymous with waiting for something random to go viral without any practical action on the creator’s part; instead relying entirely upon chance and hoping that people will respond positively from their own free will towards organic engagement by mere coincidence.
SourceWith limited control over unpredictable outcomes, trying to get lucky may yield disappointing results or even reduce an organization's credibility in its target market.
Additionally, erroneously attributing success (or lack thereof) solely to luck eliminates any opportunity for learning from past experiences or improving a strategy going forward; insights that would benefit businesses immensely down the line.
Moreover, without proactive planning and execution of well-thought-out strategies – chances are really slim that ‘luck’ will result in long-term sustainable growth and true success within this highly competitive digital landscape.
Attempting to succeed without reliance on or understanding of industry standards leaves success up entirely to chance.
Moreover, a lack of preparedness for rapid changes within digital landscapes puts marketers at an even higher risk; relying solely on luck when planning out strategies means that abrupt shifts may take them completely by surprise—resulting in catastrophic consequences.
Understanding the target audience and their needs is key for building a successful content marketing strategy. Market research should be conducted to determine:
In order to tailor more meaningful experiences integrated with your brand’s mission or product offerings.
Additionally, interviews are also quite helpful when gathering testimonials from customers that help you gain insights into what resonates best with them as well as creating an emotional bond between audiences and products/ services marketed by companies.
Conducting thorough market research and competitor analysis is an essential strategy for achieving content marketing success. This actually involves researching the target audience, their needs and preferences, along with industry trends to ensure that all content created remains relevant for a long period of time.
Researching competitors enables one to identify what works (or does not work) in similar contexts which can help fine-tune various strategies of the firm.
Such insights also arm marketers with actionable data points on how they can differentiate themselves from the competition while offering valuable value propositions tailored to specific customer segments accordingly.
Setting clear and measurable goals is an essential element of any successful content marketing strategy. Goals should be tailored to the specific objectives of a particular campaign, helping marketers determine what they need to achieve in order to focus their efforts effectively.
The chosen goals must also be realistically achievable given available resources and time constraints – if targets are too lofty they can prove dispiriting for team members responsible for attaining them.
Establishing milestones along the way provides consistent motivation without creating an overwhelming sense of pressure or overly ambitious expectations that cannot reasonably be met within set parameters.
Data should be used to track interactions, identify popular topics or elements of a post that lead to high-engagement rates, compare performance across channels, determine peak times for publishing new material etc.
Using this information can surely help marketers tailor their offerings accordingly - avoiding flops while responding quickly when something performs unexpectedly well in order to capitalize on it as soon as possible.
Keyword research helps to identify the topics, phrases, or questions users are searching for when looking up a certain product or service in order to create relevant posts that get large amounts of organic traffic from search engines.
Additionally, proper use of on-page SEO ensures sufficient indexing by including high quality backlinks (which should come from reputable websites), internal linking between pages within the website/blog space; optimizing meta titles and description tags; implementing rich snippet schema markup, etc., so as to further boost visibility across digital platforms.
Tailoring content to align with audience preferences and trends is a necessary step in crafting a data-driven content strategy. Why?
Marketers must stay up to date on the latest consumer insights, industry developments, and emerging technologies that influence the digital behaviors of their target market.
Utilizing this information allows them to craft timely yet relevant messaging that resonates better with users for engagement purposes.
Additionally, marketers should analyze past performance metrics generated from prior campaigns or activities across various channels.
Such as website visits, bounce rate, etc., to understand user behavior even more accurately so they can adjust their future strategies accordingly. This helps optimize marketing efforts while ensuring maximum efficiency when delivering value through tailored messages.
Developing a unique brand voice and storytelling approach is essential for content success. An appropriate tone should be established in accordance with the values of the business , while conveying messages clearly among target audiences.
This is one of the areas where user generated content can shine. Storytelling can help to strengthen emotions involved in these interactions by vividly expressing ideas that resonate with users on an emotional level.
Providing useful and relevant information to stakeholders is the backbone of successful content marketing.
It requires a deep understanding of the target audience's needs, preferences, and habits to create comprehensive solutions that address their problems or improve some aspects of their lives.
As such, one must dedicate time for thorough research before diving into producing any type of content material as it will help optimize resources used while increasing traffic engagement with potential customers better than mediocre output pieces ever could.
Incorporating visual elements and multimedia into content can help maximize engagement with target audiences. Images, videos, podcasts, and other media can make articles more visually appealing while aiding in the comprehension of complex topics.
Studies have shown that consumers are drawn to visuals such as infographics or interactive maps since they’re simpler to digest than large amounts of text alone; thus creating greater opportunities for brand discovery across different channels.
By combining compelling visuals with written content, brands create an effective multi-dimensional customer experience that increases user attention span and encourages further exploration within a given topic area.
Creating a content marketing strategy that seriously stands out from the competition requires consistent publishing and to ensure content is regularly reaching your target audience, it is important to establish a consistent publishing schedule.
You heard us right! This means releasing content at specific intervals, such as daily, weekly, or monthly. Doing so will help build a loyal following and keep your readers engaged.
Maintaining quality standards and avoiding shortcuts are essential for successful content creation this is because quality content should be well researched, informative, and engaging. Shortcuts such as plagiarism, spinning, and keyword stuffing should be avoided at all costs as they can damage a brand's reputation and lead to lower engagement.
Consistency and persistence are also key to content creation success- it should be published on a consistent schedule, and quality should remain consistent throughout.
Quality content can be time-consuming to create, but the effort and resources put into creating content will surely pay off in the long run.
SourceThrough utilizing social media platforms and influencers, brands can extend reach, increase visibility, and generate engagement with their target audiences.
What is ultimately great about this technique is that it involves leveraging social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube or TikTok which is obviously popular right and very accessible right now, to create and share content, as well as connect with influencers who have a large and engaged following.
By integrating these strategies into their content marketing efforts, brands can gain more exposure and drive better results.
This is indeed an essential element of successful content marketing- thinking about it and applying actions through tracking KPIs such as website visits, conversions, and social media engagement, marketers can gain valuable insights into their content’s performance and identify areas for improvement.
Additionally, analytics surely provide data-driven insights into user behavior and preferences, which can inform content strategies and help marketers create more effective content. Alongside this, by consistently monitoring and analyzing KPIs and analytics, marketers can ensure that their content is reaching the right people at the right time.
How can we forget about analyzing user feedback? In every aspect of business, we can never undermine the importance of feedback as this can involve reviewing comments, reviews, and ratings from customers and other users.
It is important to take the time to understand the comments, because it can provide valuable insights into how the content is being received.
By understanding the feedback, content creators can adjust their strategies accordingly, such as changing the tone, format, or structure of the content.
They can use the feedback to create more relevant content that is tailored to the needs and preferences of the target audience.
Truly, content marketing is an essential component of a successful digital strategy and it requires a proactive approach to achieve success- by thoroughly understanding their target audience, conducting market research, setting clear goals, and leveraging data analytics, marketers can create a data-driven content strategy to craft valuable and engaging content.
As a matter of fact. it is always important to remember that luck has a limited role in content marketing success - relying solely on it carries considerable risks and challenges as it is unpredictable and uncontrollable.
Therefore, it is important for marketers to adopt a strategic mindset and focus on the strategies outlined in the article to achieve their desired goals- by proactively planning and executing these strategies, marketers can create a strong foundation for success in their content marketing endeavors.
Introducing effective strategies for optimizing sales and marketing alignment has indeed become increasingly important as businesses face challenges posed by global competition, changing customer behavior, and new technology.
Content is an essential factor in helping to foster collaboration between both functions which can actually result in more efficient processes, enhanced product visibility, and increased leads – ultimately driving better sharable results among teams that support each other’s goals.
In this article, we will discuss seven content-related approaches to bring closer together two departments whose goals should be aligned: Sales & Marketing.
Through meticulous cooperation efforts such as creating buyer personas collaboratively or developing a shared content calendar side by side; co-creating with sales team members valuable pieces of enablement assets ready to use during negotiations etc; leveraging powerful customer feedback stories along with joint assessment sessions – enabling metrics tracking for ongoing deep understanding on how exactly far your invested efforts just taking you.
All these constitute crucial aspects of a successful partnership that needed to aim for maximum success rate while building a strong relationship foundation style.
Creating buyer personas collaboratively is a key content strategy for enhancing sales and marketing alignment.
When both teams understand the desired customer, they become better equipped to meet their needs across collective campaigns. Jointly creating buyer personas also fosters dialogue that can reveal unique insights into how buyers interact with different channels or messaging styles.
By providing everyone on your team with an understanding of who you’re targeting, this shared insight enables them to focus their strategies more accurately while avoiding costly misfires caused by confusion among disparate tactics used by each department in isolation from one another.
SourceJoint buyer persona workshops are an effective way for sales and marketing to gain a better understanding of the target audience. These collaborative sessions involve representatives from both departments gathering customer data, researching markets, analyzing competitive landscapes, and sharing insights to create more holistic picture of ideal prospects.This greater collective awareness helps inform content creation strategies that capture attention with relevant messaging tailored specifically to desired audiences, resulting in improved response rates and positioning overall lead generation efforts on strong footing.
Creating buyer personas collaboratively is an important content strategy for enhancing sales and marketing alignment. Developing a shared understanding of target customers helps to ensure that both teams are speaking the same language and have a common point of reference when creating content or conducting campaigns.
Joint persona-building workshops can be very effective in gathering collective intelligence from sales, marketing, product development, customer service personnel, and other stakeholders who interact with prospects regularly.
The insights gained through these workshops will help inform subsequent decision-making regarding message framing techniques as well as overall editorial direction for various types of content intended for different market segments so it’s tailored appropriately by type while staying aligned thematically across channels.
SourceHaving a unified content calendar is essential for achieving alignment between sales and marketing teams. A shared schedule makes it easy to ensure that all stakeholders are consistently aligned on the team's goals, messaging, and planned activities.
It also helps with coordinating efforts across multiple channels; since everyone can see what’s coming up from week to week or month to month at any given time, they can structure campaigns around each other instead of working in isolation.
By providing clear visibility into upcoming events such as product launches or promotions, this tool becomes an invaluable resource toward ensuring that everything runs smoothly – both internally among departments and externally among customers.
Creating a shared content calendar is an effective strategy for enhancing sales and marketing alignment. Collaborative planning allows both departments to work together in aligning the themes, objectives, topics of discussion, and timescale that should be considered when scheduling content.
This helps ensure all stakeholders are on board with upcoming activities as well as compatible expectations regarding their engagement or involvement within specific subject matters related to the company's products/services being promoted via digital channels such as email campaigns or social media platforms.
Scheduling also promotes transparency among creative teams so they can better assess what fits into overall timelines while minimizing any potential conflicts between conflicting rosters due to delays, changes in scope etc., helping guarantee smooth releases at consistent intervals without sacrificing quality near deadlines.
Developing a shared content calendar is an important strategy for enhancing sales and marketing alignment. Through collaborative planning, the two teams can identify unified themes across different types of content assets (blogs, videos, webinars etc.) as well as align overall messaging to ensure consistency throughout campaigns.
This helps combine their efforts towards achieving common objectives while ensuring that every piece of created materials reflects the brand’s positioning in the minds of customers.
Furthermore, using project management tools like Trello or Asana supports both parties with efficient workflow execution by providing visibility into each other's progress at any given time along with task assignments and deadline reminders.
Co-creating content with sales teams is a great way to ensure that marketing and sales are aligned. By working together, both departments can improve the accuracy of their messaging and generate ideas for more effective campaigns.
Collaborative ideation sessions involve marketers listening proactively to what the sales team needs in terms of specific topics or angles they think might be successful so that detailed content creation plans can be developed from this joint dialogue.
The result will typically yield better idea execution as each party brings unique perspectives grounded on what works best in their respective fields which leads up to creating tailored buyer experiences overall.
Co-creating content with sales teams entails providing input from both the marketing and sales departments to develop crucial materials such as website copy, product literature, blog posts or even videos.
Incorporating real-world insights collected by experienced customer service representatives can bring significant added value to this process - helping ensure that critical topics relevant to prospects are addressed within a given message.
Sales teams should be encouraged in their efforts of gathering valuable intel on key obstacles during client interactions before creating buyer personas collaboratively together with marketers — to better indicate which elements contribute most prominently towards conversion success.
Doing so will allow them all to devise more informed content plans while tapping into much-needed resources already known at individual accounts or prospect levels.
Aligning content with sales objectives involves collaborating between marketing and sales teams on developing targeted assets for achieving desired results.
This process starts by understanding the needs, challenges, goals, strategies and current messaging of the sales force to develop relevant content that appeals across different buyer personas.
Marketing can help provide creative ideas based on customer research while leveraging insights from top-performing reps to hone in on what resonates best with prospects.
Joint sessions involving both departments are necessary so all stakeholders agree upon how well specific pieces support proactive outreach efforts such as cold prospecting or client nurturing campaigns.
With strong alignment between these groups around opportunities created through aligning purposeful types of narratives according to their stage in pipeline flow; capture a higher ROI – yielding better outcomes!
Providing sales enablement content is an essential part of fostering alignment between marketing and sales teams. The goal should be to develop targeted assets that support the objectives of both departments, but it begins with understanding the needs and challenges facing your sales reps in their everyday workflows. Establishing a dialogue with front-line personnel allows you to identify common themes or obstacles they face when presenting products or services to prospects and customers alike.
This enables marketers to create appropriate solutions like educational resources, comparison materials, PowerPoint presentations etc., which can give even more guidance on how best to navigate challenging conversations while helping build an airtight customer case for any solution being offered by your business.
Sales enablement may not just be for internal teams, but could effectively apply to your outside resellers as well.
Sales teams need relevant and valuable content assets to help them sell more effectively. This content isn't garbage user generated fluff.
Content creation for sales enablement should involve collaboration between marketing and sales, targeting specific buyer needs by understanding the common pain points faced in their roles or industries.
Developing these sale-centric content assets involves researching industry trends as well as customer challenges that can be addressed through deep-dive blog posts, infographics, email templates on outreach strategies, webinar slideshows about product features, or detailed whitepapers sharing research findings etc.
These materials must not just increase engagement but also provide actionable insights enabling eventual conversion into paying customers.
Such a unified approach will strengthen the sales pitching process acquiring confidence while standing out from competitors due to the differentiation of messaging.
Providing ongoing training and support is a key element of content-driven sales enablement. Sales teams need up-to-date information on products, services, customers, competitors and regulatory considerations to drive successful selling outcomes.
Marketers must continually refresh their library of digital resources to offer continual guidance for the sales team in response to these changes over time; this can often be achieved through webinars or online courses tailored around specific industries or market segments that are updated regularly each month.
New hire onboarding programs should also incorporate comprehensive sales materials developed by both marketing and/or product teams so everyone has access at all times — even when experienced personnel move onto new roles within an organization.
Customer success stories can be a powerful tool for providing evidence of value, acquiring new customers, and generating repeat business. Leveraging customer testimonials and case studies creates demonstrable proof points that are effective at addressing objections during the sales process.
Sharing these accounts with both the marketing team as well as sales provides consistency in messaging across channels and departments while building credibility amongst prospects through positive experiences shared by existing buyers of your product or service.
Product and service successes can be effectively communicated to a larger customer base through the sharing of stories with prospects. To ensure alignment between sales and marketing, it is important for sales teams to take part in the storytelling process around engaging customer success stories.
It allows them not only to influence content creation but also to benefit from promotional efforts by leveraging these testimonials or real-life case studies during meetings with potential customers thereby providing more value instead of hard selling tactics.
Sharing customer success stories is a powerful way to illustrate the value of your product or service while addressing common objections. Leveraging testimonials and case studies helps put potential customers at ease, providing assurance that they can trust what you are offering them.
It also serves as evidence for sales teams faced with tough questions from prospects - if someone else was able to turn their ROI problems into real results, then so too can this prospect do it in time!
Sharing these authentic accounts assists both marketing and sales by enabling more effective conversations across multiple channels throughout the funnel.
In conclusion, a content strategy that effectively aligns sales and marketing teams is fundamental for successful organizations. A collaborative effort requiring regular review sessions between the two departments will enable all stakeholders to come together in driving organizational objectives toward success.
Developing buyer personas collaboratively and creating shared calendar plans, co-creating customer-focused content with sales personnel, providing personalized assets for them as well as collecting testimonials from customers are some important actions that should be implemented or considered within this process of alignment.
Finally, syncing up metrics & KPIs on data points tracked can provide invaluable insight into areas where improvement may be needed- allowing mutual understanding across both Sales & Marketing divisions thus, elevating efficiency levels significantly.
As online user engagement is becoming increasingly important for businesses and organizations, the use of interactive content is on the rise.
Content such as quizzes, polls, surveys, games, and other forms of digital interactivity allows users to engage with a product or service in new ways that stand out from traditional websites or apps.
To make sure your organization reaps all the benefits these innovative contents have to offer however requires an efficient project management process so it can be deployed timely while still being top-notch quality-wise as well.
This outline details best practices when managing interactive content projects – beginning right at the pre-project planning phase where objectives are identified and roles defined through designing interfaces along with creating necessary multimedia elements up until the post-launch evaluation & optimization stage which ensures successful outcomes.
Interactive content refers to any type of digital or online experience that allows users to engage and interact with the material.
This includes quizzes, polls, surveys, games, assessments - anything that facilitates user engagement in a way traditional content cannot.
This kind of active participation is increasingly important for brands looking to create meaningful connections with their customers as it provides an interactive and immersive platform on which they can learn more about preferences while driving desired outcomes at the same time.
SourceIts key benefits lie in its ability to engage audiences by providing an interactive experience while driving results for the organization hosting it.
Interactive content can also be highly effective at enhancing user experiences due to its engaging nature, which encourages higher levels of engagement than standard formats like text-only posts or videos.
It has been shown in studies to lead directly to improved levels of website visit duration length and return rates compared with other types of non-interactive mediums.
Pre-Project Planning is an essential step in streamlining the management of interactive content. During this phase, project objectives and goals must be established to ensure commitment from all stakeholders involved.
SourceBased on these objectives, a target audience should then be identified with user personas created for a deeper understanding of their needs and expectations. This can also help inform better designs when creating the actual content itself later on.
A feasibility analysis helps assess any technical requirements needed based on users’ preferences or other factors and influencers such as budget restrictions or time constraints that may affect development cycle length.
With specific parameters set out through a scope document now available, it will become simpler to choose who makes up part of your team so roles and responsibilities are best delegated accordingly (e..g., graphic/interaction designer, developer etc.).
Depending upon the resources at hand further specialists required like copywriters might need recruiting to ensure you plan thoroughly before work begins proper delivery timescales being met could hinge upon making smart choices here instead of rushing into decisions prematurely!
SourceThe Content Ideation and Concept Development stages of the project management process are crucial for successfully executing interactive content projects.
During this phase, it is important to brainstorm ideas that will align with established objectives as well as appeal to the target users. This can be achieved through conducting market research into similar existing products or competitor content and drawing inspiration from them when developing concepts.
To ensure those initial concepts effectively reach their goals, storyboards should then be created that outline how these interactions flow linearly within each piece of interactive media; visuals such as computer-aided design images are helpful here in outlining complex layouts if needed!
During development, stakeholders must also collaborate closely together on refining various aspects before finalizing any decisions made regarding format/style etc., meaning feedback needs to be obtained either internally or externally so adjustments can occur appropriately over time – allowing scenarios potentially identified by both parties alike once user acceptance testing takes place further down line during Quality Assurance Evaluation stage too.
Once complete though an editor might need engaging so all stylistic alterations plus readability checks have been conducted prior to proceeding to Integration Stage checklists — Where implementing presentational multimedia elements onto platforms commences while ensuring consistency.
At first, involving all stakeholders in a brainstorming activity can be useful when it comes to forming initial ideas about how features will look on-screen as well at what direction should the project take – this helps create wireframes and prototypes that effectively visualize such ideas into reality before beginning actual development work.
After understanding what feels right aesthetically or functionally, they must also begin designing clear User Interfaces (UI) coupled with great User Experience(UX); interactions so seamless that users are comfortable navigating within the given environment since experiencing smooth interactions enhances overall satisfaction levels experienced by them while having closed loops drive results sought out after launching said campaign/project.
Furthermore, Graphic designers & developers have their own expertise - collaborating ensures proper design language is followed along during frontend/backend engineering efforts.
The development of engaging content assets for interactive elements is an important element in streamlining the management of interactive content. Content creators must develop original and relevant materials that drive engagement with users, as well as adhere to brand guidelines or other specifications set by stakeholders and clients.
Examples include:
To ensure consistency throughout a project’s lifecycle it is essential to verify all created material adheres to branding requirements and accurately portrays its established idea before incorporating it into any platform or medium.
A comprehensive review process should be employed at every juncture during this phase to guarantee optimal alignment between concepts envisioned in idealized form versus reality when integrated online for public consumption.
Quality Assurance and User Acceptance Testing is an important step of the project management process when it comes to managing interactive content.
Comprehensive testing should be conducted on all elements of the content, like functionality, usability, error prevention/solving capabilities, etc., so compatibility and performance issues can be identified before they become visible in a production environment or worse yet by end users.
Additionally, user acceptance testing should involve stakeholders as well as actual prospective users to ensure that you are evaluating not only whether technical requirements have been met but also whether people will actually engage with your content.
Through this method, any glitches could easily be discovered prior to launch which might risk ruining user experience otherwise due to unavoidable bugs post-release.
The Deployment and Launch phase is the crucial step in getting interactive content live. First, the content needs to be finalized with all elements functioning properly before moving forward. To ensure a successful launch, it's important to prepare supporting materials such as user guides or tutorials that explain how people should interact with the content when they encounter it.
It may also help to collaborate with marketing teams for promotional activities related to its release so customers are aware of what new features you’re offering them via your interactive experience!
Once everything is ready and prepared for deployment, monitor closely during rollout; testing looks differently once released into an environment where users can actually access it—often issues arise at this stage that weren't noticed earlier due to not being able to use real data sets applicable.
Finally, collect initial user feedback after launching. Interactive content helps gauge customer satisfaction rates by looking at reactions to articles. Analyzing their comments/ideas might guide on improvements needed or clarification if the team did good job.
Post-launch evaluation and optimization is a key step in ensuring interactive content projects are successful. Once the content has been deployed, it's important to analyze user engagement metrics to assess its effectiveness.
This helps identify areas for improvement or enhancement that can be addressed on an ongoing basis by iteratively updating the interactive pieces of content based on insights gained from users' feedback or use patterns.
To ensure relevancy over time, regular maintenance is also necessary especially when new technologies emerge requiring additional capabilities due to changes in trends and preferences of target audiences.
Documenting lessons learned during each project as well as best practices should help streamline future workflows while minimizing the risk associated with such activities moving forward and maximizing success potentials across multiple objectives related to any given piece of interactive media material being developed within an organization’s operations setup/structure.
Creating engaging, interactive content requires a well-thought-out management process. Through this outline, we have discussed the importance of defining project objectives and deciding on technical requirements at the pre-project planning stage to ensure successful execution.
Subsequently, effective brainstorming sessions are necessary followed by user acceptance testing while moving towards the deployment and launch phase.
Streamlining each step thoughtfully boosts creative confidence which can pave the way for authentic connections between creator (business) - and viewer/consumer relation thus driving better outcomes all around from concept generation through launching the final interactive product.
Welcome to the world of “Shark Tank”, a popular business reality television series that provides entrepreneurs with an opportunity to showcase their innovative products and services before potential investors.
With unprecedented success stories emerging from this unique platform, it is no surprise why people continue tuning in year after year.
The goal for any entrepreneur pitching on this show is not just about finding the right investor but also making sure their product speaks for itself among industry peers, partners and buyers alike – which can be achieved through effective content marketing strategies.
Content marketing holds immense importance in today's competitive landscape as businesses strive towards increasing visibility and laying down sound foundations for long-term growth prospects.
In order to ensure your pitch cuts above the rest amidst fierce competition on Shark Tank -even if you don't attract investments just headline-worthy offers --it requires strategizing based on successful implementation of content marketing tools.
Content marketing is a type of strategic digital marketing that focuses on creating and sharing valuable content for the purpose of building relationships with target audiences, increasing brand awareness, inspiring action from consumers or driving sales.Its key components include:
Content marketing offers many benefits to businesses, both large and small. It can help companies build relationships with their customers by providing them with quality content that adds value to their lives.
Content marketing also helps increase brand visibility through organic reach on social media, search engines, and other digital channels.
Additionally, content-based campaigns are cost-efficient compared to traditional advertising methods such as radio or television commercials which require considerable monetary investments in production costs.
Finally, content can drive traffic back toward focused business conversions like website purchases email list signup forms and more -making it relevant for audiences who want specific solutions from valuable information sources.,
Content marketing is the process of creating, publishing and distributing content in order to engage audiences with a company's brand.
Examples of successful strategies include:
Content Marketing should always be based on building relationships through the sharing of valuable insight from visionaries - achieved by delivering quality material relevant to an audience’s pain points.
Applying content marketing to "Shark Tank" is essential for entrepreneurs looking to stand out on the show.
To be successful, they must craft brand stories and narratives that capture investors' attention, and create engaging and shareable content through social media platforms like Instagram& YouTube.
Leverage influencers within their target audience as well as utilize search engine optimization (SEO) techniques in order to optimize the performance of their digital assets.
With a strong strategy grounded in effective tactics, these savvy business owners can unlock access to meaningful partnerships with some of the world's most powerful companies offered by this unique platform.
Analysis of the entrepreneurs' pitches on "Shark Tank" is key to understanding how content marketing can be implemented in order to maximize success.
Each pitch has its own strengths and weaknesses that should be carefully examined for potential opportunities.
Understanding which strategies are most suitable can help entrepreneurs develop successful logic-driven plans before entering into talks with the sharks themselves.
From a content marketing perspective, the entrepreneurs on "Shark Tank" offer valuable opportunities to devise creative strategies. Evaluating their pitches provides key insights as to what kinds of stories will resonate with potential customers and investors by identifying customer pain points in need of solving or value propositions that can make an impact.
Furthermore, understanding who are the primary target audiences for these products – millennials? Parents? Pet owners? etc - allows brands to develop tailored messaging accordingly within product packaging and advertising materials.
Content creators should also consider digital mediums like social media channels such as Twitter, Instagram Facebook platforms to reach a maximum number of people at once.
The entrepreneurs on 'Shark Tank' demonstrate the potential for innovative ideas and businesses, making it a great platform to assess content marketing success. By observing their pitches and analyzing elements like:
We can evaluate both successful techniques as well as weak points that lead to unsuccessful offers from Sharks.This detailed evaluation is essential in order to optimize each entrepreneur's individual efforts within ‘Shark Tank’s competitive landscape—leading them closer toward a deal with one of the renowned investors on the show.
Content marketing for Shark Tank entrepreneurs is highly effective when it comes to reaching an audience and driving sales. A key strategy in this regard is defining the target audience by creating buyer personas.
This includes coming up with a detailed profile of your ideal customer based on:
With these user profiles clear in mind you'll be able to create content tailored specifically towards them; helping draw potential leads into becoming paying customers who love what you're offering -making protagonists out of your business.
Crafting compelling brand stories and narratives is essential to content marketing success for Shark Tank entrepreneurs.
Stories should focus on a product's unique features, potential benefits, or values so that it can provide the users with clear messaging about the emotional message behind them.
Additionally, there must be an emphasis placed upon providing customers tangible proof that those values have manifested in their lives after using your product/service -- this builds trustworthiness between you and your industry peers as well as consumers!
Creating these engaging storytelling campaigns will help ensure successful pitches while optimizing audience retention of captivating messages by creating positive associations along with purchasing decisions.
Creating engaging and shareable content is essential for entrepreneurs looking to build visibility in the "Shark Tank". In order to reach a diverse audience of potential customers, digital marketers must cultivate creative ideas that have an emotional resonance.
Content should be concise and direct while maintaining an entertaining edge; this will help capture attention both online as well as on television when presenting pitches.
Additionally, it's important that content can easily travel through social media channels such as Twitter or Facebook so users are enticed into striving their own networks about it.
By understanding what resonates with viewers, businesses directly expose themselves and pave new pathways for success among competitors by establishing affinity with their target consumers.
Social media has become an indispensable tool for content marketers targeting the modern consumer. "Shark Tank" Entrepreneurs should consider leveraging social media platforms to promote their pitches and ideas, as well as identify potential influencers who already have large audiences of people that can be reached with influential storytelling techniques.
With platform-specific campaigns tailored towards unique target audience profiles, entrepreneurs will find many ways to connect with a larger market base by taking part in conversations on dedicated pages or joining trending discussions within popular topics reflected in hashtags like #investingor #startuplife.
Additionally engaging top-tier bloggers and industry experts is also valuable when it comes to creating effective digital marketing strategies – they may even provide perspectives that could influence how the sharks think about your product/service idea!
Search engine optimization (SEO) techniques can be applied to content marketing strategies for entrepreneurs on “Shark Tank”.
This involves optimizing webpages and other online assets, such as social media posts or blog articles, with specific keywords that will help those pages rank higher in search engine results in pages when potential customers enter related queries into the search bar.
SEO requires an understanding of consumer behavior and how popular industry topics are being searched for—which can then inform decisions about which keywords should be incorporated into one's website in order to expedite their digital presence within a certain niche market.
Applying these concepts intelligently could lead to greater visibility online by driving more relevant organic user traffic towards a business' landing page while also resulting in strengthened brand authority over time following successful implementation across various channels of communication including but not limited to paid ads, blogs/articles,and optimized press releases.
The "Shark Tank" sharks are experts in business and successful entrepreneurs. As such, they provide invaluable insights into effective content marketing strategies for aspiring entrepreneurs seeking investments on the show.
The Sharks emphasize the importance of telling a compelling story about one’s product or service that resonates with potential investors—whether through videos, blogs, infographics, or other forms of engaging content.
They suggest honing in on key messages to ensure clarity and persuasiveness when pitching an idea as well as paying attention to details like artwork used across different platforms so that quality remains consistent throughout all digital channels.
Additionally, it is important for contestants to be aware of trends shaping their desired target audience before tailoring messaging accordingly since investing start-ups must understand how interested customers think if they want any chance at success with investors.
Ultimately using these tips from savvy Shark Tank veterans will allow businesses access more ways than ever before to reach their ideal market.
Content marketing is an invaluable tool for all entrepreneurs on “Shark Tank”. Knowing how to define and target your audience, craft compelling stories, and create engaging content that can be shared across various platforms such as social media sites or search engines will serve you in good stead if implemented effectively.
While it may take some effort upfront prior to executing campaigns, staying informed of best practices has proven its worth despite potential pitfalls along the way. One must only remember success begins at home by utilizing what they are familiar with precisely while striving forward towards new heights towards business growth!
Business-to-business (B2B) content marketing is a powerful tool for engaging and converting prospects in the digital age.
It involves creating timely, targeted media that provide valuable information to potential customers about products or services related to their industry. This type of communication works best when paired with sound data analysis, an understanding of individual customer needs, and intangibles like the brand personality too.
The purpose of this article is to showcase four remarkable types of B2B content marketing: educational content; entertaining content; inspirational content; and interactive tools - which can be utilized by organizations within different industries ranging from finance to technology.
Educational content is used in B2B marketing to help readers gain deeper knowledge about a certain topic and understand complex issues. Its purpose is to educate, inform and provide insights into industry trends or emerging technologies that would be useful for prospects making purchasing decisions.
SourceHow-to guides and tutorials are one of the most popular types of educational content in B2B marketing. They serve as a great resource to educate customers on specific topics or industry best practices, while providing insights into how your products can help them accomplish their goals.
How-to guides and tutorials are one of the most popular types of educational content in B2B marketing. They serve as a great resource to educate customers on specific topics or industry best practices while providing insights into how your products can help them accomplish their goals
.A well-crafted guide provides value through meaningful information without being overtly promotional, making it easier for prospects to trust you and eventually make purchasing decisions based on the knowledge they've received from your advisement/tutorials.
SourceWebinars are powerful educational tools used in B2B content marketing. They allow businesses to present high-value topics and connect directly with their target audience. Online courses, on the other hand, provide an interactive learning experience composed of various modules that cover a given subject matter step by step.
Both webinars and online courses can be tailored towards specific buyers’ needs which helps demonstrate expertise while also providing relevant insights for customers making purchasing decisions within teams or organizations..
Educational B2B content helps establish expertise and thought leadership in a given market. By providing helpful instruction, insightful analysis, or industry knowledge through various mediums such as how-to guides, whitepapers, case studies, and webinars among others; organizations can demonstrate their authority on certain topics while gaining the trust of prospects.
Such educational materials are often valuable resources for decision makers which heighten brand visibility helping to shape reputations within target markets leading to a more effective sales funneling process overall.
Educational content is an essential part of B2B marketing. It provides prospects with helpful and valuable information about a company’s product or services, allowing them to make an informed decision when choosing their desired option.
Providing educational content such as how-to guides, tutorials, whitepapers, case studies, and webinars/online courses related to the buyer's journey stages from awareness through loyalty increases trust in your brand significantly.
You demonstrate real value for customers upfront without being pushy and by educating them on various topics concerning the industry, which quickly earns respect within prospective buyers' eyes.
Nurturing leads and driving conversions are some of the top benefits that educational content can have in B2B marketing. By creating valuable instructional information for prospects, businesses are able to provide meaningful guidance about their product or solution which ultimately increases trust between them and potential customers.
Educating prospective buyers also allows marketers to more accurately guide their target audience through various stages of the sales process, therefore helping to increase conversion rates over time.
Through well-crafted tutorials, whitepapers, case studies, and webinars – it becomes easier for brands to nurture interested parties further down the funnel toward sale completion.
The purpose of entertaining content in B2B marketing is to create an engaging and captivating experience for the audience while also highlighting relevant brand messaging.
Examples can range from memorable infographic visuals, humorous memes or videos, interactive quizzes, and games that capture attention as well as promote a positive impression on the company’s image.
This type of content provides brands with an increased level of visibility; plus it encourages people to share their experiences through social media channels which further boosts engagement rates among prospects or customers.
SourceInfographics and visual content are a great way to enhance B2B marketing. They can be used in websites, blogs, emails, or even printed material as long as they showcase useful data or insights related to the product/service being sold so prospects feel enticed by it.
Visuals tend to grab attention faster than textual information - this makes infographics ideal for enticing customers and generating leads with minimal effort on the part of marketers.
Furthermore, if done right (well-crafted design & appropriate color scheme), such visuals also reflect positively on your brand image!
Memes and humorous videos are some of the most popular forms of entertaining content for B2B marketing.
They can be used to convey a message in an engaging, creative way that catches people’s attention while still being relevant to your target audience's industry or sector. Memes and funny video clips inject humor into traditional advertising campaigns, humanizing a brand by making it more relatable to viewers.
By creating amusing visuals with catchy phrases or taking advantage of current pop culture events such as holidays, companies have been able to capitalize on user-generated engagement through these pieces in order to drive up their online presence successfully over time.
Interactive quizzes and gamified experiences are examples of entertaining content that can be used in B2B Marketing.
These interactive elements allow customers to engage with brands on a deeper level while having fun within the given context. Creating contests, puzzles or games related to your product/service helps prospects understand its features more effectively by simulating real-life scenarios.
Moreover, users have better chances of winning when participating in these types of activities directly competing against each other making it far more attractive than regular marketing materials like infographics or videos.
Using entertaining content in B2B marketing is an effective way to boost brand awareness and engagement. This type of content shifts users’ focus from advertising towards more fun elements, such as infographics, memes, or humorous videos that can capture attention better than a traditional advertisement.
It also creates positive associations with the brand by making them appear witty and meme-friendly – appealing aspects for many people these days.
Incorporating this sort of engaging features into digital campaigns, can invoke strong emotions that draw prospective customers' interest further while generating buzz on social media platforms through automated sharing mechanisms like GIFs and memes! All aiming at increasing overall user reach.
Entertaining content in B2B marketing can help companies differentiate from competitors. By creating high-quality visuals, memes, and humorous videos that appeal to their target audiences, businesses will stand out among the competition for providing something unique that adds value to customers’ lives.
This kind of engaging content also helps build brand recognition through social media sharing and increases overall engagement with prospects by delivering a more dynamic experience compared to traditional methods like blog posts or emails.
Inspirational content is an effective tool for B2B marketers to evoke emotions in their target audience and build stronger connections. This type of content focuses on inspiring, motivating, or positively influencing the readers by sharing uplifting stories as well as thought-provoking industry insights.
Success stories and client testimonials are two of the most powerful inspirational content types in B2B marketing. By featuring real-life customer experiences, businesses can connect with their target audience more emotionally and demonstrate how their products or services have made an impact.
This helps strengthen brand credibility by providing social proof that customers’ needs were met satisfactorily through using the company's solutions.
Moreover, success stories provide prospects with valuable contextual information that may help them make better decisions faster when selecting vendors for business projects.
Thought-provoking industry insights provide businesses in the B2B space with valuable content to inform their customers and attract potential leads. This can include research reports, data visualizations, expert interviews, or opinion pieces that are written by knowledgeable professionals in a given field.
These pieces help to establish trust between brands and their audiences while articulating key ideas about current trends across different industries like tech, finance, or manufacturing.
Thought-provoking industry insights also have immense value for search engine optimization (SEO) purposes as they create authority on relevant topics across digital channels such as social media networks and webpages—ultimately leading them higher up ranking lists when searched for via major search engines like Google and Bing.
Motivational quotes and stories can be a powerful tool in B2B content marketing. Popularized by influential leaders, these inspirational snippets of wisdom are often shared as part of promotional campaigns to spark an emotional connection with the audience.
Relevant industry experts or clients who have achieved success using your products can provide inspiring case studies that draw attention on social media channels.
As motivational tales create buzz among customers and prospects alike, brands gain credibility and stand out from competitors in the long run.
Building emotional connections with the audience is one of the main benefits of using inspirational content in B2B marketing. By presenting engaging stories and testimonials, companies can create meaningful experiences that evoke a positive response from their target customers.
This type of emotionally resonant content helps to establish an authentic relationship between brands and consumers, providing valuable insights into customer needs so that marketers can develop more effective strategies for growth.
Additionally, connecting on an emotional level gives businesses leverage when creating long-term loyalty among buyers since they are already familiar with and trust a company’s mission statements or core values.
Creating a positive brand image through inspirational content is essential in B2B marketing. Inspirational stories, quotes, and insights serve to evoke certain feelings within the audience that are associated with your company’s values and mission.
These can create an emotional connection between the customer and your business which will leave them feeling more positive about you as well as increase their loyalty towards you over time. This can result in improved word of mouth for our products or services, thus leading to more conversions from potential customers who have heard these great things firsthand from friends or family!
Inspirational content is an effective way of driving brand loyalty and advocacy in B2B marketing. Client testimonials, thought-provoking industry insights, and motivational stories can all be used to build emotional connections with the audience while creating a positive image for the brand.
Sharing inspiring stories that connect emotions such as happiness or sadness to your product or service will create lasting relationships between prospects and customers alike – leading them both down a path toward becoming loyal advocates of your business.
Interactive content is a type of B2B content marketing that engages the audience through an interactive experience. Its purpose is to capture attention, provide value and increase engagement with users, as well as collect data insights and enhance personalization.
Calculators and assessments are examples of interactive content in B2B marketing. These can take the form of financial calculators, cost estimations, return on investment (ROI) simulations, or even customer profiling quizzes.
Such interactive tools help companies present complex information to customers quickly while gaining valuable insights into their potential buyers’ preferences at the same time.
A great example is Cisco Systems' "Build Your Network" calculator which helps customers determine how many routers they need for their network size and budget constraints accurately without requiring any technical expertise from them.
Interactive videos and quizzes are powerful tools in B2B content marketing. Interactive videos can engage viewers while providing them with the information they need, allowing companies to get their message across quickly and effectively.
Quizzes target customers based on specific criteria related to their interests or buying history so that businesses can easily create relevant content for each customer segment.
This type of interactive media will also help build trust between brands and buyers by deepening consumer understanding of products/services offered by the company being promoted through it.
Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) experiences are some of the most advanced interactive content options available for B2B marketing. VR lets users explore virtual 3D worlds with immersive visuals, audio cues, movement-tracking technology, and more while AR offers a layer of digital elements over real-world environments.
For example, retailers could use these technologies to allow customers to virtually construct furniture items in their own homes before making an online purchase decision or apply filters to digitally ‘try on’ clothing items during Livestream events prior to purchasing them.
Combined together they can create highly engaging experiences that not only influence brand perception but also drive traffic as well as sales conversions across multiple channels!
Interactive content such as assessments, quizzes, and virtual or augmented reality experiences has become an increasingly popular form of B2B marketing. Not only does it help to capture the attention of prospects but it acts like a magnet that can keep them engaged on your website for longer periods while they navigate these interactive experiences.
By providing relevant data in real-time and personalizing the user experience, businesses are able to increase engagement with potential customers significantly more than static web pages alone could provide.
Additionally, this type of active participation has been proven effective at driving conversions if properly linked into each consumer’s journey towards brand loyalty - all achieved by simply increasing time spent on their websites via interaction..
Interactive content offers one of the highest potentials for collecting valuable data and insights in B2B marketing. Calculators, assessments, quizzes, and gamified experiences that customers participate in give marketers opportunities to learn about customer needs more deeply.
This helps them develop effective targeted campaigns around their demographic’s preferences while giving them a deeper understanding of how likely prospects are to become paying customers.
Marketers can also leverage information collected through interactive content platforms at stages beyond acquisition by using it for market segmentation or developing customized buyer personas.
Interactive content offers an engaging, personalized experience to users that helps drive conversions in the B2B sector.
It enables businesses to provide valuable data and insights through calculators or assessments as well as interactive videos and quizzes designed for their target audience.
This type of content allows companies to offer a tailored user journey which is essential for boosting customer engagement levels while also collecting analytics-driven feedback on what customers prefer most.
As such, it can be used to craft more targeted marketing strategies with personalization at its core - allowing organizations the ability to enhance trust among those they serve while improving overall brand loyalty efforts too.
In conclusion, B2B content marketing is an essential strategy for any business-to-business company that’s looking to increase its reach and build meaningful relationships with prospects.
There are four remarkable types of B2B content which encompass educational, entertaining, inspirational, and interactive forms of media.
Each type has its own advantages depending on the goals you set out to achieve; from establishing thought leadership to fostering engagement or building brand loyalty.It is also important to ensure the alignment of sales and marketing objectives in your content campaigns.
It’s also important to take into consideration your target audience when creating a successful B2B content marketing campaign as this will help ensure your materials resonate well and create lasting impressions in their minds.
Ultimately, leveraging different types of quality material created specifically for each market segment can position businesses at the forefront of their industries – critically increasing leads while providing long-term success throughout the customer journey process!
The internet is awash with content, and in order to stand out amongst the noise it’s important for companies to have an effective digital marketing strategy.
Visual content or graphics are becoming increasingly vital elements of this modern strategy - they are eye-catching, attention-grabbing, and encourage consumer engagement.
This article aims to provide business owners with greater insight into the importance of visual content initiatives by presenting nine compelling statistics on how these strategies can revolutionize their digital approach.
Research shows that visuals not only capture a reader's interest but also drive higher website visits, increase brand recognition as well and improve SEO rankings; hence making them invaluable tools today when crafting campaigns online.
Read through our list of incredible stats below discussing various aspects from video consumption & mobile usage trends all the way up to impact branding & optimization techniques!
Visual content is indeed a powerful way to capture the attention of your target audience.
Studies have shown that including visuals in posts on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter can help generate more engagement than text-only messages, with users being three times more likely to engage with visual content vs text alone.
Visuals are also helpful for breaking up long blocks of text which allows you to get important points across quickly and easily without distracting from the core message itself.
Visual content has quickly become an essential part of any digital marketing strategy. Studies have indicated that visuals are more likely to capture user attention when compared to text-only formats, making them vital for communicating information effectively.
Additionally, research suggests that the use of visual elements can even boost a person’s ability to retain and recall details presented within it by almost 30%.
Optimally combining images or videos with written messaging is key to reaching users efficiently while also having them remember your message longer.
Visual content is also surely an essential component of any successful social media marketing strategy. Visual posts are found to be more engaging than text-based ones, as they tend to actually grab people’s attention and hold it for a longer period of time.
Research has consistently demonstrated that visual elements have the power to increase engagement on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter significantly; this could mean higher reach across various audiences in these networks.
Therefore, businesses should make sure their advertising campaigns include visually appealing images or videos that can help boost audience interaction with their brand or product offerings..
The rise of visual-driven platforms like TikTok and Snapchat (home of Gen Zs) has revolutionized social media marketing. In just a few years, these platforms have gained immense popularity due to their highly engaging visuals.
With more people flocking to visually driven mediums, businesses need to be prepared with an arsenal of captivating content that will appeal to as well engage the audience's eye effectively in order to stay ahead of the competition.
Businesses must adopt strategies aimed at leveraging these quickly growing networks so they can capture users' attention by embracing new forms of storytelling using videos and other dynamic images beyond traditional posts if they want successful campaigns for reaching audiences today.
According to statistics, video consumption is surging across multiple platforms such as YouTube and social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.
This highlights the importance of leveraging videos into your overall strategy if you want to capitalize on opportunities for higher brand visibility, improved user engagement rates, increased SEO performance, and more memorable messages that can quickly convey complex information with visuals coupled with audio effects.
Video content has become essential consumer fare so it's important not to ignore this rewarding form of communication when putting together powerful campaigns optimized for maximum impact online.
Visual content allows businesses to showcase products, create awareness for their brand, and establish a presence in the digital market space.
One particularly powerful benefit of using video content is its ability to convey complex messages that might otherwise be difficult - or even impossible - to accurately represent through text-only formats like blogs and articles.
By taking advantage of animation, visuals, and sound effects within videos, companies can provide viewers with engaging experiences while getting across nuanced points effectively without overwhelming them unnecessarily.
With this creative tool at their disposal, modern marketers have endless potential ways they use video content to spread complex ideas as far as possible.
Visual branding is key for businesses looking to create a recognizable and consistent brand identity. Visual elements such as logos, colors, fonts, imagery, videos, and design styles are essential in distinguishing your company from competitors.
Branding that isn't unified can be confusing to consumers so it's important that visual communication promotes consistency across all platforms.
By providing customers with an easily identifiable look-and-feel they feel more connected to the brand which increases customer loyalty over time.
Therefore utilizing visuals strategically through campaigns helps promote positive recognition of your business while also establishing familiarity with target audiences.
Visual content can have a huge impact on how customers perceive your brand. Attractive visuals, including designs for logos and websites as well as high-quality images related to the product or service you are offering, create an atmosphere of professionalism that reflects positively onto the company's image.
Additionally, aesthetic marketing materials such as brochures and posters help make more people aware of what you do while keeping them engaged through memorable experiences rather than boring text blocks.
Ultimately, engaging visual appeal encourages customer loyalty by making users associate certain products with their desired aesthetics – which highlights why good design is essential for branding success.
Studies have revealed that adding visual elements like images, videos, GIFs or infographics to a webpage can extend user visit duration by up to 100%.
Moreover, research has found that webpages with visuals are viewed an average of 34% longer than pages without them.
Increasing the quality and quantity of visual content is thus essential for keeping visitors engaged and providing a better overall browsing experience.
Visual content is becoming more important than ever when it comes to website engagement. Studies show that visual elements can have a huge impact on reducing bounce rates, as they make pages much more visually appealing and engaging.
The presence of video or relevant images contributes to higher levels of user satisfaction, keeping visitors interested enough to stick around longer and even explore the rest of your site!
Investing in effective visuals can be an excellent way for businesses to reduce their page's overall bounce rate while increasing ROI at the same time.
The prevalence of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets has resulted in a significant increase in the number of people accessing digital content on their phones.
According to research, nearly two-thirds of global web traffic now comes from mobile devices, indicating that more users are depending less heavily on computers for internet access.
This is indicative of how important it is for businesses to optimize visual content specifically for these types of portable technologies so that customers can easily consume the message without too much hassle or inconvenience.
Nowadays, mobile devices are the primary means of accessing content on digital platforms. This preference for visual content on smartphones and other handheld gadgets is clear with their easier consumption due to smaller screens and user-friendly formats like shorter videos that can be quickly digested while still providing essential information.
Companies looking to take advantage of this trend should focus more issues in visuals as it simplifies complex topics into easily consumable nuggets that have a higher chance of being interacted with by users than text-only content or any larger pieces requiring longer engagement timeframes.
Visual content has a significant impact on search engine optimization. Research shows that visuals are proven to be more likely to increase shares and links than text-only posts, making it an invaluable tool for SEO purposes.
Visuals act as highly shareable pieces of content that give the potential audience something attractive and engaging to look at which can then lead them back to your website or other digitally shared accounts.
Utilizing visual elements in conjunction with well-written copy is a sure way to optimize digital presence via higher levels of link sharing across various platforms.
One of the most important optimization techniques for improving visual content search rankings is to ensure it loads quickly and efficiently. This requires ensuring that file types are optimized, proper image size selection, use of browser caching and lazy loading features as well as minimizing redirects on page load.
Additionally, meta data associated with images should be properly included by including keywords in both ALT text descriptions and captions where applicable can make a big difference when optimizing visual content for SEO purposes.
Finally, ensuring appropriate sitemaps detailing media files used throughout website or digital marketing campaign can put businesses way ahead in terms of visibility online within SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).
In conclusion, visual content marketing has become an essential aspect of digital marketing in today’s business landscape. The statistics presented demonstrate that there are countless benefits to incorporating visuals into your strategy including higher engagement rates on social media, improved brand perception and website visit duration as well as increased SEO rankings for optimized images or videos.
Additionally, mobile devices have made it easier than ever before for people to access engaging visual material online anytime anywhere.
For businesses wanting to stay ahead of the curve, these strategies should be embraced and carefully implemented throughout their digital presence from branding elements through optimization techniques designed with user experience in mind.
To sum up, effective use of visuals is not just a trend but a key ingredient if you wish to reap maximum profits from every investment in digital campaigns worldwide!
The world of content marketing is constantly changing, making it more important than ever for businesses to stay informed about the latest trends and best practices. The key to success lies in regularly assessing your current strategies, and finding weak points that need improvement or outdated tactics that should be scrapped altogether.
Content marketing assessments are an effective way to do just this – providing you with deep insight into how well your efforts are delivering and helping you plan future initiatives accordingly.
This assessment involves much more than simply measuring analytics; in addition to tracking performance indicators like website visitors and click-through rates, comprehensive evaluations involve scoping out competition engagement levels on social media platforms as well as analyzing customer relationships through CRM systems if needed.
In short, these tactical reviews take all aspects of a business’s online presence into account when determining areas where improvements can be made.
Benefits range from increased visibility within search engines (elevating rankings) right down to greater return on investment - giving brands grounds upon which they can grow their profits over time without ruining existing successes either.
Content marketing audits are incredibly important for businesses, as they provide insights into their target audience. Understanding who a business’s ideal customers and potential buyers are can be the difference between successfully growing an online presence or having no success whatsoever.When assessing content strategy, identifying a company's target audiences allows them to craft messaging that resonates with those specific people while also monitoring how well existing campaigns perform in reaching these desired demographics. With this audit data, marketers can create more effective ad campaigns that directly address user needs while optimizing spending on advertising accordingly—ultimately leading to better engagement rates across channels and higher conversion rates overall.
Content marketing audits provide a great way to analyze competitors and understand their strategies. Through assessing competitor tactics, such as the content produced by them on social media channels or other websites, businesses can uncover what works for others in order to generate more relevant ideas of their own.
This analysis provides an overview of how well your competitors are doing with regard to advertising and promotions within a certain industry vertical; it also helps you identify potential weaknesses that could be exploited through careful decision-making.
Often, companies lack clarity about who is driving traffic, but when audits are conducted regularly, this problem is addressed from both strategic and tactical standpoints, so better decisions can be made regarding optimizing activities based on real-time data collection instead of leading blindly forward without clear direction or purposeful action steps.
Establishing goals is a crucial step in any successful content marketing audit. When establishing your goals, you need to determine both short-term and long-term objectives for the overall success of your business.
This can include increasing website traffic, expanding followers on social media platforms, driving more leads from campaigns, or improving customer engagement rates with new strategies.
Once these are set up it allows marketers to precisely measure their progress against key performance indicators that show whether they’re achieving their desired outcomes—making sure each goal has an actionable plan to reach them effectively and efficiently.
Determining Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) is an important part of any content marketing audit. KPIs provide insight into how well your campaigns are performing and allow you to adjust if necessary.
They measure the effectiveness of activities such as website traffic, leads generated, number of views on social media posts, and engagement metrics like comments or shares from customers.
By knowing these key performance indicators for each activity within a given campaign, marketers can quickly analyze what’s working best with their audience in order to maximize ROI for future efforts.
Evaluating content strategy is one of the essential parts of a successful content marketing audit. Through evaluation, it's possible to identify strengths and weaknesses in order to optimize your efforts moving forward.
Analyzing which topics, keywords, or types of media are driving success can guide future strategies. Additionally, data on time spent by customers consuming certain pieces may suggest quality over quantity.
Defining objectives is the first and most crucial step when conducting a content marketing audit. This helps identify what specific goals need to be achieved through your content strategy in order for it to be successful.
Objectives can include increasing website traffic, converting leads into customers, boosting brand awareness, or engaging with social media followers – all of which enable businesses to measure progress toward their desired outcomes.
Identifying core objectives before beginning an audit assessment also ensures that evaluations are focused on areas where improvement will achieve results quickly or yield positive returns over time.
Gathering data is an important step in the content marketing assessment process. Before analyzing any information, it’s necessary to collect relevant metrics about a company’s website and social media platforms. This can involve tracking page views over time on different pages of a site or monitoring engagement from followers across various networks like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Market research surveys are also commonly used for gaining insights into audience preferences when it comes to branding initiatives such as messaging strategy or visual identity design elements.
Additionally, other tools such as heatmaps provide useful quantitative feedback regarding user behavior within webpages that allow companies to better understand user navigation paths during conversion-related tasks like online purchases or registration processes.
Analyzing Results is an essential step in content marketing audits, as it helps to identify patterns and correlations. It involves studying the data obtained from previous steps against current objectives to determine if there are any areas of improvement or opportunities for growth.
Organizations should also use analytics solutions such as Google Analytics and Social Media Analytics tools that offer detailed insights into performance metrics across channels, allowing marketers to better understand what’s working well—and where they may need more focus or adoption of new tactics altogether.
Additionally, reviews of customer feedback can provide valuable insight by highlighting trends in opinions which could ultimately affect their decision-making process going forward with future campaigns.
Making recommendations is a critical part of the content marketing audit process. After viewing and evaluating data, you can make concrete suggestions regarding your website or business objectives based on the findings.
Good advice can help bolster weak areas in strategy and create smarter plans for performance optimization going forward.
Content may also need to be reformatted or revised according to audience reception as well as search engine algorithms—all of which play an important role in making successful strategies from evaluations that are conducted during audits themselves!
Making accurate correlations between changes implemented with the progress made ensures steady improvement, but mostly comes down to analyzing hard data before coming up with actionable conclusions - essential elements when conducting these types of audits successfully.
After a content marketing assessment has been conducted, it is important to implement the changes that have been recommended. Developing an action plan can help you reach your goals in the most efficient manner possible. This should include timings and who will be responsible for each step of implementation.
Additionally, make sure to test any new strategies or technologies before rolling them out completely — this helps prevent potential issues from occurring down the line and ensures all processes are running smoothly prior to go-live timeframes being met.
After testing has concluded successfully and revisions/updates based on feedback have taken place if necessary, then aim for full deployment throughout channels as soon as possible so results may start coming in quickly!
Google Analytics is a powerful tool for conducting content marketing audits. It helps to identify important insights about user behavior, including which pages and topics are popular on your website.
You can also measure how long users stay on each page and track the source of traffic from search engines, social media sites, or direct links.
Additionally, you have access to extensive demographic information such as age ranges and geographic locations of visitors so that you can better understand their needs and adjust your strategy accordingly.
With Google Analytics, marketers gain actionable data they need in order to develop accurate objectives from content audit results.
Social media analytics is an extremely helpful tool for content marketing audits. It enables marketers to track user activity and engagement on different platforms, such as Twitter or Instagram, over a certain period of time.
With this data, businesses can determine which posts resonated with their audience the most in order to measure effectiveness and gain insight into what types of content produce high returns from users so that they are able to make more informed decisions going forward.
Additionally, social media analytics also allows users to identify patterns within all kinds of performance metrics like post reach or number of likes/shares per post; thereby enabling them to optimize future campaigns based on previously successful strategies while identifying trends among followers’ behaviors.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems are commonly used in content marketing audits to better understand target audiences and build relationships with customers. CRMs capture customer data such as purchases, interactions, or feedback on campaigns or products that allow marketers to gain insight into user behavior and preferences.
With a good understanding of customers’ needs, companies can create relevant product offers personalized for their target market by segmenting them based on interests, age groups, etc., increasing the likelihood of conversions from those prospects.
In addition; this platform gives insights about potential markets which allows businesses to focus efforts towards more profitable areas instead of spreading resources evenly across all segments: optimizing strategy profitability & ROI ultimately improving your bottom line!
Content Management Systems (CMS), are an essential tool in Content Marketing Audits. CMS provides the necessary platform for creating and managing content effectively, giving businesses a centralized location to store their information visually and digitally.
A good quality CMS provides functionality including user-friendly editing tools as well as multiple users who have permission levels depending on what they need access to or can do with it; this makes publishing changes easier without reaching out to IT time after time every time something needs to be done.
Having all of your business’ marketing/content efforts stored within one place also helps you keep track of public opinion around different pieces while providing deep insights into which posts areas performing best – allowing decision-makers makers quickly pinpoint strengths & weaknesses that otherwise may take weeks using other methods like Focus Groups.
Content marketing audits can provide valuable insights into your business and help ensure you have a successful content strategy.
By identifying target audiences, analyzing competitors, establishing goals, and determining KPIs for success, businesses can better understand their needs and set about creating effective strategies to reach them.
Regular assessments will also allow brands to monitor changes in performance over time with the use of tools such as Google Analytics or CRM integrations which help track progress against objectives.
In conclusion, it is essential that regular content marketing audits be carried out by all types of organizations so they keep up-to-date on the latest trends within online consumers’ behavior while helping develop targeted campaigns catering to customer preferences alike.
Creating a high-converting landing page is an important component of any digital marketing strategy.
This step-by-step guide outlines the process for crafting and optimizing websites that generate higher clickthrough rates, conversions, leads, and sales. We’ll cover everything from identifying goals to understanding your target audience to designing a compelling call-to-action (CTA).
We'll also go over how to craft messages with impactful language; select eye-catching visuals; include social proof elements such as reviews or case studies; optimize mobile useability and loading speed performance—and more!
Finally, we will discuss testing your site so you can gather data on its effectiveness in order to further tweak it until it's just right.
By following our tips and recommended best practices carefully, marketers can create user experiences across all devices through an effective combination of content.
When creating a landing page, the first step is to identify and define its primary goal. This should be done in order to create an effective plan of action that moves viewers toward desired outcomes such as conversions or contact form submissions.
It’s critical for marketers to have a clear understanding of how they want their visitors to respond after viewing the content on their landing pages so they can craft messages with clarity and purpose. Identifying your primary goals will help make sure you are conveying this message effectively throughout each element on your page from visuals, headlines/subheads to CTAs (Call-to-Action).
When creating a high-converting landing page, understanding the target audience you are trying to reach is key. Identifying their needs and pain points will help inform your overall messaging strategy.
Researching competitor websites or using consumer surveys can provide insights into what problems your potential customers have that need solving and how they might perceive solutions in terms of cost/benefit analysis.
Asking open-ended questions about topics related to the goal of your landing page can also be beneficial for further understanding customer interests as well as any challenges or frustrations often experienced with current product offerings on the market today.
The headline and subheading of a landing page are arguably its most important elements. They need to be attention-grabbing, eye-catching, and capture the audience’s interest in order for them to click through.
The headline should clearly explain what visitors can expect from the offer/product as well as establish an emotional connection with readers by creating curiosity or using words that evoke action.
Subheadings allow you to add additional detail regarding your product or service without overwhelming users with too much information at once.
Both headlines and subheadings must provide enough explanation so individuals know exactly why they should take further action on it—this encourages clicks which leads more people to take part in whatever goal is set out by this specific landing page!
When crafting an effective headline and subheading, it is important to focus on simplicity yet clarity. Keep both headlines short and concise since visitors often skim rather than read web pages in full. Using active words that can evoke emotion also helps make the headline memorable - aim for something that makes your audience stop scrolling so they actually consider reading further into the page instead of moving onto another website or article without a thought.
Additionally, adding numbers within your headline encourages people to click as well; specific figures suggest you have factual proof about what you are offering which causes readership rates to swell proportionately!
Having a clear and concise message on your landing page is essential in conveying the value of what you are offering to visitors. With millions of competing products and services out there, it's important that users instantly understand why they should invest their time or money into yours.
A well-written message can help simplify complex information while communicating the unique qualities that make your product stand out from its competitors.
Crafting an effective call-to-action (CTA) also relies on having a single, easy-to-understand main point for visitors to take action upon—which requires strong messaging upfront.
Writing a clear and concise message to appeal to your target audience is key to creating an effective landing page. You should make sure that you understand what the needs, pain points, or challenges of this group are so you can craft a relatable message.
Make use of storytelling elements as they tend to evoke stronger emotions from readers helping them connect with the content better than dry facts could do alone.
Incorporate supporting data (surveys, studies, etc.) where necessary for extra credibility but don’t let it overtake details such as anecdotes or quotes that add humanity and relatability inside complex messages about products/services, etc.
Using visuals on your landing page is essential for capturing attention and communicating key messages. High-quality visuals can help to enhance the user experience, emphasize important information, break up blocks of text, and add a sense of professionalism.
Visuals such as images, videos, or infographics can make it easier for users to understand what’s being offered quickly without taking much mental effort which encourages them to opt into their offer faster.
In addition, research shows that using relevant imagery within content increases engagement by 94%. Therefore high-quality visual elements should always be included in any successful landing page design.
When it comes to choosing visuals for your landing page it’s important to pick eye-catching ones that will resonate with the target audience and add value. Select images related specifically to what you are offering, as general stock photos can be off-putting.
Additionally, make sure all the visuals used on the site look professional and represent your brand well.
You should also optimize visual content items such as videos, gifs, or infographics in a way that encourages user engagement while providing valuable information about products/services being promoted on the landing page; include captions when needed so users understand them quickly and easily.
When creating a landing page, it is important to include social proof and other credibility indicators. This helps build users’ trust in your business or product as well as conveys that the offer and message you are presenting on your website has been validated by actual customers or partners of yours.
Examples of including social proof could be customer testimonials, case studies showcasing successes with clients related to what is being offered, awards/badges from trusted sources showing validity (like BBB accreditations), etc. All these should align with your overall goal defined for this particular landing page – ultimately converting more visitors into paying customers!
Including social proof and credibility indicators on a landing page is essential for building trust with the target audience. Utilizing customer testimonials, case studies, and trust badges are effective ways to boost an organization’s reputation among its customers.
Customer testimonials showcase how satisfied individuals have been with their purchase or experience while working with your company—building up potential leads' confidence in doing business with you as well.
Case studies provide detailed insight into what results were achieved from using your product or service which can turn first-time visitors into loyal customers.
And finally, utilizing industry-standard trust seals such as BBB accreditation signals safety when making online transactions and adds overall legitimacy & authority to brand websites that use them regularly across many of pages/categories!
Creating a clear and prominent call-to-action (CTA) on your landing page is essential to its success. A CTA should be easy for visitors to spot, understand, and act upon. Without it, no conversions can takeplace.
By making the CTA highly visible through clever design or placement – such as using large buttons with contrasting colors that stand out from other elements of the page – users will know exactly what action they are supposed to perform next in order to get closer to achieving their goal(s).
When designing a call-to-action for your landing page, the goal should always be to create one that aligns with and reinforces the primary purpose of the page.
To do this effectively, you’ll need to make sure it stands out from other elements on the page and clearly delivers what action visitors are expected to take.
Using contrasting colors as well as smaller bits of graphics or icons can help draw attention without overwhelming people—though don’t skimp on copy either; explaining why they should act is just important!
Mobile devices have become the go-to way to search and explore content online. Having a landing page that is optimized for mobile users ensures an enjoyable user experience which can mean the difference between keeping or losing potential customers.
Optimizing your landing pages also helps with the overall performance of the website, making sure it loads quickly in order to reduce frustration on behalf of visitors waiting too long for the content they requested. Fast loading times are essential not just from a usability standpoint, but from ranking signals perspective as well - Google takes into consideration how fast webpages load in their Search Engine Results Pages (SEO).
Focusing efforts towards optimizing page speed will benefit both desktop and mobile audiences alike since most modern websites nowadays employ responsive designs capable of accurately adapting themselves according having different device specifics like screen size etc.
When optimizing a landing page for mobile devices, it's important to have a responsive design that automatically adjusts the content layout and images so they display properly on all screen sizes. Additionally, make sure buttons are large enough to be accurately tapped on touchscreens.
To reduce page load time — which is essential since most visitors will abandon your site if it takes too long to fully download– use smaller image files (which can easily be done using online tools like TinyPNG) as well as caching methods such as browser or server-side caching; this store's certain elements of website data in order speed up refresh times.
Furthermore, leverage Content Delivery Networks – networks of servers dedicated solely to delivering web content - and remove any unnecessary homepages and plugins from the site architecture before launch!
Testing and measuring the effectiveness of your landing page is an essential step in creating a high-converting one. By testing different versions on how the elements such as visuals, headlines, message copy, etc.--are placed within it you can make well-informed decisions when making necessary changes to enhance its performance.
from related factors–traffic sources, visitor clicks & dwell time –you will be able to gain insights into user behavior that inform which aspects are successful for improving conversion rates so that your efforts remain focused towards driving more leads effectively resulting in increased ROI.
Testing and measuring your landing page is crucial for establishing its effectiveness. A/B testing tools are a great way to test different versions of the same design in order to determine which one produces the best results.
It’s also helpful to review analytics data such as click-through rate, bounce rate, conversion rates, etc., so you can see how visitors interact with each version of your page.
You should always be looking for ways in which you can optimize based on what works and eliminate elements that don’t help reach goals or engage customers.
Consistent testing and optimization efforts like this over time will allow for creating an efficient high-converting funnel from the start (landing page) through the finish (transaction).
Creating a high-converting landing page is essential for the success of any online marketing campaign.
It’s important if you take these points into consideration it leads to increase conversions significantly. Keep in mind that what works best may be different from business to business – always experiment until optimal performance levels are achieved!
Some form of content marketing is now essential to reel in potential customers, keep them interested, and ultimately convert them.
It's not a trend that businesses can afford to ignore anymore - it's become an absolute must-have for B2B organizations who want to establish themselves as industry leaders with major street cred.
Thankfully, there are now quite a few options out there when it comes to B2B content marketing platforms that can help brands get their content organized, distributed effectively, and optimized too!
Keep reading for ten excellent suggestions that could take your company up several notches in terms of an online presence.
When it comes to content marketing platforms, HubSpot is definitely one of the biggest and worst (in a good way!). It's got an all-in-one approach that covers everything from content management to SEO, social media, email marketing - even analytics! What makes it stand out? Well, for starters, it has a super user-friendly interface that's easy on the eyes and the brain. Plus, its integration capabilities are pretty hard to beat, so businesses of every size can find value in using it.
What do marketers love about HubSpot most? That would be its ability to create customized content experiences specifically tailored to its target audience.
This personalization strategy helps generate more leads and ultimately ends up driving conversions too!
Marketo, which is actually part of the famous Adobe family, is a pretty impressive marketing automation platform that's all about making life easier for businesses. It's all about automating daily tasks and measuring engagement with customers in order to determine what works best.
What can you expect from Marketo? For starters, there are tons of features on offer here - we're talking content creation, email marketing tools, social media support, customer engagement tactics, and analytics galore!
The good thing here is that no matter how unique your business needs may be, Marketo can tailor things just for you. And speaking of analytics,
Marketo definitely does not disappoint when it comes to providing deep insights into your target market's behavior.
This means you'll get the data you need in order to create strategy-driven content every single time!
When it comes to finding content platforms that are both flexible and scalable, Contentful definitely stands out. It's got something called a "headless CMS," which means that businesses can create, manage, and distribute their content across multiple channels - no fuss or stress involved!
One reason why Contentful is so great is that it separates the actual content from how it's presented.
This might sound confusing at first, but it means that you'll be able to deliver consistent experiences for folks visiting your site regardless of what device they're using.
Plus, personalization becomes a whole lot easier when you've already got everything separated like this on the backend!
Outbrain is an awesome content discovery platform that can help you get your message out there to a bigger audience - something that every B2B business dreams of!
By using this tool, you'll be able to promote your content on some of the most popular news websites, blogs, and other relevant spots online where folks are already hanging out. What's even cooler?
Outbrain's recommendation engine will make sure that your content gets seen by the right people at just the right time for maximum impact. This not only boosts visibility but also leads to more engagement with potential customers!
Kapost is a total game-changer when it comes to content marketing! It's basically like the one-stop shop for everything you need in order to manage your content across its entire lifecycle. This includes all sorts of good stuff - think content creation tools, collaboration platforms, distribution tactics, and even analytics that'll help you track how things are performing in real time.
Kapost isn't just about making life easier when it comes to creating new pieces of content, either. Their platform can also help businesses maintain brand consistency from start to finish while managing workflows seamlessly too! So whether you're working collaboratively with others or simply trying to keep yourself organized, Kapost is definitely worth checking out if you want your B2B business' online presence taken up a notch.
ClearVoice is a super useful content marketing platform that has some pretty unique features up its sleeve!
For starters, it's got an awesome integrated marketplace where you can hire expert freelancers for the ultimate in creative collaboration. That means your team can strategize and brainstorm ideas together from start to finish with ease.
Of course, ClearVoice offers more than just a place to find amazing writers and creatives - although that would be enough on its own!
This platform provides tons of tools for businesses looking to manage their content workflows smoothly while distributing across multiple channels too.
And let's not forget about analytics because ClearVoice definitely doesn't skimp on this aspect, either! Get all the insights you need into how your content is performing so you can make data-driven decisions every step of the way.
BuzzSumo is an amazing content research and monitoring tool that can help B2B businesses get a real sense of what their audience is into! By using this platform, you'll be able to check out popular trends when it comes to content as well as identify important influencers in your industry.
Plus, BuzzSumo can give insight into how your competitors are doing with their own content - so you can see where they're succeeding and where they might need some improvement. Want even better news?
All of these data-driven insights from BuzzSumo will help guide your future content creation process too. You'll have all the info you need to develop pieces that truly speak to your target market and engage them in ways that haven't been seen before.
Trust us - once you start using BuzzSumo, things may never be quite the same again!
If you're looking for a content marketing platform that's all about quality over quantity, Contently is your go-to!
This tool offers an amazing collaboration platform where you can work with some of the best content creators in your industry, making it easy to produce pieces that really pack a punch.
But Contently isn't just about getting great creative minds together - they've also got tons of features aimed at helping businesses manage the entire production process from start to finish. And once your killer content has been unleashed onto the world?
Don't worry - because Contently has analytics for that too! You'll be able to dig deep into metrics like engagement rates and revenue generated so you always know what's working (and what might need some tweaking).
ScribbleLive is an awesome content cloud provider that can truly revolutionize how your B2B business approaches the entire lifecycle of its content. From the initial ideation to planning, creation, and even publication, they've got you covered on all fronts!
What's really cool about ScribbleLive is that their comprehensive suite includes so many different tools for businesses looking to take things up a notch in terms of audience engagement and experience management. Their platform features options for both creating new pieces as well as curating existing ones.
But what sets ScribbleLive apart from other providers out there? Well, it definitely has something called AI-powered predictive analytics, which might sound super technical but basically boils down to one thing: providing actionable insights that can help optimize your overall content strategy! By using this tool effectively, you could improve customer journeys exponentially!
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Looking for a content experience platform that's all about customization and personalization? Look no further than Uberflip! This tool allows you to aggregate all your different types of content - from blog posts to eBooks, videos, and so on - into one central hub.
That means creating journeys that are customized specifically for your target audience has never been easier.
One thing we really love about Uberflip is how it integrates with other marketing tools too. By leveraging data in smart ways, businesses can drive engagement like never before while generating leads at an impressive rate as well.
If there's one platform out there that can help B2B companies make an impact when it comes to their online presence, we'd say this is definitely one worth checking out!
These days, there's no denying that content marketing is the name of the game when it comes to attracting and retaining customers in any industry. But with so many different tools and platforms out there, how can B2B businesses cut through all the noise?
By finding the right content marketing platform to help streamline their efforts! It might sound like a lot of work upfront but believe us - it's definitely worth it.
Once you've got your hands on a great tool or two, driving customer engagement will be a breeze (well, easier, anyway!). And let's not forget about business goals either - with optimized content delivery strategies in place, achieving those targets becomes much more doable too!
The customer lifecycle journey is an important concept for businesses to understand in order to develop successful strategies and drive growth.
A clear understanding of a business’s customers, their behaviors, motivations, and expectations throughout the entire span of their relationship with that company helps guide decisions on how best to engage them at each stage within this cycle – from initial awareness up through retention.
This comprehensive guide aims firstly at providing a definition and explanation around what the customer lifecycle process entails; it will then break down further into stages covering activities as well key objectives aimed towards engaging audiences effectively.
The awareness stage of a customer's lifecycle journey is when potential customers first become aware of products and services being offered by the business. This can be done through marketing campaigns, promotion materials, word-of-mouth referrals, or recommendations from previous customers.
In this stage, companies must create value for their brand and differentiate themselves in the market to capture new audiences' attention so that people move forward into further stages of consideration conversion & retention.
Through targeted content marketing strategies businesses should aim to build more trust with users as well as educate them on what their offerings are all about.
At the awareness stage, businesses should focus on raising brand visibility and generating leads. This can be achieved through a variety of digital marketing strategies such as:
They are all useful at this early point in the customer journey to cultivate relationships with prospects waiting for an offer they love before committing to your product or service.
The Consideration stage is when the consumer starts doing their research and evaluating different options.
They open web pages, read reviews or check out comparison charts in order to decide whether a product meets their needs.
During this phase of the customer lifecycle journey, it’s important for businesses to provide enough information that helps customers make smarter decisions while being mindful not to overwhelm them with content overload.
Additionally, offering special discounts can create an extra incentive as they are considering purchasing your product/service.
At the consideration stage, engaging customers is about providing content and personalization tailored to their needs. Companies can provide high-value information such as case studies or demos that align with customer interests and objectives.
Utilizing marketing automation technology allows businesses to deliver personalized emails and targeted campaigns that have been tailored based on data gathered from previous interactions.
In addition, leveraging retargeting ads through social media platforms also helps create real connections between companies/products and potential customers at this stage of the journey.
The conversion stage of the customer lifecycle journey is when a potential customer moves from consideration to making an actual purchase or signing up for services.
This is often considered one of the most important stages in determining whether customers become loyal and engaged with your business, as it shows that they are invested enough to take immediate action toward becoming paying users.
During this phase, businesses can focus on activities such as promotions, discounts and product feature education in order to maximize conversions from leads into sales or subscriptions.
At the Conversion stage, customers are ready to make a purchase. To maximize success at this phase, it is essential that companies focus on creating an effortless and personalized buying experience for each customer by continuing communication with them throughout their journey.
Some key activities that businesses should consider employing include:
It is also important to utilize tools such has A/B testing in order to measure effectiveness over time and continually optimize strategies accordingly - what works today may not necessarily work tomorrow!
Retention is the fourth stage of a customer lifecycle journey, and it refers to how long customers continue engaging with your business after making an initial purchase or conversion.
It’s focused on customer loyalty, satisfaction, communication, and service delivery quality—all contributing factors that will determine if they are likely to return in the future. The aim at this point should be to provide high-quality services consistently over time so as to build strong relationships between businesses and their potential repeat customers.
Retention is focused on keeping customers loyal and engaged. To do so, it’s important to provide value beyond the initial purchase or sign-up with continuous feedback interaction and personalized offers like subscription services.
Improving customer service can have a really big impact, as well as using incentives that increase loyalty such as rewards programs for purchases over time.
Put effort into creating an emotional connection with your brand through storytelling strategies like content marketing, influencer campaigns, and social media engagement activities which show appreciation for existing customers while also offering exclusive deals available only to them.
Advocacy is the final stage of a customer lifecycle journey and refers to when customers become highly loyal, vocal supporters of a brand.
Advocates serve as powerful word-of-mouth ambassadors for brands by sharing positive endorsements with friends, family, coworkers, or on social media platforms.
In this stage, businesses need to recognize and reward their advocates in order to strengthen customer loyalty even further.
At the advocacy stage, customers have become true evangelists of your brand and product. The goal here is to encourage existing customers to spread positive word-of-mouth about their experience with you.
Strategies at this stage should focus on rewarding active referrals as well as providing engaging content (including user-generated) for sharing across social media channels or via other methods like email campaigns. Additionally, leveraging influencers who already have an engaged audience can be very beneficial in increasing brand awareness among target demographics.
Customer journey mapping is the process of understanding and visualizing a customer’s overall experience with a brand over time.
It involves tracking every interaction between customers and an organization and exploring any touchpoints that may be influencing their decision-making or behavior.
By seeing what happens at each step in the relationship, companies can better understand how to enhance and optimize user experiences throughout all stages of the lifecycle—from initial awareness through purchase, retention, and advocacy.
Mapping the customer journey is a critical part of understanding and strategizing for effective engagement with customers along different stages of their lifecycles.
Despite its importance, it often presents companies with numerous challenges due to complexities in data gathering, analyzing user behavior patterns as well as comprehension issues relating to technical specifications.
Other difficulties that arise from mapping the customer journey include:
Companies should take prudent steps when attempting to map out communications sent across multiple channels leading up until purchase decisions, are arrived at organically rather than rushing through product launches without taking into account past journeys.
Optimizing customer lifecycle journeys is essential for businesses to develop successful relationships with customers.
Customer feedback and data analysis are crucial processes in order to gain an accurate picture of the entire journey, from awareness through conversions and beyond.
Gathering direct customer input allows businesses to track satisfaction levels as well as identify opportunities where they could improve upon or deliver more value.
This information should be tracked consistently over time so that it can be compared across different stages of a customer's relationship with your business, allowing you to pinpoint areas where improvements need to be made or highlight what works best for them during each phase individually.
Data analysis as well is key in helping to uncover any blinds pots that have gone undetected, address bugs and glitches found throughout the customer journey process, and surface untapped opportunities for expansion or improvement on current services/products customers are receiving.
Having this knowledge at your fingertips will help inform modifications you may want to make as these insights provide an inside look into what works best for each stage of a customer's lifecycle all while providing valuable insight into their overall satisfaction with the business.
In order to optimize the customer lifecycle journey and maximize engagement, businesses must focus on engaging customers at each stage in an effective way. Strategies for doing this can include:
Businesses must invest in understanding the customer lifecycle journey to create a successful customer experience. By mapping out each stage of this journey, businesses can develop strategies and activities tailored to maximizing conversions at every step.
Additionally, gathering feedback from customers throughout their engagement with your business is essential for measuring success accurately and identifying areas needing improvement.
When leveraged correctly, these practices provide invaluable insights that can further optimize every phase of the customer's buying cycle - resulting in improved customer experience and long-term loyalty.
If you work too many late nights and long hours, you’re going to get sick of your job and lose both motivation and momentum.
If you see the same commercial on TV at every break, with the same dumb lines and the same boring imagery, you’re going to get sick of seeing it and you might grow resentful of the company behind it. Fatigue, both physical and mental, can ruin an otherwise valuable relationship.
If your followers and readers start suffering from a similar kind of fatigue from your brand messages and ongoing content, the effects on your bottom line could be catastrophic.
It’s important to identify brand fatigue before it sets in too deeply and take corrective action so your brand stays fresh and interesting in your potential customers’ minds.
If your customers aren’t tired of seeing your brand, there isn’t necessarily a problem. If they’re still engaging with you regularly and thrilled to see your material, there isn’t a reason to pursue a massive overhaul.
That being said, if brand fatigue is setting in, the earlier you catch it, the better. It’s far easier to reclaim an audience that’s starting to lose interest in your posts than an audience that is actively annoyed by your content.
Keep a close eye on the following metrics:
The number of people passively engaging with or showing interest in your brand’s material on social media.
The number of people actively sharing your content with their own audiences.
The number of people responding to and engaging with your material directly.
If you notice a significant drop in any of these metrics and all other factors of your campaign are relatively consistent, it could be evidence of brand fatigue.
A drop over the course of a week isn’t typically an accurate representation of a shift in user perspective, but if you notice it over a month, it could be time to take action.
Fatigue is a direct result of one thing: excessive repetition. If you jog outside, mile after mile, your body will grow weak and exhausted. Also, if you listen to the same pop song on the radio every morning, day in and day out, it’s eventually going to become annoying.
If repetition is the root cause of all fatigue, what you need to find in your content and social strategy is some form of repetition that is wearing on your audience’s minds.
These are a few examples of repetition that can grow tiresome over an extended period of time:
There are many types of content available, so don’t limit yourself to any one medium. For example, if almost all of your content is based on written articles, your audience could grow tired of reading it.
If all your content is based on videos, they could thirst for a changeup. Introduce a variety of different content types and mediums to keep your audience’s interest roused.
Your topics can also grow tiresome after a while. For example, if you sell weight loss supplements, and literally all of your content is about the basics of losing weight, people will eventually stop reading.
You need to vary things up by introducing related topics, more specific topics, and topics that you’ve never covered before. New, original material is always a good bet to prevent or address brand fatigue.
Social posting schedule. If you’re posting on social media with any kind of pre-arranged schedule, it’s easy for your followers to get tired of your posts. For example, if you post a new article every day around noon, your users may soon get bored with the predictable format.
Try to shake things up by varying your schedule or including more random posts between your anchors.
Special promotions are almost always a good idea for social media—they get your audience’s attention with real value and social shareability.
But if you offer the same kinds of deals—like 10 percent off your order at checkout with a certain promotional code—your most loyal followers will inevitably lose interest.
Come up with new promotions to incentivize your longest-following users.
Last but not least, be aware that your responses need to be genuine. If you’re in the habit of using the same formulaic response for each compliment or anecdote shared by one of your interested followers, they’ll quickly grow to see your brand as robotic or predictable, which can harm your reputation. Manage any issues or crises using your CRM software.
As a general rule, the more diversified you can be in all these categories, the better. In your follow-up, address the repetition by introducing new forms of content. Don’t be afraid to experiment—if one strategy doesn’t work, all you have to do is remove it and start again with something new.
Brand fatigue isn’t necessarily reflective of a problem with your content marketing or social media campaign; it could merely be the result of a lack of change or differentiation.
If there’s a certain pizza place you love, and you start eating that pizza every night, you’ll eventually get tired of it and want a change; there’s nothing wrong with the pizza itself, but after a while, you need some variety.
Keep this in mind when you adjust your strategy; keep what makes your brand special, but add enough variety to keep your customers interested.
Businesses have a clever trick up their sleeves called "content gating" that helps them reel in potential customers, boost interaction rates, and get to know their audience better. But listen up - it's not just about slapping a sign-up form on your content! There are tons of strategies involved when executing this tactic correctly.
Follow these 9 best practice tips for properly gating your content to scale your lead generation and sales. But first...
Have you ever tried to access some juicy content - like an eBook or webinar - only to realize that your personal information is being held hostage by a pesky content gate?
Well, my friend, you've experienced first-hand how marketing teams use this tactic to get valuable contact details from their audience.
But not all content-gating strategies are created equal - done wrong, and it can push people away (nobody has time for that).
However, when executed correctly, it can be an incredibly powerful tool in your marketing arsenal. So let's explore how you can hit all the right notes with content gating!
Here are nine indispensable tips for gating your content effectively, offering a strategic roadmap to generate leads, boost engagement, and drive conversions:
If you're thinking about putting up a content gate to snag some precious contact info from your audience, hold your horses for just one hot minute. Before you dive headfirst into it, make sure you know who you're dealing with. You need to understand their deepest needs and darkest fears (okay, that might be a bit much), but seriously though, pay attention to their interests and pain points. This will help you create gated content that they'll actually want to give up their info for.
How can you do this? Well, get ready to bust out some website analytics tools - check out what pages people are visiting most and what kind of content is getting the most clicks. Tune in on social media, too; see which posts are generating buzz or triggering comments.
Don't stop there - go deep with market research as well - talk directly with current and potential customers if possible. Once you have these insights tucked away in your back pocket, you can start crafting an epic content-gating strategy!
There's no denying that high-quality content is still king in the game of marketing. It's like the red carpet that attracts your audience to your door (or website). But here's the thing: if your content isn't truly valuable, people will quickly lose interest and hit that pesky "back" button faster than you can say "gated."
So ask yourself: is my gated content bringing real value to my audience? Make sure it goes above and beyond what they could find with a quick Google search.
Offer something unique, in-depth, and insightful that they won't be able to resist giving up their contact info for.
Put yourself in their shoes; would you willingly hand over your email or phone number just for this piece of content? If not, then it may be time to reassess and make some changes until you have created a masterpiece worth gating.
Now let's talk strategy. Just because you can gate all your content doesn't mean you should. Let me tell you why! When people are first introduced to your brand or website, they might not be quite ready to commit, like getting married after the first date.
So, if they come across an article or blog post that interests them and it's behind a content gate, you may lose their interest quicker than a cat chasing after a laser pointer. It's best to leave those introductory resources open for everyone to access without any pesky barriers.
However, when it comes to in-depth resources such as eBooks or webinars, these types of gated content offer substantial value that can help position your brand as an authority in its field.
Providing these goodies only enhances the perceived worth of what you have on offer, which makes people more willing and excited even to share their personal details with you. Plus, gating this kind of resource keeps out any free-riders who just want quick fixes instead of building up some depth and knowledge where needed.
Landing pages are where all the magic happens. They're like the front door to your gated content, and you better believe that first impressions matter more than ever in marketing. So listen up, folks - make sure your landing page is designed with care - keep it simple yet persuasive. Your audience should be able to navigate it without feeling lost or overwhelmed by options.
The focus needs to stay on what matters: explaining why this piece of gated content is worth their precious personal info - no distractions allowed! Make sure they clearly understand the value they will get if they exchange their contact details for access.
And now let's talk forms – I wouldn't want anyone getting scared off at this critical stage! You might be tempted to ask for everything under the sun when someone lands on your page – but don't do that! Be selective with what info you request; only capture data that is absolutely necessary (like email addresses).
Keep things short and sweet; length, complexity or landing page irrelevance can kill conversions faster than fruit flies swarm overripe bananas. Hone your message, finesse those forms, and watch those leads roll in!
We've come to the final piece of the puzzle! Having amazing gated content won't get you anywhere if nobody knows about it. No one wants their hard work to go unnoticed. So listen carefully; this is where your marketing skills should shine!
First things first - use every tool at your disposal: social media, email newsletters, blog posts - anything that will help spread the word and reach your audience.
Communicate supernova-level value in each promotional effort. Make sure people know what they're potentially missing out on if they don't provide their contact info. But wait just a minute - don't just throw everything everywhere like spaghetti on the wall waiting for something to stick. Be strategic with promotion placement and messaging to avoid burnout or irritating those who have seen too much.
Don't forget who you're trying to attract! Ensure that all promotion efforts are directed towards relevant groups of individuals who would actually find this kind of information valuable.
Master these tactics! Good marketing requires strategy, creativity, and, most importantly, consistency. Done right - watch as those leads shoot up faster than fireworks over New York City!
You've crafted an amazing piece of gated content, and people are filling out those forms and providing their precious contact details. What now? Don't just sit there twiddling your thumbs! This is where the real magic begins – nurturing that lead.
Think about it like this: The person who provided their email address in exchange for access to your gated content has expressed some level of interest in what you have to offer; take advantage of that momentum! Use all the info collected from them as building blocks for a relationship. Nurture them with relevant content - articles, infographics, or whatever they might find valuable.
Offer additional resources or insights. Try getting personal, too – instead of sending robotic blasts - engage with them on social media platforms - and build rapport. Why go through such an effort? Building relationships boosts customer loyalty over time which ultimately drives sales, and isn't that why we started all this anyway?
Remember: seamless user experience is key at every stage - keep it authentic, and don't be afraid to invest yourself into what you're offering. It's not rocket science, but it takes effort!
So keep up the hustle - consistent engagement equals customer satisfaction!
Just because you've set up your content-gating strategy doesn't mean it's time to kick off your shoes and go on vacation. Content gating requires continuous improvement. It's like gardening - plant some seeds, nurture them regularly, and watch as they grow into beautiful flowers (or delicious fruit).
So get ready for the exciting part - testing and analyzing! A/B tests different elements. Try out different landing pages, shorten or lengthen forms, and experiment with various types of gated content to see what sticks. Don't stop there either - keep trying new promotional strategies.
But how do you know if it's working? Of course, through hard work and analytics tools. Analytics help identify which areas are successful in driving traffic while others aren't doing so hot. Insights gained from data analysis can be used to tweak your strategy or to try something completely new.
And don't forget; nothing is perfect the first time around. Imperfection is okay - use every iteration as an opportunity for growth! Keep experimenting until you find what works best.
Here's an important one you don't want to mess up – privacy concerns. Safeguarding your audience's personal information is key in this era where trust has become such a fragile thing. When collecting sensitive data through gated content, it's crucial that everyone feels confident in what happens with their info - because nobody likes unwanted visitors (especially when they come knocking on our inbox doors).
To avoid any confusion or anxiety, be very transparent about how you will use their contact information, who will see it, and how long we plan to keep them around.
Privacy policy - make sure it's updated and clearly visible for all eyes (not just those eagle-eyed folks) so people know exactly what they're getting into. Don't stop there either - go above and beyond by avoiding spammy behavior. Who likes being spammed anyway?
Sending irrelevant messages only spells doom - personalization is king! Take these privacy measures seriously. Building trust takes time, but losing it can happen in seconds, so let's work smarter, not harder (or sloppy)!
When it comes down to content gating, using the right tools is like having all your gadgets and gears ready for an adventure. You wouldn't head out into unknown territory without a sturdy map (or GPS if that's more your thing), would you?
So what kind of tools do we need in our arsenal? First things first, you'll require something to host your gated content. Think about using a Content Management System (CMS) - but don't stop there! You'll also need software for designing user-friendly forms that collect contact information seamlessly.
You're not done yet, though - this is just the starting point! Now let's consider follow-up efforts. Emailing marketing platforms is essential when reaching out with juicy offers or helpful resources, as well as keeping track of email campaign success rates.
Finally, tracking performance - how else will you determine whether your strategy works? Before signing on those dotted lines, make sure these systems can work together harmoniously! There might be "all-in-one" solutions that have everything under one roof, such as HubSpot or Marketo - perfect for streamlining processes and making things easier.
Content gating is a game-changer when it comes to generating leads, gaining insights into your audience, and boosting sales. However, like any marketing tactic worth its salt, it requires careful planning and execution.
To make the most of this strategy, you need to know your target group inside out. Provide them with top-notch content, gate the appropriate pieces at the right time, optimize your landing pages for maximum impact, and promote these offerings effectively across platforms that matter to them.
Don't just stop there! Once they've signed up for gated content or downloaded something juicy from you in exchange for their details - show them some love too! Nurture those leads by offering more valuable resources tailored to their interests and needs. Keep testing different approaches until you hit upon what works best, and always respect their privacy as well!
Remember: above all else - value rules supreme in gating your content successfully! Offer your audience something worth having & they'll become eager subscribers who can't wait to see what other goodies are on offer down the line. And remember, in some cases, you may want to gate content that is user generated as it could cause legal issues if you don't have a way to properly police it.
The crux of gating lies in building long-lasting relationships founded on trust & mutual gain between both parties involved - so don't forget that either!
As technology keeps advancing, businesses are always on the lookout for ways to catch potential customers' interest and turn them into loyal patrons. That's where strategies such as content marketing and lead generation come in.
They work together like two peas in a pod to up your conversions and ultimately grow your business.In this article, we'll be diving deep into eight surefire strategies that harness both content marketing and lead generation to help push more sales through the door.
It's no secret that reaching people online can be tough — but with these tips under your belt, you'll be one step ahead of the competition!
When it comes to digital marketing, content is the kingpin. Crafting valuable and high-quality content is the building block of any successful strategy in this realm.
Whether it's a blog post, an eBook, a video, an infographic, a live webinar, or even a podcast - your goal should be to provide value that answers your audience's questions and provides them with insights they find useful.Keep in mind, though, quality beats quantity every time.
It's better to pour all your energy into creating one piece of excellent content that delivers immense value rather than spewing out several low-quality ones.
Good quality will undoubtedly attract more significant traffic as well as increase engagement but most importantly – convert more leads into customers for you!
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a superhero when it comes to getting your content in front of more people.
Optimizing your website with the right keywords, meta descriptions, and alt text and following other SEO best practices can significantly increase your chances of ranking high on search engine results pages (SERPs).
These higher rankings inevitably lead to more clicks and traffic headed straight toward you!
It's not rocket science - the greater your visibility on search engines, the higher the possibility that visitors will choose to click on your content.
And what do we know? More traffic equals more conversions! So if you want to grow your business via digital marketing successfully, then investing time into mastering SEO should be a top priority for you.
Gated content is a term used to describe any piece of content that demands users to enter their information, like filling out forms or giving up contact details before they can access it. This could be anything from an eBook, whitepaper, webinar, or even a case study with all the juicy details.
This technique works great since it offers something valuable in exchange for a potential client's contact info. But here's the thing - you need to make sure what you're gating is worth your user's time and effort! Nobody likes wasting them either by signing up for unremarkable content or having their inbox cluttered with irrelevant messages.
So if employed correctly and offering high-quality resources gated behind easy-to-complete forms – this gives visitors clear value while expanding your customer base through collecting leads!
Social media channels are the superheroes of today's digital world when it comes to promoting content. They offer you a powerful way to up your reach and visibility by sharing your content through platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Instagram.
The beauty of social media is that a share can set off an avalanche - which, in this case, translates into organic growth in both traffic and leads headed toward you!
And let's be honest here - who doesn't love free advertising? Plus, social sharing also helps create brand awareness without costing you anything upfront.
So make sure that once your valuable content is published on your site, it gets shared far and wide across all available channels – allowing for maximum visibility while attracting new followers organically.
Email marketing is still the king of lead generation, and there's no debating that! Once you have your list of email addresses—possibly through gated content or other means—you can start sending out regular newsletters, updates, and promos directly to potential customers via their inboxes.
However, personalization is everything these days. People want to feel like they're getting customized emails tailored just for them instead of a generic blast sent out to anyone with an email address. So go ahead and get creative with it - personalize your messaging (with names if possible) based on user preferences - this not only significantly increases open rates but also boosts conversions!
So don't shy away from digging into analytics or insights gathered on each recipient to make the most informed decisions about what each person wants to hear from you specifically – as this approach works wonders when it comes time for closing deals!
Getting leads is just the first step in your sales journey. You need to nurture those prospects and guide them towards becoming paying customers. But how do you accomplish that? Well, this is where content marketing comes into play! Content marketing allows you to provide valuable and tailored content through each stage of your prospect's buying process. This can be accomplished by sending personalized emails, showcasing specific ads based on their behavior and interests, or recommending products they would like- all of which increase the likelihood of them making a purchase with your brand.
Ultimately, creating quality content helps build trust between potential buyers and brands as it addresses their specific needs at every touchpoint during their buying process journey.
By doing so, customers are more likely to engage with a company having had an enriched experience while interacting with its brand messages than those who didn't receive such attention or engagement from companies.
Thus, investing time in crafting content strategies pays off in terms of building lasting relationships with customers that will lead to loyalty and long-term success for any business or brand!
Like all marketing strategies, it's crucial to keep a keen eye on your progress and analyze the data. Trying different techniques might be required for business owners to find out what works best. Things like A/B testing content types or headlines, trying out new email tactics, and SEO strategies could help yield better results.
It's essential that you collect information through analytics tools so you can measure how well your plan is working. Through this process of tracking traffic engagement and conversion rates, unique insights about customer preferences and behavior can be learned.
This knowledge allows brands to tweak their approach continually until they get optimal outcomes because, after all, you want your audience to engage with your brand's message effectively.
Analytics are more important now than ever before in today's world of online and social media marketing as they help businesses make informed decisions based on real-time data rather than assumptions alone. In summary, constant monitoring, analysis and optimization of marketing campaigns will help push any business towards its goals- happy customers!
User-generated content (UGC), is a marketing technique that has experienced a surge in popularity over time. UGC refers to any form of media, from photos and videos to audio, comments, and reviews created by your audience or customers on social media platforms.
Collaborating with your customers to share their experiences with the world about your brand online can be an effective way to boost credibility as these are people speaking candidly about their direct interactions with services or products provided by businesses they trust. After all, there's nothing quite like an endorsement from someone you already know and respect!
It's essential that small businesses encourage their customers and followers to create UGC for them if it fits within the company's values.
Sharing this kind of User-Generated Content across various social media platforms can help increase engagement rates while also enhancing authenticity because other people are recommending the brand instead of just themselves.
In summary; using User-Generated content is one way companies can encourage more customer interaction and participation online that amplifies trustworthiness at no additional cost!
By doing so, Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have access to powerful marketing tools that will enable them not only to attract but retain loyal clients who value quality service delivery above anything else.
When it comes to digital marketing, there are two things you absolutely need - content marketing and lead generation. These two components work together like peanut butter and jelly (or almond butter and jam, if you prefer) to attract potential customers and drive conversions for your business.
Whether you're starting small or running an established company, these tactics will help you step up your overall marketing game a notch.
Measuring content performance is essential for businesses to understand the impact of their efforts and drive growth. Content plays a significant role in marketing, as it can help brands capture new customers while engaging existing ones.
It’s important that marketers have an understanding of how effective their content strategies are—this requires detailed measurement and analysis.
In this outline, we will discuss what exactly measuring your brand’s content means; five key things you should keep in mind when assessing performance; and why accurate data on customer engagement with your business's digital presence is so critical.
We'll then conclude by emphasizing just how valuable analyzing the success rate of each piece published truly is for gaining insights into who buys from or chooses not to engage with particular companies online today -all relevant information necessary for businesses seeking success!
Content measurement is the process of tracking and analyzing data related to content performance.It involves assessing metrics such as:
To measure how effective a piece of content has been in achieving its goals.
Through these results, organizations can gain valuable insights into what types of content are successful and which channels work best for their business objectives.
By understanding user behavior through measurements companies get an idea about how people interact with their digital assets online so they can make informed decisions that drive long-term growth.
Content measurement refers to the process of measuring and analyzing data from content marketing campaigns.
Its purpose is to understand how effective a campaign is in achieving its objectives, such as driving engagement or generating leads.
Content measurements typically involve tracking key metrics such as reach, view time/duration, click-through rates (CTRs), number of shares/likes/comments, etc., so that marketers can iteratively improve their strategies for better results over time.
Key metrics for measuring content performance include:
Analyzing these measurements can provide useful insights into which types of content are most engaging with audiences so that businesses can optimize their strategies accordingly.
Measuring content performance starts with defining your goals and objectives. It’s essential to have a well-defined strategy in order for any measurement efforts to be successful.
When establishing these goals, think about what outcome you want from the content marketing campaign; such as increasing brand awareness or generating leads. Do some market research beforehand so that those targets are realistic and achievable within specified deadlines.
With clear goals set out beforehand, it will make tracking progress much simpler throughout all stages of production allowing more accurate analysis of return rates and providing insight into how best to optimize future strategies according to continual growth across various platforms online.
You should begin by defining the impact you want your content to have on business performance, such as increased brand awareness or higher ROI, and then determine which metrics will best measure these results.
The chosen metrics should accurately reflect how well your content performs against pre-defined criteria; this could include website visits generated through articles published, the number of newsletter subscribers attained from specific campaigns etcetera.
Additionally, there are more advanced options that can be used depending on what type of desired outcome you’re looking at:
Determining the relevant metrics for content measurement is essential to achieving great results. Different types of metrics can be used to measure success, such as consumption, engagement, and outcome metrics.
When determining which metric is most useful for tracking your specific goals and objectives it may also be helpful to assess other more oblique variables like sentiment analysis in social media interactions with customer feedback surveys etc.
Technology is an important part of content measurement. The data gathered from metrics helps to create insights that can inform and shape your overall content strategy.
When choosing the right tools for measuring performance, look for those that will provide you with detailed analytics about engagement rates, user behavior, conversions, etc.
Consider tools such as Google Analytics or social listening platforms like Brandwatch to track how people interact with your brand online in real time; these give valuable insight into what’s working well and areas where improvement could be made.
Additionally, there are further marketing intelligence solutions available that allow a comprehensive analysis of competitor strategies across multiple channels - this level of insight allows more informed decisions regarding developing effective campaigns going forward.
For measuring content performance, it is important to select the right tools that effectively gather data and insights.
When selecting these tools there are a few key aspects to consider such as how user-friendly they are, what kind of metrics they track (both qualitative and quantitative), can you use them for cross-agency collaboration or multi-channel tracking.
It's also beneficial if the tool has visualization capabilities which makes it easier to interpret data quickly.
Additionally, make sure your chosen solution integrates easily with other software like web analytics systems so all collected information updates in one single place giving you a comprehensive overview of your campaigns’ success.
Analyzing data is an important part of content performance measurement. Gathering data from multiple sources gives you a betterinsight into how your content performs.
For example, looking at the referral traffic coming to your website can provide valuable information about which channels and types of content are driving higher engagement with users.
Another source to look for meaningful insights would be social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter where people actively engage in discussions related to topics that interest them most often. This could help determine what type of language resonates best among different groups and demographic segments within those communities as well as any subject matter gaps in the industry. It may open up potential opportunities for creating helpful new pieces of original content on certain popular subjects but not yet being covered sufficiently by others already engaging there.
Data analysis is an essential step in measuring content performance. With the right tools, it’s possible to gather data from multiple sources and gain valuable insights into your content marketing efforts.
Analyzing this data enables you to determine which strategies are most successful so that they can be repeated or improved upon with new campaigns.
You should also look for trends over time and benchmark success against your competitors to give yourself a competitive edge in gaining customers and increasing engagement rates on social media platforms.
Additionally, analyzing consumer behavior helps inform future decision-making when creating engaging stories or refining existing ones for greater reach.
By analyzing the data you gather, it is possible to gain insight into what visitors are engaging with and make further improvements.
Analyzing metrics such as page visits, bounce rate, or time spent on pages allows content marketers to identify how users interact with their content in order to deliver better experiences for them.
This can be used to refine existing material or create new pieces that target customer needs more precisely.
In addition, tools like A/B testing enable quick evaluation of different versions of webpages – enabling brands to learn quickly from user interactions and optimize accordingly without having a long development cycle associated with software product changes.
It’s important to continuously improve content based on the data from measurements.
Testing and refining different versions of content can help understand what works best for an audience, which enables better results in terms of conversions or other predetermined goals.
Furthermore, continual testing helps generate insights about user preferences and motivations which will give a deeper understanding of personas developed through analytics - creating more effective marketing messages over time with improved targeting capabilities.
By using complex A/B tests, businesses can accurately compare two versions of their content side by side when released simultaneously at scale serving as useful experiments that lead to great improvements down the road.
Additionally combining quantitative analysis such as heat maps tracking user clicks together with qualitative feedback like surveys increases opportunities for improving strategies even further.
Content measurement is an essential process for assessing the effectiveness of your content marketing efforts. From setting clear objectives to choosing the right metrics and tools, measuring performance helps you understand exactly how well (or not) your chosen strategies are working so that you can adjust them accordingly.
Only by understanding what works—and why—can you continuously refine and improve upon it, ensuring greater success in all areas of digital engagement.
By using analytical data as a basis for making decisions about future campaigns, businesses can also ensure their content remains relevant and engaging over time; therefore increasing both reach and ROI potential along with overall customer satisfaction levels.
If there's one thing we have learned from this overview on effective ways to measure content performance, its importance cannot be underestimated - without accurate measures in place after each campaign or piece of communication has been distributed business risks miss out on big opportunities offered via digital channels today!
The advent of the digital age has drastically changed how we interact with and consume content.
Interactive content provides a unique format for users to engage in meaningful conversations about products, services, or topics that matter most.
This type of media is highly effective at driving engagement while providing value-filled experiences through strategic storytelling techniques such as polls and surveys, games, quizzes, interactive infographics, and more.
But creating these types of interactions isn't straightforward; it requires careful thought so effort put into engaging pieces doesn’t outweigh what users gain from them on an intellectual level – thus maintaining a balance between user engagement & valuable knowledge acquisition by viewers/participants.
Interactive Content can provide immense opportunities to capture attention but comes with a great responsibility to create something both useful & enjoyable for consumers simultaneously - striking the right balance between higher levels of efforts placed against greater values gained from participation becomes challenging here!
Quizzes are a popular form of interactive content that allows users to test their knowledge and learn new information. They can be used as marketing tools, educational resources, or solely for entertainment purposes.Quiz types range from multiple choice questions to sliding puzzles and drag-and-drop interaction games – making them great at engaging users with different interests in mind.
Polls and surveys are the simplest types of interactive content. They can involve questions or ratings that users answer in order to provide insight on a product, service, individual opinion, etc.
Games like puzzles and word games require user engagement for entertaining purposes often coupled with advertising objectives as well.
Interactive Infographics present data and information in a visual, organized format. They provide an engaging way to package complex topics into visuals that are easy for audiences to understand.
This type of Interactive Content can be used as an educational tool or marketing asset depending on the user's needs.
Such infographics may include interactive elements such as maps, timelines, scrolling images/videos, and clickable hotspots which enhance engagement with users by allowing them access to deeper levels of interaction within the infographic itself.
Interactive content offers many advantages to businesses. These advantages include:
Visual appeal is one of the key factors that can affect user engagement.In order to capture and maintain viewers’ attention, interactive content must have an attractive design with compelling visuals like videos, graphics, and images.Many users will decide whether or not they should interact with a piece of content based on its appearance alone.
The level of difficulty is an important factor that affects user engagement with interactive content.
Finding just the right balance in terms of challenge can be key when striving for optimal user engagement with your Interactive Content.
Time investment is an important factor that affects user engagement when creating interactive content. As users prefer to spend less time on tasks, keeping the task as straightforward and simple as possible is essential in order to maximize their experience with your content.
Accuracy and relevance are important factors that affect content value. Content should be accurate, fact-based information presented in an easy-to-understand way for the target audience.
In addition, it must remain relevant by providing answers and solutions related to current trends or topics of interest. Keeping this balance ensures readers gain valuable insights while also having a positive user experience with the interactive content provided.
Uniqueness is an important factor when it comes to content value, creating new, interesting, and unique content for your audience.
Educational value also affects the overall quality of a piece as well by providing useful information that readers can apply in their lives or jobs.
Both these factors should be taken into consideration when creating interactive pieces so they are both engaging and informative at the same time.
Using A/B testing is one way of balancing effort and value when creating interactive content.
This technique involves deploying two variations on a single piece of content to compare users' responses and identify which version performs better according to predetermined metrics such as user engagement, click-through rate, and conversion rate.
This can enable you to get direct feedback regarding how successful your efforts were and make data-driven decisions moving forward that further increase ROI for future endeavors.
User testing is an effective way to identify and measure user engagement, as well as determine if the content's effort matches its value.
Testing should include feedback from a variety of users with different abilities in order to gain valuable insight into how they interact with interactive content.
This can provide an indication of which areas need improvement in terms of usability and design before it goes live or be modified according to audience preferences or technological capabilities.
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In order to properly engage potential users and maximize the impact of your interactive content, it is essential to understand who you are targeting.
Take into account factors such as age group, interests/hobbies, or even geographic location when creating a clear picture of what kind of audience you hope to reach.
This ensures that every step taken in crafting this type of content – from planning through distribution – moves with purpose toward realizing predetermined goals and objectives.
Identifying goals and objectives is an important part of planning and research when creating interactive content. Knowing what success looks like, what information needs to be conveyed or collected, and the audience you are targeting will help with any creative decisions that need to be made throughout the development process.
This step can also determine which type of interactive content best meets your desired outcome such as a quiz or game versus a poll/survey.
Researching the competition is essential in Planning and researching when creating Interactive Content.
It can be helpful to understand what content other companies are producing, so that yours stands out from competitors’ work.
Running keyword searches on topics related to your business or viewing popular pieces of interactive content within a particular industry—researching may provide valuable insights into potential success metrics as well as effective implementation strategies for campaigns.
Storytelling is an essential component of designing and developing interactive content. It helps to capture the audience's attention, provides relevant context for the interaction, motivates users to continue engaging with your content, and reinforces key learning objectives.
Taking account of user needs when crafting a narrative will generate interest in participating which can lead to meaningful connections between brand messages or product experiences with readers' own personal interests.
Design and development of interactive content should focus on creating visuals that are eye-catching, engaging, and informative.
Graphics such as images, videos, infographics, or animations help to hold user's interest while providing valuable information.
It is important to select the right colors and font sizes so they complement each other without overwhelming readers with too much text or unnecessary visual elements.
Through testing various graphics options prior to launch, developers can ensure their visuals will result in an increase in engagement from users who access them online
User experience should be seamless, intuitive, engaging, and enjoyable to ensure a high level of user engagement.
Accessibility is also important in order to provide equal opportunities for users with physical or cognitive disabilities who may use assistive tools such as screen readers or speech recognition software when interacting with digital media.
Ensuring that the design elements follow standard Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2 standards helps promote an inclusive web environment where everyone can participate fully, regardless of their abilities.
Social media is an important tool for promoting and distributing interactive content. It can help increase reach, engagement, and conversions, as well as create a community of followers who will be more likely to consume the content in the future.
Additionally, it allows marketers to track analytics such as views or shares that provide key insights on user preferences, which helps improve strategies and audience segmentation capabilities.
Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to promote interactive content. It enables you to reach a larger audience and build relationships with them.
You can use email newsletters, automated emails, or even personalized emails to make sure your message resonates with readers.
By adding visuals such as images and videos, it increases engagement further by providing an engaging visual experience for users that encourages interaction from subscribers who are eager for more information about what they've seen in their inboxes!
Influencer marketing is an effective way to boost the promotion and distribution of interactive content. It involves partnering with experts in your industry or influencers on social media platforms to help spread the word about your content.
Influencers have a strong following, so tapping into their network can be incredibly beneficial for getting more eyes on what you create.
This type of promotional strategy helps increase engagement by reaching potential new audiences who may not otherwise know about your work but will respond positively if given evidence-backed information from someone they trust.
Interactive content offers a great way for organizations to engage with their audience and provide valuable information that can help strengthen relationships.
This approach will ensure maximum user engagement while providing relevant educational or entertaining materials, which will lead to long-term customer loyalty later on.
Ephemeral marketing has become an increasingly popular form of digital advertising, especially as more and more individuals utilize social media platforms on a daily basis.
Snapchat is largely responsible for making ephemeral content mainstream due to its focus on disappearing messages and stories that users are able to view only within specific time frames.
This article looks at the rise of Snapchat in relation to ephemeral marketing while also discussing best practices brands can use when engaging with this type of strategy as well as potential risks they may face along the way.
The concept behind ephemerality centers around creating short-term campaigns that leverage high levels of user engagement, excitement, and anticipation among their target audience.
It includes crafting experiences or promotions that last anywhere from a few seconds to 24 hours, depending on whether they’re shared through images, videos, or written text posts across various social networks.
Understanding Ephemeral Marketing
Ephemeral marketing is a type of content that has a temporary lifespan, often lasting only 24 hours or less.
It does not remain on the web indefinitely as traditional digital marketing typically would, but instead disappears after its set period of time.
Examples include:
All great ways to engage with consumers in real-time interactivity while simultaneously providing them with limited access to promotional material such as discounts or new products before they disappear forever.
Pros:
Cons:
Despite this challenge, many companies have seen great success using ephemeral marketing due to an increased level of user interaction through creating engaging stories and providing exclusive experiences over shorter bursts compared to other forms of media such as television ads or print magazines.Which actually involves longer processes making crafting effective strategies even trickier - requiring careful planning if executed correctly can reap tremendous rewards.
Ephemeral marketing is different from traditional, static advertising in that it creates a sense of urgency and exclusivity.
Ephemeral content has a limited lifespan; after the predetermined expiration date, messages are automatically deleted or no longer accessible to the public.
In contrast, most traditional forms of marketing focus on long-term engagement and creating lasting impressions with consumers by utilizing various ad networks such as television commercials or print campaigns.
With ephemeral content there’s less pressure for brands to create perfectly polished ads; instead, they can interact more directly and intimately with their audience through timely responses which often build greater trust than typical advertisements do.
Since its launch in 2011, Snapchat has risen to become one of the most popular social media messaging platforms.
It allows users to send videos and images that self-destruct either after a few seconds or whenever the user chooses. These features have made it an attractive marketing medium for brands looking to capture their audiences' attention with fleeting moments of content.
By 2020, over 468 million daily active users were accessing Snapchat's innovative video filters and location features, such as Snap Maps. These features provided businesses with powerful opportunities for interactive promotions that enhanced customer experiences significantly above traditional methods like print ads or TV commercials.
Snapchat started as a photo-messaging app, but it rapidly grew in popularity over the years. Snapchat’s distinct feature of disappearing content has allowed marketers to create hype around campaigns quickly by creating urgency among users who want access before the content disappears forever.
Additionally, fun filters, lenses, polls, and other interactive experiences allow companies to engage customers on an emotional level and build stronger connections than ever before possible through static ads or email blasts alone.
As such Snapchat is no longer just another social media platform; instead it can be used as an effective tool that helps businesses boost engagement while fostering creativity at every step along the way
Snapping its way to the top, Snapchat has quickly become a powerful force in social media marketing.
Companies of all sizes have seen tremendous success using the platform for ephemeral content and interactive experiences with their target audience.
Notable successes include:
These stories are evidence that when used correctly Snapchat can be not just effective but also extremely rewarding for brands looking to capitalize upon exciting trends like ephemeral marketing.
Understanding the target audience is one of the most important best practices for successful ephemeral marketing.
Gathering relevant data about users' interests and behaviors helps marketers tailor content to better engage their viewers.
Knowing who your base demographic is, as well as what platforms they use and how often, allows you to create effective campaigns that inform or entertain them in meaningful ways.
Additionally, understanding where different age groups tend to flock online can help maximize outreach potentials without overspending on ads targeting a wider range than necessary.
Storytelling is an essential part of ephemeral marketing.
It allows brands to tell their story in a more personal and engaging way by creating content with emotion, humor, or other forms of storytelling that resonate better with audiences than traditional ads do.
Brands should focus on having dynamic visuals to draw viewers’ attention as well as quality sound for those watching without headphones since it has a shorter time duration compared to the last-longer type of video such as YouTube videos.
Also important is utilizing relevant hashtags so users can find the stories faster and reach a wider audience base through user-generated tagging systems used commonly in platforms like Instagram Stories & TikTok Reels.
Exclusive content can help brands create a sense of urgency and drive engagement with their audiences. It also builds an element of exclusivity that encourages users to return or stay tuned in order to see upcoming updates, offers, new products etc.
Brands should provide unique experiences that cannot be found anywhere else so they stand out from competitors while offering something valuable to customers at the same time.
By working with micro-influencers who have a direct connection to the target audience, brands are able to reach more potential customers in less time due to their already-established reputation and influence.
Furthermore, collaborating with multiple influencers offers greater visibility, as each content post can potentially increase engagement from followers across different social media platforms.
Ultimately, these connections help drive conversions while amplifying messages beyond traditional advertising opportunities like television or print ads.
Creating interactive experiences should be a cornerstone of any ephemeral marketing strategy. To engage and keep the audience engaged, consider using Snapchat-specific features such as lenses or filters.
Also use calls to action in your stories - ask people to:
It allows users to interact directly with content they find interesting and useful while building engagement around it overall.
Utilizing analytics to measure success is an important best practice for ephemeral marketing.
This involves tracking metrics like engagement rate, views, and impressions to gauge how effective the campaign has been.
Brands should also monitor different platforms and channels used in their campaigns as well as any user-generated content that could provide valuable insights into a brand's performance over time.
By effectively using data, marketers can make better decisions about campaigning on Snapchat or other social networks with a limited shelf life of content.
Privacy concerns are a significant challenge for ephemeral marketing. Due to Snapchat's transient nature, messages, photos, and videos shared may not be immediately available as proof should any issues arise due to user disclosure or misuse of content by third parties.
Furthermore, companies that run campaigns across multiple social media platforms need to consider how different privacy regulations could affect them when distributing their message on local markets with varying laws governing customer data protection and usage rights.
One of the main challenges associated with ephemeral marketing is its limited lifespan.
Snapchat’s stories only last for 24 hours, and other platforms have their own specific guidelines on how long content lasts before it expires or gets replaced by newer posts.
This forces marketers to be creative in order to maximize visibility among target audiences - often requiring multiple iterations so that messages can reach as many people as possible within a short period of time.
Additionally, because consumers are used to getting fresh new content every day, brands must continuously develop unique ideas and strategies to produce trending pieces while remaining relevant.
Keeping up with updates and changes is an ongoing challenge for marketers utilizing ephemeral marketing.
Platforms such as Snapchat are constantly evolving, introducing new features or making design tweaks that require companies to stay current in order to keep their campaigns effective.
Marketers must be aware of all major releases from any platforms they use so that the overall campaign strategy isn’t compromised by out-of-date materials or missing newly released tools.
In conclusion, ephemeral marketing provides a unique way for brands to get creative and build more personal relationships with their target audiences. Snapchat was one of the first major players to popularize it, leveraging its features to innovate how we market products today.
When done correctly, influencer marketing can provide many benefits, including increased reach from exclusive content and interactive experiences and higher conversion rates. However, certain challenges still exist, such as privacy concerns or the limited lifespan of content, so brands need to be aware before fully committing resources to this type of approach.
After all these years, Snapchat remains an integral part of any successful digital strategy. It informs us about new trends even now, saying much about the resilience behind them despite changes along the road.
Visual content plays a vital role in event marketing and can make or break the success of an organizational endeavor.
It is defined as any visual material used to convey information, such as photos, videos, illustrations, and infographics.
This guide seeks to provide comprehensive insight into how organizations should optimize their visual content. So they can have a maximum positive impact on all aspects related to planning, creating, implementing, and measuring its effectiveness during events that are part of campaigns intended towards acquiring leads/customers.
In order to effectively plan visual content for event marketing, it is important to first understand the target audience. This involves:
Through this process, one will be able untap into potential customer insights which provide valuable guidance in creating effective visual campaigns tailored specifically towards fulfilling targets set at the planning stage.
When planning visual content for event marketing, it is important to set clear and achievable goals. This includes:
Additionally, you should also identify key performance indicators (KPIs) that can be used later on to track progress and measure success when analyzing results after the event has taken place.Having these specific objectives in mind will help ensure any visual content developed supports overall strategy by actively working towards predetermined success metrics from inception all through execution.
When it comes to planning visual content for event marketing, defining the brand identity and message is essential.
This involves considering what values you want your visuals to communicate and how they should reflect your company’s mission statement.
It also means identifying which types of graphics best represent those values so that when people look at them, they instantly recognize who or what organization created them.
Thinking through these elements before taking a creative approach can help guide creative decisions while keeping everyone on track in terms of following branding guidelines
Choosing appropriate visual content for event marketing is essential to connecting with target audiences and achieving desired outcomes.
To do so, marketers must first understand their audience’s preferences and goals before researching potential visuals like graphics, logos, photos, or videos that might resonate best with them.
Once this data has been collected it should be used in choosing the proper messaging for each piece of content being created.
This way each element stays within brand guidelines while also resonating correctly among specific customers' tastes and needs
Selecting high-quality images and videos is one of the most important steps when creating effective visual content for event marketing.
Additionally, it’s useful to utilize color theory knowledge so that you are able to create cohesive visuals using complementary hues and textures.
Finally, try selecting photos from stock image websites instead of taking them yourself – this ensures better quality control before publication!
Incorporating branding elements into visual content for event marketing is essential to create an engaging and consistent message.
Branding elements will help solidify the identity of your event, making it easier to recognize across platforms. Your branding should be instantly recognizable in all images used - think logos, font styles, color palettes, etc.
Every aspect of visuals should convey professionalism while staying relevant to modern design trends so you can cut through crowded messaging on social media channels or other forms of promotion like flyers or websites.
Utilizing color theory when creating visual content for event marketing can help engage and draw attention to the target audience.
Colors evoke different emotions in people, so it's important to choose colors wisely based on the message of a brand or campaign.
For example, bright colors are known to be more eye-catching than muted tones while warm colors create an inviting atmosphere.
Additionally, using analogous and complementary hues helps bring balance into visuals and make them harmonious yet striking at the same time.
Creating effective visual content for event marketing requires ensuring accessibility and inclusivity.
This means designing visuals that can be viewed, interacted with, or consumed by people who may have limited vision capacity due to physical disability as well as those from different cultural backgrounds.
Videos should specifically incorporate subtitles, captions and audio descriptions, while images need properly contrasted colors or colorblind features available when needed. Designers must also consider international standards of sizes such as fonts so everyone can easily understand messages conveyed through the content.
Choosing the right platform for distribution is essential when implementing visual content in event marketing.
Platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are some of the most popular choices that can help reach a wide audience with minimal effort. Additionally, it's important to determine whether paid advertising should be incorporated into your campaign strategy depending on budget restrictions or desired outcomes.
Choosing platforms according to target audiences’ preferences will allow digital marketers to maximize their impact by disseminating visuals across multiple channels at once while utilizing each channel's unique features where applicable.
Creating a cohesive visual marketing campaign is essential when implementing visual content in event marketing.
It starts with having an established brand identity and message, and then selecting suitable visuals to represent the theme of the event.
Distribution should be done through appropriate platforms to reach maximum engagement from your chosen target audience. Utilizing social media can help elevate brand visibility as well as user-generated content for further promotion opportunities especially prior to and during events.
Utilizing social media effectively is key for the successful implementation of visual content in event marketing.
Platforms such as Instagram and Twitter are critical channels to share visuals, engaging captions, and stories related to your event which can help increase visibility among target audiences.
When using these platforms it is important to ensure your posts look professional by having consistent branding elements, and accurate descriptions with relevant hashtags or keywords- ensuring they reach the right people at the right time!
Encouraging user-generated content is an important part of implementing visual content in event marketing.
This can be done through campaigns that invite attendees to share photos and videos from the event, using specific hashtags for tracking purposes.
It also encourages people to participate by giving them a chance to have their work featured on social media platforms or other promotional materials.
User-generated content builds buzz around the event while providing marketers with valuable insights into what resonates best among their demographic base.
Measuring Visual Content Success in Event Marketing involves defining key performance indicators (KPIs) that are specific to the event and its marketing goals.KPIs should include metrics such as:
Additionally understanding return on investment (ROI) is important to ensuring success of any campaign.ROI gauges whether profits exceed expenses associated with creating and distributing meaningful visuals during an event-marketing campaign.
Measuring Visual Content Success in Event Marketing involves evaluating the return on investment (ROI).
This requires collecting data such as metrics, analytics, and feedback to assess how successful a visual content campaign was compared to its cost.
Tracking attendance at events or sales numbers can help measure whether viewers were influenced by event marketing visuals.
Companies should also take into account factors like brand awareness, customer engagement, and satisfaction when calculating ROI for event-based visual content campaigns.
Best practices for using visual content in event marketing involve consistency in branding and messaging.
Ensuring that all visuals used adhere to the same color palette, font families, and logo placements is key when creating a cohesive campaign across different media outlets.
Additionally, it's important to limit text on any imagery so as not to clutter or confuse messages which can impact their effectiveness significantly. Keep images simple yet memorable- captivating viewers with one strong aspect of your brand identity instead of overwhelming them with multiple elements focusing on only those necessary for conveying the message quickly and efficiently.
Incorporating storytelling into visual content is one of the best practices for event marketing. A good story should be engaging and captivating so that it can draw attention from viewers.
Storytelling helps to create an emotional connection between brands, events, and customers while also helping drive engagement with visuals such as videos or images. It’s important to keep stories concise yet interesting by using just enough detail without revealing too much right away; this will help maximize user interaction with your brand or event's message.
Creating shareable content is definitely one of the important best practices to consider when planning visual marketing for events- especially in this attention-seeking world.
Sharing your visuals via relevant platforms and using catchy titles, hashtags, or captions can help draw attention to the event. Crafting visually appealing designs with short yet effective messages that engage viewers will ensure users view them as valuable resources worthy of sharing.
It is essential to stay up-to-date with the latest design trends and technologies when creating visual content for event marketing. This can help your engagement significantly as people are more likely to pay attention if they find your visuals appealing and modern.
Additionally, familiarize yourself with different platforms’ standards in terms of visuals so that all material will be suitable across various channels—this helps create a consistent look throughout campaigns which appeals even better to viewers.
Finally, use stats or research results backed by data points wherever possible within visuals- this allows audiences to feel confident about what they're engaging with.
The effective implementation of visual content in event marketing can be the difference between success and failure.
In this comprehensive guide, we explored planning for, creating, and implementing high-quality visuals that best represent a brand's identity and message to influence audience engagement.
Additionally, it is essential to measure KPIs such as ROI from campaigns when optimizing these materials along with staying up-to-date on design trends or technologies.
This will ensure consistency in branding efforts through storytelling experience leading towards successful events.
So, you want to get your business’s name out there. More importantly, you want to get it in front of key decision-makers in your industry.
But what if your business is relatively small and you’re on a tight marketing budget? How do you make the right connections and get good brand mentions?
The answer is public relations (PR). Though PR may seem like something only for big brands, this isn’t true. Even small businesses can take advantage of PR strategies, and fortunately, they don’t require big marketing budgets.
In this article, we’ll go over what PR means and our top tips for improving your PR outreach at a minimal cost. Let’s get started!
PR refers to managing and maintaining a positive public image of your brand. Typically, this is done by seeking out positive exposure on media platforms that your target audience follows.
For example, PR could involve reaching out to a news outlet to do a story about your business, publishing a press release for a new product launch, pitching a story to an industry magazine, or featuring as a guest on an industry-relevant podcast. There are many ways to approach PR.
That said, PR is not to be confused with marketing. Both are concerned with building your business, but marketing is ultimately focused on boosting your bottom line by increasing revenue, whereas PR is primarily concerned with cultivating a good business reputation.
Source: https://www.kochiesbusinessbuilders.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/public-relations.jpg
Now that you know what PR is, here are some tips to improve your PR outreach:
Before you start reaching out to media outlets, make sure your business has a good online presence. This means going over your business website, social media profiles, and other online accounts to make sure they look clean and professional.
Get rid of any broken pages or links on your website and make sure you have a professional photo on your social media accounts and that you actively use them. There’s nothing that says your business is out of touch more than an outdated website or an unused social media account.
Another way to improve your online presence is to create a professional media kit. This is a small document that includes information about you and your company such as a bio and a professional photo. By including your media kit every time, you pitch a media outlet, you make it easy for journalists to cite and feature you.
Next, determine who you want your PR efforts to reach. In other words, who is your target audience and what media outlets do they follow most?
For example, if you own a fintech company, you may want to target business owners by pitching a news outlet like Forbes or Fast Company. Or if you own a real estate business, you might aim for a feature in Inman or Housingwire.
The goal is to find out where your target market hangs out and get your company name talked about in those circles. If you’re not sure where your target market is, consider surveying your existing customers to find out.
Also, keep in mind that the definition of media is expanding. In addition to getting featured in traditional publications like the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) or the New York Times (NYT), you may want to target various social media platforms, blogs, and independent publications.
Whatever you do, make sure the outlets you reach out to serve your target market and cover what your business is about.
If some of the news outlets mentioned so far sound out of reach, that’s okay. You don’t have to start by pitching top newspapers. In fact, you probably shouldn’t. It takes time to cultivate good PR.
Instead, set realistic and manageable PR goals. Start by pitching smaller publications and then gradually work your way up to pitching bigger ones. You’re more likely to get in with bigger outlets if you already have some smaller media mentions.
Once you’ve established some realistic PR goals, you can work them into a long-term PR strategy.
Another way to get your company name out there is to share your expertise online. This could mean publishing free content on your business’s blog or on social media.
For example, if you run a wealth management firm, you could post your top tips on how millennials can save for retirement. Or if you own a personal injury law firm, you might post about ways to win a car accident lawsuit.
The idea is to become a thought leader in your industry niche. That way, media outlets will be more inclined to feature you (because you already have a following), and in some cases, they may even reach out to you.
When it comes to actually pitching media outlets, make sure you have a newsworthy story to tell with a unique angle. Media companies get pitched stories all the time, so yours needs to stand out to get their attention.
Focus on what makes your company unique but don’t forget to pitch a story that will be useful to the publication. Research their audience and what types of content they have published in the past. This will give you a clue as to what they’re looking for.
That said, almost everything is a potential story, so dig deep. Company milestones, corporate events, or industry insights can all make for good stories if you know how to tell them right.
If you’re having trouble finding media outlets to reach out to, there are many PR resources out there that can help. Here are just a few:
On top of using social media to connect with journalists, you can use it to identify and build relationships with industry leaders. For example, you can use it to connect with influencers who may agree to advocate for your brand or sponsor one of your products.
The beauty of using social media for PR is that it’s free. You don’t have to spend any money to get into the right circles. However, you will need to dedicate time and effort to being active on the platform. That’s true whether you’re using Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn.
Whenever you do get featured in the media, it’s important to share it. For example, if you’re a guest on a podcast, share the link to the episode across social media. Or if your brand is featured in a news article, share it online and tag the outlet and journalist.
This not only helps spread your brand name online but helps strengthens your relationships with media outlets and journalists, who may then tap your shoulder for future features.
If you haven’t been able to tell already, relationships are the foundation of good PR. Without them, getting good press will be extremely difficult.
One way to improve your media relationships is to start building them early. Don’t wait until you get a feature in an article or podcast. Begin getting to know the right people now by offering your help and expertise. Take a value-first approach, where you give, give, give, and only ask once you have a reason to expect something in return. That way, you’re more likely to get the media features you’re after.
Another way to build good relationships is to get involved in community events and charities. This helps you get to know different people you may not otherwise meet and can lead to good PR opportunities.
Lastly, there’s no point in investing in PR if you don’t track your results. As the late Peter Drucker said, “You can’t improve what you don’t measure.”How do you measure PR results? Start by following the news and social media to see when your company name gets mentioned. Many platforms like Twitter allow you to track different keywords or hashtags, for example.
Another easy way to do this is to set up a Google Alert. This lets you collect online mentions of different keywords, such as your company name or industry, via daily or weekly emails.
The point is to track how often your brand is mentioned so you can see what is working in your PR strategy and what isn’t and then adapt.
If this all sounds overwhelming, don’t worry. PR outreach can be challenging, especially when you’re just starting out. What you don’t want to do is blast as many pitches to as many outlets as you can think of. There are better ways.
To take your brand recognition to the next level, consider partnering with Marketer.co. We have established relationships with some of the internet’s top publications, and we can help get your company’s name featured in them in no time. Contact us today to learn more! We look forward to learning more about you and all your PR needs.
The eCommerce industry is constantly growing, evolving, and providing businesses with phenomenal opportunities to profit.
To take advantage of this ever-expanding sector, businesses need to develop powerful marketing strategies that reach the right audience at the right time.
It can make your online store more visible and capture the attention of potential customers who are actively looking for products and services- like yours in major search engines, social media platforms, and other digital channels.
In this blog, we will discuss paid eCommerce marketing strategies such as Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Social Media Advertising, Display Advertising, and more.
We'll also provide some examples from different companies so you can see which ones are succeeding in an increasingly crowded market filled with competitors eager to snatch away a piece of your pie before it even cools off!
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a type of internet marketing that involves using paid advertisements to rank highly in search engine results.
It includes optimizing landing pages as well as improving visibility and relevance through other methods such as pay-per-click (PPC), keyword research, and targeted ad placement.
Google Ads, which uses targeted advertising placed at the top of SERP results, and Yahoo marketing which focuses on contextual ads.
Other SEM strategies such as Bing & MSN have also become increasingly popular due to their low-cost options and ability to target specific demographics with paid search.
Social Media Advertising is a type of paid digital marketing that places ads on different social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube , Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.It helps businesses reach their target market through sponsored posts, carousel adverts and video adverts to spark interactions with potential customers by sharing relevant content in an engaging way.
Examples of successful Social Media Advertising campaigns range from Nestlé's Oat Bites product launch to Burger King's #ScaryGoodCostaRica hashtag campaign.
Each one created content that was relevant and engaging to the target market, helping them increase brand recognition, visibility, and loyalty with customers.
Display advertising is a type of marketing strategy that involves placing ads on different websites in display format. This includes everything from banners and videos to interactive media ads, so businesses can get their message across to consumers through visuals or sound.
Examples of display advertising campaigns include using retargeting to serve ads to warm leads , Native Ads which blend into the website and targeted banners placed on high traffic sites related to your product or service.
Influencer marketing is a type of online marketing where influencers, which are individuals with high-level reach and engagement, promote brands' products or services to their large audience base. It incorporates content creation and shares through multiple digital channels such as blog posts, social media platforms, video campaigns, and more.
These are integrated into platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and other popular websites in order to increase brand reach and engagement.
Affiliate Marketing is a type of e-commerce marketing that enables brands to increase their customer base by partnering with other businesses (affiliates) and incentivizing them to promote the brand's products or services. In exchange, affiliates receive a commission for each sale generated from their referrals; this is mostly a popular strategy now considering its many benefits.
Examples of successful affiliate marketing campaigns include Amazon's program, where the brand engages millions of affiliates around the world to help promote its products. Other companies such as REI and Blue Apron have also seen great success with their affiliate programs by providing incentives to customers for referring friends or followers to purchase their goods and services.
Email marketing is a form of digital marketing that involves sending promotional emails to potential and current customers. It allows businesses to build relationships, deliver value, promote their products, keep customers informed, and drive sales.
This will enable businesses to craft messages that resonate with the customers and deliver value at every step of their journey.
Companies can also use automation to trigger certain events based on customers' activities for a more personalized experience.
Retargeting is a type of online advertising whose main purpose is to re-engage customers who have previously interacted with a business or its marketing campaigns. It uses tracking codes placed on websites and segments users through cookies in order to show ads only to relevant audiences.
Ultimately leading to improved customer relationships through personalized experiences.
Each campaign provides a unique opportunity for businesses to reengage with their audiences by addressing specific interests.
Video Advertising is an effective way to reach potential customers. It involves creating compelling visual pieces, often using multimedia platforms such as YouTube or Vimeo, that send a powerful verbal and non-verbal message about the advertised product or service. It furthers brand recognition and increases engagement among your target audience for increased ROI.
It also allows marketers to track viewer behaviour like how long they watched which provides valuable insight into optimization efforts.
Examples of video advertising campaigns
Choosing the right Paid e-commerce Marketing Strategy for your business can be a daunting task. It is important to understand what goals you are trying to achieve, who your target audience is, and how they use various digital channels before settling on one strategy or another.
You should carefully weigh the advantages and disadvantages of each strategy as well as their associated costs and labor-intensive elements to choose one that best fits your needs.
Knowing these will give you insight in devising strategies tailored towards specific customer segments thus optimizing results within budgeted efforts.
Running a successful Google ad campaign is hard work. It requires crafting compelling ad copy, bidding on competitive keywords, and creating engaging landing pages.
It also requires having a handle on ad Quality Score. As the name suggests, this is Google’s official metric for measuring the quality of your ads. The higher your ad’s Quality Score, the higher Google will rank the ad and the less you will be charged for it. It's part of the ad rank formula.
In this article, we’ll go over exactly what the Quality Score is, how it’s measured, how it impacts Google Ads quality score, your Google ad performance, and more. You will also learn how to optimize your Google Ads account. Let’s get started!
Google Quality Score rates the quality of your ads in terms of their relevance to the search keywords you are targeting and their usefulness to users. It does this by comparing your ads to those of other advertisers on a scale of 1 to 10.
According to Google, you can use Quality Score as a diagnostic tool to “identify where it might be beneficial to improve your ads, landing pages, or keyword selection.”
The first step to improving an ad’s low-quality score is to understand how the metric is calculated in the first place.
There are three main components of Google’s Quality Score:
Source: https://instapage.com/blog/quality-score
Each of these factors is given a rating of “above average,” “average,” or “below average” by Google’s machine learning (ML) algorithms, which use historical data from other advertisers over the last 90 days.
In other words, Quality Score is based entirely on the “wisdom of the crowds” (Google users) as opposed to that of Google employees.
While Google doesn’t disclose the relative weighting of each Quality Score component, the click-through rate (CTR) appears to be the most important.
Why? Because at the end of the day, the number of people that actually click on your ad is the strongest indicator of its relevance to users.
Plus, Google relies heavily on ad revenue, and the only way it makes money from ads is if users click on them. Then Google collects money from advertisers. That’s how the cost-per-click (CPC) ad model works.
So, Google has a strong incentive to ensure its ads are high quality.
Quality score impacts your Google Ad performance in a few important ways:
First, the Quality Score helps determine which ads are eligible to enter the ad auction for a particular keyword. If your ad’s Quality score doesn’t reach a certain threshold, it won’t be considered.
Second, Quality Score helps determine how eligible ads are ranked in search results. The better the Quality Score, the higher the ad will appear.
Lastly (and perhaps most importantly), Quality Score helps determine an ad’s cost per click (CPC). Google discounts ads that have higher Quality Scores because it knows those ads will get clicked on more, leading to more ad revenue.
Again, without clicks, Google doesn’t make any money. So, if it can get generate more clicks by offering a discount to advertisers with higher-quality ads, it will.
The opposite is also true. If your ad’s Quality Score is lower than your competition, then Google will penalize you by requiring you to pay a higher CPC.
At the end of the day, Google just wants to make as much money as possible, and discounting and penalizing CPC is how it offsets differences in ad Quality Scores.
Source: https://www.clairejarrett.com/how-to-increase-quality-score-in-google-ads/
To improve your Google Ads’ Quality Scores, there are a few things you can do:
Knowing which keywords to target with your ads is essential to gaining a high-Quality Score. Some keywords may seem relevant to your product or service but, in fact, are not. To find out which keywords your target customers are actually searching for requires thorough research.When you get your keywords right, your ad CTRs will increase and so will your Quality Score.
Another way to improve the Quality Score is to tightly group target keywords. You want to make sure the ad groups aren’t too broad or else your ad relevance will suffer. If needed, split your ad groups into smaller, more tightly themed subgroups.
You can’t expect a high ad Quality Score without writing high-quality ad copy. After all, the content of the ad is what gets users to click on it. So focus on keeping ad copy short and to the point. Don’t try to be clever. Speak directly to your target customer’s heart so that they will be more inclined to click.
Of course, even the most compelling ads won’t do you any good if they lead to a landing page that isn’t relevant or useful. So you need to make sure your landing pages connect directly to your ad groups and provide a seamless experience for users from the initial ad to conversion.
Do this by creating a visual hierarchy, using minimal text, adding high-quality photos, and having different landing pages for different keywords and products.
Lastly, add negative keywords to your Google ads campaign. This excludes certain keywords that are irrelevant to your product or business so that you don’t waste any budget on them.
While not directly related to your Google Ads quality score, the quality of your brand's perception online can also be improved by deleting bad Google reviews. It won't matter if you're driving a bunch of traffic and you have a one star average with reviews from previous customers!
Ultimately, ad Quality Score is all about making your ads more relevant to users. Now that you understand how to do that, you can expect your ads to perform better in terms of CTR (performance) and CPC (cost).
That said, if you need extra help, PPC.co is here for you. Our expert marketers have decades of experience in running successful ad campaigns, and we’re confident we can take yours to the next level, too.
Contact us today for a free proposal. We look forward to chatting!
Digital marketing is a practical necessity if you're interested in greater brand visibility, generating more traffic for your website, landing more sales, or a combination of these.
But how do you handle that digital marketing?
One option is to hire a digital marketing agency – a special type of business designed to provide digital marketing services in exchange for recurring fees.
Unfortunately, digital marketing agencies are rarely cheap. If you're swimming in extra money, you probably don't need a digital marketing agency in the first place, which means most potential digital marketing agency clients need to think critically about whether hiring an agency is truly worth the money.
Are digital marketing agencies worth it? And how can you tell for sure?
A digital marketing agency is a business that provides many different types of digital marketing services to its clients. These services can include things like:
Digital marketing agencies typically employ individual specialists, including strategists, data analysts, designers, writers, and account specialists to take care of this work.
Because they also have an extended network of contacts and resources they can draw upon, working with the digital marketing agency is typically scalable. When you're first starting out, you can take advantage of a relatively inexpensive plan, and as your business grows and your needs change, you can tap into those extra resources.
Digital marketing agencies typically charge money in one of three ways. They may charge a monthly retainer fee, based on the number of hours you used during a specific time period, or based on individual projects.
The digital marketing agency’s efforts will likely boost brand visibility and reputation, increase web traffic, and increase conversions—though agencies rarely guarantee these types of improvements.
A digital marketing agency isn't your only option.
There are also several alternatives to consider.
In a discussion of whether a digital marketing agency is worth the money, we need to know what we're comparing against; a $500 hamburger might be worth it if you're starving, but probably isn't worth it if you can make a similar hamburger for a couple of dollars at home.
The problem is tracking down and continuously working with freelancers who are truly reliable experts. If you depend on a network of contractors, half of your marketing responsibilities will be finding new freelancers and coordinating them. While inexpensive, freelancers are less consistent and less reliable.
There's no clearly superior alternative, though some businesses will clearly prefer one of the above options over digital marketing agencies for one reason or another.
We also need to consider the cost of digital marketing agencies. Obviously, the price of a digital marketing agency will depend on many factors, including the agency's experience level and specialty, the services you require, the extent of those services, how the payment plan is structured, and more.
Still, we can make a high-level assessment of the price of the average digital marketing agency.
Currently, digital marketing agencies charge about $2,500 to $12,000 per month for small- to mid-sized business clients. That equates to an hourly rate between $50 and $500 (for most agencies), or $1,000 to $7,500 per project (though this varies significantly based on the nature of the project).
Depending on what you need, you can expect to pay at least a few thousand dollars every month for these services.
Is a digital marketing agency worth the money?
That depends on how you define “worth” – in other words, how you define the value an agency gives you. In our previous example, a $500 hamburger is worth it when you're starving, because the alternative is death, thus making the value of the hamburger “life” itself. Most of us would estimate that the value of a human life is far more than $500, making this a deal. But if the value is simply a slightly bigger hamburger, most of us would agree that the extra money is a waste. In most situations, the best tool to measure digital marketing agency value is your return on investment, or ROI, though this isn’t always easy or straightforward to calculate.
Essentially, you want to figure out how much material value the digital marketing agency is generating for your brand, relative to the amount of money you’re spending with the agency. You'll also need to consider this metric as it relates to alternative options.
For example, let's say you spend $10,000 per month with your digital marketing agency of choice. If they generate $5,000 in new sales for your business, you can clearly see a problem; you'll essentially be losing $5,000 every month, proving that this digital marketing agency is not worth the money. If they generate $50,000 in new sales for your business, the agency is very obviously worth the money.
Unfortunately, ROI can be difficult to calculate. There are simply too many variables to account for. If your agency is charging you a flat rate for services, this can streamline things, but you'll still need to take into account subtler cost variables, like how much time you spend talking on the phone with your account representative.
On the benefit side of the equation, it's important to consider the net value of meaningful actions generated by your agency, which isn't always straightforward. For example, let's say your digital marketing agency sends 100,000 people to your website. To understand how much value this has, you need to understand the average value of a website visitor.
We must also consider how we attribute things to the digital marketing agency. If 100,000 people visit your website, are you confident that all of them visited because of the actions your digital marketing agency took? What if you have independent marketing strategies running in the background? What would have happened if you executed this campaign, instead of your digital marketing agency?
Complicating things further, we need to consider forms of value that digital marketing agencies provide that can't be easily calculated. For example, if a digital marketing strategist teaches you a new principle that changes how you construct landing pages forever, multiplying your conversion rates many times over, how do you represent this in your ROI equation?
Because of these complicating variables, we can’t even begin to ballpark the “average” or expected ROI of a digital marketing agency. Even if we could, there would be digital marketing agencies seeing results far above and far below this figure. What’s important is that you have some kind of ROI-centric value equation you can use to approximate the value of the agency you work with. Your agency will likely attempt to prove its value as well, in a bid to keep you as a satisfied client.
Though certainly not guaranteed, most digital marketing agencies will return value that exceeds what you spend on them. If an agency can’t at least meet this threshold for service, it typically loses clients quickly and fades into oblivion; if an agency has been around and serving many clients for many years, you can usually count on a relatively high ROI.
Since our default assumption is that digital marketing agencies are usually worth the money, it might be easier to explain the situations and circumstances that make a digital marketing agency not worth the money.
As long as you have decent standards for agencies you hire, you can generally count on finding an agency that returns a sufficient amount of value to your organization. The real question is whether you're able to find the best possible digital marketing agency for your brand.
In other words, assuming nearly all digital marketing agencies are “worth the money,” how do you find the agency that returns the greatest amount of value for the money you spend?
Define this, and pay especially close attention to the agency’s areas of specialty, years of experience, current client portfolio, reviews, and general reputation within the marketing community. Due diligence is essential if you want to make the best choice.
Additionally, be ready to collaborate with your digital marketing agency to push your results even higher. A positive ROI is a good thing, but there's no upper limit to how high your ROI can climb when you're ready to push for it.
So, what's the bottom line here? For most businesses in most situations, a digital marketing agency is worth the money, assuming that a digital marketing agency is sufficiently experienced and competent.
There are many forms of value to consider when estimating worth, making ROI equations complicated, but you should still be able to estimate the prospective value of digital marketing agencies you're considering.
Are you interested in working with a digital marketing agency that can prove its value? Or are you just interested in seeing what types of digital marketing agencies are out there? Start here. Contact us for a free consultation today!
Social media advertising has become an increasingly important tool for businesses of all sizes to drive conversions and sales.
By reaching a targeted audience and showcasing products or services, social media ads can be an effective way to drive traffic, generate leads, and boost sales.
However, with so many options like reputable digital marketing agencies, it can be challenging to know where to start. In this article, we'll discuss the best practices for driving conversions and sales through social media advertising.
Social media advertising refers to paid advertising on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
These ads can appear in a variety of formats, including sponsored posts, banner ads, and in-stream video ads. Social media advertising differs from organic social media marketing, which refers to unpaid social media posts created by businesses to engage with their audience.
The first step in any social media advertising campaign is to set specific and measurable goals.
Common goals for social media advertising campaigns include increasing website traffic, generating leads, boosting sales, or increasing brand awareness. Setting clear goals from the outset will help to ensure that your advertising efforts are focused and effective.
Here are some tips to help you set clear and measurable goals:
Social media advertising offers an unparalleled advantage over traditional forms of marketing: the power to pinpoint your target audience with laser precision. By leveraging demographic, behavioral, and interest-based data, you can craft buyer personas that will guide your advertising strategy toward the audience that matters most.
Through social media audience targeting, you can significantly boost the effectiveness and efficiency of your advertising campaigns, allowing you to reach the right people, at the right time, and in the right place. With this game-changing approach to advertising, you can maximize your ROI and see real results like never before.
Below are some valuable tips to help you effectively target your audience through social media advertising:
Crafting impactful social media ads demands meticulous attention to detail and an in-depth comprehension of each platform's functionality.
Optimum practices for creating compelling social media ads consist of employing striking visuals, powerful headlines, explicit calls-to-action, and experimenting with diverse ad formats.
Remember, social media advertising is a dynamic space; therefore, be willing to adjust your approach as the landscape continues to evolve.
Here are some tips for crafting effective social media ads:
Once your social media advertising campaigns are up and running, it's crucial to track and analyze their performance. Key metrics to track include click-through rate, conversion rate, cost per acquisition, and return on investment.
By monitoring and measuring the success of your social media advertising campaigns, you can identify what's working and what's not and make informed decisions about how to optimize your campaigns going forward.
Here are some tips for monitoring and measuring the success of your social media advertising campaigns:
Social media advertising can be a powerful tool for businesses looking to drive conversions and sales.
By setting specific goals, targeting the right audience, crafting effective ads, and monitoring and measuring success, businesses can make the most of their social media advertising efforts.
As social media platforms continue to evolve, it's important to stay up-to-date on the latest trends and best practices to ensure your social media advertising campaigns are as effective as possible.
Imagine a hypothetical reality in which your website was the only one with any content related to how to buy a car. Yes, it sounds preposterous. But let’s run with it.
In this hypothetical reality, SEO would be trivially easy. When someone searches for “how to buy a car,” your website would be ranked one. In fact, your “rank one” position wouldn’t even matter – there wouldn’t be any other entries competing with you. You’d get all the possible organic traffic produced by people searching for this phrase.
Obviously, we live in a very different reality. Search for “how to buy a car” and you’ll see “about 3,990,000,000” results. And at the top of those results, you’ll see massively powerful brands like Edmunds, KBB, and NPR.
If you want to rank for this phrase, you’d have your work cut out for you – and even if you invest heavily in this pursuit, there’s no guarantee you’d ever get to page one, let alone rank one.
In your industry, you might be facing similarly intimidating odds and equally tough competitors.
So how do you manage it?
How do you beat your toughest SEO competitors without destroying your marketing budget in the process?
The competition problem in SEO essentially boils down to this: powerful competitors make it economically challenging and borderline impossible to compete in direct and traditional ways.
These are brands that have likely spent years if not decades, and hundreds of thousands of dollars reinforcing their positions. To disrupt them would take an even bigger effort – and even then, you’re not guaranteed to beat them.
Do you just ignore them and abandon SEO for a different, less competitive strategy? Not if we can help it.
There are actually several different approaches available to you – and each of them has the potential to help you achieve your SEO goals, no matter how fierce your competition is.
Up first is the brute force approach, and you can probably guess the main strategy here. Whatever your competitor is doing, you’re going to do more.If they spend $10,000 a month, you must spend $15,000 a month. If they’re building 20 backlinks a month, you must build 25 backlinks a month. If you keep up this pressure without sacrificing quality, you’ll overtake your top competitor eventually. If you’re on the highway going 65 mph and you’re trying to catch someone going 60 mph, it’s only a matter of time before you catch up – no matter how much of a head start they have. If they slow down or stop, you’ll catch up even faster.
The big problem with this strategy is that it’s not economically efficient. Sure, you might be able to spend your way to rank one, but if you don’t generate enough organic traffic from that rank-one position, it could end up being a loss.
In most cases, the better approach is to invest your money in more economically efficient strategies; why spend $15,000 a month outcompeting a dominant SEO player when you could spend $10,000 on PPC ads and get even more traffic?
However, every situation is unique and requires careful analysis.
The “skyscraper technique” is so named because it calls to mind the image of a city skyline filled with skyscrapers. The tallest skyscraper is the one that catches your attention first – and oftentimes, the one that becomes the representative symbol of the city. This desirable position has driven countless architects and civil engineers to engage in fierce competition to outdo each other with taller, more attractive skyscrapers.
The skyscraper approach to battling competitors is functionally similar. But instead of building a single tall skyscraper in a single city, it’s more like building taller skyscrapers in a bunch of different cities.
Here’s what we mean by this. If your competitor has an awesome piece of content with tons of links pointing to it, your goal is to produce something even better – so you can attract even more links and outcompete them. If your competitor has a backlink profile with a dozen high-quality links, your goal is to earn similar links from the same sources – and then a few extra.
Keep this up, and it’s only a matter of time before you’re in a better SEO position. You don’t need to pick fights on every front, of course; even a handful of superior assets can be valuable for your brand.
The biggest weakness of this approach is that it demands strategic focus. This is true of any SEO strategy, but it’s particularly important here since you’ll need to outdo your competitors in “low-hanging fruit” areas that are both accessible and valuable. These points of vulnerability can be hard to find.
The antagonistic approach is more directly confrontational, putting you in a position to undermine your top competitors – or at least prove your comparative value.
Here, your goal isn’t necessarily to outcompete your rivals, but instead to position yourself as a meaningful alternative in an environment where they’d have near-exclusive control.
The most common territory to target here is branded keywords. Let’s say you sell paper towels and your biggest competitor is a brand called O-Sheets. O-Sheets would, by default, dominate the SERPs for any words or phrases containing “O-Sheets” or other branded terms. It’s practically impossible to outrank them for these terms – but you can aspire to reach rank two.
Let’s say you reach rank two with a piece of content like “Are O-Sheets Truly the Best Paper Towels?” On the page, you compare O-Sheets paper towels to yours, proving that yours are more absorbent, less expensive, and more comfortable to use. Even if you only capture a fraction of the traffic for O-Sheets branded terms, you’ll be siphoning traffic from your rivals and converting fans from their brand to yours.
You can also use a similar siphoning strategy in your PPC ad campaign.
Obviously, rank two isn’t quite as good as rank one, and if you start a direct brand conflict like this, you’re inviting retaliation. This approach is also limited in its potential; there are only so many branded terms to cover and only so much damage you can do.
We also have the avoidance approach. No, this isn't about closing up your business because you can no longer compete. Instead, it's about finding strategic ways to avoid directly confronting your competitors while still actively competing with them.
In most cases, this boils down to finding critical ways to differentiate your brand from those of your competitors. For example, you can sell slightly different products. You can reach a slightly different audience. You can target users in a different area or optimize for different groups of keywords.
Your goal is to find meaningful, valuable areas where your competitors aren't so dominant; without these rivals standing in your way, you'll have a clear path to the top of the SERPs.There are a few small weaknesses with this approach, though it tends to perform consistently when used properly. For starters, your competitors are likely dominant in the most valuable areas of optimization.
Choosing to avoid those in favor of less competitive ground means you'll be pursuing inherently less valuable targets in most cases. Additionally, it's hard to avoid competitors entirely; there may be fewer competitors or less fierce competitors in a new area, but you'll still need to have some way to differentiate and improve the value of your work.
Do note that you're not limited to following any single approach or strategy. Instead, you can use a combination of these strategies or all of them together. For example, you can optimize for competitor-branded keyword terms, avoid competitors by targeting a different audience, and still follow the skyscraper approach to outcompete them in specific areas.
Also, this list is not exhaustive. In some cases, it may pay to collaborate or directly partner up with your competitors, rather than pitting yourself against them. And of course, you’re free to exercise your own creativity to come up with a novel strategy.
Are you dealing with SEO competitors you just can’t seem to dethrone? Or are you ready to launch into your industry, guns blazing, to dominate the competitors who have been at the top too long? We’ve got the strategists and resources you need to thrive.
Lots of digital marketers openly proclaim that search engine optimization (SEO) is the best marketing strategy for most businesses.
But what makes a marketing strategy the best? Obviously, that question is subjective. However one of the most common ways to evaluate the quality or effectiveness of a marketing strategy is to measure its ROI – its return on investment.
In other words, we want to know whether a strategy makes more money for a business than it costs them to keep the strategy going. If you spend $10 on ads, do you get at least $10 back?
The higher the ROI, the more valuable a marketing strategy is – at least, by this metric. So what is the ROI for an average SEO campaign? And does this justify investing in the strategy?
ROI is important because it's one of the most effective tools for ballparking the true value of the digital marketing strategy.
We can't simply look at performance, because this doesn't take cost into consideration. For example, let's say a new marketing strategy brings you $5 million of new revenue, but it costs you $6 million to plan and execute; even though this strategy brought in lots of money, it's still technically a net loss.
If the ROI of a marketing strategy is positive, we can consider it a sound investment. We can also use relative ROI to compare different marketing strategies and determine which, among them, is most worthy of our investment dollars.
Ultimately, ROI calculation serves many purposes at once:
So what do we expect, on average, from an SEO campaign? The expected ROI of SEO is going to vary depending on what, exactly, you’re measuring and who’s doing the calculating. Marketing strategies, in general, are considered a great success if you have a 500 percent ROI – in other words, getting back $5 for every $1 you spend. ROI for an SEO campaign could be as high as 1,220 percent – or even higher – but if the campaign is mismanaged, you could come up negative. Generally, we expect the ROI for any SEO campaign to be roughly positive. In other words, you should make back all the money you spent on SEO, assuming you already have a profitable business in place. As for the degree of positive ROI you see, that depends on many variables, such as:
It’s also important to realize that SEO is a long-term strategy. Over time, you'll accumulate more on site content, you'll build more links, and you'll generate more authority and trustworthiness for your domains. The more you invest, the more powerful you'll grow, and the easier it will be for you to get new pages to rank. The early days of SEO are usually difficult because you won't see any immediate progress from your first round of efforts. Because of this effect, the ROI for an SEO strategy is usually low, or even negative, in the first couple of months. By the time you've spent a few months practicing this strategy, you should be consistently positive. After a few years, you should see much better, more positive results.
To gauge the performance of your campaign, and evaluate whether your spending is “worth it,” you’ll need to calculate marketing ROI for your own efforts.
The most basic version of this equation is very simple. You simply need to compare the revenue this strategy has generated with the money you've spent on it
.In practice, this equation can get complicated fast.
Let's start by looking at what you spend on SEO. If you want your calculation to be as accurate as possible, you'll need to incorporate all your expenses. That includes whatever you're paying for SEO agency services and SEO contractors, as well as the salaries of internal SEO personnel and the true costs of any time you spend managing your campaigns. On-site optimization, content development, link building, and analytics all have individual costs that need to be accounted for.
Once you calculate the total for a given period, you can estimate how much of a return you're getting. There are a few different approaches you could take here, but it's easiest to start by looking at the behavioral patterns of your organic traffic. Organic traffic to your website is generated exclusively by search engine results pages (SERPs), so it's an excellent way to look at the people coming to your website because they discovered you through search.
How many organic visitors are you generating? What is your conversion rate for these visitors? And what is your customer lifetime value (CLV) among these customers?
As a simple example, let's say you generate 10,000 organic visitors per month with a conversion rate of 2 percent. That means your organic traffic is leading your business to win 200 new customers each month. If each customer has a lifetime value of $1,000, this represents $200,000 of returns. Even if you're spending $10,000 a month on SEO, this spending is clearly worth it.
There are other variables you should look at as well, including the difference between new visitors and repeat visitors and the value of each individual conversion. But these guidelines should lead you to a fairly accurate estimate.
Now that we know how to calculate ROI, what steps can we take to maximize it for your SEO campaign? These are some of the best ways to get the greatest possible return out of your SEO investment:
It's hard to give a blanket statement about whether SEO is worth it or not, since there are so many different variables to consider and so many different scenarios that could unfold. However, the average business benefits enormously from SEO, seeing a positive ROI that more than justifies the initial investment. If you're curious to learn more about how SEO could benefit your business, or if you're ready to start a full campaign, contact us for a free consultation today!
Content marketing, our old friend, the king of digital marketing strategies, and the foundation of any SEO strategy, is in bad shape.At least, according to some online commentators.
Content marketing pessimists insist this strategy is dying, or that it's already dead, encouraging content marketers and search optimizers everywhere to find a different target for their marketing dollars.
But is content marketing really dying? And if so, what should you do about it?
In case you're new here, content marketing is the practice of developing valuable content for a specific target audience, with the hopes of naturally attracting that target audience to a specific destination, usually a website.
For example, if you have the world's best blog on how to bake chocolate chip cookies, everyone interested in baking cookies is eventually going to find it. From there, you can sell them chocolate chips, cookbooks, or whatever else you want.
Content marketing rose in popularity in the late 2000s, and really came to prominence in the 2010s. Now that we're squarely in the 2020s, it's no longer fair to call content marketing a new strategy – but it was game-changing when it first started emerging.
We need to understand why content marketing rose to prominence if we're going to understand if and why it's dying.
Broadly speaking, we can explain content marketing's popularity with the following three influences:
First, let's talk to the Internet and the power of inbound marketing. Historically, marketing and advertising strategies have been outbound, actively seeking people and trying to get their attention. Inbound marketing is a totally different approach to outbound marketing, luring people in with something they genuinely desire.
This only became truly effective when the internet reached mainstream popularity. Once people figured out they could find anything and everything with a simple search, Google started seeing millions, then billions of searches per day. Almost all of us use online search engines multiple times a day now, which means there are far more people trying to discover new content. This, in turn, makes discoverable content much more valuable.
Second, after being inundated with traditional advertising for decades, consumers finally began to grow distrustful of their persuasive messages. Every company in the world tried aggressively to convince people that their products were worth buying; as a downstream result, consumers became much less open to direct persuasion. That doesn't mean traditional advertising doesn't work or can't work, but savvy marketers knew they needed to find an alternative.
If advertising isn't as powerful because consumers don't trust you, one solution is to simply gain more trust however you can. Content marketing is the perfect strategy for building that genuine trust.
Third, any search optimization expert can tell you that conventional SEO campaigns are practically impossible without a content marketing strategy. Content is your main way of building authority, optimizing for specific keyword terms, and even link building. Because SEO is so valuable, it was only natural for content marketing to take over the digital marketing world.
Why do some people think that content marketing is dying?There are several competing explanations, and all of them may play some role in influencing this sentiment.
We just listed a host of reasons to be pessimistic about the future of content marketing. But realistically, content marketing is still valuable – and for several reasons. For starters, it's still a crucial component of any SEO strategy. Even if human readers were completely turned off from reading online content, these pieces of content would still be valuable for search engine indexes.
Additionally, content comes in many forms and can be produced in countless different ways. If the biggest problems with content marketing are the written medium and low effort, you can make up for these by incorporating more visuals and investing more effort. Also, it’s rare for marketing strategies to ever become truly obsolete.
Printed newspapers are rarer than they used to be, but newspaper ads can still be valuable in some circumstances; in fact, in many instances, they're cheaper than ever. Content marketing certainly isn't the same as it was 10 years ago, but that doesn't mean the strategy is truly dying.
So what steps can you take to make sure your content marketing strategy stays alive and valuable for your brand?
Are you concerned about the long-term value or effectiveness of your current content marketing strategy? Or have you hit a content marketing plateau? We have content marketing experts who can help you, from strategy and planning to development and publication. Contact us today for a free consultation!
Generating conversions from PPC ads isn’t hard, but you This article will explain some of the key factors that influence (or deter) conversions.
Once a user clicks on your ad, it will be your corresponding landing page that drives home conversions. A well-designed page will reassure people that your site is trustworthy. A poorly designed page can give the impression that the offer might be a scam or low-quality.Make sure your landing page has the following elements:
Focused landing pages increase conversion rates. Instead of sending prospects to your home page and letting them explore your site, send them to a specific, dedicated, and focused landing page designed specifically for each offer.
The process of interacting with your ads and landing on your website should be a continuous experience. For example, if your ad promotes 10% off of cartoon-printed socks, the user will expect your website to present that exact offer. When they click on your ad, your landing page should be dedicated to that specific offer, depicting all the cartoon-printed socks you sell.
You don’t want to send people to your “Sock Company” home page because it breaks the continuity and that’s when a lot of people will bounce. To maximize conversions, keep your landing page focused on the offer in your paid ad.
Copy is just a fancy word for “text” and it happens to be one of the most influential factors in PPC conversions. Your ad may not have more than a headline and a few words as a description, but the right words can get more clicks and the wrong words can turn people off.
If you want to increase conversions, your copy needs to be persuasive. Your ad headline needs to be enticing enough to get clicks, and your landing page copy needs to be compelling enough to generate conversions, like sales or signups.
Writing persuasive copy isn’t easy when you aren’t a professional writer, so the best way to get a strong copy is to hire a copywriter who specializes in content marketing.
Color is extremely important for your conversions. You won’t find many landing pages with bright purple “buy now” buttons for a reason – it’s not the right color.
While there are a variety of color schemes that can work, studies have shown certain colors to be more effective. For example, HubSpot conducted a test that put green against red. Normally, red is perceived as “stop” and green is perceived as “go,” so you might think the green button would win.
Surprisingly, the red button outperformed the green by 21%. This doesn’t mean red is the only color that works, but it seems to be highly effective.
The people you target are arguably the most important factor in your conversion rate. If the people who see your ads aren’t your ideal customers, you won’t get conversions. This is the first place to start when optimizing your conversion rate.
Make sure your ads are targeting the correct market. You might need to revisit your market research to ensure you have that market properly defined.
When people read your offer, how well your value is presented will influence conversions. You want your proposition to tell people why they should buy from you over the competition.A strong value proposition will help you generate more conversions. However, this isn’t easy to nail, so if you’re struggling to get it right, digital marketing services can help.
Anything that distracts visitors can prevent them from converting. Distractions include things like flashing animations, pop-ups irrelevant to your offer, external links, and internal links that go to other pages on your website.
To increase conversions, and decrease distractions. Keep your prospects on your offer page and don’t give them any reason to leave.
You can have the best offer in the world, but if you don’t directly ask for the sale and create urgency around following your CTA, you’ll miss out on plenty of conversions.It’s important to create a sense of urgency around your offer. You can use a countdown timer to a deadline or use other marketing tactics like offering a limited supply.
Testimonials contribute to the decision to buy. Not having testimonials on your PPC landing pages can hinder conversions. Good testimonials are the social proof many people need to make a purchase. According to Volume 8 of the Conversion Index created by Bazaarvoice, businesses generate 58% more conversions from visitors who read reviews and testimonials.
If your goal is to generate sales, the price point of your offer can influence or deter conversions. A price point set too low will make people think your offer is cheap. However, if your price is set too high, it can make people bounce.
The key is to set the right price for your offer and your target audience. Sometimes this requires adjusting your audience. For example, everyone would love to have a life coach, but if you want to charge $500 per month for your services, you need to target a more affluent client base.
Last, but not least, a good checkout process will ensure your inspired prospects continue with their purchase. If it becomes a struggle or something isn’t working right, people will bounce.
Always verify your checkout process to ensure it’s smooth and easy. For example, avoid forcing people to create an account just to buy from you, and make sure all shipping calculations are shown before the user enters their payment information. You can lose a lot of conversions with a frustrating checkout system.
Now that we’ve discussed all the factors that influence your conversion rate, it’s time to dive into increasing your conversions. If you want more sales, signups, and followers from your PPC ads, here’s how to achieve that.
You can’t improve your conversion rate if you don’t know which elements are contributing to or hindering your success. If you try to adjust your PPC ad campaigns to generate better results without this information, you might end up making the wrong changes.
Always run a split-testing campaign with your PPC ads and landing pages to identify successful elements and experiment to fine-tune your improvements.
There are a handful of common technical causes for low conversion rates. For example:
Other factors that diminish conversions include:
Most of these factors are within your control and they’re not hard to improve. You can use the LIFT Model discussed in the next point to cover your bases here.
The LIFT Model consists of optimizing and managing six factors that drive conversions – Value Proposition, Relevance, Clarity, Distraction, Urgency, and Anxiety.
Chances are, that $5,000 item won’t generate immediate sales from your PPC ads. That’s a big investment and most people will need time to think before they act. One way to get around this is to use a tripwire. A tripwire is a lower-priced item that you offer people first. Once someone makes a small purchase it’s easier for them to spend more money. Tripwire is an effective method for earning trust and generating hot leads to nurture larger purchases through email marketing.
Companies that offer money-back guarantees are more likely to generate sales from hesitant prospects. There will always be some people who ask for a refund, but you will get a generous amount of purchases to make up for this fact.
There are so many offers out there and if your company isn’t already well-known, people will be hesitant to buy from you. Offering a money-back guarantee alleviates those concerns and makes people feel safer in their decision to buy. If you have an amazing product or service, it’s unlikely that you’ll get flooded with refund requests.
Even today, some people won’t use their credit card online, but they will use PayPal or Klarna. Make sure you offer credit card alternatives. Many consumers prefer PayPal because they offer protection for buyers and it’s easier to resolve a dispute through PayPal than a credit card company.
Whether it’s styles, colors, sizes, or other options, minimize the number of choices you offer. The more choices you provide, the fewer purchases you’ll get. This is backed up by the famous “jam experiment.” The results, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (JPSP, Vol. 79, No. 6), showed that grocery store customers presented with 6 flavors of jam to sample were ten times more likely to make a purchase than those presented with 24 flavors to try.
Are you ready to supercharge your PPC landing pages to get more conversions? Marketer.co can help. Contact us for more information – we’d love to work with you and help you achieve your goals!
If you’re like most business owners, you've been reading the economic tea leaves to figure out how you should strategically adapt for the next few months and years. Inflation is high, the supply chain is still shaken up from the COVID-19 pandemic, and consumers are starting to worry; while there are some positive economic indicators in play, most people are exercising caution and planning conservatively, reducing spending in these uncertain economic times.
Understandably, one of the first areas to receive budget cuts in a business is marketing. Marketing isn't considered integral to central operations, since it's an indirect source of revenue generation dependent on operations throughout the rest of the company.
I'd argue that marketing is practically necessary, even in the hardest economic times. Without a way to build brand equity, raise awareness, and drive new customers to your business, a moderate economic challenge could become an insurmountable problem.
That said, reducing your marketing budget could be a smart move – as long as you plan appropriately.
Here’s how to do it.
If I had to boil everything down to three main rules, it's these:
With these rules in mind, the following strategies can help you make the most of this economically uncertain era – and keep seeing great results on even a thin budget.
An economic recession is no excuse to close your marketing department, but it makes sense to reduce your budget if you do it intelligently. Focusing on strategic efficiency and maximizing value can help you extract much better results even from the tiniest amounts of spending. You can always scale back up in the future.
Is email dead? With the rise of social media, instant messaging, and other forms of online communication, you might think so.
But the truth is that email is far from dead. In fact, McKinsey & Company reports that it is 40 times more effective at acquiring customers than Facebook and Twitter combined.“That’s because 91 percent of all US consumers still use email daily, and the rate at which emails prompt purchases is not only estimated to be at least three times that of social media, but the average order value is also 17 percent higher,” the report says. Still, writing effective marketing emails can be difficult, especially if it’s a cold email.
In this article, we’ll go over what a cold email is, the benefits and challenges of cold emailing, different types of cold emails, how to write cold emails that convert cold leads into warm leads, and more.
Let’s get started!
A cold email is an unsolicited email sent to someone you have no prior connection with (aka a cold lead). It’s basically the email equivalent of cold calling.
Cold emails are most often sent to potential customers or someone with whom you want to build a business relationship and add to your network.
It’s important to note, however, that cold emails are different from spam. Unlike spam emails that are sent indiscriminately, cold emails are sent to qualified leads only. In addition, cold emails are personalized and not just a carbon copy of an email sent to many recipients.
Some of the main benefits of cold emailing are that it’s something you can do for free, it’s completely in your control, and it’s easy to scale.
The biggest challenge of cold emailing is that it’s hard to do well. According to a study of 12 million cold emails conducted by Backlinko, the vast majority of cold emails are ignored. The average response rate for cold emails is 8.5%, which means if you sent out 100 cold emails, only 8 or 9 of them would get a reply.
That said, when done right, cold emails can have a huge ROI. Depending on what kind of product or service you are pitching, a single cold email has the potential to generate thousands of dollars in revenue.
Cold emails can serve different ends. Some common ones include:
When it comes to actually crafting an effective cold email, follow these steps:
If the subject line doesn’t grab the recipient’s attention, it won’t matter how good the rest of the email is because they won’t see it. So, you’ve got to nail the subject line.
To do this, make it short and sweet, personal, and interesting. You might ask a question, include an emoji, or use numbers (e.g., “How I earned $9,781 in one day").
The point is to grab your recipient’s attention, so they don’t overlook your email. Just make sure that your subject line isn’t clickbait. It must actually relate to what’s inside the email.
This is an easy step to forget, but it’s an important one. You want to tell the recipient why you are reaching out to them specifically as opposed to anyone else. People are more likely to respond when they feel uniquely qualified to help. Say you’re emailing a fintech executive. By telling them upfront that you’re interested in networking with an experienced fintech executive, they may be more likely to oblige.
Give the reader a reason to listen to you. This is an excellent opportunity to list off some of your credentials, past accolades, and experience. If you can work in some social proof by mentioning past clients or partners you’ve worked with, do it. The point is to validate yourself so that the reader is more likely to take you seriously. If you don’t yet have much credibility, find something you share in common instead. For example, you could point out that you and your reader both enjoy rock climbing (this takes some research, obviously). The rarer the commonality, the better.
As humans, we work much harder to avoid pain than to gain pleasure. You can use this to your advantage. Research what’s bothering or hurting your reader and tap into that. Perhaps they’re a workaholic struggling to find a healthy work-life balance.
Acknowledge that making time for family, hobbies, and relaxation can be difficult. This will help your message resonate more with your readers and they will be more inclined to read on.
Don’t bring up your reader’s pain points without pointing them to a solution. Ideally, the solution is your product or service. This is the whole point of the cold email, after all. So be specific about what you have to offer and how it can add value to your recipient.
For example, you might have a software scheduling tool that can eliminate the administrative burden of making appointments. Try to quantify your solution by saying how much time or money it could save your prospect.
Every cold email needs a compelling CTA. This is how you lead your readers to do whatever you want them to do, whether that’s booking a consultation, requesting a free audit, or placing an order.
You want to make it as easy as possible for them to take the next step. Leaving them confused about what to do next is missing a huge opportunity.
Your email signature consists of the information below your name. Most email providers let you create one that automatically sends with each message.
A nice email signature can reaffirm your credibility by showing your title, the company you work for, and a logo. It can also make it easier to reach out to you by including your phone number, address, and alternate email.
At the end of the day, crafting effective cold emails is an art. It takes practice and a lot of trial and error. However, there are some tried-and-true principles that can help make your cold emails stand out. Here they are:
Hopefully, you now feel more confident about sending cold emails. If you still need help, Marketer.co is here for you. Our marketing experts have years of experience in crafting powerful cold emails that generate lots of leads. Work with us to take your business’s marketing to the next level.
Feel free to contact us today for a free consultation. We look forward to learning more about your marketing needs and seeing how we can help.
While there may be many methods for generating leads organically, there are some circumstances when buying leads can be a quick and efficient alternative to scaling your marketing efforts.
Nonetheless, not all lead sellers and lead providers are created equal, and with the extensive range of options existing, it can be challenging to decide who or what to contact for support.
The LinkedIn platform is even more effective as a tool for generating leads thanks to the LinkedIn Sales Navigator service.
Given how successful LinkedIn is right now, this is a major improvement. You have a wide range of search criteria at your disposal when using Sales Navigator to look for leads. These criteria include things like the job title, the sector, the location, and other elements.
Also, you have the option to save leads and accounts so that you can keep tabs on their happenings and see how involved these accounts are with your company. You have access to this function if you decide to save leads and accounts.
If you are serious about producing leads for your organization, advancing in Sales Navigator will more than pay for itself despite being relatively costly.
UpLead is a platform for generating leads in the cloud with many different features. Real-time email verification, lead enrichment, and interfaces with common customer relationship management (CRM) systems are a few of these features.
With UpLead, you may look for leads based on a number of aspects, like the job title, the size of the company, and the geography.
The application also provides users with a Google Chrome add-on that enables them to look up possible leads while browsing the web. You can download this add-on from the system's website.
With the help of the website visitor tracking tool Leadfeeder, you can determine which businesses have visited your website even if they haven't submitted a form or gotten in touch with you. Because Leadfeeder is a visitor tracking system, this is possible. This is now possible thanks to Leadfeeder, which lets you identify the companies that have visited your website.
By using Leadfeeder, you can learn which pages the company viewed, how long they spent on your website, and what search terms they entered into the search field to discover you.
It is also simple to convert website visits into leads thanks to the platform's collaboration with widely used customer relationship management (CRM) solutions like Salesforce and HubSpot. This gives it an edge over rival platforms.
A business-focused database called ZoomInfo gives its users access to millions of organizations and connections that are spread out around the globe. You can use ZoomInfo to find leads by using a range of criteria, including the job title, the industry, and the location. To guarantee that the leads you get are current and accurate, the platform also offers a wide range of services, like lead enrichment and email verification.
The business-to-business (B2B) sales and marketing intelligence platform from DiscoverOrg offers customers access to a variety of data about businesses and contacts throughout the world. You can use DiscoverOrg to look for leads based on factors like job title, industry, and location. The platform provides capabilities for account-based digital marketing and lead enrichment, which can be used to locate and interact with clients that are the best fit for your business.
With the use of the website visitor monitoring application LeadForensics, you can track down companies that have visited your website even if they haven't submitted a form or gotten in touch with you. You may find out which pages on your website the business visited, how long they spent there, and what search terms they used to discover you. It is simple to turn website visits into leads thanks to the platform's interaction with widely used customer relationship management (CRM) solutions like Salesforce and HubSpot.
A platform for generating leads for B2B companies called LeadGenius gives them admission to a network of more than 500,000 researchers and data scientists. You may use LeadGenius to find leads based on factors like industry, geography, and job title. Also, you can screen leads depending on the size of the business, income, and other factors. LeadGenius uses a mixture of artificial intelligence and human researchers to collect data, resulting in leads that are surely focused and well-targeted.
A platform for B2B lead development, D&B Hoovers gives users access to more than 120 million company contacts globally. Users of the portal can look for leads using a variation of criteria, including industry, business size, job title, and more. Users can also sort leads based on criteria like revenue, employee count, and others. The in-depth information on each company, including financial data, corporate history, and news stories, is one of the main advantages of using D&B Hoovers and is useful when contacting potential customers.
Data.com is a well-liked option for finding potential clients because it has a large database of company contacts. To preserve accuracy, the database is frequently updated with new information. In order to assist consumers in finding fresh leads pertinent to their target market, Data.com also offers a lead-generating service.
With over 30 million records in its contact database, Salesfully is a lead supplier. Users can utilize the website's filters to focus on certain industry sectors, job functions, and geographical regions. Email verification, corporate information, and lead commendations based on user preferences are among the other services offered by Salesfully. One benefit of Salesfully is its pay-as-you-go pricing structure, which enables users to buy just the number of leads they actually need for their organization.
Another lead supplier with access to a contact database with more than 10 million records is AeroLeads. The website offers a number of filters that visitors can use to focus on particular industry sectors, job functions, and geographical regions. In addition, AeroLeads delivers lead recommendations based on user preferences, company information, and email authentication. Users may find and save leads more easily when cruising the web with the help of a browser plugin.
One of the significant benefits of using Lead411 is its flexible pay-as-you-go pricing model, making it an excellent option for organizations that don't need a large number of leads. This pricing model permits businesses to control their lead generation costs and only pay for the leads they need, without any long-term commitments or contracts. Lead411 also offers a range of integrations with popular CRM and marketing automation tools, making it easy for businesses to import their leads and start using them right away. Additionally, the platform is user-friendly and intuitive, making it easy for businesses of all sizes to use and benefit from.
To sum up, generating high-quality leads might be difficult, but these top five lead-buying locations give businesses the instruments and materials they need to speed up the procedure. Every platform, from Hushly to LinkedIn Sales Navigator, has distinct advantages that are personalized to a particular business kinds. Because of the many pricing options, businesses may select a lead generation program that fits their budget while still generating high-quality leads to help them grow and expand.
There are many factors to consider while looking for a lead provider. Some of the most important factors to think about are listed below:
The most important consideration when choosing a lead supplier is the quality of the leads. Excellent leads have a higher chance of becoming clients, so it's critical to pick a source that provides accurate and current leads. Look for a vendor who has a track record of delivering high-quality leads, and make sure the leads are established and authenticated.
Depending on the provider, the cost of leads can vary significantly. It's key to picking a supplier who charges fairly for high-quality leads. Be sure the cost is reasonable given the caliber of the leads you will acquire by comparing the prices of various sources.
Filters A lead generation tool would be incomplete without filters. The greater your chances are of discovering leads that fit your target demographic, the more filters a supplier offers. In order to target particular industries, job titles, regions, and more, look for a supplier who provides a wide selection of filters.
Choosing a lead provider requires consideration of customer support. No matter if it's a technical problem or a query concerning the leads, you want to be confident that you can get assistance when you need it. Choose a supplier who provides responsive customer service, including phone and email support.
Data security is essential when buying leads. Be sure the vendor you select takes data protection seriously and adheres to industry standards. Choose a supplier who is open about their data protection practices and has a solid track record of keeping client information safe.
Finally, it's critical to consider the main supplier's ratings and reputation. To learn about the supplier's advantages and disadvantages, read user reviews. Take into account the supplier's standing in the market and history of producing leads of the highest caliber.
To sum up, there are numerous locations where you may buy leads for your company, but not all vendors are created equal. It's crucial to take into account aspects like lead quality, price, filters, support, data protection, and reviews when choosing a lead supplier. You can ensure that you get leads of the highest caliber to aid in the expansion of your company by taking the time to select the ideal supplier.
In the sphere of search engine optimization (SEO), duplicate content looms as a notorious adversary that has the potential to cause grave harm to your website's rankings.
Whenever search engines come across numerous pages with indistinguishable or remarkably analogous content, it may prove to be a Herculean task for them to ascertain which page deserves to be ranked higher in the search results.
The result? Your website could be afflicted with reduced visibility, diminished traffic, and an attenuated ability to allure and retain potential customers.
In this dissertation, we shall delve into what duplicate content is, how it impacts your search engine rankings, and what you can do to obviate it from pulling down your website's visibility.
Duplicate content, in essence, refers to any content that appears in multiple places on the internet. This could encompass textual matter, images, videos, or any other type of content that is replicated across several web pages. Duplicate content can manifest on the same website or across distinct domains. Duplicate content can be categorized into two fundamental types: internal and external.
Internal duplicate content refers to pages within the same website that contain identical or very similar content. External duplicate content, on the flip side, occurs when the same content is published on different websites.
For instance, if you possess two pages on your website with indistinguishable content, that would be classified as internal duplicate content. If you publish an article on your blog and then republish it on another website, that would be categorized as external duplicate content.
Duplicate content can exert a momentous impact on your website's search engine rankings. When search engines stumble upon several pages with identical or very similar content, they may encounter considerable difficulty in determining which page merits being ranked higher in the search results.
This can culminate in a cornucopia of negative consequences for your website, including:
Preventing duplicate content is crucial to preserving a robust online presence and circumventing the negative consequences we've discussed. Here are some tips for forestalling duplicate content on your website:
Duplicate content can be a pernicious adversary to your website's search engine rankings, visibility, and overall online presence. To avoid these deleterious consequences, it's indispensable to create unique, top-quality content, use canonical tags, consolidate analogous pages, set up 301 redirects, use meta robots tags, dodge duplicate content on e-commerce websites, and monitor your website for duplicate content issues.
By adhering to these measures, you can help ensure that your website is well-optimized for search engines, providing a positive user experience, and drawing in potential customers to your business. Remember, high-quality content is the crux of a flourishing online presence, and expending the time and effort to craft unparalleled, valuable content will aid in guaranteeing that your website is well-regarded by search engines and users alike.
As a website proprietor, you understand that maintaining a website can be an excellent approach to allure novel clients, provide valuable facts, and generate revenue.
But what transpires when your website's rankings begin to dwindle dramatically? Your website might become less conspicuous to budding customers, leading to an unfavorable impact on your enterprise.
In this composition, we will furnish you with some suggestions on how to address your plummeting website rankings.
The primary step in resolving your falling website rankings is to execute a website review. This assessment will assist you in pinpointing the areas that necessitate improvement. Some issues to look out for include:
Broken links Sluggish loading speed Duplicate content Missing meta descriptions Inferior quality content Inadequate user experience.
After identifying the issues, commence correcting them individually. You can avail of a website audit instrument to facilitate you in identifying these issues.
One of the most crucial elements that determine your website rankings is the eminence of your content. You should guarantee that your website contains exceptional and high-quality content that is pertinent to your target audience. The content should also be optimized for search engines. This signifies that you should incorporate pertinent keywords in your content and meta descriptions.
Furthermore, you should ensure that your website is updated recurrently. This will aid in improving your website rankings and keeping your target audience engrossed. You can accomplish this by appending blog posts, news updates, or any other kind of content that is pertinent to your audience.
Link building services are an important component of a holistic digital marketing strategy. It involves acquiring hyperlinks from other websites that point back to your website. These links are viewed as votes of confidence by search engines, indicating that other websites consider your content to be valuable and relevant. As a result, search engines tend to rank websites with a greater number of high-quality links higher in their search results.
However, it's important to note that link building should be done in a strategic and thoughtful way. Simply adding too many anchor text links indiscriminately can actually have a negative impact on your overall search engine ranking.
Search engines have become more sophisticated in recent years (from Panda 3.3 to Panda 3.4--in the early years to more recent SpamLink and content quality Google updates), and they can detect when websites are engaging in manipulative link building tactics to artificially inflate their ranking.
Mobile devices are gaining momentum as a popular medium for browsing the internet. Hence, it is crucial to optimize your website for mobile devices. This implies that your website should be user-friendly, load promptly, and be responsive to diverse screen sizes.
If your website is not optimized for mobile devices, you might encounter a decline in rankings. You can employ an instrument such as Google's Mobile-Friendly Test to verify whether your website is optimized for mobile devices.
Backlinks are a vital factor in enhancing your website rankings. Backlinks are links that other websites use to link to your website. The quality and quantity of these links can have a substantial influence on your website's rankings.
To foster high-quality backlinks, you can reach out to other websites in your industry and request them to link to your website. You can also create high-quality content that other websites will want to link to. It is paramount to note that you should only foster backlinks from respectable and high-quality websites.
Social media is a first-rate approach to promote your website and improve your website rankings. By disseminating your content on social media, you can amplify your website's visibility, allure novel clients, and enhance your website's rankings.
To utilize social media effectively, you should ensure that your social media profiles are optimized for search engines. This implies that you should incorporate pertinent keywords in your profiles and descriptions. You should also ensure that your content is shareable and engaging. This will aid in increasing your social media following and improving your website rankings.
Monitoring your website performance is critical in addressing your plummeting website rankings. By monitoring your website's performance, you can pinpoint the areas that necessitate improvement and take action before it is too late.
Several instruments can help you monitor your website's performance. Google Analytics is an excellent instrument that can aid you in monitoring your website's traffic, bounce rate, and other crucial metrics. You can also avail of an instrument such as SEMrush to monitor your website's rankings and track your competitors.
Google Search Console is a free instrument that can aid you in monitoring your website's performance in Google search results. It is a valuable resource that can help you to identify any issues that may be affecting your website's rankings. By using this tool, you can track your website's search performance, identify any errors or issues, and ensure that your website is optimized for search engines.
In conclusion, fixing falling website rankings can be a formidable task, but by following these tips and utilizing various online tools, you can augment your website's visibility to potential customers, attract more traffic, and generate more sales.
Businesses have been using email to promote their products and services since the 1990s. Since then, many new forms of marketing have come along: social media marketing, influencer marketing, YouTube ads, and more.
And yet, email is still one of the most effective marketing tools out there.
In fact, a report by McKinsey & Company shows that email marketing is 40 times more effective at gaining new customers than Facebook and Twitter combined!
If you want to leverage email marketing to grow your business, you’ve come to the right place.
Here at Marketer.co, we’ve developed some marketing email best practices that you can apply to your own email marketing campaigns for better results.
Here they are:
Before you can start sending marketing emails, you need to develop an email list, which is basically a list of email addresses from interested leads.
One of the best ways to collect email addresses is to create a lead magnet. A lead magnet is a page on your business website that offers visitors a free resource in exchange for their email address and name. The free resource could be an ebook, webinar invite, white book, or newsletter sign-up. Whatever it is, it serves as an incentive for visitors to give you their email addresses.
Once submitted, the email address is saved to your email list.
One of the biggest mistakes that beginner marketers make is sending emails to their entire email list. Don’t do this.
Instead, segment your email list into different groups. You can split them by demographics (age, gender, income, etc.), their interests, and whether they are new or old customers.
Why do this? It allows you to tailor your marketing emails to different groups.
For example, say you run a real estate agent business. Instead of sending an email about the home-buying process to your entire email list, you can send it to only your first-time buyer leads. That way, you avoid annoying subscribers who may not be interested in (or may already be familiar with) the homebuying process (e.g., seller leads or past clients).
By segmenting your email list, you can create more tailored emails—emails that include only content, offers, news, and promotions that are relevant to the recipient in question. If an email isn’t relevant, a reader is more likely to ignore it, unsubscribe, or even mark it as spam.
If the subject lines of your marketing emails aren’t compelling, it won’t matter how good the actual email is.
Why?Because if your subscribers aren’t drawn by the subject line, they won’t click to open the email in the first place.
In other words, the subject line is the most important part of a marketing email. To make it stand out, there are a few things you can do:
You can create a sense of urgency with your email subject line: keep it short and sweet, pose a compelling question, tease what’s inside the email, use emojis, and make it personal. Whatever you do, don’t use all caps or multiple exclamation marks. This just makes you look desperate for attention and most recipients will shy away.
On top of personalizing the subject line, you want to make the entire email personal. This helps you connect with subscribers and earn their trust.
Start by addressing the recipient by their first name. Most marketing email software lets you automatically customize emails with different recipients’ names.
You have to make sure you collect and store people’s names alongside their email addresses.
Another way to make your emails more personal is to write in the second person. That means using words like “you,” “your,” and so on (just like this post is doing). By addressing your desired target audience directly, you help them feel more involved and pull them through the email copy.
Lastly, you can personalize your marketing emails by addressing your readers’ specific pain points, not just sending them to a generic blog post or landing page.
Think back to how you segmented your email list. What are the particular needs and wants of the segment you are writing to? For example, if you’re writing to home seller leads, you may consider acknowledging how hard it can be to sell a house in the current real estate market.
Whatever you do, make sure the email feels like it’s being written directly from you to your reader. The less corporate it sounds, the better.
As with many business processes, a lot of your email marketing success depends on how much you can automate.
Email itself is a form of automation. Think about how much more time it would take to send physical letters to your subscriber list or, worse yet, to type each letter individually.
But there’s more to email automation than that. Email marketing software lets you schedule emails to send at certain times. You can even automate an entire email sequence that’s triggered every time someone signs up for your email list (aka a drip email campaign). This could be a welcome series that educates new customers on your products and services to help build trust in your brand.
The point is you can use automation through some of today's robust email marketing platforms and email service providers to become more efficient as an email marketer.
The more you automate, the less time you need to spend on tedious work and the more time you can spend on more important work.
Did you know that far more people check email on mobile devices than on computers? According to statistics reported by Easysendy, nearly 1.7 billion users check email on mobile phones compared to 0.9 billion users who check it on desktops.
This means that you need to optimize your marketing emails for mobile screens.
Any images or videos contained within your emails should be easily viewed on a phone. Users should also be able to click on any links and promotions and be directed to your website on their mobile web browser.
To ensure this is the case, test opening your marketing emails on different devices. They should adapt to various screen sizes without a problem.
If you want to succeed in email marketing long-term, A/B testing is a must.
What is A/B testing? Basically, it’s creating two slightly different versions of various email templates, sending them to a sample email segment, and seeing which performs better on common marketing email metrics, such as open rate, conversion rate, unsubscribe rate, and so on.
Once you have a winner, you can send the better version of two emails to the entire email segment.
You can A/B test almost anything: subject lines, email copy, images, landing pages, font style, links, and more. The key is to keep the variation between the two email versions subtle. That way, you can better home in on what it is that’s making the difference.
Then follow what the data tells you. By regularly performing A/B tests, you can gradually improve the performance (i.e. open rate, click-through rate, and general ROI) of your marketing emails overall.
A surprising amount of your marketing email success comes down to timing. Think about it. A recipient may give an email less attention if it lands in their inbox in the middle of the night or on the weekend compared to at the start of their workday. Of course, it all depends on your recipients’ schedules and time zones. The point is that timing is a real factor.
So, use analytics software to help you determine when the best send time is for your subscribers (you can do this through the A/B testing method explained in the last point). You might find that your open rate is better when you send emails in the morning rather than in the evening or vice versa.
Whatever the case may be, double down on whatever gets you the best results. Schedule your emails to automatically send when they have the highest chance of being opened.
From there, you can try to develop a regular email cadence. That way, your subscribers will also learn when they can expect to hear from you and be more likely to look out for your emails as a result.
Getting emails, you can’t unsubscribe from is incredibly frustrating. Don’t be that company that sends marketing emails without providing a way to opt out with an unsubscribe link.
Better yet, let your subscribers customize their email preferences. For example, you could let them select how frequently to receive your emails (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.) or what types of emails to receive (news, promotions, special sales, educational pieces, etc.).
The more autonomy you give email subscribers in managing their email preferences, the less likely they are to get annoyed with you. If they no longer want to get your emails, they’ll know exactly how to get off your list.
This may sound counterintuitive, but you should regularly rid your email list of any subscribers who haven’t opened your emails in a while. Why?
First, if they’re not opening your emails, they’re not doing you much good anyway.
Second, by cleaning up your email list, you avoid annoying people and giving them a negative impression of your brand. And third, updating your email list helps boost your scores on common email metrics like open rates. If you want more accurate email performance data, you have to regularly scrub your email list.
Implementing an effective email marketing strategy is both an art and a science. It’s not something that you can master overnight. But if you follow the tips above, you’ll see improvements in no time.
Don’t have the time, skills, or resources to run successful email campaigns?
No worries. Marketer.co can help. Our talented team of email marketers can help you take your business to the next level by adhering to every email marketing best practice outlined here and other marketing strategies. Contact us today for a free consultation. We look forward to chatting!
Your business needs marketing and advertising.
Unless your business is the recipient of some mystical blessing that allows it to naturally generate more paying customers, it's on you to build awareness, make your brand more appealing, and ultimately get more people to buy what you're selling.
The problem is, that marketing is hard to do on your own. If you don't have much experience or knowledge on the subject, it may seem intimidatingly complex. There's no guarantee that your strategies are going to be effective, and even if they are, you could end up overpaying for what you get.
That's why so many businesses turn to the help of a great digital marketing agency for all their digital marketing and advertising needs. But this has a problem associated with it as well; there are literally hundreds, if not thousands of digital marketing agencies available to serve you.
How can you choose the best digital marketing agency for your business?
Why would you consider working with a digital marketing agency? It should be self-evident that working with a professional marketing team, or at least a handful of professional marketers, can help you see better results in the marketing world. You'll get better advice, better resources, and more supportive digital marketing services.
That said, there are a few different ways you can enjoy these benefits. You could hire a team of your own internally, you could work with freelancers, or you could even hire a temporary consultant to help you improve your marketing department.
Digital marketing agencies still have several advantages over these other methods, including:
One important thing to understand before we move further is that no two digital marketing agencies are the same, and no two clients are the same.
Some may provide social media management and search engine optimization services, but perhaps you're looking for paid marketing management. Digital marketing is broad, but most agencies don't cover the gambit or have the internal bench depth and expertise to provide end-to-end digital services.
Many of the claims we made about the advantageous nature of digital marketing agencies can't be applied to every agency on the planet; some of them aren't experienced or trustworthy enough to help you see favorable results.
Similarly, just because a digital marketing agency did a good job for one of their clients in the past doesn't mean they're going to do an identically good job for your brand. You have to consider the unique fit in addition to core competencies.
Before you start researching digital marketing agencies, it's a good idea to prepare yourself by assessing your own needs and goals. Why are you hoping to hire A digital marketing agency? Which types of marketing strategies do you want to follow? What are your biggest objectives and do you have specific numbers you're trying to hit? How much are you willing to spend and how much control do you want to retain over your tactics? I love to use a content marketing matrix (like the one below) to ensure the core competencies of the agency match our own internal needs/goals
Each company is going to look for something different. There's no such thing as a perfect digital marketing agency that works for every business. Accordingly, you may have very different priorities than the average business, and you may look for a marketing agency in a totally different way than one of your competitors. Still, this list should effectively capture some of your biggest priorities when researching and evaluating different digital marketing agencies:
Which of these factors are most important to you? Which ones are you willing to compromise on? Think through these questions carefully before proceeding.
At this point, you should be ready to start the discovery and research process. That means coming up with a long list of different digital marketing agencies you might want to work with.
It also means uncovering more details about those agencies and evaluating how good of a fit they're going to offer.
Throughout this process, you should focus on the following:
Hopefully, this guide has given you the resources, concepts, and frameworks necessary to make a better decision for hiring a digital marketing agency for your brand.
But your responsibilities don't end there.
If you want to have the best working relationship with your digital marketing agency, there are some important ways you'll need to prepare yourself:
There are a lot of digital marketing agencies out there, but we strive to distinguish ourselves from the masses. On top of offering almost everything you need for a comprehensive digital marketing strategy, including white label SEO services, content marketing services, paid advertising services, and more, we have specialized experts from a variety of marketing niches – and account managers ready to work with you one-on-one on your next project. Contact us for a free consultation today!
In today's digitized epoch, establishing a content strategy is a crucial component of any business's marketing blueprint. Amid the proliferation of digital avenues and the ever-evolving consumer demeanor, businesses must concoct content that appeals to their target audience and propels business consequences.
However, executing a content strategy can prove to be a herculean task, particularly for businesses that lack a dedicated marketing team. This is where ChatGPT, an AI-powered tool trained by OpenAI, can lend a helping hand.
ChatGPT is a colossal language model that can aid businesses in executing their content strategy. With its natural language processing capabilities, it can dissect the language of a business's target audience and engender content ideas that are pertinent and captivating. Here are some steps to execute a content strategy using ChatGPT.
The first step in executing a content strategy is to delineate your target audience. ChatGPT can help you unravel the language patterns and predilections of your target audience. By scrutinizing the language employed by your audience in their online interactions, ChatGPT can furnish insights into their interests, afflictions, and motivations. This intel can facilitate you in creating content that resonates with your target audience.
Once you have identified your target audience, the subsequent step is to fashion content ideas that are germane and enthralling. ChatGPT can aid you in this process by generating content ideas based on your audience's language patterns and preferences. By inputting a few keywords associated with your business and your target audience, ChatGPT can generate a plethora of content ideas that you can leverage for your content marketing campaigns.
After you have crafted content ideas, the next step is to bring them to fruition. ChatGPT can assist you in creating top-notch content that is relevant to your target audience. By analyzing the language patterns of your target audience, ChatGPT can proffer sentence structures, grammar, and diction that are most likely to strike a chord with your target audience. Additionally, ChatGPT can lend a hand in writing headlines, introductions, and calls-to-action that are optimized for engagement.
Lastly, it's time to publish and promote your content. ChatGPT can help you optimize your content for search engines by suggesting pertinent keywords and meta descriptions. Furthermore, ChatGPT can lend a hand in promoting your content on social media by recommending the optimal times to post and the most efficacious social media platforms for your target audience.
In conclusion, ChatGPT can be an invaluable tool for executing a content strategy. By harnessing its natural language processing capabilities, businesses can create content that resonates with their target audience and drives business consequences. However, it's imperative to note that ChatGPT is just a tool, and it should be wielded in conjunction with human proficiency to ensure that the content strategy aligns with the overall business objectives. With the right approach, ChatGPT can assist businesses in executing a successful content strategy and accomplishing their marketing goals.
Search engines are evolving in strange new ways. Mobile searches have overtaken desktop searches (at long last), and competitors like Bing and Yahoo are growing more and more like Google every day, unifying the capacity of every major search brand.
As if that weren’t enough, a wave of digital assistants like Siri, Google Now, and Cortana have begun to emerge to redefine the search process—rather than opening a browser window, going to a search engine site, and plugging in an entry only to wade through a string of possible results, users can now use conversational commands and queries to engage with a human-like interface and be met with an almost immediate answer.
Modern digital assistants function almost as intermediaries, with search engines themselves operating in the background. Oftentimes, traffic from searches is completely negated—users get the answers they need without browsing or navigating to individual websites—and in other cases, digital assistants take you to websites directly based on your queries. With this new paradigm of search in place, is it even possible to optimize your site for a digital assistant?
On the surface, most digital assistants find results in a process similar to the search engines we’ve all become familiar with. There are, however, a few critical distinctions:
It’s also worth mentioning that not all digital assistants function identically, just as individual search engines never functioned identically. Their similarities can be grouped as generalizations worth noting, but idiosyncrasies and unique characteristics will still keep them differentiated.
Still, digital assistants rely on existing web search algorithms for certain types of queries—i.e., ones that can only be sufficiently answered by directing a user to a specific website. For example, if you ask your digital assistant about a product that’s only offered by one e-commerce platform (however unlikely that scenario might be), you’ll likely be redirected to that website. It gets a little trickier if that product is offered on multiple platforms, especially if a mobile app is one of them, but if the key is to offer something unique that can only be found on your website—and can’t be summarized with a simple informational breakdown.
Knowing this information, there are a few key takeaways you can incorporate into your current SEO strategy to account for the rise of digital assistants:
Digital assistants aren’t the most used form of search today, but they’re growing more popular and could one day replace the typical browser-based search engine entirely. When that happens, users will become reliant on immediate answers and local solutions for everything, and overall visits to websites will diminish. Already, giants like Wikipedia are feeling the effects of the Knowledge Graph and similar quick-answer programs. When the trend develops further, SEO as we know it could vanish entirely, replaced by a new means of achieving digital visibility with users and resellers.
Until that time comes, it’s worth your time and money to invest in your online presence. Hedge your bets by covering as much ground as possible with great, diverse content, and a presence on as many external platforms and apps as possible. The goal is visibility, however, you can get it.
Content marketing strategies demand multiple mediums and multiple outlets in order to be effective. Too many content marketers rely on a traditional, basic structure, writing blog post after blog post in the same format and syndicating them on social media. This strategy is effective, since it will gradually build your brand reputation, earn you more direct traffic, and improve your rankings in search engines, but for a full-fledged content marketing campaign, it should only serve as the foundation.
Adding a landing page, a dedicated page under your domain to house incoming traffic can be a viable strategy to improve your conversion rates and funnel your traffic. While it will take some extra work and maintenance to keep up, the return on investment (ROI) makes it all worth it.
Consider these seven reasons why landing pages can improve your campaign:
First and foremost, a landing page can improve your conversion rates. Rather than relying on customers eventually finding their way to your contact page (or anywhere else you seek to convert them), your users will be immediately confronted with the opportunity to convert.
There are several ways you can approach this. For example, you could set up a landing page as a kind of barrier to your content, presenting a link to a downloadable whitepaper in exchange for some information about the user. In this case, retrieving the whitepaper becomes your target conversion, and you can use your blogs and social channels to increase traffic and the likelihood of eventually converting.If you’re more interested in selling one of your products, you can set up a specific landing page for one. Use social media or other content-based channels to attract traffic, then use the landing page as their immediate destination.
Landing pages can also be used to funnel your traffic into more specific areas. This is particularly useful for companies with a wide range of products or services. For example, if you sell bikes and rollerblades, you can segment your traffic appropriately through separate landing pages. Rather than sending all of your traffic to your main site, or individual product pages, you can easily split your users into appropriate categories.
Let’s say you blog about bikes and rollerblades individually. People interested in buying rollerblades will respond more to posts about rollerblades, and the same is true for bikes. When you’re communicating with a large pool of followers, however, it’s difficult to distinguish which followers are interested in which. Rather than resorting to general messaging, drawing users into different landing pages will allow you to speak more specifically to each portion of your audience, and give you the chance to collect and store their information for future use.
Sometimes, it’s difficult to show off the best characteristics of your brand while working in the confines of a blog post or social media schedule. Content marketing is designed to show off your expertise passively, giving users a valuable experience while hoping they associate that experience with your brand. Calling out your brand specifically or openly bragging can actually turn people away from your content strategy.
Using landing pages gives you more freedom to show off what makes your brand great. You’ll be able to create a design that obviously shows off your brand elements, and you’ll have the space to show off your brand’s greatness with testimonials or other statistics. By using your content to funnel users into a specific landing page, you’ll get the opportunity to get your brand squarely in your users’ faces without alienating them in the process.
Content marketing programs sometimes suffer from a lack of direction. Instead of focusing in on a specific user goal, they’re designed to communicate generally with an audience, and gradually build a reputation. That might be useful for generating lots of traffic to your site, but if that traffic never converts or doesn’t know where to go, that traffic is essentially useless.
Landing pages provide a quick fix for that problem. Instead of worrying about where your users are going after they read your material, or crossing your fingers and hoping for the best, you can use your landing page to ensure your traffic gets to a worthwhile destination.
Some content marketers grow frustrated because of how difficult it is to measure the success of a campaign. Since one of the primary goals of content marketing is to increase brand familiarity and brand loyalty, two very subjective qualities, it can be hard to put a dollar amount on your content marketing results.
Landing pages make the process much more objective. By using sales metrics, you can easily determine how much value each conversion brings you, and by using goal metrics (which you can set up in Google Analytics), you can easily determine the number of conversions your content is bringing in. With those two metrics, you should be able to accurately project an objective estimate of how much value your content marketing strategy is bringing.
Landing pages are also great because they allow you to perform A/B tests. If you have two competing products and you aren’t sure which one to spend more time promoting, you can set up two individual landing pages under the same conditions and see which one generates the greatest number of conversions.
Alternatively, if you’re toying around with your branding and advertising strategy, you can easily use an “A” version and a “B” version of your landing page to gain valuable insights on your design and copy. You can then take this information and use it in your broader marketing and advertising campaign.
Like A/B testing, user behavior testing is to determine the most valuable parts of your landing pages. For example, by using heat maps, you can track exactly where your users are looking and interacting with your landing page. If they tend to congregate around the testimonials and you’re enjoying a high conversion rate, you better start using those testimonials on other applications. If your users focus on a bulleted list of product benefits and your conversion rate is low, you know you need to spend time refining how you market your product. Setting up a landing page with some kind of user behavior tracking is key to gaining insights about your audience.
Unfortunately, just setting up a landing page isn’t enough. You also need to pay close attention to the design, placement, and written copy of your landing page to maximize your chances of conversion. Landing pages demand a different set of standards than traditional web pages, so prioritize the following qualities:
If you can design a landing page with these qualities and integrate it smoothly into your content marketing campaign, you’ll start seeing the benefits as soon as it goes live.
The most important part of social media marketing is the “social” element. Your effectiveness doesn’t depend on how hard you sell products, or how often you post, or even how many interesting things you offer. What matters is that you connect with an audience, on some fundamental level, enough to increase their admiration for your brand or come to your website for more information.
To solve this perpetual problem, your first step is to identify and target the right audience. Facebook, the most popular social media platform in the world, gives you every opportunity to do this—even beyond the tools it offers for paid advertisers (which are ample). In fact, most social media platforms have the functionality and capacity for you to do this, but only a fraction of marketers end up taking advantage of it.
I want you to become a part of that fraction.
This section is more of a disclaimer than it is an actual guide, but it’s important to address before we ever start talking about how to target your key demographics. After all, how can you target your key demographics if you don’t know who they are? Imagine, for a moment, an extreme example:
(Image Source: Luvs/Adweek)
This message, by a diaper company, is targeted toward mothers—and even more than that, is targeted toward mothers of multiple children. It’s clever, concise, and original, so you can imagine it performing well when syndicated to an audience of second or third-time mothers. How would you expect it to perform if syndicated to an audience of teenage boys? Or an audience of retired, single septuagenarians?
As I said, this example is extreme, but it illustrates my point. This article will tell you how to create and distribute appropriate messages to your target audience, but this advice is useless unless you know who your audience is. Don’t make assumptions. Do the research, and figure out who’s going to buy your product.
You may have multiple target audiences, but for the purposes of this guide, I’m going to imagine you have only one. You can replicate the steps below for any of your audiences.
Do you have an audience in mind? Okay. Let’s start targeting.
First, I want to take a look at what kind of people actually use Facebook. This is a section I’ll include for all my platform-based guides, and you’ll find that each platform boasts a different type of audience. Some of those audiences will overlap with your target demographics; others will bear no resemblance. This will help you choose which platforms to add to your social media arsenal (hint: it shouldn’t be all of them by default).
Essentially, we’re asking: is it worth it for your brand to be on Facebook?Facebook has 1.59 billion monthly active users, worldwide, making it the biggest and furthest-reaching social media platform around today. This probably isn’t news to you; most of the people you know have, and actively use, a personal Facebook profile.
But what kinds of people are on this platform?
According to Facebook’s own breakdown page, 83.6 percent of its users are outside the U.S. and Canada, meaning about 260,760,000 users are in the United States (for reference, the U.S. population is close to 320 million). Promo Republic offers the following breakdown:
Some highlights to consider: the gender and ethnic split is negligible, with between 66-77 percent of each demographic segment participating as an active monthly user. Though increasing age does correspond with decreasing user numbers, the drop-offs are not significant until age 50. Education and salary don’t play much into the demographic makeup, nor does geographic location.
Aside from this data, it’s also important to note that almost all Facebook profiles are verified, by individual users, who are using Facebook for personal purposes (usually keeping in contact with friends and family members).
This means Facebook is pretty much open season, with a few key exceptions. Now let’s take a look at some businesses that stand to win or lose automatically based on this data.
If you don’t belong to the second category, Facebook is likely a reasonable place to start pinning your audience down. Now, let’s get to the meaty part: actively selecting your audience from the vast pool of Facebook users.
You can’t target the entire Facebook population all at once (though some of you might try, given the chance). Even if you could, this wouldn’t be a good use of your resources. For the most part, any content you publish on Facebook (assuming you’re using a business/organization page) is only inherently visible to people who have already liked your brand. It’s only shown to people outside your follower base if one of their contacts has “shared” it, or if they specifically seek you out.
To make matters harder for brands, Facebook’s organic reach has been steadily declining for some time, meaning even if someone follows you, there’s no guarantee they’ll see everything you post. Accordingly, every piece of news or content you publish has to be a home run. You can’t afford to waste time or target an indifferent audience.
There are two components to effective audience targeting: choosing the right message and making that message visible to the right people. Before you start combing through your audience, run a check to make sure your content is appropriate for your audience.
There’s no “easy” way to tell if your message is effective for your demographics. You have to know what your users want to see, which is tricky to predict unless you have reliable data. You can generate ideas for this based on market research, what your competitors are doing, or even anecdotal evidence you’ve experienced in the field. Verify this is the case by AB testing your messages (possibly on Facebook itself; don’t hesitate to use it as a testing ground). Trust the numbers.
When it comes to Facebook posts, certain factors almost always make a post inherently more valuable, so polish your message by shaping it into a format with the following qualities:
Don’t just take my word for it; take a look at data from BlitzLocal’s study on the matter:
This barely scratches the surface of what makes a “good” Facebook post (a topic for another time), but these are the most important takeaways regarding how to target your Facebook audience through messaging.
Now, you’ve got the message. You know what you want to post to your users, and it’s just a matter of doing the actual posting. How can you make sure your message is seen by the greatest number of people in your target audience while excluding those outside it?
Until recently, this was only possible through paid advertising tools. Now, every company and organization page has the ability to filter their audiences for every post.
This screenshot is doing my job for me. When you log into your company page and start typing a draft, you’ll notice a new(ish) button to the left of the Publish button that looks like a target—how appropriate. Click it, and you’ll be introduced to a variety of new demographic targeting options to ensure your message lands in the right newsfeeds.
From here, you’ll see two tabs—Preferred Audience and Audience Restrictions. You can guess what each of these is used for.
(Image Source: Social Media Examiner)
Your Preferred Audience allows you to select interests that might be popular in your target demographics. Remember my diaper ad example from earlier? Luvs’s target audience might be interested in things like “parenting” or “child care.” Again, don’t select these randomly; see what you can find about your target audience based on empirical, fact-based research.
(Image Source: MarketingLand)
Your Audience Restrictions gives you more quantitative control. There’s significantly less guesswork here, so base your restrictions on what you know to be true for your target audience. Don’t be afraid to step a little outside your niche; you can always refine your content for tighter or broader segments of your audience later. Currently, Facebook allows you to control your audience based on age, gender, location, and preferred language.Once posted, you’ll be able to tap into the performance metrics for each available post. Here, you can track engagement rates among different segments of your demographics; for example, you’ll be able to tell how well your post did for users with an interest in “monster trucks” versus users with an interest in “cotton candy.”Use this data to your advantage, and experiment with interests and quantitative identifiers that you might not instinctively prefer. You’ll find that at least some audience behaviors conflict with your preconceived notions, so make changes based on what the data tells you.
Together, these methods of audience targeting work well—but they only work for people who are already members of your audience. What about all the members of your target audience who aren’t yet following your brand? What about all the people following your brand who don’t belong to your target demographics?
Let’s address the latter question first. You’ll undoubtedly attract followers who don’t really have an interest in your brand or service; for example, they might have clicked “like” accidentally or as part of a contest unrelated to purchasing from your brand. Obviously, you want your social following to be as comprised of your target demographics as possible, but does this mean you should weed out those who don’t belong?The simple answer is no, for two reasons:
Accordingly, don’t worry about the outsiders who trickle in.
Instead, invest your efforts in acquiring new followers who match your ideal demographics. There are powerful ways to do this:
As great as audience targeting on Facebook is, there are still some key limitations. First, the organic reach of business posts is diminishing—and will presumably continue to decline. Even though you’ll improve your visibility by selecting only your most relevant audiences, you can expect this value to decline over time.
Next, your audience segmentation strategy is only as strong as the audience you already have. It can increase the effectiveness of your messaging and strengthen brand loyalty, but it can’t inject fresh blood into your system.
Finally, no matter how well you know your audience, your tactics are still dependent on the strength of your content. I’ll be doing similar guides for how to improve your content quality, including one specifically for Facebook posts, but it exists as a separate effort.
Facebook’s paid advertising system is one of the most robust ad features of any social media platform. With it, you have access to far more sophisticated audience targeting options than your organic reach will allow, and you’ll even get to reach people who don’t currently follow you.
For example, in addition to age, gender, location, language, and interests, you can target users based on behaviors (like previous purchases) or current connections.
These are valuable, but whether it’s worth your investment is up to you, your goals, and your budget. With the right content strategy, you can achieve almost any marketing goal without investing in direct advertising, but it’s a significant option you should be aware of.
I hope this guide has helped you make sense of the audience targeting tools and strategies necessary to craft and publicize organic marketing messages on Facebook. Like with any strategy, the theory is helpful, but it’s the practice that truly matters. Put your ideas and your knowledge to the test in a live environment, dutifully learning from your mistakes and adjusting for efficient improvements. Because every brand has a unique audience and a unique product, the only way to learn effectively is to try something and see what happens.
If you liked this guide, you can look forward to my upcoming feature on audience targeting via Twitter, or read up on what it takes to launch a successful content marketing or SEO campaign.
Agile software development methodologies have been used for decades.
It's only in more recent years that agile frameworks have been used as a means to enhance digital marketing processes and campaigns.
In today's ever-changing marketing environment, it is essential to have marketing strategies that can quickly adapt to changing market conditions.
Enter agile marketing.
Agile marketing has become a popular approach for businesses looking to become more efficient, diversify their marketing mix and ultimately increase their marketing return on investment (ROI).
This article will discuss what enterprise agile marketing transformations are and why it’s important, as well as provide tips and advice on how you can use agile marketing solutions in your own business.
We'll also discuss the "how" and "why" pivoting to an agile approach can help enhance, increase and improve the return on investment (ROI) for your business.
Let's dive in!
Agile frameworks allow for rapid response to changes in the marketplace and ensure that a company’s marketing strategy is always up-to-date.
This approach focuses on using data to measure, analyze, and adjust quickly based on ever-evolving customer needs.
It's essentially using data to react quickly to changes and feedback to ensure you're doing the things you should do to get ROI and avoid the pitfalls of insanity:
In addition, agile marketing encourages collaboration between agile marketers within the agile marketing department, with each team having different roles and responsibilities.
This should, in theory, allow for quicker decisions and solutions that work best for the organization as a whole.
Agile marketing teams thrive on the ability to pivot strategies based on the data-driven insights provided in an agile marketing report, allowing them to make informed decisions that maximize ROI.
Through streamlining agile marketing implementation across agile teams, organizations can ensure that their marketing programs remain aligned with core values and customer needs. This fosters a responsive and collaborative environment that adapts to the dynamic market landscape.
The traditional approach to marketing can be slow to respond to changes in the market, which can lead to outdated strategies and decreased ROI.
Agile methods allow companies to respond quickly and effectively to customer needs.
This means that businesses are able to stay ahead of the competition by better understanding their target audience and adapting their strategies accordingly.
Additionally, agile solutions make it easier for the agile team members within the organization to collaborate more effectively which can lead to improved efficiency overall.
In short, agile marketing is closely tied to lean, startup marketing.
It's nimble and allows for quick pivots, but true success requires discipline.
Agile marketing starts with a strong foundation in agile principles, transforming marketing teams from traditional marketing silos into dynamic, collaborative groups driven by core values and continuous improvement.
This shift from traditional to modern marketing enables agile marketing work to be more adaptable and customer-focused, which is essential for achieving agile success in today’s fast-paced market.
Agile marketing solutions are quickly becoming an essential part of many businesses' marketing strategies.
Implementing these solutions can help you better understand your customer needs, stay ahead of the competition, and increase your ROI.
Here are some tips for implementing agile marketing solutions into your business
1. Establish Goals & Objectives: Before you start planning your marketing strategy, it is important to set goals and objectives for your team. This will ensure that everyone is on the same page about what needs to be accomplished and how best to achieve those goals.
2. Create A Flexible Plan: Agile requires a flexible plan that can easily adapt to changing conditions in the market. This will help you stay up-to-date with your strategies and ensure that your team is always prepared.
3. Automate Processes: Automating processes like content creation, social media management, and email marketing can help save time and effort when implementing agile marketing solutions into your business. With automation, you can focus on the more pressing tasks while the automated systems take care of the rest. But, keep in mind, that automation can only take you so far. What you can't automate often requires the frontal cortex of some wicked-smart people on your team.
4. Hire Right: Hire the right people to handle agile marketing team requirements. Make sure you have someone on staff who understands the agile marketing process and can provide guidance and direction to other members of the team. This is one of the more critical aspects of going agile. Getting a driver who can get the whole marketing team on board, ensuring the maintenance discipline in how the team functions, and staying focused on the end goal is an essential element of success
5. Experiment & Optimize: Agile marketing encourages experimentation and iteration. Don’t be afraid to try new strategies and tactics as you learn how to best optimize your campaigns for success. As a team, we are constantly experimenting internally before we go external and share our successful findings with our clients outwardly. Be sure to make risky experiments in your journey in silos or on projects that don't matter as much to the revenue of your core business operations.
6. Leverage Technology: Utilize the latest marketing technology in order to stay up-to-date with the changing market trends and customer behaviors. In fact, technology is one of the best ways to automate and make your team as efficient as possible. This can help you quickly pivot when needed and ensure that you are always on the cutting edge. We use the latest project and task management tools and have daily and weekly in-person and virtual SCRUM team meetings, ensuring everyone is on-task and optimized.
7. Measure & Analyze: Measuring and analyzing performance data is essential to making sure your digital marketing is actually delivering results. With the right analytics tools, you can track ROI and make necessary adjustments in order to optimize your campaigns for success.
8. Report With Case Studies: You can use case studies to share your successes and failures with other teams and departments within the organization. This will help everyone understand how agile digital marketing solutions are benefiting the business as a whole.
Case studies are also great cannon fodder for selling new potential clients on why an Agile approach might be best. Case studies have proven to be one of our best marketing tools for winning marketing RFPs and telling a great story.
Implementing an agile marketing framework to your business is not likely to be all sunshine and roses.You can expect a few bumps in the road.Here we outline a few potential issues and hopefully some solutions so you can preemptively look at your plan to go agile and be properly prepared when your strategy falls a bit off the rails.
Initially, there may be a lack of alignment between different teams within the organization in terms of goals, objectives, and strategies.
Without stakeholder buy-in, including senior marketing leaders, it can be difficult to get everyone on the same page with an agile marketing approach.
One of the biggest issues we find in executing an agile approach is the nimbleness agile marketing tactics foster relative to the clunky, traditional framework to which larger organizations adhere. Agile works great and is more easily implemented in a startup marketing environment but is vastly more difficult to execute and implement for larger enterprises with an entrenched culture. And it may not be a lack of stakeholder buy-in on the part of the organization.
You may have all stakeholders and every level on board with agile marketing, but moving the Titanic is easier said than done. A full marketing implementation of agile marketing solutions will require discipline, focus, and perseverance. You may encounter some difficulties throughout the process but with the right resources and support, your business can reap the inevitable ROI rewards of an agile marketing approach.
Another potential roadblock to implementing agile marketing frameworks is the lack of resources available.
Companies may not have enough personnel to devote to developing and managing agile marketing campaigns, or they may not have the budget or technology needed to successfully implement these strategies.
And remember, resources may not all be monetary. Time and labor constraints may prove an issue. The most committed organizations will hire agile marketing mavens that can be available to provide the support and drive needed to truly execute an agile approach.
Measuring the return on investment (ROI) of agile marketing can be challenging, but with the right tools and strategies in place, it is possible to track and measure the success of your efforts. The key is to identify which metrics are most meaningful when it comes to measuring ROI and then use those metrics as a benchmark for success.
One of the most important aspects of agile marketing is measuring its return on investment (ROI). This helps organizations to understand how well their efforts are paying off and determine whether they should continue with the strategy or adjust it as needed.
A few of the ways that ROI can be measured in an agile marketing approach include:
By tracking your metric(s) of choice, you can gain insight into which campaigns are most successful and determine where adjustments need to be made in order to maximize your return on investment (ROI).
Keep in mind that the ROI of agile marketing is not always immediate, as it can take time (even years) to see the results of your efforts. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t immediately see a return on investment.
Instead, focus on understanding and tracking key metrics in order to measure success over time.
A case study can be a means of convincing internal management and external clients and customers of the benefits of using agile for the implementation of marketing best practices and customer focused collaboration.
Creating an internal case study for a successful agile project can be a great way to demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of agile methodologies.
A case study allows you to go into detail about the project, detailing the methodology and results, making it easier to share with other internal marketing teams or organizations.
When creating an internal case study for a successful agile project, it’s important to focus on both the process and results.
This will help demonstrate how effective agile methodologies can be when applied correctly.
We worked with a major e-commerce brand in creating a siloed approach toward agile, implementing agile digital marketing team frameworks into their paid and social campaigns.
In doing so, we created a proof-is-in-the-pudding case study to showcase the value of implementing agile on a broader scale across the entirety of their marketing organization.
Similar results were had across all their paid and organic SEO campaigns after full implementation with the help of marketing and agile software development teams.
Upper management wanted proof and we delivered.
Sometimes agile consulting is used to drive awareness to internal management (which is something we can assist with), but most often it's used to help drive better results for client campaigns.
External case studies are extremely valuable for businesses as they provide proof that their agile practices are working, attracting new customers, and creating a positive ROI.
External case studies should focus on the real-world application of agile methodologies and how they helped increase ROI for a business.
They can also highlight other important aspects of the process, such as collaboration, customer engagement, and innovation.
In nearly every client campaign where we achieve an outsized return on investment (ROI) using agile digital marketing techniques, we create a beautiful case study to showcase the work.
These case studies then become downloadable assets that we can use on new clients and potential customers.
Just like this one, from the keyword rankings for a client in the digital reviews niche:
Agile marketing is a great way to stay ahead of the competition and increase your return on investment (ROI).
By implementing agile marketing solutions and measuring results, you can ensure that your business is always adapting to changing conditions in both your business and the overall market.
In other words, learn to market adaptively like a startup (by finding the right digital marketing agency for your business).
Agile will help you see the results just as rapidly.
Original research is one of the most valuable foundational pillars you can have in a content marketing program. Because it’s original, it’s automatically unique, and it sets you apart from competitors who might only be recycling secondhand information. Because it’s rare, it imbues your content with an extra layer of value and appeal. And because it often contains new insights or valuable information, it makes your content easier to share, which leads to more brand exposure, and more links, and ranks higher in search engines.
Here’s the only problem: original research is highly valuable, yes, but that high value comes with a high cost. If you want to execute some high-level original research, it could cost you thousands of dollars to work with an outside firm or tie up your company resources trying to do it in-house. It can be a messy, complicated, and expensive process, making the benefits only marginally worth it.
Not all original research has to be this way. Just like every article you write doesn’t have to be a revolutionary game-changer, not every round of original research needs to make a landmark discovery or take you months of effort. There are cost-efficient ways to perform light original research and still reap some of the most important benefits.
Your first option is to forgo the usual route of researching something that must be hunted down, as this is usually where the cost factor comes into play. If, instead of drilling down to find tiny nuggets of data, you can simply skim off the surface and collect as much data as you want, you can end up with a similar amount of information at a much lower cost and a much lower degree of difficulty.
I’m going to use marketing research as an example. If I want to write an article about which website design trends are currently popular, I have two ways to get this information. First, I could contact webmasters of various popular websites, ask them all about their design motivations, and then spend hours agonizing over their analytics data to form a final conclusion. Second, I could collect a large number of recognizable modern websites, see what they have in common, and quantify my own results.
That second route serves as the path of least resistance. It counts as original research
since I did take an effort to find these results and turn them into something meaningful, and while it isn’t quite as detailed as the former route, it will give me a similar return for a much smaller investment.
Qualitative research is still research, and people care about what other people think. If you can figure out a way to create meaning from a series of user responses, this is your golden ticket. It only takes about an hour to design a survey, especially if you’re using a tool like Survey Monkey, and from there, the only initial effort you have to make is to offer the survey link to the masses. At that point, your survey participants will be the ones doing the work.
You can collect, quantify, and analyze the results you get from your survey in relatively short order. For more complex surveys, or for surveys that rely on particularly busy or specific demographics, you may have to offer an incentive—for example, you may offer a $5 gas gift card to survey participants in order to get a better turnout. But even then, your investment in this strategy is minimal, and your results are both new and significant. You can’t ask for much more in the world of original research.
You don’t even have to rely on others in order to get your research (though it can help in many cases). In my first two options, I try to mitigate the expenses of seeking outside sources of complex information. In this option, we’ll forgo the outside sources altogether and focus on collecting information that you can create yourself.
I’m going to use another marketing example here. Let’s say I’m researching the effects of different types of copy on a user’s response to a call to action. In this case, all I have to do is set up a series of landing pages, each with a different variant of copy, and start funneling traffic to each of them. At the end of the experiment, I’ll collect the data and make a firm determination about which one was the most effective and why. It might cost a bit of money to get that initial traffic, but if I use landing page styles I would have used in my advertising campaign anyway, I’m essentially using a marketing expense to cover my original research costs.
These types of individual experiments are great because they take advantage of resources and expenditures that are already available to you. You don’t invest anything extra, but you do take additional rewards.
Just because you have a tight budget doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy some of the benefits of original research as content fuel. Take your findings and present them in your articles, infographics, or standalone research-based whitepapers. If you end up selling your research to others with paid content, you may even turn a decent profit. In any case, you’ll wind up with better, more authoritative content, greater networks of offsite links, and more visibility for your brand.
In the wake of recent Google updates, there have been varying opinions on how you can try to recover if your site was hit.
One thing has stayed solid — something we’ve been saying for a very long time: Using social media is vital to your site’s success. Social signals are a very strong Google ranking factor.
In the past, links pointing to your site were one of the main things that would tell Google your website was important and should rank higher.
But Search Engine Optimization (SEO) seems to have been turned on its head with the release of Google’s animal farm – pandas, penguins, and such.
Sites that had enjoyed top search rankings before were now getting hammered down so far in the search engines results that no one would ever find them. Some of these sites had spent a lot of time (not to mention money) on backlinks. It made sense. That’s what had worked forever.
But times have changed and undoubtedly will continue to do so. The one thing that has remained constant is that your site should continually get mentioned in social media by other users. The SEO world calls these “social signals,” and social signals may become even more important as time goes on.
So you may think: “Well, that’s easy enough. I have seen lots of places where I can buy thousands of Facebook Likes and retweets!” Whoa, slow down. Yes, there are plenty of places where you can buy mass Facebook Likes, retweets, repins, etc., … but you should steer clear of this kind of thing.
Sometimes these services will deliver what they promise; but a few weeks later, the accounts they used to do it with are gone. They mass-produce accounts and create nothing but spam links for their clients. This often results in those accounts being banned. Even if those clients take the trouble to enact measures necessary to avoid getting banned, it isn’t worth it.
You want to get likes, retweets, and such from real users with a real interest in your product or service. It’s even better if they themselves are viewed as some sort of authority in your industry and have their own collection of followers.
The mass services might have accounts with thousands of followers, but do you think those followers are real? Do you think they ever pay attention to the spam they’re sending out on an hourly basis? No.
So to get the most out of social media, you should be dedicating time each day to reach1) others in your industry, and) your target audience doesn’t mean you have to spend three hours every day on social. Often, setting aside 30 minutes or an hour will be just fine.
The trick is to stick to it. Share your high quality content (we know you’re creating awesome, helpful and relevant content that others will WANT to share, right?), but share other content and relevant news as well. Ask questions, answer questions. The nitty gritty on the “how” would be an entire post in itself, but that should get you started.
If you truly cannot find the time to do this, assign someone in your company to do it. Just make sure they get a little training for it. You can also hire it out to a professional. Just like traditional SEO isn’t a one-time thing, social media strategy should also be long-term for the best results.
I’m sure you know about Facebook. You know about Twitter. You probably know about Google+. But the world of social media certainly doesn’t end there, and the type of business or site you run plays a big role in determining which social media platforms are the best for you to use.
If you have something that would appeal to women, then one of the hottest social media channels you should look into is Pinterest. In October of 2011, the site had about three million visitors per month. In just one year that number has skyrocketed. It now receives an average of 25 million visitors (according to Compete.com).
When it took off, social media users were mostly made up of women in their 20s and 30s. Although men have joined in, it’s still mostly women. Half of them have kids. Check out this infographic from SearchEngineJournal:
Susan, the owner of SueBdo, owns a seasonal boutique that sells accessories, jewelry, signs, and babywear. She says she has racked up more sales in a single month after she started using Pinterest than she did in an entire year. She describes her products as preppy, timeless, and classic. After having a look at her site, I can see why she does exceptionally well on Pinterest. SueBdo and Pinterest are a perfect fit!
But the possibilities are wide open here. Photographer? Showcase some of your best work and categorize it into boards for the different types of photography you do weddings, high school portraits, babies, etc.
Do you own a restaurant? Pinterest users love all things food. Take some great shots (or get a food photographer) and get to posting. Blogger? Here are a few ways you too can use Pinterest.
There’s a lot of speculation about just how Google uses social signals for your site, but everyone agrees that they DO use it. In the midst of such drastic changes in SEO, this is one of the best and safest ways to protect your business. But don’t try to game it and take shortcuts. Not only will a well-planned social media marketing strategy help you rank better, but it is also a valuable source of targeted traffic to your site.
A robust digital marketing strategy that prioritizes social media engagement can significantly boost social media visibility and increase brand awareness across social platforms. By optimizing your social media pages, you enhance your social media signals, leading to more website traffic and potential conversions on your own websites.
As a concept, content marketing is a relatively straightforward strategy. You write content that people want to read, publish, and syndicate it often, and eventually, you’ll build a loyal audience who likes your content, loves your brand, and buys more products and services from you. Unfortunately, the mechanics behind this process aren’t always as simple as they seem on paper. It’s not uncommon for content marketers to hit major obstacles along the way, disrupting their workflows and leaving them with inexplicable gaps in their results analysis.
These are seven of the most common roadblocks I see in the content marketing world:
The first pain point usually comes before you’ve even written an article. A great article must start with a great topic, so if you can’t think of any great topic ideas, you can find yourself in a difficult position. The same can be said if the topics you do come up with fail to have an impact on your target audience—you can measure this based on how many clicks your headlines are getting. In either scenario, the solution is to look in new places for topic inspiration. Start with industry news sources to stay up-to-date and discover new information about your niche, then move on to the blogs and websites of your competitors. Learn from what they’re doing—what do their customers like to read about?—just don’t copy their strategy exactly.
Many content marketers underestimate the importance of brand voice consistency. Your entire company’s identity is represented by its brand, and it’s up to you to showcase that brand accurately. If you deviate from the characteristics that define your brand or publish blogs with inconsistent tones, your audience can quickly become alienated. However, diagnosing these problems can be difficult even for experienced content marketers. Address the problem by gathering all your writers together and doing collective exercises that highlight what is and what is not appropriate for the brand. Make sure everyone is on the same page by the end of the meeting, and use one focal editor to do a final review of all subsequent articles before they’re published.
Too many business owners and marketers think that content marketing is about writing articles whenever you have time and publishing them whenever you think about it. This approach almost instantly vanquishes the possibility of building a loyal audience. If you want people to keep coming back to you for more, you have to have a reliable, predictable schedule. Create an editorial calendar with clear and consistent publication dates—if you’re just getting started, one post a week may be enough for your purposes—then assign responsible parties to ensure that those deadlines are always met, no matter what. In today’s fast-paced digital world, a well-organized content schedule is essential to thriving in a digital marketing transformation. Beyond just posting regularly, maintaining quality control over each blog post ensures that your content remains relevant and delivers a superior customer experience, even as you adopt new technologies to stay ahead of the competition.
One of the most important stages of quality content marketing is distributing your material so the greatest number of new people can see it. Typically, that means shopping your content around to different offsite publishers and syndicating your content through various social media channels. If you’re having trouble getting your work published offsite, do an audit of the types of sources you’re pursuing. Start off with local and industry-specific sources to build your reputation, and make sure your topics fit in with their respective niches. Then, work your way up to more authoritative sources. If you’re having trouble syndicating your content consistently, try scheduling your posts in advance, and use the time you save to engage with your audience in one-on-one interactions. Communities can only develop through engagement.
Content marketing is a demanding strategy. Two posts a week doesn’t sound like a lot until you’re in the thick of things, scrambling to get your posts published while juggling all your other responsibilities. Hiring a staff writer is one option, and hiring a freelancer is another, but one of the most valuable solutions is hiring a content agency to handle the work for you. Because content agencies are specialists, they’ll be able to do the work faster, quicker, and more reliably than someone off the street—even if they have an impressive resume. Content agencies not only enhance your company's ability to manage competing priorities, but they also bring new ideas and technologies to the table, elevating your overall content creation process. By working with a team of strong leaders, you can ensure your content aligns with your marketing strategy and style guide, allowing for different formats and a seamless integration with your existing content, all without requiring more budget than hiring a full-time writer.
At its foundation, marketing efforts are all about gathering, analyzing, and applying data in meaningful ways. When that data shows major hiccups or other anomalies, with no apparent explanation, it can be worrisome. Let’s say each of your posts gets 100 shares, then one day, your posts start getting around 20 shares. These anomalies could be the result of any number of factors, from your search engine rankings to topics to random seasonal changes that are simply unpredictable. Instead of trying to figure out what the problem is, adjust your line of thinking and start figuring out what the problem isn’t. Eliminate possibilities one by one until you’ve exhausted your resources or have found the problem.
Stagnation is another problem that most content marketers face at one point or another. Obviously, you want your audience and your traffic to grow steadily, for months and years after your initial digital marketing strategy development. Unfortunately, you’ll likely hit a plateau at some point, generating interest but little further growth. When this happens, inject your campaign with new life by adding an additional content channel, seeking new types of publishers to host your content, or simply stepping up the quantity and quality of the articles you produce.
When you hit one of these roadblocks as a content marketer, as you invariably will, don’t panic. It’s a normal part of the ebb and flow of the strategy. All you can do is analyze the situation, respond accordingly, and continue to make adjustments to perfect your approach.
If you haven’t been putting the power of Pinterest to use for your business, now’s the time to do so. This isn’t the first time we’ve talked about it, but Pinterest is worth writing about again since it has broken into the top 50 sites. According to ComScore, Pinterest was the 50th most visited site in the U.S. in September, with about 25 million visits.
Not that this should be much of a surprise. The growth of Pinterest over the past year or two has been enormous. Image sharing is definitely in, which explains why Instagram and Tumblr took spots on the list, too.
So the question is: Are you taking advantage of it? If your site or business is of interest to women and you aren’t on Pinterest, you are definitely missing out. Big time. Almost 20% of all the females on the Internet are using Pinterest.
Pinterest is a hybrid social bookmarking site where users can post (“pin”) photos and videos of just about anything to a “pin board.” Anything pinned to these Pinterest boards becomes publicly or privately viewable, depending on settings. It gives users a simple, clean way of sharing anything that people find visually interesting.
Users are finding lots of ways to make Pinterest useful, from planning a wedding to saving a favorite recipe, to redecorating a home.
From an SEO standpoint, Pinterest is a great tool for link building; every image pinned can be hyperlinked to any destination URL.
Even though Pinterest is still in its infancy, it already has lots going on:
If you are running a business, it’s time to register a Pinterest business account. You probably don’t need a tutorial on how to create one, as signing up for one is very simple.
Learn as much as you can about how to use Pinterest, its best practices, and learn from others about how best to use the site to share interesting things.
While it’s obvious by now that Pinterest is here to stay, businesses should use the site with caution. As with any website, Pinterest was created for real people with interesting things to share. It’s fine to promote things and make online sales but make a point of providing real value that other people will appreciate.
If you’re running a small business, it’s crucial to gain access to the benefits of a Pinterest business account. With over 400 million weekly users, your Pinterest profile can effectively showcase your products or services through engaging visual content and DIY ideas that resonate with your audience.
You might think that keeping your Facebook page up to date would be a higher priority than getting involved in a newer site like Pinterest.
But we strongly urge you to reconsider your social media marketing plan. To stay competitive, you have to evolve and stay on top of emerging trends. Take a look at the graph below (courtesy of BizRate Insights) and you’ll see that Pinterest users are much more plugged into buying mode than Facebook users.
Yes, there are many more bodies on Facebook and you should continue to interact with users there. However, the number of Pinterest users and people who know what Pinterest is continues to climb steadily. In January of this year, Shareaholic announced that Pinterest was driving more traffic than YouTube, Google Plus, and LinkedIn COMBINED. See that report here.
Because Pinterest has become such an important site for brands and businesses to be involved with, there have been some interesting tools and sites developed to help you get the most from it. Here are just a few that can boost your Pinterest marketing strategy.
You can view all the pins anyone has done from your site by entering http://pinterest.com/source/ and adding your domain to the end of that.
It can be tedious, though. PinAlerts makes it easy to know when someone pins something from your site. It’s still in beta, but it looks like a nifty little tool.
Not only can you use it to find out who’s pinning your stuff (helpful to see what’s being pinned, and to go and comment or thank them), but you can monitor multiple domains. So you could also use this to see what kind of content your competitors are using successfully and getting pins for.
Want to know what kind of value you have on Pinterest? PinPuff gives you a reach score (what kind of reach you have on Pinterest), activity score (how active you are), and virality score (the likelihood of something you pin going viral). You can use this to monitor your own Pinterest account, but you could also use it to identify influential people in your industry so you can follow them or invite them to contribute to your board.
When someone becomes a contributor to your board, he or she can obviously post pins (contribute) to the board. But what’s awesome about this is that now your board will also show up on that person’s page of boards. If you can get several authorities in your industry to contribute and they happen to have a large number of followers, this can quickly expand the number of targeted followers on your board.
When a user receives a request to become a contributor, the request appears at the top of his or her board page (visible only to the page owner) like this:
Here’s an example of a board with several contributors. Notice there isn’t a ton of pins (fewer than 100), but more than 4,000 followers have linked to this board:
Pinerly gives you access to powerful analytics information for your Pinterest ads marketing campaigns. You can identify popular pins, schedule and follow your pins to see how much attention they get, find people to follow, or unfollow people.
Pinterest can be a powerful marketing tool if used correctly. The chance of something going viral is very high, since according to RJMetrics more than 80% of all pins are repins.
Tracking social media has become extremely useful, especially for those who want to build brand reputation and ROI from their social media marketing initiative. Social channels directly link to traffic, following, and engagement, so measuring them can assist your business in a variety of ways.
Social media is an important part of the equation that brings traffic and target audience following, resulting in the growth of brands. From the largest brands to the smallest startups, social media has been used and continues to be used strategically for a variety of purposes. Though I haven’t found a great social media analytics software yet, brands and startups that do social media marketing have a clear need and desire to measure their ROI meticulously.
A social media infographic that surfaced about a year ago reveals what marketers look for in social media analytic tools:
All that data comes from people who measure social media metrics. Clearly, they regard social media analytics as important. But why?
I’ll try to answer that and explain ways in which social media analytics can be simplified so it’s highly effective.
About a year ago, social media was used for marketing and ad campaigns, but it wasn’t very easy to determine ROI. One reason was that social campaigns were unlike traditional online campaigns, such as banner ads or squeeze page promotions.
In the latter, you would track every click, total the conversions, and calculate the ROI; but with the former, this isn’t possible. A user might look at your social ad/campaign and not click at all — but make a purchase directly some weeks later. Your social campaign might get shared and retweeted but it may not convert into something tangible.
Furthermore, there was no way to measure these metrics to figure out whether your social media marketing was doing any good. This was one of the reasons General Motors pulled its Facebook campaign before plunging back into conventional fan pages and traditional media engagement.
If it’s a link, you measure the clicks. If it’s an ad, you measure the impressions. If it’s a video, you measure the views. If it’s a blog post, you measure comments and traffic.
But if it’s social media, what do you measure? Likes, shares, favorites, retweets, comments, replies, mentions, subscriptions, Diggs, upvotes… perhaps the length and variety of this list stumps the average marketer or business owner who’s trying to figure out ROI from their social media platforms marketing efforts.
Let’s go back to the infographic again:
Traffic numbers, growth of followers, quantity of interaction, quality of interaction — let’s assume these are the four basic things to track (although there are many more, like demography, gender, age group, time of day, etc.).In order to get the best out of every social campaign, you need to know what to measure. To determine this, you need to understand the purpose of running the social media marketing campaign. As is the case, the end goals dictate the measurement metric.
Some brands need to measure more metrics. A brand like Dove would want to measure the number of women who have clicked through a socially shared link. A brand like Apple might want to measure the peak time of shares and the traffic it generates say, during a product launch.
It all boils down to intention: the ultimate goal you want to achieve corresponds to the metric to be measured.
It should be evident that likes, retweets, and shares don’t occupy an important metric goal because they are not of direct consequence here. For a small business, measuring the number of likes, shares, or retweets is pointless if none of it generates traffic/following/interaction/revenue or any other goal you have set for your social campaigns.
Furthermore, social is not just Facebook and Twitter; intensely passionate social media marketers know that an enormous source of traffic lies beyond these important social hubs. These include Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, Delicious, and more.
Every effort you put in, especially toward marketing, should be planned and calculated.
Let’s say you take up guest blogging as a strategy to drive traffic to your website. As you go along with your guest blogging strategy, how do you identify the publishers that drive good traffic? How do you focus only on the ones that are effective?
All of that comes from analytics: you set up tools like Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools to figure out which ones are really good traffic sources and realign your marketing efforts to focus on those websites.
It’s the same with social media strategy, too.
At a time when social media marketing has become enormously important, it’s even more critical to measure the social media performance you run.
This is the big question: how do you measure the ROI of social media campaigns? Tracking social metrics was hard in the past, but with some really amazing tools these days, it has become easy while retaining sophistication, with a ton of features.
For instance, here’s a list of tools that help in a complete and thorough social media analytics:
Google Analytics Social (http://www.google.com/analytics/features/social.html)In most campaigns, this should be more than enough. Most of us measure traffic through multiple social media channels. Google identifies and tracks over 400 social channels, so this tool gets most of the social media data for you. With specific funnels/filters, you can track advanced metrics like conversions and the corresponding value of the traffic that funnels in through social websites.
Brandify (http://brandify.com/) This tool focuses on brand management through social channels. It’s used by some of the industry’s bigwigs. It’s all about social media analytics reports; Brandify monitors the social media activity around your brand (website) and helps you manage and enhance through recommendations. And it’s free.Awe.sm (http://totally.awe.sm/) Arguably the best tool designed to collect complete data about shares. Comes with a free trial.
RowFeeder (https://rowfeeder.com/) is Powerful social analytics that’s built for advanced users and brands that want to track a lot of things.
Engagor (http://engagor.com/) is Yet another powerful social media metric tool that brings complete control over your social media campaigns.
Crowdbooster (http://crowdbooster.com/) A more focused metric tool designed to provide recommendations based on successful social media strategies, with HootSuite-like multiple-social media management features.
Resources As usual, the web is often inundated with tons of resources.
Although I’ve not been much of a fan of Facebook Insights, it does offer some good information on the growth and reach of your Facebook fan page. Tracy Sestili’s post gives a good sense of the various metrics that can be useful.
This post is a must-read if you’re looking to make the best out of Google’s Social Analytics as it has evolved over the months. And this one takes it a step further to help you measure ROI generated by your social media campaigns.
Minilytics helps you understand the demographics of Facebook by letting you know which type of posts generate engagement, what time is optimal for posting, and how many fans you reach.
Social media campaigns are much more powerful than the usual ads run on websites. For starters, most campaigns are cost-effective, when the only costs involved are the human resource and time. Social campaigns are often more personal because they occur on a platform that’s trusted. And with metrics in hand, social campaigns can be enormously fruitful.
Social media marketing depends on content as a type of fuel to drive interactions and increase follower counts. While social-exclusive, text-based updates can be effective, especially when made regularly, the true anchors to your social media campaign are the heavy-hitting pieces of content that you circulate on your chosen platforms.
Unfortunately, it’s not enough to simply post random bits of content and hope for the best. Your content must be high-quality, it must be developed specifically for your target audience, and it must be appropriate for your chosen medium. Some types of content simply fare better than others in the social world, and these seven types of content tend to fare the best:
And, by extension, how-to or instructional types of posts. Listicles are powerful for a reason; they are always concise and typically short, and they offer practical information in a familiar and easily scannable format. The result is a piece that any reader can quickly peruse for as much or as little information as they want—and because the headline usually contains a number or another indication of its formatting, it’s an attention-grabbing title in the sea of social media posts. While listicles are sometimes frowned upon as an “inferior” type of content compared to a longer article or whitepaper, they’re essential fodder for growing a social following from the ground up.
Listicles can also serve as the foundation for creating more engaging posts by incorporating visual content or interactive elements that encourage users to explore further. Content marketers and social media marketers alike can easily adapt listicles into valuable content for blog posts, making them more accessible and appealing to target audiences who prefer concise information over more traditional forms like long form content. This type of post can also highlight your brand's personality while offering content ideas that resonate with your followers.
This type of content is typically written but is much more involved than the typical listicle. Rather than consolidating lots of general information into a digestible, easy-to-read format, this content is all about breaking new ground with new data, new metrics, or new insights. For most companies, this means digging deep with some original research and publishing the results. You’ll spend more time and more money developing these types of pieces and you won’t generate as much attention as you will with a listicle, but the attention you do generate will be far stronger, and you’ll earn a much greater reputation for it in the long run. Use both in balance throughout your campaign.
Infographics have long been a favorite in the SEO community, and for good reason. Infographics take original research and insights and condense them into an aesthetically pleasing, easily navigable graphic image. Infographics are shared more than almost any other type of content, giving your brand extra visibility.
In addition, infographics tend to attract a ton of inbound links as other external sources cite your information, so your domain authority—and your search ranks—will increase as a result. The one downside to infographics is the amount of time and/or money they take to produce, so use them sparingly.
Infographics also perform exceptionally well on social media platforms, as social media users are more likely to engage with visually appealing content. Incorporating infographics into your content marketing strategy can complement your blog content and written content, offering a dynamic way to communicate key information.
For many companies, videos seem like an intimidating challenge that requires a dedicated expert or technical equipment. In actuality, videos don’t have to be professionally produced in order to have a great impact. Something simple, like a video recording of a speaking event your CEO attended, can carry just as much weight as something more complicated you spent weeks trying to film and produce. Share these videos when you can, but try to keep them on the short side—people tend to watch and share shorter videos more often than those longer than five minutes or so.
Videos also provide an excellent opportunity to showcase your brand voice and deliver entertaining content that resonates with your audience. By sharing video content on social platforms, you can boost your social media presence and create a more engaging digital marketing approach. A successful content strategy should incorporate videos not only on social media but also on your web pages to encourage user interaction and boost visibility.
Interviews are great pieces of content for a number of reasons, but there’s one quality that makes them perfect for social sharing: the fact that there are two authorities involved. As the interviewer, you’ll be seen as an authority and you’ll be able to share the material with your own followers.
The great advantage here is that your interviewee will also be seen as an authority, and they will be highly likely to share the interview with their own network of followers, greatly increasing the cumulative impact of the share. Audio and video formats work best, but make sure to include a written transcript on your site.
News events tend to attract a lot of attention, as your followers are always hungry for new information. Industry news is a perfect opportunity for this—simply share an article (yours or someone else’s) and include your own commentary on it. Start a discussion and get the community involved. You can also do the same with any company news you might have to offer, such as the launch of a new product or the hiring of a new employee.
Social media platforms serve as a gateway into other people’s realities, and real-time event updates make great use of this functionality. While you’re attending a local event, tradeshow, or conference, post regular images and updates as the event rolls on—and include the event’s hashtag if you can. Your followers will love the first-person perspective, and if they happen to be attending the event, you’ll earn extra attention and credibility.
Incorporate all seven of these types of content updates into your social media marketing campaign, no matter which platforms you use or which industry you belong to. Of course, the actual content you choose to create within these broad categories must be based on what your audience actually wants to read or view.
Performing some initial market and competitive research should help you start with a solid direction, but remember to adjust your strategy over time as you learn more about how your content impacts your social strategy.
You’ve already got a content marketing program in place. You may have been at it for a week, a year, or even longer, but you’re not sure whether or not your content is performing effectively. You may not even be sure how to tell whether your content is performing effectively.
That’s where this article will come in handy. There are actually several ways to define the “effectiveness” of content, depending on your goals—including whether the content is effective at getting people’s attention, at building your authority, or at increasing your page ranks—and all these types of effectiveness can be objectively measured using a handful of data-based insights.
You can start by using Google Search Console to track key performance indicators (KPIs) such as keyword rankings and traffic. Additionally, analyzing content marketing metrics like engagement and conversions will help determine if your blog post resonates with your target audience and contributes to content marketing success. These insights can reveal how well your content is performing in search engine results.
The easiest line of insight you can get into the effectiveness of your content is how your followers react to it on social media. If you aren’t currently syndicating your content through social media, your first step is to get started with it.
There are several signals to look for, and each is important. Look for user comments on your pieces, user “likes” or “favorites,” and perhaps most importantly—the number of times users have shared your content. Shared content is the highest compliment you can receive, so if you aren’t receiving any shares, you may have to reevaluate your content strategy. Also take some time to look at your “social” visits in Google Analytics—how many people are visiting your site after clicking the link to your content? If the number is high, you’re doing great. If not, you’ll have to take a look at your content marketing efforts.
Onsite comments can give you fantastic clues into the effectiveness of your content. At a glance, the number of comments you receive on your blog posts can illustrate how impactful your content is. Is it stirring up conversation or sitting stagnant on your page?
The type of comments you get is also important. Do you notice other industry influencers getting involved, asking critical questions about your work? If so, you’ve managed to make yourself an authority. Are several different people engaging in conversation over your work? If so, you’ve managed to get significant attention through your choice of topic. If you have few comments or if your comments don’t show that your visitors are engaged in your material, it could be a symptom of weak or uninteresting content.
Repeat visits are a great indication of the strength of your content. If your content can attract lots of new visitors to your brand, that’s a good sign that your work is immediately appealing, but if those visitors come back for more, it means you’ve truly delivered some great work. If that recurring traffic is retained, that means you’re continuously doing a great job of satisfying your users’ needs and expectations.
Generally, your direct visitors (the ones who click directly into your site rather than searching for it) are already familiar with your brand, needing no external prompts to stumble upon your content. You can also measure your recurring traffic more accurately by counting the number of people who have subscribed to your blog or signed up for your newsletter.
To determine your content’s effectiveness in its onsite context, take a look at the Behavior section of Google Analytics. Here, you’ll be able to analyze the actions of your inbound traffic and track to see how they act after reading your material.
For example, you may find that once a visitor finds his/her way to your blog, the bounce rate goes up. If that’s the case, it means your content is ineffective at keeping users venturing deeper into your site. However, if you find that your content leads people to other blog posts and other pages of your site, you can consider your content effective at getting people to stay.
From an SEO standpoint, you can track your progress relatively easily. In Google Analytics, take a look at the Acquisition tab and look at your Organic traffic. This number reflects the total number of people who found your site through search engines, and if you’re publishing content regularly, you should see this number steadily increasing, month over month.
If you notice little to no growth in your Organic visits, it could be an indication that your content is underperforming as an element of your SEO campaign. This could be due to low or inconsistent posting frequency, poor relevance to your niche, or low quality writing.
Also, analyzing engagement metrics such as bounce rate or time spent on a particular page can give you more insight into how well your content aligns with user search intent. If one blog post or piece of content is performing poorly, content marketers might consider adjusting their marketing tactics or even creating content for other websites as part of a guest post strategy to boost website traffic and meet their business goals.
Finally, you can take a look at how well your content is at getting people to convert. If you have a conversion field on your blog pages, you can easily extract this information and determine your conversion ratio for blog traffic.
Otherwise, you can map out your users’ behavior flows and determine whether your blog readers eventually find your conversion page and convert. If you find your conversion ratios are low or nonexistent, you’ll have to tailor your content to enable more conversions.
Just because your content is underperforming doesn’t mean it’s useless. In fact, the data you gathered to determine your content’s performance is the perfect ammunition to use in remolding it. Take this information, along with your user feedback, and use it to make up for your content’s core weaknesses. Reiterate this process several times, making improvements each time, and eventually you’ll perfect your content marketing approach.
There are numerous variables that go into running a successful social media marketing strategy. Factors like quality and frequency of posts, along with proper engagement quickly come to mind. These are obviously important, but choosing the network that caters to your target audience is equally important.
Since there can be a disparity in terms of user demographics on different social media platforms, you should understand which network best fits your business before launching a full-blown campaign. Here is a rundown of the demographic of some of the most popular networks to help you choose which one to use.
Many social networking sites, such as Facebook and Instagram, boast billions of monthly active users who primarily access these platforms through mobile devices. With social media apps becoming essential communication platforms, it’s important to choose the right social networking site that aligns with your business goals and target audience.
These two heavyweights are at the top of most marketers' to-do list, and rightfully so. Facebook is the elephant among social media channels. Twitter isn’t all that far behind. Consequently, both Facebook and Twitter tend to be great places to start your campaign and test the waters.
If your business has a broad demographic, you should be able to effectively reach your audience. The same thing can be said even if you have a relatively small demographic, and you’re trying to zone in on a smaller segment of the population. Regardless of your industry, you should be able to bring exposure to your business and establish a community around it.
While creating a presence on both of these networks is applicable to nearly any business, Facebook can be even more advantageous when you’re looking to reach females between the ages of 18 and 29. According to CMS Wire, the vast majority of Facebook users are women and young adults, which makes it ideal if this is your business’s main demographic.
When it comes to Twitter, it’s also popular with a young audience between the ages of 18 and 29. A large part of its user base is comprised of African Americans and individuals living in densely populated, urban areas.
Both platforms have millions of active users, making them a great platform to promote your business and interact with your audience. While other social media platforms are also part of the social media scene, Facebook and Twitter stand out as essential channels for paid advertising and enterprise social networks.
If you’re looking to grow your business and gain B2B networking opportunities, LinkedIn is an effective way to do so. Unlike other popular social media platforms that are more casual in nature, this one is designed for educated professionals who are looking to advance their careers. According to statistics by Quantcast, the majority of users have earned either a bachelor’s degree or completed grad school. Male users outweigh females, and a large percentage of them have no children.
LinkedIn users also tend to earn considerably more money than those on other networks.
For instance, individuals earning over $150,000 annually account for the largest number of users. Not far behind are individuals earning between $100,000 and $150,000.Another factor that differentiates this network from others is the average age of its users. Unlike many that cater to a younger demographic, LinkedIn users are typically older and range between 25 to 64 years of age. If you want to connect with an audience that is well-to-do and mainly consists of business professionals, this can be the perfect resource.
This popular social media platform has really gained a lot of momentum in the past couple of years. While it pales in comparison to the user base of Facebook and Twitter, it’s seen plenty of growth since its conception and could be a major contender in the near future. The concept of Pinterest is incredibly simple, which involves “pinning” images onto boards.
This simplicity combined with its eye-appealing aesthetic probably accounts for the success it has seen. Like Google+, Pinterest also has a significant disparity in terms of gender. The difference is that it swings the other way and has a massive female user base of around 72 percent.
Most users are relatively educated and have either attended college or have at least a bachelor’s degree. Users are primarily Caucasian and between the ages of 18 and 50. Going even deeper, the top geographic location of Pinterest is the south east United States including states like Alabama, Tennessee, and Mississippi. Due to the large volume of females who use this network, some of the most widely shared content is based in the following niches.
If your business focuses on any of these areas, Pinterest can be a potential gold mine. Since this site is image-centric, it’s a great resource for displaying pictures of your products or services in action. It’s also possible to achieve a level of virality on this network because of the ease with which users can share content.
Determining whether or not TikTok is the right platform for your business first requires an understanding of the platform itself and its purpose. To begin, it is important to know that TikTok is one of those social media channels that are primarily used by teenagers and young adults for entertainment. It allows users to create short videos, share them with others, and watch content from other users. It has also become a great way for businesses to reach potential customers, increase brand awareness, and engage with their audience. As a business owner, it is important to create videos that are both entertaining and informative so that viewers will be engaged and want to watch your content.
Additionally, if you can make sure that your videos are creative and original, viewers will be more likely to remember them. TikTok, like other best social media platforms, offers collaboration tools to help you create posts that resonate with your audience and expand your personal brand. When it comes to promoting your video content on TikTok, you can use hashtags, comments, and other forms of promotion to get the word out about your business. It is also important to understand that organic reach on TikTok is limited by its algorithm; however, you can boost your reach by running ads or doing influencer marketing. At the end of the day, TikTok is one of the best modern social media sites for businesses to reach their target market and engage with their customers. With our help, you can create an effective strategy on this business platform that will get you the results you need.
Many business owners have heard of this social media site, but aren’t necessarily sure how it can fit in with their marketing campaign. In a nutshell, Tumblr is a microblogging site that allows users to share a variety of content including text, images, audio, and links. They can upload their own original content or re-blog content from other users. It has an incredibly easy-to-use interface which many people find appealing and has contributed to Tumblr’s success. While you could consider this network in its early stages, more and more legitimate brands like IBM and J Crew are taking the time to build their presence on it.
The most noticeable aspect of this site is its young audience. If you’re in a business that’s looking to reach people over the age of 35, then Tumblr isn’t for you. However, if you’re mainly looking to connect with consumers between 13 and 25, you should definitely consider this network. One of the most interesting statistics is that more young people in this age group now use Tumblr than Facebook. According to The Real Time Report, 61 percent of teens and 57 percent of young adults use Tumblr regularly, while only 55 percent of teens and 52 percent of young adults use Facebook regularly.
While it’s not completely clear why Tumblr is so popular among young people, it’s suspected that it relates to the fact that most parents aren’t using the site. Consequently, teens and young adults can use it without their parents constantly keeping tabs like they can on Facebook and other more notable networks. If your business offers a product or service that’s youth oriented, Tumblr can be an excellent choice. The best part is that competition is likely to be minimal for at least a few years.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can be confusing. With dozens of acronyms, technical jargon, tools, programs, statistics, techniques, and all the talk about pandas and penguins, it’s pretty intimidating.
Let alone the fact that SEO is a field that is in constant flux! In spite of the confusion, there’s a simple way to think about SEO campaigns today and beyond: as a set of three core elements that support each other to support an SEO campaign. Leveraging a strong social media presence and social media link building, you can improve your online visibility and reach a broader audience. You can also utilize Google Analytics, if you want to track the performance of both your website and other social media pages. It ensures that your target audience is effectively engaged on every social media platform.
Let’s take a look at each of these elements, as well as how to implement each of them to increase traffic, conversions, and ROI.
Discussed in detail below, but provided here in survey form, the three core elements are as follows:
I call these the three core elements because they are necessary for any modern SEO campaign to succeed. Without each of these three core elements, your SEO campaign won’t be properly supported and will likely fail. Before launching into an explanation of the three core elements, there are a few things to understand about how they work together.
The first core element comes first logically because it involves your own website — the hub where everything happens. This element can also be called “onsite SEO” to distinguish from SEO practices that happen off your site, such as external content that garners inbound links (such as guest blog posts) and social media involvement. Here are the essentials:
Organic link building tactics include guest blogging, press release distribution, and other tactics.
How do search engines decide to bring your website up to the top of the search rankings? Top-notch onsite SEO is only the beginning. Search engines recognize that your site is important based on who is linking to it.
Take this example. Let’s say you’re a yoga instructor. You have a website, and you start publishing some sweet articles about yoga. Somehow, Whole Living picks up on your content and asks you to do a guest post on yoga. You write a piece for Whole Living, and link back to your website.
Whole Living has a domain authority of 80, which is way higher than your site. Bingo. As soon as they link to you, your website gains credibility and authority. Then, you interview a health instructor in a local private college and post the interview on your website. The yoga instructor, in turn, writes about the interview on her college blog and links to your site. Boom. You just got a link from an .edu website.
Because you’re now a recognized authority on yoga, you publish an article in Lifehacker about the positive impact of yoga on work productivity. This article, of course, links back to your website. Another power move.
All of these links to your site are driving up your website's authority. Your site has proven to the search engines its authority and recognition. Your rankings go up.
No site will succeed in SEO unless other sites are linking to it. It’s just that simple.
Here are the best ways to gain quality backlinks:
Links are crucial. Ensure you have a solid strategy in place for building links.
More than ever before, social media is an integral part of SEO. Search engines can quantify the amount of social presence that your site possesses. Merely getting a few dozen tweets can ramp up a page’s authority, and therefore its rankings, resulting in more website traffic to it. The increasing market share of Google+ is a major ranking factor in social ranking, including the power of Google authorship. Social signals matter for SEO.
Keep these two points in mind.
The power of social for SEO strategy can be subtle, but is nonetheless important. Provide sharing opportunities on every piece of content that you publish. The greater the social signals, the better your SEO.
This is the state of SEO in 2013. Online marketing success is possible, but not without each of these core elements present and properly being engaged. It’s no longer easy to game the system and jump up the search engine rankings in Google with a few slick tricks. You’ve got your work cut out for you.
But you do have a game plan — understand and design your digital marketing strategy around the three core elements of SEO. As long as you 1) ensure that your onsite SEO is rolling smoothly, 2) you possess a robust and effective link building strategy, and 3) you’re staying active and engaging within social media platforms, you’re going to succeed.
Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Google+ have become the epicenter of marketing and social media campaigns for many businesses. According to Social Media Examiner, “83% of marketers indicate that social media is important for their business.” While the act of posting content and interacting with followers is important, it’s even more important to measure the performance of your overall campaign through social media analytics tools. Doing so should ultimately help fine-tune your efforts, minimize mistakes, and increase exposure. Here are some techniques and useful tools to accomplish this.
Perhaps the best way to get an overarching idea of how well or poorly each network is performing is by using some basic features of this platform. Google Analytics is free to use and is the choice of many marketers because of its extensive features. Clicking Traffic Sources > Social > Overview will provide a rundown of all social networks that are bringing traffic to your site. This includes the number of visits via social referral in comparison to total visits, the number of visits from each network, and the percentage of traffic from each network. Reviewing this data will give you a rough idea of how well each social media platform is performing in relation to other networks.
For instance, Facebook might be bringing in 40 percent of traffic, Twitter is bringing in 20 percent, Google+ is bringing in 10 percent and all others are combining for 30 percent. Clicking “Network Referrals” will provide a bit more information, like total pageviews, and the average visit duration of pages per visit. Clicking “Visitors Flow” is another feature that shows which pages on your website visitors are landing on and from which social media platforms. Understanding this data is important because it’s a clear indicator of which networks are working, which need some attention, and which ones may be worth scrapping altogether.
One of the main indicators of how big your presence is throughout the social media realm is how many mentions your business gets across social media channels. This buzz is also known as social signals, which are a rising factor in search engine algorithms.
Hootsuite is an effective way to track those mentions and streamline your social media strategy. It’s also one of the most popular platforms and currently has over 600 million users. There are several other statistics that can be monitored, such as how many people have added your business to their circles on Google+, how many followers you have across major social networks, recent user activity, and daily growth.
When it comes to Facebook, you can determine who your fan base is by analyzing their demographic according to region, language, and posting source. Hootsuite also makes it easy to absorb data by offering over 30 different modules with a variety of charts and graphs. Since it’s available on mobile devices, this can be a great platform for keeping up with data while you’re on the go.
This has become the go-to social media management tool for many businesses. SproutSocial offers a plethora of features that cover pretty much every aspect of the social media process along with high-powered analytics. From the dashboard, you can keep track of:
In terms of published content, you can easily determine how many clicks and responses each message received, as well as the number of people each message reached. This is helpful because it’s possible to identify which types of content are creating the most buzz, so you can rinse and repeat later. It’s also possible to determine how well your brand is faring against other competitors. This is done by creating social scores based on engagement and influence and measuring them against the competition. By producing presentation-ready reports, it’s easy to track the long-term progress of a campaign across various social networks.
If you’re looking for comprehensive data to spot trends, brand reputation, and where your company stands against competitors, this is a platform worth considering. According to Simplify 360, they “provide you with a much-needed tool to listen to what your customers are saying about your brand on social media and a means to act on it.
Be it Facebook, Twitter, blogs, YouTube, news sites, or online forums, you will never miss out on any conversations that are relevant to your brand. ”When it comes to features, this software provides the basics like information regarding your demographics, the volume of traffic from major social media networks, and competitor tracking. There are also numerous other sophisticated features such as:
Like Sprout Social, simplify 360 produces engagement and influence scores in order to tell how your brand stacks up against competitors. It also has a detailed analytics system with numerous reporting options.
This is another platform designed to measure performance that has caught the attention of notable media companies like Tech Crunch, BBC, and Mashable. Their slogan is “social media monitoring and analysis made easy,” and their concept revolves around searching for hashtags or search terms. The data can then be exported to a spreadsheet, charts, or graphs for convenient viewing.RowFeeder is a bit simpler than the previously mentioned platforms and can only be integrated with Facebook and Twitter. Nonetheless, it’s helpful for tracking your campaign in detail and seeing how your brand is performing against the competition. Businesses primarily use RowFeeder for:
Finally, a simple way to determine how much your content is getting shared on various social media sites is by installing social share buttons. For WordPress-based websites, there are many plugins available, which only take a few seconds to install. Once set up, you can see how many times a piece of content has been shared on different networks. More social shares translate to more exposure and can be a litmus test for determining what sort of content or topics are popular among your audience.
With access to numerous social media performance measurement platforms, businesses have the ability to unearth detailed information that simply wasn’t possible a few years ago. By utilizing the right social media metrics, you can avoid making the same mistakes and improve all areas of your social media efforts. Over time, this should put you in the position to better understand your target audience, improve engagement, and generate more leads via social networks.
If you’re ready to launch your social media marketing campaign, see my article "How to Determine Which Social Media Network Fits Your Business” for a great starting point. Do you have any other tools you prefer to use for measuring social media performance? Let us know in the comments below!
Over the past decade, social media has become seriously involved in the way brands engage with customers and users. Last year (2012) there was a huge shift in the general attitude towards social media: big brands began using social media much more than just as a tool to promote their products, independent business owners started using social media campaigns to engage their users, banks and product-selling companies broke the ice to use social media as a customer support system besides figuring out how to use it to collect reviews and surveys too.
Social media is a grand part of our lives. Billions of people use Facebook and Twitter (combined). The networks are so important today that even Google tries to capture social signals in ranking your webpages. As a webmaster, and an SEO expert, if there’s one thing that you can’t miss in your cocktail, it’s social media marketing.
But does that mean you just post links and share interesting things on your social media platforms? Unfortunately, many websites assume just this and go about posting and sharing links to things they find interesting. Yet, there’s no “engagement,” no “likes,” no “retweets,” no “click-throughs” and basically not much of anything else either. Why?
You’ve probably heard this a million times before, but social media efforts is about three things, predominantly.
1. Content
2. Timing
3. Engagement
What you share – interesting or not, in the generic sense – is not exactly the reason why people don’t click, don’t share, don’t retweet; or in short, don’t engage. I’ve seen pages with followers in the mere hundreds engage voraciously and pages with thousands of followers remain relatively obscure. And they both share content that’s generally interesting. The reason?
The rules of content on social media are pretty much similar to the ones in a marketing copy.
Bit.ly (the URL shortening service that runs prominently on several social channels) posted about the best times to share content on social media. It’s one of the most important lessons you can apply to maximize your social media marketing efforts.
Time is relative so the sane way of interpreting this is to take into account the time zones of your followers and figure out the most common time zone. And the following doesn’t apply to “breaking news” kinds, obviously.
But it doesn’t end there. This is just a base template for you to start working on. Remember that the trends of social media tools are rapidly evolving. With mobile devices in tow, people spend more time on Twitter and Facebook in the dead zones too (after 4pm, after 8pm etc.)
Run a test on Twitter for a week. Share links every 3 hours. Figure out the results from social media analytics. Then, you’ll have an idea of what generates the highest clicks and when so you can calculate social media ROI, later on.
But of course, the hardest part of social media marketing campaigns is engagement.
Most social profiles of websites and brands that I see do very little to engage with their audiences, followers, and other social media team leaders in their niche. This is exactly the opposite of how you should use social media strategy.
Engagement is (broken down into the most basic ‘actionable’ steps you can take right away):
Like everything you do, social media marketing strategies aren't really worthwhile if you’re not tracking the progress. Is your strategy generating enough engagement? More followers? More fans? More shares/retweets? What time is your target audience engaging the most? How’s your traffic from your own social channels?
There are a ton of things you can and should test when it comes to social media campaign. After all, you’re putting a lot of time into it (or should be!).
The best way to go forward is to analyze where you are and figure out where you want to go from here. Take up one goal at a time on one specific channel (Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest etc.). And then run the tests. Find out what works best and repeat the process with refinements till you’ve perfected one particular mode that maximizes your efforts and achieve social media ROI.
When it comes to social media success, your focus should be on the content that you share, as well as social media engagement. If it’s performed in a high-quality manner and done naturally and genuinely, you’ll see quicker results. Don’t spam. Don’t overdo it.
Optimize every step by measuring social media ROI and selecting the ones that are best suited.
There is a wide range of opinions on the practicality of social media marketing. There are the social media loyalists, who insist that social media marketing is the most innovative and important new marketing medium around, there are the naysayers who insist that social marketing is a fad and no real business would use it, and there are countless gray-area business owners in between.
It’s inappropriate to view social media as an all-or-nothing platform. Simply claiming an account and doing nothing won’t help you a bit. Posting regularly and engaging with your target audience can help you build a following—but what then? What is the value of having 10,000 Twitter followers or 10,000 Facebook likes if none of those followers end up making purchases with you?
In order to capture true value from your followers, you’ll have to take further action. You’ll have to make the types of social media content ideas that encourage engagement from your followers and call them to action on your website:
The product highlight is one of the simplest types of converting posts you can take advantage of, and it’s one of the first most businesses consider. The format of your highlight is up to you, but the function of the post is to introduce a new product or service to your follower base and highlight the most important elements of it. For example, if there’s a new dress available on your e-commerce platform, you can post a flattering picture of it and briefly describe the unique benefits of the dress. It’s a way of making a direct appeal to your users and attracting those who otherwise might not see the individual products you sell.
If you have any followers who like your brand but haven’t made a purchase, a consumer review can push them over the edge. In the socially connected digital world, the highest level of trust a brand can achieve is the approval of a peer.
For example, if a follower sees one of his/her friends post a review of a given product on social media platform, he/she will be far more likely to make a purchase.
On your own social media profiles, you can use this to your advantage—cultivate real user reviews, user generated content, and post clips of them to your audience directly!
Exclusivity is a powerful tool for two reasons. First, it makes the deal seem better, simply because fewer people have access to it. Second, it makes each of your followers feel more connected to the brand, like a clique.
Your exclusive discount doesn’t have to be anything extraordinary—something like 10 percent off can be just as effective as anything else. The key is to let your users know it’s an exclusive deal, and not provide that offer through any other social media network.
This post will call your users to immediate action, and increase their loyalty to the brand simultaneously.
The special offer is similar to the exclusive discount, but there are many more options you can play with. For example, you can offer a free sample product to new fans in exchange for filling out a brief questionnaire. This is a common Facebook tactic that gets people to submit their information, ultimately resulting in a conversion (if the acquisition of information qualifies as a conversion for your company) in exchange for something small. If your conversion goals are more tied to actual purchases, you can use something like a “buy one, get one free” offer to attract more purchases.
The giveaway is another tactic that has a dual effect on your conversion rates. The setup for the giveaway is up to you, but the bottom line is that you’re going to give away something valuable for free to one or more of your social media followers.
You’ll select these winners from a pool of participants. It will cost a bit of money to front the giveaway item, but there are two critical effects for this type of post: first, you’ll get people more engaged with the brand.
By taking action in a giveaway-style scenario, they’ll feel more connected to the brand and they’ll be more likely to take action in the future. Second, seeing the giveaway item will prompt people to purchase one for themselves once they learn they haven’t won.
The social incentive can work in the context of other social media ideas—for example, it could work in conjunction with the giveaway or with the exclusive discount. But the goal here is to get your users to share one of your central posts. Hashtags are a useful tool for this, but the mechanism for social sharing is up to you.
Getting your customers to engage your brand through social sharing will make them more likely to take action in the future, and will also serve as peer validation that makes your brand more trustworthy to other followers.
Rather than doting on a specific product or leading people to a specific page, sometimes it’s more advantageous to speak to a specific customer need. Look at why your customers would want a product rather than what they would want—and you can use user surveys to uncover this information.
However you go about it, address the need specifically in your blog post. For example, if you’re selling windshield wiper blades, rather than showcasing the highlights of your new wiper blades, you can introduce them with something like “Are your wipers leaving streaks in the rain?”
Another way to prompt users to action is to call them out on an individual basis. If a follower responds to something you’ve posted, show your appreciation for it. If a follower comments on your page and shows interest in a specific product, give them more information.
Giving that level of personal attention looks great for your brand, and will go far to help drive users to finally make a purchasing decision.
The time-sensitive deal is exactly what it sounds like. When your followers feel like they’re under the pressure of the clock, they’re going to be more driven to action. Sales that last 24 hours or products that are only available for a week can immediately drive more traffic and more conversions—the trick is to post about the deal progressively, so your users can see the time actively running out.
Of course, the power of conversion doesn’t rest solely on social media networks. For many business owners, it’s easier to write engaging content that leads to a conversion onsite. If that’s the case for you, you can use your relevant content as the anchor site for your conversions, and then post a link to it through social media platforms.
With these 10 types of social media post ideas, you can convert your army of followers to an army of real, purchasing customers. In social media marketing you may find that some work better than others, but through trial and error, you should be able to find the right posts to translate your follower numbers to numbers that truly matter—bottom-line revenue.
Just remember that your followers are people, and if you want them to stick around, you’ll have to keep nurturing the community involvement organically.
Social media marketing has been popular for years, and according to our recent “What Works in Online Marketing” survey, it’s still on an upward trajectory. Marketing professionals everywhere are looking to increase their social media marketing budgets, while marketers and entrepreneurs who haven’t yet tapped the enormous potential of the strategy are scrambling to make up for lost time.
Still, there are marketers out there apprehensive about getting involved with social media marketing, mostly concerned about its effectiveness and its long-term viability. These are legitimate concerns; on a superficial level, it’s easy to understand why one might view social media marketing as a fad, and the relative unpredictability of bottom-line results can be troublesome to the uninitiated.
If you’re concerned about the potential return of social media marketing, I encourage you to first look at the costs. Social media is extremely affordable, especially considering the level of returns you can potentially earn, and being aware of its estimated costs can help you budget your strategy efficiently.(NOTE: this article explores the organic side of social media marketing. Paid social advertising is not taken into consideration here).
First, let’s take a look at the potential cost bases for social media marketing. Claiming accounts and posting on social media is completely free for almost any platform, so what you’ll actually be paying for is the human effort it takes to manage a strategy.
There are four main options to work with here, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.
(Image Source: UpWork)
It’s important to note that how much you invest and what you invest in has a direct bearing on the results you’re going to achieve. For example, if you’re only interested in setting up a basic network for social visibility, you can invest a pittance, but if you’re interested in building an audience of thousands, you’ll need to invest significantly more.
This makes it difficult to project any one “standard” cost basis for social media advertising, but I shall do my best to present the general considerations you’ll need to bear in mind when creating your overall marketing budget (including, PPC & SEO prices).
Now, let’s take a look at the individual elements of a social media marketing campaign, and approximately how much they could cost. For the most part, we’ll be looking at raw man-hours of work here, rather than a monetary value, because your mode of work will modify the final cost as a critical variable.
Don’t overlook the strategy and planning portion of social media marketing. If you go in without a formalized plan, you’ll have no goals to reach for, no direction on what to do, and your team members will end up wasting time. You should spend many hours doing competitive research, researching your demographics, learning best practices for social media, and eventually coming up with a step-by-step game plan for success, formally documented to ensure accountability. This can take days or weeks of work, depending on the depth of your strategic aims, but the good news is it only needs to be done once (future modifications aside).
Next up, you have setup costs, which include the time cost of finding and claiming your individual social media profiles. If your business already has these, you can skip this step, but if not, you’ll have to go through the motions of establishing your social presence. For the most part, this is simple; take a look at how easy Twitter’s initial signup process is:
(Image Source: Twitter)Admittedly, there are a few steps beyond this, but they still aren’t complicated. The hard part is filling in all the details, like your hours of operation, business description, and some basic images for people to find you with. Still, even if you’re claiming an account on every major social media platform, it should only take you a day or so to wrap everything up.
The bulk of your strategy is going to revolve around creating posts. These can take a number of different forms, but the bottom line goal for each one is to provide some meaningful content to your audience:
(Image Source: SkilledUp)Ultimately, your posting strategy will probably take 1-3 hours per day, possibly more if you’re pursuing an aggressive strategy.
Engagement is the other side of social media marketing, and I would argue, the more important of the two. Engagement is the truly “social” element of social media—here, you’ll be responding to inbound posts, answering questions, and otherwise interacting with your audience. Without these community engagements, your social media platforms will function more as a megaphone than a means of conversation, and your users will become disinterested.
It’s hard to estimate exactly how much your engagement will take, since at least half of it is based on how many people you have reaching out to you. Some days, you may be flooded with inquiries, and others you may get none. In either case, you’ll have to check in to look for new notifications and initiate some engagements of your own. Count on at least an hour a day here.
Also consider the fact that your social media strategy will be tied to other marketing strategies your brand utilizes. I’ve already mentioned how social media plays into your existing content marketing strategy, but your SEO strategy will also be indirectly affected; engaging with influencers can help you in both these areas. Email marketing, specific sales, and other promotional strategies may all require additional or special efforts from your social campaign, so count on some extra time expenditures for those.
(Image Source: IAG.me)
Once you get past the hurdle of building an initial social media following, you’ll start having to post more often, engage more frequently, and keep track of more complicated statistics. It’s almost impossible to do that all alone, so you’ll probably need some assistance with tracking software, post schedulers, and organizational tools to improve your efficiency. There are dozens of tools like this on the market, most of which require a paid subscription, and you’ll need at least a few of them to keep things moving. Overall, you’ll end up paying a few hundred dollars a month in these tools; it’s possible to scrape by without them, but they do add a lot of value to your campaign, especially at higher levels.
(Image Source: Sprout Social)
Finally, you’ll need to spend time measuring and analyzing your performance. You can use some of the tools you subscribe to, but you’ll still end up pouring in a few hours a month to compile and draw conclusions from the data. The hardest part here is forming actionable takeaways, which you can feasibly use to update your original social media strategy and refine your approach for your future campaign execution.
It’s hard to ballpark a “general” amount of time needed for social media marketing, but as you can see, you’ll need to count on at least several hours per week—at larger scales, you can probably justify a full-time dedicated position.
Now, let’s take a look at the two key variables that will influence how much you need to spend to be successful in your campaign:
Take a look at these key considerations for niche and scale, and how they’ll influence your overall budget.
Look at how much your competitors seem to be investing in social media marketing, and how they seem to be investing it. This is going to tell you three things:
This is mostly going to be dependent on your demographics, but your type of business may also come into play here. Think carefully about how active your users are going to be on social media; if they’re highly active, you’ll need to invest far more time into posting and engaging with them. If they’re more passive, you can let off the gas. For example, younger generations tend to be more active on social media than older generations, but you’ll also need to consider where your business fits in; will people be coming to you with complaints and questions regularly? Or are you the type of brand people only need once every few years?
Some businesses are naturally going to have more posting opportunities on social media than others; this is inherent to your industry and the types of actions your company takes on a regular basis. This is best illustrated by example.
Consider National Geographic, a brand that prides itself on photography. Instagram and National Geographic were a match made in heaven because National Geographic can use the photos it’s already taking as the fodder for its campaign.
(Image Source: National Geographic/Hubspot)This is a form of corporate multitasking; if the bulk of your posted content can come from actions your company is already doing, you’ll require substantially less investment of man-hours than a company trying to develop all its content from scratch, 100 percent of the time. The reverse of this is that to be successful in social media, you may have to go out of your way to find more opportunities to post.
This is a complicated variable, because there are no right or wrong answers, and there’s an infinite combination of approaches you can take. Eventually, you’ll have to settle on one group of different social media channels to support your brand. The types of platforms you choose will have a massive impact on how much time you’ll need to invest to keep your following growing.
For example, Twitter is a platform that’s fast-paced and generally built on in-the-moment content consumption. You’ll have to check in to Twitter more frequently than something like LinkedIn, and you’ll probably have more engagements to worry about as well. Instagram, on the other hand, is a bit slower paced, but also demands the more complex task of finding images to post. Obviously, working on more social media platforms is going to mean more costs, and sometimes those extra costs aren’t met by an equal rise in rewards. Consider your platforms carefully to maximize your efficiency.
Depending on the nature of your business, you may also consider using social media for multiple different purposes. The SaaS industry, in particular, has high enough demand and enough of a digitally active user base to qualify it for hosting multiple accounts. As an example, SalesForce uses many different social profiles to host its many different options, services, and functions, from support to careers and options for developers:
(Image Source: Twitter)All of these will take extra time and effort to manage, so bear that in mind when outlining your strategy.
Now that you know the different types of costs you’ll need to account for, let’s explore the pros and cons of each type of social media management pricing model you can use, as well as approximate costs for each option.
Full-time workers, as a model, are the hardest to gauge from the outset. Do you need one full-time staff member? If so, and you end up requiring fewer than 40 hours of work per week, you may end up wasting time and money. Can you dump your social media responsibilities onto the plate of someone who’s already a full-time staff member? Feasibly, but at what point do you need to scale?
In any case, the costs here can be prohibitive. If you’re hiring a professional (as you should), you’ll end up paying at least $40,000 a year in salary and benefits, which translates to between $3-4,000 a month. Feasibly, you can split the responsibilities here, but even if you’re only using 10 man-hours per week, that still translates to $1,000 a month. You’ll also have a hard time with the scaling process; eventually, one worker will be overwhelmed, and you’ll have to hire a second. The learning curve here is steep, and the costs only get steeper as you add more team members.
(Image Source: PayScale)
Consultants and freelancers tend to be less expensive than full-time hires for a variety of reasons:
However, freelancers are also less reliable and somewhat harder to find, and you may experience growing pains as you try to manage all your workers at once. On an hourly basis, fresh freelancers may charge as little as $20 an hour, on up to hundreds of dollars an hour for experienced consultants.
For the most part, agencies and marketing firms are an ideal investment. They carry a number of advantages over both full-time workers and freelancers:
The only downside is that agencies can be costly, depending on the scale of your campaign. Average costs range from $500 a month for starter packages to $10,000 a month or more for national brands. Chances are, you’ll only need a smaller package, but even a few hundred dollars a month can be intimidating if you’re just starting out.
Of course, the best all-around model is probably the hybrid model, because it allows you to pick and choose a plan that’s going to net you the best results within your budget. For example, you may hire a person full-time whose partial responsibility is picking and choosing freelancers to support the majority of your platforms. Or you might invest in a social media agency as part of a monthly retainer, while still using your staff members to help fill in the gaps.
If you’ve read this far, you’ve undoubtedly developed a better idea of why it’s so hard to project accurate social media marketing costs in the first place. There are too many variables to possibly narrow down the costs to any one specific figure.
Still, I’d like to try and break down the costs for a number of different campaigns and phases of development:
Now that I’ve estimated the overall costs of a social media marketing campaign for small, average, and large businesses, I’d like to leave you with a handful of final takeaways:
Ultimately, your social media marketing campaign’s costs are going to depend on your niche, your competition, and most importantly, your goals. With the right social media strategy and enough commitment, an increase in expenditures is going to correlate with an increase in eventual return, so if you want to see the best possible results, don’t skimp. Do your research, get the best deal you can, and pick the options that are going to work best for your business.
Social media marketing remains one of the most popular online marketing strategies because of its approachability, versatility, cost effectiveness, and best of all—its potential for long-term growth.
As your audience grows, all of your efforts become more effective—you'll be reaching a bigger audience, sporting more engagements, and accordingly, you'll get a higher return on investment for everything you post.
The key, therefore, is building a big enough audience to yield those returns, and that means attracting more followers.
So, how do you get more followers?
Here are 101 ways to attract and retain new social media followers.
First, I want to clear up a few misconceptions about what having lots of followers really means. The "follower" metric may change in name—"followers" on Twitter and Instagram may translate to "likes" on Facebook, "connections" on LinkedIn, and "subscribers" on YouTube—but in function, it remains relatively consistent. These are people who have noted your brand as one to stay in touch with online, and they'll receive updates from you as you post them. In theory, the bigger this number is, the better; having more people to distribute content too means your content will get more viewers, and it's an indirect measure of your brand's popularity.
However, don't get too carried away by this idea. The quality of your followers matters a great deal as well; for example, you'll see much higher engagement and effectiveness with a strong, loyal, dedicated audience of 100 than you will with a disinterested, apathetic audience of 1,000. This is why it's vital that you avoid buying cheap likes or followers directly, and instead attract them naturally with your own content and ongoing efforts.
It's okay to use each social network's paid platform to buy followers (such as buying likes through Facebook's own platform), but avoid buying likes or followers from third-party vendors, as these followers will actually do more harm than good – they're usually fake accounts or disinterested people who get paid some small amount of money to "like" or follow online brands all day.They'll almost certainly stop following you after a short amount of time, and even if they continue to follow you, they'll have no interest, and thus no engagement, in your posts. This lack of engagement will cause social network algorithms to consider your content as being lower quality than it actually is, which can cause your organic reach to fall. This, in turn, causes you to have to pay more to achieve the organic visibility you otherwise could have had.
Imagine a brand – brand A – that has 100 real followers, and averages 30 engagements per post. That's a 30% engagement rate. Now, imagine a competitor –brand B – that has 100 real followers, and 100 bought fake followers (for a total of 200 followers). Each post still gets 30 engagements, for a 15% engagement rate. Facebook and other social networks take note of your engagement rate and give priority to brands that tend to have higher engagement rates. So, by purchasing 100 fake followers, brand B reduced its engagement rate, which causes its organic reach to drop, compared to brand A.
Now, brand A has less followers than brand B, but it actually reaches more people with each post. This is why more followers can lead to more value for your brand, but only if you truly earn them.
With that being said, let's dig into how you can earn more followers for your brand. I'll start by exploring some general tactics and approaches you can use to attract more followers, then dig into a handful of strategies for each of five major social media platforms that matter most: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
These are ways to get new followers on virtually any platform:
Your first tactic for attracting new followers happens before you draft your first post, and before you even claim your social media profiles. You have to come up with a strategy for what type of followers you're going to attract and how you're going to attract them. Who are you trying to target? What types of platforms do these users rely on for communication? How do they use those platforms? What content do they need to read? The more specifically you can target a niche, the better. Plus, you'll need to consider your competition, differentiating yourself as much as possible so you stand out in the crowd.
When you move to claim your brand's profiles on various social media sites, make sure you're filling out your profiles completely. If you just have a company name with no description, people won't have any idea what to expect from you, and they probably won't end up following you. On the other hand, if you have a profile that's completely filled out, not only will users have a greater volume of more accurate information with which to make a decision, they'll also see that you take your presence seriously. This isn't a difficult or time-consuming process, so there's no excuse not to do it.
(Image Source: Facebook)
As you're filling out your profile, you'll want to spend some time optimizing it for keywords and phrases that your target audience might search for. For example, if you run a pet store, you might use phrases like "pet store in Seattle," or "best pet supply store in Seattle." Most users rely on Google and other general-form search engines to conduct their searches, and you'll get some potential ranking benefits here, but this is more targeted to users looking for brand profiles on social media sites specifically, using their respective search functions.
If you want people to follow you, you need to make it easy for them. Most people won't go out of their way to find a company on social media, but if they see a convenient link to a company's profile page, they might take that bit of extra effort. For starters, make sure you include links to your social profiles on your website, both on the homepage and on your contact page. You'll also want to include these links on as many outbound communications as you can (such as email footers), and display your social presence on any physical, tangible marketing assets you may have, such as business cards. The more exposure you give yourself, the better.
Along similar lines, it's far less likely that someone will copy and paste the link to your article on their personal social profiles than it is they'll click a button to share your article directly. Encourage more people to share your material by featuring social share icons on all your blog posts—and don't worry, it's easy to do. This won't allow a person to follow your brand directly, but it will generate much more exposure for your brand on social media channels, which should lead to the pickup of at least a few extra interested followers. Just look at any of the posts on the Marketer.co blog and you'll see our social share buttons, which include counters that show how many times each post has been shared.
If someone has willfully subscribed to your email newsletter, they're interested in your brand. If they weren't, they would have unsubscribed by now. Therefore, everyone on your email subscription should have a vested interest in following you on any social media platforms where your presence exists. Take advantage of this by promoting your strong social media presence via email; start by including links to your main profile pages, but also create calls-to-action such as "be sure to follow us on Twitter for more special offers and the latest updates," and consider embedding social content, such as your brand's latest Instagram photos.
This isn't a glorious tactic, but it is an effective one, especially when you're just starting out. There's something of a "popularity of popularity" effect in social media; people will be more likely to follow you if you already have lots of followers. Accordingly, in the early stages, when you have almost no following to speak of, it will be hard to generate initial momentum. Instead of trying to recruit strangers, simply ask your employees, friends, family members, and other people you know personally to help you out. Most people will be willing to spare the time it takes to click your "follow" button that you set up on your website.
In this same vein, you can make a callout to people with a vested interest in your business, such as clients, partners, and vendors. Depending on the nature of your business, this may be essential to your collaborative operations; for example, clients can get updates about when your app is undergoing maintenance, or your partners can stay in the loop with your latest marketing promotions. Hopefully, you'll be able to pick up at least a few dozen extra followers here, especially if you pledge to follow them all back.
Your brand voice may not seem like it's an important feature of your presentation on social media, but it can have a massive impact on how people interpret your messages. For starters, you'll need to develop a brand voice that's both appealing and distinct from your competition; what makes you unique? What makes you valuable? This could be anything from a wicked sense of humor to an air of almost-overconfident grandeur. Once you settle on a brand voice, keep it consistent across all your platforms and everything you post—any deviations here could make people unfollow you.
Consistency is what's going to make people stick with you for the long haul, so in addition to applying consistency to your brand voice, you'll also need to apply it to the way you post. For example, if you want to become known for producing stellar infographics, you can't post them erratically or unpredictably; try posting a new one once a week, or every other week. Instead of posting updates randomly as you think of them, try to post at the same frequency every day and every week, so people can get used to the rhythm at which you post.
Your on-site content contains some of the most valuable marketing assets your brand has. Promoting them via links on your social media platforms has a two-pronged effect; first, you'll fill your social feeds with more valuable material that your followers will appreciate, and second, you'll promote your content so it becomes more visible and more effective. When you do this, make sure you pair your article with a catchy, compelling headline or lead-in; your original headline may be suitable, but be sure to adjust it if it needs some extra flair.
As a general rule, you'll want to post at least once every day (with possible exceptions for the weekends). First, this gives your users a degree of consistency; people will be more likely to continue following you if you're providing them with a consistent flow of content. Second, this shows your commitment to being active. New prospective followers who browse through your older posts will see how consistent you are in posting every day, and will be more likely to follow you. Just keep in mind that some platforms—like Twitter and other fast-paced feeds—typically favor multiple posts per day.
Live streaming video is one of the more recent fads taking over social media. Because Internet speeds are faster and more available, users are equipped with mobile devices, and they're demanding more in-the-moment content, live video has become a majorly popular form of engagement. Consider doing a live feed on your Facebook profile (or through Periscope on Twitter). As for the topic or situation, that's up to you. You could live-stream your attendance of a speaking event, give a monologue, or even host a Q&A session that keeps your users engaged. Just make sure it's in-the-moment and valuable for your followers.
Don't underestimate the power of a good joke in attracting new followers—even if your brand voice is traditionally more serious. People love jokes because we enjoy the feeling of pleasure we get from laughing; this feeling draws us closer to the brands and people that made us laugh in the first place, and also compels us to share that feeling with others. This is why especially clever or humorous jokes have a tendency to get shared and liked thousands of times. It may take you some time to think up something good and original, but when you do, don't hold back.
(Image Source: Twitter)
Hashtags are the social media world's way of categorizing and organizing information; they were originally developed as a way to make it easier for users to search for certain subjects (not to mention introducing their own contributions to search). If you learn to harness them properly, you can optimize your own posts for social searches. For example, if I were to distribute this article on social media I might use categorical tags like #socialmedia or #morefollowers. Just be careful here; if you stuff your posts full of too many hashtags, or if you use hashtags inappropriately, you could end up appearing foolish or amateurish. I have a quick reference guide to proper hashtag use that I published on Forbes.
Don't forget that social media is a two-way street. As much as you want to post and have users comment on your material, other users are making posts and hoping for comments and interaction as well. If you give them those comments, they'll take notice, and they'll be more likely to follow you as a result. Find individual profiles or posts with hashtag searches or with social listening software, and comment on ones you think are interesting. Even something simple like "awesome post! I loved the section about wildebeests" can get you noticed and hopefully, earn you a new follower. Just make sure you're being sincere.
You can also use social listening software and other modes of content discovery on social apps to find discussions that are already in progress. Try to find topics that are in the process of being hotly debated, questions that are in the process of being answered, or other threads of discussion with high levels of user interest. Present yourself as an authority, offering your own perspective and advice (preferably with data or anecdotes to back you up). This will demonstrate your expertise and introduce you to new followers simultaneously, giving you the chance to earn many new followers.
When you first start out, you probably won't see much engagement, but as you start to grow, you'll notice more and more users actively commenting on your posts and engaging with material you publish. When you notice one of these comments, respond to it—you can thank a user for reading your piece, agree or disagree with a point they've made, or ask them for more details about what they think. Anything you do will make you seem more appealing to the user in question, and will make you seem more invested and engaging to other prospective followers.
(Image Source: Twitter)
You should also take some time to follow accounts that are relevant to your brand. You can start with "who to follow" and similar suggestions on each platform, and use search features to find more. This will have a number of different effects. First, your newsfeed will start filling with more diverse forms of content (and therefore more opportunities to share and engage). Second, your activity will be noticed by those accounts, and many of them will reciprocate by following you back. Finally, you'll be introduced to more users who might be interested in your brand. A good place to start is by identifying your competitors' social media profiles, then finding a list of their followers (which is typically easy to do). Simply follow your competitors' followers and you'll target people who have already expressed an interest in your competitors' products or services.
Sharing is a powerful tool in the social media world, and it's not one you should neglect. Take the time to peruse content that's being posted by other people in your industry, influencers, as well as some of your individual followers. When you find something your audience would find interesting, share it. You'll help fill your daily "valuable content" quota, and you'll simultaneously make someone's day. If you share a user's content, they'll be far more likely to share some of yours in the future.
Influencers are social media users who already have access to lots of followers and command a ton of admiration in their respective fields. Even getting mentioned by an influencer could potentially expose you to hundreds of thousands of new users, so it's in your best interest to find out who these people are and keep track of them. Keep an eye on how and when they post and jump on any opportunities you see to engage with them directly. For example, if they involve themselves in a discussion, you can debate them or back up their points with your own data. Or you could go the direct route and ask them a question of your own. The key is to get yourself noticed, and hopefully mentioned. You can use BuzzSumo to find influencers quickly and easily in any niche.
If you want to go a step beyond just engaging with influencers, you can go out of your way to promote their material. This might involve sharing one of their posts with your audience, or something more involved like writing a follow-up or response to their original pieces. Either way, this is a fast way to get noticed, and if you continue scratching their backs, they'll be more likely to scratch yours. They may share some of your content once they notice how active you are, or you might open the opportunity to ask for a favor directly.
Speaking of asking for favors, as you build up your relationship with a given influencer, you may eventually ask for an opportunity to collaborate on a piece of joint content. There are many ways to collaborate in content marketing, and any of them can be valuable; for example, you could engage in an interview, each write a different section of a cumulative piece, or each contribute a bit of research to a bigger whole. The advantage here is that you'll be able to cross-promote your piece, giving you access to a huge new breadth of new followers.
Contests are somewhat gimmicky ways to attract new followers, but you can't argue with results. The idea here is that you'll offer the general public an incentive for engaging with your brand. You might ask them to "like" your Facebook page, follow you on a given platform, share a piece of your content, or use a specific hashtag strategy. If they do so, you'll give them a chance to win a prize (either randomly or determined by some round of evaluation, as decided by you). Contests give users a reason to engage with your brand, and are highly shareable, making them prime opportunities to attract new followers. The only downside is that these users might be more interested in your prize than your actual brand. You can use a tool like Rafflecopter to hold your contests & giveaways.
(Image Source: Social Media Week/STAR Fine Foods)
There's never a bad reason to post visual content on social media. People are far more likely to engage with visual content than they are with written content, and photos are one of the easiest ways to produce it. You don't need to be a professional photographer; in fact, you probably have a pretty decent camera on your phone already. All you have to do is take a picture of something marginally interesting or couple an appropriate image with an interesting caption. There are no rules here; more photos will help you stand out in searches and newsfeeds, giving you more opportunities to attract more followers.
Visual content isn't limited to photography or real-time video, either. You can spend time creating your own visuals and potentially earn even higher follower attraction and engagement rates. If you have access to a professional graphic designer, you can design your own infographics, charts, and graphs to make a huge impression with your followers. But even if you don't, you can create your own illustrations and doodles for a similar effect. Sometimes, the amateurishness of your work can endear you to your users more than sleek professionalism ever could. Don't be afraid to bust out the stick figures.
I already covered the potential of live-streaming video, as well as video as a form of photography, but you can also create graphics-based videos, like the video versions of infographics. These can be used to graphically illustrate abstract concepts, accompany another piece of content like a written article, or simply entertain your audience. These generally take some time to develop, and require the hand of an experienced designer, but their engagement rates tend to be high.
Social media is also a valuable place to sneak preview any new features, new products, or other company developments before they officially go live. This is a way to reward your existing followers for following you, which will increase your retention rates, but it's also a way to seem more appealing to fans of your brand who aren't following you yet. If your concepts are interesting, they'll be shared often, introducing you to extended sections of your target audience. Plus, you'll be able to gather some initial feedback before you finalize your concepts.
Trending topics are ones that are seeing exceptionally high posting volume. They tend to last only a few days or weeks, but at their peak, millions of users will be posting about and looking for content about the trend. Generally, these are categorized with hashtags, enabling you to research the latest trends manually by monitoring posting rates. However, you can also use social listening software, or specific content research software like BuzzSumo or Google Trends to find out what new topics are trending. Just make sure you have something valuable to say about the topic and aren't just brandishing it as a tool to boost your own popularity.
(Image Source: Hashtagify)
times are more valuable than others when it comes to social media posts. For example, most platforms see a spike in activity around the noon hour, but each platform has its quirks. For example, Pinterest sees far higher rates on weekends, while Twitter declines sharply after about 3 pm on weekdays. You can aim to post at the most popular usage times to get in front of more people, but keep in mind that others are pursuing this strategy as well—it may be worth testing your posts during off times, when your content is less likely to be lost amidst the noise.
Social shares are a powerful way to get new followers; when a user shares a piece of your content, it's instantly exposed to a new audience you previously had no access to. Moreover, this kind of share functions as a kind of personal recommendation—if your friend shared a piece of content, you'll be more likely to read it than if a stranger offered it. Try to make your content more shareable to achieve this. You can do this by making it more entertaining, more surprising, more practical, or by appealing to some specific emotion. For further help on making content shareable, see What Makes Content Shareable & Why It Matters for SEO.
As your brand grows in prominence, you'll start getting questions from social media users looking for advice on topics in your niche. When you encounter this, answer those questions—give a good answer, and you'll almost certainly win a new follower, while also getting more visibility for other prospective followers. If users aren't asking you questions directly, you can use social media search functions to seek those questions out and answer them the best you can.
Consider hosting live events at your office or in the general vicinity, and live update those events as they unfold. For example, you could host a lineup of local speakers to talk about their journeys in entrepreneurship to a local business audience. Use social media to announce and promote the event, getting as many signups as possible, then use those platforms to soft broadcast the event to your followers from all around the country. Take photos and video, and keep your users updated as the event rolls on with quotes and key takeaways.
If you're looking for an alternative way to gain more followers and please your existing customers are the same time, consider adopting social media as a branch of your customer service department. This is especially useful if you offer a tech product, like Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). You can use your social profiles to keep users abreast of new updates, downtime, how-to guides, and tips, and answer any user queries that come in. Some brands even create specific "help" channels on social media for this purpose—but that designation is up to you.
One of the most important elements of a modern content marketing strategy is getting featured on external publications. The idea is to write guest posts for other blogs and include links back to your own site; doing this helps you increase your brand visibility, reputation, and earns you referral traffic (not to mention higher organic search rankings). But don't underestimate the social media potential here; as long as your author profile features links to your social profiles (as it should), this representation will give you yet another outlet to earn new followers. You'll get even more exposure if those external publications then share your content on their own social media channels while tagging you in the posts (which they usually do).
Take a look at when and how your competitors are posting and find a way to complement it. This will help you stand out in users' social media feeds, and may help you target a differentiated segment of your shared audience. For example, if you notice that your competitors frequently post around midday on weekdays, consider targeting the early-morning or evening crowd instead. Just make sure you measure your effectiveness here and make adjustments as necessary.
Notice how prominent the differentiation theme is here—it's critical if you want to attract and retain a following of your own. Take note of the types of things your competitors are posting and try to offer something different. Do they tend to focus on written content updates, in short bursts? Opt for longer-form material or visual assets to complement them. Do they tend to focus on how-to and tutorial content? Try more advanced troubleshooting, buyer's guide, or alternative forms of helpful content.
This is where your analytics platform of choice is going to come in handy. I highly recommend using Google Analytics to analyze your incoming traffic. When you get all set up, take the time to analyze how your posts are performing. Posts that attract the most likes, shares, comments, and click-throughs should be regarded as "successful." What is it that these posts share in common? Try to pin it down to a handful of key features and replicate those features in your campaign's future.
Conversely, you should also look at some of your worst-performing posts. Are there any posts that received significantly less interaction? Are there some that users tended to respond to negatively? What was it about these posts that made them fail? This happens to everyone; you just have to learn from the experience and move on.
Sometimes, the best way to get shares is to simply ask for them directly. If you have a breakout piece of content you think is worthy of being shared, ask your followers to help you by spreading it outward. For example, you can frame your post by saying, "we spent a lot of time researching the topic and want this information in public hands, so help us out by sharing with your friends and followers." Don't do this for every post, or even most of your posts; instead, reserve your requests for only the content that you feel most confident in.
Most brands try to play it as safe as possible, sticking to familiar subjects and familiar themes they know their audiences will like. And it's true that sticking to objectively valuable, appreciated topics is a sure bet to see a positive return. However, occasionally it's worth the risk to stir up some controversy. Posting a strong opinion, going against the norm, or doing something that's shocking or unexpected can have a dramatic effect on how you attract new followers. You'll generate discussion, gain more visibility, and polarize your audience, leading to more (and more loyal) followers in the process.
Let your social media followers know when you have something big in the works. For example, you can announce that your company is launching a new product, reveal that you've reached a major milestone, or unveil your plans to move the company. Doing this shows that you value your readers, and just as importantly, you'll stir up lots of likes and comments. In turn, this will increase your visibility to prospective followers and increase the size of your audience.
(Image Source: Facebook)
People want to be rewarded for following you. Providing content and entertaining, informative posts is a good start, but you can go a step further by offering your audience exclusive deals, specials, and promotions. For example, you might post a coupon code for your social media audience only. Of course, "exclusive" here is relative—your followers could easily share this information with others. The point is, there's an appeal to following a brand with a history of rewarding its social media following.
Why are social media followers important? It's because the more engaged your users are with your brand, the more visible your brand will be. For starters, any posts that receive attention—in the form of likes, shares, or comments—will instantly be ranked higher in other users' newsfeeds, as Facebook determines them to be more valuable. Also, the thread may appear in the newsfeeds of friends and followers of the engagers as well, furthering your prospective reach. Get your followers to engage more by calling them specifically to take action—ask them to "like" or comment on a post in a creative way, such as stating a strong opinion and asking them to "like" it if they agree with you.
Most social media platforms will automatically generate a list of relevant accounts it recommends for you to follow, cultivated from accounts you already follow, your type of industry, and your posting history. Though you don't want to go crazy and follow every social media account that's suggested to you, this section is worth your perusal. Look for valuable accounts to add to your newsfeed, or potential sources of new followers you can poach. It's a great discovery engine, and it does all the work for you in advance.
Another way to get your followers engaged is to simply ask them a question. This is especially effective when paired with a link to a blog, or another source of information. For example, if you post about the "top strategies for improving sales," you could ask your audience what strategies they've found to be successful in the past. Brittney Brombacher, a Youtuber in the video game industry, has a mini-series on her channel called "Whatcha Playin'?" in which she discusses games she's currently playing, and asks viewers to share what games they're currently playing too.
Facebook and some other social media platform allows you to create polls for your users to take, which you can harness for almost any application you can think of, from gathering opinions on a piece of news to brainstorming new content ideas. This is very similar to asking questions of your audience, with one key difference; in a poll, users can see what other users have said quantitatively analyzed, which fuels another level of discussion.
Unless you're running a minimalistic campaign, chances are good you'll be managing multiple social media platforms simultaneously. If this is the case, you'll likely encounter new followers at different rates and from different areas with each of your platforms. If you cross-pollinate your accounts, by referring your followers to your other profiles, you could build all of them up more quickly.
Though most of your social media interaction will start and end online, don't forget that you find new customers and meet new people in real life as well. Make an effort to promote the existence of your social media profiles in real life, and you'll definitely see an uptick in your following. This can be something as simple as a "follow us on Facebook" sticker on your door or something more personal, like personally asking each of your clients to follow you on social media before they leave your office.
There are dozens of apps available to help you schedule and manage your social media posts. Though there is some danger in automating your strategy too much—making your brand seem impersonal or uncaring—there's also a value in scheduling some of your posts in advance. Not only will it save some time for you and your team, it will help you ensure a more consistent, frequent mode of posting. Just make sure you keep it in careful balance with your in-the-moment updates and responses.
Don't underestimate the power of storytelling, even in a social media format. People love to hear anecdotes, and they have an easier job of interpreting and retaining information if it's told in a format with a beginning, a middle, and an end. Take to social media to share an anecdote about your professional experience, or tell the story of a client you've helped, or to illustrate a complex topic in the course of a narrative. Even if it takes you a few posts to get through, your engaged audience just might love it.
Personal brands function like mini versions of your corporate brand, except they're tied to individuals within your company, rather than your company brand itself. These personal brands, carried by team members like your CEO or team leaders, will work almost like brand ambassadors, promoting your core content, getting guest posting opportunities on external publishers, and of course building up their own social media followings. You can cross-pollinate these followings, earning more visibility and followers for your corporate brand while reaping the benefits of the personal touch your personal brands will offer.
Try to include more verbal commands in your posts that instruct your users what to do. For example, if you post a link to your article, you can ask them to "read about the latest _____" (though you should avoid the word "click" specifically), or you can ask them to "comment with your thoughts on the matter." The simple presence of these words will spark more interaction, which will lead to more visibility and of course, more followers. Just be careful not to go too heavy-handed with this strategy, or you'll turn people away.
For the most part, hashtags are best used in their natural environment. You can use them to succinctly describe whatever's happening in your post, or leverage a hashtag that's already become popular to get some extra visibility for your brand. But if you want to encourage more people to post about your business, you can consider creating your own, branded hashtag. Generally, these are best reserved for contests and special events, as people will need a strong motivation to use a new hashtag. Just be aware that it takes a lot of effort and damn good timing (or a massive existing audience) to get a branded hashtag trending.
Other brands on social media aren't your enemies—not even your competitors. If you learn to see them as friends, or in a more exploitative context, as opportunities, you can earn tons of new followers. Collaborate with the other brands you see on social media, working together on a mutual piece of content or just conversing with each other. When you cross-promote this way, you'll exchange some followers, both gaining visibility and reputation in the process. Everybody wins when people use social media to be social.
No matter how much you wrack your brain or how long you spend brainstorming, there are only so many new content topics you can come up with on your own. When you're fresh out, or when you want a more precise, numbers-driven way to find new content, rely on an external tool like BuzzSumo or Feedly to help you generate ideas. Here, you'll be able to find new ideas for posts, zeroing in on top-performing content in your industry to help you figure out what your audience might like to see and what has been working for your competitors.
(Image Source: BuzzSumo)
Try to expand your horizons by experimenting with different mediums in your social media campaign. For example, if you're used to posting short written updates, try longer posts with an accompanying image. If you're used to taking still photos of your environment, try switching it up with a video. Consistency in tone, frequency, and subject matter is important, but you'll also need to change things up if you want to increase your visibility and explore new ways to reach your audience even more effectively.
Whenever you get the chance, add some personal touches to your social media feeds. Relying on personal brands as extensions of your corporate brand can help here, but don't be afraid to post images of your employees and clients and show off your personality in your posts. Taking a selfie with a cat may be a break from your usual, professional posting regimen, but it will remind your followers you're human, helping you attract an even wider, more interested audience.
(Image Source: Telegraph/Taylor Swift)
This goes along with the last tip about writing more personal posts. People love to see other people, whether they want to admit it or not. We're social creatures, and our gaze is naturally drawn to other human faces. Make sure you're taking pictures and video of other people whenever you get the chance, whether it's one random person using your product, or a group of people congregated at your office party.
It's incredibly tempting, especially for new social media marketers, to use social media tools as advertising platform, posting about your products on a regular basis and essentially making a pitch to your following. Though it might seem like this is a good way to drum up more sales, the reality is it will turn your followers away. Prospective followers who see your profile and timeline filled with advertise-y language will turn tail, and you'll likely lose some existing followers in the process.
This is a tactic you'll want to use if you're working with influencers or other collaborators, or if you have a special relationship with any individual followers in your lineup. Tagging a user in a post will instantly bring it to their attention, and they'll sometimes respond to it in some way—whether that's a like, a comment, a retweet, or a share. Make sure your content is relevant to them and have at it; it's a great way to guarantee a minimum level of engagement and earn some more visibility for your brand.
Social listening software is a way to "tune in" to the conversations of your followers and target audience on social media. On the surface, you can use it to figure out what people are talking about and what topics are popular, so you can create more focused, relevant content for your audience. However, you can also use it to see what users are saying about your brand by plugging in your company or product names and monitoring social mentions. It's a great way to find new people interested in your company (and gather some stealthy feedback while you're at it). Personally, I use Google Alerts and Buzzsumo Alerts for this purpose.
Every once in a while, you'll have an unfortunate misstep in your social media marketing campaign; you might offend your audience, post something untrue, or otherwise unintentionally make your brand look foolish, the way DiGiorno Pizza did simply by misunderstanding a hashtag. However, if you're careful, these missteps can be opportunities; acknowledge your mistake, offer an apology, and make it up to anybody who you offended, and you could spin it into an opportunity for greater visibility and a better overall reputation.
(Image Source: Adweek)
People love free things, and rogue followers are always looking for valuable brands to latch onto. Give away free things—even if it's just premium content—and you'll naturally attract more people to your brand. This effect will obviously amplify with the quality of the free "thing" you offer. Just be aware that the audience you attract with free giveaways may not be the audience most invested in your brand.
News is unfolding all around us, all the time, both in the context of your specific industry and on a national level. Stay tuned into these major news sources throughout the day, and when a news story hits that's especially relevant to your business, your industry, or your customers, comment on it. Even recapping the story briefly with a summary of your thoughts can help you ride the trending topic and get in front of new potential followers.
Social media is a great place to post your opinions—that is, beliefs that are open to debate. This can be mild, such as stating your opinion about the best way to drive downtown, or more intense, such as your judgment on a new technology that's taken your industry by storm. Strong opinions elicit strong reactions, which means you'll generate more discussion, and attract more followers as a result.
Even though you'll be posting on behalf of your corporate brand or organization, it's still a good idea to frame all of your status updates in a first-person perspective. Social media rose into existence as a way for individual people to connect with one another, and that's still the primary way people want to use it. Making your brand seem more personal with this simple first-person perspective should make it more appealing to anyone even marginally interested in following you.
Even though I've spent half these items preaching about the importance of consistency, it's also important to change things up from time to time. Try some content topics you've never considered before. Ask someone else in the office to draft some posts. Tinker with your posting frequency and scheduling. If nothing else, these changes will help you understand what is and what's not effective in your campaign. Plus, the changeup will likely appear favorable to anyone following you for the long term.
If you generate content and post ideas for long enough, eventually, you're going to run out—and if you don't run out, you might end up on a deviated path that starts diverging from what your users actually want. Get back in touch with your users by starting a social media discussion about what they most want to see, or even what kind of content you post that they would like to see more of. Collect their recommendations, analyze the results, and most importantly—give them what they're looking for.
Just because your content is a few weeks old doesn't mean it's not valuable anymore—especially if it's a piece of evergreen content. Keep a running list of all your old articles and on-site posts, and regularly work them back into your social media posting schedule. As long as you don't post the same articles or topics too frequently, you can generate renewed interest in your older material and fill up your posting queues with new content. Just change up the headlines from time to time to keep your newsfeeds fresh.
I can't think of any subject, industry, or topic that couldn't be facilitated with helpful tips and tricks for users. If you're used to posting how-to articles and similar forms of instructional content, you can pull tidbits and key takeaways from these pieces to form standalone posts. Otherwise, you can develop these on their own to give users throwaway tips and techniques throughout the days and weeks. For example, you might offer advice on how to make a purchasing decision in your industry, or a "life hack" on how to complete a certain task more efficiently. Show off your authority and aim for lots of likes and shares.
AB tests are usually reserved for the paid advertising space, but they can be just as valuable in the social media world. The general idea behind an AB test is to host two variations of a given strategy, an "A" version and a "B" version, then compare them to see which one is more effective. In the social media world, this might mean making the same post at different times of day, or linking to the same article with a different headline to see which post tends to attract more followers. With these tests, you can easily learn what does and doesn't attract new followers and adjust your overall campaign accordingly.
Social media platforms know they need to keep changing if they're going to survive. Not only do they have to keep up with the changing landscape of hardware, they have to keep user trends in mind and fend off competition from other platforms. That's why it's common for social media platforms to constantly roll out new features and functionality for their users. When you see these features emerge, try using them as soon as possible; doing so will attract lots of attention from new and old users alike (and will put you ahead of the competition). For example, when How-to pins recently emerged on Pinterest, the first line of users taking advantage of them saw crazy high engagement rates.
(Image Source: Social Media Examiner/Pinterest)
Your business doesn't exist in a vacuum, and it won't remain the same indefinitely. You'll offer new products and new services to new audiences, you'll grow, you'll hire, you'll move, and you might even change your strategic direction. When you do, you'll need to adjust your social media profiles to accurately reflect your new positions. Not only will this help your brand remain "fresh," it will also expose you to newer, more relevant audiences who might be interested in following you in the future.
This is a hard one to define, since viral content is so hard to achieve on its own. Only a small percentage of content posts attract any attention at all (in the form of shares and links), and an even smaller percentage than that "goes viral," attracting hundreds to thousands of shares and links. This content is the best of the best in terms of quality and value, but also must surprise the audience or appeal to their emotions in some powerful way. Getting a piece to go viral is a shortcut to earning thousands of new followers, but even your pursuits should do a good job of attracting more people to your brand.
If you're desperate to start building momentum, or if you've tried some of the strategies above but aren't growing as fast as you'd like, you can consider going the paid advertising route. Choose the right social media platforms that allow you to promote your main profile or a specific post from your profile for a relatively small amount of money. Generally, you can count on earning some new followers easily this way—but they may not be as relevant or as interested in your brand as followers you attract naturally.
Facebook offers a handy feature for some brands that allows you to selectively target the people who see your post. This may seem like a strange feature for organic social media strategy, as on the surface, it seems like it should be a paid advertising option, but there's a clear incentive for Facebook to do this; with more brands selectively targeting their audiences, more users will see content that is specifically relevant to them. Using the target icon on the lower-left of your status update box, you can filter out certain members of your audience you don't want to see your post; this will allow you to post better-focused content and attract more followers who are genuinely interested in your brand.
(Image Source: Social Media Examiner)
Facebook has made a number of recent algorithm changes designed to decrease the prevalence of content from brands and organizations in user newsfeeds, in favor of posts from other individuals. For many publishers and brands, this was a serious blow; however, it's possible to overcome this obstacle. If you want to maximize your visibility for new audiences, adjust your focus to quality over quantity. When it comes to organic visibility in newsfeeds, like potential, and share potential, it's far better to have one truly remarkable piece of content than dozens of filler posts. Find a way to stand out.
People tend to favor organizations and brands in their own area, so using the location-tagging feature for your status updates can be a major advantage. It's also going to make you easier to search for if people are looking for a local solution. This is especially useful when you're posting images or updates from a certain event, such as a tradeshow or industry gathering in a specific city.
There are many features that differentiate Facebook from its contemporaries, but one of the newest is the addition of emoji reactions, which allow users to respond to posts in more emotionally expressive ways than simply "liking" it. Attracting a specific type of emoji reaction, or a variety of them, is a good way to make your post more visible—and it can also help you gather information about your current following. Try to elicit a "wow" reaction with surprising content, or post something outrageous that encourages "angry." Even better, spark a discussion with a controversial post and let your users post all kinds of emoji reactions.
Events have long been a staple feature of the Facebook platform, and they continue to be a main reason why people use it. Creating public events for things happening in or around your office can help you attract the attention of people who have never heard of your brand before (especially if the event is interesting). Invite all the fans and followers you can think of, and ask them to invite other people they know. Even if they don't show up for the event, they'll be more likely to follow you after seeing your event listed.
Take a look at some of your competitors on Twitter. Chances are, some of them already have hundreds or thousands of followers. You can close this gap eventually by going your own route, but why not take advantage of the audience that's already there? Obviously, their followers have expressed an interest in your industry, so it stands to reason they'd also be interested in following your brand. Follow the people who follow your competitors, and many of them will likely follow you back. ManageFlitter is a fantastic tool that can help with this process.
Twitter got popular because it offers a slightly different approach than its biggest contemporary, Facebook. Users are forced to restrict their updates into bite-sized snippets of only 140 characters. Because of this, users tend to post updates in greater frequency, which tends to clog up newsfeeds. Cumulatively, these signature features have turned Twitter into a fast-paced, in-the-moment platform where people turn to get up-to-the-minute updates. If you want to attract more Twitter followers, you need to indulge them in these fast-paced conditions by posting live updates of what's going on around you when you're at an industry-related event.
You already have links to your Twitter profile on your website, but that will only get you so far in enticing your website visitors to become Twitter followers. If you want to engage them further, use Twitter's API calls to embed tweets on your website directly. Depending on how you set it up, this could feature a rotation of some of your brand's most recently posted tweets, giving users a sneak preview of what they'll get by following you. Giving users a preview of your tweets without them having to do anything is a good way to win new followers, but only if your tweets are engaging and/or interesting.
Twitter features a "pinning" option, which allows you to select one tweet that stays at the top of your profile page. When a prospective follower judges whether or not to follow you, they usually scope out your profile and your most recent tweets. Showcasing one of your best tweets at the top will help persuade them that following you is a good choice. If you have a tweet that's generated lots of likes and shares, that's the one to pin.
People love to use Twitter at events like conferences or tradeshows. Most events, even small, locally organized ones, have signature hashtags that promoters encourage participants to use in their social posts, which has a few critical advantages for you if you attend the events. First, you can post about your attendance and have an easy way to get found by other participants. Second, you can set up a search filter for these hashtags to find other people who are attending the event—and you can then network with them in-person. An in-person relationship is the single easiest way to get a new follower, and someone you meet at a tradeshow or other event is just about the highest-quality type of follower you can have.
Instagram is all about images, and your images need to make an impact on users if they're going to follow you. One of Instagram's biggest claims to fame is its provision of specialty filters, which help you edit your images and make them more appealing. If you want to show that you know what you're doing, stand out in users' newsfeeds, and generally attract a bigger audience, you need to know how to use these filters effectively. Generally, the filters Clarendon, Gingham, Juno, and Lark tend to attract the most likes.
Instagram newsfeeds quickly get filled with photos from other users, so if you want any hope of standing out in a newsfeed or search results page, you need images that stand out. One of the best ways to do this is to dominate the space of your image with a single, bold color. For starters, choose an image—or create one—that features many shades of a single "general" color like blue or red. Then, make sure your subject occupies the full space of the photo (you can edit this after taking the picture). This will make your image "pop" out and probably get you some extra likes, too.
(Image Source: Fast Company)
Instagram users tend to be especially active on Sundays. Since Instagram is often a place to show off your adventures, it's rarely used on weekdays, when most people are at work. On Fridays and Saturdays, people are busy out doing things, so on Sunday, they get to catch up on everything they might have missed and post the images they may have delayed when experiencing something in the moment. Long story short, it's the best day to post if you're interested in attracting more attention and followers.
Instagram, like Twitter, is an in-the-moment platform. People appreciate seeing photos and video of events as they're currently unfolding. They'll also be more likely to follow a brand that visits their location or is active in the area, as its content will likely be more relevant to them. To take advantage of these realities, use Instagram's geotagging feature as often as you can. All you have to do is click the "location" button when uploading a photo, and Instagram will show where you are. If you want to use the geotagging feature even after you've left a given area, make sure your mobile device is tracking your location so your photos are tagged with where they were taken.
People want to follow Instagram accounts that feature the best images, so if you want people to follow you, you need to give them an idea of what they can expect. For this, I recommend including some embedded Instagram posts on your website, perhaps on your home page or in a dedicated gallery of its own. Since all the images you post will be relevant to your business, this should also improve the engagement rates of your website, possibly even influencing conversions.
On LinkedIn, it's easy to create a page for your company, and you should do so. You should flesh it out entirely, filling in all the details of your profile and posting semi-regularly. However, when it comes to growing an audience of followers, it's better if you focus on your individual social media accounts (the personal brands that will support your Company page). Individual accounts have access to more features, such as Groups, and are more likely to earn new connections on what is, essentially, a professional networking platform. You can then use your LinkedIn connections as a conduit to promote your corporate brand or other social accounts.
Though many people use LinkedIn as a way to find and engage with people digitally from all around the country, it's good if you also use LinkedIn as a way to cement your connections with people in real life. When you attend professional networking events or meet new people in the workplace, ask to connect with them on LinkedIn—most people will be open to it if they have an account, and it's an easy way to quickly build your number of connections. Plus, any new connections you make this way will already be somewhat familiar with who you are.
LinkedIn Groups are one of the most powerful sections of LinkedIn, which is part of the reason you should rely on your individual accounts more than your company account in the first place. Join a number of Groups that are relevant to your industry and brand, including locally-based Groups, and peruse them regularly for conversations you can participate in. For example, you could offer your insights on a recently posted blog, or voice your opinion on a piece of news that just came out. Making your presence known—and participating intelligently in conversation—will make people reach out to you as a new contact. For a deeper dive into how to use LinkedIn Groups for marketing, see The Definitive Guide to LinkedIn Groups for Marketing.
Groups are also a common place for people to ask questions, which is the perfect chance to show off your knowledge and authority in your industry. If someone's asking for advice, give it to them. If they're dealing with a problem, give them a potential solution. If you need to do a bit of extra research to back up your opinions, go ahead and do it, and cite your sources. It will show that you're committed to actually helping people. The person whose question you answer will almost invariably want to connect with you, and you'll also set the stage to connect with anyone impressed with your answer.
Whenever you "encounter" someone significant on LinkedIn, go ahead and connect with them. By "encountering," I'm referring to practically any kind of meaningful engagement you make, such as conversing in a Group or commenting on the same piece of content. In your request, mention the circumstances and your reasoning behind connecting—most people don't like cold connections, but as long as you have some justifiable point of entry, you'll be fine.
On YouTube, the key way to get "followers" is to earn subscribers for your channel. If you haven't yet created a channel for your brand, that's the first step—it's like creating a profile for your brand. However, it's not enough to simply fill in the details and let your channel exist on its own. If you want to attract more subscribers to your YouTube channel, you'll need to set up your brand channel to be as unique and appealing as possible. Customize your layout, choose your headlines and background images carefully, and pick a color scheme that fits your brand. You want people to have a differentiated and memorable experience when they first encounter your channel.
YouTube now gives you the option to make a "trailer" for your channel, which is exactly what it sounds like—a short video that pitches the types of videos and content your channel will be producing. For many users, this will be all they need to see to decide whether or not to subscribe to your channel, so you need to make it compelling. Generally, the more straightforward you are here, the better. In fact, you can use a brand representative to engage with your audience directly, speaking into the camera and bluntly explaining what types of videos you produce. Just be sure to include your unique value proposition.
Just like with the other social media platforms, people won't subscribe to you without some kind of incentive. It's not something most people seek out, so if you want people to subscribe to you, you need to ask them to. Feature calls to action throughout your YouTube videos, channel page, and even on your website and other marketing materials. For example, you can create annotations for your YouTube videos that encourage users to subscribe to your main channel or check out your other videos.
Search optimization isn't just about Google. You can optimize your videos for both Google and YouTube search by paying careful attention to how you name, tag, and describe them. First, title your video with a catchy, compelling headline that not only attracts attention, but features a handful of keyword phrases that users might search for when looking for content like yours. Then, write a concise, detailed description void of filler words that accurately describes your content. Finally, choose key tags that best represent your video—these are what help YouTube categorize and display your video for users to find, and the more users there are finding your videos, the more subscribers you'll earn.
If you want to attract more subscribers and keep them around, you'll need to produce videos regularly—probably not every day, like some social media platforms demand, but aim for at least once a week if you're serious about your presence here. Because most people who subscribe to YouTube channels do so immediately after viewing one of the channel's videos, you'll want to make sure all of your videos end on a high note—a punchline, a key takeaway, or an inspiring thought that ties everything together. This will leave your users wanting more and serves as a perfect opportunity to ask them to subscribe.
There you have it. At this point, you should have all the knowledge and ideas you need to grow a larger audience of social media followers. You don't have to use every strategy on this list for every profile you've claimed, but even a handful of successful, consistent executions here should put you in a universally better position. If you're just starting out, this might seem intimidating, especially since your early growth rates will be marginal at best, but stick with it, and eventually your social media presence will flourish.
Social media marketing strategy is the process of building your brand equity and awareness via social media channels, including:
Social media marketing efforts has several significant benefits:
Let’s explore each benefit in detail.
When you enter social media platforms, your brand will appear in search results across the Web; not just in search engines. Many social media channels, such as Facebook and LinkedIn, feature “group” functionality which allows users to search for topics in which they are interested and opt-in to updates for those topics. Furthermore, social media channels facilitate the process of instantly sharing information with a large number of contacts. So if a reader finds your content useful or interesting, they can share it with their contacts quickly and easily, creating organic exposure for your brand.
Participating in social media channels brings your brand closer to your customers and potential customers. Your social media “voice” defines your brand image and separates it from a distant entity to a hip, trendy, “in-the-know” brand. Think about what Apple did with its famous “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” commercials.
You may not know it, but your customers are saying lots of things about your brand. But do you know what they’re saying? Social media marketing platforms like Twitter and Facebook make that sort of “brand buzz” readily available. If you’re not tuned in, you could be missing out on crucial information about your target audience.
There’s no stronger marketing message than an endorsement from a friend. Effective social media strategy facilitates word-of-mouth digital marketing by making it quick and easy to tell your friends about your positive experience with a brand. But social media marketing plan doesn’t just make it easy to tell a single friend; it’s just as easy to tell all your friends what’s on your mind.
Twitter and Facebook have become the default customer-service media for many companies, and more companies are hopping on the bandwagon each day. By using these channels to communicate with your customers, you project a transparent, trustworthy image which also shows that not only do you listen, but you care.
One independent study, which appeared in the March 2010 issue of Harvard Business Review found that Facebook pages can increase customer loyalty by 36%. The study also found that customers connected with the brand’s Facebook page had higher emotional attachment and greater psychological loyalty toward the brand.
The transparency inherent in social media advertising builds trust with potential consumers.
You know that social media marketing is important, but do you know what it takes to make a campaign measurably successful?
The Definitive Guide to Social Media Marketing will show you, in great detail, exactly what it takes to build a social media campaign that attracts new customers, builds loyalty, and increases conversions. Exploring tactics related to specific individual platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, this eBook contains all the information you need to establish or improve your social media campaign.
Written by Jayson DeMers, contributor at Entrepreneur, Forbes, Inc., Search Engine Journal, and other online publications, this eBook is a one-volume piece that will guide you through the trials of social media marketing, from beginning to end.
The eBook kicks off with an all-around summary of what social media marketing strategy is (and isn’t), and why it’s important for modern businesses. You’ll learn the tangible benefits of social media marketing, and the characteristics of brands that can achieve them. The chapter also debunks a popular myth: that social media strategy can only work for some companies.
Facebook is the most popular social network in the world, but it shouldn’t be your only presence—nor is Facebook right for everybody. In this chapter, you’ll learn about what social media profiles are effective for what businesses, and how to select the most valuable platforms for your increase brand awareness.
Most social media strategies fail because their benefits are not measured or interpreted. This chapter covers the objective side of social media advertising, including how to measure data related to your campaign and how to calculate your return on investment (ROI).
Blogging is a core content strategy that complements and supports your social media marketing efforts. In this chapter, you’ll learn why blogging is so crucial to the success of your social media campaign, and how to make the most of your efforts, including:
After reading this chapter, you’ll never be tapped for content ideas again.
Posting on social media isn’t just a matter of typing up whatever’s on your mind and hitting “submit.” In this chapter, you’ll learn which types of posts generate leads and the best results, and how to incorporate your branding into your messaging. You’ll learn why it’s important to humanize your brand, as well as the visual power of images, and at the end of the chapter you’ll gain killer insight into the world of social content with 100 great ideas.
Establishing a presence is only the first step. Chapter 6 introduces you to the world of growing a social following and building loyalty in your audience. You’ll learn:
There are a lot of options out there, and it seems like multiple social media platforms pop up every day. Each is unique in terms of utility, demographics, and ease of use, so it pays to know how to use each one effectively. This chapter covers popular social media marketing platforms including:
Once you’ve built a successful following, it’s time to turn that audience into revenue. The trick to making social media presence a profitable effort is converting your followers into clients. This chapter covers the most successful strategies in turning your target audience into a customer base with:
Your campaign might drag when you first start it, or you could start off strong only to hit a roadblock a few months in. Understanding the factors holding your campaign back is the only way to make a full recovery. This chapter will teach you the most common reasons your campaign could be suffering including:
Finally, this eBook will walk you through the best long-term practices to ensure your continued success in social media. Social media marketing plan is a long-term strategy that only starts rewarding you after months of consistent dedicated effort. In addition to best practices, you’ll learn about:
Are you ready to sink your teeth in? Download the full eBook now for free – a $300 value! All you need to do is enter your email address and first name in the form below:
By now, most businesses have some sort of social media presence. Some have just claimed their profiles and hoped for the best, while others have gone all-out in an effort to generate more brand awareness, more site traffic, and more potential revenue. But social media is useful as far more than a simple funnel for your web traffic—it’s a platform with great potential to build your brand’s reputation and increase loyalty amongst your followers.
One of the best ways to take advantage of this is somewhat unconventional. In addition to using social media as a straightforward communication and syndication platform, you can—and should—turn it into a full-fledged customer service platform.
There are some vulnerabilities in using social media for such an application, or at least perceived vulnerabilities. Social media is sometimes viewed as a fad or an arbitrary medium because of its rapid growth and the rise and fall of multiple individual social channels. However, digital social media platforms are going to be around for the long haul, and there are far more advantages to using it as a customer service platform than there are disadvantages.
Meeting customer expectations is crucial, and social media allows for real-time responses to customer issues, enhancing overall satisfaction. By promptly addressing customer messages, companies can build stronger relationships and foster loyalty.
Forward Thinking
It’s a fresh idea and one that not many companies are taking advantage of. Simply implementing a social media customer service strategy is going to differentiate you from your competitors, and mark you as a thought leader in your industry. The idea is still new, but as it starts catching on, some customers may opt in as followers simply because of your customer service options. Of course, this is partially dependent on your industry as well as which social profiles you choose to make the focal points of your strategy.
Instant Gratification
Using social media as a customer service platform can facilitate instantaneous responses. Instead of getting trapped in a series of phone transfers or held up in a pool of email requests, your users can pose a question and see it immediately posted. If you can answer that question immediately, you’ll give your users instant gratification, and they’ll love you for it.
A Chance to Demonstrate Brand Personality
Social media platforms lend themselves to a more interactive, personal experience. Rather than getting a formulaic email or listening to someone read through a phone script in the customer service call center, they’ll get to see a personalized message on a social media platform. You’ll have to ensure that all your social media managers are working from the same brand voice (to ensure a consistent brand experience), but the extra points for personality will be worth it.
Transparency
Using social media channels for such a purpose demonstrates a willingness for transparency. Today’s consumers are skeptical and untrusting of brands, so the more internal workings you can show them, the better. Every bad situation you can turn into a good situation is going to do wonders for your reputation, and it’s going to prove that you aren’t trying to hide anything from your customers. Potential, not-yet-convinced customers will see these types of customer service interactions, and as long as you’re handling each situation appropriately, you’re going to move them one step closer to a commitment.
A Chance for Follow-up
Social media also grants you the opportunity for immediate follow-up with your customers. If you respond to a question of theirs, you can immediately ask if your answer was satisfactory, and if there’s anything else they need. You can also follow up with your users a few days later in the same thread, ensuring customer satisfaction with everything.
Social Exposure
When a user has a good customer service experience with your brand on social media, they’ll be far more likely to share that experience with their own friends and followers. Repeat this a few dozen times, and you’ll gain instant visibility and credibility with an extended network of hundreds or thousands of new potential customers. In the modern era of social marketing, individuals carry more credibility than corporate brands—so use this to your advantage!
Your first step is to build a strong, loyal following that will serve as your introductory customer base. If you already have a following, you’re all set—you can move on to step two. However, if you have a strong social media strategy and you’d prefer not to interrupt it with additional customer service messaging, you can create an entirely separate presence dedicated exclusively to answering customer questions, such as “_____ Support. ”
Claim Your Profiles
Your first step is the easiest one. All you have to do is lay claim to your social media profiles. For most businesses, Facebook will work best as a customer service platform due to its widespread popularity and easy management interface. However, you may wish to claim a Twitter account or other profiles as well, depending on your customer demographics and personal preferences.
Post Often
In order to gain attention and build a reputation, you’ll have to start posting often. That means several times a day, every day. Post useful content or helpful links if you aren’t receiving any initial inquiries from your customers.
Engage with Your Users
Make it a point to respond to every point of interaction your customers give you, especially in the early stages of building your following. If a customer leaves a comment or sends a message, respond personally and publicly (when possible). Over time, you’ll build a community, and new followers will be more likely to join your platform.
Prioritizing customer engagement through thoughtful responses to customer interactions sets a standard for outstanding customer service. This approach not only addresses individual concerns but also demonstrates your commitment to fostering a supportive and responsive community.
Next, you’ll want to take steps to publicize the fact that your social media presence is doubling as your customer service portal. Make sure your profiles call attention to this fact, and use your main website (preferably a Contact or Help page) to announce and link to your social presence. You can also make a formal announcement using advertising mediums like email blasts, PPC ads, or banner ads.
If you sell products, one of the best ways to introduce your new platform is to include a message with every order, such as an index card that instructs customers to bring any issues or questions to their social account of choice.
You might be nervous to start things off, but the best way to learn social media customer service is to hit the ground running. Start handling your customer service requests individually, remaining personal and in brand voice with every interaction, and if you make any mistakes, try to learn from them and move past them.
Chances are, even with a strong following, you’ll start off with a small number of inbound requests. Over time, as you increase your social reputation, you’ll see those numbers start to grow, and you’ll earn more respect and more customers as a result.
Setting up your social media profiles as an additional customer service platform won’t take you much time, and it will take some getting used to if you’re unfamiliar with the medium, but the long-term benefits for your brand visibility and reputation make it all worthwhile. It’s still a good idea to maintain outside lines of customer service communication, especially a working phone number, but keeping social media at the crux of your customer service strategy is a sound move.
No matter how careful you are, there’s always the chance that you’ll run into a major social media catastrophe. Maybe you posted something in jest that offended the wrong crowd. Or, maybe you accidentally sent a reply that was meant to be a direct message. Maybe something happened with your product or software, and your social feeds are blowing up with angry responses from other online users. In any case, your social reputation is in serious jeopardy and you have a limited amount of time to try and mitigate those losses.
If you find yourself in the midst of a social media crisis, don’t panic. Instead, focus on completing these five steps:
Your first course of action should be to stop the bleeding—that is to stay, and prevent any further damage from being done. There’s nothing you can do to reverse what’s already happened, but you can take action to prevent anything else from stacking on top of it. For example, if you’ve posted something borderline offensive that seems to be riling people up, take the post down. If there’s an issue with your software causing people to angrily post on your timeline, connect with your developers and try to start fixing the issue.
The goal here isn’t to pretend like the incident didn’t happen (see the next step), but rather to prevent any further spread that you have the power to prevent. Most of the time, this simply means taking down the material in question, but there’s a limit to how much you can do.
One of the worst things you can do is try to cover the incident up. The social media world is public, observant, and fast, and if you try to stop information from spreading, that’s only going to make people want to spread it more. For example, if you posted something that wasn’t meant for the public eye and you try to delete posts that recognize this mistake, you’ll only encourage those users to post more aggressively.
Instead, address the situation directly. If you’ve made a mistake or have in some way damaged your reputation in the eyes of your users, you can start out with a sincere apology. If there’s a situation still underway, such as a software outage, you can post all the details you currently have on the subject and assure your followers that you’re working hard to correct it. The more open and transparent you are, the less backlash you’re liable to face (and the less interest people will have in rubbing your nose in it).
In today's digital age, having a solid Social Media Crisis Management plan is crucial. By implementing a well-thought-out crisis response and communication strategy, you can effectively manage public sentiment and mitigate the impact of a social crisis on your brand. Learning from the incident can also help shape future campaigns to prevent similar issues from arising.
Every follower’s voice matters. Every response counts. It’s your job to get on social media channels and respond to as many individuals as possible. If you’re a major national brand and this incident has gone viral, there’s little hope for you to respond to every single individual. If that’s the case, just do your best. A little individual acknowledgment is usually enough to make even the most vocal dissenters quiet down (at least for the moment).In your responses, be sincere, and show that you’re actually listening. Don’t post a canned response over and over again or you’ll look like a robot and open yourself to more criticism. Instead, acknowledge your followers’ complaints and concerns specifically and offer your sincere thoughts on the matter (apologizing again, if necessary).
An effective social media crisis management approach includes personal, heartfelt responses to build back trust. By integrating this into your overall crisis management strategy, you can mitigate damage and start the process of rebuilding your brand's reputation.
Once the first wave of responders has been addressed and a calm begins to set in, you can take the next step—offering penance. Most crises arise from some kind of mistake or mishap by a brand that negatively affects its followers in some way. If this is the case, it’s your job to try and make it up to them.
How you make it up to them is completely up to you. A little bribery is usually welcome here, such as offering free products or discounts to anyone who was personally affected by the incident. You could also simply explain the situation and acknowledge what you’re going to do to make sure it never happens again. It’s also a good idea to give people a piece of contact information they can use to contact your company directly if they have further concerns—it shows you want to go out of your way to make things right.
A well-crafted crisis communication plan is essential to navigate a brand crisis effectively. Utilizing your crisis management strategy across all social media platforms ensures a cohesive and timely crisis response. Consistent and transparent crisis communications can help restore trust and maintain your brand's reputation.
This may be the most important step since it’s going to help you prevent problems like this from arising in the future. Do a thorough review of all the steps that eventually led to this catastrophe, including who’s in charge of posting on social media, what steps were or were not followed, and any influencing factors that could have been addressed before the problem began to escalate. Determine if there’s any corrective action you can take to prevent a similar incident arising and if there is, take it.
Additionally, consistently monitor social media to quickly identify potential PR crises before they escalate. By understanding your target audiences and maintaining a consistent brand voice, you can respond effectively and implement proactive measures to mitigate future risks.
These five steps should be enough to get you out of even the most threatening social media crises. There’s no way to prevent all the damage, especially for larger blowups, but you can at least decrease it to a minimum and set yourself up for a speedy, graceful recovery. Even the best-prepared, most careful brands can encounter unfortunate situations. All you can do is manage their effects and prevent them from happening as much as possible in the future.
If you have a quality CRM software system, you can use your CRM for crisis management.
Need help managing your social media? We can help!
You're in a startup. Your idea is solid. You've got products or services ready to go. You have a feeling that if people only knew what you were offering, they'd be all over your company.
Now, the only question is, how am I going to make this thing visible? Your biggest marketing problem for startups is visibility and exposure.
More specifically, startups need a cost-effective solution to drive awareness quickly.
Here's your ultimate, step-by-step guide to getting media exposure for your startup.
Ready? Here we go!
Before you go off trying to get media exposure for your company, you need to build a solid foundation—meaning you have to develop your brand and your online presence to a sufficient degree in order to support your media efforts. Why? For starters, media outlets need a reason to feature you. If you don't even have a website or a fleshed-out brand, they'll be unlikely to cover your story. Even if they did, where would all your newfound visitors and brand enthusiasts go?
There would be no website or base of operations to which you could funnel them. Building brand awareness is essential for securing media coverage and aligning with industry trends. The strength of your foundation will dictate your ease of entry into the media world and help you realize the benefits of your efforts, including free media coverage from your preferred media outlets.
First, you need to have a grasp of your brand story, which many media sources will use to judge the strength of your potential coverage. Journalists are incentivized to write stories that people want to read—so is your brand exciting? Is it relevant? Is it different?
These are the qualities that will let them know:
(Image Source: Nestle)
(Image Source: Wall Street Journal)
Once your brand "story" is developed, your next biggest concern should be where your readers are going to go once, they've read about you in a media piece. Surely, you'll receive some referral traffic, but how you handle that referral traffic can make or break its value. For most startups, this will be your main website, but you might also create specific landing pages as destinations (or target specific internal pages).In any case, your design and copy need to be tight. They need to accurately portray your brand for an unfamiliar public, and appeal to them with new angles and extended descriptions. Remember that your media coverage will likely only skim the surface of who you are and what you do. You'll also need to focus on a PR strategy geared toward conversions, which is going to help you turn these barely familiar web visitors into leads or customers.
For this, you'll either need to point your visitors in the direction of your products or services pages through the use of your web design, or else present them with signup opportunities throughout the site. Run some AB tests to optimize your conversion efforts before you start seeking media coverage; otherwise, that traffic could go to waste.
It's also worth noting that a dedicated website isn't the only place you can funnel media traffic, especially as a new startup. For example, let's say SMB Sam is working on a new type of beverage to bring his usual coffee drinkers, but he needs capital to be able to fund it. He creates a page on Kickstarter to attract donations. Clearly, there's an incentive to get people to his website, but for the moment, what he really needs is more donors; this makes his crowdfunding campaign page a higher priority.
Crowdfunding pages aren't the only alternative destinations you can consider. For example, you might also funnel people from your media outlets to your social media profiles, or an example of your work somewhere else.
Before you get involved in any media interactions, you should have a blog in place on your website, complete with many posts that show off your thought leadership and expertise. There are three main reasons for this:
You'll also want to consider creating or utilizing a personal brand, rather than just a corporate brand when trying to promote your business. Essentially, a personal brand works just like a corporate brand, except for you as an entrepreneur; you'll create an identity standard for yourself, build recognition and popularity, then reap the benefits by using your personal brand to also promote your company.
There are a handful of advantages here for media relations. First, people tend to like stories about other people more than stories about brands or companies. As the leader of your startup, you'll serve as a figurehead for your company, representing both the business and the personal side of things. You'll have an easier time working with journalists since you'll be able to form a more personal connection, and you'll seem less self-promotional since the corporate branding takes on a secondary role.
It's also worth noting that any media exposure you get as a personal brand will last longer than your startup, extending beyond the context of any one business. If you plan on starting multiple businesses, this is crucial.
Take a look at how Elon Musk has developed his own personal brand—he has his own section on Popular Mechanics as well as Entrepreneur.com, and his name is recognized more than any of his individual companies.
(Image Source: Popular Mechanics)
You probably won't achieve this level of fame, but your benefits will be similar.
For both your corporate brand and your personal brand, you'll want to start building a bigger social media following. You can do this by promoting your on-site content, sharing the work of others, engaging in conversations relevant to your industry, and reaching out to individuals who might be interested in your work.
A bigger, more relevant social following will help you in the following ways:
Here's a perfect example of how a strong social media campaign generated media exposure on its own:
(Image Source: ABC News)
For help growing your social media following, see 101 Ways to Get More Social Media Followers.
Early on, while you're still building your foundation, it's a good idea to strike up relationships with journalists you feel might be relevant to your brand. A major factor for success in the media exposure world is the strength and reach of your connections, so the sooner you initiate these connections, the better.
There are many places to look for journalists, some of which are more obvious than others. You can generally find their contact information on their respective publishers' sites, but a better way to find them is to meet them through social networking sites or in-person networking events. You can even find them in journalist-specific meetups. They likely receive an overwhelming number of queries through their professional emails, so you'll stand out more if you meet them in person.
You don't have to do anything special when starting a connection. Simply introduce yourself, ask them about their position and about their work, and leave the door open for future interactions. If you really want to stick in their memory, help them out in some way or take them out for lunch or coffee in the near future.
In addition to hunting down some journalists, you'll also want to create a kind of "watch list" for news sources and publishers who may wish to publish content related to your brand in the future. This will make things much easier when it comes time to shop around a potential story.
You don't need anything fancy here; a simple spreadsheet will do. There are four things you'll want to record, in addition to any special notes you might have.
(Image Source: Adam Sherk)
Finally, you'll want to start tapping into the power of influencers, if you can. Influencer marketing is the process of engaging with noteworthy, high-authority individuals (usually strong personal brands or other thought leaders in your industry) to gain exposure or authority for your brand. The best way to do this is through ongoing relationships with key influencers, such as regular conversations, content collaborations, or other exchanges of value. The earlier you scout for and build these relationships, the more power you'll be able to tap, especially later on.
Influencers will help your content and social media campaigns grow, multiplying the benefits of these foundational elements (which I've already covered above). They may also be able to help you find new journalists and new publishers, as they tend to be well-connected in their respective industries.
With all these aspects in place, your foundation will be more or less complete. From there, you'll be able to start doing the work of attracting and creating media exposure opportunities.
Once you've got your foundation in place, you're ready to start communicating with journalists and publishers.
Start by identifying which publishers to target. I covered seven essential quality metrics for evaluating publishers in my article at Search Engine Land. One of those, Google PageRank, has since been discontinued. Here are the other six:
There are many different types of news outlets, and many different ways you can approach your delivery of news content related to your company. These include writing and submitting your own press release, pitching a story, and collaborating with others for a joint project. I'll be exploring each of these in turn.
Your first option is the easiest (and the most approachable for entrepreneurs unfamiliar with garnering media exposure). In this process, you'll use a newsworthy event related to your company and distribute it to a host of potential news sources using a service like PRWeb, Cision, or just about any PR firm. Those sources may reject, edit, or publish your piece directly on their sites, giving you potential exposure across the web.
If this process seems easy, it's because it is. Just don't count on every publisher you encounter to run with your piece.
Collaborations and exclusives are different types of news stories, and they don't rely on the manual submission of articles to be published. Oftentimes, this is the joint work of a journalist and a personal brand/entrepreneur/individual, so you'll need either a pre-existing relationship with a journalist, or a strong enough reputation to earn these pieces on your own.
You'll get varying degrees of exposure and reputation boosts depending on the type of collaboration you choose. These are just a few:
One fantastic way to do so is to sign up for HARO (Help a Reporter Out), which will put you on an email list that will send you opportunities that may be of interest to you. Basically, reporters who need sources for their stories can solicit them via HARO, and if you find a story for which you think you could be a good source, you can contact the journalist and offer your assistance. It's free, and it's a great way to connect with journalists who write about your industry.
(Image Source: HARO)
Press release submission demands that you create your own material. Collaborations require that you have either something important, valuable, or knowledgeable to say, or have a pre-existing reputation.
Pitching, on the other hand, mandates neither of these requirements; you don't have to do the writing (unless you want to), you don't have to have a newsworthy event in mind, and you don't need to have a pre-existing reputation.
The idea here is to come up with a story that news readers would want to see. It could be an industry profile, a review of local businesses, or (depending on the source) something more niche along content marketing lines, like business strategies or economic tips. Then, contact a journalist and pitch your story. It could either be a story idea or the full written story itself. If the journalist likes what you pitched, they'll reply.
As always, the stronger your relationship with the journalist you're pitching to, the better chances you'll have of seeing your story written and/or published. And no matter who you're pitching to or what you're pitching, there are a handful of strategies that will help you be successful:
My favorite way to get media coverage is simple in theory but difficult in practice – become the journalist. You can do so by becoming a guest contributor, or even a regular columnist at your publication(s) of choice.
The general idea of guest blogging is to use your personal brand as a way to post your content on external publications, build exposure, reach new audiences, earn links, and earn a more authoritative reputation in the process.
Guest blogging is how I became a contributor at dozens of online media publications, including Forbes, Inc, Entrepreneur, The Huffington Post, Search Engine Land, and more. It's a phenomenal tool for markers and shouldn't be ignored.
However, it's a subject that requires a guide of its own (trying to distill it into anything of value in this little section wouldn't do it any justice), so you can read my guide on guest blogging here: The Ultimate, Step-by-Step Guide to Building Your Business by Guest Blogging.
Most of my tips in this section have been focused on online publishers, which are the most prominent, and generally the easiest to access. However, be aware that most of the strategies here—including pitching ideas and helping reporters with one-off contributions—can be applied to television and radio as well.
These mediums are more appropriate for some brands (such as retail and traditional industries) than others (like a tech startups).
Once you've started building a foundational reputation through media collaboration, and you've established a reputation for yourself online, you'll start receiving press inquiries from journalists.
That's when a media kit comes in handy. A media kit doesn't have any formal requirements. Instead, it serves a simple purpose; giving potential journalists and publishers all the information and assets they need in order to represent your brand appropriately in their material.
Some brands have a .zip file of this information, while others simply consolidate it onto a single page of their website.
Your first job will be to introduce your media kit to prospective users. Again, you have a number of choices when it comes to presentation. In your early stages, a simple standalone page of your website will do fine; include it in your footer and design it to show off the key elements of your brand in an engaging way. Eventually, media demand or your brand reputation may be such that it demands a more formal distribution system.
When making pitches or engaging in collaborations, it's also useful to send your media kit along as an attachment or a referendum. In some cases, it may serve as a type of resume to show off your brand authority. The mere fact that you have a media kit shows that you've had exposure in the past, plan on exposure in the future, and are prepared enough to address these situations professionally. It sets a good tone for the future of your journalistic relationship.
Your media kit needs to tell your "brand story," which I touched on a bit earlier. Here, you'll need to present this information with a bit more formality, so it's clear to the average user where you stand.
Journalists love to cite facts and figures, so the more objective data points you can include about your brand, the better. This also further incentivizes them to link back to your site, as they'll need a citation for the statistical data, which can help your SEO campaign.
To give you some ideas for what types of data to post, here are some suggestions:
It wouldn't be a media kit without media, right? But the media I'm referring to here is different from the "media" as it describes news sources and publications. This is the visual sense of the word "media," referring to tangible elements that a publisher may use to enhance or supplement their coverage of your brand:
If you have other brand assets, such as a specific typeface, a mascot, or other signature elements of your identity, these might be good to include as well.
It's also a good idea to include instructions and policies about how, exactly, people are allowed to use this information. You could hire a lawyer and draft up a formal agreement that digs into detail about how your assets and statistics are to be used, but this is generally more trouble than it's worth. For most brands, an informal, even conversational request is more than enough to make sure your information is used appropriately. Besides, all your brand assets are protected under general intellectual property laws, so you don't need to worry about plagiarism or theft. As a great example, check out MailChimp's brand assets page.
They take some time to show exactly how not to use their brand, clarify some common misconceptions, and then make a few simple statements about when you can and can't use their information. It's simple, to the point, easy to follow, and doesn't demand that your external publishers get legal representation before giving you free media exposure.
There are some ongoing considerations you'll need to bear in mind as your reputation grows, and you start striving for higher goals. Media relations aren't something that can be initiated or executed as one-time events; they demand management and refinement over time.
You'll need to manage your relationships with journalists, influencers, editors, and publishers on a regular basis. If you lose contact for too long, you could lose them from your network entirely; here's how to keep your contacts happy and engaged:
You'll also want to take advantage of any cross-promotional opportunities you can find. Usually, this involves supporting a press release or coverage article on an external publisher by using your own marketing campaigns.For example, you might share a positive press piece on your personal brand's social media channel, or email it out to your subscribers. Refer to my introductory section on media coverage's "relationship to other marketing strategies" for more ideas.
Finally, don't forget to take ownership of your latest publication opportunities by showcasing your affiliation with major publication brands. On your website, you should have a rotating list of publishers, or a collage of different logos of those publishers, to demonstrate social proof and make your reputation known.Similarly, you'll want to reference your partnerships and previous coverage in every new pitch or every new relationship you create; this will help you land even bigger and better opportunities in the future.
Media exposure manifests in so many different forms, it almost can't be categorized in a coherent, singular way. Press releases and guest posts are very different strategies, but they can be leveraged together as part of the same path to greater brand exposure.For a startup in the early stages of development, with few customers and not much to build on other than a central idea, the approachability, cost effectiveness, and scalability of media relations makes it one of the most effective marketing strategies you can pursue.Its power is multiplied even further when you use it in conjunction with other powerful online marketing strategies, provided you're following best practices throughout.There's no single list of takeaways I can leave you with here, other than to keep in mind that everything in brand exposure and external publications boils down to your relationships. The better you build and maintain relationships with your customers, journalists, editors, and even the general public, the better you're going to fare.Media exposure is very much connected in a self-perpetuating feedback loop, so the more visibility you earn, the easier it will be to obtain future visibility—but the only way to gain that initial visibility is by instilling trust in your earliest relationships. Maintain a brand and a strategy with integrity, remain passionate, and stay committed; the rest will come in time.If you don't have time to manage your PR strategy yourself, find the best digital marketing agency to help you with the process! Contact us today!
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