My Fourth Law of Attracting Clients states that you must be visible.
Imagine that you woke up one morning and discovered you were completely invisible. And nobody could hear you either. If you sent an email, nobody would even see it.
Not such a great circumstance if you wanted to attract clients to your business!
But as absurd as this situation might seem, it's pretty close to reality for many independent professionals. They are rarely seen or noticed by their prospective clients.
If your business is not growing and you need to attract more clients, the very first thing you need to do is gain more visibility.
In my business, my efforts to become visible followed this progression: networking - speaking - keep-in-touch marketing - publishing.
I joined my local Chamber of Commerce, professional groups, and networking clubs and I started to meet a lot of new people, many prospective clients.
Then I contacted organizations and started to give talks on marketing for professionals. I met even more people and added them to my mailing list.
I then mailed a newsletter every other month to those on this list, and I sent postcard mailings inviting people to various introductory marketing events.
In 1997, I transitioned to an email list that reached 50,000 people at its peak. These people received this eZine once a week and I also promoted various
products and services to those on the list. Twenty years later the eZine still goes out weekly.
Finally, I published my InfoGuru Marketing Manual that developed more credibility and led to more clients and participants in my marketing groups.
I may be a lot of things, but one is not being invisible!
The hard truth you have to face is that very few people wake up in the morning with your name on their lips. You cannot remain relatively invisible and expect your business to grow magically.
You need to remedy this with a "Visibility Plan." Here are nine ways to do it:
1. Start slow, with patience. You can't get in front of 50,000 people overnight. Get clear on who your ideal clients are and where you can connect with them.
2. Focus on as many in-person meetings as possible through professional organizations. Really get to know people and their needs.
3. Reach out to make connections with those you've met who could be possible clients or refer you to clients. Real connections are more powerful than virtual connections.
4. With permission, add people to your e-list and send some valuable information at least monthly. This kind of keep-in-touch marketing is essential to stay visible.
5. Set up your website to get opt-ins in return for a report or article. Make it a practice to give away lots of value and demonstrate your expertise.
6. Establish a presence on social media such as Facebook and Linked In. But don't make this your primary visibility method, as it can be hard to stand out in this crowded arena.
7. Submit articles to online publications that your ideal clients visit and read. This is a great way to build credibility to a very targeted audience.
8. Seek out opportunities to give presentations - everything from speaking at professional groups to giving a TED talk. Nothing is more powerful than highlighting your expertise on stage.
9. Publish a book or e-book that establishes your expertise. A book is a powerful door-opener that provides a platform for the services and programs you offer.
I've done all of these things to one degree or another and I've also helped my clients do them as well, with great success.
These are all opportunities to communicate the value of your business and build credibility and trust over the long haul.
Remember, nobody is going to do business with someone who is invisible!
Cheers, Robert
Action Plan Marketing helps self-employed people attract more clients through action-oriented marketing strategies that get you in front of prospective clients. Get our free report on how you can attract more of your ideal clients at this link: http://actionplan.club/free-stuff.
3 Steps to Help You Create This Essential Part of Your Business Brand Identity
Creating your brand identity involves many different facets including the logo, taglines, website colours and brand voice.
Every brand has a voice. Your brand is unique, so your brand voice should be too. Your branding voice is the constant personality you use when communicating your message to the world.
From digital advertisements to social media posts to product packaging, it's important to have one consistent and unique branding voice across all your marketing materials. Otherwise, you'll end up with a muddled message that won't resonate with your customers on any level.
Here are some brand voice examples from well-known brands:
• Quirky, casual and fun.
• Friendly, optimistic and joyful.
• Inspiring, powerful and positive.
• Helpful, encouraging and funny.
No matter what you're selling, you need to create an engaging branding voice that's authentic to your values.
Here are 3 ways to make defining your marketing easier:
1. Make your brand voice relevant.
Think about who uses your product or service. You want to define your efforts to speak to your target audience and create an emotional connection to what you're offering.
If your audience is millennials who love yoga, your voice is going to be different than if you're targeting 40+ women shopping for clothing.
Some good questions to ask are:
1. How do your customers (or how do you want them to) define your brand identity?
2. What's the greatest benefit your product or service provides to people?
3. How do you want people using your product or service to feel?
4. How does your product or service stand out from the competition?
Once you've answered questions like these, you can...
2. Start with three words.
What three words do you want to reflect the personality of your brand? Three is the number commonly used by organizations to define this voice. Choosing more will just duplicate what you already have or water down your core characteristics.
Here are some examples of words to describe brand voice:
• Enthusiastic
• Confident
• Helpful
• Innovative
• Inspiring
• Fun
• Authoritative
Next, choose limitations for each word. For example, confident but not cocky. Funny but not silly. This will help you further define your brand identity and write targeted brand copy (or give your writers a guide when they're writing your copy).
3. Implement your brand voice everywhere.
If you're going to keep your brand consistent, you need to ensure every piece of writing reflects your brand's personality.
This means looking at your website, emails, social media accounts, and print materials such as business cards. You may have to rewrite older copy to reflect your voice or create totally new content, but don't skip this important detail.
Imagine getting an email with no defined plan or a totally different brand voice than the one you get on a company's website - it's jarring, confusing and doesn't evoke a feeling of trust.
These three steps will help you define your business as part of your bigger brand identity. Once you've defined your brand's identity, you can start speaking to your customers in an authentic and compelling way.
Susan Friesen, founder of the award-winning web development and digital marketing firm eVision Media, is a Web Specialist, Business & Marketing Consultant, and Social Media Advisor. She works with entrepreneurs who struggle with having the lack of knowledge, skill and support needed to create their online business presence.
If you are new to Social Media and online marketing or find it overwhelming and confusing, my monthly group coaching program, AMPLIFY! Business Academy http://amplifybusinessacademy.com/ is a perfect way for you to incrementally learn the best strategies and tactics to help you grow your business online.
Social media was once considered to be only for teenagers or for those looking for romance and relationships but that has changed dramatically in recent years. Facebook has evolved as one of the most valuable assets to advertisers who are striving to reach a particular niche audience.
Facebook is the largest and most visited social network on the web today is.
Not only is it a popular location for social interactions but also it is becoming a fiercely competitive marketing tool. Many entrepreneurs are beginning to tap into this advantageous method of generating leads and sales for their businesses. Research is showing that the average Facebook user spends just over 6 hours a month on Facebook which is double the amount of time of its closest competitor, Google. Over 50% of these users are perusing Facebook from a mobile device which means that there are more than 543 mobile users searching for goods and services while on-the-go. Every day there are more than 3.2 billion items that are liked or commented about on Facebook pages and that translates into a very powerful mode of advertising for any business.
Advertising campaigns on Facebook are providing up to a 5 fold return on any investment because of the strategic targeting of the right audience. Consumers are becoming more aware of brands and are recalling what they are seeing more than other online advertising averages. Facebook advertising is the catalyst for more positive conversations about businesses as well. More importantly, the 47% trust rate for advertising on Facebook commands a respect and awareness of this tool that can effectively be used to expand the bottom line.
When considering the most efficient way to invest advertising dollars, you should include Facebook advertising in your plan. You can connect to this exploding power to target new business, to generate high quality leads, and to piggyback additional advertising strategies, like word-of-mouth advertising, to more effectively stretch your advertising monies. An entirely new world of possibilities will be opened up to you with Facebook advertising.
Facebook advertisers are permitted to geo-target an audience by country which allows the advertiser the ability to limit or expand the message of their ad based on settings that are selected. Most of the countries in the world are now Facebook friendly which expands boundaries that once limited the sale of products to smaller areas and locations.
One of the features of advertising with Facebook is the advantage of keyword interest targeting. When a user signs up for Facebook, they create a profile page that is based on their interests, likes, and activities. When you create your ad for Facebook, you have the option of searching and selecting keywords that are of interest to a specific user. This will better target an audience that is already interested in your ad before they even see it. As an example, let's say that you as an advertiser are trying to reach people who are doing home remodeling projects. When you type in the word home remodeling, a list of keywords will be pulled up for you that are related to the profiles of users who listed home remodeling as one of their interests. You can then choose any of these keywords in your ad to reach those people who have these keywords in their profiles. You are targeting an audience who is interested in your information and who will respond to your ad.
Before you begin your advertising campaign, it's important to clearly know who you want to target. Customize your Facebook advertising to the target market so that this tool work better for you and your company. Try to vary your approach so you can attract different groups. 20 year olds will view your ad differently than a 40 years old will even if they have the same need for your product. Appeal to your potential client in a positive and attention-getting way. Be clear, concise, and brief.
There are several ways to advertise on Facebook; you can use these cost-effective ways to increase the traffic to your website and generate more business and profits for you. The first way to advertise on Facebook is to create a business profile so you can interact with your list of "fans" whom you will persuade to become clients. You can send out updates, news articles, special offers and promotions, and discount information to the entire list; Facebook affords you the ability to communicate instantly with a list of people who have already indicated that they are interested in your products.
Another way that you can advertise powerfully on Facebook is to buy an ad that is targeted toward a segment of the user base. Each one of these users has an enormous amount of information stored in their profiles. This information can be used to target them based on a selected keyword or filter. Using this method will assure you of reaching potential customers who are most likely to buy your product.
Word-of-mouth advertising has been brought into the digital age with Facebook's beacon tool. News feeds let users access each other's personal profiles and postings or comments. Facebook allows businesses the ability to report a user's actions with the business website and company to the user's friends. If a Facebook customer buys a product from you or engages in discussion regarding their satisfaction with your company, their interaction with you will be posted in the news feed which will automatically create a referral system for your business. It's word-of-mouth in cyberspace.
The first thing to consider as you plan your Facebook ad strategy is your goal. Are you going to advertise your product, expand the number of people who like your business page, inform the Facebook community of your business and what you do, or are you simply getting the attention of potential customers. As your goals become clearer, begin to decide on the type of ad you will create; there are three types from which you can choose.
Crafted ads target Facebook users by filtering demographic information such as age, location, and gender. These ads will be featured in the right hand column of Facebook pages. You can create sponsored stories which interact with a Facebook fan's page with the specific story. The ad will show up in the right hand column once the fan likes your particular post. You can also select promoted posts which are more visible in the posts on friends' pages and on their contacts' pages as well. One of the most powerful aspects of Facebook advertising is the customer loyalty that you will build. Create your own business Facebook page that will allow you to directly interact with your clients. This will give a more personal touch to your business and also will allow you to use word-of-mouth advertising that you generate from your Facebook ads to spread the word in a cost-effective way. Client satisfaction, customer service, and buyer protection are all tenets of a marketing strategy that will work nicely for you and your Facebook advertising campaign.
You can offer special promotions, new products, or the latest trends with your product with your Facebook ads to reach clients that are strategically targeted and already interested in your product or service. This will provide up-dated information to your clients and keep them better informed in a time-efficient way. Today's consumers on are the go with busy schedules and demanding deadlines. These ads will connect with them and solve their issues and concerns in a timely fashion.
Facebook ads are much more flexible than other internet locations. You will be offered additional character length for any ad descriptions that you might have. You can also improve your flexibility with image-based ads that attract the visual buyer. If someone participates in the Facebook community, then they are already proven to be a visually stimulated consumer. Use images and photos of high quality and that convey your message with the power of a thousand words. Your Facebook ads will be more visible to an audience who is there to engage in obtaining information as well as to create it themselves.
With the Facebook site itself generating such a high rate of traffic on a daily basis, your ad has a much better chance of being seen and having a positive effect. It will be seen a multitude of times by a targeted audience who is already comfortable shopping the online arena. Users visit the site many, many times a day and your ad will be there to greet them as they login and begin to participate.
You are also allowed with your Facebook ad to purchase space on a click-based or impression-based fee structure. Using your budget and personal preferences, you can tailor your ad campaign to meet the needs and goals of your business plan.
Because of the targeted nature of Facebook, advertising on Facebook can be affordable for you company. You can reach your targeted audience with your online campaign for a very reasonable price. The selection of packages that you can select is extensive so that you can reach as many users as your budget will allow you to.
The use of smart-phones has skyrocketed in recent years and your ability to reach this high volume of consumers is phenomenal. Access to these devices happens every second of every day and you can tap into this gold mine of prospects. Your ads won't just be limited to laptop and computer users; you will be expanding your potential client base.
You will be offered a choice between pay-per-click (CPC) or per 1,000 impressions (CPM). Studying your demographic clicks and responses will be an important first step. Begin by starting a campaign that includes everyone and then, after a set number of impressions, see who clicked on your ad and the responses that you received. After some study and careful insights, you can then rewrite the ad to appeal with that demographic audience in mind. You can then reset your campaign as a CPC method. Finely segment your ad to appeal to different age groups, or sexes, or relationship statuses. With this small touch, you will get more bang for your advertising buck. Continually test and modify your presentation to foster higher results with substantially lower costs.
With Facebook targeting, the natural skew is toward a younger than average audience that is female. Sometimes users mislead others by submitting incorrect data on profile pages. This will cause misrepresentation of data and some of your ads will be seen by users who are not interested by their very nature; you can only get a rough estimate of the people who might see your ad. When initially targeting your ad to an audience, you might begin with 10,000 people; 50% of them will log into Facebook and see your ad. By choosing this number, you will keep your costs under control and more efficiently modify it before you launch the ad to a larger audience. Carefully select connections of people you know who trust you and your business. This will give you a base circle of community with which to begin your advertising campaigns.
Another important thing to consider when you are creating your advertising strategy is to include additional languages other than English. Inexpensive translators can be hired on some of the work at home web locations to translate your copy for you. Many advertisers neglect this segment of the population and lose many dollars in profit for this lack of attention to detail. You can open up a new section of loyal clients with just a simple effort of reaching them in a language in which they feel comfortable purchasing.
Another powerful tenet of advertising on Facebook is the low risk involved in using this format. You will have full control of your advertising budget and it will be a good testing ground for your ad. You can learn if your message is effective in communicating to a potential buyer who you are, what you are offering, and how they can purchase your product quickly and safely. You are free to modify your message as needed and promote it to a better target. You can ascertain what works best with a particular demographic and how to reach them with your message. Especially if you have a fledgling business, you might want to use the high power, lost cost approach of a Facebook ad.
If you are striving to target your local audience, Facebook ads have been proved to be very effective. You can inform local and regional clients about your business and have the "friend" network assist you as well. Many local communities enjoy supporting local businesses that give back to civic groups and Facebook can get your ads to them quickly and efficiently. When you have a happy, satisfied customer, they can tell the seven people in their social circle and those seven people will tell seven of their closest friends and so the network will distribute the message about you and your product. Testimonials serve to peak the interest of clients ready to buy but who have just one more question. If someone has purchased your product already, they can attest to its quality and your excellent customer service. Facebook is being used in your area by all of the local people who are just waiting to be approached by your ad. The appeal of Facebook extends to everyday people; you don't have to be a computer genius to take advantage of this advertising power.
By promoting your Facebook business page through the ads you place on Facebook, you are guaranteed that the people you are targeting with your ads already have a Facebook account. You can be assured your ads are reaching the audiences most likely to buy from you and the communication vehicle is at your disposal 24/7.
One of the most powerful reasons of advertising on Facebook is the budget management that is available to you. Thousands of dollars of advertising fees are not required upfront. So, you don't have to have capital outlay at the onset of your advertising campaign. Your budget can be as low as $1 per day if that is the option that you choose to employ. Budgets can be changed daily or at any time and by any amount that you wish. The measure performance tools available on Facebook advertising allow you to see and test ad rotations and explore which are the most effective tools for you. After you run your first ad, try changing a combination of the ad's image, description, and title. You will measure the performance rate of your campaigns by viewing the click-through rate which is the percentage of clicks from the number of times it was viewed on Facebook. You will select the ad which shows the highest click-through rate for you.
In a world of social media, advertising can be an excellent way to reach customers. The users of Facebook are very active; they log on daily sometimes multiple times. It provides a way for you to reach customers with whom you might not have otherwise connected. They are going to find your ad on a social media sight more rapidly than they would your own blog or website.
The exposure you receive is a very lucrative benefit to advertising on Facebook. The more customers who are exposed to your product, the higher your profits can become. Facebook does an excellent job of allowing all advertisers a multitude of targeting options that include age, gender, interests, and relationship status. These targeting filters will strategically develop an audience who is primed and ready to buy. This is possibly the most beneficial tool of Facebook advertising.
In addition to an effective list of potential clients, you will have all of the benefits of instant results. In our fast-paced society of today, speed in purchasing is important. A client will spend approximately 90 seconds looking at your ad before moving on to something else. Quality images and representations of your product along with concise and clear descriptions are dynamic tools to capture the attention of the audience and cause the perusing to develop into purchasing. You can attract many new customers in a single day and the profits can rise along with those viewing your ads.
Before you even begin your advertising campaign, you must set your budget and stick to it. There are expensive options for you with Facebook advertising but you will have to operate within your budget to obtain the success you are seeking. Use a common sense approach with your newly acquired technological advertising to promote your company and profits.
In addition, a Facebook ad will provide you with a more personal platform of advertising. Research shows that consumers are more likely to trust your ad especially if they see a link to a Facebook friend. Your ad is placed in the right hand column and is a bit more engaging than an ad they see randomly on a search engine. Even in the world of internet marketing the handshake and confidence in a deal is important to make. By personalizing your Facebook ad, it's like extending your hand across cyberspace to reach out and seal the deal. This type of business advertisement will foster good business relationships that ensure repeat business.
In effective advertising, everything is a balance. You don't want to spend a lot of time reworking your ads if they aren't accurately targeting the audience you need to be targeting. Spend time tracking your progress and your effectiveness but don't forget to interact and connect with potential and current clients. Follow through with all of your strategies and the components of your plan to generate new customers and increase your profits. A Facebook ad campaign will be an effort that takes time and patience. Keep in mind that Facebook advertising is about developing relationships and connecting with consumers not just selling them a product immediately. This platform of marketing is still developing and using these advertisements effectively will take research, study, and modifications that better hone your ad for consumers to view.
Facebook has become a powerful tool in the advertising world. The expanse of active users coupled with the micro-targeting tools make this method of telling others about your product one that will reap dramatic rewards for your bottom line. You will boost sales and maximize profits at a cost-efficient way for your business. Your business will be given the opportunity to build, improve, and maintain client relationships which is a satisfying aspect of having your own business.
The clients with whom you connect will provide you with feedback, encouragement, and testimonials that can help you reach your goals and dreams as a successful entrepreneur. By using the proper demographic, copy, and image, you will see your Facebook ad come to life. Don't be afraid to try this new and unique method of advertising. It's a fun and interesting way to reach an enormous audience with a few simple guidelines that anyone can perform.
It's not rocket science but it can provide you with an astronomical income that makes your business the success you knew it could be.
In my previous article, I talked about how you can plan your business startup. I defined a business plan as a written description of the future of your business. This is a document that indicates what you intend to do and how you intend to do it. I further explained that if all you have is a paragraph on the back of an envelope describing your business strategy, you have written a plan, or at least the beginning of a plan. I also said that a business plan consists of a narrative and several financial worksheets.
I mentioned that the 'writing of a business plan' as one of the pivotal steps involved in setting up a successful business. By now you should understand the need for writing a business plan. Writing a business plan, for a traditional brick and mortar business, will probably take a lot of time. It may take up to 100 hours or even more. For obvious reasons, a new business needs to carry out a lot of research before a business plan can even be developed.
For an online business, a detailed and in depth business plan is usually not necessary unless you are trying to combine your online business with a traditional business. For most online business startups, the detail involved with planning a traditional business is not required. However, it would still be beneficial to you if most of the topics were still covered, even if only briefly. Having a written plan in front of you will help you to focus on important aspects of the business.
You may not have thought much about your competition or outsourcing some of your work, but things like that will impact your ability to make a profit. And you will find this especially so in the beginning phases of your business. Even you are just opening a lemonade stand in the front yard, you will still need to know what Susie is selling her lemonade for on the next street over!
So, although a detailed business plan may not be required for an online business, I am going to include it here so you can at least look at and consider each section and determine yourself if it applies to your business.
Here I shall be discussing the basic steps involved in writing a business plan:
1. Executive Summary: The first step involved in writing a business plan is the executive summary. Here, include everything that you would cover in a five minute interview.
Explain the fundamentals of the proposed business: What will your product be? Who will your customers be? Who are the owners? What do you think the future holds for your business and your industry?
Make it enthusiastic, professional, complete, and concise.
If you are applying for a loan, state clearly how much you need and be precise in how you are going to use it. Also include detail about how the money will make your business more profitable, thereby ensuring repayment of the loan. 2. Business Description: After the executive summary, you need to write a short description of the business you are going into. You need to give a general description of the industry your business belongs to. You will write about your company's mission statement, goals and objectives, business philosophy, as well as its legal form of ownership (sole proprietor, corporation, LLC, etc.).
Describe your most important company strengths and core competencies. What factors will make the company succeed? What do you think your major competitive strengths will be? What background, experience, skills, and strengths do you personally bring to this new venture?
3. Marketing Analysis/Strategy: The next thing to write (after the general description) should be your marketing strategy. For new or existing businesses, market analysis is an important basis for the marketing plan and will help justify the sales forecast. Existing businesses will rely heavily on past performance as an indicator of the future. New businesses have a greater challenge - they will rely more on market research using libraries, trade associations, government statistics, surveys, competitor observations, etc. In all cases, make sure your market analysis is relevant to establishing the viability of your new business and the reasonableness of the sales forecast.
4. Location: Writing down the location of your business is very important. Locations with greater customer traffic usually cost more to buy or rent, but they require less spending for advertising to attract customers. This is especially true of retail businesses where traffic count and accessibility are critical.
If an online business, you need to go into detail how you will attract customers to your website. General statements like "I will use Face Book ads and email marketing" will contribute almost nothing to helping your cause unless you have detailed statistical analysis of tests you have conducted or of another similar business you have been associated with. If you do not have any data upon which you reference your estimates, it could show lack of proper thought to the remainder of your business plan.
5. Competitive Analysis: Business by nature is competitive, and few businesses are completely new. If there are no competitors, be careful; there may be no market for your products. Expand your concept of competition. If you plan to open the first roller skating rink in town, your competition will include movie theaters, malls, bowling alleys, etc.
6. Management and Operations: Because management problems are the leading cause of business failures, it is important to discuss management qualifications and structure. Resumes of the Principals should be included in supporting data. If your business will have few employees and rely heavily on outside professionals, list these key people and their qualifications. If you are seeking financing, include personal financial statements for all of the principals in the supporting data section.
7. Personnel: The success of any company depends on their ability to recruit, train and retain quality employees. The amount of emphasis in your plan for this section will depend on the number and type of employees required.
8. Projected Financial Statements: These statements are usually helpful, but not necessary. You will develop and describe your strategies for the business throughout your Business Plan. In the financial section, you will need to estimate the financial impact of those strategies by developing projected Income Statements, Balance Sheets, and Cash Flow Statements.
It is usually recommended that these projected statements be on a monthly basis for at least the first twelve months or until the business is projected to be profitable and stable. Activity displayed beyond the monthly detail may be in summary form (such as quarterly or annually). The forecast period for most business plans is two to four years.
9. Summary Section: This section is where you will be able to attach or explain any detail not applicable to the previous sections. This section should be used to provide the financial statements of the Principle's involved in the business and any other data you think an investor would be interested in seeing.
The main thing to remember in this section is not to provide new data, but to explain in detail data that has already been provided and to provide the support for that data.
When you sit down to compile all of the elements of your business plan, make sure you have each section able to stand on its own merits. This means you should not reference other sections sending the reader (your potential investor) back and forth between sections.
Do not try to write your business plan in one sitting. As I mentioned in the beginning, for a traditional brick and mortar business, it could take in excess of 100 hours to compile all of the information needed into a comprehensive but yet understandable document. For online businesses, probably not that long. But your final product should be well thought out, well documented and easily understandable.
On my website, http://www.bobthibodeau.com, I am helping those who are new to Internet Marketing not make the same mistakes I (and countless others) have made getting started. I also help those marketers who are struggling in an area of getting their business going. I offer no promises - just plain, straight forward training and assistance for those who are serious about making a serious, online income.
Digital Marketing is continually evolving and this may seem unsettling at times. Strategies that were working in past, might not be effective in the present. Do you know why many businesses fail to get ahead of their competitors?
It's simply because they are not willing to adapt to the ever-changing world of digital media. But, the great thing about a digital marketing strategy is that you can change them on the fly in response to real-time results and analytics data. While this may seem tricky as if you change things too quickly, you may not be able to find if your strategy worked for long-term. But if you wait for a long time, you are likely to waste your two valuable resources: time and money.
With that said, how do you know when its the right time to change your Digital Marketing strategy? To help you keep up with the fast-paced industry, I've created this post to help you know when to change your digital marketing strategy.
Below are the 5 signs to help you decide when to quit your existing strategy.
1. Focusing on low-value metrics
If you're concentrating on low-value metrics like impressions and clicks, you may be missing out because impressions and clicks only let you know about your marketing visibility. And not the real accuracy of your strategies.
2. Only focusing on your brand not on audience needs
Every marketer wants to spread their brand name but you should not overdo by pasting your brand name all over everything. In fact, make your content educational that focus on your audience problems and needs. This would really help you in targeting buyers in initial stages of the buyer's journey.
3. Over usage of keywords
Although, it's required to place keywords in your content, Google's priority always lies in providing reach user experience and relevancy of content. Google has nothing to do with how many times your site shows the keyword like "Digital Marketing Strategy."
4. Don't rely on your instinct
Your prior experience is certainly precious. But your decision-making process should not be only based on what worked in the past. It's a really bad idea as what worked tomorrow may be completely irrelevant today. Therefore guiding your marketing strategy through objective data will only get you better results.
5. Not integrated
Whether it's about veteran digital marketer, sitting in IT or a start-up company, it's too common for digital marketing strategies to be finished in silos. It is an easier way but of course, it's not effective. It's true that digital approach works best when it's integrated with traditional channels.
Integrate different marketing strategies and use only the correct tools
If you don't have the required skills set, don't hesitate to purchase special services
Identify your online value proposition and apply it across all digital marketing channels
Last but definitely not the least, prepare yourself
But before you do something ask yourself few questions. Asking yourself right questions and having their answers in place will certainly help you make the right decisions. I've given some Q's & A's below to help you out.
Which digital channels are most effective for you and why?
With so many digital channels around, it gets difficult to choose the best one. So you can identify it with these simple basics:
Identify the channel where most of your potential customers like to hang out
Analyze your target audience behavior
Build awareness with Twitter
Attend industry events and conferences
Social media and newsletters to reach out to your potential customers
SEO or combination of SEO and PPC to help you attract more visitors
How to evaluate your digital marketing activities?
Unfortunately, some companies don't know how to answer this question correctly. If you're also one of them, don't feel embarrassed! Just hop on and find out how can you determine the right metrics and evaluate your current digital marketing activities.
Identify your target KPI (Key Performance Indicator) to help you understand what's working
Monitor your website traffic and sales to know the necessary statistics about your customers
Track and measure your metrics through Google Analytics
Survey your site visitors to find if they're satisfied with your solutions
Track ROI, conversions, market share, and sales
How to make your business stand out from the crowd?
In today's competitive digital market it's really difficult to make your business stand out from your competitors. But an effective strategy can help you stay ahead of them. Let's see how.
Effectively communicate and educate your customers
Stay honest and transparent to build customer's loyalty
Talk less, listen more
Be authoritative and helpful in what you do
Know your competitors and learn from them
Be creative, open-minded, and try new technologies
Speak in your audience language
Use proof points and testimonials to show you're the best
Final Thoughts
As the world of online landscape changes, so should your digital marketing strategy. So it's essential to stay aware of the changing market and the new advancements in technology to help you grow furthermore.
I am Ajay Arora, I am a renown Digital Marketing Expert in Chandigarh India. I write custom Digital Marketing strategy for different businesses to boost their brand penetration resulting in more sales. If you want to boost your sales or want to build your brand through digital marketing then consult me!
As the year 2018 has started it makes sense that in this new year what could be the biggest social media changes that can be expected.
Typically, the world of social media has witnessed a continuous growth in technology and innovation. Every day some new innovations are seen, or new announcements are heard.
So, let's discuss the prospective trends that can follow in this year and ways in which the social media managers can plan for these changes.
1.Continuous growth in the Live video content.
Recently Facebook announced some changes to its News Feed algorithm that will change itself based on the type of content users that shifting from the user's friends and families to the type of content or pages which the user's followers. This further implies that it is going to initiate an intensive discussion among the users as they share a content in their own private network.
2. Messaging apps will be an important mode of communication.
Today there are various messaging apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, WeChat etc. Almost 4 billion people use these kinds of messaging Apps to communicate with the each other. These kinds of Apps provide a much faster and easier way to contact people. In fact, using messaging for customer service is more far more scale and lesser to cost especially for businesses and customer services.
3. Virtual reality on the rise of better marketing experiences.
In the era of Artificial Intelligence Virtual Reality is making the headlines. With its unique features, it creates a memorable experience unlike other mediums in the field of marketing. In fact, due to this brand are instantly acknowledging its value.
As the development continues the voice-powered devices which are quick in responding to the verbal commands are heavily dependent on Artificial Intelligence. As we can see in the market that some voice controlled for personal help are being built into a few devices that we use such as smart speakers, TVs etc.
The other innovation where Artificial Intelligence plays an important role is in autonomous vehicle technology continues to progress. Based on this technology, it is apparent that voice activation will be certainly used for the self-driving cars too. As these kinds of vehicles will be equipped with voice-powered capabilities that will allow the drivers to execute other functions like making phone calls without taking your hands away from the steering.
5. A boom in Live Streaming
There will be an outgrowth of Live streaming and we are going to see a lot more to it. The presence of Live Streaming will increase as it works. For instance, through this technology, we get an upgrade in the phones every day.
6. Online Hangouts will be the order of the Day
The online hangouts are trending fast with the Generation Z which believes in more of socializing and partying. In fact, Online Hangouts goes hand in hand with the VR.
7. Influencer Marketing will be at the Focal point in the Social Media Engagement
The influence of marketing is a Big business with a billion-dollar riding on it. In fact, there are many people mint money up to 6 figures through influencer marketing.
It has a huge impact on the millennials in making their career choices and kind of choices they make in everyday life such as the kinds of products they want to buy.
8. Making stories with Instagram
From a marketing standpoint, the Instagram stories will have a lot of relevance as compared to another marketing platform. There is a flood of Instagram stories which accounts for almost 10,000 followers.
There are endless ways you can reach your audience, there is no secret formula as such. Applying the 80-20 rule should always be an integral part of your social media marketing strategy. In short it means 80% of your content should be engagement oriented which gives something valuable to read to your viewers and engage them in conversations or participation and only 20% should be dedicated for your business promotion.
It is necessary to establish the fact that people come to social media platforms for social interactions and not to read your sales pitch! Social media marketing is more inclined to building relationships, trust and authority online rather than annoying your audience with repeated sales pitch.
80% Content - informative & interactive:
This part of the marketing strategy mainly aims at sharing good content related to your business. Simply put, look over for the content that interests your audience and share the same across various social networking platforms. Think about re-tweets, re-sharing posts, links to reviews, inspirational quotes, greetings, polls, trivia & contests and other such engagement oriented ideas. If confused how to come up with such posts, do as listed below:
Follow top influencers in your industry, watch their posts, tweets and design your own or probably re-share them as a good piece of information.
Share your own interesting facts, content amongst your own page followers and get them engaging.
Make your content reach out to your influencers and try to connect them.
Organize trivia, competition and award the winners which compels the audience to engage in the activity and gain confidence in your brand.
20% self promotion:
While working on this section, include information which "benefits" your audience by providing discounts, special offers with a call to action button leading to your website which will enable them to learn more about your services/products. Publish your products/services advantages, reviews, testimonials, specifications and all other information you need to keep your reputation.
The bottom line:
If a brand focuses too much on its sales and irritates the audience on social network with non stop sales pitch is sure to drive away visitors and referrals. Audience will simply jump in and out of your social media page without even landing on your website (traffic to your website is the sole motive of any marketing strategy). Give your audience what they want to read at regular intervals and you shall see a spike in your brand's followers and authority and maintain a consistent social media presence.
Media companies, entertainment firms, and IT organizations to some extent, are literally getting more and more distraught in the modern era. It is because of the Digital Transformation factor, which they are being forced to consider. More specifically, the Information, Media and Entertainment (IME) channels are totally watchful of the current situation and are playing a safe game.
Generating quality content is not just enough. Remember that it requires a lot of efforts to produce top-notch content after a lot of research. Why not take financial advantage of the situation by publishing the content generated and earning revenue from it through the best available subscription plans.
Multidimensional content that is ultra-rich in quality besides being effective and informative with a faster reach will have maximum impact. Creating the initial impressions in the minds of the readers ahead of the rest gives your company the competitive advantage that is quintessential. The below-mentioned tools are ideal and helpful in this regard.
Every customer will have a definitive objective as far as their content requirement is considered. Leveraging the content and matching it with the operational aspects of the corresponding businesses will be highly effective. The focus should be on creating different content strategies fitting in a single framework yields best results.
A centralized editorial system is your platform for creating content. However, you cannot go on producing content in a context where reusability plays a huge role. A single piece of content could be considered across platforms helping you to gain more traffic.
Maximize Your Technology
Going digital is not an easy task to manage as it requires to consider multiple domains with respect to technology. It is possible to drive increased user engagement as bots take care of a majority of your requirements resulting in a comprehensive automated experience.
Revamp Your Market
Reconsidering a business decision from a new perspective will play a huge role in your future growth. It should not be forgotten that business trends constantly impact current market situation. Hence, it is a must for business processes to scale up and obtain maximum savings.
If you have any questions about the different marketing services or just don't know where exactly to start, reach out to Aptiva Corp for a consultation.
Whether you're running a large or small business, one of the things that can effects your success is getting your brand and voice right. If you're in a sector that's very competitive, it's vital that you know how to make your brand stand out and what you can do in order to get the most from your advertising and marketing, consumers and business in general.
Appeal To People's Feelings
People like it when they feel they can relate to somebody or something. This means showing the human side of your brand. If you're a one-person business then that might mean showing your personality. If you're a bigger organization, you can still add emotion and character to what you do.
Tell An Interesting Story
To make your customers more interested and engaged in your business, tell them an interesting story. It could be something to which people can easily relate, or you might want to tell a story that really pulls at the heartstrings and makes your brand and voice memorable. Despite the fact that people might not think of you as the most successful company in the world, they'll be able to remember you, and that can often be much more important
What Are The Strengths of Your Business?
Think about the strong points lie within your business. For instance, you might not sell the lowest priced type of your product or service when compared to your competitors, but perhaps you offer the best support to your customers. Or maybe you really shine in explaining things in a simple and easy-to-understand way. No matter what your strengths are, use them in your branding.
Product Differentiation
A strong brand can quickly be seen as distinctive from its competition. Know where to be competitive, whether or not it's on cost, support, or some other key elements. Be very clear on precisely what advantages your business provides over other businesses and communicate these elements in your marketing messages.
Be Consistent
You want your audience to see to your brand across multiple channels. Your brand needs to deliver them with the same basic message and experience. If your brand is different on social media than it is in your email messages, the end result is confusion. Confusion drives people away. That's not your objective. Consistency builds brands.
Show Your Passion
The joy and focus that your passion brings your product and service will support your business during both bad and good times. Your passion will also enable you and your team to provide top-notch customer care and continued product and service development.
