An all-encompassing content marketing strategy, white hat organic SEO practices, consistent link building efforts and solid social media marketing, well, this sure makes for a killer digital marketing strategy.
But hey, too much of it all, and you're only doing what the rest of the world is doing. Today, let's try and look through the things a little differently.
Let's deal with a few questions first.
Do you remember when exactly was the last time you ran a competitive analysis? Don't mind me asking it, but have you ever done it at all? If your answer is a big, naive no, then perhaps you don't have any idea how your digital marketing strategy stands compared to your competitors.
Let me tell you a secret, peeping over your competitors can be an unexpectedly wonderful can massively help you find your own shortcomings and in the process, help you get better at the game. I'm sure you've heard this saying countless times before - keep your friends close, and your enemies, even closer. And in the realm of online marketing, this is one quote you need to live by.
See, every business that exists on this planet has at least a competitor who's aiming for the bigger portion of the pie. So doesn't it make sense to know how your competitors are sailing more smoothly than you when both of you are dealing in the same products or services. If you look at it closely, it's quite a creative way to get a better understanding of your target audience. Once you're familiar with the tactics, you can formulate some really killer strategies.
So here are some of the things your business competitors can teach you about digital marketing.
Target audience and traffic: I'm sure that you think that you have a fair idea of who your customers are and where they come from. But a simple analysis can determine whether any of your competitors is attracting more traffic than you or not. It they actually are, it would be a wise idea to go for the strategies they're going for.
Content that matters: It's a misconception that anything that's original, it sells. Within an industry, there is only a limited type of content that gets shared. It could be anything - blog posts or weekly quizzes and surveys or Q&As. Perhaps your competitors know it better than you do.
You also get to know what doesn't work: The best way to progress is actually to learn through others' mistakes, don't you think? Your competitors can also go wrong. So it's a good idea to constantly monitor their marketing campaigns and learn what catches the eye and what just doesn't work with the masses.
And yes, always remember that there's no substitute to originality.
If you're not comfortable managing your digital marketing, it's best to hire an agency. Would love to learn more about it, schedule a call +91-9999-30-3344 with Brands Martini's digital marketing experts today.
Do you have a website or blog you publish content to every day but still not able to get enough visitors?
Have you just created your very first blog and are keen to try out all the ways to promote it?
This article presents 10 smartest and most effective strategies you can use to promote your blog and instantly attract visitors who are genuinely interested in your niche.
1. Stop Tweaking / Modifying Your Blog
Are you spending too much time tweaking your blog to give it the right feel? Let me tell you, the overall design does not matter to your audience as much as your content does. Instead of tweaking your blog every now and then, focus on creating content that is fresh, engaging and informative for your readers and make them come back for more.
2. Creating Pillar Content
Producing quality content is one of the biggest challenges for bloggers because creating high-quality content on a regular basis isn't easy. Good content makes a powerful impact on your audience, which is why it is important that you take the time to create the high-quality pillar content that can solidify your blog's reputation. Pillar content refers to a series of posts that represents your blog's best content. It includes all the great posts that you will refer new visitors to for their usefulness.
Great content serves as a go-to source for good and informative message for your audience within your particular industry. Pillar posts provide major support to your blog and are considered a very important component or staple of your blog. When you start promoting your blog, pillar content will serve as your bait to attract more traffic.
Once you have set up your blog, the very first strategy you should implement is to create relevant posts and populate your blog with some really new, yet interactive information.
3. Don't Focus On Monetizing Your Blog Too Much
Many new bloggers create blogs to earn money. Although there is no harm in earning money, putting too many banner ads on your blog can become too distracting for your audience. If there are too many, they can make your blog look really ugly and they can actually take your visitors away from your blog. Do you still think this could be a great way to promote your blog? I bet you don't. In fact, you should focus on building your email list and a targeted pixel list. Both of them will help you get what you're desperately looking for, more visitors and more money by re-targeting your visitors through paid ads.
4. Research Your Niche and Find Out Who and What Matters
A very important step you should take before starting your blog is to thoroughly research your niche. You should need to spend know all the ins and outs of your niche and know who matters, for instance, who are the influencers, big players and small players contributing to the niche in their own capacities. You should make a list of all the competing sites, channels, podcasts, influencers, communities and groups that are working within your particular niche. It's very easy with SE Ranking competitor research.
By doing so, you will have a major reference file of all your competitors within your niche. You will be able to see what they are doing and talking about and also all the items they are putting for sale and products that are popular among your audience.
5. Reach Out To Your Audience
Once you have your blog nicely set up and great content to pull your audience in, start promoting your blog. Take out the detailed list of all the influencers, big players and small players you're made prior to starting your blog. Keep a close eye on the small players, because you need them for blog promotion. You can start by offering them testimonials, case studies or even a blog post they would be interested in publishing. It is important for you to start a one-on-one relationship with the big and small players. By contribute on other people's' sites through commenting and sharing their work on your blog, they will start to recognize you and connect with you.
6. Become An Expert In Your Niche
Whether your niche is SEO, Digital Marketing, Content Marketing or any other, you should not only attain extensive knowledge about your niche but also present it in an interactive and engaging way through your blog. Your future audience is waiting to read content that addresses them and their needs. It is the power of your writing and expert analysis that will help you attract your audience.
7. Post Comments
Commenting on blog posts and participating in various forums and social groups is often seen as a way to get backlinks. But if it's done right, no such issue will arise. Always post comments on blog posts only when you have something meaningful and informative to add. Make sure to use your own name to do it, and not your brand. Participate in niche groups and influential communities on social media. Present yourself as an authority in your niche and genuinely help people. Don't just drop links.
8. Create An Interactive Conversation Flow And Acknowledge Your Readers
When creating content, make sure it is engaging enough to get the audience talking. Your posts should pose questions from your audience and encourage them to respond or share their own similar experiences. Your audience can talk to you via blog comments or email, make sure to acknowledge them and reply to them. This will encourage facilitate interaction.
9. Monetize Your Site
When it comes to earning money from your blog, take a proactive approach, because it can bring organic traffic. When you offer a product or service on your site you can attract your target audience. By creating a profit funnel, you cannot only generate more leads but also generate a lot of revenue in the next few months.
10. Use Paid or Sponsored Media
Utilizing paid or sponsored media is a viable option and an effective strategy for blog promotion. It includes blog promotion through Facebook ads, Google ads, promoted tweets, YouTube pre-roll ads, and much more. These social networks can bring an incredible amount of traffic, as well as, hundreds of leads to your site.
When you follow the strategies discussed above for promoting your site you will not only be able to boost traffic to your site but also generate revenue from it. Remember, promoting a site or blog is not a difficult task. It just takes a little time and understanding of what works. Implement one strategy at a time and see the difference.
And you're probably thinking about many things at this moment, but the one thing that's really pressing at the top of your to-do list is securing a way to generate secure income.
If I'm wrong in any way just let me know (wink)... But you're still reading my article - you have a "need" that you want my help with, true?
So let me explain something before we even get onto the part about you "earning" money...
For those of you who know hardship and struggle in life, I understand where you are at present - been there myself.
If you know what it's like to wake each day doing the same-old tired job, for the same old ungrateful boss/manager/director, you now have an opportunity to divorce your old working lifestyle for something more suited to your liking.
But don't be fooled!
I am not offering you another job, I'm not offering you a vacation, I'm not offering you an opportunity to become lazy and to throw your creativity aside - - -
The rich, powerful, and influential people of this world (those who had to work for their wealth) know about residual, or passive income.
If you've never heard of this until now, just know that if you truly desire real, continuous wealth then you need to be in there, earning that passive income.
The best way to understand this kind of income is to know how it differs from a wage that is paid to you for work that you do continually...
Yep. That's it - continuous money, if you have the knack of it.
So, you're now in the know about earning a residual income. Wealthy people know that it is not about working for the man if you truly wish to become rich.
You need to take matters into your own hands for this to happen. And here you're given all that you need to start this life-changing step with no cost to join and get started - imagine that!
No successful person ever allowed a lack of resources to hold them back from getting theirs. Clearly not - instead they fought for their right to be at the top, where they're at now...
Same place you probably want to be right now.
And then you might be one of those people who tend to watch the wealth of others, secretly wishing that it was your own wealth... I call this "watching and wishing." It gets you nowhere fast - nowhere ever, actually.
If you are the lazy kind who wants it all now, and never commits to the challenges that any business brings, then you may as well stop reading...
And so, I'd like to speak with you about stepping outside of your comfort zone...
This is wholly important for those of you who need to earn a living but usually fall short due to procrastination habits that have probably been bleeding you dry for a while now?
Having a "comfort zone" is all fine and well, providing that you know how to disengage from that place of comfort whenever needed.
Can you do that?
If you mean business and are serious about earning a solid residual home income, you'll know that falling shy to work is a sure way to forfeit your opportunity to create the lifestyle you need, and want.
There are vast opportunities just waiting for the hungry individual to step up and get busy.
This is the kind of business that gets you motivated to get up in the mornings, instead of wanting to stay in bed all lazy-like, producing nothing.
Have a good think about what it is that you need and want for yourself and your family (if you're providing for a family), once you've determined this then ask yourself WHY.
Becoming wealthy is about knowing the reason for your desires, making them count. Got a dream? Best you understand the nature and the root of that dream.
I started looking into online business models around 20 years ago. Initially I started out with eBay the auction giant. I bought and sold from the site and made a bit of extra money in between jobs.
After a while I decided there had to be a better way to earn money using the internet. I bought an eBook and decided this was probably the best model for selling online. It was a sale which didn't require anyone to personally be there. It was completely automated and because of the digital product it could be sold internationally, with no postage costs.
Although I knew nothing of how to operate a business like this successfully, I had stumbled on the best possible model for selling online. Nothing could stop me learning and despite many failures, I persevered until I found a business model which works.
It's called affiliate marketing and allows anyone to sell someone else's products over the internet. By linking to another product and recommending it, anyone can earn a commission if their link takes a customer to a product and makes a purchase.
Affiliate marketing is a bit like recommending a friend to a nice restaurant. Only, with affiliate marketing, you get to earn a commission if your friend goes to the restaurant which you recommended.
Despite finding this business model shortly after moving on from eBay, it was a while before I found any lasting success with it. I think that's partly because, at the time, there was very little help available on the internet for affiliate marketers. There were many "how to" courses which I bought, and some were more useful than others. Despite all my "failures", I persevered and found a good community to learn from.
This, I believe, is a major key to the success of many online entrepreneurs. They don't do it alone, they have help. I struggled for years because I didn't know who to turn to for help. It is possible to have success with an online business quite quickly, if you know the best possible route to take, and of course if you have the courage to go through on all the action steps.
The ultimate goal of course, with an online business, is financial freedom. Initially though this wasn't my goal. My goal was to be earning enough to survive from the internet without a job. I also wanted to earn in a way which was conducive to my happiness. Many of the jobs I had done had been stressful and lowly paid. The internet offered a means to earn from the comfort of my own home. At the time, just having a purpose and a direction was enough, even if it didn't make money immediately.
As time wore on though, I did wonder whether all this effort was really worth my time. I had made some progress, but there were many times when I thought about throwing it all in. I'm sure this is the same for many others who are out there working away at their various online pursuits.
What kept me going was the simple idea of the eBook I had bought. Someone, somewhere had made a commission from me buying that eBook and downloading it. I was going to do the same thing over and over.
One of my early successes was selling an affiliate marketing "how to" course which I sold using AdWords adverts and a landing page. The automation involved is one of the best things about an online business. It allows you to build a scalable business from anywhere in the world! I ran an advert which sent people straight to a landing page. From there I collected the emails with a piece of software known as an auto-responder.
Emails were automatically delivered to the subscribers and I started selling a few courses. I was just at the point where I could start increasing my budget to make more sales and my advertising platform got shut down. I was inconsolable! It hit me hard and I went through a long period of just having given up. I couldn't reinstate my account whatever I tried!
The internet is very forgiving though. Before long I was purchasing another course and learning something new. I did get stuck in learning mode for a long time. But, I still use the skills I learned years ago even now.
I got onto another course. This one taught a different approach. It was called The Keyword Academy and the course taught how to target specific keywords with articles and rank them on Google. It's a long time ago now and I'm sure the techniques are outdated. Things change quickly on the internet. After a good 6 months to a year I got almost nothing for all my work. I had built several websites but most of them were utterly useless!
I really don't know why I kept going and most (sensible) people would have given up. What kept me going was the idea of a business which ran itself, selling digital products over and over again.
I eventually found the aforementioned community and that's where I am now. If I had only had access to other people back then! A mentor is definitely what you need with an internet business. It's far too hard to go it alone. Get access to a community and learn by watching and modelling people who are already being successful.
Tim Halloran is an online marketer and martial artist. See his.: his website here
"Affiliate" revenue / websites have gone through a number of iterations to keep pace with the rapid evolution of the "web".
What used to be a simple "content" website, now needs to include elements of branding in order to ensure people are able to attribute its underlying value with a SOCIAL following.
In fact, "SOCIAL" has really changed the game when it comes to the Internet. It no longer pays to be an anonymous avatar hiding behind a nondescript username - you really need skin-in-the-game; which essentially means using your own name/face to promote the ideas you put forward with your sites. The relationships garnered through this approach is where the value lies.
Obviously, using your own name opens you up to competitors... but the trick now is to ensure that people have MORE of a reason to use your content/services than anyone else's. This comes from either posting TRULY sublime stuff, or focusing on creating as SCINTILLATING service as humanly possible. The latter (service) is where "price comparison" affiliate sites come in.
Affiliate Marketing = 110% Give, 1% Receive
To fully appreciate how this works, you need to understand that in order to "earn" money, there are TWO things you need:
Audience - group of people who are actively engaged in an activity (HINT: MOST people will gladly "try" something new if it inspires them)
Product - something said people would be willing to BUY (HINT: NEVER worry about the product. The product will "sell" itself if it's good)
The way that "affiliate" marketing works is where you will "recommend" a product to an audience and if any of them purchase it - you'll receive a cut of the profits.
The problem with affiliate marketing is that it has bred a large number of "skim" marketers; who don't really "do" anything except hype up the next FAD product (diet pills/live chat/gambling/betting etc) and do everything they can to get people to sign up.
The issue with this is that whilst it "works", it's NOT sustainable over the long term, and leaves many people HATING the hyperbolic tactics used to trick them into buying things they didn't need.
The level at which you're able to provide insight, solutions or underlying benefits to a particular audience is how much they'll reward you with revenue. The only way to do this is to forget yourself and identify a "service" through which you're able to determine the
Affiliate PRICE COMPARISON Sites
The most important thing to consider regard to how "affiliate" sites work is that there are pretty-much 3 types of site you can create (each varying in difficulty):
Content Sites (pure content sites focused on providing specific articles to solve problems for people who may be searching through Google etc)
Community Sites (blogs etc - typically focused on provision of lifestyle-centric solutions // content, connectivity, etc)
Product Sites (focused either on the reviewing of products, discussion of products or dissection of products/industry news)
Now, the key to all of this is that the effectiveness of each of the above is generally measured by how deep your relationship becomes with the reader/buyer. This is the secret ingredient where "SOCIAL" comes in.
In terms of why this is important - it's vital to appreciate that if you're looking to start earning money online, one of the SIMPLEST ways to go about it is to deal with products which are *ALREADY* selling. This used to be done by creating "review" websites and trying to get them ranked on Google.
Whilst this worked, the big problem was that 1) the sites themselves were very "THIN" (had no real resonance) 2) relied on a SINGLE source of traffic (mostly Google).
Without the MASSIVE draw of Google, the majority of "review" sites would never receive traffic. People used them because they had no other choice... but with the "social" web (Trustpilot / Yelp / Twitter / FB / YouTube), the majority of people now have a CHOICE as to where to find information about products they may wish to buy - meaning that if you want to "capture" any of this HUGE amount of traffic, you need to offer a compelling reason for people to actually look at what you're producing. This is where "price comparison" affiliate sites come in.
Price comparison sites have been around for a LONG time - if you've ever bought insurance, personal finance, real estate, flights, hotels or various other packages online - you'll have likely used websites which essentially "tailor" the product results to the criteria you submit. THIS (partly) is what price comparison functionality is about -- giving people the opportunity to discern EXACTLY which products, prices and suppliers would be best for them.
This functionality lies at the crucible of what I've been working towards, in regard "affiliate" price comparison sites...
Putting VENDORS & PRODUCTS First
The "new" affiliate price comparison model is actually very simple...
Create a website with a CORE focus on the most EFFECTIVE solutions in an industry... and then track their prices from *ALL* vendors
The way it works is very similar to many of the previous "affiliate" systems we've used in the past (review sites) - except the core point of value is that you give the consumer a complete overview of what the "best" products are for a particular problem / issue / solution.
You cut out the hearsay & speculation (no one wants to hear your life story - they really just care about themselves) - you begin to cultivate a "following" through the likes of social media.
If you don't provide a service, or are looking at doing something to earn money on the side - working with the PROMOTION of PRODUCTS online is one of the most effective things you can do. However, to do it effectively takes MORE than just putting up some one-sided "review" about the features of a product which *may* be effective. You need to appreciate the *depth* that you can imbue into the service. This is what the new "price comparison" model does.
The "new" price comparison sites that I've been working with the past couple of years are centered around the provision of a single SERVICE through which users are able to experience exactly what they want without having to trawl through masses of text to get it.
Simply, you provide users with a central "system" through which they're able to identify the "best" products in a market, and see their historic prices across a large number of vendors. These prices can be gleaned from either native API integrations, or just from "web scraping" (essentially how Google gets all of its data). Whilst this has already been done 1,000's of time before - the problem with *MOST* "price comparison" sites is that is all they offer.
What we found was that when you combine an effective service - the ability to actually delve deeply into someone's desires & resolve them - with the ability to match their requirements against products that actually work - you have a resource that many people end up wanting to use. If you're able to blend this with a decent "social" presence, you'll be able to operate in any "market" with authority and gravitas.
Getting In Front Of The "Right" Traffic
To summarize - the BIGGEST problem for people starting in business is a lack of footfall / traffic / throughput.
Whilst this isn't a problem for the "smart" ones who build a business step-by-step over time, it *is* an issue for those without any real direction (end up jumping from project to project).
The absolute key to making any sort of "business" work (both offline and online) is to get in front of the "right" traffic.
To do this, you basically need to flip the problem on its head and focus on creating "content" which you share on a variety of platforms (Google / Twitter / FB / YouTube etc) through which people are able to come and visit your "site" to gain insight on the further steps they can take to deal with what you have/know.
The way to do this most effectively is to show what you can DO on the "social" web (if you "review" products - actually go out of your way to video the results of how the products work)... after doing that, you need to then create some sort of resource which is so potent that they will actually want to click through and consider what you have to say.
The best way for this to be done is to create a compelling "resource" through which the readers gain access to information they will NEVER get anywhere else. This is done primarily by creating an effective service through which people are able to identify the products and vendors whom they wish to deal with. If you do this effectively, you'll earn revenue by virtue of anyone who buys the products that you recommend on your site.
Want to increase your affiliate earning but don't know how to? Well, you are in the right place as the following tips will boost your affiliate earning to the next level.
Do not be afraid to mention things that you do not like about a given product or service. Rather than lose any points for you, this will make your recommendation more realistic and will tend to increase your credibility.
Furthermore, if your visitors are really interested in what you are offering, they will be more than delighted to learn what is good about the product, what is not so good, and how the product will benefit them.
When you are recommending a certain product, there are some things to remember on how to make it work effectively and for your advantage. Sound like the true and leading expert in your field.
Remember this simple equation: Price resistance diminishes in direct proportion to trust. If your visitors feel and believe that you are an expert in your niche, they are more inclined to making that purchase. On the other hand, if you are not exuding any confidence and self-assurance in endorsing your products, they will probably feel that same way and will go in search of another product or service which is more believable.
How do you establish this aura of expertise? By offering unique and new solutions they would not get anywhere else. Show proof that what you are promoting works as promised. Display prominent testimonials and endorsements from respected and known personalities, in related fields of course.
Avoid hype at all costs. It is better to sound low key and confident, than to scream and seek attention. Besides, you would not want to sound unprofessional and have that thinking stick to your potential customers and clients, now would you? Best to appear cool and self-assured at the same time.
And remember; prospects are not stupid. They are actually turning to experts and may already know the things that you know. If you backup your claims with hard facts and data, they would gladly put down hundreds, or even thousands worth of money to your promotions. But if you don't, they are smart enough to try and look at your competitors and what they are offering.
While recommending a product, it is also important that you give out promotional freebies. People are already familiar with the concept of offering freebies to promoting your own products. But very few people do this to promote affiliate products. Try to offer freebies that can promote or even have some information about your products or services.
Before you add recommendations to you product, it is given that you should try and test the product and support. Do not run the risk of promoting junk products and services. Just think how long it took you to build credibility and trust among your visitors. All that will take to destroy it is one big mistake on your part.
If possible, have recommendations of products that you have 100% confidence in. Test the product support before you begin to ensure that the people you are referring it to would not be left high and dry when a problem suddenly arouse.
One of the more important ways of increasing affiliate marketing bottom line and sale is through the use of product recommendations. Many marketers know that this is one of the most effective ways in promoting a certain product.
If the customers or visitors trust you enough, then they will definitely trust your recommendations. Be very careful in using this approach, though. If you start promoting everything by recommendation, your credibility will actually wear thin. This is seen especially when recommendations are seemingly exaggerated and without much merit.
Have a look at your affiliate market and look at the strategies you are using. You may not be focusing on the recommendations that your products need to have. You plan of action is sometimes not the only thing that is making your program works.
Try product recommendation and be among those few who have proven its worth.
Charlie Alexander is a freelance professional writer for multiple companies and websites. He is an expert on topics like marketing, business, writing, making money, and more.
To make money online don't have to create, own or stock your own product. You can direct potential customers to websites already selling products that have been created by other people and if somebody buys the product following your referral to that website, the product owner will pay you a commission.
The product owner also organizes the customer payment, delivery and fulfillment of the product. This is called affiliate marketing and it's your job as an affiliate to connect prospective customers with products or services that they're looking to buy.
Before you start to look for products you can sell, you have to determine your target audience or niche. What problems do the audience in your chosen niche want to resolve? The affiliate products you promote should offer the solutions they're looking for. You can find a huge number of products to sell from affiliate marketing companies like Amazon, CJAffiliate, ClickBank and JVZoo.
Start Small
You won't make hundreds of thousands in a single day. Start small and keep improving your online reputation. Develop and provide high-value content on your website and social media. There are affiliate programs that do not require a website, but your own website makes it possible for you to concentrate on being authentic so that you come across as being reliable and professional.
Build An Email List
Concentrate on developing an email list of prospective customers from your website and social media accounts. You can send emails to your list whenever you want. This is the most effective way you'll have people buying the products and services you recommend.
Treat It Like A Business
Even if you only work it part-time you need to treat it like a real business and not something you play around with. It's okay to play around at the beginning to see if it's right for you and it's a good way to learn. But eventually, if you want to create a real online business you'll have to treat it that way.
Think 'Telling' Not 'Selling'
Be helpful, friendly and care about the things you promote. Look at it as more about 'telling' rather than 'selling'. When you put it in the perspective of helping people find what they need or want, you take the strain off yourself to be continuously selling. This will allow your efforts to flow from genuineness rather than looking overeager in trying to make money.
Companies are happy to pay commissions to people just like you, in return for selling their products and services. You have the potential to make a great income when you choose the right niche, stay committed, and understand your audience. For a no-nonsense, kick-start guide to getting started, download my free checklist, Affiliate Marketing For Beginners at https://jonallo.com/affiliatechecklist
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.
Nowadays there is huge competition prevailing in the online marketplaces. Thus, it has become very important to improve your online sales process and provide a better user-friendly experience. However, you will need effective tips to connect with your potential customers on your social media channels. By using the right plan, you can improve the experience of your visitors and create more sales.
1. Use messaging services to offer excellent sales support
You must focus on providing sales support by using native chatting within every social network. By using conversational e-commerce you can use the messaging services that will help you to personalize, automate and customize your communication. These messaging apps have become great go-to-choices for many customers. It helps them to directly interact with companies as these apps have increased engagement and retention rates.
So, if you aren't using messaging apps to automate confirmations and for selling, you're losing a big social e-commerce opportunity. However, make sure to be careful while using automated chat apps such as Facebook Messenger Bots.
2. Analyse conversations about your brand and services
When it comes to participating in conversations with your customer's social media is the most effective tool. However, the continuous attack by customers make it difficult to determine the useful information. Thus, keeping an eye on your users online activities will help you to understand the confusing situations. You will be able to generate more leads and create effective marketing strategies.
Brand listening is the skills of developing important insights by analysing your clients' conversations about your services, brand, and competitors. However, you will need to need to focus on more than simply monitoring your official social media accounts.
3. Encourage your users to share their personal experience
There is no doubt that the success of every social media is not based how much they talk about themselves. Instead, it depends on how much their customers talk about their services and brand. Thus, you must provide your customers an option to share their experience before, during and after making a purchase.
A recent evidence has shown that 1 out of 3 Facebook user has first shared, liked and commented the product prior to purchasing it.
4. Provide easy and quick buying options on your social channels
These days we can see a great expansion in retail sales that are driven by social channels. In these channels buying buttons play a major role in generating more sales. With the help of the buy buttons your clients can make smooth and secure purchases from within the social networks. This reduces the need to follow a multi-step process and limit it to a single click sale process.
5. Feature User-generated content (UGC)
The content that is created and shared by your customers, followers and fans on social channels also generate content - User-generated content (UGC). They either create it instinctively or through other options like giveaways or contests. Curating UGC's work effectively for e-commerce businesses. Usually, people who see UGC are 97% more likely to buy your services, according to Business Insider.
The content generated in the form of images by the customers also work effectively. In fact, 77% of online shoppers choose Instagram pictures when they were to make a choice between UGC (like images posted on Instagram's) and professional images (given on the pages of product description). When you use authentic pictures it works as a social proof, enhance your ad performance, attract high-intent visitors from Instagram to product pages and improve on-site conversion rates.
6. Develop seasonal and business-related content
Almost all eCommerce businesses create effective business-related according to the seasonal calendar. They perform very well in generating sales, creating special offers, incentives and emails. They also outdo at stocking their social channels with announcements about all related seasonal e-commerce activities.
Nearly all businesses using social streams are hard pressed to create social-friendly content. As users are more knowledgeable and they avoid generic stock images. According to a Chute Digi day Study over 70% of users find it at least two times more effective to use pictures than only written content alone.
However, the problem arises when a web owner is not able to hire a professional designer. In that case, you can consider using Buffer's Pablo, which offers more than 600,000 royalty-free photos to choose from. On the other hand, if you need pictures for graphics and infographics, using Venn gage will be a great option. It offers hundreds of design templates to generate detailed images quickly. These templates are usually are categorized into Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced. So, you can choose pictures according to your level of expertise.
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.
There are billions of people who are using internet for professional purposes. It is called online reputation management. No matter what field of work you are in, online content is powerful in making and marring the image of a person. Though no specific rules define professional behavior online but it is advisable to follow some basic steps in order to look more like an expert and less like an amateur. Here is a guide to help you put your best foot forward on the Web-
The best stands out
The internet does not filter out items you don't want other people to see. If somebody key in your name into Google then it will deliver the most relevant results. So, load the web with professional content that reflects well on your name.
Maintain your reputation
Your privacy and reputation should be taken care of. This process is time consuming but try to dedicate some time to find out and remove dubious content. For e.g. If your friend an objectionable photo on Facebook, try and remove the tag yourself. Make sure, no questionable content should be available related to you on web. Though it is virtually impossible to entirely remove the content once published online but your best option is to keep negative materials from ever hitting the web at the first place.
Protect personal information
Protecting password and other vital information is of supreme importance on the web. If anyone gets access to your account, it may ruin things beyond repair. People get victims of identity theft, sometimes financial resources get stolen and other times computers are hacked. So, the password should not be easy-to-guess thing. Keep on monitoring all accounts on daily basis.
Branding is must
Maintaining online reputation is not just being safe about your data but think of your online reputation as a product that needs to be marketed continuously. Creating a business fan page on Facebook, joining professional sites like LinkedIn, writing a blog are some of the effective ways to manage your professional presence. It will be great if colleagues and clients review your services or goods. Honest reviews are powerful. Never forget smart web surfers can quickly spot fake reviews. Try to be consistent with messages and profiles. While writing content, make sure you use the same logos, slogan and even fonts. When anybody offers criticism, respond amicably and figure out the solution to solve the problem.
Cash your expertise
It is important to be online to pump up your reputation in unlimited ways. There is no better way to present yourself as a well-rounded, trustworthy professional than blogging about a topic that interest you. This initiative will help you establish as an expert on a relevant subject. Even you are not among world's top experts but putting a thought and value into online content is always appreciated.
The internet memory is accurate
Internet never forgets. If you put write anything online, it is there forever. So be cautious and vigilant what you are feeding it. Not everyone is happy with the internet's long memory but your vigilance is your best protection.
Reshali Balasubramaniam
Head of HR, HR Counselor and adviser at https://jobpal.lk and EFutureTech Systems. Submit your resume online and be contacted by prospective employers.
