Thursday, December 27, 2018
Social Media Marketing Tips - 2019
5 Social Media Marketing Tips from Experts to Prepare You for 2019
Social media is an active channel for companies to build their brand, establish thought leadership, and interact with their community. Since we are a couple of weeks away from 2019, almost every marketer will be busy planning for their next year's social media strategy.
1. Perform Content Analysis
Before coming to the strategic and tactical part of your social media plan, evaluate the performance of your content for the current year as this will allow you to set the tone for the next year.
Go through the analytics/insights section of your social media profiles to see the effectiveness of your content. Understand what type of content resonates with your different personas. While doing so, you will also come to know the ideal time and day to post different types of content.
Paul Herrera, Co-Founder and COO of Maven recommends the following 3-step framework:
- Perform content analysis to understand the preference of your audience.
- Find out the platforms where your ideal buyers spend their most time on.
- Get inspired by your competitors by looking at what worked for them in the past.
2. Set the Right Goals
If you are running your marketing plans through guesswork, you are doing it wrong. Modern marketing is data-driven where you can virtually measure the impact of every single activity. Despite this, many marketers commit the dire mistake of not setting up any goals and measuring anything. In such cases, you’d find marketers saying, “Well, we stopped doing social media because it didn't work us."
To avoid this, start by setting the right goals and metrics, choosing the right audience, and using it as a foundation to create your strategy.
While addressing the social media mistakes to avoid, Neel Sinha, Founder, MyLnk, says, "To get success in social media, marketing strategy should have well-defined goals, the target audience must be identified, tactics to be employed should be implemented, the right amount of time should be invested, and proficient workforce should be employed to perform the tasks."
3. Embrace Omnichannel in 2019
One of the issues that has contributed to a dip in customer engagement in recent years is treating each marketing medium in isolation. This leads to different communication strategies and messaging for different channels, in the end confusing the audience. To indeed ace customer engagement in 2019, marketers must approach marketing as a whole rather than siloing it.
Jitesh Banga, Product Marketing Strategy, Adeptia says, “A smoother symbiosis between all social channels can help propel new horizons and innovation. Enterprises can set up a unified interaction center, counteract many scale issues, and swiftly deal with silos that prevent teams from boosting business loyalty and improving social engagement.”
The Importance of Local SEO
What Is Local SEO & Why Local Search Is Important
Local search engine optimization is a branch of SEO that focuses on optimizing a website to be found in local search results.
Local search encompasses all those nifty search terms that scream local, such as:
- lawyers near me
- doctors near me
- lawyers in [city name]
- doctors in [city name]
Basically, local SEO is a strategic process that focuses on emphasizing the optimization efforts of local brick-and-mortar businesses.
Content, on-page optimizations, and link building all with a focused, localized intent are part of these efforts.
The focus changes, however, when it comes to localizing link acquisition.
The focus changes to making sure all potential local signals across Google’s local search landscape are consistent and correct.
If they are not, or you accidentally provide different information for the same business, you could potentially experience situations where your local results display something different than what was intended.
Marketing Trends in 2019
10 Marketing Trends to Watch in 2019
It's difficult to predict which methods will connect with consumers most effectively in the ever-changing landscape of marketing. Just when marketers believe they understand their audience, a new technology, new behavior or even an entirely new audience alters everything.
That said, it’s practical to reflect on the past year’s patterns and pay attention to growing trends that will influence next year’s success. Here are 10 marketing trends you would be wise to keep your eye on going into 2019.
1. The marketing funnel is shifting.
The current marketing funnel accepts anyone, assessing them for profitability and rejecting them if they’re deemed unfit. As John Hall writes in Forbes: “Too many companies see customers as gatekeepers to wallets; meanwhile, customers feel ignored at best -- and insulted at worst -- when the journey ends.” Rather than opening up a marketing funnel that swallows whoever it can, businesses are starting to efficiently leverage content to target niche audiences.
Reaching out to people who are more likely to be interested in your brand is not only more cost-efficient; it’s also more sustainable and less time-consuming. Consumers do not want businesses to gloss over them; they seek legitimate trust and genuine relationships.
2. Content is everything.
In the current climate, content is everything. You already know that you need to entice your audience: inspire them, provoke their thoughts, excite them or appeal to their emotions.
The goal is not to simply put content in front of people and hope they respond to it, but rather to encourage them to share and engage with it. Content -- whether it’s an article on an outlet or a video on social media -- opens the door for two-way communication, which is crucial for building trust and letting customers know that you appreciate their business.
3. Chatbots aren’t going anywhere.
Customer service is essential, but not everyone feels comfortable talking to a real person on the phone or has the time to do it over email. That’s what makes chatbots so convenient. These are little AI helpers integrated into websites that can answer questions and fulfill requests quickly -- and many can accomplish this without sacrificing personality.
Grand View Research reports that the worldwide chatbot market will reach $1.25 billion by 2025, growing at an annual rate of 24.3 percent. Forty-five percent of end users actually prefer turning to chatbots for customer service, so if you have one, you can win the allegiance of people who enjoy interacting with these little programs.
4. AI continues to grow.
On a related note, artificial intelligence is growing in prominence. It makes data analysis more efficient, can target potential leads rapidly and can perform tasks that humans struggle with. Sometimes it takes the form of advanced machine learning, but even Netflix’s recommendation system that suggests new TV shows to watch is technically AI.
AI can also monitor consumers’ online patterns and help you understand their behavior in real time, though there are legitimate concerns about whether this is ethical or not. Even if you decide not to take advantage of AI in this way, however, it’s smart to pay attention to how consumers react to it and whether your competitors use it.
5. People are cautious about security.
Every company should ensure that its security is thorough. Even if customers do not notice it, they deserve the utmost respect when it comes to their privacy, data and financial details. Not every company promises this, though -- and customers are starting to notice. With the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) taking effect in Europe this year, consumers are beginning to pay more attention to how businesses handle their information.
Talk about your security with customers. What makes it better than others? In an economy where people are rightfully cautious about hacks, leaks and theft, they will favor establishments that can promise them the safest business experience.
Marketing Strategy and Tips - LinkedIn
3 Tips to Create a LinkedIn Marketing Strategy
LinkedIn isn’t only good for building resumes and applying for jobs. It can also grow businesses, further reach, drive organic traffic and generate leads. With more than 562 million users, the world’s largest professional network has the ability to take your business to the next level.
The platform continues to build onto its functionality as one of the most powerful networking tools available. Whether it’s including the ability to record and send voice messages or adding translations for several different languages, LinkedIn only continues to improve and grow businesses.
If you’re ready to create a marketing strategy using LinkedIn, here are three tips to get you started.
Saturday, December 8, 2018
How AI Will Revolutionize Marketing
4 Ways AI Will Revolutionize the Marketing Industry
Artificial intelligence (AI) technology is here — and it’s long overdue. The technology is rapidly gaining traction and becoming a prominent force within several industries.
Transformation 1: Machine Learning.
Artificial intelligence technology is becoming increasingly accessible to the average consumer, allowing them to better understand and engage with multimedia content.
Machine learning technology is at the core of this revolution. Vendors such as Amazon Web services (AWS) have developed machine learning tools empowered by artificial intelligence that easily within the grasp of any organization.
Digital advertising agencies, for instance, use the resource optimize the advertising budget across multiple touch points. The vendors even set up mock scenarios so that marketing executives can easily understand how to make the most of the technology
Transformation 2: The Leveraging of Big Data to Identify Equality Gaps.
In the context of artificial intelligence, important to understand how to provide digital access for all when it comes to fairness and inclusion.
As with previous technologies, artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly affordable. Analyst forecasts that the technology to analyze and evaluate large stores of information will soon be within the financial grasp of the average citizen and business owner.
In the meantime, individuals and enterprises must maintain control and security of their data. For instance, data owners can delineate what information they make available to the public and what information they keep private or in-house.
Furthermore, people and organizations can promote inclusion and fairness by supporting open source development across all phases of AI implementation. Additionally, the public must take advantage of free AI training to stay informed about and effectively leverage the technology.
Social Media Tips For 2019
6 Tips to Improve Your Social Media Presence in 2019
There are 335 million users on Twitter, 1 billion users on Instagram and a whopping 2.23 billion users on Facebook. A lot of people who could become your customers are hanging out on social media.
You may already have a social media account, but are you getting tons of new followers each month who are interacting on your platform? If not, you need to step up your social media game.
Whether it's on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or LinkedIn, growing your social media presence is important to get your business in front of more consumers and make more sales. With some simple tips, you can turn your lonely social media accounts into popular communities bustling with activity.
Get ready for your popularity to explode next year. Here are six tips for improving your social media presence in 2019.
Social Media Strategy | Neuroscience
How to Improve Your Social Strategy Using Neuroscience
Social media is becoming an integral part of our daily lives. How can brands tap into neuroscience to improve their social media strategy?
Social media has reached a point to affect our communication, our mood, and our behavior.
More and more people are increasing the time that they spend on social media. It has now become part of our daily routines, especially through the use of our smartphones.
There are also several studies finding a link between increased social media usage and a negative impact to our health.
However, not everything is discouraging. And neuroscience can help us understand our behavior when accessing different social networks to improve our habits.
As we get more hooked into social media, brands are looking for the best ways to connect with us.
How can you stand out when the competition is constantly increasing?
Neuromarketing, or marketing with the help of neuroscience, can be the key to an effective social media marketing strategy in 2019. HeyHuman, a behavioral communications agency shared their findings during Social Media Week London.
They’ve talked about the power of neuroscience by analyzing participants’ behavior and how it relates to social media usage to draw some interesting insights around our social media habits.
If you want to improve your brand’s social media success, here are some useful tips to keep in mind around everyone’s online habits.
Influencer Marketing 2019
10 Influencer Marketing Trends to Keep Your Eye On
Influencer Marketing is a hybrid of old and new marketing tools. It takes the idea of the celebrity endorsement and reconfigures it to fit with today’s social media–driven world.
Unlike celebrities, influencers can come from any background or industry, and they can have varying amounts of followers. One thing they all have in common is that they’re social media figures who have gathered a defined audience around themselves. Their ability to influence others allows them to give a human voice to brands. Influencer marketing is less direct than traditional forms of marketing, but when done well, it creates an authentic way of connecting with customers.
And it’s growing by leaps and bounds every year. Influencer marketing is poised to reach between $5 billion and $10 billion by 2022. As more businesses begin to experiment with influencer marketing, it continues to evolve and adapt to the market. So, before you set out to build your next influencer campaign, here are 10 trends you need to keep your eye on.
Thursday, November 22, 2018
Marketing | Thanksgiving 2018
5 Things Marketers Can Be Thankful for This Thanksgiving
Here are five things I think marketers can be thankful for this Thanksgiving.
1. We no longer need to send generic batch and blast emails
Ah, the batch and blast email. As a consumer, I’m definitely over them. The companies I regularly interact with should know me. They should be able to send me emails that make sense to me personally — not send me a new email every day with the hope that one will stand out to me.
Luckily, marketers don’t need to rely on this tactic anymore. They can personalize the content of their emails to each individual the moment the email is opened. They can send emails that are triggered based on certain criteria — which make the email much more relevant when it’s received. And they can send smarter bulk emails that determine the cadence of email sends based on how each person engages with that company’s emails.
With all of these capabilities at their fingertips, marketers can be thankful they aren’t forced to send generic emails any longer.
2. We can use machines to identify each person’s interests and preferences
Can you imagine if you had to personally sift through all the data you collect on each of your customers or shoppers to figure out what each person is interested in? It would be exhausting, not to mention impossible if you do business with more than just a few people.
Thankfully, machines can sort through all the data you have acquired on each person — from deep behavioral data you pick up from their interactions with you across channels, to attribute data you collect across systems in your company, to survey response data you have gathered in the past — to uncover each person’s interests, needs and preferences.
You don’t have to wait for each person to tell you that she prefers the color blue or is interested in solutions for small businesses. You can infer that information from everything you already know about her.
3. We don’t have to pick one single message to feature on our homepages
Deciding what message or promotion to feature on your homepage is a big task. You want to be as relevant as possible to anyone that might land on that page, but you don’t want to be so generic that you end up not saying anything substantive.
The good news is that we no longer need to pick one single message to display on the homepage, or any other key area of a website. You can personalize the content to each of your key audiences — or even to each individual — instead.
Do you want to show one message to enterprises and one to small businesses? One to first-time visitors and one to returning visitors? One to shoppers of one category and one to shoppers of another? That’s all possible.
It’s even possible for machines to pick the message or promotion that makes the most sense for each individual person.
With all of those capabilities at your fingertips, there’s no reason to waste such an important area of your site with irrelevant or completely generic content anymore.
Tuesday, November 20, 2018
Saturday, November 10, 2018
Social Media Video | Why Your Business Needs It
8 reasons to invest in social media video
By 2019, video will be the prime mover behind 80 percent of global internet traffic.
Whether it’s Facebook, Instagram, YouTube or Snapchat, video content is what your business needs to focus on moving forward. Social media video marketing is not only accessible, it’s affordable and one of the best ways to reach many people while increasing brand awareness.
Here are eight reasons why social media users respond so well to video:
1. Social media video dominates with 18- to 33-year-olds.
Millennials are spending less time in front of their TVs and more time on their mobile devices and laptops watching videos. As millennials grow into their consumer influence, you cannot overlook the fact that video will be an essential tool for this audience.
YouTube on mobile alone reaches more 18- to 34-year-olds than any US cable network.
2. Video is unmatched in the way it reaches viewers.
Modern people are just too busy to read long product descriptions or sift through website pages. Modern users want to see products in action.
Social Media channels like Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter all have their own video features. Live video is also growing rapidly in popularity. Not only is it economical in production and editing, it promotes authenticity and its time-sensitive element is attractive to an inquisitive audience.
3. Your competitors are already using social media video.
Did you know that in 2016 61 percent of businesses were already using video in their marketing campaigns? This statistic jumps out even more when compared to 2015, when 66 percent of the same businesses were not using video at all. Just imagine how many businesses will be using video in 2019.
4. Social media videos can deliver powerful ROI.
With 72 percent of businesses claiming video has increased their web conversion rates, it is no secret that video is a compelling marketing tool for converting consumers and boosting sales.
Big Data | Content Marketing
How Big Data is Changing The Way Businesses Manage Content
According to IBM, humans create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day with 90% of the data in the world has been created in the last two years. Meanwhile, Forbes reported that nearly 53% of organizations are using big data analytics, up from 17% in 2015. Industries like Telecom and Financial Services are fueling the fastest adoption.
Since these industries are fastly adopting big data to harness the data and use it to identify new opportunities. There is no denying that, in turn, this leads to smarter business moves, more efficient operations, higher profits, and happier customers. This made me curious to find out and write on “How big data make a business sense and where content comes in”.
Video Marketing | Growing Your Business
Here’s Why You Should Invest in Video Marketing to Grow Your Business
As digital marketing increasingly becomes an integral part of your business, employing strategies to keep you ahead of the competition will need to be a top priority. Interestingly, using video in your content proves to be one of the most powerful ways to achieve this.
Although video marketing might seem overwhelming at first, it has become an essential tool for many businesses. In fact, Wyzowls’ Video Marketing Statistics 2017 reveals that 63% of businesses are using video as a marketing tool. Out of those, 82% feel that video is a crucial part of their marketing strategy.
4 Reasons Why Video Marketing Works
1) Builds Consumers Trust Easily
Video production takes time, effort and money. And not everyone has enough resources to do it. But is it worth investing in video marketing? Definitely. Studies show that videos generate more trust in consumers than written content.
As statistics reveal, 79% of consumers would rather watch a video to learn about a product than read text on a page and 84% are likely to make a purchase after watching a brand’s video. Consider how this can make a difference in your conversion rate and you will start to understand why video is becoming an indispensable tool in your marketing arsenal.
Videos also draw more customer attention than any other medium. Given that we are in the midst of information overload, your brand will not succeed if you cannot stand out from the crowd with a unique story. Fortunately, video marketing has the ability to make a compelling pitch more quickly than reading would. It can easily get your message across, and when done effectively, it can grab your customer’s attention without much difficulty.
2) Connects on a Personal Level
When consumers see someone on the screen, they build a sense of relationship toward the brand. Rather than them just reading blocks of text that could have been created by anyone, they see a face. They learn who the person is. They see and hear the person’s emotions through his/her tone of voice and non-verbal gestures.
And even if there is no conversation going on, the visual information they see is enough for them to understand what is happening. A sense of personal connection develops almost instantly as a result.
In addition, when people encounter the real faces and personalities behind your business in a video, you foster a strong and meaningful relationship. They get the idea of how passionate you and your people are in giving them the solutions they need. By becoming visible through video, you evoke emotions that traditional content may not be able to do. When you leverage this powerful aspect of video, not only do you instill trust, you also drive viewers toward a desired action.
Marketing and Machine Learning
Marketing In The Age Of Machine Learning
There is no longer a delineation between digital and traditional customers. Anyone with a smartphone traverses between online and offline activities without a second thought. As they do, they gain a penchant for modern conveniences, such as speed, utility and real-time assistance. Along the way, they also become more and more impatient and demanding. To engage today’s customer takes a modern approach to marketing where advanced technologies and customer optimization set the stage for what I call “adviser brands.” And, they’re changing the game for everyone.
Adviser brands represent a shift away from a traditional focus on top-of-the-funnel campaigns and marketing-centric metrics. Now, leading marketing are using the likes of machine learning and other emerging technologies to deliver assistive experiences that converts intent and expectations to value-added engagement at every step of their purchase journey. Doing so drives more than marketing performance. Adviser brands are also contributing to business growth.
5 Rules for Winning with Automated Marketing
Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to interview CMOs and CDOs of leading brands who shared their work of what it takes to be relevant today. One of the common threads was that machine learning was the cornerstone to a new marketing construct. It helps marketers convert everyday digital signals to understand customer intent and preferences to automate the delivery of personalized, useful and productive experiences at the right time, in the right place and on the right device...at scale.
Google recently published a list of “5 rules for winning with automated marketing,” in which the authors, Nicolas Darveau-Garneau, chief search evangelist at Google and Adam Deif, head of industry, also discuss the advantages of machine learning. In their article, they share the five best practices among top performing brands using machine learning. The following is inspired by their list.
Saturday, October 20, 2018
SEO For Small Businesses
SEO Is A Must For Small Businesses: Here's How To Get Started
You are starting a business and have a checklist of the things you need to get your business going. You have the idea for a product or service -- check. You thought of a name -- check. You created a corporation -- check. You raised some capital to get started -- check. You built a website -- check. Bam! You’re in business -- check.
But wait -- the only thing missing from this equation is your customers. You can’t be in business until you have customers. That’s a vital component. The only way you’re making money is if customers are at your storefront or, these days, on your website looking to purchase what you’re selling.
Some entrepreneurs may think that once they create a website, they’re done with that task. Creating the website is a fundamental first step to getting customers and an important element of any company’s marketing program, but there’s more to it.
First and foremost, your website should be built with a singular purpose, and that is to draw customers to your business. According to the results from an online survey conducted by Fractl and MOZ, which asked more than 1,000 people about their engagement and opinions of advertising and marketing tactics, products seen in search, customer reviews and online articles are more likely to have a positive influence on customers’ buying decisions. These techniques are all inbound marketing strategies that drive traffic to your website.
Social Media Marketing Tips
4 tips for a professional social media presence
Bad manners are everywhere—and these days it seems they're most often on display on social media.
More than the mean fake news, election tampering, newsjacking and all the other ways companies, countries, and politicians try to manipulate online, there’s also bad behavior exhibited by friends and connections.
Sure, there’s a time for photos of you enjoying a drink with friends, or a photo of the meal you just cooked, or for that gym check-in. There may even be a time to post political messages, 75 photos of your vacation, Bible verses—even information about the latest Botox special. However, that time should not be every day.
Don’t be “that” person. Consider the following tips before you post:
1. Don’t over-share.
Though you are sharing with your friends, no one wants to know the minute details of your life. Before you post something, ask yourself whether you would talk about the content of your post at a crowded cocktail party.
2. Treat LinkedIn connections carefully.
I recently received this LinkedIn connection request: “I see that your company is hiring. Let’s connect so we can talk about how I can fill this role.” I have no idea who this person is, so why would I connect only to help him get a job?
Treat invitations to connect on LinkedIn like introductions at a networking event. You wouldn’t approach a stranger at an event and open with, “Can you help me get a job at your company.” So, don’t do it on LinkedIn.
3. Have a conversation.
Have you ever worked with someone who refuses to pick up the phone, insisting that everything can be solved through email?
We all know that misunderstandings occur with electronic communication. It’s difficult to convey intent and tone through chat or email. Some situations call for human-to-human interaction, even if it can’t be face to face.
When you can, opt for a phone call. Have an actual conversation, and clear up the situation with a 10-minute discussion instead of sending 10 emails.
Saturday, October 13, 2018
Video Marketing | Secrets and Insights
18 Must-See Video Marketing Secrets & Insights
Video makes everything real and personal.
Getting specific, here’s how video can make a difference in social and beyond. Videos help to:
- Humanize your brand.
- Educate the buyer.
- Simplify the complex.
- Evoke emotion and tell a story.
Videos can be a brand’s chance to move the process from one stage to the next. Whether it’s going from a nobody to a somebody or uneducated to educated or from a firm “no” to a warm “maybe” to a solid “yes.”
Social Media Marketing Strategy
How to Ace Social Media Marketing with Limited Resources
Social Media marketing becomes more difficult if you are on a shoestring budget. But if you are thinking about it – you are on the right track. Let’s find out how you can optimize and effectively utilize your limited resources for an effective social media marketing strategy.
Survey Before You Start
You have to be economical, which means you cannot splurge to experiment widely and see what works. So, start small. Conduct a simple survey to understand who your potential customers are, where they are spending most of their time, and what kind of content they like to engage with.
You cannot target everyone, but narrowing down your options will help you use your resources more concretely and effectively.
SEO Tips | Content Marketing
7 Tips to Optimize Content for Search Engines
Search engine optimization hinges on content relevance. No relevance means no rankings and no revenue from natural search. Follow these seven SEO tips to ensure that your site is optimized for the most valuable set of keywords to drive natural search performance.
7 Tips to Optimize Content
Research keyword themes. Keyword research-powered knowledge of searchers’ desires should guide your natural search strategy, as well as inform the content strategy for the entire site. Use keyword research to analyze where there might be gaps in your site that need to be filled with fresh content. As you’re analyzing, assign intent to keyword themes — purchase, information, or pure navigational intent — to ensure that the right content is created to fulfill the desire implied by each theme.
Make sure that your keyword research is refreshed regularly — not less than annually, quarterly is best.
Remove self-competition. Map keyword themes to specific pages to ensure that as many relevant keywords as possible have a place on your site. This removes the natural tendency to try to optimize every page for a similar set of high-demand keywords.
Keyword mapping is especially beneficial on a site with a distributed SEO model, in which multiple departments manage their own optimization. Try to organize keyword mapping centrally so the departments aren’t battling for rankings on pages that are only semi-relevant for a high-demand theme.
Optimize editorial processes. Content optimization becomes much easier if SEO is incorporated before the content is created. Include SEO in editorial meetings to share keyword research that can generate new ideas for the content calendar, as well as guide the individual themes of content pieces.
The intent is to participate, not to dictate. Editorial creativity is critical to developing content that people want to engage with. So-called “SEO content” — text that is written solely to target keywords — is painful to read, doesn’t result in engagement, and fails to drive SEO performance.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)