Mediastreet
Author

editor

Browsing
In News

5 Smart Ways to Get More Content Marketing Leads

No Comments

By Rudy Leong 

Content marketing is a great way to reach and connect with different audiences. However, it’s not always effective for converting prospects into customers. Reasons for this ineffectiveness var8y depending on many factors. The good news is that you can still change your fortunes and get more leads.

Some content marketing techniques for lead generation are pretty straightforward while others need more creativity. Using these techniques will help you start converting more prospects into customers. Check out these five ways to get more content marketing leads.

1. Use multiple distribution channels

First and foremost, you need to utilize multiple distribution channels to truly harness the power of content marketing. The Internet is constantly changing and new channels for content distribution are appearing every year (sometimes multiple times a year). That’s why you might be missing out on some powerful channels for lead generation simply because you are not up to date with the latest news and thus unaware of these channels.

For example, TikTok has been massive in the past few years. With the pandemic setting in, more and more people started joining the platform which made it a great social media platform to use for content marketing. Besides, short-form videos are faster and easier to make than YouTube videos which can significantly reduce content production time and costs. TikTok can help you go viral and easily promote your products by demonstrating how they work in short informational videos made for the platform.

2. Incentivize customers to collect

Did you know that people love to collect things? Businesses have been taking advantage of this tendency for decades now by incentivizing customers to collect. You can see this in the way collectibles are so popular among different demographics, especially if these collectibles belong to a particular brand. However, you don’t necessarily need to have a specific defining feature of the collection to make it work.

Certain types of content can help you incentivize customers to collect your products. Wishlist’s or checklists are the primary examples of this. You don’t need to have a specific line of products dedicated to a unifying theme – just making a more-or-less logical checklist can be enough to prompt customers to buy more products from you. You can present wish lists and checklists as separate pieces of content or you can integrate them into your store and let people create their own lists in customer accounts.

3. Truly listen to your audience

One thing many businesses seem to forget is the importance of their audience. Truly listening to your audience is crucial for understanding who your customers are and what they want. By understanding what your customers are looking for, you can create exactly the type of content they will enjoy that will make them convert into customers and start purchasing from you instead of only consuming your content.

It’s a good idea to use multiple techniques for analyzing and getting to know your audience. Of course, you need to turn to user-generated content and reviews posted online, but you should also conduct surveys among your current customers or even passive content consumers.

4. Get interactive with quizzes and surveys

Interactivity has been used by most if not all major brands and is already being adopted by many businesses both big and small. The reason why interactivity has taken front stage is that it allows businesses to truly connect with their audiences while also gamifying experiences and incentivizing customers to make purchases.

Two types of content commonly associated with interactivity are quizzes and surveys:

  • Quizzes: The best way to use quizzes is to either allow customers to test their knowledge about a subject or to let them find out who they are. In the first case, you can then recommend other content of yours to help your audience get more educated on the subject related to the quiz. In the second case, you can recommend certain products your customers can buy related to the quiz (e.g. “Which kitchen décor do you need based on your lifestyle preferences?”)
  • Surveys: As mentioned earlier, surveys can be used to collect feedback. However, you can also use them to create more content such as white papers, case studies, reports, and so on. This content can be especially powerful for persuading those members of your audience who rely on statistics and facts to be persuaded. In other words, you can use surveys to interact with your audience while also using their results to further market to your audience.

5. Start webinars (with other brands)

Last but not least, it’s a good idea to start offering webinars either on your own or in partnerships with other brands. Free webinars can help you educate your audience and connect with it before gradually leading it up to purchase from you.

If you know another business that has a similar audience to yours, offering a webinar from both of your companies in collaboration can expose you to the audience of that other business. Interestingly, if you sell webinars already, you can use free webinars to attract new customers by giving them somewhat of a trial or demo to persuade them to purchase one of the paid options.

Final takeaway

All in all, your content marketing can definitely be taken to a new level to generate more leads and start converting prospects into paying customers. Use the techniques in this article to help you get started and begin improving your content marketing strategy.

By Rudy Leong 

Ruby Leong has experience as a blogger and writer. Now, she works as a freelance writer. She provides essay writing services at the professional platform Best Essays Education. Basically, Ruby cares about topics that relate to business and education. She devotes her free time to music and singing.

Sourced from Jeff Bullas

Read More
By
In News

How to Record a Phone Call on Your iPhone

No Comments

By Rachel Weingarten

Apple doesn’t make it easy, but with these tips and apps, recording a phone call on your iPhone is possible.

There are a bunch of reasons you might want to record a call on your iPhone. Maybe you’re interviewing someone and want to keep track of everything said. Or maybe your grandma is sharing her famous apple pie recipe, and you don’t want to miss her secret ingredient. It’s also important to know how to record a phone call on an iPhone for everything from keeping track of client negotiations to having a record of things your supervisor says that might be inappropriate.

You should know up front that it’s generally easier to record a phone conversation on an Android device (and many of the below tips will work on Android as well), because Apple makes it impossible for an iPhone to record calls. But there’s a good reason iPhones don’t let you record calls. Apple is very protective of your privacy and won’t allow third-party apps access to your microphone. So while recording a phone call on an iPhone can be done, it requires some creative workarounds.

Keep in mind: In some states (and countries), it can be illegal to record a phone conversation. Other states, including New York, only require one-party consent, so as long as one person taking part in the phone conversation consents to being recorded, it’s fine to record the conversation. In other words, a person living in New York can record a call without notifying the other person on the line. To be on the safe side, though, you might want to inform anyone on the call that you’re recording.

Once you’ve mastered this skill, learn even more iPhone hacks, such as how to tell if someone blocked your number, how to unblock someone on an iPhone, and how to look up your call history on an iPhone.

Record a phone call on speaker

If you prefer your life uncomplicated, this is the best option for you, though you’ll need two devices. On the first, you’ll have your conversation (on speakerphone); an iPhone or any other speaker-enabled phone will work. On the second device, you’ll record. For this, an iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, or Mac computer would work.

Essentially, you can make the call on any phone with a speaker and record it on your iPhone. Or, make the call on your iPhone and record it on a second Apple device—all use the same Voice Memos app. It all depends on the devices you have access to.

To catch your entire phone conversation, start recording before the call. The steps below explain how to use an iPhone to record a phone call on a speakerphone. Note that the steps may be slightly different depending on your model and iOS.

1. Open the Voice Memos app on your iPhone (or whichever Apple device you’re using to record).Recording A Phone Call On An Iphone Step 1rd.com, getty images2. To start recording, tap the red record button.Recording A Call On An Iphone Step 2rd.com, getty images

That’s it! You’re now recording.

Next, it’s time to make your phone call. You can do that from an iPhone (if you’re not recording with it) or any other phone with a speaker function. Simply dial the number and turn on the phone’s speakerphone so both sides of the conversation—not just your voice—can be heard and recorded.

If you want to do more while recording, or once you’re done, follow these tips:

Pause a recording

Here’s an iPhone trick that’ll come in handy during conversations with long pauses or when you’re put on hold: While recording, tap or swipe up on the recording field at the bottom of your screen to bring it into full-screen view. Here, you can pause your recording as needed.

End a recording

When you’re finished with your conversation, hit the stop button (or Done, if you’re in the full-screen view) to end the recording and save your file.

Delete a recording

To delete a recording, hit the stop button, then tap the trash can. Accidentally got rid of a recording? Just as you can recover deleted photos, you can recover recently deleted recordings. On the main Voice Memos screen, tap Recently Deleted to see a list of your trashed files. Select Recover to restore your recording, but bear in mind that you only have about 30 days to recover deleted files.

Rename a recording

To rename your recording, tap the default title (your current location, though you can turn off Location-based Naming in Settings by tapping the toggle). The text will become highlighted. Simply delete it, then type your new title.

If you’re feeling creative, you can edit, crop, and replace sections of your recording, as well as duplicate it and share it via text, email, AirDrop, and other apps. Play around—there are a ton of Voice Memos tricks to help you achieve your clearest recording.

Apps to record phone calls

The speakerphone method, while easy, isn’t for everyone. If you don’t have two devices, it’s probably not the best option for you. Knowing how to record a phone call on an iPhone—sans speaker—is as easy as downloading the right recording app. In no particular order, these are the apps we love for recording phone calls on an iPhone and getting the highest sound quality possible.

Google Voice

Google Voice Apprd.com, getty images

Next to using two devices and calling on speakerphone, Google Voice is one of the easiest call-recording methods there is. The app allows you to select the phone or device you want to make and receive calls on. Then head over the Settings menu and select Calls. Scroll down to the Incoming Call option, where you can toggle to record incoming calls. Once everyone is on the call, simply press the number four on the keypad to start recording. Press the number four again at the end of the call to stop recording. After you’re done, your phone recording will show up in the Recorded menu option.

This method comes with some added perks. If you haven’t already set up your Google Voice account, you can do that and claim a free phone number at the same time. It’s like a virtual burner phone. Meanwhile, recording an iPhone conversation this way is free and super easy. One downside: It can be trickier to figure out how to record outgoing calls, although the app supports it.

Rev Voice Recorder

Rev Voice Recorderrd.com, getty images

What makes this app so great? Well, for one thing, it’s free to use. Rev Voice Recorder is able to record while you’re using your phone or other apps. It’s also super easy to not only record but also share and trim your files. Want to transcribe your conversation when it’s over? Rev has a transcription service that’ll turn your voice recording into text. One downside of that: Transcription with Rev is slightly pricier than other options, but that’s because the company boasts human transcriptionists, not automated ones.

TapeACall

Tapeacall Apprd.com, getty images

This iPhone call recorder app is available in over 50 countries and boasts a huge user base (4 million at press time). We love the fact that you can record incoming and outgoing calls (that’s not always the case!) and store them on TapeACall’s server. It’s also easy to label a conversation before it’s converted to MP3 format. Before you pay for the service, use the free trial option to see if this is the right recording app for you. I paid for the full version of TapeACall and found it a bit confusing. You start each call by either calling into the TapeACall recording line or placing your phone call and merging it to ensure it’s recorded, a process I found myself forgetting. For some, that step may be a big enough turn-off to prompt them to permanently delete the app. For others, it may just be an early stumbling block.

Otter

Otter Apprd.com, getty images

Best known for its transcription services, Otter offers an easy-to-configure hack for recording calls on an iPhone. The process is almost identical to recording a phone conversation on speakerphone. The difference is that with Otter you can also transcribe the call, which is invaluable if you plan to pull quotes or share notes later on. The app isn’t for those needing immediate gratification, however. It can take a bit of time for the file to be processed before it’s available for you to listen to. Pro tip: Read through your transcription while the conversation is fresh in your mind to correct any glaring errors.

There you have it: Five tools that make call recording a cinch. Now that you know how to record a phone call on an iPhone, learn how to stop spam calls and screen record on an iPhone.

Sources:

 

Feature Image Credit: MoMo Productions/Getty Images

By Rachel Weingarten

Sourced from Reader’s Digest

Read More
By
In News

How to Choose a Digital Marketing Strategy

No Comments

Sourced from BOSS Magazine

Are you moving on from the olden days of traditional marketing and looking forward to this new age of digital marketing? Do you want to know more about digital marketing and how to choose the best strategy for your business?

Digital marketing is one of the most important aspects of any business. It allows companies to reach a large number of people with their message and can help boost sales and profits. However, many businesses still don’t take full advantage of digital marketing and experienced SEO agencies like Finsbury Media, which is a mistake.

In this blog post, we’ll discuss why digital marketing is so important, and provide tips on how businesses can get started by choosing an effective strategy. Stay tuned!

Know Your Goals

If you are new to digital marketing and this is your first time trying to navigate the digital marketing world and choosing a strategy, you may be confused as to what the best strategy to choose is or may even take your chances with choosing multiple different digital marketing strategies. While this may seem like a good idea, it often doesn’t work out very well and it is in your best interest to take it slowly.

One of the first things that you should take into consideration when it comes to choosing the best digital marketing strategy for your business is knowing exactly what your goals are. Are you trying to reach a specific target audience? Are you trying to grow your business? Are you trying to sell a specific product or service?

All of these questions and more will give you a good starting point when it comes to choosing the right digital marketing strategy, as they give you the chance to eliminate strategies that will not work for you.

Know Your Audience

The next step when it comes to choosing a digital marketing strategy is knowing who your target audience is and who it is that you want to reach. This is important because different types of digital marketing strategies reach different demographics of people, and you want to make sure that you are reaching the right audience.

Does your audience check the emails frequently? Are they spending a lot of time on various social media platforms? These questions, along with others, are a great way to figure out who your target audience is. However, as a business you should already have an idea of who your general target audience is, and research will best show how to reach them.

Know How to Read Metrics

Metrics plays a big role when it comes to digital marketing as this is essentially how you can gauge whether your strategy is working well, or if you need to change something up. These metrics can also show the growth of your business through your social media strategy.

With that said, it is important to learn how to read these metrics and how to understand them in order to implement this knowledge into further marketing that is done for your business. Not taking these into consideration could be foolish of you, as this information can be incredibly helpful.

Know Which Platforms Are Most Popular

If you choose to go the route of social media marketing, it is a good idea to know which social media platforms are the best and the most popular to do this on. Today, there are a handful of incredibly popular social media platforms that all reach hundreds of millions of people, if not billions of people every month. These platforms include Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, and even YouTube.

Each social media platform reaches a different demographic and are popular among different demographics. With that said, you should take the time to understand the different platforms and learn which one would be most suitable to your business.

Know the Types of Strategies

Last but not least, if you want to start making use of digital marketing strategies, you need to know all about the different types of strategies and what they have to offer. Digital marketing as a whole refers to any kind of online marketing.

Different digital marketing strategies include social media marketing, email marketing, push notifications, marketing on different websites, and more. It is important to know all of the different strategies that are available to you in order to choose the one that is best for your business.

Sourced from BOSS Magazine

Read More
By
In News

6 Marketing Tools you Must Have to Grow Your Online Business

No Comments

By

Growing your online business can be difficult, especially if you’re doing it alone.  You need the right marketing tool if you want your online marketing plan to succeed.

Growing your online business can be difficult, especially if you’re doing it alone.  You need the right marketing tool if you want your online marketing plan to succeed. Small business owners often try to do their own marketing, but this can be very time-consuming and ineffective.

There are many great tools available that can help you reach your target audience and achieve your marketing goals. In this blog post, we will talk about 6 marketing tools you must have to grow your online business.

So, let’s get started!

6 Marketing Tools You Must Have To Grow Your Online Business

If you aren’t sure which marketing tool is best for your business, go to the KickAss MasterMinds website which carefully reviews various marketing tools and determine which will work best for your business. Plus, they offer an amazing community and support system to help you succeed.

We’ve put together a list of 6 popular marketing tools that we believe are essential for any business looking to grow online. These tools include:

Buffer

Buffer is one of the most popular social media scheduling tools for the web and mobile, designed to manage accounts on social networks. In the beginning, Buffer was a simple tool for scheduling Twitter posts, but now it’s become a more powerful tool for managing social media.

This tool allows users to schedule posts to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Instagram Stories, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. You can also analyse your results and engage with your audience.

Even though it works for large companies, it is perfect for start-ups and small businesses who want to automate and optimize their social media strategies.

Ahrefs

Ahrefs is one of the most popular and best online marketing tools out there, so you are probably familiar with it. Ahrefs offers tools to build links and analyse competitors, track rank and audit your sites. When you are starting a business, it is a good idea to search for all your competitors in order to improve your marketing campaign.

Find out which backlinks they have and see if you can get the same ones for yourself. The majority of Ahrefs’s functionality is geared towards marketing professionals. Ahrefs is a popular website optimization tool for high Google rankings.

Hubspot

When it comes to marketing, sales, or CRM, Hubspot is a leading player. Hubspot tool helps you to create web forms, start an email marketing campaign, or analyse the behaviour of visitors. This tool is ideal for businesses of any size. You will find it quite useful for driving traffic, converting leads to customers, and keeping the teams organized and efficient.

MailChimp

MailChimp is one of the most popular email marketing tools that allow you to send out emails to your customers. This tool offers several key features such as Website traffic tracking, Email templates, Widespread software integrations, Drip campaign design, and It’s free for small companies.

You can automate your emails with MailChimp and design campaigns with ease. The tool is easy to use, even though some of its marketing automation features are limited. If you want something more powerful, you might want to check out a tool like Autopilot or HubSpot. However, MailChimp is a great choice if you’re just starting out.

SEMrush

A successful marketing campaign and content are essential in this competitive era. With SEMrush, you can find valuable keywords, earn backlinks, and keep a close eye on your site’s performance.

It is easy for beginners to analyse organic and paid search results with this tool. With these tools, digital marketing and PPC experts can monitor their competitors and improve ranking.

ClickFunnels

ClickFunnels is a popular marketing and sales funnel builder tool that helps you create high-converting websites and sales funnels. With ClickFunnels, you can create custom landing pages, email opt-ins, and order forms that will help you convert more leads into customers.

Plus, with the built-in split testing feature, you can test different versions of your funnel to see which one converts the most leads into customers.

Conclusion

If you want your online marketing plan to be successful, you need the right marketing tool. These tools will help you to reach new customers, connect with your audience, and increase sales. Therefore, if you’re looking to grow your business, be sure to use these marketing tools. Apart from these tools, there are many more that are not included in the list but are helpful for your digital marketing strategy.

Feature Image Credit: Photo by emerson23work on Pixabay

By

Sourced from Influencive

Read More
By
In News

5 key ways to drive online sales

No Comments

Sourced from BOSS Magazine

Online sales is a great way for you to drive traffic to your business while also increasing sales at the same time. You must keep in mind, however, that it is not always easy to know what the best way to go about this is. You will need to focus on a few key things such as developing a strong presence online as well as using effective digital marketing techniques to attract your audience. If you have a business and are wanting to drive online sales, this blog post will highlight 5 key ways that you can achieve this.

Use effective marketing techniques

You must use effective marketing techniques such as social media marketing, paid media advertising, email marketing, and direct selling to name a few. According to Socital, these effective marketing techniques will help you effectively generate leads and drive business which positively influences sales. Before investing in a certain marketing technique, research and identify your audience to determine if the marketing technique you want to use will be effective. For example, if your audience is elderly, you won’t be focusing primarily on social media marketing and will instead try direct selling.

Develop a strong online presence

The internet has become a massive part of modern culture and almost everyone in the world has access to it every single day. It then goes without question that the online space is an important place of interest for businesses in our current times because it allows you the opportunity to access a wide audience at your fingertips. One of the most effective ways to develop a strong online presence is with the help of social media platforms. Billions of people worldwide are active on various social media platforms every day which is a golden opportunity to source new customers and boost your sales. You will need to have a consistent presence on social media platforms and engage with your audience to establish a relationship with them. You will also need to use social media to market your product or service using organic marketing or paid ads and influencer marketing which is highly effective. The more that people are exposed to your business online, the more inclined they will be to support your business. This positively affects sales.

Optimize your website for search engines

A website is a great way to establish credibility with your business and is another form of digital marketing. You must ensure that your website is optimized so that you score a higher SEO ranking which will result in your website being one of the first to pop up on the google search. To optimize your website, make sure that it is user-friendly and easy to navigate, make sure the loading speed is not slow because this negatively impacts your SEO ranking, you should also ensure that the content on your website is authoritative and relevant and that your content is regularly updated. If you optimize your website, the search engine will reward you with a higher SEO ranking which will result in more people visiting your website and ultimately, supporting your business financially.

Create a compelling product description

A product description is an important form of marketing because it describes your product as well as explains the benefits that your product has. This is a way to provide your audience with all the information and details of your product on your website and this description is typically located underneath or next to product images and titles. To write a good product description you must first identify your target audience and focus on the benefits of your products. Also, keep your language and tone natural and throw in some powerful words to drive sales. Good product images are also essential because this is what people look at when researching a product before purchasing.

Offer excellent customer service

To provide excellent customer service you need to go above and beyond to meet the basic needs of your customer. You need to do everything to ensure your customers are more than satisfied and happy with your product or service. The best way to achieve this is to be easily accessible to your customers. You can do this by engaging and responding on social media and also promptly responding to all enquiries. Also always ask for feedback and be attentive, this will create loyalty.

Sourced from BOSS Magazine

Read More
By
In News

4 Critical Marketing Techniques You Need to Know When Building Your Brand Online

No Comments

By Derick Quinanola

Thinking of new ways to promote your business? Looking to find an efficient marketing strategy to increase sales or brand awareness?

If your business is banking on old forms of marketing – print, broadcast, word of mouth – you won’t maximize the potential of your business, no matter how good you claim your products and services are.

In reality, for every successful business, using different online marketing techniques is what sets them apart from the rest of the competition.

What are online marketing techniques?

Online marketing techniques are forms of marketing and advertising that utilize the power of the internet to promote your brand to audiences across different platforms.

Does your start-up have any chance when going toe-to-toe against more reputable brands?

Of course, it does!

The good news is, when it comes to online marketing, it’s never too late to get in on the action. Social media platforms and search engines are constantly updating their algorithms, making online marketing an ever-changing field that can either help give your business an edge or push you further down the hole.

With so many different online marketing techniques available, how will you know which will work best for your business?

To help you get started, here are four online marketing techniques you can use for your business to sustain success in the long run.

1. Social media marketing

Social media marketing is an avenue where your business can gain visibility beyond your local area and connect directly with customers anywhere. Your business doesn’t even have to venture into all the different social media channels to reap positive outcomes.

These days, everybody expects a business to be active on at least one social media platform. A GlobalWebIndex survey found that over 54% of customers use social media to research a brand before making a purchase or recommendation.

Now, before you dive in and create a business page, remember that social media marketing is more than just posting any old content.

We know how tempting this can be, considering that creating a business page won’t cost you a penny.

So, where do you start? Like in all business strategies, the probability of success would be greater if you have a plan. A plan gives you a guide on what you need to do, provides you a measuring stick to gauge the success of your social media goals, and layout alternatives ahead in time just in case plan A fails to live up to expectations.

When thinking of a social media plan, make sure to include the following:

  • Set goals that align with the S.M.A.R.T. goals framework
  • Perform competitive research
  • Create a social media calendar
  • Conduct a social media audit (only for those with existing social media accounts)
  • Don’t settle on mediocre visual content
  • Mix up your visual content

* If you’re having difficulty finding a social media platform to promote your business online, your best bet would be to go on Facebook. This won’t always guarantee success, but this social media giant has everything you’ll need starting with their free tools and over 2.89 billion active monthly users.

2. Content marketing

This form of marketing takes on different forms. As per the Content Marketing Institute, content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating valuable, relevant, and consistent content geared to attract and retain a clearly defined audience – ultimately to drive profitable customer actions.

When it comes to content marketing, always remember that it’s a long-term process. It gives you a chance to indirectly promote your brand by providing educational content to your potential customers, becoming an industry leader in your niche, and helping you rise in search results.

At first glance, you might think content marketing is all about writing informative blogs, but what we know is that people consume content differently.

To give you an idea, here are different ways (aside from blog writing) that you can use to help you get started on your content marketing strategies:

  • How-to videos and tutorials
  • Live broadcasts
  • Infographics
  • Podcasts
  • Host webinars
  • Photoblog

3. Email marketing

What better way to build trust with your customers than through email marketing? This method of online marketing is effective for both start-ups and reputable brands as you get to interact with your audience directly.

Think of it this way, how often do users change their personal emails or even virtual mailboxes for that matter? Presumably not that often, making a customer’s email a valuable piece of information to acquire.

The biggest disadvantage when it comes to email marketing is trying to find a way to increase your email list and the timing of when you send your emails. Some of the methods to increase your email list include using lead magnets, incentives, or cold-calling.

For the timing of your emails, the frequency varies depending on the niche and goals of a business, but in terms of recipient preference, the sweet spot for over 61% of users is receiving at least one promotional email in a month.

Once you grow your email list, make sure to create personalized and segmented emails.

Personalized emails can range from adding the customer’s name to pointing out some of their recent activity on your site. This will make your customers feel more connected and appreciated by your brand, resulting in an immediate increase in trust and customer retention.

Chances are, your customers don’t see eye-to-eye with you on every topic. If you email them irrelevant content, this will lead to lower conversion rates, or even worse, an unsubscribing customer.

This is where segmented emails come in handy. When you segment your email lists in groups, it makes it easier for you to tailor content that’s sure to keep them wanting more.

Take this, for example: say your business sells clothing for men and women. If sales are lower on one end, say the male side, sending coupons or limited offers of male apparel to your female audience wouldn’t generate much revenue and could be, at times, annoying for them to receive.

4. Search engine optimization (SEO)

SEO is an organic online marketing strategy businesses use to gain traffic to their site with the main goal of trying to consistently land on page one of a search result.

Similar to content marketing, SEO takes time before you can reap its benefits. With different businesses looking to outrank your landing pages for a particular keyword, fine-tuning your SEO efforts become an everyday task, even with the help of some of the best SEO tools. This, in turn, makes some businesses hesitant to invest any time and resources towards it.

But once you can land on page one, the amount of visibility and revenue your business makes is immeasurable. The following data can support its claims:

  • Web searchers are 8.5x more likely to click an organic listing than a paid ad.
  • 90% of respondents in an Oberlo survey said they were likely to click on the first page of a search result.
  • SEO drives  more than 1000% more traffic than organic social media

In general, SEO strategies can be subdivided into four parts:

  • Keyword research
  • On-page SEO
  • Off-page SEO
  • Technical SEO

“Success in management requires learning as fast as the world is changing.” – Warren Bennis

By Derick Quinanola

Derick Quinanola is a writer and digital marketer who is passionate about helping businesses maximize their virtual presence through engaging social media campaigns and dynamic content marketing to capture the attention of diverse audiences. He is based in the Philippines but has a global mindset and continues to find innovative methods to help businesses thrive in an increasingly digitized economy.

Sourced from Jeff Bullas

Read More
By
In News

How I Turned the Mistakes of My First Start-up into Wins for My Second One

No Comments

By Rihards Piks

When I founded my first company, Grafomap, I was an idealist. But, like many freshly baked entrepreneurs, I saw this personalized map poster startup almost as my own child and felt the need to take care of it nearly 24/7.

To further blur the line between my personal and professional life, Grafomap was born out of a friendship with my childhood friend Martins. However, with time, I realized that my company had become my work and my child, hobby, and pastime.

When I started with Supliful last year, I had learned a few painful lessons, and this time I was determined to approach business management with a more balanced and composed mindset. This is a story of how I faced entrepreneur burnout and how this painful experience taught me to become a smarter business leader the second time around.

I didn’t know what burnout was until it hit me — Hard

At Grafomap, my responsibility was all things marketing, but somehow I became involved in sales processes, human resources, accounting, and other areas. So it’s probably not surprising that, after working at full speed for several months, exhaustion and burnout crept up on me. I felt constantly anxious and insecure, having doubts whether the business would stay afloat for another month.

Looking back, I think these were the main factors that caused me to hit the wall:

  • First, micromanaging and trying to become involved in almost every process.
  • Taking all the opportunities that came my way and not filtering the valuable ones from mere time-wasters.
  • Long working hours and not knowing how to separate work from private life.

Two years into developing Grafomap, I felt I had hit rock bottom. The business model was seriously lacking repeat purchases. A constant need to find new sales channels, new ideas, and approaches for attracting customers was tiring and frustrating. A business must find a way to acquire repeat customers for better profitability. The one-and-done model is the way to go insane.

As we were slowly going bankrupt (up to the point of taking personal loans to save the business), we sat down and refocused our priorities and stayed only with a few marketing and sales tactics that had proven to be effective. We managed to grow Grafomap to $1.5M revenue and then decided to sell the business.

After selling my first serious business and taking a little rest, I couldn’t stay idle for long. Then, a new idea came along, and it was linked to food supplements and dropshipping – an industry we had already familiarized ourselves with, thanks to Grafomap.

Me, sending out the very first Supliful order.

What I did differently with my second business

My painful experience with Grafomap and a few other smaller business endeavors before that taught me several valuable lessons about leading a company. Now I am thankful for everything I had done wrong before – as it made me able to start on a better foot with Supliful.

You don’t want to ruin your future. However, I believe that entrepreneurs have very promising ideas that can be destroyed by mismanagement.

Here’s what I did differently with my second serious business

Supliful — Strict prioritizing

When starting your business, the backlog of tasks and plans seems endless and overwhelming. However, I had already learned the hard way the importance of prioritizing and viewing your time as the most valuable resource. Especially when you’re a company owner, you have to evaluate all the steps and responsibilities you take and be 100% sure you’re investing your time in the right things.

To begin with, I prioritized creating a Minimum Viable Product or MVP for Supliful to start attracting customers and test the idea’s success in practice. I got some valuable feedback, and together with Martins working on improving our service to make it more profitable. During this time, I transferred many of my operational tasks to other colleagues, focusing on company goals and other crucial aspects of the business.

Delegating more

From the first months of Supliful, I created a structure for who’s responsible for what. I wasn’t going to repeat the mistake of trying to participate in every aspect of the business. So I managed to transition from being a one-person orchestra to a conductor.

In particular, here’s what I did:

  • I made a list of my priorities and focused on them instead of constantly checking my team’s performance.
  • We hired several great people and trusted them to fulfil their responsibilities.
  • I outsourced professionals to help us with copywriting, influencer marketing, etc.
  • When some processes required my participation, I scheduled weekly or monthly meetings with the respective team to stay in the loop about the most critical operations.

Tailoring marketing tactics to the brand’s buyer persona

During the five years of Grafomap, I was responsible for marketing — and I think there wasn’t a single marketing strategy that I hadn’t tried. From pay-per-click ads to content marketing – you name it, and I tried it, based on the belief that a good marketing strategy is a diversified one.

I ended up in another extreme – my marketing efforts were scattered, and there was an evident lack of focus on what worked best.

With Supliful, I started with a few tactics I believed would be most effective – social ads and influencer marketing. I already knew which tactics work best in different development stages, and I ensured that every marketing effort resonated with our buyer persona.

Today, I make thought-out and data-based decisions, and I’m not afraid to change the approach if I see that my chosen tactic doesn’t bring the expected results.

Generating repeat purchases

One of the main stumbling blocks that prevented Grafomap from success in the long term was the lack of repeat purchases. While people really enjoyed our custom-made posters, they rarely needed more than one to hang on their walls.

61% of businesses say that the majority of their revenue comes from repeat buyers. When even the customers who loved your product don’t come back to get more of it, you’ve got a problem because you’ll have to be constantly chasing new customers.

Therefore with Supliful, we decided to focus on developing our repeat purchase strategy early on. As a result, we came up with ideas for generating repeat sales for Supliful’s supplements and our subscription model.

The university of mistake correction

Thanks to the ups and downs in my career as an entrepreneur, I’ve understood that learning from your mistakes is a craft in itself. It can be equally necessary as a university degree — at least to serial entrepreneurs like myself.

When something goes wrong, be sure to find, study, and learn — the reason behind the failure and proudly correct your mistakes. As long as you don’t give up, you don’t have to fear failure. Even though you always give your best, you’ll find that mistakes are a natural part of the business management process.

Feature Image Credit: Provided by the Author

By Rihards Piks

Sourced from readwrite

 

Read More
By
In News

5 Digital Marketing Trends to Know for the Decade

No Comments

By

The things we thought we knew about the digital landscape have proven to be the tip of the iceberg.

The past two years have shown a major increase in the amount of money allocated to digital marketing and communications, which has created challenges for senior-level marketers who have not been able to keep up with the changing times. The speed at which new techniques in digital advertising, social media marketing and SEO are growing and changing is faster than it has ever been.

People who have worked in marketing and communications for twenty years or more need to check their skills and knowledge. Don’t let practices you learned a decade ago become a weakness as you fight to be heard in an electronic community nearing four billion users.

Marketing in 2010

Remember MySpace? Friendster? These were just a couple of social platforms that were “out” by 2010. Facebook and Twitter were on the rise and YouTube was creating video game stars. Google AdWords was being used by some, but the world of Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising was still developing.

In 2010, we advised our clients to set up Facebook pages and Twitter accounts if they felt comfortable doing so. Some individually branded businesses and people in the arts were not comfortable “putting themselves out there” in a giant global picture book or communicating in 140 characters or less.

Just posting regularly was considered effective on social platforms. Facebook was a couple of times a week and Twitter was three to five times a week. What a difference ten years make.

When 2020 took an unpredictable turn, I decided it was an opportunity to find out what is current in digital marketing by enrolling in a master’s program in business school. Here are some things I’ve learned about how digital has affected marketing in the 2020s.

Job roles and teams in a digital world

1. Roles have changed so that there are more demands on marketing departments to share some of their work with the public relations teams and vice versa. When I was working in a corporate environment, there was a clear division between marketing, public relations and design. Separate these key components today and it is difficult to get anything accomplished.

2. Digital marketing and design thinking have created opportunities for businesses to conduct strategy meetings and prepare plans for launching new products more thoughtfully. Now, it should be a standard practice to have representatives from all departments in a room. Bring your post-its in multiple colours to keep track of all the great ideas your diverse team will conceive.

3. It takes a village to launch a product. When I started, most marketing departments had designers, copywriters, ad planners and researchers. A digital marketing team needs writers for long-form content and copywriters. You need a search engine marketing person, web designers (who understand search engine optimization), analysts to pull data from the social media and web platforms, researchers, PR people to manage messaging and the brand, content schedulers, real-time social monitors who engage in real time, designers and producers who can edit video and audio.

Consistent planning and rapid growth

4. Decide on a plan and stick to it until you have a chance to see how it is working. Too often, I see digital marketers shift tactics and direction because a client or manager expresses concern or has a new idea. Without a plan and some data about the progress to review, digital marketing is like playing whack-a-mole.

5. Growth is great if it is sustainable. There are new businesses that take off quickly and generate nice profits in the first five years. This is especially true in a marketing environment where word-of-mouth takes place in seconds. However, if you do not have a marketing plan for the long term, you will not continue to do well. As fast as you might grow, there are a dozen other products right behind you that are researching and planning their attack.

There is much to know about digital marketing and not a lot of time to learn. It is an exciting time in the field of marketing and communications, but continued learning is key to being effective.

By

Entrepreneur Leadership Network Contributor

Claire McKinney has been working in PR for 25 years. She has appeared on Today and CSPAN as an expert on publishing, and she travels to speak to audiences about digital and traditional PR. She is an entrepreneur and author, and she will receive an M.S. in digital marketing in May 2022.

Sourced from Entrepreneur Europe

Read More
By
In News

A Definitive Guide to Creating Your Automated Email Marketing Workflow

No Comments

By Grace Lau

In a world of ecommerce and distanced online marketing, it’s essential to retain as much contact with your customers as possible. Going into cold calling or having your customer queries on call waiting is not enough.

Haven’t you ever wondered if it would be possible to send emails en masse to your customers without sending them manually? Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to do it automatically?

Well, that’s where an automated email marketing workflow can change your life.

What is an Automated Email Marketing Workflow?

It’s a wordy phrase, but essentially what it means is using the implementation of RPA to send out automated marketing emails in response to specifications that your customer meets. So, for example, if they sign up to your mailing list, they might get a “Thanks for signing up! Here’s what’s next…” email.

Some more examples are:

  • “Some tips to get started.”
  • “We’d love your feedback on….”
  • “Thank you for your order!”
  • “Your order has been shipped.”

Do you see the pattern? In every case, the customer completes an action, such as making a purchase or creating an account, and a corresponding email is sent.

As you can imagine, this is extremely useful for brands that operate predominantly on online platforms. Our world is so fast-paced that holding your buyer’s attention, or getting them to make a repeat purchase, can be really difficult. However, Investing in custom SEO services (accelerateagency.ai) or a solid automated email marketing workflow can go a long way towards improving your customer retention rate.

This article is a step-by-step guide to making the best campaign you possibly can, so read on to find out how.

Image Credit: Unsplash; Thank you.

1. Decide Your Goals

The first step to planning your campaign is deciding what you want to get out of it. But, more importantly, what are your customers going to get out of it?

Do you want them to:

  • …buy something?
  • …learn something?
  • …read something?
  • …fill out a form?
  • …sign up for something?

Once you decide what you’re trying to get the customer to do, working out what actions need to be taken will be much easier.

Now might be the time to break out one of those project planning tools that everyone goes on about. Remember, that for a campaign as big and complex as this, planning is absolutely crucial, and will save you a lot of time and effort in the long run.

2. Criteria and Actions

These are the two most essential steps to building the foundations of your automated email marketing workflow campaign. Think of it like this: criteria are at the customers’ end, and the action is at your end of the communication flow.

For example, a criterion could be the customer clicks “confirm” on a newsletter sign-up page. The met criterion would trigger a corresponding personalized action, such as a confirmation email being sent to the customer’s contact.

This is where using a CCaaS platform can really come in handy. This collects data regarding your customer base, letting you know which tasks and actions are completed most often on your website. Which pages are the most popular? What is the most travelled path on your website? How long do customers stay on each page? CCaaS platforms are your best friend when it comes to answering these questions.

Answering these queries gives you a great head start in constructing a set of standards for your workflows. You can tailor your approach and target those areas most often by learning where customers are landing and what they do most frequently. This will increase your customer engagement and drive sales and conversions.

Image Credit: Unsplash; Thank you.

3. Frequency

Congratulations, you’ve done the tricky part. Now you get to make the fun decisions, like how often you’re going to send the emails and what they’ll look like.

Are you going to make sure the customer gets an email every time they complete an on-site action? This might not be the best idea, especially if they’re a frequent user of your site.

Too many emails in a short period of time will get annoying and cause customers to unsubscribe, or even stop buying from you altogether. Not to mention that those emails could end up in the spam folder, and nobody will get to see all your hard work at all.

Instead, consider designing your criteria to be met every other time they complete an action, or once per week, per month, and so forth. This way, your customers won’t be bombarded with several emails a day yelling at them to complete steps they have no interest in completing. Goodness knows there’s enough of that on the internet already.

4. Designing Your Emails

Here’s where you can flex those graphic design skills. It’s essential to make sure your emails are visually attractive and functional; otherwise, a scenario like the one described above could happen.

Luckily, there’s a whole host of campaign templates out there to help you with your design. Here, we also have some simple tips to ensure your emails are the prettiest ones out there.

Colours

Make sure to incorporate the colour scheme that you use for your website into your promotional emails. That way, customers will immediately recognize them as yours before they even read them.

Don’t Crowd It

If someone is receiving a workflow email, chances are they already know who you are and what you do. So don’t waste valuable space, including a bio of you or your company – get straight to the point and tell them what they need to know.

Fonts

It sounds obvious, but you wouldn’t believe how much of a difference a good font can make. Ensure the typeset you use for your campaign is readable, a good size, and accessible. Don’t forget, people with learning differences are just as likely to receive emails as everyone else – in this case, selecting a sans serif font such as Arial is advised as it appears less cluttered.

Also worth bearing in mind is that non-native English speakers may also be on your mailing list, so keep your language clear and engaging while not overly complicated.

Image Credit: Unsplash; Thank you.

5. It’s Time for a Meeting

So, you’ve done the math and drawn up your designs – what now? Well, here is where it would be beneficial to video call your team, so they can look at your plan and see what can be improved. A fresh pair of eyes can do a whole lot more for progressing your campaign than looking at it over and over again yourself.

You can also use cloud PBX services to make sure that people in every department can be contacted, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what you do as long as you find the best conference call service for you.

Some things to consider during this meeting:

  • Does the campaign appeal to every member of your team? For example, different age groups, gender, or interests?
  • Is there enough information in your email? Too much? Is the goal clear?
  • Does everyone agree on the appearance of the email? If not, why not? Is it personal taste, or has there been a mistake somewhere?

Collaborating in this way can take your campaign to the next level.

6. Test

Now things are getting serious. Your workflow ideas have passed the board meeting, and now it’s time to test. But what should you be looking out for?

First, you’ll need to decide on a testing method. You can either do this internally or by using free email marketing providers. Whichever you choose, there are some things you should bear in mind:

  • Does the frequency feel right? Should you send them more often? Less often?
  • What feedback are you getting from your test subjects? Listen to them and adjust accordingly.
  • Keep track of your analytics. For example, how many people complete the actions laid out in the email? How many people are converting because of them?

Of course, you can never really know what your workflows will be able to do for your business until you push it out into the real world. Luckily, that’s the next step.

Image Credit: Unsplash; Thank you.

7. Go Live

This is it. The campaign is finally ready to be launched. There’s nothing more to this step other than to watch and wait, which can be nerve-wracking but also highly gratifying. It’s always a bit scary when something you’ve worked hard on goes out into the world. But remember: the work doesn’t stop here.

Monitor your campaign closely, especially during its first few weeks. Is everyone who’s supposed to be receiving the emails receiving them? Are customers doing what you need them to do? How are these marketing workflows influencing your statistics? Tracking this would also help reduce churn rate.

8. Enjoy The Results

You’ve done it. Pat yourself on the back. All your hard work has paid off, and all your loyal customers are enjoying receiving well-thought-out, professional emails.

If all has gone to plan, your automated email marketing workflow will be increasing your engagement and conversion rates. By reminding customers of current deals, member benefits, and sign-up perks, you can be sure that customers will remember your brand and return to you again and again.

And Then They Clicked “Open”

Your campaign will need regular updating to ensure that your customers are kept abreast of all new offers and information coming their way, but that’s where having an RPA system implemented can be so helpful – you already programmed it to do all that stuff for you. You can even add sales process automation to make things easier for your sales team.

Ultimately, these sorts of marketing workflows are all about informing people, letting them know what’s on, inviting them to receive better deals and customer perks, and giving them an all-around great experience. Good luck!

Feature Image Credit: MockupEditor-com; Pexels

By Grace Lau

Director of Growth Content

Grace Lau is the Director of Growth Content at Dialpad, an AI-powered cloud communication platform for better and easier team collaboration. She has over 10 years of experience in content writing and strategy. Currently, she is responsible for leading branded and editorial content strategies, partnering with SEO and Ops teams to build and nurture content. Here is her LinkedIn.

Sourced from readwrite

 

Read More
By
Load More