You don’t have to only start marketing once your product is ready.
One of the most common mistakes I hear from entrepreneurs regularly is “I don’t even have a product yet, how can I possibly start to do marketing?”
My answer? If you only start doing marketing once your product is ready, you’ll have missed the train. Now is when you need to start building an audience, establishing the brand, and testing product-market fit. Don’t wait until your product is ready.
All said, here are five things you can do to begin your marketing even before your product is ready.
Find out if people even need your product.
While your product might not be ready for launch, now is a good time to measure how much demand there even is for your product, Whether it’s through surveys or interviews with potential customers, it’s probably a good idea to figure out if anyone even wants a product before you start building it.
Start building your social media accounts.
Now is the time to set up the infrastructure for your social media activity. Your company Twitter isn’t going to set itself up and once your product is ready, you should already have an audience waiting. If you only start setting up your social media post launch, you have missed a golden opportunity to build an initial community around your product.
Even if you don’t plan on tweeting or posting, you can still use social media to listen to what people are saying about the market, about your competitors, and if you’re lucky, about what people want to see in a product like yours.
Begin to produce industry content.
Now, I understand why this might sound scary to you since the last thing you want to do is give away what you’re building and give your competitors a head start. That doesn’t mean you can’t start producing content about the industry without even talking about your product.
If, for example, you’re building an artificial intelligence product, why not start writing articles on your company blog about trends in artificial intelligence, new developments in the world of artificial intelligence, and other content about your industry without even mentioning the name of your product?
Initiate some interviews with leaders in your space.
When you interview people in your industry, you achieve three very important things: You establish a relationship with the leader who you are interviewing, you gain targeted traffic when that person shares the interview with their audience, and you elevate your own brand by associating yourself with that industry leader.
Establish relevant relationships with journalists.
When launch day arrives, you’re going to want to pitch the press, right? How do you plan on doing that without knowing who you’re pitching and how they like to be pitched?
Now, well before launch, is the time to do that research and set up the foundation for a successful launch.
In addition to the research, you can also start engaging with that journalist on social media so when you are ready to pitch them, they already know you and are more inclined to cover the launch There are many things you can do to prepare for your launch and none of them have to compromise the ability to remain under the radar.
Having said that, if it applies, you might want to ask yourself why you want to stay under the radar. Is it because you want to be first to market? Well then you might be ignoring the fact that being first is meaningless and perhaps even detrimental.
Google wasn’t first, Apple wasn’t first, Facebook wasn’t first. They just did it better. In order to do it better, you might want to start sharing your idea with some close contacts to get their feedback. That is much more useful than remaining under the radar.
It’s impossible to imagine modern video games, architecture or engineering without 3D modeling. It’s a skill of its own and, but it’s about to became simpler than ever. Enter RealityScan, a mobile app that lets you turn your smartphone photos into realistic 3D models. Not only is it simple, but it’s also completely free to use.
RealityScan is a product of Epic Games developed in collaboration with Quixel. It’s designed to make the process of 3D scanning simple and accessible to everyone, no matter if you’re a professional or an amateur. And all you need is a smartphone.
“As more creators and hobbyists embrace 3D photogrammetry, we want to make our technology even more accessible,” Epic Games writes. This way, “anyone can bring ultra-detailed, digital models of real-world objects into their virtual projects.”
First you need to scan your object with RealityScan and the app will guide you through the process. Once you’re done scanning, RealityScan creates a realistic model, and Epic games says it’s done “almost instantly.” Magic! From there, you can automatically upload your 3D model to Sketchfab to share or sell it.
RealityScan has for now been released in beta. It’s available for the first 10,000 people who apply for an early hands-on as a part of the limited test through TestFlight. At the moment of writing this, all 10,000 places have been full. Later this spring, Epic Games will open up RealityScan Early Access. It will only be available for iOS, but the company promises that the Android version is coming later this year.
We are delighted to welcome Ciarán Cunningham, from Radiocentre to take part in our next Toolkit session on Tuesday, May 31st at 10 am.
Date: 31st of May Time: 10am Location: Online Registration: Here.
Ciarán Cunningham was appointed as CEO of Radiocentre Ireland in January this year. Radiocentre Ireland is a new organisation, funded by RTE and the Independent Broadcasters of Ireland with a remit to promote audio as a marketing medium. Ciarán will take us through research that contains insights on what makes effective audio from a creative and media planning perspective.
Ciarán became the CEO of Radiocentre Ireland in January this year after spending 25 years in the media agency sector working in Dentsu, Carat, dentsu X and Initiative Media. Ciarán has worked with many clients including Unilever, Diageo, Vodafone, ESB, Heineken and Bank of Ireland. Ciarán started his career in RTE back in 1989 so it is great that he is back again working on the media owner side.
A new artificial intelligence-based approach can predict if and when a patient could die of a heart attack.
The technology, built on raw images of patient’s diseased hearts and patient backgrounds, significantly improves on doctor’s predictions and stands to revolutionize clinical decision making and increase survival from sudden and lethal cardiac arrhythmias, one of medicine’s deadliest and most puzzling conditions.
“Sudden cardiac death caused by arrhythmia accounts for as many as 20% of all deaths worldwide and we know little about why it’s happening or how to tell who’s at risk,” says senior author Natalia Trayanova, a professor of biomedical engineering and medicine at Johns Hopkins University.
“There are patients who may be at low risk of sudden cardiac death getting defibrillators that they might not need and then there are high-risk patients that aren’t getting the treatment they need and could die in the prime of their life. What our algorithm can do is determine who is at risk for cardiac death and when it will occur, allowing doctors to decide exactly what needs to be done.”
The team is the first to use neural networks to build a personalized survival assessment for each patient with heart disease. These risk measures provide with high accuracy the chance for a sudden cardiac death over 10 years, and when it’s most likely to happen.
The deep learning technology is called Survival Study of Cardiac Arrhythmia Risk, or SSCAR. The name alludes to cardiac scarring caused by heart disease that often results in lethal arrhythmias, and the key to the algorithm’s predictions.
For the study in Nature Cardiovascular Research, researchers used contrast-enhanced cardiac images that visualize scar distribution from hundreds of real patients at Johns Hopkins Hospital with cardiac scarring to train an algorithm to detect patterns and relationships not visible to the naked eye.
Current clinical cardiac image analysis extracts only simple scar features like volume and mass, severely underutilizing what’s demonstrated in this work to be critical data.
“The images carry critical information that doctors haven’t been able to access,” says first author Dan Popescu, a former Johns Hopkins doctoral student. “This scarring can be distributed in different ways and it says something about a patient’s chance for survival. There is information hidden in it.”
The team trained a second neural network to learn from 10 years of standard clinical patient data, 22 factors such as patients’ age, weight, race, and prescription drug use.
The algorithms’ predictions were significantly more accurate on every measure than doctors, and they were validated in tests with an independent patient cohort from 60 health centers across the United States, with different cardiac histories and different imaging data, suggesting the platform could be adopted anywhere.
“This has the potential to significantly shape clinical decision-making regarding arrhythmia risk and represents an essential step towards bringing patient trajectory prognostication into the age of artificial intelligence,” says Trayanova, co-director of the Alliance for Cardiovascular Diagnostic and Treatment Innovation. “It epitomizes the trend of merging artificial intelligence, engineering, and medicine as the future of healthcare.”
The team is now working to build algorithms to detect other cardiac diseases. Trayanova says the deep-learning concept could be developed for other fields of medicine that rely on visual diagnosis.
Experience matters, but research shows high emotional intelligence can also make intuitive decisions even more accurate.
A 33-year-old patient complained of flu-like symptoms. His doctor assessed him. Nothing stood out. But for some reason…the doctor decided to do a full workup.
Why? “As soon as [I] started to talk to him, my spider senses started to tingle,” the physician told researchers. Turns out the doctor’s intuition was right.
The patient had lung cancer.
According to Nobel Prize-winning economist Daniel Kahneman, “Intuition is thinking that you know without knowing why you do. Like quickly scanning three résumés and, without thinking too hard, picking the best candidate. Like quickly scanning long checkout lines at the supermarket and deciding, without thinking too hard, which is likely to be the quickest.
Your basal ganglia manage the stored routines and patterns that make up your experiences. Your insula takes care of body awareness, and is highly sensitive to any changes in your body.
Even if you’re not consciously thinking about it, your unconscious brain starts working on a problem or decision right away. Then, when you try to make a conscious decision, your brain compares that decision with the one your unconscious has already made.
And here’s what happens next:
If your unconscious agrees with your conscious decision, your brain gives off a subtle reward response. The decision doesn’t just seem logical. It also feels good.
If your unconscious disagrees with your conscious decision, your insula detects other changes in your body. While the decision seems logical, it doesn’t feel good.
Why? If your brain has predicted a reward, and your body decides differently, your anterior cingulate cortex generates an electronic signal called error-related negativity. (Or, in non-scientific terms, an “Uh-oh!” response.)
That’s where intuition comes from. Make the right decision, and your body knows it. Make the wrong decision, and your body knows it. Like the doctor, you can’t explain why.
You just know.
Now Layer in Some Emotional Intelligence
According to a 2020 study published in Emotion, people with lower levels of emotional intelligence are more likely to misread the signals their bodies send them.
In one case, they mistook their body’s “warning sign” for excitement and instead of proceeding cautiously took more risks. They interpreted “Uh-oh” as “Let’s go!”
So is overstating your level of experience. Navy SEALs have practiced, trained, and debriefed hundreds of scenarios. They’re able to intuitively respond to new or changing conditions because their storehouse of experience is full. That’s why Sully decided to land in the Hudson River. That’s why quarterbacks like Tom Brady can read a defence and make the right throw so quickly.
Although there’s a common misconception that intuitive decisions are random and signify a lack of skill, the exact opposite is true.
Intuitive decisions are often the product of years of experience and thousands of hours of practice. They represent the most efficient use of your accumulated experience.
When Should You Trust Your Intuition?
All of which sounds good. But there’s a difference between gut feel and guessing. So how can you tell when your intuition might be on to something?
The better your emotional intelligence, the more likely you are to accurately interpret your body’s “Uh-oh” intuitive response. (Or at the very least, pause and consider what you might be missing.)
Then ask yourself three questions Kahneman feels can help determine whether you should feel confident about a particular intuition:
1. Is this a regular, predictable environment?
If something happens on a frequent basis, the outcomes are more likely to be predictable. Take chess. “Intuitions of master chess players when they look at the board,” Kahneman says, “are often accurate.” Or people in close relationships. “Everybody who’s been married,” he says, “could guess their [partner’s] mood by one word on the telephone.”
Or even medical professionals: Researchers have found a strong correlation between a doctor’s “gut feelings” about ICU patients at the beginning of their stay — when medical data was sparse — and the eventual course and outcome of treatment.
2. Do I have extensive experience or practice?
Accurate intuition isn’t something you have; accurate intuition comes from considerable practice.
That’s how experienced hiring managers can make solid “snap” decisions. That’s how doctors sense something isn’t quite right. That’s how you know when something sounds too good to be true.
3. Have I gotten plenty of feedback?
Without feedback, you can’t know whether an intuition was right or wrong — which means you can’t calibrate your intuition.
To Kahneman, that’s the difference between luck and intuition. If you got it right but can’t go back and trace what your unconscious noticed, you made a lucky guess. If you can later look back and articulate the reasons why, that means you knew…you just didn’t know, in the moment, why you knew.
All of which leads to a final point. Intuition isn’t a substitute for data. For logic. For analysis. For reasoning.
But expert intuition — the kind of intuition that comes from genuine experience — can identify moments when your analysis is shaky and your reasoning off.
Especially if you’re emotionally intelligent enough to read the signals your body sends you.
The average employee spends hours every day going through their emails. However, even though emails are done on a daily basis and are one of the most common routines now, a lot of professionals still don’t know how to use email appropriately.
In fact, because of the massive volume of messages you are reading and writing every day, you may be prone to making embarrassing errors, which can have serious consequences.
Below are the do’s and don’ts of email etiquette.
Do Have a Short and Clear Subject Line
Most people have to compete with the hundreds of emails clogging their inbox daily, so the clearer the subject line is, the more likely the message will be read.
According to Business Insider, a lot of people decide which email to read first based on the subject line. If it sounds urgent and straight to the point, it will definitely be read first.
Don’t Forget to Put Your Signature
Every email that you send must have a signature that tells the recipient who you are and how they can contact you. You can set it up to automatically appear at the end of every email sent.
According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), workers spend 28% of their workweek checking their emails. This is why it is best to add your signature so they will automatically know where they can reach you best.
You also need to include all of your contact details, like email address, office address, and phone numbers, so the recipient does not have to look them up themselves.
Using “Hey.” is not professional, no matter how well you know the recipient. You can use either “Hi” or “Hello” instead. To be more formal, you can use “Dear (insert name).”
You can also use the recipient’s name in the salutation, but remember not to use their nickname. You should only use their full first name, as advised by Entrepreneur.
Don’t Use Humour in Your Email
Humour does not translate well through email, especially in a professional setting. The other party may misinterpret what you think is funny or take it as sarcasm because there is no accompanying vocal tone or facial expressions.
It is best to leave the humour out of business communications when you are in doubt.
Do Proofread Your Message Before Sending
Do not be surprised if you are judged by how you compose an email. For example, if your email has a lot of misspelled words and grammatical errors, you may be perceived as careless, sloppy, or even uneducated.
Make sure that you check your grammar, spelling, and message before hitting send.
Don’t Assume the Recipient Immediately Knows About the Topic
Create your message as a stand-alone note, even if it is in response to an email thread. This means you should not reply with one-liners.
Always include the subject of any references to previous emails, conversations, or research. It can be time-consuming and frustrating to look back at the email thread just to get the context.
Your recipient may have a lot of emails coming in each day, and likely won’t remember the events leading up to your email, so it is best always to include context.
We explore situations where you’ll need to write a letter without knowing the recipient – and how to get it right
It’s tricky enough to know how to write a proper business letter when you know the recipient, let alone when you’ve never met the person at the other end of the document.
You’ll undoubtedly have to face this situation throughout your working life, though, and the best way to tackle this challenge is by writing a “to whom it may concern” letter.
It’s a document that can help you address formal situations and unknown recipients. You’ve got to get it right if you want to impress, though, so we’ve rounded up the four steps needed to produce a proper business letter that’ll help you get the desired results.
The salutation “to whom it may concern” is traditionally used when you don’t know who you’re writing to, or if you’re unsure about the name of the person you’re addressing.
There are plenty of situations where you’ll find yourself in this situation. It’s a suitable salutation if you’re writing to an organization with an unfamiliar structure, or if you’re addressing a complaint towards a business.
This is a common greeting if you’ve been asked to provide a recommendation or letter of reference (opens in new tab) that you’ll have to submit through an automated system, and it’s ideal if you’re writing to introduce yourself to someone you’ve never met formally. It’s also a good option if you want to send a speculative letter about vacancies or a prospective letter about sales opportunities at an unfamiliar business.
While you’ll inevitably come across situations where you can’t avoid using “to whom it may concern,” you should take steps to avoid this stuffy and old-fashioned phrase if you possibly can. Before you sit down to write, it’s worth scouring the website and LinkedIn profile of the company involved to see if you can find the appropriate contact – a personal letter will always be better received. If you head to the company’s website you’ll often find the names of senior staff on the About Us page, and the firm’s LinkedIn profile will usually link to loads of people who work at the business.
If you really want to commit to finding the appropriate name, you can call the company and ask what name you should use on the letter – they may let you know the precise person involved. It’s also worth asking any of your professional contacts who may have worked at the company in the past in case they know the right name, and consider checking job postings for the names of hiring managers and recruitment staff.
At the end of this process you may only have a surname, but that’s often still a better option than using “to whom it may concern” – it’s still more a personal connection and it’ll prove more eye-catching to the recipient.
(Image credit: Pixabay)
Are there alternatives?
There are undoubtedly some situations where you’ll have to use “to whom it may concern”, and others where some smart web searching can reveal the name of the person you need to address – and you can avoid the phrase all together.
Often, though, you’ll find yourself in the middle ground, with some extra information that doesn’t quite reveal a full name.
If you do end up in that position, don’t feel like you must resort to using “to whom it may concern” if you’d prefer to avoid its sheer formality. If you know the department you need to contact, open your letter with a greeting like “Dear Hiring Manager” or “Dear Customer Service Manager”.
You can address the person’s job title directly if you’ve got that information to hand, and if you want to project a less formal tone you can open with a simple “Hello” or “Greetings”.
How to use “to whom it may concern
If you’ve exhausted all avenues and you have to open a letter with “to whom it may concern”, there are rules you should follow to ensure that you meet the standards associated with this kind of document.
When you want to write “to whom it may concern”, you need to capitalize the first letter of each word. Use “whom” instead of any “who” or “whoever”, and use a colon immediately following the phrase – not a comma. When you start your next paragraph, use a double space before you begin writing.
(Image credit: Burst / Pexels)
How to format your letter
You should follow formal business letter rules for the rest of your document, too. Include your name, address and contact details, the date, and then the address and contact details of the recipient’s company.
Include a subject line, use your first paragraph to outline the contents of the letter, and use consistent formatting, a professional font, and make sure you leave a line between your paragraphs.
The professional tone needs to continue to the end of the letter. Use a formal closing phrase like “yours sincerely” or “respectfully yours”, leave four lines for your signature, and include your full, typed name and title. Run a spelling and grammar check and proofread the letter before you post.
It can be tricky to know when to write a “to whom it may concern” letter, and it’s worth avoiding unless you can’t really help it – if you can use a friendlier or more personal greeting then you’re probably going to get better results.
But if you’re making a complaint, speaking to unfamiliar recipients, or writing a reference or an introductory letter then it sometimes can’t be avoided. At least if you follow these rules then you’ll get the job done – you’ll avoid offending anyone and you’ll get the right outcome.
Are you interested in affiliate marketing? Well, I don’t blame you. Today we’ll teach you how to start affiliate marketing with no money.
Affiliate marketing can be an additional income stream where you promote products and services to consumers that you’re a fan of. You then direct them to the websites of retailers selling these products and services. A commission is earned when someone you refer purchases something or completes an action, such as joining a service or email list. This is one of the rare occurrences where it’s a win-win for the advertiser and the affiliate.
What’s more, the sky is the limit when it comes to earning potential. In fact, it’s totally possible to make six figures with affiliate marketing.
But, doesn’t it take a boatload of cash to get started. Well, believe it or not, you can actually start affiliate marketing today with no money using the following strategies.
Decide your niche and audience.
Want to be successful in affiliate marketing. You must first establish yourself within a niche. But, how exactly can you settle on a niche?
If possible, choose an that is both passionate and knowledgeable to you. “This helps you come across as authentic and as a trusted source of information for potential customers,” explains Mark Hayes over at Shopify. Additionally, it lets you determine which brands and products to promote.
“Say, for example, you started a blog about dogs,” he adds. “You own a sprocker spaniel and you’re passionate about helping other owners care for their sprockers.”
Then, you create a blog like Sprocker Lovers — which I’ll get more in detail shortly. After that, you can promote your content by soliciting subscribers and encouraging them to share it. “Sprocker spaniels are your niche, and you’re going to invest in content marketing and optimization to grow your audience of owners,” says Hayes.
This is exactly what Elise Dopson, founder of Sprocker Lovers, did.
“The niche you choose for your affiliate site guides how much time or effort you’ll need to put into building it to a point where you begin to see SEO results,” says Elise.
“SERPs for software, marketing, and health care, for example, are all dominated by huge blogging sites with even bigger marketing budgets. The secret is finding untapped areas where competition isn’t as fierce—and getting in there before other people recognize it.”
To learn who and what your audience likes, you can use affiliate marketing tools like social listening tools, website analytics, and social media insights as you post more.
Don’t forget, you won’t be paid to post, it’s not free money. An affiliate program is a performance-based marketing system. By knowing what products your audience enjoys, you can recommend more affiliate products to them to bolster your income.
Join your audience’s conversations.
There’s another reason why you first need to settle on a niche and get to know your audience. You can join their conversations organically.
What exactly does that mean? Well, Kyle Kostechka from ClickBank explains this in a YouTube video from October 2021. In a nutshell, this is nothing more than commenting with affiliate links. The caveat here is that you want to leave these comments where your audience hangs out, whether that’s Reddit, message boards, or forums.
He uses the example of people selling Trump coins. Now, I’m not going to engage in political discourse here. The point Kyle was making was that the people selling these products sold look hotcakes. How? Because these coins were shared on platforms where there were political conversations occurring.
For example, people were leaving comments on message boards like, “Hey, if you really want to stick to Nancy Pelosi, you should really look at this product.” But, that comment only works when the audience is discussing topics like how fed up they are with democrats.
On the flip side, these comments wouldn’t work on unrelated discussions. For instance, you wouldn’t peddle Trump coins when the topic was about a sick family member or sports trade rumours. If you did, that’s spam. And, why honestly enjoys spam?
Even worse? Engaging in spam techniques could get you kicked off the platform as this could be a violation of the platform.
3 Build your social media presence.
What if I told you that you can monetize your online presence through social media? This can be achieved by placing affiliate links in your posts, updates, and profiles. But, instead of spreading yourself too thin, focus on the social channels where your audience hangs out.
What’s more, you should also consider the pros and cons of each social media platform.
Facebook
Pros: It’s the largest social media platform available with close to 3 billion global users. Suffice to say, a large audience is accessible.
Cons: It’s not as appealing to a younger audience. And, it’s not as effective using organic search.
Instagram
Pros: Excellent for displaying products and services because it’s highly visual. Also. video content such as reels and stories is emphasized heavily.
Cons: The organic reach of feed posts is low.
Pinterest
Pros: Pinterest offers an advantage in that you can directly share affiliate links in the pins you make. Take advantage of the platform to share quality, as well as trend-driven content in your niche.
Cons: Pinterest traffic caters to a very specific audience.
Twitter
Pros: With around 397 million users Twitter is another popular social media platform that is great for showing off what you have to offer.
Cons: Because of Twitter’s character limit (280) for each post, affiliate marketing can be challenging.
YouTube
Pros: Excellent for SEO. Additionally, there’s a worldwide audience of 2.3 billion people.
Cons: Most niches are flooded with competition. And, you’ll need to invest in professional and high-quality videos.
LinkedIn
Pros: Impressive organic reach. Also, it’s the leading platform for professionals.
Cons: Mostly aimed at business-to-business audiences.
TikTok
Pros: Short videos that do not need a professional appearance like YouTube. Also, the experience is more genuine. Moreover, TikTok has become a trend-setting platform.
Cons: Descriptions don’t have clickable links.
Blog (for free).
There are other ways to market your affiliate products besides social media. You can establish your credibility and engage readers to click on your affiliate links by blogging on free platforms like Medium, Blogger, Quora, Steemit, and Hubpages. However, most of the major players, such as WordPress, Wix, and Webley are also free. However, you will have to pay for website hosting.
Whatever blogging platform you use, producing high-quality content within your niche is paramount. When you do so, you can generate a lot of traffic to your affiliate links using these free blogging platforms. Some suggestions would be;
Product reviews
Tutorials
How-tos
Q&As
The best tips and tricks
On both Medium and Steemit, affiliate links can actually be used within your content, as long as certain conditions are met. And, even though hosting isn’t free with WordPress, it’s extremely flexible. That means you can create whatever content your audience will dig, as well as drop affiliate links wherever you need them.
Leave glowing reviews.
Reviewing a product or brand positively is at the heart of affiliate marketing. With that in mind, you have an advantage by using review platforms. If you are consistent in your reviewing process, people will start to trust your input.
However, it’s important to give honest feedback. And, most importantly, only on the products and services you have personally experienced.
Where can you leave these reviews? The most obvious places would be review-style websites or the review section of a product website.
Not can does this allow you to give honest feedback, you can also promote your affiliate links. Or you can steer other viewers to your original content, such as your blog. You can then add more in-depth reviews and explanations to your content while embedding your affiliate links in the product description.
Choose an affiliate platform.
As soon as you’ve selected a niche and built an online following, you can apply for affiliate networks. Besides being free to join, these programs are also looking for publishers who can promote their products effectively.
You can search for affiliate products on these top affiliate networks:
ClickBank
CJ Affiliate
ShareASale
FlexOffers
Amazon Associates
JVZoo
Awin
Rakuten Advertising
This is only a small selection of the many affiliate programs available. For the best platform for your business, you should conduct your own research — simply searching your keyword + (affiliate program) on Google can help. To be successful in this endeavor, you need to be specific and find a niche that appeals to you and your audience.
Final Words of Advice
It isn’t necessary to make a huge investment to get started with affiliate marketing. In most cases, all you need is time, effort, and consistency.
When you begin to earn money with affiliate marketing, you can reinvest some of your earnings. For example, you may want to use paid strategies like ads and purchasing equipment, such as microphones, computers, and cameras. Until then, use the strategies above to start affiliate marketing with no money.
Frequently Asked Questions About Affiliate Marketing
1. What is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is fundamentally about relationships. An affiliate relationship is one between a merchant (Retailer) and you, the affiliate, as well as one between you and the consumer.
Your blog, website, social media feed, or other platform allows you to promote the merchant’s products or services. When consumers purchase products/services from the brand based on your promotion, the merchant pays you a revenue share.
Affiliates may receive join incentives; special discounts or special offers in order to familiarize themselves with a merchant’s brand. Examples include product giveaways, blog post bonuses, and, commissions.
2. What is an affiliate program?
An affiliate program is an all-in-one package you offer a potential publisher to promote your product or service. Details about the product, the retail value of the product, commission levels, and promotional materials are all required.
3. What is a commission rate?
As a rule, commission rates are based on a percentage of the sale (e.g. 10%), but sometimes a flat amount can also be charged. Each merchant determines the commission rate.
4. Is there a cost associated with signing up for an affiliate program?
Getting involved in an affiliate program for a brand is free. Affiliate networks allow you to sign up for as many programs as you wish. It is free for you to do so.
5. How big is the industry of affiliate marketing?
In the US, about $6.8 billion is invested in this industry. The global investment in this industry is at or above $13 billion.
Instead of writing posts for the sake of doing so, create something that’ll drive real, meaningful, regular engagement for your brand.
There’s little doubt LinkedIn is the best platform for professional networking, but sometimes getting meaningful engagement out of your posts can feel a bit like a puzzle.
The potential attention is present, as 91% of marketers cite LinkedIn as the best platform for finding professional content related to their field. These aren’t just idle hands either, as four out of five LinkedIn members directly drive businesses decisions and wield 2x the buying power compared to the average web audience.
There’s plenty to be gained from being active on the platform, but to stand out from the pack, you’ll need to follow a few tested tips and tricks. Getting your audience engaged won’t magically happen overnight but as a result of effective action taken over time.
1. Post consistently
A consistent posting schedule is a foundation upon which the rest of a content strategy can be safely built. Post too little and you’ll get lost in the shuffle; too much and you run the risk of annoying your connections.
Finding that “Goldilocks zone” of just right is the name of the game.
Posting once a week results in a profile receiving four times the number of clicks per share compared to those who do so less frequently. This kind of return is huge for driving engagement, as each post is an opportunity for a connection to interact with you.
Of course, there are limits, and posting multiple times a day can quickly wear out your digital welcome. So ensure each post is quality and gives value first and foremost, but then provide an appropriate amount of spacing between them so they have room to breathe.
2. Use different formats
While there’s plenty of success possible with the classic text-only updates, the LinkedIn algorithm these days loves it when users shake up their post format.
In particular, videos have stormed onto the social media scene over the past couple of years, and this holds true on LinkedIn as video posts receive three times more engagement than text or image-based ones. This means they are far more likely to start a conversation with your audience, which is precisely the kind of result users should seek from their posts.
These don’t have to be full-length feature films either, as 15 seconds or less seems to be the sweet spot for the platform. Crafting short, impactful videos for your brand helps you stand out and serve as a natural springboard for user engagement.
3. Add a call to action
Even the most intriguing post will fail to generate a response if it lacks a call to action. This can be a simple open-ended question at the end of the post like, “What do you think?” Consider it a welcoming mat for users to leave their opinion, and use strong, active verbs here for the best results.
Adding a call to action doesn’t take much, but it’s an essential component of driving engagement with your posts. If you want to maximize the effect of the content you have already decided to create or share, then a call to action is needed in every post.
4. Use tags (but not too much)
Tagging is a powerful tool on LinkedIn, as it can associate your posts with people and organizations from around the world. When done in conjunction with quality content, it creates a web effect that can draw in all kinds of attention from afar.
When creating your post content schedule, add a shortlist section of individuals who would be a good match as a tag. They need to be relevant to the topic of the post and relatively few in number so it doesn’t feel spammy.
A good rule of thumb is that at least 50% of tagged connections respond to the post. If you aren’t hitting this metric, it’s best to rethink your tagging targets and strategy.
5. Turn on Creator Mode
LinkedIn rolled out its “Creator Mode” feature in March 2021. Activating it on your profile is an easy way to encourage engagement with your posts.
In essence, it shifts your profile to be more content-focused than the default mode, and it will prominently display your recent posts, associated topics, and a suite of other options. It is designed to build your community more around followers than connection, an audience who is listening and eager to hear from the experts in their field.
It tends to favour those who create their own posts rather than share, so be aware of this change before making the shift. For those looking to become thought leaders in their field, though, it’s an important step that adds legitimacy and reaches a profile.
Driving engagement on LinkedIn might feel like an uphill struggle for some, but once you internalize and act with these simple tips in mind, you’ll be skating along smoothly and gathering up all kinds of valuable connections.
It can be tricky to follow the latest “tools of the trade” regarding online marketing strategies. The importance of local SEO, the rise of machine learning and customised content all represent trending topics.
However, what about the so-called “metaverse”? Might this realm represent the next leap forward with effective advertising? Before we look at five unique opportunities within this field, it is a good idea to take a closer look at exactly what the metaverse is.
What Exactly is the Metaverse?
Perhaps the simplest way to define the metaverse involves the concept of a three-dimensional social media community. This type of virtual reality allows members to interact with one another. However, this is also a much broader concept. The metaverse essentially represents the numerous ways in which users communicate with one another across the digital community. This can include online role-playing games, smartphone applications and even the ability to buy and sell goods online.
We can now see that there is more than one way to define the metaverse. Perhaps this concept essentially involves more efficient ways of connecting with users. So, it makes perfect sense that marketers have become interested in what it can offer? Let’s now look at some potential opportunities for success.
A Much Broader Reach
As this article rightfully observes, the metaverse is more of a concept than a reality at the moment. However, marketers can still take advantage of its potential. Similar to social media channels, campaigns within this digital “ether” are thought to be capable of reaching a much wider audience; particularly millennials. As this world becomes ever more interconnected, it should be possible to employ a single advertising campaign to reach a wide range of consumers.
The Immersive Nature of the Metaverse
One of the pitfalls that marketing experts are likely to experience from time to time involves keeping the attention of a fickle audience. After all, the online community is laden with advertisements. This has caused many consumers to simply ignore these campaigns entirely; even if they happen to be offering truly unique products or services. Thankfully, things may soon be able to change thanks to the presence of the metaverse. We need to remember that this environment will provide a much more immersive means to communicate with others. Therefore, it may be possible to create advertising campaigns that allow users to interact with certain elements. Here are some interesting possibilities:
Changing the colour of an object.
Obtaining 360-degree views of what is being offered.
Clicking on specific portions of an advertisement to be taken to different pages of an embedded website.
The bottom line is that keeping the attention of potential clients is one of the best ways to ensure a conversion.
A New Type of Social Media Influencer
Avatars are also predicted to play an important role within the metaverse. This is due to the inherently social nature of such a digital society. So, individuals will likely be given the opportunities to create their avatars when communicating with others. Why should this be any different for businesses? We once again return to the decidedly personal side of marketing. Individuals do not wish to be thought of as consumers, but rather as people who share common goals and interests. Developing a branded avatar will provide businesses with a much more targeted (and even organic) means to promote what it is that they have to offer. From promoting virtual fashion exhibitions and advertising digital dancehalls to providing exclusive deals to other virtual “friends”, the possibilities are nearly limitless.
Taking the Notion of Online Sales to the Next Level
In the past, digital sales were somewhat limited by the technology at their disposal. While it was possible to examine products in minute detail and to select certain options during the buying process, this was hardly the same as visiting a physical retail outlet. Once again, the metaverse is expected to rise to the occasion. As some facets of this world are set to be rooted within the world of augmented reality, the ability to truly interact with what is being offered could present some amazing marketing opportunities. Might it soon be possible to take a car for a digital “test drive” before committing to a purchase? Could users eventually be able to try on an item of clothing or virtually tour a home before it is even built? These are some of how the metaverse will change the entire notion of marketing.
What About “Meta Products?”
This final concept is slightly strange and yet, it is also slated to have an impact on digital marketing. There could very well be options to create lines of virtual products to augment existing revenue streams. In fact, these strategies are already present. Examples of virtual goods include:
Avatars for a character within an MMORPG.
Virtual currencies.
Paid access to online events.
E-books and online distance learning courses.
When applied to the world of marketing, the value of meta products (such as free samples or discounts for the first hundred virtual shoppers) becomes very clear. These are five opportunities for marketers who wish to take full advantage of what the metaverse is expected to become. Although the entire concept may appear a bit odd at first glance, many felt the same about social media during the early 2000s. Once again, it pays to think a few steps ahead of the competition.
By Paul Towler
Paul Towler is the technical operations director at SmartOffice, a software automation provider who helps companies with their document management systems.
