editor, Author at Mediastreet

In News

Influencers Are Plugging More Songs. Now Their Engagement Is Suffering

September 10, 2020 No Comments

Popular creators on YouTube and Instagram can make money promoting music, but if they promote too many duds, their popularity can take a hit.

Back in 2018, it was possible to break a single via an Instagram meme. It happened with Rich the Kid’s “New Freezer:” Omid Noori, co-founder of the digital marketing and management company ATG, stumbled on a meme featuring several kids whipsawing their heads to the track; he then paid a popular hip-hop channel on Instagram to re-post it. The meme morphed into the “New Freezer challenge;” the rapper, his label Interscope, and ATG spread it across the digital universe; and the single eventually earned a double-platinum certification.

But as the music industry became increasingly interested in using memes to raise awareness for songs, naturally their impact diminished. “Memes were a novelty, but then it became, if you have enough money, ‘what’s the song — I’ll find a clip that kind of matches it and run it,’” Noori explains. “Now people don’t discover music as much that way, because it’s such a common thing when songs get dubbed over memes.”

This illustrates one of the central challenges of digital marketing and promotion in music. As soon the music industry recognizes that one technique on one social media platform is particularly effective for bringing attention to a track, record companies try to turn it into a standard marketing strategy, which backfires by making the tactic less potent. Memes and dance challenges initially became popular because they seemed fun and spontaneous; when they are rote and forced, advertisements rather than ways to engage with others online, their energy quickly starts to dissipate.

Several marketers say they’ve noticed significant drops in influencer engagement across multiple social media platforms lately, which they believe is a cost of trying to force-feed songs without regard for listeners’ preferences. “I’ve seen some YouTube influencers’ engagement fall 30 or 40 percent because they’re just saying yes to [every paid opportunity to place a song in their channel],” says Dillon Druz, who manages the rapper Bankrol Hayden and runs marketing campaigns for multiple labels.

“Every day there are hundreds of songs that don’t make sense for TikTok” — the app tends to reward songs that elicit simple, replicable movements — “and people are like, ‘well this other one went viral on there, so let’s put $20,000 behind it,’” Druz continues. “It all comes back to not having a proper influencer marketing strategy and spending money in the wrong places.”

“I see a lot of influencers only posting promos” — paid posts — “and their engagement is lowering,” adds Leilani, who has been on TikTok since it was Musical.ly and has more than seven million followers and half a billion likes on the app. As a result, “I try to keep the promos low.”

Digital marketing is a key component of the modern music industry. In the old days, an artist could reach potential fans in just a few ways: radio, print, television, physical advertising like billboards and flyers, and live shows. Those are still around, but their relevance is declining; now, attention has splintered into a myriad of digital pockets. An artist can perk ears through subcultures on TikTok, gaming channels on YouTube, and filters on Snapchat, not to mention Instagram, Fortnite, Facebook, Triller, Twitter, Dubsmash, directly through Spotify, and elsewhere.

“You can climb in a hole where you keep posting bad content and you can’t really get out of it.”

Popular users emerge on each of these platforms and gain followers, often by providing a unique personal perspective — a special brand of humor or a knack for finding hits early. Artists and labels then pay these influencers to disseminate music to their followers. (The pandemic caused labels to shift even more money to their digital efforts.) On average, marketers say Instagram influencers are more expensive than TikTok influencers, but top TikTok creators can still charge $25,000 or more for a post. Once labels and artists start paying for content, though, this can sometimes weaken the personal connection between an influencer and his or her followers by transforming a quirky individual into a walking billboard.

That’s not to say this approach to marketing doesn’t work — it’s easy to find the success stories, from labels fanning the flames of a challenge that materialized on TikTok to artists coordinating flashy activations on Fortnite. While it’s much harder to find stories about all the songs that don’t connect despite having plenty of marketing money behind them, in truth, the tracks that flop outnumber the ones that connect by a wide margin. Marketers are engaged in a complicated dance, trying to deliver effective ads and promotions while at the same time convincing their audience that they are not being spammed.

Marketers say that dedicated followers are often savvy enough to discern between posts that an influencer makes because they love a song and posts that are just about padding the bottom line. “It’s very obvious when people’s pages just become a paid platform, whereas before it was actually uploading clips in tune with them,” Druz says. “Their followers know it’s not authentic, and that’s why engagement is dropping.”

It’s possible that influencers are less susceptible to plummeting engagement on TikTok because of the sheer volume of posts common on the app — creators will often put up five or six clips a day on TikTok, far more than they would post on Instagram or YouTube. When an influencer is spewing out so many clips, each one has less weight.

“We have to post normally before we take on any more [paid] campaigns.”

Still, Leilani knows that her followers will not respond to some types of paid content. “Something they don’t like is if I do songs with dances that aren’t already popular,” she says. “They would always get the lowest engagement” in terms of views and likes, so she steers clear.

Since influencers post less frequently on Instagram and YouTube, the repercussions for a series of misfires on those platforms can be more serious. “You can climb in a hole where you keep posting bad content and you can’t really get out of it,” Druz says. “People care what goes on their Instagram and YouTube — they are more professional platforms” relative to TikTok, which prizes goofy spontaneity.

ATG’s Noori works with a network of influencers to help labels market songs, and he says that they sometimes decline to do promotions due to fears about alienating their audience. “A lot of influencers at one point in the last two months were like, ‘we can’t do as many [paid] campaigns this week, we need to get our engagement back,’” he notes. “People would say, ‘we have to post normally before we take on any more [paid] campaigns.’”

That’s part of the reason why Druz is changing the way he promotes music. Now “I’m very cautious,” he says. “I’m going to creators and saying, ‘is this a good fit for your channel?’ I have to make sure everyone actually believes in the song.”

Feature Image Credit: Photos in illustration by Adobe Stock/Kurkalukas, Adobe Stock/Endstern

By ELIAS LEIGHT

Sourced from RollingStone

In News

What Brands Need to Know About Marketing on Social Media, Amazon and Google Shopping

September 9, 2020 No Comments

By Madeleine Streets

For most of 2020, brand marketing has been a critical way for companies to connect with their consumer and try to preserve their loyalty. But these direct communications mostly focus on existing customers or those familiar with the brand; shoppers must have already opted into email or SMS updates, or visited the brand’s site. In order to reach new customers, brands must explore shared locations like marketplaces or social media.

“Reaching shoppers on external platforms is critical because it’s your way to introduce them to your brand on their turf, rather than your turf,” said Kevin Dugan, VP of agency services at performance marketing agency DMi Partners. “As someone is browsing Facebook, Instagram, Amazon, they are actively engaged with the content and if you meet them with the correct messaging and tone, it’s a powerful way to bring your products into their world.”

Unlike other segments, retail has been given designated advertising spaces within these platforms – think the Instagram “shop now” function or Google Shopping – and this ensures fertile ground for marketing initiatives. But while these platforms aren’t new or unknown to brands, effective strategies for social media, Google and e-commerce marketplaces each require tailored approaches.

For one, competition on these platforms is tough and can come at a high price; smaller businesses that need the exposure may be the same ones that are unable to afford to market their product extensively. Moreover, the saturated space means that effective advertisements need to stand out and resonate with the right audience, in order to generate real benefit for the brand.

“The way that these platforms have evolved over the last couple of years, there’s a lot more levers to pull around targeting that didn’t exist before,” said Mike Farrell, senior director of integrated digital strategy at marketing platform Sidecar. “A thoughtful targeting strategy would allow retailers to take that limited budget that they might have and really focus it in on the highest value customers that they’re going after.”

Platforms like Sidecar are specifically focused on creating marketing for these external platforms due to their specific requirements and data-rich nature. These function as a double-edged sword: With the right support, a company can tailor its marketing to each audience and reap rewards; without the ability to leverage data and optimize strategy accordingly, brands are likely to find their messages lost amongst the competition.

Then there’s the diversity of campaigns needed within each platform. DMi Partners’ Dugan warns against brands just setting a few generic social ads live and expecting traffic to roll in. Instead, he argued the importance of identifying different consumer groups based on their experience-level with the brand.

“We are always advocating for subtle differences in messaging depending on the audience we’re reaching on these channels,” said Dugan. “We suggest at least having top of funnel social ads, for your behavioural and interest targeting; bottom of funnel ads, for your retargeting audiences; and winback ads, for your custom audience of past customers.”

From a content perspective, marketing should consider the platform it’s on. Social media sites are well-suited to discovery and brand storytelling, although Dugan highlights the opportunity of Facebook Shops for a more direct-conversion experience. Google Shopping and Amazon are the most purchase-driven; clear product imagery and information performs well for shoppers who are ready to buy.

Farrell recommends that brands use their marketing to spotlight their best performing styles but in colourways that perhaps aren’t as popular; this evokes familiarity and novelty simultaneously. As a result, brands might be able to reduce the common diminishing of sales that occurs once the preferred shades sell out and also optimize inventory, which is a challenging area for many companies right now.

Feature Image Credit: URUPONG – ADOBE STOCK

By Madeleine Streets

Sourced from FN

In News

6 Dynamic Tactics For Solving The Post-Pandemic Marketing Rubik’s Cube

September 9, 2020 No Comments

By Lane Ellis.

What will successful B2B marketing look like in a post-pandemic world, and what can marketers do today to be ready?

B2B marketers are facing daunting and unprecedented challenges — not unlike a Rubik’s Cube — during the global health crisis. Each impediment, however, also offers valuable lessons that can help us as we transition to 2021 and the future opportunities that await.

Let’s begin unraveling the mysteries of the post-pandemic marketing world, with six dynamic tactics B2B marketers can use today to prepare for the future business landscape.

1 — Influencer Intensification: Subject Matter Experts

Post-pandemic marketing will likely feature a noticeable intensification when it comes to the use of B2B influencers. As one of the most pandemic-proof marketing practices during the global health crisis, B2B influencer marketing is poised to continue growing in 2021 and beyond, due in part to the value industry experts bring to everyone involved.

“Traditional marketing channels are drying up and even trade shows are imperiled in 2021,” Mark Schaefer, chief operating officer at B Squared Media observed. “The influence marketing trend will be amplified as businesses seek trusted voices to join industry conversations,” Mark added.

Mark’s prediction is among dozens of insightful influencer marketing statistics in our recent 2020 State of B2B Influencer Marketing Research Report, and the following data points speak to the strength of industry influencers and point to increased use as we move into 2021:

90% of B2B marketers expect their influencer marketing budget to increase or stay the same
78% of B2B marketers believe prospects rely on advice from influencers
74% of B2B marketers say that influencer marketing improves customer and prospect experiences with a brand, and 90% plan to increase their budget in the near future
63% agree that marketing would have better results if it included an influencer marketing program

“Digging into the results, one can quickly see a trend in B2B marketers who are optimistic about influencer marketing yet not confident about their ability to execute,” Shama Hyder, chief executive at Zen Media recently observed in her Forbes interview with our co-founder and chief executive Lee Odden, “New Report Says B2B Influencer Marketing Still Has Massive Room For Growth.”

“With the pandemic causing a loss of in-person B2B tactics — field marketing, in-person trade shows, and experiential marketing efforts, for example — much of where buyers focus for information are digital channels,” Lee noted.

“This is exactly where influencers provide valuable and trusted perspectives. Trust, reach and engagement are always challenges for B2B brands, and collaborating with trusted industry experts that have the attention and respect of buyer audiences has proven to be an effective solution,” Lee added — a sentiment also expressed by Sarita Rao, senior vice president of marketing at AT&T Business*.

“Working with credible B2B influencers helps to build brand authority through real, human conversations and interactions.” — @saritasayso of @ATTBusinessCLICK TO TWEET

According to research conducted by Forrester the pandemic has seen new opportunities for influencer marketing, as 63 percent of U.S. consumers have spent more time using social media platforms, 58 percent have noticed more content from influencers, and 51 percent have had a positive attitude about influencer content and found it valuable.

Additionally, between March and July 2020 sponsored influencer posts saw a five-fold increase in interactions, reaching 57 million in July, according to report data from Shareablee.

Among U.S. and U.K. consumers who follow social media influencers, 72 percent said they have spent more time using social platforms during the pandemic, and 64 percent also said that they are likely to continue the same level of usage during post-pandemic times, according to GlobalWebIndex survey data.

Aside from its resilience during the pandemic, influencer marketing has for some time been poised to see more mainstream B2B usage, a move that is likely to steadily increase in our post-pandemic marketing world.

To learn more about B2B influencer marketing or beginning a pilot program, here are six additional recent resources we’ve compiled:

2 — Persistent Programs: Always-On Marketing

Studies have shown the increased effectiveness of always-on marketing programs that replace one-and-done single-use campaigns with ongoing efforts that match the always-on nature of today’s consumer.

The case for a post-pandemic shift to always-on marketing programs is bolstered by compelling recent data from our report, such as:

76% of B2B marketers find that the strategy of working with influencers through always-on engagement or when combined with campaigns delivers results
75% saw increased views of brand content using always-on influencer marketing
60% saw an increased share of voice, 55% saw more media brand mentions, and 50% saw increased brand advocacy through always-on influencer marketing
89% of B2B marketers using always-on influencer programs expect their budgets to increase or remain the same, versus 73% for marketers running traditional campaign-based programs

This all points to persistent B2B marketing programs becoming more widespread among successful B2B marketers in the post-pandemic era, and it’s easy to see why, as the partnerships formed through always-on programs build ongoing brand credibility and trust that can be difficult or impossible to achieve using one-and-done campaigns.

“With brand trust at a low, it’s important for B2B companies to invest in relationships with credible experts that buyers do trust.” — Lee Odden @LeeOddenCLICK TO TWEET

If you’re looking to learn more about why always-on programs achieve better results and how you can implement them, check out the following recent articles we’ve written about a topic that will only become more important in 2021 and beyond:

“Being ‘always-on’ has allowed our team to build meaningful relationships with influencers.” — Garnor Morantes of @LinkedInCLICK TO TWEET

3 — Shifting Search: New Challenges & Opportunities

Like blowing dunes, the sands of the search technology landscape change often, and in the post-pandemic environment marketers will see a shift as Apple seeks to make inroads with its own search experience and whittle away at Google’s long-standing dominance.

Paid and organic search marketing efforts are a vital part of most B2B firms’ strategy, and pandemic or not these efforts would have continued for the majority of businesses. The global health crisis has given us a newfound appreciation of the importance of findability and how valuable a sound search plan is for businesses today, and this will continue into the foreseeable future.

Search strategies no longer involve only a website and traditional search engines, as more people than ever also search for answers and information from within social media platforms’ own often-lackluster search mechanisms, which some see as presenting new challenges, as well through the increasing use of voice search.

66 percent of B2B chief marketing officers said that their 2021 budgets would see an increase in spending on search engine optimization (SEO), with the same percentage also planning to boost spending on paid search, according to Gartner’s annual CMO spending survey.

I expect a growth in importance and usage of structured data, an increase in predictive search features, and a shift to a more technical SEO ecosystem. @aleydaCLICK TO TWEET

Recently I took an in-depth look at why search is more important than ever, in “SEO Strategy: 5 Reasons Why It’s More Important Than Ever For B2B Marketers,” and we’ve also explored other aspects of SEO in B2B marketing in these articles:

4 — Virtual Variations: Social VR Landscapes

This year the world has spent more time using both traditional social media platforms and social virtual reality worlds, and when our lives return to some semblance of normal, all flavors of VR will seek to capitalize on an audience that — although no longer captive at home — has come to know and expect that brands use the technology.

51 percent of U.S. adults have increased their use of social media during the global health crisis according to eMarketer, and nearly a third have spent an additional one to two hours of time on social platforms during the pandemic, leaving more time for audiences to explore the new virtual worlds being created by social firms, such as Facebook’s Horizon VR experience.

“The convergence of both the physical and virtual worlds will create new opportunities in the future in the way friends, families, and even colleagues connect,” Cathy Hackl, author and futurist recently noted in Forbes.

By 2022 some forecasts predict over 95 million augmented reality (AR) users in the U.S. alone, including over 60 percent using VR with more than 30 percent using VR headsets, a trend that savvy B2B marketers are keeping a close eye on for post-pandemic marketing spending.

Other survey data has shown that 39 percent of B2B professionals expect to install new AR and VR technology in the next 12 months.

With in-game, AR, and VR marketing opportunities seeing greater interest in 2021 and beyond, B2B marketers can learn more about the importance of experiential storytelling in the following pieces we’ve written about these and related subjects:

5 — Evolving Marketing Events: In-Person & Virtual

How will marketing events change in a post-COVID19 world?

There’s no question that in-person marketing events are win-win experiences for the many parties involved, from speakers and attendees to exhibitors, sponsors, and others, yet during the pandemic creative new takes on virtual conferences have presented viable alternatives that are likely to be with us for good, continuing to augment in-person events once the health crisis ends.

The pandemic has seen Facebook begin offering paid event options for businesses, with direct in-stream purchases available for eligible Facebook business pages in 20 countries including the U.S., offering digital marketers new monetization and event marketing options.

Virtual events help traditional in-person conferences expand their reach and gain new online audiences — people who may eventually also attend an organization’s physical events.

Similarly, in-person events such as marketing conferences may — in post-pandemic times — serve as good examples for some of the purely virtual events that have come into existence this year out of necessity, pushing them to begin their own new physical events.

92 percent of marketers have said that they believe putting on successful virtual events will be important until the pandemic ends, and some brands have already chosen to postpone or cancel their events all the way through the middle of 2021, including major players Facebook and Microsoft.

73 percent of B2B event organizers have had to cancel a physical event because of the pandemic, and 81 percent have provided virtual alternatives, according to survey data from The Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR).

The time is bound to arrive when in-person events return, however, and smart B2B marketers will be prepared to incorporate both virtual and physical conference experiences for learning, networking, and selling.

Having an influencer marketing strategy makes sense for taking full advantage of both virtual and in-person events.

“Partnering with influencers is more important now than it ever has been,” our president and co-founder Susan Misukanis explained. “Targeting the right influencer communities can be the best way to expand virtual event attendance and reach into a broader audience — who may not have planned to travel to your live event or conference,” Susan added.

Partnering with influencers is more important now than it ever has been. Targeting the right influencer communities can be the best way to expand virtual event attendance and reach into a broader audience.” @smisukanisCLICK TO TWEET

To level-up your event game for both virtual and physical conferences, here are six articles we’ve published to help:

6 — Delivery Diversity: New Communication Channels

The pandemic has both driven us apart and brought us together in new ways, and given us creative methods to both tell and hear compelling digital stories.

New communication channels have arisen, such as the virtual worlds of Facebook’s Horizon and others we’ve already explored, along with the huge rise in online video communication through Zoom, Slack, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and others.

The mass turn to video conferencing has also helped drive a large increase in both mobile app usage and advertising spending, highlighting the importance of making mobile a part of any well-rounded B2B marketing strategy.

Engagement among mobile ads has climbed by some 15 percent during the global health crisis according to survey data, and despite an overall drop in ad spending for the year, mobile ad spend has fared the best, as its 15 percent decrease was less than the 25 percent seen for desktop ad buying, according to additional data.

Business app opens saw a 26 percent year-over-year increase from March through June, report data shows, as seen here.

“We’re all the same size rectangle on the Zoom screen.” — Vanessa Colella of @CitiCLICK TO TWEET

A rare pandemic silver lining is how we’ve all found new ways to communicate and — more importantly — the stories we’re telling. Storytelling will be key in the post-pandemic marketing landscape, and to help you weave authentic messages that audiences will remember here are six recent articles we have available on this important topic:

Don’t Forget Your B2B Marketing Gravity

via GIPHY

The post-pandemic world will see intensified use of B2B influencer marketing, the growth of always-on programs, shifts in the world of search, more social VR, the evolution of events, and new communication channels, and we hope that by exploring these areas here your future marketing efforts will achieve newfound success — even if you’re no closer to solving that Rubik’s Cube.

Succeeding in any of these areas takes considerable time, effort and experience, which is why many firms choose a top marketing agency like TopRank Marketing.

Contact us and find out why firms including Adobe, LinkedIn, AT&T, 3M, Dell, Oracle, monday.com and many others have chosen us for award-winning marketing.

By Lane Ellis.

Lane R. Ellis (@lanerellis), TopRank Marketing Social Media and Content Marketing Manager, has over 36 years’ experience working with and writing about the Internet. Lane spent more than a decade as Lead Editor for prestigious conference firm Pubcon. When he’s not writing, Lane enjoys distance running (11 marathons including two ultras so far), genealogical research, cross-country skate skiing, vegetarian cooking, and spending time with his wonderful wife Julie Ahasay and their three cats in beautiful Duluth, Minnesota.

Sourced from TopRank Marketing

In News

YouTube Music tweaks in-app branding on Android, iOS

September 9, 2020 No Comments

By Abner Li

YouTube Music has seen a flurry of changes in recent weeks ahead of Play Music shutting down by year’s end. A smaller change sees YouTube Music for Android and iOS revamp its branding.

Original 8/28: YouTube Music has always maintained two logos. There is the homescreen app icon where the white play symbol is at the center of a bright red record/CD, while at other times the main YouTube logo is used followed by the word “Music” in the service’s custom font.

That second brand has long been at the top-left corner of YouTube Music for Android and iOS. Version 3.81 changes it to the first instance on both mobile platforms, though the web client has yet to be updated. That said, the Progress Web App (PWA) has always used the round variant.

Meanwhile, the other place users encounter the dueling logos is on playlist cover art. There is seemingly no logic in whether the circular icon or broader symbol is used in the top-left corner of official playlists. For example, “Your Mix” and “New Release Mix” use the latter, while “Released” takes advantage of the round logo. All three have been recently updated/revamped by Google.

3.79
3.81

Update 9/2: A week later, music.youtube.com has followed in implementing this change. On the web, the logo is quite small.

More about YouTube Music:

By Abner Li

Sourced from 9TO5 Google

In News

Two-thirds of consumers will continue using social media to the same extent post-lockdown

September 8, 2020 No Comments

Sourced from The Drum

A report published by Influencer and GlobalWebIndex has found that two thirds of consumers think they will use social media to the same extent once restrictions are lifted. This comes as the report also finds that 72% of consumers who follow influencers in the U.S. and the UK say they’re spending more time on social media per day since the outbreak of coronavirus.

The news proves that the coronavirus outbreak has shifted the social media landscape in a potentially permanent way. The trends that the marketing industry has seen in recent months are set to have long lasting impacts, with consumers suggesting that their interaction with influencers is here to stay.

The report from Influencer offers custom research on influencer marketing alongside existing research on the coronavirus to dig into the impact the outbreak has had on consumers’ behaviors. The survey taken in May 2020, defined their audience as internet users who say they follow content creators/influencers on social media. This definition rendered a sample of 1,056 (UK) and 1,038 (U.S.) internet users aged 16-64.

The goal of the report was to unearth the effect that coronavirus has had on influencer marketing and consumer behaviours, as well as consumer relationships to content creators. This report is being used as a guide post for brands concerned with how to successfully work with creators moving forward.

Influencer’s findings proved that consumer media use has increased over the coronavirus period, largely because people have been restricted from doing their normal day-to-day activities. The report confirmed that content consumption has risen, showing that 72% of consumers who follow influencers in the U.S. and the UK say they’re spending more time on social media per day since the outbreak of coronavirus.

Gen Z already use social media at high levels, however, the research by Influencer has shown that this has increased to 84%. It was found to be only a little lower for baby boomers at 68%, showing that time spent on social media has increased across all age groups. People are using social media at higher levels across the board, and crucially, they see this as something that they will continue to do.

One of the key findings of the report was that two-thirds of consumers who follow influencers say they’re likely to continue using social media to the same extent once restrictions are lifted. The report showed that baby boomers are more inclined to say they’re likely to continue using social media to the same extent than Gen Z; 69% of boomers say this compared to 57% of Gen Z.

The findings have proven that social media use is at an all time high, and this high is set to continue into 2020 and beyond. Consumer perceptions of social media are shifting, as more people become comfortable with consuming content on social platforms.

Read the full report here: The Age of Influence: How COVID-19 has propelled brands into the era of influencer marketing

Sourced from The Drum

In News

4 Low-Cost Online Marketing Strategies

September 8, 2020 No Comments

By Thomas Griffin,

Not all online marketing has to break your budget. There are several tactics you can implement when resources are tight.

We know that marketing on a tight budget is far from easy. There are many strategies you have to consider, and one misstep can have negative results for your business.

It’s important to touch base with your audience across all platforms, including your website, email, and social media if you want to increase your sales and conversions. The people who visit our websites are spread across the internet, so reaching each subset of your audience can dramatically improve your site’s performance.

Today, we are going to look at several ways you can add powerful marketing strategies to your business without using all of your resources. Some of the tips we mention here today will cost you nothing, except for your time. Other suggestions have a very low cost and are great for small businesses looking to enhance brand awareness and grow their business.

Write high-quality blog content.

Creating content for your blog is, without a doubt, the cheapest way to build your brand. Websites with blogs tend to see more engagement, organic traffic, and sales. Generally, your blog’s content should either educate or entertain your audience while keeping the industry in the spotlight.

One of the things that make blogging so effective is the freedom to use your posts to market to specific customer pain points and goals. So, if your business sells musical instruments, you could create an article on the history of guitars, how to play guitar, or the best guitar solos of all time.

All three posts are targeting the same audience subset — guitar players. However, each title has a unique benefit to your readers. A post on the history of guitars is meant to educate and entertain, which can improve your traffic. The article on how to play guitar is educational and great for growing sales by including links to your products. Finally, the best guitar solos post is meant to be purely informative, and could significantly boost engagement.

Research shows that when people buy your products, at least 60% spent time reading about products on your blog before completing their order. Not having content on your website can cause you to miss out on over half of all sales.

Consumers expect websites to offer more than a standard online store in 2020. They want to visit sites that provide an experience tailored to their needs. Creating relevant, informative content is the first step to marketing your website if funds are tight.

Find guest posting opportunities.

Creating content on your website is a great start, but more work needs to be done if you want to market your site to a broad audience. Our next tip focuses on publishing content on other websites.

Guest posting is essentially when a publication allows other people to create content for their website. The posts are relevant to the industry and help the publication generate traffic while offering more exposure to the business owner or marketer writing the guest post.

If you want to start publishing guest posts on other websites, the first step is to find relevant publications or brands in your industries. You don’t have to restrict yourself to sites that only publish content. Businesses that have a blog and sell a product within your niche are also likely to accept a well-written guest post.

After you find a list of potential publications willing to accept a guest post, it’s time to send out your pitch. Create a highly personalized message where you include the topic you would like to write about, your experience with the website, and why you believe your content will add value to their audience. If you can, make the email personal by including the editor’s name and tell them about some of your favorite posts that recently published on their site.

This form of marketing is perfect for promoting your business or introducing a new product or service.

Create more video content.

Diversifying your content is another excellent way to step up your marketing without breaking the bank. Text is a common form of content, but videos have proven lucrative for business owners across all industries. In fact, marketers that use video claim to see an average lead increase of 66%.

There are plenty of ways to include videos in your content marketing strategy. You can go all out and create a YouTube channel known for driving traffic and engagement to websites. Platforms like YouTube make it easy to build a vast library of helpful content and guides for your audience. Hosting them on YouTube will also decrease loading times if you decide to add videos to your site, which you should.

Why?

For starters, adding videos to your lead magnets can boost on-page conversions by 86%. There are a couple of reasons for this phenomenon. First, users are more likely to watch a video than read a long-form blog post. There’s more to it than that, though.

Videos also encourage engagement because they keep visitors interested in your brand for an extended period of time. Consequently, if someone isn’t sure if they should buy your product, the extra time on your site could help them make a concrete decision.

Build your email list.

Building an email list is one of the best ways to grow your company and increase sales. Email marketing has a stunning 4,400% return on investment, making it one of the most effective marketing tools you have at your disposal.

The thing that makes email marketing special is it allows you to build rapport with each customer over a long period slowly. When you consider that 96% of people who visit your website are not ready to buy, fostering connections is a great way to convince more undecided people to switch to your brand.

You can send various types of content to your subscribers, but most people like content and promotions. Sending out your recently published posts in a newsletter is the perfect way to keep people invested in your brand. You can also send out special offers that encourage email subscribers to come back to your website and make a purchase.

But your emails must have great content and look nice. Visually unattractive emails have a 79% chance of getting deleted when they land in a mobile user’s inbox. Focus on creating concise, helpful, mobile-friendly content for your emails. When you consider that most people check their email using a smartphone, mobile-friendly emails make perfect sense.

The best part about this strategy is it will cost you very little to get started. Despite the low entry fee, you can dramatically grow your business by investing in email marketing.

As you can see, there are plenty of options to consider when you want to market your business. The cost of some choices may seem daunting at first, but when you use these tactics to grow your brand, you’re building a strong foundation for the future.

The profits you gain from this foundation can help you go on to buy pricier tools that deliver even more impressive results for your business. The key is to start the process of growing your business now. You can’t wait for a marketing opportunity to come to you. Instead, take the time to pursue some of these inexpensive marketing strategies to grow your brand.

By Thomas Griffin,

I’m president and CTO of OptinMonster, a powerful lead generation tool that’s installed in over 700,000 websites.

Sourced from Business.com

In News

7 expert tips to live-stream like a pro—and boost customer engagement

September 8, 2020 No Comments

BY DANIEL MAYER

A live-streaming service CEO lays out the do’s and don’ts of elevating your brand with the rapidly growing marketing tool.

As lockdowns and social distancing disrupted business as usual, many companies searching for new revenue streams and opportunities for customer engagement tried their hands at live-streaming for the first time, fuelling 45% growth in the sector between March and April.

Luxury fashion brands, fitness studios, and even farmers have begun live-streaming in recent months, and as the pandemic ushers in long-lasting social and economic changes, the technology is set to become an increasingly prominent part of marketing’s new normal.

Grand View Research projects that the global video streaming market will reach $184.27 billion by 2027, which would make it one of the most valuable mediums for brand promotion. Driving the market’s growth is widespread customer interest in streamed content. Eight in 10 consumers prefer live video to a blog or social media posts—and when video content is highly compelling, the payoff is something to write home about. When a customer enjoys a video ad, purchase intent soars 97%.

Central to its appeal is the human element. Live video marketing enables brands to tell their stories and showcase their products or services in an authentic manner, with the influencer or brand ambassador behind the camera able to directly interact with audiences via live comments and Q&A. This fosters stronger connections between brands and consumers, allowing viewers to feel like VIPs. At the same time, live-streaming on social channels can attract thousands of viewers (including post-broadcast), significantly expanding brands’ potential customer bases.

And the true beauty of it all is that businesses from a multitude of backgrounds and live-streaming experience levels can now create content that drives real results and elevates their brands. Here are 7 ways newbies and veterans alike can up their live-streaming game:

RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH

To effectively engage an audience, it’s essential to understand who comprises that audience and what kind of content will inspire them.

Gather data on your audience’s spending habits, lifestyle, and brand affinities, and you’ll be better positioned to connect with them in a genuine way. It’s also critical to stay on top of current events, particularly amid today’s frenzied news cycle, to avoid the risk of becoming irrelevant or appearing insensitive.

HIRE OR HOST THE RIGHT INFLUENCER

In recent years, companies have increasingly relied on influencer marketing to raise their public profiles. Allowing a popular influencer to conduct a company live stream can be an excellent way of promoting a new product and reaching new groups of followers.

Of course, most businesses don’t have the connections (or the budgets) to hire world-famous celebrity influencers—but trusted local influencers are usually well within reach and are often far more valuable than flashy names. Pascual Yogurt, for instance, recently attracted 7,400 viewers and 13,000 comments to a live stream featuring appearances by a local celebrity chef, a health and wellness expert, and a nutritionist.

HOST-FOCUSED Q&A SESSIONS

To make your live streams as interactive and engaging as possible, it can be helpful to pre-select a Q&A topic to guide the discussion, rather than allowing followers to ask random, unrelated questions. This will make the live stream far more focused and edifying for viewers.

STICK TO A SCHEDULE

Don’t think of live-streaming as a one-and-done or sporadic affair.

Setting a regular schedule—ideally with at least two weekly live streams—is the best way to maintain a steady drumbeat of viewer engagement. This will keep your most dedicated, high-value customers coming back for more, while providing plenty of opportunities for new followers to engage with the brand. Promoting your broadcast via email, your website, and social channels before, during, and after the event will help maximize viewership.

PRACTICE BEFOREHAND

To head off glitches during a live broadcast, create a private Facebook group where you can practice going live before your first broadcast. This will allow you to identify and resolve any technical issues, adjust your lighting and background for optimal visual appeal (prioritizing ample natural light), fine-tune your messaging, and polish your performance.

Warming up also gets the host into “on-air” mode before the broadcast starts—making it less likely that they’ll begin the stream with dead air or awkward “Are we on?” moments.

FORGET THE FANCY EQUIPMENT

Viewers aren’t tuning into live streams in search of elaborate, highly choreographed content; after all, it’s live-streaming’s authenticity that makes it such a big draw. So don’t worry about buying expensive equipment such as ring lights and HD cameras. A desktop or laptop camera is more than enough to get started. (Smartphone feeds, however, tend to be shaky, with spotty video and audio quality.) As you become more experienced, you may decide to invest in third-party apps and upgrading your gear, but it’s not necessary at the beginning.

EXPERIMENT

As with any other marketing initiative, make sure to experiment and mix it up with different topics and formats. This will help you pinpoint which content most resonates with your audience and can help you refine your streams to best suit your goals—whether you’re streaming as part of your sales funnel or to connect with existing customers.

To survive in the post-pandemic normal, businesses must continuously adapt—and live-streaming provides a vital opportunity to adapt to a changing world in which we’re more online than ever before. As lockdowns ease and routines return, live-streaming will remain as a valuable engagement tool.

The next marketing revolution won’t be televised. It will be streamed.

Feature Image Credit: Priscilla Du Preez/Unsplash

BY DANIEL MAYER

Daniel Mayer is the CEO and cofounder of live-streaming service BeLive.

Sourced from Fast Company

In Sales

This WordPress SEO plugin might leave your website vulnerable to attack

September 7, 2020 No Comments

By Anthony Spadafora.

If left unpatched, this security flaw could lead to complete site takeover

Wordfence’s Threat Intelligence team has discovered a vulnerability in a WordPress plugin installed on over two million sites called All In One SEO Pack.

If exploited, the flaw could allow authenticated users with contributor level access or higher to inject malicious scripts which are executed when a victim accesses the wp-admin panel’s ‘all posts’ page.

After discovering this medium severity security issue, Wordfence reached out to the plugin’s team and All In One SEO Pack received a patch to fix the issue just a few days later.

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Users of the plugin should update to the latest version of All In One SEO Pack (3.6.2) immediately to avoid falling victim to any potential attacks that try to exploit the now patched vulnerability.

All In One SEO Pack

All in One SEO Pack is a WordPress plugin that provides several SEO features to help a site’s content rank higher on Google and other search engines.

As part of the plugin’s functionality, it allows users with the ability to create or edit posts to set an SEO title and description directly from a post as they are working on it. This feature is available to all users with the ability to create posts such as contributors, authors and editors.

Unfortunately before the plugin was patched, the SEO meta data for posts, which includes the SEO title and SEO description fields, had no input sanitization. This allows lower-level users like contributors and authors to inject HTML and malicious JavaScript code into those fields.

As the SEO title and SEO description for each post are displayed on the ‘all posts’ page, any values added to these fields would also be displayed there in an unsanitized format which would cause any saved scripts in these fields to be executed any time a user accessed this page.

In version 3.6.2 of All in One SEO Pack, the plugin’s developer has added sanitization to all of the SEO post meta values so that any code injected into them would be unable to become executable scripts.

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Feature Image Credit: Pixabay

By Anthony Spadafora

Sourced from techradar.pro

In Sales

What Makes A Successful Landing Page: 11 Must-Have Elements

September 7, 2020 No Comments

Sourced from Forbes

In this era of online marketing, a landing page is not a luxury, it’s a necessity. In most cases, the difference between closing a sale and having a consumer choose a competitor can be chalked up to not having an engaging landing page.

Professionals in the field can immediately spot if a landing page has the right features that will convert visitors or simply make them look for something else. But what are these elusive elements that make up the perfect elements of a landing page? We asked 11 experts from Forbes Agency Council to share some of the crucial and irreplaceable components a landing page should have in order to convert visitors. Here’s what they said.

1. Simplicity And Efficiency

Limit the narrative. Simplicity is key in telling the story efficiently. Be focused with your approach and don’t make it about multiple offerings. Center on that one thing that makes the product or service the best option and make sure it’s obvious. Great visuals help, but to convince a consumer, you need to hammer home the value. – Paul E. Benninghove, Pavone Marketing Group

2. Crystal-Clear Value Proposition

A crystal-clear value proposition will make or break your landing page’s conversion rate. If a visitor doesn’t immediately understand what you’re selling, and why they must have it (or learn more about it), you’ve lost them. So don’t get too clever in your headline — just make sure it’s working hard to convey the compelling reason a visitor should read on. – Howard Breindel, DeSantis Breindel

3. Direct Message, Minimalist Design

A direct message and a minimalist design are key to a successful landing page. I have seen a 30 to 50+% conversion on landing pages with a concise message, form at the top and simple form with fewer than five fields. A landing page with a simplified design and direct message increases your conversion rate and gets the prospect to the next step of the buyer’s journey. – Elyse Flynn Meyer, Prism Global Marketing Solutions

4. Fast Loading Time

Load time plays a critical part in the success of a landing page. Visitors don’t like to wait, and each year, that wait time becomes shorter before they decide to hit the back button. The last thing you want is a beautiful landing page that nobody sees load. Always consider load time when creating landing pages; watch your image sizes and make sure to compress any that are too large. – Randy Soderman, Soderman SEO

5. Message Match

The most important part of landing pages is message match. You have to make sure your landing page (particularly the copy) matches where they came from. If they clicked on an ad about a 20% off promo code, your headline needs to say exactly that. People are looking for instant confirmation they are on the right page or they will bounce off. Make sure your lander matches up with your source! – Marc Hardgrove, The HOTH

6. Strong Call To Action

Apart from the obvious requirement for eye-pleasing design with minimal wording, you need a strong call to action. Limited-time offer deals are one of the most effective ways to trigger impulse buying and increase sales, in addition to selling a solution to a common customer problem. Know your target market! – Sophie Bowman, Brand Branding PR

7. Problem-Solving Differentiators

Include problem-solving differentiators. As marketers, we can get caught up in showcasing features. We can’t forget that the landing page needs to provide a valuable solution. Filling your pages with jargon can do more to alienate audiences than convert them. How will you save them time, cash and business headaches? Focus on how your unique approach will add greater value than your competition’s. – Bernard May, National Positions

8. Authenticity

You must express “why” you, your company, your product or your service has value and purpose. No one is going to dig to find out what you need them to know. Keep it simple, direct and impactful, and make sure it’s authentic to your brand and consistent with all other communication platforms. Be clear on what you offer and what people can expect when they engage you. – Pat Fiore, FIORE

9. Great Creative

Your brand is your story, and if your creative is an afterthought, your potential customer may be turned off. Show your customers you care about your relationship. With all the clutter out there, it’s helpful to stand out and know the story you’re telling. Putting effort into your communication, both your messaging and visuals, will give your story the presentation it deserves. – Marc Becker, The Tangent Agency

10. Testimonials, Mobile Optimization

There are two key elements that I consider really important: 1) Testimonials — at least three real reviews or videos from actual customers increase the conversion rate dramatically; 2) Mobile optimization — it seems obvious in 2020, but many people still don’t realize how optimized should a landing page be, and they don’t test it on several mobile devices before launching it. – Stefano Mongardi, TheWebMate

11. Quizzes And Tests

Include quizzes and tests in your landing page. We found that quizzes and tests perform better. Not all landing pages can have a simple “Do You Qualify?” style test, but if you can, include it instead of a standard contact information form. – Peter Boyd, PaperStreet Web Design

Sourced from Forbes

In News

7 Things to Consider Before Scheduling Instagram Posts

September 7, 2020 No Comments

By Chris Makara.

It’s been a while now since Instagram updated its API to allow for third party tools to be used to help schedule Instagram posts.

Depending on how you use social media for business, you may or may not have explored this option.

If you have, great! Share your experience in the comments below.

If you haven’t, the big question for today is… why not?

Every month, 1 billion people use Instagram. Companies that aren’t on social media, or those that rarely post, are missing out on a free or pay-as-you-go marketing opportunity.

And in this world, companies with a purpose and the ability to connect to consumers as people are the ones in business for the long haul.

Why Businesses Should Use Instagram In Scheduling Instagram Posts

Image Source

So what do you stand to gain by boosting your Instagram strategy? What does Instagram scheduling offer that manual posting is lacking? Is there room for advanced social media content automation?

Here are 7 things to ask yourself before you get down to business scheduling Instagram posts.

1. How much time are you wasting every day manually posting Instagram updates?

When you add up the time it takes to stop, think about a post, capture the image, make your image Insta-worthy, consider and craft the copy, and post to Instagram, you’re looking at a couple of decent chunks of time taken out of your day. Not to mention the time wasted getting back into your workflow once that’s been interrupted.

Advance scheduling of Instagram posts allows you to set aside a block of time at your convenience to do all this at once. No interrupting other work and no time spent refocusing, which means you’re actively increasing your productivity to get more done in a shorter amount of time. You can set it all up and then move on to the next thing, knowing posting for the day/week/month is taken care of.

Bulk.ly Advance Scheduling Of Instagram Posts

2. What could you be doing with the time you get back in efficiency gains?

Do you have other social media sites that could use some attention? How about engaging with your audience? Or even exploring new business opportunities?

Consider what you “never” have time for and have always wanted to do. If this list is compelling enough, then the hours saved by scheduling Instagram posts in advance may be worth more than you originally considered.

3. Do your updates often contain copy or fact mistakes?

Rushing to manually post in real-time can lead to oversights when it comes to proper spelling or fact-checking. If you’re catching yourself making mistakes on a regular basis, it may be because of a lack of focus or the pressure to hurry and get a post out between meetings or before lunch.

When you take time to build out a calendar of posts and schedule content in advance, you can double-check copy for spelling and grammar mistakes and identify pieces of information you need to research further… before posting. All without the pressure of daily responsibilities calling on you every step of the way.

4. Do you forget to post some days? Then overdo it on others?

Inconsistency in posting not only confuses your audience, but also erodes their trust. When will they get new information? Can they expect to see images of that new product you’re offering on sale today?

If they get something different every time, are constantly waiting for an update, or feel like your posts are so frequent it’s overwhelming, they’re going to stop following and engaging.

There are countless social media marketing tools that allow you to build out a schedule that’s balanced and that delivers when you say you will. Scheduling posts allows you to do that, no matter what your day brings because it’s all taken care of in advance.

Buffer Social Media Marketing Took for Scheduling Instagram Posts

5. Do you have a strategy when it comes to hashtag use?

Some businesses have abandoned any hashtag strategy altogether in favor of flooding updates with them. This strategy seems to be the go-to for businesses with a lack of time and forethought. They’re essentially throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks.

When you plan what you’re going to post and schedule everything out in advance, you can more readily identify common themes and research the most popular hashtags related to your topic, product, industry, customer base, etc.

Posting with a handful of smart, well-researched hashtags can ensure your updates end up in the right feeds, in front of your target audience.

6. Would highlighting relevant events or holidays on social media benefit your business?

It seems like there’s some kind of holiday trending every day on social media. Days celebrating pancakes, dogs, boyfriends, movies… depending on your industry, leveraging these “holidays”, as well as national holidays, for use in a social media marketing campaign could be a smart way to reach current and potential customers.

But in the frenzy of other priorities, we tend to lose track of dates or miss out on proper lead time to execute on a formerly brainstormed campaign idea. Building out calendars in advance and scheduling posts helps with awareness of planning windows and makes it more likely that there will be ample execution time.

7. Have you considered automation?

If you’re looking to grow your business with Instagram and take advanced scheduling to the next level, automation may be right for you.

Automation only maximizes the litany of benefits mentioned above, in that you can let go of regularly coming up with new content to schedule and having to update your queued content lists as they run dry.

With automation, the posts keep posting – all you need to do is add one-off updates (breaking news, product promotions, etc.) into the mix as they arise.

Of course, you’ll need to first identify enough evergreen content to share so that your updates will remain relevant, and so you’ll have enough content to populate your queues so followers aren’t seeing the same posts all the time.

Tools like Bulk.ly can be synced directly to Buffer and often feature product blogs full of helpful articles to help you learn how to use automation to advance your business and social media goals.

Instagram Autimations for Scheduling Instagram Posts

Instant doesn’t translate well from personal to business

The “insta” nature of Instagram suggests that this platform is made for instant posting, instant engagement – capturing an instant and getting it out to your followers in real-time.

That makes sense for personal accounts and social media celebrities. But for businesses, such a strategy is less effective and wrought with risks, from missed opportunities to reputation-damaging mistakes.

Scheduling Instagram posts merges both worlds, with automation taking it to the next level.

One last thing to consider: Can you really afford NOT to schedule your Instagram updates?

Guest author: Since 2003, Chris Makara has developed a broad digital marketing background with a focus on SEO, Social Media, Automation and Analytics. He is the founder of Bulkly, a social media automation tool for individuals and small businesses.