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Social Media ROI: How to Measure Your Social Marketing

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Want to improve the return on investment (ROI) of your social media marketing? Are you measuring the right things?

To explore everything you need to know about measuring ROI, I interview Christopher Penn on the Social Media Marketing Podcast.

Christopher is the chief data scientist at Trust Insights. He also hosts the In-Ear Insights podcast. His latest book is AI For Marketers.

Christopher explains how ROI differs from return on ad spend (ROAS) and shares how to calculate ROI properly.

Click HERE to listen to the Podcast

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Sourced from Social Media Examiner

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Microsoft will never win the search engine wars by forcing people to use Bing

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Bing is known as the default search engine for Windows, and not much else. Microsoft’s solution? To forcibly install a Bing search extension in Chrome for Office 365 ProPlus users.

The company says that this is designed for enterprise and business users to find relevant workplace information directly from the browser address bar, but we all know Microsoft is desperate to get more people using its search engine. It sounds harmless, but here’s why forcing people to use Bing won’t help Microsoft in the long run.

Bing has a bad track record

Marketing jargon aside, the idea that Microsoft has with this is simple. By forcing enterprises and businesses with Office 365 Pro Plus to use Bing, the overall share and usage of the search engine might increase. However, there’s one problem. As it stands, Bing doesn’t have a good track record, and people might not want to use it at all, even if forced to it.

A report by TechCrunch in January of 2019 found that, at one point, Bing was providing really problematic search results. The search engine was providing users with child pornography, and other derogatory content. An earlier report from How-To Geek in 2018 also revealed that Bing was suggesting racist imagery, particularly in relation to searches regarding those of the Islamic and Jewish faiths. That publication also found that Bing was suggesting some conspiracy theories when searching for figures like former First Lady Michelle Obama.

Oh, and then there was the time the first result for “Google Chrome” was bringing up a malware site. Not a good look.

These issues have all since been corrected, but are particularly jarring. How can a search engine have been this bad? And why would someone even bother using a search engine with a reputation this bad?

Bing still has problems that need to be addressed

Fast forward to today, Bing still has a few problems that need to be addressed, and where Microsoft should put some extra attention towards, instead of forcing Bing down people’s throats. These include both search relevance and design — the two core areas of any search engine.

First of all, there is a search relevance. In our testing, searching for Digital Trends on Google and Bing provide two different results. On Bing, we get a look at some older Digital Trends articles, which at the time of this writing, were older stories from 4, 6, and 3 hours ago. Compared that to Google, and articles are more relevant pulled from a most recent time frame.

Google is even smart enough to show the Digital Trends Twitter feed, and provide the searcher with more relevant information. Google also suggests some competitors to Digital Trends, such as CNET or The Verge, to help users find alternative news and information. There’s even a topic page for what we write about, and information about our Editor in Chief, Jeremy Kaplan. None of these are on Bing.

microsoft bing focing wont win search engine wars bingvs google

Then, there’s the search page design. Google recently switched up its design for the good. Compared to Bing, its user interface features website icons similar to what you get when you “favorite” a website. There’s also added extra header text at the top of a result to help identify websites, and stop misinformation. Google explained in a series of tweets that its changes are designed to help the user “better understand where information is coming from, more easily scan results & decide what to explore.”

When put up against Bing, the difference is substantial. Google is clearly more user-friendly than Bing, and users are able to find more relevant information at a quicker pace. Microsoft has a lot to learn in this department.

Take care of the basics

In short, Microsoft needs to fix up Bing before it starts forcing people to use it. The good news is that Microsoft recently proved that it can do this. The company recently relaunched its Microsoft Edge browser, which has received great buzz and attention online. That’s all because Microsoft slowed down, fixed the problems, and did it right.

Similarly, Microsoft has to make moves to better position Bing as a search engine for us common people. It needs to make us see that Bing a solid alternative to Google and not just a copy cat.

We’ve seen attempts this with programs like Microsoft Rewards, which rewards users with “points” for searching on Bing, that can be redeemed for gift cards. Microsoft has even made terrific strides on the Bing experience over the past few years with a “collections” feature to collect, group and save search results, and an election experience designed to help fight misinformation.

Here’s the kicker: Bing could be a great option for businesses. When the main Bing is combined with Microsoft Search, you’re able to sign in with both work and personal accounts. You’re able to use Bing to search through work files and even people or websites set up by your organization. There’s great potential there.

But until Microsoft gets the basics covered, forcing people to use Bing is only exasperating the problem.

The views expressed here are solely those of the author and do not reflect the beliefs of Digital Trends.

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Sourced from Digital Trends

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Does blocking certain websites at work hurt employee productivity?

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By Jared Lindzon

What might seem like time-wasters on the surface may actually prove to be important enablers of productivity in the long run.

Employers may restrict access to certain websites in order to guard against very real cyberthreats, but the practice has its downsides, too. Many also end up blocking harmless content, and can potentially affect productivity, according to research.

In a recent study by TheBestVPN, 64% of employees reported that their company used a firewall to restrict access to certain websites. Despite this, two in five employees admit to accessing them anyway, often while on break and sometimes even to accomplish a work-related task.

The study found that the majority of organizations that use this technology do so to restrict access to websites with mature or illegal content, gambling websites, dating sites, and unsecured websites. “Those top few present obvious risks to a company’s network and possibly their security,” explains Joey Morris, who is part of TheBestVPN’s creative team and the author of the study. “It’s really hard to imagine a possible use of those websites that would be beneficial to any employee’s productivity.”

The gray areas

The case for restricting access to some of the other most commonly blocked websites, however, is less clear cut. According to the study, just over half of employers who use firewalls block access to social media and gaming websites, 35% block access to video streaming services, and nearly 32% restrict access to music streaming platforms. Furthermore, over a quarter prevent access to online shopping websites, 21% restrict access to file-sharing websites, and 17% block instant messaging application.

[Screenshot: TheBestVPN]

Is blocking effective?

In 2009, Ann Cavoukian, then-privacy commissioner for the Canadian province of Ontario, called blocking social media at work a “mistake.” “It’s like waving the proverbial red flag in front of your staff,” she said. “It’s almost a challenge to them to find a way around it.”

Over a decade later, the TheBestVPN’s study has proven her right. It found that despite their employers’ best efforts, 40% of employees have found ways to access restricted websites. Most often this is done through a mobile device, and the practice is most common among younger workers.

When asked why they circumvented their company’s firewall, more than 80% said it was to use during a break, 46% said they were just passing time due to a lack of work, and 36% did so to tackle a small errand. Perhaps most concerning to employers, however, is that nearly 18% accessed restricted content in order complete a work assignment.

The case for more access

What might seem like time-wasters on the surface may actually prove to be important enablers of productivity in the long run. Studies have shown, for example, that listening to music at work can improve mood and increase productivity, and other research has found that workers are most productive when they are able to occasionally do “non-work stuff” online.

Morris adds that as people get more accustomed to using digital tools in their personal lives—such as file-sharing websites or instant messaging—they often want to use those same tools in the workplace.

“While they might not be a tool your company uses department-wide, they’re tools people use personally for their own organization or work styles,” he says.

Morris adds that instructional or educational videos can be a practical resource in both our personal and professional lives, and that employees often want to use the same instant messaging applications they use at home for work-related chat groups. He also argues that social media can be a powerful tool for growing and maintaining professional networks.

The case for less access

There’s an old adage in the IT security industry that says the biggest security threat isn’t software, it’s people, and studies have proven that to be true. In fact, one such study found that more than 99% of attacks require human interaction to succeed, such as convincing a user to download a malicious piece of malware, visit an unsecured website, or open an email attachment containing a virus.

According to a recent study by Spiceworks, 90% of organizations that restrict websites on corporate networks do so to protect against such threats, while 83% do so to prevent “unacceptable user behavior.”

“You can spend all this money on software and hardware that protects your network, but all it takes is one person to click on a shady link and your entire network could be infected by malware—or worse, ransomware—that brings your company to a grinding halt,” explains Peter Tsai, a technology analyst for Spiceworks and author of the report.

[Screenshot: Spiceworks]

Tsai explains that for those tasked with keeping their company’s computer systems up and running, it’s vital to restrict access to websites that might compromise the entire network, or make it easier for malicious actors to compromise company assets.“Imagine you’re a company with trade secrets or sensitive customers information or other types of data that are regulated, and if it gets out, you’ll get fined millions of dollars,” he says. “If you allow your employees to use whatever file-sharing sites they want to, or whatever instant messaging platforms they like, they might be sharing company secrets over Facebook Messenger.”

With regards to music and video streaming services, Tsai explains that they’re often blocked in order to prevent bandwidth issues, which 46% of companies cited as a reason for restricting access to certain websites in his study. “If 15 people at your company are streaming 4K videos at the same time, it could bring your network to a crawl, because all of that bandwidth is being used up,” he says.

How firewalls impact employer-employee relationships

Shel Holtz has heard many of these rationales in the past, and he isn’t buying it. Now the director of internal communication for Webcor, he’s spent much of his career speaking and writing against the use of firewalls in the workplace.

He recalls a time when his employer restricted access to fax machines out of fear that it would make it too easy for staff to steal confidential documents. Holtz adds that he heard the same rationale for limiting access when email was introduced, and again most recently during the debate over social media access at work. “It’s something we’ve seen with virtually every new technology that’s been introduced into the workplace,” he says.

Holtz expresses similar frustration over the argument against misuse of company bandwidth, as it reminds him of similar arguments made when fax machines and copiers were first introduced. “Bandwidth is the new paper,” he says. “Maybe you need to consider increasing the amount of bandwidth you have for employees—it’s not that expensive. But saying it’s some sort of finite commodity strikes me as a little disingenuous.”

Holtz adds that it’s important for organizations to consider whether it’s really necessary to block websites that pose less of a direct threat, as it can have a negative impact on morale, loyalty, and productivity.

“It’s a hit to engagement,” he says. “You hired me, you told me how important I am, but you don’t trust me as far as you can throw me? You’re going to lump me in with every other employee, so I can’t check in with my wife during the day over Facebook Messenger?”

Overall, Holtz believes transparency is the best policy in order to maintain employee trust when websites really do need to be blocked. “Disclosure covers a lot,” he says, adding that if a company really needs to block a website they better be able to communicate a good reason as to why, or staff will just find a way to get around the firewall.

Feature Image Credit: Rawpixel; Source video: freestockfootagearchive.com

By Jared Lindzon

Jared Lindzon is a freelance journalist and public speaker born, raised and based in Toronto, Canada. Lindzon’s writing focuses on the future of work and talent as it relates to technological innovation, as well as entrepreneurship, technology, politics, sports and music. More

Sourced from Fast Company

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6 Essential Influencer-Marketing Truths Every E-Commerce Brand Should Know

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By Lucas Miller.

More than a few companies have been burned by the wrong approach. Make sure yours isn’t one of them.

Influencer marketing is becoming a fundamental part of many e-commerce brands. In fact, in a recent survey, 92 percent of marketing agencies confirmed its effectiveness. So if nearly everyone agrees it’s important, what do e-commerce brands need to know about this hot topic so they can best take advantage?

1. Influencer marketing reaches further.

Traditional marketing channels have brought success to many companies for decades, but as times change, those channels do not reach as far as they use to. Influencer marketing is able to connect to customers on a deeper level than traditional marketing was ever able to. Even better, it’s capable of accomplishing this on a limited budget.

Customers are unlikely to pay attention to advertising that they believe to be inauthentic. They are much more likely to trust a real person over a brand. This trust is important to build, because many customers will leave a brand they believe is disingenuous.

The price tag for an influencer partnership can vary, but there are options for any budget. In the past, a company could spend millions of dollars to create an advertising campaign that connects with customers. Unless your influencer is a high-profile celebrity, you will not need that kind of cash. If you’re trying to keep costs down, there are many low-profile influencers that can be hired for a fraction of the cost of an ad campaign while still effectively bringing in customers. The ROI for influencer marketing is significantly higher than traditional marketing.

2. Influencers must be relevant.

When finding an influencer to partner with, you must find one with relevance in your industry. It doesn’t matter if a potential influencer has a million followers if their audience is not connected your products. Find someone that resonates with people who will also resonate with your brand.

One individual who certainly understands the principle of finding relevant influencers is Josh Elizetxe, founder and CEO of Snow. Elizetxe is an entrepreneur and internet advertising veteran, and during a recent email conversation about influencer marketing, he told me, “Finding the right partnership lets small companies take on big companies. It allows tiny startups to become lucrative, long-term businesses. It’s all about using the internet to your advantage.”

3. Micro-influencers reach targeted audiences.

The best strategy for using micro-influencers is to segment your customers and choose which segment you want to target, increasing the efficiency of your marketing efforts. Dunkin’ Donuts used the micro-influencer partnership strategy this past year. They also used nano-influencers, which are people with even smaller followings but high influence among that following. Dunkin’ was able to generate $300 million in coffee sales alone with this strategy by  capturing the attention of younger audiences and appearing more relatable to highly targeted groups.

4. Authenticity is key.

In influencer marketing, authenticity is the number-one priority. It’s important to find influencers that truly believe in your product. Customers can see through an influencer who’s promoting a product for a paycheck. This kind of promotion won’t drive sales, and it may even give your brand a bad name.

In 2016, Bootea, a weight loss-shake brand, partnered with Scott Disick, a reality star with a large Instagram following. Unfortunately, Disick copied and pasted the instructions from the brand into his post, and his followers immediately knew the promotion was sponsored. It’s important to find an influencer who will not only appear authentic, but also be authentic.

5. Platform choice is strategic.

There are many platform options for influencer marketing, but it’s imperative to choose one that’s right for your industry and your product. You must understand what platforms your target audience is using and which people on that platform they trust.

Most brands think of Instagram when talking about influencer marketing, but any platform where you can build a large following can be a good choice. Many influencers have gained large followings through YouTube, blogging, Pinterest and, more recently, TikTok.

The most popular platforms are not your only option, though. In fact, sometimes you can reach customers more effectively through less-popular outlets with less competition.

6. Quality matters.

Younger companies, especially new e-commerce brands with small budgets, are frequently tempted into partnering with the least-expensive influencer. Be cautious when doing this, however, because the quality of an influencer’s following matters. Newer influencers sometimes are not as influential as they seem.

Impostors are one of the biggest issues businesses have encountered when looking for low-cost influencers. It’s common for aspiring influencers to buy followers, which makes them appear to have a high level of influence when they don’t. To avoid this problem, read through potential influencers’s content. If engagement levels are lower than expected, some of the followers may be fake or simply unengaged. And in e-commerce, credibility and active engagement are, quite simply, everything.

Feature Image credit: supersizer | Getty Images 

By Lucas Miller

Founder of Echelon Copy LLC

Sourced from Entrepreneur Europe

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Overhaul Your SMS Marketing With These 4 Genius Tips

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Text campaigns can pay huge dividends in the new decade.

This year marks the start of a fresh decade, meaning it’s a blank slate, so why not jazz up your marketing mix? What you’ve been doing is getting results, sure, but don’t you want to go farther?

Let’s forget about social media likes and blog impressions. It’s time to get serious about engagement, because that’s what’s going to grow your business. Not all digital strategies, like paid ads or email, are made equally. In fact, one of the most effective digital-marketing strategies going forward is SMS marketing.

Why SMS?

It’s true: SMS marketing earns four times more revenue than email, and it costs much less. Plus, texts have a 98 percent open rate and get three-to-six times more engagement than other marketing campaigns. Still not convinced? Here are the three most important reasons your business needs to use SMS marketing starting now.

1. You’ll stand out.

Instead of competing with other advertisers on Google or Facebook, SMS marketing allows you start a conversation directly with your customer in a distraction-free environment. To be clear, other marketing initiatives, like paid ads or email, aren’t wrong. They have a place in your strategy. The problem is that everyone else has the same idea as you, and businesses bombard customer inboxes multiple times a day. Translation: Performance drops a lot when you’re competing for space in customers’s clogged inboxes.

SMS marketing isn’t as saturated. You don’t have to compete for a customer’s attention. Only interested customers are going to opt-in to your SMS list anyway. They’re giving you a direct line to communicate with them in an exclusive environment that few brands can penetrate.

SMS also makes it easier to sign customers up for your list. Mobile-only popups on your website can auto-populate a customer’s phone number, which means they tap to subscribe, visit their inbox immediately to double opt-in and they’re on your list. It removes a lot of the friction that decimates email-marketing ROI.

Related: Here’s Why SMS Marketing Is the Best Idea Ever

2. You can match customer expectations.

Entrepreneurs often think they’ll bug their customers if they do SMS marketing, but as long as you follow a double opt-in approach (which is the law), you ensure that only interested customers are on your list. And since SMS marketing is consent-based, you’re reaching customers in the most convenient way possible. If they subscribed to get your updates, it means they want to communicate with you this way. Texting isn’t spammier than email. If anything, it gives customers an improved experience that encourages engagement.

3. It’s affordable.

Unless you’re buying a list, email marketing is pretty affordable. Because of that, many entrepreneurs shy away from SMS marketing because they think it’s expensive. But unlike email marketing, which can often have low ROI, text-message marketing trends positive. I have a friend who sees a $25 return for every $1 he spends on SMS.

SMS marketing costs depend on how many texts you want to send. You usually purchase credits to send SMS messages through a platform. That means you can spend as much or as little as you’re comfortable with.

Four Tips for Better SMS Marketing

We know that SMS marketing is worthwhile for brands, but that doesn’t mean you should dive in without a plan. You have to know how to wield it to get the best results for your business. So as promised, follow these for tips to max out your results.

1. Have decent site traffic.

SMS marketing works best when you have established web traffic. That’s because SMS messaging happens at the bottom of the funnel; it’s meant to pull users through to conversion with enticing offers or valuable content. You still need to bring in enough web users to bulk up your list if you want to see positive ROI.

Shoot to have at least 20,000 visitors a month on your site. This is what’s going to build your list quickly and move the needle for your business.

2. Minimize friction.

Once you have a healthy amount of traffic on your site, make it simple for these visitors to subscribe to your SMS list. At this point, you want to minimize friction at every turn. Don’t force customers to go through a four-step process just to subscribe; they don’t have the time or patience for that. Follow this frictionless process to gain more SMS subscribers from your website:

  • Feature popups to your mobile users.
  • The user can then tap the popup to pull up their information. With one click, they send their information to subscribe.
  • They receive a message that they can click to complete the double opt-in.

This process eliminates fake numbers from your list and makes the double opt-in process as painless and fast as possible, meaning more people will happily join your text list.

3. Content matters.

Content is still king, even for text messages. Remember that your content can’t be spammy. Instead of pushing customers to buy, buy, buy, you should deliver value. The goal is to start a conversation, not pressure your customers. Share interesting, helpful content like news, fun conversation-starters or information on freebies or discounts.

Don’t neglect visual content, either. SMS is a fun medium through which you can send videos, GIFs and custom images to your subscribers. Jazz up your copy with visuals that get people’s attention. Consider using tech like RCS to create an engaging experience for your customers within their native SMS application.

4. Nurture your relationships.

The final piece of the puzzle is to send SMS messages regularly to your subscribers. You won’t get results if you’re communicating with your list once a month; one or two times a week is best to get more engagement. In fact, this will actually minimize unsubscribes. If you text customers once in a blue moon, they’ll forget they subscribed and feel caught off-guard from your message. Regular communication is best for customer relationships.

But you don’t have to remember to send new messages every week. Any decent SMS marketing platform will let you set up automated SMS flows. For example, you can send a welcome sequence when someone joins your list. Or maybe you send over a how-to automation for a product someone just bought.

While other strategies should still have a place in your business, SMS marketing is the dark horse of digital marketing, allowing you to engage with customers and finally see a return on your budget dollars. The future is now, so get ready to hit “send.”

Feature Image credit: Westend61 | Getty Images 

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Founder, Quiet Light Brokerage.

Sourced from Entrepreneur Europe

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Political ad monitoring: Facebook makes right call not to act as moderator

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Sourced from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

It is through the free exchange of ideas that the best rise to the top.

Facebook is right to continue its policy of not moderating political advertising. It is wisely leaving the act of fact-checking such ads to its customers.

The online media giant has provided mixed signals, however, regarding the principle that drove its decision to stick with its generally hands-off approach to political campaigns’ communications.

“We don’t fact-check political ads,” Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said in an October speech at Georgetown University. “We don’t do this to help politicians, but because we think people should be able to see for themselves what politicians are saying.”

In the same speech Mr. Zuckerberg also sensibly addressed the accusation that in failing to pick and choose between ads, Facebook was open to permitting false advertising.

“Even when there is a common set of facts, different media outlets tell very different stories emphasizing different angles,” he said. “… And while I worry about an erosion of truth, I don’t think most people want to live in a world where you can only post things that tech companies judge to be 100% true.”

At odds with the First Amendment-friendly theme of Mr. Zuckerberg’s speech was a recent blog post by the official who oversees the company’s advertising integrity division.

“In the absence of regulation, Facebook and other companies are left to design their own policies,” Rob Leathern, Facebook’s director of product management, said in the post.

That seems like an invitation to just the sort of regulation Mr. Zuckerberg’s stance demands be resisted.

Just as no American would want Mr. Zuckerberg refereeing a dinnertime political discussion, the government also has no place at that table.

It is through the free exchange of ideas that the best rise to the top. The Founders adopted the First Amendment to deny Congress the power to regulate speech, political or otherwise. It’s a principle worthy of respect on all fronts.

Sourced from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

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Why this entrepreneur quit her job at YouTube to teach others how to ‘influence’ through video – here’s what she did

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By Jayna Rana.

  • Jenny Quigley-Jones started her firm Digital Voices in April 2017 with just £500

  • She left her job as a partner manager for ‘creators’ at YouTube, owned by Google 

  • Now she works with large brands including Rolls-Royce, RAF and Post Office

Landing your dream job in your 20s isn’t an easy feat, especially when it’s working for one of the world’s biggest and most successful billion-dollar companies.

But that’s exactly what Jenny Quigley-Jones did at just 24. And then she quit.

As she honed her skills and created a name for herself as a partner manager for YouTube, owned by Google, working with video creators and ‘influencers’ to build their brands, Jenny noticed a huge gap in the influencer marketing industry.

Digital Voices, which she officially launched in April 2017, is an agency that specialises in YouTube content campaigns, pairing influencers together with companies (which in turn, helps build the profiles of both parties) and creating videos.

‘I worked for YouTube for two years before setting up Digital Voices,’ she says. ‘My job was to help creators grow organically without spending money.

‘I worked with 500 UK YouTube channels and taught them how to grow their presence. 95 per cent of those channels were individuals rather than brands, with thousands, even millions of loyal subscribers.

‘Meanwhile big brands are being told by their sales teams to spend money on adverts rather than growing their YouTube channels with actual content – that is wrong.

‘So I saw this huge gap in the market where companies could create their own unique content with the help of influencers – a win-win for both sides.’

Jenny says this moment of realisation also happened to occur when she felt she had stopped learning anything new in her position at YouTube.

She adds: ‘A lot of people leave their job because they stop learning, rather than not being paid or not liking their colleagues. If you are not experimenting, you are stagnating.

‘Everyone said I was mad for leaving a company as huge as Google but my experience there was amazing and also gave me validation and the confidence to start my company – it gave me a foot in the door.’

And it was a chance encounter with someone she met on a train in early 2017 who happened to be looking for training on the influencer market that got Jenny through the door – and on another train to Brussels.

Beginning with a bang

Jenny kicked off Digital Voices in a consultancy capacity, teaching big brands about the importance of user engagement, and with just £500 in her new business bank account, she spent most of it on travelling to Brussels to give a training course and the rest on a website.

But over time she realised she could play a more pivotal roll in creating that user engagement and so decided to specialise in YouTube creator campaigns.

She said: ‘Big agencies are doing good job at selling brands on Instagram which is great but it is quite a saturated market and that is a short-term way of creating engagement.

‘It can make for good margins, and you don’t need sophisticated software tools so it is often the easy option – our job is getting them to understand how YouTube can be more beneficial.

‘Most companies just don’t understand it. The big media agencies that they will usually outsource to are amazing and talented at making adverts and being creative but even they don’t really know YouTube and so end up not giving the best advice.’

By December 2017, Jenny secured her first partnership with Rolls-Royce Engines as part of the RAF 100 celebrations. They wanted to inspire a younger online audience to think about the wide variety of careers in the service.

In response, Jenny paired the RAF with YouTube science creator Tom Scott to show the rigour of pilot and astronaut training by putting him in a centrifuge for a video on his YouTube channel.

After going live on YouTube in April 2018, the video has had 4,449,131 views, almost 3,000 comments and 61,000 likes (see video below).

Since then, Digital Voices has worked with household names such as the Post Office and Island Records.

‘The main thing is that you don’t want these videos to feel like they are adverts,’ she says. ‘Some of these influencers have thousands, millions of subscribers who are loyal and want to watch that content – so it has to be engaging.

‘As a result, by teaming with a well-known influencer, that business suddenly gets the same amount of views and awareness for the brand sky rockets.’

Building her own brand

As she helped build up other brands, Jenny built up Digital Voices, which has now become a team of seven, created several new client relationships and Jenny herself has spoken on panels and on TV.

But the journey hasn’t been easy and Jenny soon learned she had to put everything into her dream to get the most out of it.

‘I didn’t take enough risk at all at the start,’ she recalls. ‘I was saying yes to anything that linked to social media which was ridiculous. That’s why the business took off only when I put myself in a place that made me uncomfortable and took risks – such as deciding to specialise and when I started hiring people.

‘You need to take risks and stop seeing it as your money and rather the company’s money. Likewise, having a team means I can justify charging higher prices because I think, ‘If this goes wrong, it’s not just me who suffers but also them. Digital Voices needs to pay their rent.’

But of course, having a team means other people to bounce ideas from and stronger, better campaigns as a result of diversity of thought. Jenny says she is also looking to raise investment this year, and possibly build a board for the company.

‘A lot of start-ups get nervous about investment because they haven’t proven their model enough. But now I can show what we have done so hope to meet some angel investors.

‘We have had a few introductions and I’ve even had offers before but I want the right people because I also want my investors to potentially be board members. It’s easy to see money and immediately say yes but I need people who have been in this game much longer than I have that I talk to about the big things.’

Jenny (second from left) built Digital Voices by herself in 2017 but now has a team of seven

Jenny (second from left) built Digital Voices by herself in 2017 but now has a team of seven

A woman in a man’s world

Other challenges Jenny has faced so far have come with being a young female solo founder in a male-dominated industry.

She claims there are only a handful of companies that have female founders but even then, there is usually more than one.

‘It can be hard being on my own but it means my approach is to be more aggressive. There are some people that I look to as “anti-idols” in that they are who I don’t want to be,’ she adds.

‘I look at what they do and I don’t agree with the way they work because it may not be the most ethical or transparent or honest. And if I don’t pitch harder, they will win my business. If I don’t say I will speak at this event or don’t go to that conference, they will and they will be the ones to shape the industry.’

Meanwhile, despite the vast experience she already has, Jenny is also aware that at 28 she still has a lot to learn.

‘Young people in particular are not fully equipped for this. Not only do they not have the entrepreneurial experience but they can also lack a lot of life experience. No-one at school taught you about running a start-up and how you’d have to pivot every two months and try something new.

‘For example, knowing about investment structures such as SEIS would have been really useful. Also, knowing how lonely it can be sometimes.’

But despite the challenges, Jenny says her job couldn’t be more rewarding, especially after seeing a campaign come together.

She adds: ‘Sometimes I look at photos of events we’ve held or videos we’ve helped create and think, “Wow, did we really do that?” When you realise you are producing something that actually impacts people for the better; that’s really cool.’

By Jayna Rana

Sourced from This is MONEY.co.uk

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The Zero-Click Era: How To Rank When Position One Is Obsolete

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By Andy Nauman

Like most marketing directors, I have worn several hats over the years. When my career began shifting from traditional marketing toward digital, one of my earliest hats was that of “the SEO guy.” In the early days of search, black hat search engine optimization (SEO) didn’t exist; we just did what worked, including many tactics later deemed “dastardly.” Let’s just say we all learned a lot, as did the engineers designing the various search algorithms.

During this time, all the major search engines had nearly the same results page structure: 10 blue links, with No. 1 being the coveted spot. Today, not only has the search landscape changed, but that No. 1 spot is often found at the bottom of the page, buried beneath ads, maps and other search products. Since recent studies have shown that Google now controls more than 90% of the search market, I’ll be referring solely to this platform for the rest of this article.

What Happened To Position One?

The degradation of position one was innocuous at first, being pushed down by pay-per-click ads, the “local pack” (maps) and other search products tested by Google. In 2011, we began seeing airline flight results displayed with a built-in destination and pricing tool. By 2013, a similar tactic was being tested for auto sales searches. While many of these tests were only in local markets, others were quickly rolled out nationwide; enter featured snippets.

Featured snippets were first released in 2014, and have significantly impacted page one design, search results and website traffic. A featured snippet displays what Google thinks is the correct answer to a user’s inquiry in a box at the top of the page. The snippet includes a link to the source content; however, independent studies have shown these links are rarely clicked. This has resulted in what is being dubbed “the zero-click era,” where the search engine directly answers a question, giving the user little reason to click those valuable top links.

Voice search has exacerbated the issue, as home and mobile devices read the top search answer aloud. In a test of 112 million keywords performed by SEO research company Ahrefs, 12.3% of queries resulted in a featured snippet. The study also showed a reduced click-through rate of 8.6%, compared to 26% on traditional position one organic links.

How To Earn Featured Snippets

To obtain the new top spot, the first step is to look at which keywords you currently rank for on the first page of results. Almost all featured snippets come from pages already in the top 10 positions. Once you have those keywords identified, determine which are already producing featured snippets when searched. Several tools exist to help you with this. Last, try to reframe your keywords as questions.

Review the pages with featured snippets. Read the content, and determine how you can better answer the question searched for. Pay attention to the style of the snippet. If an image, video or table is included, consider including these elements in your content. The goal is to rework your content so it contains a succinct answer to the question. Make changes to the page you’re trying to rank, and keep track of your changes, along with the date and other sites listed on page one (screenshots work great for this). Resubmit updated pages to Google via Search Console.

This will be an ongoing process of updating your content; don’t expect results overnight. As an example, at Ameri-Force, one of our tests was on a page we wanted to rank for the search question “What do marine insulators do?” After updating our content and submitting our changes, we earned the featured snippet within 10 days. However, success is often fleeting, as we lost it 10 days later and are now working to get it back.

‘People Also Ask’ And Knowledge Boxes

Featured snippets are not the only game in town. Google also uses knowledge cards, instant answers and “people also ask” (PAA) boxes to answer queries instantaneously. While knowledge cards are database-driven (think “What time is it in London?”), PAAs are the result of user input and nested search results.

In July 2015, PAA boxes made their debut in a small-scale rollout. Today, they are included in most searches that display featured snippets. These accordion-style drop-down boxes reveal an endless rabbit hole of questions and answers, all of which push position No. 1 further down the page. The flip side of this coin is that your website can also rank within the PAA section, which can be an opportunity gold mine.

Putting People First

For years, Google has taken the stance that its goal is to answer users’ questions and get them to another website as quickly as possible. Keeping this doctrine in mind while developing new content for your website will be critical in the coming years. If you get into the habit of providing the best possible answers with high-quality content, great results will come naturally. Write for people, not search engines, and create the type of content you appreciate when performing your own searches.

By Andy Nauman

Andy Nauman is the Director of Marketing and Fulfilment for Ameri-Force, a US staffing company specializing in infrastructure recruitment.

Sourced from Forbes

 

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How To Provide Valuable Video Content For Your Target Audience

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By Reb Risty.

Video content is in demand now more than ever. Social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram are continuously improving their video features to meet both business and consumer needs. In fact, according to recent HubSpot research, 45% of consumers watch an hour or more of video content per week on YouTube and Facebook.

Because of its accessibility and how engaging it is, the demand for video will continue to be a top priority for both businesses and consumers. A Cisco study forecasts that 82% of all internet traffic will be video by 2022.

Here’s how to start providing valuable video content for your target audience.

What types of video content can businesses explore?

One of the best aspects of video content is that there are various types that all serve different purposes. Businesses can experiment to see which types of content they would like to incorporate into their marketing strategy. Here are four types of video content.

1. Testimonials

Many businesses choose to create testimonial videos because they’re an excellent way to establish credibility and influence purchase behavior. Trust is the most important thing that businesses can establish with potential customers. Good testimonials convey that you are trustworthy and can deliver. Asking loyal customers to partake in an authentic testimonial video to share their experience with your business will give other consumers needed insight to purchase.

Possible barriers: While testimonials are certainly a great option for businesses, one potential pitfall is that testimonials may appear too polished and scare people away. Let your clients talk about you in their own words.

2. Brand Videos

These types of videos communicate your business’s brand to your audience, thus increasing brand awareness. Without an established brand that is effectively communicated, businesses will miss out on opportunities to market to their ideal customers.

Possible barriers: Certainly, brand videos are a great source to highlight your business’s brand. However, businesses first need to ensure that they understand their brand message and position. Keep each video message consistent and limited to two main points.

3. Product & Services Videos

Creating product and service videos gives your business a chance to educate consumers. Product/service videos are great for showing the difference between you and the competition. Additionally, you can spread awareness of products and services to a larger audience through video. The combination of visual, audible and reading make the information more memorable.

Possible barriers: Product videos are an amazing way to showcase your business offerings. With that said, business owners must ensure that they have spent enough time perfecting their products or services. Your product videos could be your audience’s first impression of your offerings. If your product or service isn’t top notch, they will quickly move on to the next business.

4. Tutorials

Tutorials have long been popular when it comes to video content, and for businesses that have the opportunity to teach their audience something, tutorial videos are the way to go. For instance, maybe you are a financial consultant and you want to show potential clients how they can use QuickBooks more effectively. Or, perhaps you have a skincare line and you would like to show your audience how to use your line of products together. No matter the type of business, you could benefit from creating a tutorial video to establish credibility and spark audience interest.

Possible barriers: While tutorials are a great way to establish credibility, they can become repetitive and possibly feel impersonal. Businesses need to ensure that they keep their tutorials fun and fresh. Don’t be afraid to add some personality to keep your audience engaged.

What should businesses ask themselves before diving into video marketing?

Video has become a frontrunner in content marketing. However, before diving into video content, businesses should consider a few things to drive the best results.

Producing quality videos takes time and effort.

While video content can produce amazing results, businesses will fail in their efforts if they don’t take the time to produce content that is reflective of their business. Remember, when you push your content out into the internet world, it is representing your business, so be sure that you are producing content that mirrors your business effectively and will make a good impression.

Don’t overthink your video content.

With that said, the most important thing is to just get started. Take baby steps. The internet is a fast-paced environment flooded with tons of business content. If you take too long to push out your own, your business could easily be forgotten.

Create and innovate.

Additionally, it’s important for businesses to be creative and innovative with the information they provide in their videos. Too often, businesses produce the kind of content that has been seen over and over again. If you want to see ROI, ensure that you are creating content that is fresh as a way to help your business stand out from the crowd.

Consider customer platforms.

Consider what platforms customers will use to view your video content. Not every platform is right for your audience. For example, YouTube is one of the most common platforms to house video content. Facebook is ideal for a large range of audiences, while Instagram is more favorable for the younger demographic and consumer products. Take the time to consider where your audience is and which platforms create the best opportunities for you to share your videos with them.

If you want to stand out from your competition and create content that is fun and engaging, start integrating video into your marketing program. There’s no better time to get started than now.

Feature Image Credit: Getty

By Reb Risty

Head REBL of REBL Marketing. Reb is a creative B2B marketer helping businesses tell their story one video at a time.

Sourced from Forbes

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Done Right, Customer Profiles Drive Revenue

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A good customer profile relies on objective information to describe shoppers, often segmenting them around the reasons they choose a company or product.

The term “customer profiles” is sometimes used interchangeably with the phrase “customer personas” or “marketing personas,” but a few marketers — especially those at HubSpot — prefer separate meanings. These folks tend to define “profiles” as data-driven descriptions of actual customer demographics and behaviors while “personas” are composites and generalizations.

In this post, I’ll offer tips for building and using customer profiles.

Define the Purpose

A shocking number of customer profiles (or personas) go unused.

In the past six months, I have worked with a direct-to-consumer ecommerce seller, a brick-and-click retailer, and a small boutique shop. In each case, when I asked if they have customer profiles, the reply was, “We used to, but we don’t use them anymore.”

These three companies had each gone through the exercise of creating a portrait of their most desirable customers. One set of personas had been printed on heavy stock and was pinned to a bulletin board in the marketing department like art. But they were not used.

Your ecommerce customer profiles should be tools with a purpose. Before you collect oodles of demographic details or piles of psychographic insights, you need a clear direction.

For example, customer profiles can help choose advertising vehicles. They can make it easier to identify customer segments for email or direct marketing. They can be used to guide ad copy and identify the key reasons a shopper buys. And they can be a source of ideas for content marketing.

Know why your ecommerce business needs customer profiles and how those profiles will be integrated into your various workflows. Will profiles be used, say, for customer acquisition or for building customer relationships?

Will Customers Benefit?

As you contemplate how your ecommerce company should employ customer profiles, try to figure out how you can help your customers.

Many products solve a problem. A fellow with a dry and coarse beard might want Beardbrand’s Tree Ranger beard oil because it will hydrate his beard and make it feel soft.

Understanding why a shopper wants to buy beard oil should make it easier to sell.

A female planning to attend an eighties-themed rave next weekend could be interested in BLANKNYC’s “Girl’s Night Out Skirt” because it looks like leather, but it is made with polyurethane and viscose. Thus, it is suitable for a thoughtful vegan circa 2020.

Realizing that your customers want vegan materials helps you develop and sell products.

Insights about why your customers buy a particular product and why they buy it from your store are among the most important benefits of developing customer profiles, so don’t miss out.

Use Objective Data

Customer service representatives can provide interesting information about your shoppers, including, in my experience, some amazing anecdotes.

Interviewing customer service reps can go a long way towards your company’s buy-in for profiles.

Don’t stop, however, with subjective information. Take the time to collect and analyze objective data about who your customers are, what motivates them, and how they behave.

For example, I’ve observed marketers at a multichannel merchant export every customer record from its database as a CSV file — more than 22,000 total rows.

This file was opened as a Google Sheet. Using filters, the marketing team narrowed the list to just 27 shoppers who had been the most loyal and most valuable to the company.

It turned out that all 27 had interacted with the same customer service representative on several occasions.

Next, they found this same person interacted with the top 1 percent of customers 50 percent of the time.

In other words, one person had a huge influence on sales. It was a stunning find for the business. And it was only possible with objective data.

Use Affinities, Too

Notwithstanding the benefits, season hard, objective facts with customer responses, feedback, and social media posts that indicate opinions, preferences, and other affinities.

You can gather this information with customer surveys, emails, or even after-hours voice messages.

The merchant that identified its 27 best customers also looked those folks up on Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social media sites to learn if they had common likes and dislikes. This, too, is a good source of info.

Iterate

Finally, customer profiles are not static. Rather, they should be reviewed and updated regularly — as often as once a year. The key, however, is first to define the purpose, such as for new product launches or major marketing campaigns.

 

 

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Sourced from Practical Ecommerce

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