editor, Author at Mediastreet

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Digital Marketer’s 21 Best Articles for Organic Traffic in 2018

February 7, 2019 No Comments

At the end of every year, we take a look back at the blog and see what pieces of content were the most popular. But this year, we decided to take a different spin on it…

In this post, we’ve pulled together the 21 articles on the DigitalMarketer blog that got the most organic traffic in 2018 and ranked them based on the number of pageviews, so you can see how they compare.

Yep… this is the stuff you can’t miss out on.

Coming in #1 (by more than twice the amount of traffic) is…

1. DigitalMarketer’s 101 Best Email Subject Lines of 2018 (…And 7 Top-Notch Subject Lines Pulled from the Vault) – 35,547 Pageviews

Every year, we send millions of emails out to our subscribers. In fact, in 2018, we sent 169,434,375 emails!

And at the end of every year, we like to collect together all our best-performing subject lines from those 169,434,375 emails to give you a swipe file.

This top-performing blog post is at the top for a reason, since it contains now over 600 proven, swipeable email subject lines that are yours for the taking!

It also has a list of 8 winning characteristics that every high-performing subject line has at least 1 of and 7 top-notch subject lines pulled from the author’s own swipe file.

Make sure you check it out before you send your next email!

2. Customer Avatar Worksheet: Finally, Get Clear on WHO You Are Selling To! – 14,525 Pageviews

The customer avatar is the Swiss Army Knife of marketing…

… and we’ve got a writeable PDF version of our Customer Avatar Worksheet (no opt-in required) waiting for you in our #2 blog post.

But why is this post so popular with organic audiences? It could be because the customer avatar can help you with any aspect of digital marketing by giving you information like…

Content Marketing—What blog posts, videos, podcasts, Lead Magnets, etc. should you create to attract and convert your avatar?
Paid Traffic—Which ad platforms should you buy traffic from and what targeting options should you use?
Product Creation—What solutions is your avatar searching for?
Copywriting—How should you describe offers in your email marketing, ads, and sales letters in a way that compels your avatar to buy?
Email Marketing—Which avatar should receive a specific email marketing campaign?

Everyone who is selling anything should be using this worksheet, because honestly… there is no higher leverage activity than getting clear on WHO you are selling to.

3. 9 Lead Magnet Ideas and Examples (And ONE That Generated 35,859 Subscribers in 60 Days for DigitalMarketer…) – 11,917 Pageviews

We like to think we know a thing or two about generating leads, which is why we were thrilled to roll out the 2nd edition of one of our most popular post!

Plus, you’ll get the 8-Point Lead Magnet Success Checklist to print out and put your Lead Magnet through the paces with before launching to your audience.

We’ll show you what makes a great Lead Magnet, and what so many have done wrong before.

So make sure to check this post out when you want to get started on your lead generation.

4. Customer Value Optimization: How to Build an Unstoppable Business – 9,695 Pageviews

On January 20th, 2014, Ryan Deiss published (in great detail) the system he used to build ALL of his businesses. And when that post exploded in popularity, getting stats like this…

read by 375,191 people
shared almost 37,000 times (36,800 to be exact) on various social networks and…
received 535 comments

…he decided to update it with even more useful stuff!

So, on August 20th, 2015, Ryan released the second edition of this article with expanded information on…

Product/Market Fit (Understand why people buy… and why they don’t.)
Acquiring leads and customers with Lead Magnets and Tripwire offers.
Maximizing immediate profit so you can pay more than your competition to acquire customers, scale your campaigns or just pocket more cash.

And clearly this was the kind of added benefit that lasts, since the post is #4 in organic pageviews. Check it out to learn more about how the CVO system could help grow your business.

5. 6 Trending Digital Marketing Skills to Put on a Resume – 8,039 Pageviews

Coming in at #5 is another popular post, all about what kinds of skills you should have on your resume.

Skills like…

Content Marketing
Social Media Marketing
Media Buying/Traffic Acquisition

…are as in demand—or arguably more in demand—today as when this post was published back in 2017, which is why it still ranks in our top 5.

Employers are always looking for people that get this digital marketing “stuff.”

In this post, we give you

Job Description
Potential salary
Job titles

…and the personality attributes you need to acquire the 6 hottest skills in the industry.

Click HERE to read remainder of the article

By Becky Zieber

Sourced from Digital Marketer

In News

The Big SEO Ranking Factors for 2019

February 6, 2019 No Comments

Sourced from Design Beep

Google search algorithm keeps undergoing changes nearly every year. This has made the tech giant to place importance on certain factors out of the over 200 ranking factors. Truth be told, most of these factors are intertwined and it’s difficult for small businesses to keep up with them all. Here are the top ranking factors you need to know about as you implement the latest SEO techniques.

User Experience

It’s common for site owners to develop sites that search engines will find attractive while neglecting user experience. The importance of an exceptional UX can’t be underemphasized. It is one of the factors that usually encourage online visitors to spend more time on websites and leave satisfied. The experts at Tailored Media Marketing understand this and deliver top-notch services all the time. Some of the ways to enhance your UX include asking for customers’ feedbacks, using relevant keywords and supporting smooth navigation.

Quality Content

Most online visitors will choose content over direct ads any day. It’s better to invest a significant percentage of your budget on content creation and promotion. Ensure that you share content regularly and provide real value to your audience. Creating blog posts alone isn’t enough to generate leads in this era. You need to provide in-depth content and consider other formats like videos, infographics and case studies.

Mobile-First

Google expects every website to work seamlessly on both mobile and desktop. Webmasters that fail to take this factor seriously may end up receiving a penalty. You have nothing to worry about if you’ve already joined the bandwagon. In case you only have the desktop version of your site, make sure that you set up the mobile version too.

Backlinks

The dynamics of link building has evolved over the years. Avoid using any link until you’ve confirmed that they are from relevant and authority sites. Creating useful content, influencer marketing, and guest posting can increase your chances of attracting links naturally. The linkless backlink is a trend that is here to stay. It involves mentioning brands instead of including a link to their sites.

Technical SEO

Overlooking the technical aspect of SEO can make brands to lose customers and revenues. Hiring the Gold Coast Specialists will go a long way to fine-tune the different aspects of SEO. Apart from that, they can help you to carry out an SEO audit. Other steps that you need to take include obtaining an SSL certificate and creating a site map.

Page Speed

Google’s mobile-first indexing is already a thing and it’s risky to leave things to chances. Page speed is now recognized as a top Google mobile ranking factor. Websites that loads quickly tend to rank higher on search engine result pages. On the other hand, slow loading websites are bound to lose traffic and revenue as time goes on. Take advantage of SEO tools to check your page speed and choose a reputable cloud hosting provider.

Local SEO

Local SEO is a must for businesses that are targeting customers in their locality. This is because several online visitors search for local businesses on their smartphones. Start by listing your business on Google to boost your ranking. Your information such as your business name, address and phone number must be uniform across all directories. Don’t hesitate to ask your customers to leave ratings and reviews on the local listing.

Sourced from Design Beep

In News

Alexis Hall How to Choose a B2B Marketing Agency that Can Evolve with Your Needs

February 6, 2019 No Comments

By Alexis Hall

B2B brands’ marketing departments are constantly evolving. Over the past 10 years, marketing teams have undergone a seismic shift to accommodate changing technology, millennial consumers and employees, and to breakdown silos between marketing and the rest of the business.

To keep pace with the changing marketplace, many B2B brands are working to find the perfect balance between growing out their in-house digital marketing team and partnering with an external digital marketing agency. Most brands are seeking agency partners to provide a spectrum of services, from tactical support to creative strategy and content innovation. And they need a partner that can adapt and evolve along with their marketing needs and opportunities.

So, the question is: To find that partner that can grow and adapt to your needs, what should you be looking for?

In our humble opinion, the best brand/agency partnerships help brands stay ahead of their competitors with integrated strategies, an eye on the latest and greatest, and the ability to measure and iterate on the success of campaigns. Here are some key characteristics that you should be on the lookout for.

What to Look for in a B2B Marketing Agency Partner

#1 – They have an eye (and hand) on emerging trends.

Interactive content. Influencer marketing. Podcasting. Virtual Reality. As the B2B landscape and B2B buyers evolve, brands and marketers need to adapt their digital and content marketing strategies to not only stand out from their competition and reach their target audience audience, but connect and resonate with buyers. And that means carefully investing in new types of content and strategies.

Of course, dipping your toe into new waters can be scary, and you’ll need to set aside time, resources, and budget for testing new mediums and following trends. And at the end of the day, you need the expertise to get it done. That’s where an experienced agency partner can help you gain traction.

For example, if you’re interested in going bold with interactive content; look for an external agency with experience here to help you:

Planning: An experienced marketing agency likely already has a planning checklist developed and has worked through the kinks you haven’t even considered yet; like where to host, how to optimize multi-media files, and how to create a UX experience in an non-static asset.
Tools and Equipment: New trends often require new technology. Tap into a marketing agency’s existing tool set and expertise using the tools.
Optimization: Another benefit of agency specialization is that they’ve already optimized the process, the promotion mix and experience, so your brand gets the benefit of all that experience; instead of having to start from scratch.
Measurement: A great agency partner will be able to help you set up tracking and provide reporting to tell you if and how emerging trends are really working for you.

#2 – They possess undeniable strategic acumen.

External agencies are great at providing support and creative ideas as needed for projects. However, the development of agency talent, expertise and context, provides agencies with strategic expertise to help you develop the marketing approach that informs their tactical support.

Tapping into an outside perspective to deep dive into owned, competitive, or prospect data to develop a comprehensive strategy and recommendation can be a really impactful set up in planning. External agencies can offer brand support in:

Owned and competitive audits.
Strategic roadmaps.
Customer or prospect research and profiles.
Overcoming marketing pain points like a lack of qualified leads or a sudden drop in traffic.

#3 – They challenge the status quo.

In-house marketing teams offer the benefit of people that are deeply immersed within the brand and the team. Frequently they sit in the same building, same floor as the rest of the team, making them easily accessible for questions, brainstorming, and strategy development.

This can be a great benefit when it comes to the free flow of information and integration across team. However, familiarity can be stifle innovation. But the good news is that it can empower an outsider to think differently.

By offering a third-party, neutral perspective, an agency can drive tough conversations that push you out of your comfort zone to create next-level strategies, and help:

Persuade: Agencies’ specialization and work across many clients can drive knowledge and credibility which may be able to convince a marketing team to take the next step.
Bring new ideas: Agency marketers, who live and breathe new marketing, and often focus on creative hires, can supply brands with new tactical or creative approaches which can push the envelope and grab attention within the marketplace.

#4 – They prioritize client relationships.

The relationship an external agency creates with your brand and in-house team is so critical. The best agency/brand relationships are based on trust and genuine alignment of goals.

Strong relationships are a key factor in creating innovative and successful marketing tactics. As you are considering agency partners, look for:

Alignment of values, purpose and mission: Agencies and brands that fit and work best together tend to have alignment around key culture items. Teams which exemplify the brand/agency core values are able to connect and enjoy working collaboratively toward the same goals.
Engaged Listening: Agency partners need to advise, but they should also be adept listeners. During the prospecting phase, a potentially great agency partner should be able to really listen to your business’ needs and present a solution that syncs with your brands’ objectives.
Thoughtfulness: Yes, great agency partners are responsive to your needs and queries. Perhaps more important than a quick response; is thoughtfulness and quality of response. A really great partner will offer you well thought out and creative solutions to challenges and questions, to really drive results.
A referral from someone you trust: When it doubt, ask your colleagues and associates for a referral to an agency they love. If they love them, that agency is already more likely to align with your values, be familiar with your brand voice and requirements, and think of you as a highly valuable partner.

#5 – They’re committed to transparency of contracts, tactics, and data.

Along with prioritizing the relationship, the right agency partner will build trust with your brand by offering transparency, which comes to everything from contract deliverables to the results of your core KPIs.

If you are partnering with an agency to help you test emerging trends; it’s especially critical that a great partner share what is and is not working, so your teams can together optimize and iterate.

Whether it’s a change in timeline, a tweak to a tactical mix or an honest assessment of how you’re tracking against benchmarks, a good partner will drive straight forward conversations that help you move forward in the best way.

#6 – They know your niche.

In B2B it can be especially tough to get up to speed on a new vertical or product. Tapping into an agency that has a similar client base to you; speeds the learning curve as much as possible.

Industry trends (like IOT for example) often span verticals; so look for a partner that understands the lingo, but also has an existing network of influencer and contacts.

Better Together: Find a Partner You Can Grow With

The agency place within your marketing department will continue to evolve as your team does. And partnering with right agency can provide you with a partner who will help you innovate tactically and strategically, while providing your in house team with the support they need to reach their goals in 2019 and beyond.

By Alexis Hall

Sourced from TopRank Marketing

In News

The Mysteries of Instagram and Hashtags

February 6, 2019 No Comments

By David Pring-Mill

What is the right way to hashtag?

On Instagram and other social media platforms, excessive hashtagging is sometimes done as a joke. Sometimes, it’s done sincerely, but ineffectively. Others seem to skillfully land on the right hashtags, the ones which actually translate into results. Some social media gurus suggest using anywhere from 5 to 11 hashtags per post. While there may be no magic formula, there are strategies that seem to pay off, with certain accounts racking up millions of followers and others seemingly stuck in obscurity. What is the right way to hashtag?

The stakes here might seem deceptively low, but small startups rely on earned media for growth. Social media represents a way to avoid making excessive payments to Facebook and Google for ad campaigns. Another way to do that is by soliciting press coverage, and the two are actually intertwined — journalists often cover products or ideas that go viral. When startups receive recognition for their social media content, founders are able to channel their limited dollars into other areas, such as product development and personnel. Hashtags are a critical aspect of this strategizing.

Bigger brands may have a substantial amount of money riding on an Instagram post if it is part of an influencer marketing campaign. But influencers offer them distinct advantages. Many social media users don’t view influencers as salespeople, even though that is precisely what they are in some instances. This perceived authenticity, coupled with a quantifiable following, can be powerful. Brands sometimes pay sums in the neighborhood of $60,000 in exchange for just one video review from an influencer in their niche. The FTC requires influencers to disclose their relationships with companies when sharing affiliate links and mentioning brands and products so that consumers aren’t misled. However, many influencers do not appear to be abiding by these guidelines, with paid endorsements often masquerading as personal advice or objective analysis.

Regardless of whether Instagram content falls under the category of earned media, paid media, or owned media, strategic hashtagging is essential. The content can’t have an effect if it isn’t seen.

In an email, Kathleen Sheehan, a social media consultant, told me, “I typically recommend different hashtag strategies for different channels. But overall I position hashtags for use only as a search discovery tool.”

Sheehan stressed that hashtags work best as a method of discovery and not as a branding technique.

She explained, “Work backward and think of the person using a search bar to find something. For example, in marketing an indie film, use a hashtag with the name of the film to spread the word and amplify press or to find fans. But if you can’t use a hashtag with the exact name of the film, keep your expectations low. They probably won’t add any value.”

She concluded: “And please, please, please do not use hashtags in a #full #sentence to be comedic or cute. Just don’t.”

Katherine L. Garcia, Digital Marketing Manager at Web Marketing Therapy, also called for hashtags to be used with more discretion.

Garcia said, “When brainstorming for hashtags, focus on the ideal client. What type of client are you trying to find? And if you were in that client’s shoes, what hashtag would you search for on a random Thursday night? Use specific hashtags that will lead your ideal client to you. It’s always about quality, not quantity.”

For traditional marketers, the very notion of an Instagram hashtag-based strategy may seem novel. But the specifics of influencer marketing can be outright shocking.

On December 7, a documentary titled The American Meme debuted on Netflix. A Variety review characterized it as “an essential snapshot of the voyeuristic parasitic American fishbowl,” in which influencers feed a social media beast that pumps their fame and drains their souls. That beast is insatiable, with smartphone addicts checking their feeds and anticipating notifications at all hours of the day. The influencers depicted in the film have cashed in on their often warped, transitory, and distinctly modern forms of celebrity. They describe the details of the evolving influencer business model, in which companies dictate the particulars of endorsements, post timing, and product placements.

In the documentary, model and actress Emily Ratajkowski points out that her predecessors had all of their statements filtered through the media. She says that social media grants her control over her own image, career, and the expression of her views, and then claims that fourth-wave feminism is “about accessibility to technology.”

But at a certain point in the documentary, the credibility of these rationalizations starts to taper off. When addressing the rampant comedy plagiarism perpetrated by her friend and fellow influencer Josh Ostrovsky, commonly known as “The Fat Jew,” Ratajkowski explains, “I love how democratizing the internet is. It doesn’t scare me at all. As far as like plagiarism goes, I think it’s always been happening. Think about how many politicians are using the same recycled language about, like, morality and about family. It’s really dangerous for people to start limiting and saying, like, that doesn’t count for comedy or that’s not original.”

The Fat Jew stole jokes without attribution. It’s hard to see this as “democratizing,” and that people objecting to theft are not “dangerous.” Furthermore, values are not a form of plagiarism. If they seem to recur in political speech, it’s because those values are shared and enduring. Morality is not IP.

The American Meme shows the sometimes sordid details of influencers’ continual quests for relevance and attention. However, influencer marketing doesn’t entirely depend on deliberate provocation and plagiarism. Instagram content can also be uplifting. And whenever attention is directed somewhere, that attention can be monetized. It’s ethically and legally important to do it right. Machine learning tools might be able to identify endorsement disclosures that aren’t prominently highlighted by influencers. Additionally, the recent revealing of low-disclosure rates could prompt meaningful policy discussions and perhaps clearer guidelines from the FTC.

Feature Image Credit: Getty Images

By David Pring-Mill

Sourced from DMN Data. Strategy. Technology.

In News

Master the Art of Boosting Your Traffic with These 4 Tools from Google AdSense

February 5, 2019 No Comments

By Michael Guta

Just like the number of people who walk in your brick and mortar store, the amount of traffic you get on your website will dictate the success of your business.

A new infographic released by Google AdSense lists four valuable tools you can use to get the most out of your website with the goal of increasing the traffic. Although AdSense is known for monetizing your site more effectively, it also has a suite of tools to help you increase traffic and reach more of your potential customer base.

How to Increase Traffic Using Google AdSense

For small businesses with a digital presence, optimizing the monetization and traffic of a website is absolutely essential. Google wants to help your site by sharing important tips on how to boost and optimize your web site with Google AdSense tools.

Google Search

It all starts with the range of Google Search console tools to improve the performance of your digital presence online.

According to Google, you should submit your page to the Google index to see how the search engine views your site. This will diagnose any potential problems so the crawler can gain access for optimizing your ads.

You can then use Search Analytics to see the queries which are bringing more visitors to your site.

Traffic Analysis

According to Google, boosting the traffic of your site requires you to analyze, optimize and gain visibility.

With this analysis, you can determine who your audience is so you can tailor the content and ads on your site accordingly. Once you have figured this out, you need to optimize your website so it works seamlessly on all platforms.

This is followed by implementing solutions which allow you to gain the visibility of your site to rank high in searches.

With Google Analytics, you can track and monitor who is visiting your site and when. Based on this information, you can further optimize and customize the content along with the products and services you offer.

Additional tools include Google Trends to see what everyone is searching for, Market Finder to find new promotional opportunities, Consumer Barometer to determine just how people are using the internet, New Consumer insights for segmenting audiences with data, analytics and insights, and Success Stories for getting valuable tips and tricks from the community of users.

Channel Customisation

After you understand what your audience is looking for, the next step is to customize your channels. This will further optimize your site in order to reach your users.

Google says you need to review its new traffic acquisition tips and create up to 2,000 channels to optimize the performance of your ad units.

With the custom channels in place, it is time to turn them into targetable ad placements so advertisers can choose to display their ads.

During the optimization process, Google recommends you follow the Google AdSense Program policies and Webmaster Quality Guidelines.

Mobile Optimization

Mobile has surpassed desktop traffic. If your digital assets are not optimized for mobile traffic you are greatly limiting the number of users who will visit your site.

Whether you built your site yourself or you had a developer do it, make sure it is optimized for mobile. This will make it much faster to load and format on mobile devices to improve the user experience.

Google also recommends to start building AMP versions of your site, test your site to ensure it is operating efficiently on mobile, compare the speeds of other publishers with your site, and more.

Image: Google

By Michael Guta

Sourced from Small Business Trends

In News

Social Media – How To Choose The Best Platform for your Brand

February 5, 2019 No Comments

Sourced from MEN STYLE FASHION

The digital platform has led to the immense growth of social media. This has led to growth in a lot of areas on the internet including trade, advertisement and marketing. There are so many sites where you can advertise your brand, but which is the right one? It can get very confusing and overwhelming to make such a decision. Although some sites may not need too much investment financially, they can really take up your time. One effective way to get to know the perfect site is to understand your audience, commodity or services and markets.

Here are some major social site and how they can do for your brand

Facebook

Facebook is a pretty old social media site and is among the most used among all generations. This is the safest choice when you want to market your brand. Statistics show that over 2 billion people across the whole world have active accounts on this platform. They also share videos, audio and other content types.

You can market your brand by creating your own page with your brand name and description. Getting followers on facebook is easy, you just have to send some follow requests to your audience and convince them to share them with their friends and family. Growing the page won’t be that hard also, as stated there is a numerous audience on this platform. Facebook also offers you the tools to target the audience specific to your brand and advertise to them.

Instagram

One fun fact is that Instagram is that it is owned by facebook. There close to one billion people who are active of this platform and they share posts, pictures, videos and stories. Statistics show that more than half of these people follow at least one brand. This is the best place to advertise your brand or sell your goods and services.

Instagram offers you the ability to showcase your products to your target audience while pinning the location at the same time. You can use this visual platform to your advantage by personalising your brand and making it different from the rest. You can also get followers who have a specific interest for your brand. There are some few methods you can use to give your brand more notice. You can choose to use the hashtag strategy, tag other followers in your posts or even pay for story advertisements.

If you’ve only created your Instagram business account, there is another way to get more followers. You can choose to engage different people through likes, comments or if you don’t have time you can get auto comment for your Instagram posts and let it do the work for you.

Twitter

Although this platform is more social than marketable, it can work as a real great advertisement. For the most part, twitter is a platform for trending news, updates and opinions on everything. Users on twitter follow accounts they would like updates on. Your update is restricted to a number of updates, making it pretty short and precise.

The good thing is, you can use the hashtag to categorise your content with key words about your brand and what you have to offer. Twitter will need you to be more engaged with your audience. You will need to tweet several times daily in order to reach a certain number of audiences, or just a target. Most twitter users are critics and tend to be college educated, not every brand will pass in this platform.

Linked in

It is estimated that one person in every 4 or 5 social media users owns an account in linked in. It is probably not as popular as other platforms, but is a great marketing platform. It is used equally by both genders and is a great platform for marketing any form of resume or job. You can use this to find employees or get new jobs.

YouTube

This is one of the most popular social media platforms across the whole world. You tube has an active user list of more than 1 billion users. It is estimated that most people who won social media account spend one third of the activities online watching videos on YouTube. This is the widest platform when it comes to different cultures and languages. There are close to 80 different languages on this platform.

The advertisement and marketing opportunities in this social platform is outstanding. Most people who own accounts on YouTube use it to promote themselves, and some products. The audience is both old and young making it convenient for most types of products.

Like Instagram, this platform is mainly a visual platform. One amazing fact is that Pinterest is preferred by more female compared to male. This means that if you want to use for marketing, you have to ensure your brand suits the target market. This platform is also thought to likely to convert your marketing into a purchase compared to other social media accounts. One amazing feature on this platform is that you can pin the purchase product on your photo and the buyer will get direct access.

Snapchat

I think we all agree that snapchat is the least expected for marketing, branding and business. At first, it was more appealing to teenagers and younger generations. The application has very fun features and filters which draw the younger generations. It has an outstanding 300 million users. It offers you a creative and fun way to advertise your products and services. The filters are ever changing, making it exiting and alluring for the young.

Manage several platforms

Keep in mind that social media platforms are ever changing and require you to make changes as you go. Instead of advertising your brand in one platform, you can use the opportunity to your advantage by creating accounts with your brand in all these platforms. Ensure you have an idea of what brand will work well for the target audience before putting it out there. If you are too busy, autolike applications or social media managers can do the work for you.

Sourced from MEN STYLE FASHION

In News

Here’s How Online Shopping Has Changed the Fundamentals of Fashion-Oriented Businesses

February 5, 2019 No Comments

By Sanjeev Mukhija

The fashion market in India is currently pegged at $70 billion out of which online accounts for only 5per cent and by 2020, about $30bn of this market will be digitally influenced.

Online shopping is often perceived as a threat to brick and mortar businesses. While it is true that e-commerce is the future of retail, it isn’t necessarily a threat to traditional retail. With the rise of omnichannel retail, e-commerce is supplementing traditional retail by enabling businesses to reach out to customers at several touch points. It is no different when it comes to fashion-oriented businesses.

The fashion industry in India is slowly but surely warming up to e-commerce. The findings of a research conducted by Myntra revealed that the number of online fashion shoppers, pegged at 60Mn currently, is projected to grow to 120Mn by 2020. With the advent of online shopping, India has witnessed a considerable change in the buying behaviour of consumers over the years. This has caused a shift in the market dynamics for fashion based businesses.

What Has Changed?

Non-Urban India Has Become an Emerging Market:
Consumers from smaller towns and cities of urban and semi-urban India have arrived. The availability of cheap data packs and vernacular content has made them less sceptical about shopping online. With exposure to media, the masses have become more aspirational with respect to fashion. The limited accessibility to offline brand retail outlets in non-urban India coupled with attractive offers and discounts that online marketplaces provide, they are increasingly looking at using online channel for shopping.

Increased Demand for Premium Brands:
With the increasing popularity of e-commerce, the fashion and lifestyle segment has seen a rise in the demand for fast fashion and premium brands. Thanks to higher disposable incomes and exposure to media, today’s average consumer has evolved and are ready to buy global and luxury brands.

How Can Brands Adapt?

Brands Need to Become Social and Digital First:

The era of mass media marketing is a thing of the past. In today’s digital era, digital marketers reach out to consumers where they spend most of their time – online. It is important for fashion businesses to identify the channels and platforms that their target group uses the most and design their digital marketing campaigns around them. Brands today tailor their marketing campaigns around the interests and buying behaviour of customers and fashion-based businesses need to adapt to it too. Digital influencers have also emerged as powerful marketing partners and brand looking to reach their target group have to explore influencer marketing to complement their other digital marketing efforts.

Businesses Have to Personalize Customer Experience:
Customers today expect and appreciate personalized shopping experiences. Whether it is an app notification or a social media ad, targeting consumers at the right place and right time has become essential for eCommerce businesses. Convenience tops the list of priorities of today’s busy consumer and brands that reach out to consumers right where they are, playing a huge role in conversions.

Fashion brands today need to think global and act locally. They need to adapt to newer formats of marketing such as beefing up their digital presence across social platforms. Brands can effectively serve the local market by striking a balance between offline and online presence. On the logistics end, businesses should work on effective sourcing and supply chain for shorter go to market cycles.

Marketers today have access to a vast ocean of customer data that gives them unparalleled insight into customer preferences and behaviour. Businesses can leverage this data to provide a personalized customer experience across touchpoints. This allows consumers to shop on channels that are most convenient to them and helps businesses augment their reach beyond traditional retail outlets. Omnichannel shopping enables consumers to mix and match channels based on their needs.

The fashion market in India is currently pegged at $70 billion out of which online accounts for only 5per cent. By 2020, about $30bn of this market will be digitally influenced. As the eCommerce market continues to grow, fashion-based businesses need to constantly evolve to tap into the existing and emerging market for online shopping.

Feature Image credit: Shutterstock

By Sanjeev Mukhija

Managing Director, Breakbounce

Sourced from Entrepreneur India

In News

Consume Wisely – How to Deal with Too Much Content

February 5, 2019 No Comments

By Mile Živković

I know that a piece of content about too much content is kind of ironic, but hear me out. With every company out there putting out blog after blog, reading all the latest content seems like a chore. Good news for us writers, but if you’re trying to catch up on your reading list, you could end up spending hours every day just to stay on top of the latest content.

This is obviously not a viable strategy, so it’s highly important to hand-pick your reading list, unless you want to spend the better part of your workday wading through countless blogs and LinkedIn posts.

If you’d like to free up more of your day and become more productive with your use of time, here’s a few ways to battle the avalanche of content being created every day.

How did this all happen?

Unfortunately, the world didn’t all of a sudden develop the love for the written word. Blogging was quite popular even before content became big, but the advent of content marketing really made blogging blow up to what it is today.

While writing content for the sake of providing valuable information to readers is a noble cause, it’s not what drove the increase in the amount of content published. At a certain point in time, people realized that by writing content for specific keywords and aimed at specific audiences, they could increase visits to their business website and ultimately improve their bottom line.

Image source

Ever since, there’s been an avalanche of content from companies and individuals battling for keywords, visitors, shares and backlinks. As a result, there’s now more than 2 million blogs posted every day.

If you’re a marketer, tough luck, as you have to break through a lot of noise to get to your target audience. On the other hand, if you’re a reader looking for valuable content, you’ll also have to sort through lots of fluff and poorly written listicles to get to truly valuable, actionable content you can learn from.

Here’s how you can do that in a few easy steps.

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Set up an RSS feed

When you’re used to reading several dozen blogs at a time, it can be overwhelming just to check them for new updates. Imagine opening 30 different tabs to see if there’s something new posted to read, and doing that every other day.

RSS feeds are a convenient way to tackle this problem. Simply subscribe to your favorite websites’ RSS feeds and you’ll get their latest updates in your preferred feed reader. Instead of manually visiting each website, the feed reader will give you a headline, short description and a link for each new post.

You can sort and manage your RSS feeds according to categories or how important they are to read for you. In this way, you’ll always be on top of what’s left to read.

Don’t go too broad

You may have heard of the Shiny Object Syndrome, or SOS. Say that you’ve just found a blog on the effectiveness of influencer marketing on Instagram. Then you delve deeper and find another one on how to use Instagram stories for advertising. Then an article pops up on how a sneaker brand uses stories for ads, and you go to a video on sneaker trends, ending up on a podcast about collecting sneakers in 2019. This is all very interesting, but you’ve strayed far from your initial topic of research.

Although having many interests is an admirable trait, it won’t help you decrease the amount of content you consume every day. In order to avoid a cluttered reading list, focus only on topics that you need to learn about at a given moment.

The human mind is prone to wandering – about 47% of the time every day. If you don’t want each of your reading sessions to turn into an endless search for interesting information, stick to what you want to learn about and go over your content topics one at a time.

Set things aside to read for later

Has it happened to you that you run into a great blog or case study but you just don’t have the time to read it immediately? You can simply put it away for later. However, there’s a chance of forgetting what you want to read, so you can try out some of these techniques.

First, you can use bookmarks. I belong to the minority of people who still use them, but I have to admit that they’re not practical or easy to handle. If you’re already using them, make sure to sort them properly immediately after you bookmark a page.

Second, if you’re using RSS to catch up on your blogs, try a tool like Feedly. It has a list of all the blogs which you’re following so you can simply add some to your “Saved for later” column to catch up with. If you’re more used to reading on the phone, you can use the mobile app called Flipboard to get the same RSS functionality on the go.

Skim through content

As a writer, I’m probably going against myself when writing this, but you really should not be reading everything you lay your eyes on. There’s an immense amount of poorly written content out there which simply does not deserve your attention, so you should know from the start if a blog is worth 5-10 minutes of your time. In fact, 43% of blog readers admit to skimming through content.

First, check out the headline. As much as writers dislike this fact, 80% of all readers pay attention to the article headline only, while 20% will go on to read the body. A great way to consume less content is to stick to this rule and decide whether something is worth your time based on the headline only.

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However, note that you’re missing out on the big picture, so it’s a good idea to scroll through the article for more information. Luckily, we’re past the era of clickbait titles, so nowadays you will see less of those. However, even the best of writers are sometimes constrained by things such as keywords, character limit or perhaps even editor guidelines.

That’s why you should take a glance at the article body as well. First off, make sure that it looks readable – this means short paragraphs (3-4 lines) and plenty of white space. Second, pay attention to the subheadings. They need to be present (of course) and break down the topic into logical chunks of information so that you get an idea of what the blog is about just from the subheadings.

Finally, check to see if there are any photos. While they aren’t necessary for great content, they break up the monotony of too much text and they’re an opportunity to illustrate a point from the text. The overall effect is staggering – blogs with images get 94% more views than those without them.

By devoting just 5-10 seconds to skim through a piece of content, you’ll save yourself the time of reading something that is uninteresting, provides no value or is just poorly written.

Pay attention to links

If you know a thing or two about SEO, you’re probably aware that links are good for your blog. Links pointing to you mean higher authority and better positioning in search engine results. However, great content also has links going out to other, relevant websites.

Think of Wikipedia – all of the facts on their entries have to be backed up by data, either from books, research papers or some other source. If the piece of content has a statement somewhere, it should have a link to it. For example, blogs are the 5th most trusted source of online information.

Naturally, if the piece of content reflects the author’s personal opinion, it won’t need too many sources and links. However, by taking a quick look through links, you figure out the credibility of the content, writer and the website where it’s posted.

Conclusion

Even though there’s countless blogs being published every day, you can stay on top of your reading list by applying some of the tips outlined here. As content marketing doesn’t seem to be going away any time soon, it will be increasingly important to properly budget the time you spend on consuming content in 2019 and beyond.

How do you deal with content overload yourself? Is there a method that we missed that you personally use? Do let us know in the comments!

Feature Image source

By Mile Živković

Sourced from Business 2 Community

In News

5 Facebook Ad Mistakes That Could Be Hurting You

February 4, 2019 No Comments

By Amy Hayward

Are your Facebook ads underperforming? Are you unsure how to get your ads to work better?

In this article, you’ll discover five issues that impact Facebook ad performance and how to fix them.

#1: You’re Bidding Against Yourself

The way Facebook ads work is that you’re in an online auction bidding for the chance for your audience to click (or do whatever your goal is) on your ad. You only pay when somebody completes your event—clicks on your ad, for instance—and your competition is other ads that also target the same audience.

You shouldn’t ever need to worry about bidding against yourself unless you’re running campaigns or ad sets targeting the exact same audience.

As soon as you target the same audience twice with multiple campaigns or ad sets (in the exact same time period), you’ve placed yourself in direct competition with yourself for prime real estate. You’re trying to place two different ads in the same place at the same time and show them to the same people.

Most likely when this happens, your campaigns will underperform and underspend. If you’ve also set a bid cap on your ads (which limits the value of the bid your ads place at auction), you may even find the ads don’t deliver at all. You’ve placed your ads into a bidding war that they can never win, and you’re going to outbid yourself into oblivion and then never spend a cent or gain a single conversion.

Here’s what to do: Avoid targeting the same audiences at the same time with multiple ad sets or campaigns.

Click HERE to read the remainder of the article.

By Amy Hayward

Sourced from Social Media Examiner

In News

11 Trends That Will Shape Marketing In 2019

February 4, 2019 No Comments

Sourced from Forbes

Building brand awareness and successfully interacting with consumers is a crucial part of doing business today. Customers enjoy and expect a personalized experience, and delivering just that will set you apart from your competition.

Voice search and live videos were just two of the methods marketers explored to improve consumer interactions and brand awareness in 2018. As innovations in technology and ideas come forward, 2019 is also sure to see its share of trends having an impact on marketing. Below, 11 Forbes Agency Council members shared their predictions for the year ahead.

Members of Forbes Agency Council offer insights on what marketing trends to expect in 2019.Photos courtesy of the individual members.

1. A Bigger Role For AI In Personalization And Automation

We are all watching the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) in marketing and how it affects our clients’ relationships with consumers. As a company that focuses on bringing out emotional connections through physical environments, we’ll see AI play an even bigger role for brands as they look to personalize and automate more digital and traditional communications. – Jessica Reznick, We’re Magnetic

2. Smart Speaker Advertising Opportunities

Smart speakers and voice assistant devices are more affordable than ever before, making them a huge potential marketing tool in the upcoming year. As the relationship between big tech and the consumer grows deeper, marketers can more effectively reach their target audiences with personalized messaging and content. Expect to see more ad opportunities surrounding smart speakers in 2019. – Timothy Nichols, ExactDrive, Inc.

3. Growth In Content Marketing

Content marketing will always have a strong impact because of the exposure and backlinks you can receive for your brand. Writing interesting content and marketing it to influencers is a win-win. You are helping people with solution-oriented content, and the influencers help your exposure and outreach so it’s widely seen by the right audience and shared with their peers. – Peter Boyd, PaperStreet Web Design

4. A Turn To The Human Side Of Marketing

We are fortunate to live in an age of advancing technology, but we run a risk of oversaturating our market with off-the-shelf tools that gather faceless data and create ineffective content. Marketing has a remarkable power to inspire audiences. Instead of an influx of new tech to adopt, I predict we’ll embrace a deeper understanding of human behavior that will foster more meaningful relationships. – Hamid Ghanadan, LINUS

5. Integrated Online, Social And Mobile Marketing

2019 will be all about the integration of online, social and mobile marketing. Many businesses have dabbled in one or all of these marketing strategies, but true success in the year ahead will be marked by a fully integrated marketing program that incorporates all three. This will eliminate redundancies, increase efficiency and fully leverage content across these three major players. – Laura Cole, Vivial

6. The Growth Of Micro-Influencers

As influencer-tracking technologies continue to improve, brands are becoming better equipped at fielding and managing large networks of high-engagement, low-following micro influencers for their campaigns. This largely untapped market will soon allow for more brands to avoid the significant costs of mid- to high-level influencers and invest in more down-to-earth and relatable influencer marketing. – Jordan Edelson, Appetizer Mobile LLC

7. Audiences Made Part Of Brand Stories

The ability to engage with audiences (that is, making audiences part of the brand story) will have a huge impact. The less friction there is to engagement, the more connected people feel. Brands that are more willing to interact with customers publicly will have a strong impact—and brands that can show how this engagement influences their products and services will make an even bigger impact. – Bernard May, National Positions

8. Thought Leadership

Audiences seek expertise, critical insight and ways to be better at all points of interest. Experiential and interactive engagement with a brand is the future of consumer-brand connectivity. From live video, to recorded advice, to content with real-time responses, to contests and beyond, it’s about offering information and encouraging feedback from stakeholders in a way that establishes trust. – Scott Kellner, GPJ Experience Marketing

9. Transparency As Key To Winning Customers

Technology is giving us so many new tools and platforms that sometimes we forget that communication always happens between human beings. Brands are groups of people who try to communicate with other persons: their customers. In 2019, I expect transparency to be the key to winning the hearts of consumers, who will reward those brands that share their values in an authentic and transparent way. – Daniela Pavan, The Ad Store New York

10. Quality Trumping Quantity In Marketing

Content marketing has been preached to death by most marketers. Content marketing is important, but oftentimes companies are capitalizing on this strategy with over-optimized and bland content that is largely regurgitated from other companies doing the same thing. In 2019, I believe we will get more discerning and choose low-volume, high-quality content instead of high-volume, low-quality. – Brandon Stapper, Nonstop Signs

11. Customers Empowered As Brand Ambassadors

By utilizing tools like YotPo and BazaarVoice, we can now chalk up a percentage of a marketing campaign to leveraging our customers as brand ambassadors by asking them to share info on a product to their own networks. This helps bypass “influencer marketing” to an extent and lets us empower our customers to do the talking. – Loren Baker, Foundation Digital

Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only, fee-based organization for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Find out if you qualify at forbesagencycouncil.com/qualify. Questions about an article? [email protected]

Sourced from Forbes