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5 Degrees for Individuals Looking to Thrive at Marketing

These days, a person’s ability and experience are often more important than their degree. Still, some skills and knowledge are best built in the classroom, and a degree can make it easier to get hired and ensure that you have the skills you’ll need to be successful. Digital marketing is an ever-evolving, complex, and competitive field. In the attention economy, the biggest challenge is cutting through the noise to get a brand noticed in a positive way. To be a successful marketer, you need to be creative, adaptable, and willing to take risks. You also have to wear many hats and possess in-depth knowledge of several subjects. So which degrees are most helpful if you want to thrive in marketing? Aside from the obvious general marketing degree, there are several great options. If you choose to specialize or choose a degree that will help you understand and communicate with your audience, you may find it easier to land a job and thrive in the field. Here are five degrees that are highly applicable for marketers and those looking to enter the field.

1. English

English is one of the most versatile degrees a prospective marketer can pursue. It’s helpful in this field for a number of reasons. First, marketers need to be able to communicate their ideas and should possess top-notch writing skills. Second, an English degree is highly focused on critical thinking and analysis. This is very helpful when planning campaigns and evaluating competitors’ marketing efforts.

2. Psychology

At its core, psychology is all about how people think and feel. On a very basic level, a marketer’s job is to understand what makes people “tick” and appeal to their emotions. When buying a product, people are much more likely to listen to their emotions than they are to use logic. A psychology degree doesn’t have to lead to a career as a counselor or psychiatrist—it’s actually an ideal choice for marketers. Many successful marketers figure out how humans think through trial and error, but understanding the science behind behavior can help marketers thrive more quickly and make good decisions.

3. Graphic Design

Today, visuals are becoming more and more essential to just about every company’s marketing efforts. While it’s certainly possible to become a marketer knowing little to nothing about graphic design, it’s much easier to create compelling content and campaigns if you understand how colors and design affect a person’s desire to purchase or engage. Looking to learn more about graphic design? Consider some online resources from Udemy: - Udemy Photoshop - Udemy Adobe Illustrator Consistency is important in branding, and the visuals contribute to a brand’s overall “voice.” A degree in graphic design allows a marketer to create visuals with a similar “voice” that look great and help to improve the brand’s reputation with customers.

4. Communications

Many people scoff at a communications degree as “soft” or useless, but it’s nothing of the kind. Today, marketing has evolved to encompass many different forms of communication, blending PR, advertising, and even word-of-mouth promotion with the rise of social media. Communications majors have the ability not only to communicate but to form strong professional relationships by the time they graduate. As brand partnerships, influencer marketing, and other forms of collaborative promotion increase, communications and relationship management will only become more important in the field of digital marketing.

5. Business Analytics

Data has never been more important or easier to leverage. The number of metrics available to marketers today is staggering, and the effective use of data can effectively guide strategy and help marketing teams be more successful. However, knowing how to effectively leverage data is still a rare skill among marketers. Companies are desperate to find candidates who know how to analyze data and draw usable insights out of it. By earning a degree in business analytics, marketers can bring a rare and valuable skill to the table, allowing them to rely on facts, rather than intuition and guesswork.

Follow Your Interests

If you’re a marketer or you’re interested in getting into the field, it makes sense to pick a degree according to your interests. More than likely, one specific aspect of marketing appeals to you over the others. If you love to crunch the numbers, analytics might be the best option. For those who want to understand what drives their audience, psychology or communications might be better. No matter what degree you choose, remember that marketing is a broad field - you just need to find the perfect niche for you. Read the full article

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6 Web Design Tips to Improve B2B Marketing

Successful marketers frequently spend time analyzing their customer's needs and desire to target them more effectively. For instance, you spend time digging into demographic and regional information to see what these consumers are looking for in a product or service. Are they focused primarily on price or quality? Are they seeking an innovative technology or an established, easy to use product? By asking yourselves these questions as marketers, you can tap into what the consumers look for and how you can appeal to them. However, business to business marketing (B2B) differs significantly from business to consumer marketing (B2C). Business to business conversions are largely focused on creating a relationship with the buyer, rather than making an immediate sale. Relationship building through providing industry content, branding and contact with a representative is significant for buyers of B2B goods. The emphasis on relationship building lengthens the sales cycle. Due to the larger purchase price of B2B goods, there is often a buying center. A buying center is a group of employees or members of any type of organization responsible for finalizing major purchase decisions. This is comparable to making large purchases as a family. If the washing machine breaks, typically one partner does not go out and purchase a washing machine. The partners go shopping together, speak to representatives and discuss what they want out of this purchase. Similar to the purchase of the washing machine, the different stakeholders have different roles in the buying process and look for different attributes. In B2B the roles in the buying center include the user, influencer, buyer, decider and gatekeeper. To lead these buying centers to convert, you must ask yourselves similar questions that B2C marketers ask. When you understand what these different roles look for, you can focus on optimizing your web design to appeal to various members of the buying group. Here are six web design tips to improve your B2B conversions.

1. Know Who You’re Talking to

Determining which member of the buying group your website talks to is essential in effectively driving conversions. For instance, the user is the person that in the end, will utilize the product or service. If you sold commercial blood pressure monitors, your user would be the nurses using these systems day to day. The influencer may be the doctor with experience using the machine, but will not be the end-user on most occasions. Gatekeepers are responsible for the flow of information. They communicate with the other members of the buying group but can often frame the situation how they would like by withholding information. The buyer is the person signing the check. This may be the hospital's purchaser or operations team member. The decider is the person ultimately deciding which blood pressure monitor to purchase. In some instances, this may be the user, or it could be the buyer. These participants of the buying group all have different interests. If the user accesses your website, they will look for technical information like product pages. They will want to know many details about the product including its capabilities, accuracy, certifications and anything that ensures its quality as a product. Often the gatekeeper or the user is the person viewing your website content. Gatekeepers look for the critical information they can pass on to the user to see if your product contends. Gatekeepers will appreciate concise, bullets of information about the product features. In this hospital, these gatekeepers would likely be on an operations team and not have the technical experience to understand the many technical elements of the product. These blurbs of information shared with the user will potentially attract their attention and lead them to your site. These individuals should be targeted through detailed product pages, so they can get a better sense of the specifics of the product they would use. Recommended: 5 Step Process to Creating a Detailed Buyer Persona

2. Embed Video Content for Product and About Us Pages

B2C websites don't always require detailed information to sell products, but B2B sites often provide a greater wealth of content for various buying personas. Visual content like videos help provide buyers with perspective on expertise and knowledge while delivering visually appealing design to the webpage. For buyers who may not use the product, this content helps break up the monotony of detailed product specifics and allows them to visualize the product. A study estimated that 70% of B2B buyers want to watch a video during the purchase process. Users also appreciate video content because it allows them to see the product or service in action within an environment the potential user could relate. Some companies report an increase of as much as 144% in sales and conversions by embedding product videos. The importance of video carries over to "about us" company pages. As B2B sales cycles tend to be lengthy and built on standing relationships, website users often look to know more about the company they would work alongside. Unlike a B2C purchase, the relationship could potentially last indefinitely through consistent re-buys. The length of the relationship increases the stakes and causes users to want to learn more about the company's goals and vision. Embedded video content featuring different company leaders speaking about the history of the company and their strategic vision helps buyers develop a trusting relationship with the organization. Recommended: Is It a Good Idea to Equip Product Pages with Video Content?

3. Showcase Online Reviews

Many buyers rely heavily on online reviews, recommendations and social media content to make their decision. Influencers are a member of the buying group. These influencers can be personal contacts to the buyer and user, or they could be in the form of online reviews and feedback. The user-generated content on third-party review sites or social media is incredibly influential in the decision-making process. By strategically selecting a few honest reviews across various pages on the website, potential buyers can see what others say about your product. In tailoring which reviews are on different pages, we can curate perfectly targeted pages for various members of the buying group. For instance, “about us” pages that the buyer or gatekeeper would visit will feature reviews about the trustworthiness of the company and the valuable relationship formed. On the contrary, detailed product pages will feature reviews about the technical value and success of the product in action.

4. Include Trust Symbols

Your brand has worked hard to earn the emblems of review sites like Yelp or industry certifications — display them proudly! These badges attest to your brand's commitment to quality and industry-leading expertise and potential buyers will see value in this. Joe’s Garage, a coffee company in Seattle, displays their certifications proudly in the footer of their webpages. This ensures that regardless of where the user goes on the site, they can see the company’s accomplishments. Members of the buying group will take notice of the certifications valuable to them by recognizing the symbol. Even if some of the certifications won't directly lead them to convert, they can see that your company works diligently to stand out in the industry.

5. Curate High-Quality Gated Content

Much like SEO best practice in producing high-quality industry content, creating top-of-funnel content for industry searchers will prove your brand’s credibility. Being viewed as a thought leader in B2B markets further establish meaningful relationships with potential buyers. Providing users with access to this content after filling out a contact form can help your marketing team better target these individuals from lead nurturing details about their organization. Some examples of top-of-the-funnel gated content include: - eBooks - How-To Videos - Webinars - Datasheets - Industry Insights - Downloadable Guides Recommended: 11 Evergreen Content Marketing Trends to Use Year-Round

6. Provide Different Methods of Contact

With many different members of the buying group in B2B purchases, each stakeholder holds their preferred methods of contacting a potential supplier. Providing site users with numerous options for contacting your company will ensure that the method of communication doesn't hinder their willingness to connect with your business. A B2B buyer is 57% of the way through a purchase decision before they engage a salesperson, which means that B2B businesses sit on a pile of leads that they have not yet contacted! By giving users the opportunity to engage with your team through contact forms, email and live chat, you will begin the conversion process with leads that may not have picked up the phone and contacted you quite yet. By communicating earlier in the buying process you can write the story. Open lines of communication prevent losing a conversion because the potential buyer didn't have the right information about product offerings.

Effectively Target Your Buying Group

By implementing these six web design tips for improving B2B marketing, your company will more effectively target multiple members of the buying group. When these personas feel their needs and product requirements are met, your sales team will convert more potential buyers into sales! Read the full article

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How Wise SEO Strategies Can Vitalize Your E-Commerce Sale?

Each business owner, whether small, medium or enterprise level, knows the importance of SEO. The reason is quite obvious that they are able to earn organic traffic with search engine optimization, which makes a considerable difference in their sales. A perfectly optimized website lets you appear over Google’s first page, and it comes on the top in search rankings. Adding to this, everyone loves SEO as it brings double sale without investing their money on advertisements. So, what are those powerful SEO practices to boost your e-commerce store’s sale? The robust search engine optimization strategies are the combination of top ranking plus increased traffic equals to whopping sales. In this post, we will be listing few of them, here they go.

Work on Website’s Structure

Your foremost duty is to plan the best website structure. A well-structured website plays well with SEO strategy. If your site lacks in structure, it might confuse or discourage the visitor, which will further results in increased bounce rate. The factors that contribute in it are: - Prioritize mobile, it is a magic key to enter in the digital eCommerce and earn multiplying revenue. - E-commerce SEO requires fast page speed, as fast loading pages reduce bounce rate. And, engaging meta descriptions add stars. - Make sure e-commerce website is HTTPS. It safeguards the customers’ data, Google trusts it and leads to better SEO. - This is a good SEO practice to keep your title tag between 60 to 70 characters. Ensure to include relevant keywords to get the users’ attention.

Give Importance to Internal Linking

Keep your internal linking plan ready while building your e-commerce store. Internal linking is a process, which takes the visitors from page of the domain to other page of the similar domain. Here, you can appropriately make use of category pages over the website, which helps you manage the internal linking and gain desired results. Why does internal linking own a crucial role? - This helps the visitors navigate easily as the links have been given naturally along with their information hierarchy. - Google finds it easy to crawl the web pages with a well-planned internal linking. Thanks to the organized structure, and category-wise linking. And, if you turn it easy for search engine king to index your website, then you are bound to be rewarded with its blessing. - Sell and upsell campaign over your website ensures both SEO and financial profits for you. Here, Amazon did a superb job, as it created a marketplace with multiple sections according to the choice of both sellers and buyers.

Prioritize the Content

For the content, you need to remain as focused as you were for the website’s structure. The meaningful and engaging content impresses Google and invites more visitors to access your online store. How content helps your e-commerce store? - According to the recent scenario, it is good to include more than 1000 words content for each category and product page. Do not forget to use keyword 3 to 5 times in the page. - Phrases like Sale, Free Shipping, Flat Discount, etc. contribute in increased CTR (click through rate). - Remember that Google considers the content first to rank any page, so post enriched product descriptions to drive maximum organic traffic. - Keep writing blog posts regularly.

Stay Ready with Brand Promotions

Are you still not serious about your brand promotions? Then, you must be losing useful SEO juice. Right brand promotions can help you earn easy revenue. Let’s go deeper: - Embrace guest blogging strategy to earn double traffic, as this practice links the customers back to your store. And, it enhances brand awareness. - It is good that you write content, but it will be the best, if you share it frequently to build useful links. After all, Google considers it a medium to drive organic ranking. - You can invite well-known blogger to review the products of your store. This will help you polish your SEO practices. - Original reviews from the buyers lead to increase content of the product pages.

Pick Social Media Integration

Social media can turn the revenue score into multiplication. You should integrate your online store with social media platforms like, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Here, you get a free channel to advertise your products, and build lasting tie-ups with your potential customers. Why to encash this opportunity? - More than 90% people use social media, so there is no barrier in connecting and building customer relationship. - Keep your customers engaged by posting content on a regular basis. - No money needs to be spent to promote the brand and products.

Manage Category Pages Carefully

After home page, category pages in a website are the most popular and powerful. It is good to treat these pages just like home page. You must have a query in your mind that how to add content and boost importance of category pages. Here are some tips for you: - Building deep links for your product page is a positive gesture. Adding to this, focus on content marketing with guest blogging and social media. - Plan SEO-friendly URLs. This is a wonderful SEO practice as it leads to providing powerful hints to search engines about your URLs. In return, the search engines convey useful information to the visitors via these URLs. Make sure you build powerful URLs, but avoid keyword stuffing, as it will do more harm than benefit. - The content you share socially, tag it. And, create a planned strategy to share these links on Twitter, Facebook and other social networks. Stay specific to your tags.

Wrapping Up

With the above-mentioned SEO practices, it will become easier to bring more organic traffic for your e-commerce store. It is up to you that how you plan strategy for your store to enhance organic traffic, boost CTR (click-through rates), as well as target right customers. There are a number of ways to work on your online store, such as earn external links by creating blogs, infographic, product descriptions, reviews, etc. And, building internal links within the website. Good planning, right resources, and appealing store will take you towards the revenue growth. Read the full article

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9 Tips for Marketing to Gen Z

Generation Z is like no other. This group, born in the mid-1990s and after, is comprised of roughly 2 billion people, all of them adept at navigating the shifting digital landscape. Coined "digital natives," the boundaries between online and offline lives are nearly nonexistent. Each generation has a unique set of challenges when it comes to marketing. With the oldest millennials turning 38 this year, Gen Z consumerism has created an impact on industries as brands fail to adapt to new demands. To effectively market to Gen Z, it's crucial to understand how they think and act. Consider the nine tips below to plan a great marketing strategy targeting Generation Z.

1. Write a Mission Statement

For Gen Z consumers, it's not about the product — it's about the company. As a business, it's important to tell your brand's story, including morals and what you stand for. According to one study, 55% of Generation Z chooses brands that are eco-friendly and socially responsible. Companies must be aware of all current events in the world, whether it be political, economic or environmental. Gen Z is looking for brands that represent shared values. One example is TOMS shoes, which added value to its business through the one-for-one charity model. This model promised each sale would equate to a child in need getting a free pair of shoes. After making a purchase, customers feel they did a good deed. Recommended: How to Craft Brand Stories that Attract and Sell (Very Well)

2. Choose the Right Platforms

Gen Zers use a variety of platforms across multiple devices, and 52% discover new brands through social media. They expect companies to be online and available 24/7, including when a problem occurs. For Gen Z, communication is a two-way interaction, one in which concerns are expected to be heard. Understand that each platform has a specific purpose, and Generation Z has no tolerance for misuse. Instagram is where Gen Z learns about a product, making it the perfect spot to implement micro-influencers. On YouTube, they want to learn new skills or see quick clips about upcoming products. Keep in mind that Snapchat is considered a second home, with more than half of Gen Z accessing it 11 times or more each day. Around 40% of Generation Z uses Snapchat while shopping, and 37% send snaps to friends to share when doing so. How you display your products — and where — will have a significant influence on Gen Z consumers.

3. Use Personal Language

Flashy sales lingo littered with buzzwords won't cut it anymore. Gen Zers will see right through a fancy marketing tactic and send it straight to the trash bin. Instead, use personal language that's akin to talking with a friend. Leave the 10-cent words behind and use language that's clear, concise and easy to understand. Your message, whether about a product, discount or your brand, should be personalized to a user's wants and needs. Young users are willing to share personal information about themselves in exchange for a tailored experience. According to one study, 38% of Generation Z believes ads and promotions based on their interests and shopping habits are cool. Also, 42% of young Gen Zers think personalization is an excellent tool for discovering new products and services.

4. Capture Their Attention

No matter your method of marketing — a YouTube video featuring a new product or an email with an exclusive discount — it's best to make things snappy. Experts say Gen Zers have an attention span of eight seconds, four seconds less than millennials. That's little time to persuade them away from the skip button. How can you shape your message to appeal to your target audience? Most Gen Zers prefer to communicate with brands on social media. Understand which platforms are used and how. You don't want to post a long product video on YouTube when most users prefer bite-sized content. Communicate openly and honestly. Gen Zers are savvy to the digital world and wary of anyone trying to sell them something. Prove your worth by offering complete transparency with prices, production methods, brand missions and more. Recommended: 3 Ways to Optimize Your UX for Gen Z Users

5. Create Authentic Interactions

According to experts, a 5% increase in customer retention will generate a profit increase of 25% or more. Retaining a customer comes down to a sense of brand loyalty — but Generation Z, skeptical of tricks and hidden fine print, is less inclined to stick with one brand. Only 36 percent of Gen Zers say they feel a strong loyalty to a brand. However, as they age, studies reveal this loyalty increases, suggesting marketers have a short timeframe to build connections. Marketers have to work extra hard to retain a Generation Z audience. The best way to capture and keep their attention is through authentic and meaningful interactions. Think about quality, not quantity. Understand how Gen Zers want to interact and communicate. One study revealed 44% would like to submit ideas for a product idea, and 42% would participate in an online game for a marketing campaign. Explore new ways for consumers to interact and get involved with your brand.

6. Email Relevant Content

Email marketing is not dead. One study showed 58% of Generation Z checks email multiple times throughout the day.  They're more adept at weeding out spam and unsubscribing from unwanted content. Most Gen Zers receive 20 emails or fewer a day, meaning marketers face less competition. However, brand emails must follow rigid expectations to avoid a trip to the spam folder. More than 82% of Gen Z prefers emails with discounts and special promotions. It's unlikely they'll purchase directly from an email, but many will use the discount in-store at a later date. Product recommendations are desired when specifically tailored to the customer's needs, but few want company updates or links to brand resources. Gen Z expects to find info about your brand on platforms like Instagram, not through email. Most of Generation Z views email marketing as spammy, pushy and boring. If email is part of your strategy, consider how you can incorporate exciting promotional offers as well as fresh and exciting design concepts.

7. Design for Mobile

For Generation Z, mobile is essential, with 75% choosing a smartphone as their favorite device. It's a means to connect, stay entertained, learn and much more — all while on the go. Many millennials weren't introduced to the tech until after adolescence or later. To Gen Z, smartphones and mobile devices have been common since birth, something they grew up with and used starting at a young age. Mobile is a second language, and your brand better speaks it. Make all of your content — whether shared on your website, social media or through email — mobile-friendly. Be sure your design is clean and easy to navigate. Use text large enough to read comfortably without scrolling from side to side. If a user has trouble with your website or buying a product, they'll simply move on to a competitor.

8. Integrate Micro-Influencers

Social media influencers take photos of exotic vacations, fancy designer clothes, gifts from brands and more, all while getting paid to write posts on sites like Instagram. One study revealed social media influencer is the second most popular career choice for those ages 11 to 16 — second only to doctor. Followers look up to influencers to offer advice and wisdom on topics like where to shop, eat, travel and socialize. Influencers are categorized by the number of followers they have, starting at nano and maxing out at mega. Micro-influencers fall near the middle with 10,000 to 50,000 followers. Nan-influencers are the smallest, with 800 to 10,000 followers, while mega-influencers can have 1 million or more. By using micro-influencers in your marketing strategy, Gen Z is more likely to listen to what you have to say. While mega-influencers once had their place, many have become known as internet celebrities, equating to less authentic posts. With micro-influencers, you can choose a true brand ambassador who speaks to consumers one-on-one and understands their needs.

9. Provide Complete Transparency

While Gen Z is willing to share personal information in exchange for a personalized experience, they're cautious with how brands use and share their data. Research shows that 55% of Gen Zers want control over what information they share. Younger generations are well aware of data breaches and want to ensure their information, when willingly handed over, is kept secure. Gen Zers don't tolerate ambiguity in any marketing. If you're planning a short video snippet for a new product, be sure to include crucial details like key features, price and launch date. If you plan to partner with a charity organization for a value campaign, outline precisely how you're giving back with hard stats like hours/products contributed or money donated. By 2020, Gen Z is expected to account for 40% of all consumers in the United States. It's essential for marketers to understand what the generation expects and what they crave. Research social media platforms and how they're used. Then, share authentic messages and experiences that will lead to loyal brand ambassadors. Offer transparency in all aspects of business, from your mission statement and production process to prices and return policies. Be sure to adapt to mobile design, as you're destined to sink without it. Read the full article

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5 CRO Hacks that Will Boost Your e-Commerce Sales

It is no secret that the point of an e-commerce business is to generate sales. Yes, leads are nice to have and if you can find different ways to drive leads and generate traffic, then you are on the right track. However, all these are of vain if your e-commerce store isn’t making any money-which is its main purpose. This is where conversion optimization (CRO) can help. It is a system to increase the number of visitors to a particular website that converts into customers. Here are 5 CRO hacks that will boost your e-commerce sales.

1. Free shipping works like a charm

Let’s start with something that works like a charm when it comes to improving your conversion rate. Yes, it is free shipping. Maximum cart drop-offs happen during the checkout process for several reasons and one of them is the shipping fee. Offering free shipping is another nudge to a user to complete his purchase.  Delivery charges are a let-down and almost all users love free shipping. While every e-commerce business knows that users crave free shipping, many of them ignore the necessity of offering the same. Even if you offer shipping costs, you need to be careful with the presentation. Declare the shipping costs before checkout. Do not bring in shipping cost as a surprise. Trust me, they hate it. Despite charging a shipping fee, your shipping procedure might be slow. Users who won’t mind paying shipping fee might be even more considerate about shipping speed.

2. Leverage Re-targeting and re-marketing

Re-marketing is a quite broad term used to define different scenarios. The main objective of re-marketing is to bring your old users back to the site and convert them into customers. Though re-marketing and re-targeting is used interchangeably, there is a significant difference between the two. Re-marketing is the technique which uses email conversation to directly engage with old customers and present new sales opportunities to them. See this example.

Source Whereas, re-targeting leverages browser cookies to follow the activities of your audience and display your ads when they visit other sites.

Source Re-marketing is the Holy Grail if you are looking for how to improve e-commerce conversion rate. Both Google and Facebook offer tools for re-marketing and re-targeting. Google dynamic re-marketing and Facebook dynamic ads are two of the popular channels. Re-marketing ads have a high chance of conversions as it targets only those who have shown an interest in your products.

3. Offering guest checkout

As you already know, the checkout process accounts for the highest percentage of cart abandonment and drop-offs. One way to optimize the checkout process of your online store is to offer an option for guest checkout. Guest checkout is the one which allows a customer to make purchases on your store without signing in. To buy anything, all that he has to do is to fill the shipping and billing details and that’s it. E-commerce optimization goes a long way. We all have registered with many websites that we might have even lost track of. The plethora of email follow-ups and reminders are truly annoying. Users don’t like to register to websites just to buy a product. This is true with the first customers. A guest checkout makes the whole process convenient and easy and increases the chances of the customer making a purchase.

4. Credibility and social proof

When searching for any products, how often do you read online reviews before making the purchase? Almost every time right? 86% of customers read online reviews before making a purchase. Most people trust online reviews as much as their friends. To boost your customer reviews, send automated emails to customers asking them to review the product after their purchase. In addition, offer a certain amount of discounts or free coupons on the next purchase. Another tip to boost customer satisfaction is to offer free refunds which make your customers believe in you. Also, focus on easy return policies which make customers happy and relaxed. Using logos, security badges, and partnership will help you build your credibility as a brand. This gives an assurance to your customers that even if things go wrong, your brand reputation and reliability will make things smoother.

Source

5. Optimization of call to action (CTA)

Call to action is a very important element that guides users about what to do. The strategic placement of CTA converts a visitor into a customer in just few clicks. When styling CTA, you must make sure it is placed in the most visible area of your website. Some of the examples of commonly used CTAs are "Buy now" or Shop Now. Take adequate time to learn and experiment with the right content and presentation to optimize your shop button. Ensure that whatever you use is relevant and creative.

CTA optimization tips

- Make sure you don’t go overboard when you write action-oriented words. - Try using different colors that give the best visual appeal which resonates your branding. - Make use of the psychology of urgency to increase conversions. Include a time limit in end-of-the-season sale and mention the number of products left.

In closing

Last but not least, you can take advantage of live chat tools to boost conversion rates. As opposed to emails, live chat and chatbots go a long way to earning the trust of your customers. Add live chat to your e-commerce platform to increase customer satisfaction and you will see immediate results. As an e-commerce brand, it is important to maximize your ROI and the best way to achieve it is not by getting more traffic but by converting the existing traffic. There are literally so many CRO hacks that you can follow to optimize your e-commerce business. The most important thing is to identify your weak points and start from there. Start small and proceed to bigger experiments. Increasing your conversion rates will be one of your top priorities, and you must always strive to improve. Keeping track of your analytics and identifying more avenues to optimize will help you reach the end goal. The trick lies in bringing in visitors to your site, making them interested and engaged. The rest will follow. Read the full article

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How to Encourage Site Visitors Through the Sales Funnel

Your sales funnel can make or break the return on investment (ROI) for your website. Figuring out how to move customers through the various phases of the sales funnel requires knowing who they are and what they want. Have you ever visited a site where you just couldn't resist moving through the site toward the end goal? Such experiences indicate a positive buyer journey. Around 68 percent of companies don't have a measurement for their sales funnel, which led to high numbers of customers not converting. Getting customers to your site isn't always an easy process. You want to convert as many of those visitors as possible into paying customers. There are some clear things you can do which encourage site visitors to move through your sales funnel and convert into customers. We're going to look at six ways of moving visitors through your funnel and consider some examples of companies doing this particularly well.

1. Create Trust

When people land on your website for the first time, they don't know who you are or if you're dependable. You have to create a level of trust. The only way to do that is through being authentic and upfront. Share information about who you are and create easily found links to your return policy and any warranties. Include trust indicators, such as which consumer groups you belong to such as the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and what your rating is. Allow customers to post reviews on your website. Share testimonials from your happy customers.

2. Place the CTA Near the Top of the Page

Some people will come to your page ready to do business. Perhaps they were referred by a friend or maybe they just need assistance now. Provide an option for them that allows them to skip all the information gathering elements or the trust factors by placing a call to action (CTA) near the top of your landing page.

Garage Door Specialists places two clear CTAs near the top of their landing page. One reads "Request Estimate" and the other reads "Request Service." No matter what the customer needs, they can click on the CTA and get immediate help. The telephone number is also listed clearly in the same location in case the customer prefers to phone. Recommended: Don’t Underestimate the Power of Your CTA

3. Write a Blog

Content is one of the best ways of educating your site visitors and making them see the value of what you have to offer. While it isn't a direct path to the person making a purchase, it is a vital part of the sales funnel process. One of the first keys to conversions is getting people to your site. Companies who blog get about 97 percent more links to their sites than those who don't.

Mattel's Barbie website does a good job of providing some interesting content about Barbie. They even tie some current events to the doll, such as the Fourth of July. Notice how the information varies but always provides an education about the product to try to convince users why purchasing Barbie is a smart move. Recommended: Blog Post Image Canva Templates

4. Show the Process

Sometimes site visitors hesitate because they worry the process of signing up will be too complicated or take too long. Show them how easy it is to sign up for your product or services. They're much more likely to move forward in the sales funnel. However, in addition to showing them the process, you must make the act of viewing the process simple and getting started simple.

Winc does a good job of showing the process of signing up for their subscription service while still keeping the information simple and making sign up as easy as clicking on a button titled "Get Started."They offer visuals on the process and show three simple steps on "How it Works." They explain you get to discover the bottles and choose the types of wine you like, they deliver it and over time they learn what you like based on your ratings. The process is simple and the visual takes the fear out of trying it out.

5. Find Your Focus

Your landing page needs to have a narrow focus. The more choices you offer site visitors, the more likely they'll grow confused and bounce away. If you really want to move them through your sales funnel and create conversions, make the process simple by offering a single choice - to convert. You can do this through the headlines, text and a single CTA button, for example.

Freckle does an excellent job of narrowing the focus and driving visitors into subscribers. They include a CTA just above the fold in a contrasting color that says "Create Your Free Account."  The headline reads "Freckle for Grades K to 2" and the text describes that it is lessons building a foundation of skills. Of course, there are some navigational elements in the nav bar. However, they fade into the background compared to the bold, big CTA which grabs the user's attention.

6. Write a Killer CTA

When it comes to moving users through your sales funnel, your CTA is the key point of entry. When a user lands on your page, the first thing they should notice is your CTA. In addition, the text on your button makes a difference in how likely the user is to click on the button and take action.

Pay Attention to Small Details

Small changes impact your overall conversion rates. Look to your landing page with an eye for detail. Does the size of the text work well? Pay attention to each feature on the page, even the color of the CTA button. Make adjustments as needed and test them thoroughly to see which ones work best for your target audience. Read the full article

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Why Didn't You Ask this Before Hiring Your UI/UX Design Company?

It happens with us in our lives when we sit in a corner and simply blame ourselves for ‘not’ doing something. The same thing can apply in the situation when you are hiring an outside help for accomplishing one of your tasks. We are, at the moment, talking about a UI/UX Design Company. Any decision related to the UI/UX design, will directly affect the user experience and interface of your business website and application. Your business website is a very important asset of your business, as it is the one supposed to bring next hundreds or may be thousands or even more customers to your business. So, you have to decide which of those professionals out there can partner you well in building this asset for your business. You have to ask them everything, so that later, you don’t ask yourself “Why didn’t I ask this before hiring Design Company?”

What does ‘everything’ mean here? Well, I have mentioned a list of details you should confirm before starting your design project with them.

1. Are they able to design in a “Non-Duplicate” way?

Your website should be the unique identity of your business. Thus, you should be guaranteed that your design will be completely unique. It should be 100% authentic dedicated to your business without a single element copied from any where or matching to any of those present on the web.

2. Can they design it ready for approvals?

Once you get your design ready for the website and logo and the relevant elements, you need to get the trademark or copyright certificates for the authenticity of your website. There are several parameters to follow in the design and the development of the website to prove it unique and get the copyrights approved. You need to get the guarantee from your UI/UX design company that they will make it completely authentic as per your requirements and for your business. If that does not happen and you face the rejection while getting the copyright/trademark, your design company should be ready to take the responsibility and fill for the rejection, either by re-designing it as per the parameters or pay for the refund.

3. Use of Library and Dictionaries

There are several Libraries and Dictionaries available on the online platforms used for design purpose of websites. You need to confirm this with your design company whether they can create the design elements such as symbols, navigation, grid, buttons and many other, based on your requirements. Whether they use the libraries and dictionaries available online or they create the design elements from scratch.

4. Which Prototyping tool do they use?

Like every element of website, for website’s design, the main element is a prototype of the design which connects with the development of the website. Thus, you need to confirm with them which prototyping tool they use which will further help your development team to get the code developed quickly.

5. Can they design as per the concept and target audience?

Every business has a unique concept. Every business targets different type of audience. The UI/UX design company shall be intellectual enough to understand this. The company should have enough intelligent UX researchers who study on the types of audience, their preferences, their mindsets and able to follow the same in the design. You need to discuss with the representative, or probably better speak to the UX researcher to get the better idea of their understanding of these important verticals.

6. Adherence to design guidelines

Every platform has a different set of design guidelines. Google Web, Google Play store and iTunes, these all have a different type and set of guidelines. Thus, you need to confirm with the potential UI/UX Design Company whether they understand the guidelines and are able to follow them.

7. Aware about latest trends

This world of web is ever evolving in all its parameters. Everyday we read about a new trend which diversifies and changes complete outlook to the things we have been seeing throughout the while. Thus, you need to confirm whether the company that you are hiring is keeping their designers with the on going and upcoming trends. Staying updated will help them and you get the perfect astounding design for your project.

8. Use of design tool

Based on the trends, the guidelines and frameworks also accept and expect the changes in the tools used for the designing. Thus, it is also important to know which tool your design company is using, whether they are using the latest tool or not and are aware of the latest technology. The use of the latest tool for designing will help further in the development process as it is based on the latest guidelines.

9. Full-time or part-time?

Depending on the requirement and urgency of the project, you need to know whether the team will be prioritizing your project for a full time or they will work on it part time along with other projects. This question will give you an answer about how many days your design company can take to complete the design of your project.

10. If you could use the same design team for further process?

This happens several times with us, while working with a particular partner we just start loving their work and their way of work. It can happen with you as well. You can also start liking the work of your UI/UX Design Company. Thus, you should be aware in advance whether you will be able to work with the same time for an ongoing process or is it allotted to you for one-time project only.

11. What is their work structure?

It can happen that you are hiring a UI/UX Design Company from a foreign country where they might follow a different time zone. Thus, you need to confirm with them: - what is their work structure like? - at what time of the day do they start and what are the working hours they will dedicate time to your project? - will it be convenient to speak to them during the day? - what are their weekly offs or holidays? - when will they send you updates? - how to manage their projects and assignments? Etc. Knowing answers to all these questions is very important as it can later create misunderstandings if kept hidden or unanswered.

12. Are they open to sign an NDA?

Whether the project is small or large, you would not like your competitors to know about your strategies. You have to confirm with the potential design company whether they are open to sign an NDA with you as this will give you and them a security for the proceedings of the project for non-leakage of any data or strategy.

Do you still have any other question in mind?

While partnering with an outside service provider you have several tides and waves in your heart thinking about every if and then. Thus, it is better to clarify every query before starting so that later you don’t regret it. Here, we have covered most of the common queries we face from clients and find it necessary to be asked and answered as it removes the chances of regrets on both sides and develops high-level of trust between both the parties. Still have confusions in mind? Please let us know what else do you think should be asked while hiring your UI/UX design company. Read the full article

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How to Create Content for Global Audiences on Social Media?

Today, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Pinterest are accessible to users from all over the world. For this reason, it's important to create social media content that will appeal to a global audience. In this article, you will find tips on how to build a successful content marketing strategy and gain more followers from abroad. Feel free to apply these tips to grow your business and generate profit.

Write Captions in Simple Language

When it comes to content for a global audience, it’s crucially important to use simple language. According to statistics, only 10% of Facebook users are American. And more than half of Facebook’s users speak languages other than English. So it’s highly likely that a good portion of your followers can’t read and understand your texts without using online translators. And you should use standard word order to make sure that translation tools will interpret your message correctly. Also, you should avoid using sophisticated phrases, idioms, and words with multiple meanings. It will make your content more understandable for people with basic English skills.

Don’t Use Images with Text

Images with quotes as well as funny memes are popular on social media, that’s true. But you should avoid using them if you target a global audience. Firstly, people who can’t read English text without the use of online translators will not get an idea of your social media post. Secondly, non-English speakers will find it challenging to understand the sense of sophisticated quote or joke. So it’s better to use images that do not include any words at all.

Use Hashtags and Emoji Wisely

Cultural differences influence the content marketing strategy for a global audience in many ways. Probably you will be surprised, but even emojis are perceived differently by different cultures. For instance, the Chinese consider “clapping hands” emoji as a symbol for making love. And the rest of the world considers it as a symbol of praise or congratulations. The cultural differences cannot be ignored, so you should think twice before adding emojis to your social media posts.

Screenshot source. Also, you should be careful while using various hashtags. Some word combinations and shortenings that sound good in English may sound weird or even creepy in other languages.

Be Careful Using Humor

Every marketer knows that humor helps to boost engagement. But the truth is that when it comes to content for a global audience, the humor is not always useful or beneficial. If you want to write a joke in English, make sure that non-English speakers will be able to understand it. Also, you should remember that people from different countries have a different sense of humor. So a joke that you find nice and funny may seem to be weird or silly to your overseas audience. Here is an example of a bad joke for the global audience. Once, Adele, a famous British singer, decided to entertain her fans and tweeted a question: “What does a snowman eat for lunch?” And then tweeted the answer “Iceburgers”. Naturally, the English-speaking audience got a joke, but Korean followers didn’t. So if you don’t want to confuse your international audience, be careful using humor in your social media posts.

Screenshot source.

Add Subtitles to Videos

If you create video content for social media, don’t forget to add subtitles. It will help non-English speakers to understand what your video is all about. The point is that most language learners find it easier to understand a foreign language when reading than listening. It means that you can boost your conversions without massive investments – simply by adding subtitles.

Watch for Units of Measures

As you know, people in different countries use different units of measures. So when you create content for a global audience, you should take into account. Let’s say you are going to publish the recipe of the lemon pie on Facebook. What unit of measures will you use when explaining what products and in which quantities to use: pounds, kilos, or ounces? The best way to write your recipe is to set the measures in both units: pounds and grams. For instance, you can write “use two pounds (907gr) of lemons and one pound (453gr) of flour”.

Localize Content

In some cases, a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work. It means that even if you create social media posts applying the tips mentioned above, you will not be able to achieve the results you expect. To boost conversions, you should localize your content. Firstly, you should translate your social media posts from English to the target language. Secondly, you should make sure that the core message was interpreted adequately. Obviously, if you are not a polyglot, you can’t complete content localization by yourself. For this reason, you need to find professionals in content localization online. Here you have two options to consider: - You can hire native speakers via a popular freelance platform, for instance, via Upwork or Fiverr. - Or, you can utilize full-scale translation and localization services like TheWordPoint.

Customize Your Facebook Business Page

If you want to create an outstanding Facebook strategy to target a global audience, activate the “Switch region” feature. It will allow you to customize your main business page in the way it will show different content for users from different countries.

Screenshot source. Some famous brands have already started to use this feature. For instance, Under Armour has dozens of corporate subpages for different regions. The company successfully engages social media users from more than 45 different countries. Under Armour publishes two types of posts: - International posts translated into local languages. - Unique posts created for one specific region.

        Screenshot source 1. Screenshot source 2.

Screenshot source This flexible approach allows the company to save money on content production. As you know, it’s cheaper to localize international posts than to create every single post for the local market from scratch. At the same time, this approach allows to adjust the content strategy to different cultures and get locals to be more emotionally connected to the brand.

Ask Your Followers to Help You with Translation

This approach doesn’t work for big companies. But it works for bloggers, artists, and other creative people, who use social media platforms to build their personal brands. If you have followers from all over the world, ask them to translate your captions into their native languages. You can be sure that they will be glad to do you a favor. If you don’t believe that this approach works effectively, here is an example for you. Amanda Oleander, an artist and Instagram influencer, always translate titles of her illustration with the help of her foreign followers. In this way, she makes her content accessible for the global audience without spending a penny on translation services.

Screenshot source.

Wrapping It up

If you want to create great content for a global audience, you should be attentive to details. You should be aware of all the cultural differences that may influence the effectiveness of your content marketing campaign. Well, it’s not that easy to create social media content that will appeal to an international audience. But you will handle this task if you apply the tips given. Put your efforts into content production, and then you will be rewarded with high reach and engagement. Read the full article

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7 Ideas on How to Engage Your Audience on Instagram

Gone are the days when a successful Instagram account was meant to be the one with the highest number of followers. From businesses buying fake followers to influencers trying to get fake likes and comments, we all have witnessed the murky side of this social media platform. Thankfully, due to the latest Instagram algorithm, now your account’s popularity is not solely dependent upon the number of followers but is greatly dependent on the engagement rate of your audience. Although having a good number of followers still counts, your efficiently crafted posts will not make any sense if they do not reach to the targeted audience. While it might be difficult to gain the attention of your followers and continuously engage them due to the rising competition, learning a few tactics will help you in gaining new followers, engaging with your audience and building up your community. Here are some simple ideas which will help you in achieving your Instagram goals.  

1. Know Your Instagram Engagement Rate

Source. Before jumping to grab the attention of your Instagram followers, it is important for you to know your current Instagram engagement rate. Knowing your current rate will help you set a benchmark and you can accordingly work to implement audience engagement ideas. While we are pretty sure that our ideas will prove to be useful, measuring your Instagram engagement rate will help you in checking if these ideas really worked for your account. Basically, Instagram engagement rate is the percentage of the total number of followers engaged in any posted content. It is calculated based on the number of likes, comments and shares your post receives. Apps such as Later, Triberr, Phlanx, Influencer Fee, etc. are easily available on the internet and can help you in calculating your Instagram engagement rate. All you have to do is enter your Instagram handle details and these calculators will give you the complete statistics.

2. Engage with Accounts Similar to Your Industry

Source One golden rule of Instagram is engagement attracts engagement. So, before working on your next Instagram post or story, take some time out to appreciate the work of others. If you get engaged in the posts of accounts which are a part of your niche, there are high chances of you getting noticed. The more you interact, the more visible your account becomes. This will help you in bringing more profile visitors and the ones who are genuinely interested in your work might even start following you. However, make sure to get positively engaged and be a part of healthy discussions on the platform. Also, choose quality over quantity and take enough time to identify your industry-specific accounts and engage with the posts which you feel are meaningful. By doing this, you are presenting yourself in front of the right audience, who might have some interest in your content.

3. Reply to Comments

To keep the conversation going and to help push your post towards the top of your follower’s feeds, it is important that you reply to your comments. As the number of responses on your post increases, Instagram recognises your post as an appreciated piece of content and gradually pushes it in your followers' feed. Although tedious, but take time to actively reply to different comments on your post. Just make sure to keep the ball rolling, try to post friendly comments which will attract the attention of more followers. You can even tag other people in your comments and draw their attention towards your conversation. For example, if you are an influencer and are reviewing a product or a service, introduce your affiliate brands or ask fellow influencer friends to provide their feedback on the similar product.

4. Make Every Post Count

Source. No matter whether you are a brand or a micro-influencer, everything you post on your Instagram account is visible to your audience. Don’t post anything in a jiffy or just because someone else posted and you also posted. Every little thing counts for making a post engaging. Make use of clear pictures and write a creative caption to build your brand awareness. Go through your post before posting and make sure, it gives out a clear message of what you intend to give to your audience. Also, focus on your profile as a whole, as it is the first thing your visitors will see. Set a good profile picture and add a descriptive bio. Try creating different style patterns or grids and make use of filters to keep your images appearing fresh. Simple planning before posting a picture will help you in presenting a consistent and positive brand image to your audience. Recommended: 7 Tips to Create the Best Content for Social Media Marketing Posts

5. Give Your Followers an Insight of Your Brand

Nowadays, Instagram followers expect more than usual from their favourite brands. So, instead of limiting your posts to just product pictures or simple seasonal greetings, express your brand’s mission, introduce the people working behind the brand, your work culture, company ethics and so on. As Instagram is an open platform, it is a great place to share these details and your ideas with your followers. In return, you will find your audience feeling more connected towards your business activity and will be continuously looking out for more such posts. For example, you can share live product launches or interviews with the brand’s senior management. As people look up to popular accounts for inspiration, you can even start non-profit initiatives such as sustainable living or using eco-friendly products and create dedicated hashtags for such initiatives. In return ask your followers to share their pictures and videos using these hashtags.

6. Draw Attention of Your Followers through Instagram Stories

Source. An increasing number of Instagram followers are now getting more interested in stories than posts. So, boost your audience engagement through Stories. For example, rather than simply posting about something, get more creative and express your ideas with the help of Stories. You can even use Instagram Stories to attract your followers towards your profile. You can do this by either taking a poll about which picture to post and ask your followers to select one from the given options or asking your followers opinion about content which they would like to see on your profile or simply by running a countdown for a surprise post will keep your audience coming back to your profile. When you post a new picture on your Instagram feed, you can also create a story with engaging stickers such as “Tap Here” to see the latest post. But make sure you don’t give complete details in your story as the ultimate aim to bring people to your main feed. Recommended: A Comprehensive Guide to Use Instagram Stories for Small Business

7. Schedule Your Instagram Posts and Stories

Source. An important reason why your post is not getting the desired number of impressions is probably due to the wrong time of posting. Try to get aware of the time frame in which your maximum number of followers are active and post a picture or a story in the same time frame. To understand this, spend some time in tracking and monitoring your Instagram analytics and see which is the best time to post for your audience. If you have an Instagram business account, then you can easily access your profile analytics through Instagram Insights by tapping the bar chart icon placed at the top right corner of your profile. This will help you take a complete look at your audience demographics and will also tell you the time when your audience is most active on Instagram. Read the full article

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How to Create Lead Magnets

Lead magnet is such a big part of modern marketing and yet only a few brands manage to create a good one. Your revenue will suffer if you don’t create a good lead magnet and your conversion rate will fail too. People take time when they want to buy things. Although your website and content is so lovingly created, it may be forgotten the next day. This is why it’s so important to create a good lead magnet and capture their email address right away, so you have some way of contacting them later. Subscribe to Read the Largest Marketing Live Book => A lead is a person who gave you their contact information. Usually, an email address. A lead magnet, then, is an asset which you can offer for free in exchange for an email address. No one is really enticed to give their information for free unless you offer something in return. This is what would be your lead magnet. People will also like your brand more. But your lead will depend on your audience and it’s often very specific to each business. In that spirit, here are some tips on lead magnet creation.

Define Your Persona

Creating a lead magnet starts with understanding who your lead is. You need to understand your audience and what they want the most. What’s important to them? What problems do they have? How can the solution be delivered? Create a depiction of who your target customer is and base that on the data that you collect. For example, if you have a wedding organizing business, your lead magnet would obviously be related to weddings. Then go in deeper to understand specifically about what your customers need to know. Recommended: 5 Step Process to Creating a Detailed Buyer Persona

Make It Specific to Your Audience

So, one of the worst things you can do is make a lead magnet that doesn’t work for your specific audience. For instance, if you have a website building business but you gave out a lead magnet about writing or about marketing. Of course, there is some connection but it’s not specific to your audience at all. The next worst thing you can do is to share too little in your lead magnet. For example, just repeat information they can find anywhere online. Finally, you also don’t want to give them too much. Then they don’t need your business at all. Always aim for a happy medium where they have received satisfying information but not at the expense of your own relevance.

Make a Promise and Deliver a Result

The lead magnet always has to make a big promise and then deliver an appropriate solution. Otherwise, it’s not attractive and not useful at all. Add a CTA which is the promise and tell them the exact result they are going to get by getting the lead magnet. Then, make sure that your lead magnet really delivers on that promise. If it doesn’t, your leads will easily unsubscribe or block you. They can also start to think poorly of your paid products. Recommended: How to Create an Effective Lead Gen Strategy Using Mobile Marketing

Make Your Lead Magnet Free and Action Driven

Obviously, your lead magnet needs to be free. Your prospects will not make a purchase at this point, not even if it’s cheap. In fact, making something cheap can make it seem less valuable and useful. So, it’s best to just make it free, a gift. It needs to be useful as well, something your readers can truly use and make an immediate action. There should be detailed instructions there too.

There Should Be an Immediate Gratification

No one likes waiting. So, your lead magnet shouldn’t make your lead wait. For example, some businesses might make a mistake of offering a free webinar but then the webinar is a month away or only on certain days of the week. This doesn’t work. They will forget about it. Plus, they can’t keep it, it’s not theirs. “The lead magnet should be something they can download instantly and keep forever.” says Helena Brown, a business writer at Draftbeyond and Research Papers UK.

It Should Be Quick and Easy to Consume

Creating a long lead magnet, such as an ebook that has more than 100 pages might seem like a good idea. However, it’s not. A lead magnet should deliver quickly. People are not going to spend hours or days on your lead magnet. They will probably skim through it when they download it and then move on. The point is to make it scannable. Make it short, make it easy for them to get value. Don’t make them work for it.

Make Different Versions of the Lead Magnet

Some people like to read, some like to watch things, some prefer to listen. Make it accessible for all of them. Make a book version, a video and audio version. This will help you grab as many leads as possible and you won’t miss any because you forgot to think of what they may prefer. “You can also A/B test your lead magnets and see which one works best and then use the one that does.” says Piter Ames, a marketing blogger at Last Minute Writing and Writinity.

Do More

Lead magnets usually aim to inform. However, this can get quite boring. Make sure that you do more by making the lead magnet entertaining. Crack an appropriate joke, make comments and so on. Imprint the personality of your own brand or your own personality in that lead magnet.

Add a Sense of Urgency

Making your lead magnet urgent can get you more leads. Because, here’s the deal - some people will be too lazy to collect your lead magnet or they might not have enough time at the moment they visit your website the first time. So, they might leave it for later. And then they will forget about it, as often happens. But, you can make it urgent by adding a timer and let them know that it’s a limited time offer.

Some Lead Magnets Your Audience Will Love

Here is a list of common lead magnets that your audience will go for in a heartbeat. - Ebook - Quite common and works best. It doesn’t have to be anything huge, less than 20 pages in the pdf form is the best way to go. - Checklist - Checklist will take minutes to create and they are highly actionable. People love them too. - Guide or report - It can be an infographic, a white paper or a report. They are highly diverse. - Video training - People love to watch and learn which is why video is one of the best lead magnets out there. - Cheat sheet - This is a fun way to add more leads because who doesn’t want a cheat sheet on something - or everything? Recommended: 1000+ Lead Generation Strategies, Ideas, Best Practices & Examples Read the full article

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6 Tips for Becoming an SEO Expert

One thing you need to understand about SEO is the fact that while it’s fairly easy to enter this industry, the truth is that there’s a great difference at being able to do SEO and being good at it. Sure, this is a lucrative field, yet, with so many people doing it out there, you need to find a way to distinguish yourself and the best way to do so is with the quality of your service. This earns you some important recommendations and niche authority, both of which you need in order to stay competitive. So, here are the six most important tips that will help you become an SEO expert in no time. The Best Tool for SEM & SEO - Try It Now for Free - SEMRush

1. Improve Your Keyword Research

Improving your keyword research is perhaps the first important step to ensure that you are better at your business.

For this to work, you first need an adequate keyword research tool on your side. There are some great free tools out there but, as an expert, paying for a premium one is definitely recommended. Second, instead of just focusing on great keywords, what you should do instead is look for the best unique keywords, in order to make your SEO efforts much more competitive.

2. Competition Research

Chances are that as an SEO expert, you won’t always work within the same industry. So, even though you know how search engines work, you might be unaware of what works in a particular industry or for a particular target demographic. The easier way to handle this issue is to do some research on the competitors of your client. Here, we’re talking both about their direct competitors and top-dogs of the industry (provided that these two groups don’t consist of the same businesses). Recommended: A Quick and Easy Keyword Research Workflow for Busy Marketers

3. Start Focusing on Customer Reviews

One thing that you need to understand about the present-day digital world is the fact that people always look for reviews and ratings before interacting with a brand. Therefore, customer reviews do not only give your clients more credibility, they also provide you with a chance to decrease the bounce rate and improve several other metrics, as well. The reason why this is somewhat difficult to do is due to the fact that you’ll have quite limited amounts of this user-generated content (UGC). Fortunately, there are some platforms that are specialized to get customer feedback for you to work with and this can streamline the process quite a bit.

4. Optimize Your Site

This is important for so many reasons, not just because it gives you a chance to exercise your skills but also because it’s a great promotional tool.

Think about it, why would your clients let you work on their website and trust that you can improve its rank if this is something that you’ve failed to achieve for your own platform? So, make sure to put the optimization of your website as your first priority and engage in both on-site and off-site SEO in order to make it so.

5. Understanding Google Analytics

Now, before we continue, it’s important to mention that using Google Analytics is one thing while understanding it is what makes a difference between novices and experts. First, you need to know exactly what you’re looking for. Naturally, the first thing you need to do is check the traffic and check the engagement rate. Second, you need to look into your average pages per visit, in order to see just how interested your audience is in your brand, to begin with. Finally, you need to be aware of your bounce rate.

6. Build up Your Network of Contacts

The last thing you need to understand is the fact that being an SEO expert isn’t a standalone profession and there are a lot of experts and individuals that you’re going to collaborate with.

For instance, you need to have bloggers with decent domain authority in your contacts if you decide to proceed with the link building strategy. Also, this is why it might be a good idea for you to specialize in SEO in a single industry, thus maximizing your effectiveness. Other than this, you need to build up your social media network. In the end, you need to understand that there’s no hack that can help you become an expert overnight. Experience can’t be made up for but with the above-listed six methods, you can facilitate the learning process and immediately enhance the results that you’re getting from your SEO activity. With that in mind, it’s more than clear that these six suggestions can help you achieve your goals much faster and with somewhat greater reliability. Read the full article

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Old-School Tactics in A Digital World: The Power of Offline Marketing

Undoubtedly, we are in the digital era. With constant growth of handheld devices (Smartphones, tablets, etc.), most of advertisers and business promoters are paying attention to online marketing. It is true that digital marketing brings positive results like increase in traffic. However, it is not rocket science. A 2016 survey of Econsultancy states that only 22% of companies are happy with conversion rates of their digital marketing campaigns. Subscribe to Read the Largest Marketing Live Book => It is sure that you will have queries what businesses do if they have no satisfaction from their online marketing efforts. Ignoring the non-digital world would be a mistake if you want to have maximum customer reach. In brief, you should use offline marketing tricks along with digital one to draw maximum people to your business. These old school marketing tricks still work and bring results. Here are some offline marketing tricks to promote your business:

Offer Free Gifts to Your Existing and Potential Customers

It is hard to calculate the returns from giveaway gifts. However, giving gifts to consumers work. These promotional products like water bottles and notebooks help you expose your business in and around your area. For example, you distribute water bottles with custom labels to people in and around your business locality. With this, you increase your brand visibility and develop a relationship with customers. You can offer them a free gift when they place an order for a product/service. The offered free gift like water bottles with your personalized label will be carried by your patrons wherever they go. With this, your business will get advertised and maximum exposure.

Plant Seeds

In your business operation, you have to go out and meet people for several purposes. In your visit, you have conversations with people of different levels. You know you should use this opportunity to promote your business. Produce your business card or a gift with your business logo to people you meet. By this, people can refer your business to one looking for the products/services you are offering.

Produce Handouts/Flyers

Recall the time when you clicked an ad you came across online platforms. We often come across online ads in a large number every day, but we ignore them. You know no one ignores a friendly, smiling, and real person. Offering flyers or handouts is the right way to enhance your brand awareness if you operate a business in your local area. On handouts/flyers, you can mention your business logo, promotional offers, sales, and events. You need to choose a location and time of a day when there is a heavy footfall for distributing your flyers/handouts. If you want to target parents, choose the area of educational institutes. Some people pay attention to your handouts while some can place the same in the dustbin. Recommended: 9 Tips to Creating Better Promotional Products

Send Postal Offers

In today’s world, each brand has a one mailing list. Most of businesses send emails to a large number of recipients, but they get nothing as results. You hire a firm for email marketing. However, you have lower outcomes in comparison with your expectations. In this digital age, think about being old-fashioned. Opt for sending your business offers or discounts by post. To track the outcomes from this trick, you can set a virtual number, making it specific to your postal offers. With this, you can track the call that comes through your set virtual number.

Participate in Trade Shows and Conferences

To take your business to the next level, you need to be visible by personal methods. Participating in trade shows or attending conferences is one the most effective personal methods for promoting your business. Setting a counter at a trade fair helps you connect with potential partners in a large number. You can hand out your customized business cards to people visiting your counter in the fair. Besides, you can appoint some of your employees in different areas of the trade show to distribute your company cards. Get in touch with a professional designer to avail custom designed cards and labels to use in trade shows.

Opt Print Marketing

Go for the old-fashioned print marketing way. You can choose your local and national newspapers/magazines for your business advertisement. For offering physical reminder, you can provide business links in your newspaper ads. Ensure to give online as well as offline contact information so that customers can get in touch with you in a way that is the most convenient for them.

Host a Special Event

Hosting an event is a traditional, but effective method to promote a business. You can organize an event like opening ceremony or anniversary to fetch your loyal customers back. By organizing such an event, you can draw the attention of passers by. Apart from opening or anniversary celebrations, you can opt a festival like Christmas to organize an event in or around your business locality.

Conclusion

In the contemporary world, you need to balance your marketing strategy if you are serious about the expansion of your business. Don’t hesitate to use offline marketing tricks along with your online marketing strategy. Read the full article

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10 B2B Marketing Tactics to Boost Your Brand

In life generally, no one is self-sufficient. One way or the other, at some point in our lives, we will find ourselves needing the help and assistance of others. In the business world, networking among business entities to sell products or services directly to one another for resale is not a new phenomenon. This practice is known as B2B marketing. Due to the emergence of cutting edge technologies, B2B marketing is swiftly increasing in scope by the day and it takes tack and poise to leverage the process in one's favor. You must have noticed that dropshipping business is gaining momentum nowadays. That is the reality of the modern world and we either flow with it or be left behind. Looking for suitable strategies to adapt to up your game as regards B2B marketing? Here are a few tactics that would help.

SEO Is Key Piece of the Online Marketing Puzzle

An overwhelming majority of B2B buyers use the internet hence it is imperative for you that you are visible. Come to think of it, this is 2019, it is pretty basic that everyone operating a business should have a website which must be SEO optimized. Perhaps if you are in doubt then it is worthy of note that if you must leverage B2B marketing for your business, make use of SEO. This will help connect buyers with sellers on time and both parties can do business satisfactorily in a way that will be beneficial to both parties.

Social Media Is to Stay for Professional Services Firms

The modern world is social media savvy. You also as a business person must go with the flow. The unwritten rule for business operators is, therefore, to neglect social media at your own peril. Anything can sell more if social media is introduced to it. The products or services may reach a wider audience who will then be able to decide whether to go with the product or not. Also, testimonials of previous buyers may be placed on social media and this could serve as motivation for those still skeptical to make a decision to buy. Recommended: 3 Smart Social Media Marketing Tips for Small Businesses on a Shoestring Budget

Leveraging Mobile Marketing in This Speedy World

One of the most noticeable changes between the 20th century and the 21st century is mobility. The world is on the move literally. The drive to make ends meet ensures many people live their lives on the move; head out early in the morning only to return late in the night and then repeat the same schedule the next day. As a smart marketer, you meet the customer halfway; make a move to reach out to customers on their mobile devices through such mediums as E-mail, SMS or social media apps. This would potentially scale up your patronage in the long run. Recommended: How to Create an Effective Lead Gen Strategy Using Mobile Marketing

Personal Branding Is Important B2B Marketing Strategies

As human beings, there is always the need to be unique and authentic. The world only rewards unique things. One way to stand out is to brand your business. This would help build confidence and trust in your customers and it would create an aura of authenticity and credibility around you which could help to boost your business to greater heights. Recommended: How Personal Branding Can Help You Grow Your Business in 2019

Content Marketing Plays Important Role to Grow

If you are marketing a product, the right thing to do to boost sales is to get articles and videos speaking and encouraging the use of such products by people. You may link up to websites which have such articles. This could drive up interest in what you offer. Then you sell faster and make profits faster as well. The main aim of content marketing is to attract the right audience for a product and this would, in turn, generate sales at a faster rate. Recommended: A Step by Step Guide to Develop a Content Marketing Strategy that Will Supercharge Your Business

Generate Leads with Inbound Marketing

If you need something desperately, you go all out for it don't you? If you really need more customers for a product then the key is to go all out for them and you can do this through inbound marketing. You make use of branding, SEO, social media marketing, and content marketing. The combination of these 4 methods will likely generate the income that will propel the level of the business.

Local Events Can Boost Your Bottom

As a product seller or manufacturer, your buyers should be close to you. These buyers would likely not come just like that; you will have to reach out to them. An effective way of reaching out to them is by attending local events and showcasing the products you have for sale and possibly demonstrating the use of that product. This will create an awareness of the product and will help drive up the sales for that particular product. In other cases, it may also help to create interest in the other products you have to offer.

Finding Affiliates to Promote Your Product

If you are going to go far in business, you will need help. You are not omnipresent hence you cannot be everywhere at a time even though your products need to be everywhere at a time. What you can do is to recruit affiliates who would be paid or compensated based on their performance to help market the product to the nooks and cranny of the locality. This can potentially prove to be the genius step that will transform the business forever because it is such a very great marketing strategy for businesses.

Influencers Can Be a Great Addition to Your B2B Marketing Mix

If your aim is to get people to notice a product then you might as well recruit a personality with huge following and respect in society to help launch the product. This would make their followers notice the product and the positive words of these influencers could sway more and more people to make the decision to purchase.

Honest Feedback Plays Key Role in B2B

In business, the consumers are the ones that really matter. At times after spending so much to market a product, it may still not sell well due to one flaw that was not noticed by the manufacturer. This is why companies should encourage feedback because it is healthy for business. It is the pathway to fast and sustainable growth. Deliberately listen to the honest and nonbiased reviews of users and then act to make improvements based on that. Read the full article

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Boost Your E-commerce Business with These Useful Tactics

Running an online business is not as easy as many would think and there are many things that you need to keep in check for it to thrive. One of them is your website SEO. To generate more sales, you need to make your ecommerce site search engine friendly and this means optimizing your website for search. Best ecommerce services help you to establish a strong online presence. In 2018, the revenue generated from the ecommerce industry was $2.5 trillion in global sales, and that number is expected to hit $4.88 trillion by 2021. If you want to go get a share of these profits, then you need to get your SEO strategy right. However, don’t rush to implement an SEO strategy that may not give you the right results. Reason being that SEO keeps changing and you need to do your homework first to see what will or what won’t work. Doesn’t despair, this article highlights some of the best time-honored techniques that if implemented properly, will really boost your overall site traffic and improve your sales tremendously.

1. Be Witty with Your Keywords

Unlike the old days where keywords were dropped anywhere in the content and they could still work, today things very different and keywords need to make sense in the context. When you decide to use keywords in your SEO strategy, ensure that it helps the user grasp the information you are passing on. Google has toughened the rules regarding keywords and if you are going to stuff them anywhere in your content, you may get penalized. That is not all, your keywords need to appear naturally in the content and shouldn’t obstruct the flow. You should also target the right keywords that are related to your products and services. You can incorporate keywords in your content, web pages, URL, headings, image descriptions, Metadata page titles, and emails. A great place to start with your keywords is Google AdWords. This is a great tool to help you find the right keywords. There are also other great keywords research tools to help you with your keywords. You should also focus on long-tail keywords to increase your chances of being found in the search engines. Besides being used by visitors when looking for websites, long-tailed keywords have less competition. They also have a high conversion rate compared to other keywords and search phrases.

2. Create Stellar Content

Keywords have no use without content and not just any content, the content should be relevant to what you are trying to promote. Content is not just a vehicle to drive keywords, it is a tool used to convert prospects into loyal customers. It is also used to engage with your audience and explain to them what you are offering. When visitors search the net for your content, they will come across several contents including those that are shared in social media. If you have not posted any content, chance of your website being discovered is pretty slim, in fact with all the competition, you wouldn’t stand a chance. Subsequently, if you dedicate yourself to writing the best most relevant content that is engaging to your prospects, they will definitely find it because great content sells itself. Great content presents an opportunity for you to build a relationship and try to convert them into loyal customers. Great content can be incorporated into blogs, videos, infographics, podcasts, animations, guest posts, how-to guides, and product reviews. At the center of inbound marketing is content. Combining the best inbound strategy and great content gives you the right ingredients to reach your prospects. Don’t forget to include your keywords and ensure that they are relevant to what you are discussing in the content.

3. Use Social to Reach Your Audience

Another powerful tool that can help you drive massive organic traffic to your website is social media. You should not underestimate its power. It is a comprehensive tool used in modern ecommerce strategies. The reason for this is that many consumers trust what other consumers say about a product. The social media platform is also engaging in allowing consumers to interact with their favorite brands. You should know that 80% of consumers rely on Facebook to make informed buying decisions. This shows that there is a huge opportunity in these social networks where you can reach new audiences to tell them about your awesome products and services. Take advantage of forums, groups, and communities to reach a greater audience. Instagram is another great venue to convince your audience about your products. By posting your product images on Instagram, you stand a better chance to convince your prospects using photos and images. Social media also presents a perfect opportunity for an organization to show its human side away from the corporate picture it always portrays. You can also use social media in your off-page SEO and also use it for direct marketing incorporating resources like Facebook Ads, and other forms of ads.

4. Go Local and Go Mobile

What changed SEO in recent years is the use of mobile devices. They changed the SEO best practices. Local content and products go hand in hand with mobile devices. Mobile devices have made it easy for local customers to search for locally available products. If you fail to make your website mobile-friendly, you won’t benefit from this aspect of SEO. You should also know that 30% of all mobile searches done today have local intent. If you are running a local business the best way to make your content discoverable is using Google maps. This ensures that your clients don’t just discover your business, but also know where you are located locally. After searching for locally available products 70% of the consumers are likely to visit the local store to make purchases or find out more about what you are offering. That is why you need to include Google maps in your SEO strategy to ensure that your local clients can find you and your products. If you want to spread your products to the rest of the world, you need to begin with your local audience first. If you manage to convince them and win their hearts, the rest of the world won’t be so hard provided you are selling high-quality products.

5. On-Page SEO

On-page SEO is crucial for any website including ecommerce stores. If you want to increase your site traffic, you must pay attention to on-page techniques. The reason being that on-page SEO improves the user experience of your website and also makes it easier for search engines to rank your pages. On-page SEO also helps to focus on improving the visual aspect of your website. This entails what your visitor finds when they first lay their eyes on the landing page. On-page SEO involves having unique and descriptive title tags, improved page load speed to lower bounce rates, writing a descriptive and alternative text for the images on your site, writing optimized headings with keywords and relevant descriptions, using internal links to improve navigation and indexing, and using sensible and easy-to-read URLs.

Final Words

As much as you want to thrive in your online e-commerce business, you also need to ensure that your SEO is well catered to. Creating a website is not enough to drive traffic in it; you need to make your website visible to search engines and your visitors. This is done through SEO so make sure you use the right strategy to get effective results. Read the full article

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How to Earn Profit from a Rental Marketplace?

The online booking systems have been transforming the markets; markets that are not limited to specific domains alone. Think of any product or service in your mind, and perform a Google search, you will find a rental service for each. It doesn't matter it’s home, cars, artificial flowers, or even expensive jewelry, there is no limit to the stuff you can rent these days. Are you thinking about creating a similar kind of rental marketplace business and making money from it? Lucky you, because you can build a website for renting vacation houses, cars, dress, furniture, and many more without even coding it from scratch. However, we should first know about the concept of rental marketplaces before we begin with the ways to build them. So let’s see.

What Is Rental Marketplace?

A rental marketplace is a platform for individuals or businesses to rent different types of items/services to-and-from one another. When it comes to the best known rental marketplace in the world, Airbnb is the most popular example. A vacation home rental marketplace, which was completely new for the consumers a few years back, but known to the masses today. The popularity of sharing and renting economy has skyrocketed after the immense success of Airbnb’s business model. People these days are sharing and renting all kinds of goods like bikes, cars, homes, etc., which has also replaced the concept of ownership for people around the world. And why wouldn’t it? The e-commerce marketplaces have given a new shape to the sharing and renting economy, and we can’t deny the trends they have set. Instead of buying expensive or occasionally used items, renting has remained a cheaper and more convenient alternative among the consumers. On the other hand, more people are also willing to list their items and properties on rental marketplaces and make some extra money. This particular business model has encouraged entrepreneurs to use airbnb clone script and design similar rental marketplaces for renting an array of products, properties, and services.

How to Build a Successful Rental Marketplace?

Creating a rental marketplace doesn’t require a huge investment anymore. In fact, software solutions have become so affordable and simple to use. You can launch a fully functional platform with just a little effort and become a full-time entrepreneur. Like most of the wise entrepreneurs, you can adopt a readymade script for building their marketplaces, because it’s quick. Take the popular marketplace solution by Cs-Cart for instance. The CS-Cart Multi-Vendor Solution lets anyone build a competitive online marketplace by simply installing and setting up the open-source script. The best part is, you can also customize it to build your rental marketplace.

How to Proceed with a Ready-made Script?

Building a successful marketplace business can be a challenging task without a unique business idea. However, it’s not much as compared with the retail marketplace sphere. You need to find a niche business idea that solves the real problem of the users. Then, offer the users with a platform that both providers and customers would love to use. The question here is how to solve the real problems of customers? How to determine the best kind of website for your users? One of the answers could be implementing your business idea into a website solution as quick as possible. What could be a better solution than using a ready-made script to do so? After you know about your users, start developing your marketplace in a specific direction according to the user requirements. -

Know your market and competitors

The rental marketplace is becoming a competitive field in any area around the world. You can see that there are plenty of long term and short term rentals available everywhere. You need to analyze your specific market trends at your location. For example, the trends of renting co-working spaces occupied by several freelancers or start-up owners are booming in the US market. According to a report, an estimated 2,188 co-working spaces were opened worldwide, out of which almost 1,000 were in the U.S. itself. Based on the demographics in your location, you can choose the proper rental strategy for a profitable endeavor. You also need to do comparative market analysis with your competitors to find the ideal option. -

Build a customized rental platform

Most of the entrepreneurs think that their rental marketplace should match all the advanced features of Airbnb to get better engagement. However, trying to build an Airbnb clone from scratch could be a cumbersome process in terms of cost and resources. Instead, focus on taking a ready-made clone from the market, and then customize it according to your unique requirements. In fact, there are certain open-source turnkey solutions available that even offer customized experiences into different products and services niche. In short, it would be an Airbnb clone because it works on the same business model, but it would be better because it has been customized for other kinds of products and services, rather than home rentals alone. -

A word about the cost of building a rental marketplace

Cost is one of the biggest challenges for entrepreneurs. As we know, building a marketplace from scratch with all the features will be a difficult, time-consuming and expensive task. Also, the millennials need premium-quality experience without spending much time on development. Using an Airbnb clone script will let you build a marketplace without doing any coding from scratch. Hence, the development cost could be exponentially cheaper. These scripts offer essential marketplace functionalities at a fraction of the cost it would take to build the same from scratch. You just need to pay a one-time purchasing cost for your script. As these are self-hosted solutions, you need not pay on a recurring basis. You can also customize your marketplace according to your user base. Instead of spending thousands of dollars on the development of the skeleton. You just need to figure out the best option from the list of marketplace solutions available in the market. The best platform will allow you to grow your business ideas and to make your marketplace viable in the market. So, what are the most essential features that will make your rental marketplace viable? Let’s discuss this. -

Get the best features for the rental platform

Every marketplace has a unique value proposition to thrive in the market. However, successful marketplaces should have some additional features to stand different from others. Let’s have a look at the list of the most critical features that almost every rental marketplace will need. - Cutting Edge Technology - Responsive design - Multiple payment gateways - SEO friendly URLs - Real-time navigation - Scalable platform - API integration - Invoicing and online payments - Centralized Management - Review System For example, RentCubo’s products have been designed in such a way that it helps you to go in a day. You’ll get all the above-mentioned essential features ready-made without doing any coding. You can start and scale your vacation rental, co-working, self-storage, and car parking space management business today with all the features and functionalities given in this script. -

Devise your marketing strategies

If the marketing strategy for your rental marketplace is running smoothly and you’re happy with how it’s going, let's grow your rental business with further marketing techniques to get more profits. It would give the success of investing a little time and money to boost your strategy and help you gaining profit. Let’s have a look at a few tips and techniques for the rental marketplace similar to the Airbnb business strategy. These will help you grow your business. - Grow your business by adding new experiences for your users. - Give your customers the best deals and offers to compete with rivals. - Add additional value-added services besides the primary services. - Collaborate with different value-added businesses or start in-house. - Reach out to users with strategic digital marketing channels, Email, Social, SEO, Ads, etc. - Enhance your platform with trendy user experiences to attract the millennials. Let’s know the business model and profits earned from the rental marketplace to have a clear understanding.

Rental Marketplace Business Model

You might be wondering, if people use a marketplace to rent their items from each other just like Peer to Peer model, then how the marketplace entrepreneur builds a profitable business. The integrated revenue options of Airbnb clone scripts make them more valuable in the market. They are equipped with different revenue channels to generate money for your business. Let’s know the two different revenue model which Airbnb follows. - Commission model: Airbnb charges commission cut from hosts on every booking done through its marketplace. Most rental marketplaces produce their profit through commissions just like Airbnb. The admin makes money by taking a commission for each transaction that occurs in the marketplace. - Transaction fee from guests: It also charges a percentage cut of the booking amount as a transaction fee from the guests on every confirmed booking. There are other kinds of business models available for rental platforms. For example, some marketplaces charge from their users to join or to publish a listing of their properties. Some marketplaces make money by selling ads, or premium services such as insurance or delivery. With highly customizable Airbnb clone scripts, you can incorporate various revenue-generating systems on your marketplace. These additional revenue options will bring more profit for you. For instance, let’s have a look at some additional revenue-generating options for vacation rental marketplaces. - Host registration fee - Property listing fee - Property verification fee - Traveler commission - Advertising options

Conclusion

The idea of online renting of items/services is highly unique. The entrepreneurs will find great growth potential in this marketplace because of its prospects in different geographical regions. If you want to start a rental marketplace just like Airbnb, be sure to find a script with all the essential features, which will increase your profit. And finally, everything depends on your uniquely identified product/service and the geographical market. So choose wisely. Read the full article

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6 Ways Blockchain Is Impacting Marketing - and How to Take Advantage of It

The marketing sector is constantly evolving, and the top professionals working in the field know they must stay abreast of the changes and their potential effects. Blockchain technology is already making waves in marketing, and that shows no signs of changing. The blockchain is a decentralized digital ledger system featuring time-stamped, immutable information. It initially gained prominence with cryptocurrencies, but before long, people started to see what other opportunities it offered. Times are changing, since the blockchain and marketing were not always spoken about together. Here are six examples of what's different.

1. Blockchain-Based Social Media Networks Are Expanding Advertisers' Options

The ongoing issues regarding Facebook and its actions related to data privacy have caused some people to conclude social media platforms are no longer worth the risks. Although Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are still leaders, other brands have entered the field, too. Some social networks have been built with blockchain technology. One of them is All.me. The platform's user base has reached 500,000, and the company has seven offices around the world. All.me's users get up to 50% of advertising revenue, and people with advertiser accounts can customize the ads the platform's visitors see. People also are rewarded with a cryptocurrency called ME Token for providing quality content. There's even a marketplace where people can spend their tokens, and advertisers can sell things. Blockchain-driven social media networks are not yet serious competitors to the more familiar online destinations. However, marketers must keep in mind that the social media landscape is shifting. Preparing for what's ahead now prevents getting left behind.

2. The Blockchain Reduces Wasteful Ad Spending

Brand advertisers deal with numerous intermediary partners. Moreover, they often encounter problems with waste related to ad reconciliation, which concerns whether contractual obligations are fulfilled. IBM and Unilever recently partnered for a trial to see if the blockchain could cut down on unnecessary spending. Michelle Peluso, IBM's chief marketing officer, says that only 40 cents per dollar spent reaches an online publisher. The intermediaries generally cause the discrepancy, since each one of them gets paid along the way. Unilever is one of the biggest ad spenders in the world, and it sought improvements to the waste. The company became the anchor in an IBM consortium that included brands like Pfizer and Kimberly-Clark. Blockchain creates a trustworthy and verified network comprised of all the parties between an advertiser's dollar and the end publisher. Peluso estimated that Unilever saved an average of 2-3%, but the brand was still collecting data from its partners when she gave those details. Thanks to the transparency provided by the blockchain, marketing companies can understand where their ad dollars go. Some companies are working on using it for better ad personalization, which could also reduce waste.

3. Blockchain Technology Can Assist Marketers with Identity Validation

Marketers frequently target specific groups, such as students, seniors and military personnel, and provide them with special offers. However, ensuring that people qualify for those perks isn't easy. Some people know how to work the system and avail of stuff without having the necessary eligibility. This problem could skew marketing data by indicating that an inflated number of students claimed an offer when perhaps at least 10% of them got it without proving they were in school or showing valid credentials.  One of blockchain's primary advantages is that it fosters trust by showing the complete history of a transaction or enabling identity verification. An Estonian company called Veriff brings the power of blockchain to identity verification. The technology integrates with any app or website. It can also recognize more than 3,000 kinds of documents used around the world. After the firm gained momentum by using its technology to verify people using transportation options, it recently started targeting small- and medium-sized businesses.

4. The Blockchain Helps Confirm the Effectiveness of Promotional Campaigns

Marketing professionals must learn to accurately calculate whether a promotional campaign is paying off as intended. If the statistics show it isn't, they have to stay nimble and adjust their techniques to reach more of the target audience. However, complications can arise when there's not a standardized system used by all outlets participating in a campaign. The blockchain could help. Marketers can get an idea of what's possible by considering a recent partnership that uses the blockchain to facilitate the redemption of promotional offers at convenience stores. Many of those shops are independently operated, and that aspect makes things like tracking difficult. When using this new arrangement made possible by the blockchain, brand partners submit promotional offers to a shared database. Marketers can then get real-time information about when and where people redeem them. Customers only need to enter their phone numbers inside a participating store or at the gas pump to start receiving benefits.

4. The Blockchain Could Curb Ad Fraud

Statistics published by MarTech Advisor indicate that bots and fraudulent websites accounted for 13% of all money spent on digital ads in 2018. That adds up to approximately $15 billion. Unfortunately, getting to the bottom of where and why ad fraud happens isn't easy. Some marketers feel hopeful about the blockchain bringing improvements, however. One option is for digital publishers to deal in cryptocurrencies and publicly state their wallet addresses. Since this approach would ensure all money goes to the right places, it would cut out the possibility of successful domain spoofing. Even though the blockchain is not widely used as an ad fraud deterrent yet, that may not be the case for much longer. In addition to offering transparency, the blockchain does not allow changing information after it's confirmed on the ledger. That characteristic may mean marketers could feel more confident about any ad fraud data stored on the blockchain.

5. The Blockchain May Restore Consumer Trust in Marketers

Members of the public are quickly reaching a point where they no longer trust brands. The issue with that sentiment is that they become less likely to provide companies with information that could be used to connect with them. According to the 2019 Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report, only 34% of respondents said they trust most of the brands they buy or use. That finding is worrisome, particularly considering the same study found 81% of respondents buy things based on trust. The blockchain can't fix consumer trust issues with brands overnight, but it could help the public feel more in control of the data marketers have for them. A company called Data Wallet is among the blockchain companies trying to make that happen. It creates something described as a "self-sovereign wallet," whereby a user is the sole owner of their info. People using the platform control which information marketers see and how they use it.

6. The Blockchain Could Improve Contractual Negotiations in Marketing

Various contracts define what actions happen in the marketing sector. A company might create a contract to specify how an influencer should promote its product, or a freelancer might sign a legal commitment with a marketing company that spells out the content frequency, length, type and more. The blockchain could streamline those agreements through smart contracts. They're digital versions of contracts between parties that exist on the blockchain. They allow for entering into arrangements without the help of intermediaries because they define the terms, plus ensure the enforcement of those specifics. Smart contracts prevent unnecessary delays associated with getting a contract signed. Also, since they are irreversible and traceable, they limit conflicts that could later arise from disagreements or misunderstandings.

How Can Marketers Take Advantage of Blockchain Technology?

These six areas where blockchain is uprooting past marketing practices are undoubtedly compelling, and they're not the extent of what's possible. With those things in mind, marketers may feel they're ready to see how they could harness the beneficial combination of blockchain and marketing. Here are some ways to do that: 1. Consider the Specific Things Blockchain Could Do for the Company or Marketing Team As the content above illustrates, blockchain is a game-changer for marketing — even in these early stages. However, it's not a magic fix for every issue. Marketing professionals should remain mindful of the opportunities presented above. Next, they should think about which ones are most applicable to their businesses and the challenges they currently face. Even if their most significant struggles don't relate to the list here, they should remain aware that blockchain could still prove worth investigating. 2. Be Aware of Interoperability Requirements It's also crucial for marketers to examine how or if blockchain would integrate with their existing systems. According to the PwC Global Blockchain Survey, more than one-quarter of respondents (28%) think system interoperability is the key to success. It will likely take time for a marketing company to figure out whether interoperability will pose challenges. If it will, the ideal approach is to integrate the blockchain slowly and strategically to avoid surprises. 3. Select Blockchain Partners with the Experience to Help Marketers Meet Their Needs The same PwC survey found 45% of participants citing a lack of trust as a potential barrier to adoption. If marketers or the decision-makers at their companies feel they don't trust blockchain enough, one of the ways forward may be to work with a company that's well-established in the blockchain sector and has services available that cater to marketers. Those enterprises often have case studies and white papers that can give organizations the information they need to know before making well-informed choices. Furthermore, blockchain companies can set feasible expectations for how their solutions could address pain points. 4. Keep an Eye on Relevant Metrics There is no single way to combine blockchain and marketing that works for every company. However, once a firm considers the possibilities for using blockchain and chooses to pursue at least one of them, they should use metrics to track the effectiveness of the change. The benefits will not become apparent overnight. Marketers must have patience while also recognizing if it's time to tweak things for better results.

Blockchain and Marketing: Huge Potential Exists

Despite the evidence here, some marketers may still feel hesitant about using the blockchain. Others may be fully on board with the idea, but lack the budget or buy-in from superiors to make it happen. Even then, it's still valuable for them to keep following the developments of marketing and the blockchain and accept that it may eventually change many of the ways they do business. All images via Unsplash Read the full article

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8 Ways in Which Artificial Intelligence Will Change Social Media Marketing

Artificial intelligence is poised to transform all the major industries in the world. It is already widely used in multiple areas of digital marketing such as Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and email marketing. Considering the multiple benefits created by its application, it is only a matter of time before it reaches social media marketing. Artificial intelligence can make the life of a social media marketer much easier by automating a number of routine tasks and providing better insights into the behaviour of customers who visit the social media pages of an organisation. This article elucidates the 8 ways in which artificial intelligence will change social media marketing.

1. Customer Interaction

Unlike conventional digital marketing channels such as email marketing, social media facilitates two-way communications between the businesses and their consumers. While big companies employ an army of social media experts to interact with customers on a 24/7 basis, this opportunity has not been available to small and medium businesses. Artificial intelligence-powered tools such as chatbots can provide real-time responses to customer queries during non-working hours. Recommended: How to Use Chatbots to Drive Sales and Increase the Engagement Additionally, chatbots can learn from their past interactions with customers to understand their specific needs and offer them personalised solutions. This way, artificial intelligence can radically improve the quality of interaction with consumers via popular social media channels. Chatbots also use natural language processing techniques to identify the correct response to the queries from customers. Well-developed artificial intelligence-powered solutions already have the ability to answer open questions regarding the products and services offered by a company. The data collected by chatbots about the problems faced by customers can also be used to improve the quality of existing products and introduce new offerings in the future. Recommended: 4 Worthwhile Online Tools to Nurture Face-to-Face Interactions with Your Customers

2. Competitor Analysis

Analysing how competitors are faring on social media helps companies tweak their social media strategy. Artificial intelligence allows marketers to reduce the amount of manual work involved in the analysis of competitor performance on social media. Machine learning algorithms can collect and process bigger data sets and provide the results in an appealing visual format. Adding database technologies to the machine learning algorithms also makes it possible to automate the process of analysing the firm’s competitors.

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3. Social Media Advertising

A large share of online advertising presently occurs on social networks such as Facebook. They usually utilise auction-based systems to ensure that advertisers pay the most reasonable fees for ad impressions. Artificial intelligence can make social media advertising more effective through the deployment of intelligent machine learning algorithms. These tools can automate the purchase of CPI or CPC assets and the demonstration of ads on all popular social media platforms. Unlike conventional software programmes that are deployed by businesses for this purpose, machine learning algorithms can effectively analyse long-term trends. This allows them to continuously optimise the budgets on the basis of the newly acquired data so that the advertisers can always get the best possible conversion rate. Machine learning algorithms can also test the outputs across multiple customer segments and social media platforms to allocate the advertising budgets to the most effective ones.

4. Predictive Analytics

Social media platforms possess the most comprehensive personal data of their users. Currently, this data is used to show them personalised ads based on their earlier identified preferences. Artificial intelligence can fully transform the way this data is utilised through predictive analytics. This instrument is presently used in multiple industries such as banking and retail to predict the potential preferences of new customers and their prospective profitability. For example, predictive analytics can be used in social media marketing to accurately forecast the probability of a prospect becoming a loyal customer in the long-term perspective. In the case of limited resources, the ranking of the leads (popularly called lead scoring) allows marketers to substantially reduce operational expenses by focusing on the consumers offering the highest return on investments (ROI). Predictive analytics will also be used for more basic forecasts such as the estimation of the possibility of social media users clicking on a particular post or ad. These opportunities may be especially lucrative considering the advent of the Internet of Things (IoT). With the growing number of mobile devices and connected appliances, only AI-powered solutions will be able to process these amounts of customer data to identify the activities critical for marketing purposes. For example, the sellers of spare parts and other technological consumables will be able to send follow-up messages to buyers shortly before the expiration of their service life to offer discounts or promotional offerings.

5. Content Creation

Writing engaging social media posts is vital for attracting the attention of the targeted customer segments. Social media marketers spend hours and days trying to guess the type of content that can attract the attention of consumers and increase their engagement levels. Artificial intelligence-powered bots can predict the chances of success on popular social media platforms by comparing the materials planned for publication with the past performance of similar posts published earlier in any specific niche. This way, marketers can avoid all guesswork when creating new content and focus on reaching the maximum number of customers.  These bots can also track the resulting effectiveness of past and present blog posts from the company itself to identify the customer response trends specific to this particular organisation. Recommended: 7 Tips to Create the Best Content for Social Media Marketing Posts

6. Mining of Customer Interactions

The two-way communication occurring on social media platforms provides a variety of customers reactions to various social media posts associated with the release of new products or new sale promotion activities. Conventional statistical software packages that are currently used to mine this data can only provide a basic insight into the customer buying preferences. Artificial intelligence-powered text mining algorithms can analyse both structured and unstructured data in the text form to discover deeper psychological motives and behavioural patterns. The insights gained from this advanced data mining can be used to develop personalised marketing strategies for individual customers and customer segments.

7. Social Media Activities Monitoring

The regular monitoring of social media platforms is critical for capitalising on emerging trends and opportunities. Modern marketers constantly track all activities on the company pages and popular resources for any abnormal signs. Artificial intelligence can facilitate these practices through advanced analysis tools that can be deployed and maintained with lower costs and greater effectiveness in comparison with human personnel. This way, any kind of negative reviews of the company and its products on popular social media channels can be instantly identified and handled promptly to minimise the resulting reputational damage. Additionally, the AI-powered sentiment analysis of social media activities will help businesses to understand the current mood of the customers to adjust their marketing communication accordingly. Commercially available artificial intelligence products such as Yext already have the capability to monitor social media activity and prioritise the customers demonstrating the greatest marketing potential. The features offered by such products will vastly expand in the future. Recommended: Top 28 Social Media Tools to Make Your Job Easier

8. Visual Content Analysis

Search engines and social media platforms could not comprehend the visual content available on the internet unless the publisher provides textual descriptions of photos or videos. Artificial intelligence instruments will solve this problem by analysing the visuals posted on popular platforms to better understand the mood and preferences of prospective customers. Face App and the face recognition feature of Facebook already perform this function to a certain extent. Future improvements will further boost the capability of AI-powered instruments to analyse visual content and associate it with certain moods and themes. Given the dynamic nature of marketing, social media marketers should promptly embrace artificial intelligence to stay ahead of their competitors. The awareness of these instruments and their current and potential capabilities is critical for planning future promotional strategies. While the benefits offered by them are substantial, they can only be realised through combining the skills and knowledge of professional marketers with the creative utilisation of AI-powered tools. As their availability is expected to become universal in the nearest future, the companies that fail to understand the importance of artificial intelligence technologies risk becoming dinosaurs in their industries. Recommended: Top Articles, Tools and Experts to Level up Your Visual Marketing Game Read the full article