Tag Archives: strategy

Chatbots in Digital Marketing: The Benefits of Using Chatbot

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Chatbots are chat-based AI programs that use chatrooms as their medium for conversation. They can be programmed to answer customer questions, give product information, sell products, and more. Chatbots have become a digital marketing strategy that many companies are investing in because chatbots offer the ability to generate sales leads and achieve conversion rates at unprecedented levels. This blog post will explore how chatbot technology can help your business grow!

It becoming more and more popular in digital marketing. Businesses that have chatbots on their website find that chatbot technology has some benefits over other digital marketing strategies. Chatbots allow consumers to get information about products and services without having to type anything or fill out forms, which saves time and increases conversion rates! This blog post will discuss the chatbot revolution, what chatbots do for your business, and how you can implement chatbot technology into your marketing strategy.

If you want to deliver a better digital brand experience, chatbots are the way to go! Here’s why:

Delivering a better customer service experience through chatbots

Typeform is a popular tool for survey creation and data gathering. By using Typeform, companies can create interactive surveys with questions, texts, images, and videos. Chatbot technology allows Typeform users to quickly create chat channels that function as chatbots.

Currently, chatbots are used mainly for customer service purposes (chatbots complete chat tasks that would take agents more time). Chatbot software learns from each chat interaction and can be programmed to ask chatbot questions or chatbot answers that customers might need in the future.

Using chatbots as an essential part of your digital strategy

Today’s consumer customer experience management demands chatbots. As consumers are becoming more demanding, chatbots offer efficient communication channels that simplify processes, save marketers some time and deliver better overall customer experiences.

Most importantly chatbots allow marketers to personalize interactions with consumers since they can gather chatbot data from chatbot customers’ profiles and use chatbots in chat windows.

Designing chatbots that have the highest engagement rates

Designing a chatbot that will engage your target audience requires a lot of research, insight into your industry, knowledge about your consumers, etc.

They make the customer journey more efficient, saving marketers some time and money as well as allowing consumers to complete transactions within one window.

Marketers can also use them to send automated messages and keep relationships with future customers without having too many human resources (and maybe turn some of these people into advocates).

Chatbots improve customer relationships

Chatbots are at the heart of chat interface marketing, so their importance is growing day by day. They enable marketers to build stronger relationships with chatbot customers since they help solve consumer issues quickly and more efficiently than human agents. They also gather information from chatbot customers’ profiles to offer a personalized experience that chatbot customers appreciate.

Complete transactions in one chat window

Relationships between marketers and consumers are becoming more interactive and chatbots help companies improve both brand awareness and sales with their chat-based approach.

The chat window is an essential part of any marketing strategy since it allows marketers to add a human touch (chatbots can answer non-pressing questions that don’t require immediate solutions) while also offering simple transactions (ordering products/services, buying events tickets, getting information when needed).

Chatbots allow for easy completion of these actions so they simplify the whole experience, saving chatbot time and chatbot money.

Personalized approach

Consumers appreciate that companies want to know more about them so they can provide better services and products, so they accept when brands use technologies like chatbots which aim at understanding their needs and expectations.

The chat window is an essential part of any marketing strategy since it allows marketers to add a human touch chatbots can answer non-pressing questions chatbot can gather chatbot information chatbot gather chatbot data chatbot gather chatbot insights chatbot gather chatbot knowledge chatbot gather chatbots build relationships with customers chatbots offer personalized experiences that increase customer loyalty while also offering simple transactions.

Bottom line

The benefits of chatbots vary depending on what type of business you are operating or what you want your chatbot to do, but there are several key benefits that apply to all chatbots no matter how they are used. The chatbot can allow your customers to instantly chat with a representative 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The chatbots are capable of solving many common problems without human assistance, which saves you time and money.

Consumers enjoy chatbots because it is similar to having the companies representatives available at all times, but without paying for that extra service. They are also easier to access than calling or emailing customer service departments because they don’t require people to use personal computers or smartphones.

Market Segmentation and its strategies – key Criteria

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What is Market Segmentation? 

The basic definition of market segmentation is when your target audience is divided into smaller categories that share similar characteristics. 

Here are a few reasons why this can benefit your brand:

  • Creating hyper-targeted ads;
  • Building stronger relationships with customers;
  • Differentiating your brand from competitors;
  • Identifying marketing tactics that have more impact.

With market segmentation, you will likely find that certain sections of your audience are more motivated to purchase during certain seasons. Perhaps people living in specific local areas are more interested in a subsection of your products, and so on. 

Key Criteria

You can and should define your customer segmentation, but the key textbook examples are: 

  • Geographic: country/city, urban/rural etc.
  • Demographic: age, religion, gender, income, socio-economic type, education, family size/status
  • Psychographic: lifestyle, interests, hobbies, opinions, influencers
  • Behavioral: buyer journey stage, brand loyalty traits, price sensitivity, purchasing style, usage rate
  • Media: social media/TV/newspapers/search engine preferences
  • Benefit: customer service, quality, and other specific expectations.

Geographic Segmentation

This is one of the simplest target market segmentation methods. You’ll divide your customers based on their geographic borders. You can segment them according to:

  • City / State / Country / Zipcode
  • Radius around a location
  • Climate
  • Rural or urban

When it comes to geographic market segmentation examples, consider a brand that sells a variety of clothing styles. They’ll want to segment their audience according to the climate to target people who need warmer clothing versus cooler clothing according to the season in their area.

Brands that have a brick-and-mortar store but also sell their goods online may also want to provide special incentives for customers who live near their physical location.

Demographic Segmentation

Target market segmentation based on demographics can be one of the most effective ways to target specific customers. The reason for this is because you can uncover the demographics of your audience easily.
You can also discover demographic information by using Facebook Audience Insight, Instagram Audience Insight, and Google Analytics. These easy-to-use tools will give you information on the following:

  • Age / Sex;
  • Location;
  • Ethnicity;
  • Income / Employment status;
  • Times they’re most often online;
  • Household, and so on.

Segmenting a target audience based on demographics can open up new possibilities for your marketing strategies. For instance, new products that are coming to market that are only relevant to women will save marketing dollars over time. Brands that are also selling luxury goods will find more success by marketing to people who have higher incomes.

Your audience may be primarily teenagers or young adults, but you’ll also want to keep in mind that their parents may be interested in products when it comes to purchasing gifts for them. Marketing towards their parents can help you fill in the gaps when it comes to dryer seasons.

Psychographic Segmentation

Psychographic segmentation is all about the target audience’s minds. By knowing what they care about on a day-to-day basis, you’ll be able to create content that they engage with consistently and share with family and friends. This includes learning their:

  • Personalities;
  • Hobbies / Interests;
  • Values / Goals / Beliefs;
  • Lifestyles. 

These can be much harder to identify compared to demographics and location. However, once you have a good grasp of your audience’s psychographics, you’ll be able to tailor your marketing strategies in a more personal way.

Beyond selling a product or service, using psychographic information in your marketing can help build relationships and rapport with customers. You’ll be able to build a strong following of people who trust the brand!

If you don’t know where to start on uncovering this data, try including more questions in your emails, social media content, and more. People are happy to answer quick questions about themselves when it comes to their aspirations and dreams. You can also ask them about their opinions of current events or “this vs that” questions.

B2B Segmentation

B2B companies need to use different tactics and strategies when it comes to segmenting audiences. Although it may seem more difficult compared to B2C, you’ll be able to differentiate companies just as effectively with the following tactics.

Firmographics

You can think of firmographics as demographics for B2C market segmentation. You’ll take into account the size of the company, the culture, industry, location, and more. This is one of the most popular ways to segment companies because it’s fairly easy to acquire this information.

It’s also straightforward to describe different company segments to different departments. For instance, the sales department will easily understand the prioritization of companies with 200 employees or more.

Tiering

Customer tiering is based on how well you think a company can match your business goals. For instance, companies that will be able to match your sales goals each month may be at the top of your tier. By segmenting customers based on their customer lifetime value, you’ll be able to use your marketing dollars more effectively.

This doesn’t mean that you’ll ignore companies that have a lower customer lifetime value. Instead, you can focus on products and services they need rather than trying to draw them in with offers that they historically don’t value.

Needs

This is one of the most straightforward ways to segment B2B customers. For instance, if you’re a company that offers remote HR solutions, you’ll be able to segment your customers based on how often they need your services. This also ties into company firmographics, as the size of a company, as well as their budget, can help determine the solutions they’re looking for. 

You may have older companies that still prefer placing orders over the phone. Conversely, some companies need to be able to easily order online at any time. 

The main downside of this type of segmentation is that it’s harder to communicate to other departments. This can be tackled with comprehensive documentation for each company based on their history with your company. 

The 9 Best Welcome Email Examples to Inspire Your Strategy

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A Thank you for signing up the email starts you off on the right foot with new subscribers and customers. But, by adding a little extra to your first message you can gain much more than this. Learn the tactics that work with this list of the best welcome email examples.

The self-introduction

You can’t assume new subscribers and customers already know everything there is about your business. Your welcome email should reinforce your unique selling points to confirm you’re the right choice for them. 

Just one word of caution: this doesn’t mean it should be all about you. Instead, emphasize the benefits for your new contacts.

The email keeps it simple by focusing on getting customers to explore their offers rather than overwhelming them with conflicting calls-to-action (CTAs).

The video greeting

Showing rather than telling your new audience what you have to offer can help increase engagement with your welcome email content. 

A short video presenting your business brings it to life in a way that’s not possible with text alone. This could be a message from your founder that puts a face to your brand and shares your story, or you could show clips of your product in action.  

Alternatively, you can use an animated GIF in your email to get across your brand and its personality. The GIF works hand in hand with the playful email copy to show subscribers what their company’s about.

The personalized welcome message

To get your introduction just right for each contact, you can adapt the email content based on what you know about them. 

Use personalization tools for sending emails that are unique to the recipient. To try this tactic for your welcome email, add questions to your email signup form to learn more about subscribers. Then create content to match different profiles.

The getting to know you email

If you prefer to keep your subscription form brief, your welcome email itself can also help you get audience insights.

Use it to find out what subscribers are looking for, like the content they’re interested in or their preferred email frequency. Not only is this valuable information for your strategy but it also shows your audience you’re serious about meeting their needs. 

Rather than asking for direct replies, you could share a link to a profile update form to make collecting responses easier. That way you’ll build a picture of each contact’s interests and preferences to aid with your email list segmentation.

The product showcase

For B2C companies aiming to convert would-be customers, a welcome email is your chance to show off your best items so they can’t help but start browsing. You might choose to shine a spotlight on your flagship product or promote top sellers or new arrivals.

The special offer welcome gift

You can further boost sales from your welcome email with incentives like discount codes or free shipping that double up as a thank you for signing up. This tactic works well for eCommerce businesses as the email can direct shoppers straight to their online store to redeem the offer.

For example, B2C retailer The Little Traveler created this welcome email template and share an exclusive discount with those who sign up from their website. They accompany this with helpful information about their physical location to encourage future visits.

The expiry date for the coupon encourages customers to act fast, taking advantage of their interest while it’s still fresh. Another trick is to highlight the offer in your welcome email subject line to maximize open rates.

The onboarding welcome email

Once a customer has converted, your aim should be to get them up and running with your product as soon as possible. And onboarding emails provide the know-how and motivation they need to do so. 

Content should focus on educational resources like tutorials and tips that help new users get started and make the most of your product. 

The initial email encourages users to take the first steps in getting set up through clear instructions and a helpful GIF. The CTA button then takes them to the product to try it out. Finally, the customer quote adds a nice touch that shows the benefits they gain.

The resource delivery email

Lead magnets like cheat sheets, ebooks, or free templates are a great way to get prospective customers onto your email list. But, if your first email contains nothing more than a link to the free resource, you’re missing a trick.

You’ve already managed to draw the contact in with something they want. So now it’s time to guide them down your funnel through to sale.

One tactic is to share your related content, as in the welcome email.

You could also encourage the new audience to discover your product, for example through a free trial or case study. Just be careful not to scare them off by being overly promotional — the key is to offer something valuable that’ll keep them engaged until they’re ready to convert.

The customer seal of approval

Another tactic for winning over new contacts without having to toot your own horn is to let your loyal customers do it for you. 

Playing on social proof in your welcome message will reassure subscribers they’ve made the right choice with your business and encourage further engagement.

The rest of the email is littered with customer endorsements, from five-star reviews to glowing feedback, that boost the legitimacy of their claims.

The Best Advertising Strategies for Your eCommerce Store in 2021

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Online sales reached nearly $800 billion — 32% higher than the previous year. Most experts agree that the face of online retail has been forever changed by shifts in both the online shopping mindset and technology introduced in 2020.

With shoppers increasingly turning to online retailers for everything from fashion to their weekly groceries, you can’t afford to fall back on the same old advertising and marketing strategies you’ve relied on in the past.

That’s why we’re here today. To give you the information you need to make changes in your eCommerce business now. To create more effective advertising strategies before your sales start to fall behind your predictions and profit goals.

Some of the strategies we’re going to discuss today you may have heard many times before. That doesn’t mean they’re too basic for experienced eComm heads like our members and guests.

Why? Because we’ll be presenting them with our advanced eCommerce Fuel twist that you’ve come to know, expect, appreciate, and love.

So without further ado, here are four advertising strategies that will hopefully see your online store healthier and happier than ever by this year’s end:

Content Is (Still) King

Content is possibly the best strategy for advertising to your target audience with just the right information they need at just the right time.

The face of content is changing, thanks in large part to social media — and that’s where a bit of the tried and true advanced thinking expected by our members comes in.

Content marketing can do five things for your target audience, and each has a different effect on you, as the person behind the business. It can:

Educate, setting you up as the go-to expert
Engage, positioning you as a community leader
Empathize, establishing you as a “friend” and fellow “traveler”
Encourage, making you a source of inspiration and a thought leader
Entice, putting you in place as the go-to supplier for your products

Typically, and historically, eCommerce businesses have used content solely as a marketing strategy at the top of the sales funnel. Businesses use it to inform and engage prospective customers. They show how their product can solve the buyer’s problem.

Content marketing, however, should follow the buyer through the funnel — even after the sale. As an advertising strategy, content marketing can reach the buyer wherever they are in the buying process.

In the middle of the sales process — guides, case studies, emails, or online courses can show the customer how to use the product, how others have used it, and show off benefits like ease of use.

At the bottom of the funnel — social media testimonials, customer stories, and video reviews can be used to persuade the buyer to make a purchase.

Customer-created content is one of the best advertising strategies out there, after all. Word of mouth advertising is worth more to prospective buyers than all the pay-per-click, direct mail, email marketing, and other paid advertising campaigns combined.

Taking Your Show on the Road with Local Advertising

How far-reaching was your last advertising campaign? Did you simply rely on your email list, your social media, and some on-site advertisements? Strategies that exclude the old-fashioned in-person opportunities leave money on the table.

Every brick-and-mortar small business knows that the more people you can reach with your ad campaign budget, the more successful it is likely to be. And just because you have an online business, doesn’t mean you have to restrict yourself to only using online advertising.

Other forms of local advertising for the eComm small business include:

1. Pop-up stores in public places like parks, fairs, and street festivals
2. In-person product demos
3. Free workshops/makeover sessions/seminars
4. Customer meet-ups — sponsoring a live event or “shopper’s party” for loyal customers and “special guests”

Going local allows you to answer questions, dispel misinformation, and show off your products in their best light.

Getting out and meeting your audience is an effective growth and sales strategy. Advertising the event can be as simple as announcements on your social media. Encourage your followers to “come on down” and “connect with us.”

Opening the Conversation — Customer-Connectedness

You may think of connecting with your customers as a one-sided issue — your business uses its social media to “talk to” your audience.

What happens in many cases is the business ends up talking at them instead of engaging in real conversations. They tell or teach, or worse — sell. All. The. Time. No real communication occurs.

How you may wonder, can talking with customers and prospects be utilized as an advertising or marketing strategy?

It’s simple. Eventually, customers become your brand ambassadors, doing the bulk of the advertising and reaching out to you. Engage in enough conversations via social, forums, SMS texting, and in-person events to turn customers into a friend as well as a source for your products.

We are social creatures and getting to know the people behind the companies we support is important. We go from feeling like just a customer to a family member. Connecting with customers is another strategy you simply can’t afford to use

Follow-Up Advertising: Keeping Them Coming Back

Did you know that a large majority of small business owners — both online and off — don’t engage in any form of follow-up marketing or advertising?

They instead spend all their time, effort, and energy on drawing in new customers, making new sales, acquiring new leads.

And yet, study after study shows that this strategy is flawed in so many ways. Here are just a few of the inherent problems:

1. Converting a new customer costs 6 times more than making a sale to an existing customer.
2. The likelihood of making a sale to a new customer is between 5 and 20%, while it’s between 60 and 70% for an existing one.
3. Loyal, repeat customers are worth 10x their initial purchase over their lifetime.
4. 62% of customers feel content helps foster customer loyalty.

A follow-up content strategy involves more than just a “holiday sale” or “new product” email. You can use any or all of the following content in a follow-up, customer loyalty-building strategy:

1. Resource lists of other content that can help get the most out of a customer’s purchase
2. A monthly “preferred customer” newsletter with after-sale product info and discounts
3. Preferred customer events like invitations to pop-ups and connection events, exclusive AMAs via Zoom, and virtual “private shows” of new products and product lines
4. Personalized content such as thank you cards or emails, birthday cards, customer anniversary recognitions, and shout-outs to top monthly or weekly contributors to your social media

Using any one of these advanced ideas for advertising your eCommerce business will more than likely increase your sales. Utilizing more than one strategy will increase the likelihood that you’ll keep those sales numbers high.

5 Trends that can Shape Your Content Marketing

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Your content is the foundation of all your digital marketing efforts. It can make or break a marketing campaign. Content acts as a connection between your customer and your brand. And connecting with your audience with authentic content will increase your results exponentially. Content Marketing is the creation and distribution of content to achieve your business or marketing goals. It can help build your brand, spread awareness about your brand, get website traffic, and drive sales.

Therefore, keeping yourself up to date on Content Marketing trends and designing your content strategy with these trends in mind is always a good idea. So, let us have a look at some key Content Marketing trends that can help you shape your content strategy 

  1. Authenticity and Transparency
  2. Create Visual Content
  3. Brand Storytelling
  4. Ads as a Part of Content Marketing Strategy – Content Advertising
  5. Aligning Social Media with Content Marketing

Authenticity and Transparency

Content Marketing is all about providing value to your audience by educating them. In doing so, you communicate a sense of authenticity and transparency through your content, building trust towards your brand. Hence, authenticity and transparency are the two most important factors that help add value to your content.

The best way to provide value through Content Marketing initiatives is to create content that:

  • Aligns with your overall message and mission.
  • Helps your target audience accomplish their goals.
  • Makes your audience comfortable engaging with your brand in the future.

Now, let us go ahead and understand “Why do readers respond to transparency?”

There are two key elements that transparency affects – Value and Trust

People value content mainly for its usefulness and transparency helps make the content more useful. By providing high transparency like personal examples and experiences in detail, you help the reader see your advice in action. When your content is backed by personal stories and experiences, it adds value to what you are trying to convey. It moves you from an advice-giver to a credible source of information and real solutions.

And then there’s trust. When people read a product review or case study, their skepticism radar is at high alert. Hence, earning a reader’s trust is not an easy task. But transparency goes a long way when it comes to building trust with your audience.

Now, coming to “Why readers respond to authenticity?”

Honesty and authenticity build trust for your Content Marketing efforts simply because authenticity cannot be faked. It requires a commitment to delivering through on promises and engaging in an honest level.

Your audience expects you to be reliable. Instead of just talking about your products or services, the key to drawing in an audience is to create reliable content that they can relate to. Providing authoritative content in an honest way builds a foundation for your current readers and potential future connections. 

Your brand will always work better with authentic content as your audience will stick around because they know they are learning only what’s real and reliable.

Create Visual Content

People do not like reading anymore. Videos, on the other hand, are the way people like to see content these days. Most people prefer visual content rather than text because it is easier to consume and understand. To make the best of this favoritism, brands are continually thriving to incorporate videos into Content Marketing. Include more visual content in your content strategy, be it infographics, photos, videos, or memes, take your pick and start creating. 

When it comes to visual content, videos will continue to dominate. According to a study by Cisco, videos will constitute 82% of online traffic by the year 2021. This indicates the increasing importance of videos for Content Marketing. What makes video content so popular among brands is its ability to deliver varied content in a captivating form. Videos can be used to drive awareness about your brand or feature the inspirational journeys of your customers. Video content makes the audience connect with your brand even more. The important factors to remember while creating visual content are 

  • Be engaging and unique
  • Be relevant, and 
  • Make sure your content is mobile-friendly. 

So, if you haven’t already started using video content in your Content Marketing strategy, this is the right time for you to start. The secret to success is experimenting with new things without becoming immediately addicted. Try and test new formats and mediums, but also be willing to ditch them soon enough, in case they do not work for you. The only thing that matters is that your content has to provide value to your audience.

If you have already been working with long-form content, it could be beneficial to test out shorter, bite-sized formats, like Instagram and Facebook stories. Or if you have been focussing on shorter video content, try testing longer-form content that can rank well in search, increase traffic, and offer SEO benefits. Take time to plan out a solid content strategy that attracts your ideal customers, serves your current audience, and works towards your broader goals. 

Brand Storytelling

We all know the power of stories. They add color, humanity, life, and meaning to our communications. Now, imagine blending a beautiful story into a Content Marketing campaign. The undeniable power of stories gives your marketing the ability to attract an audience. Storytelling gives your content life and makes it relatable, understandable, and personal. It is a big topic for marketers. Stories engage people, and people tend to remember them more than almost anything else.

Brand storytelling Content Marketing is the art of developing a narrative about your company which makes it easier for your audience to relate to who you are and what you do. It engages customers on an emotional level, so they see dealing with you is the right choice for them. Brand storytelling is about sharing your experiences and how you engage with your customers. 

How to create your brand story?

Understand Your Customer – Put yourself in your customer’s shoes and understand the challenges they face. Remember to make your story customer-centric and advertise your product as a product that helps them change it for themselves.

Be More Than What You Do – It’s important to give your potential customers a compelling reason to buy from you. You need to give them a value-based reason why they should turn to you.

Be Honest – Your story needs to be authentic even if it sometimes means talking about your failures. An underdog story is more appreciated than a fake successful one.

Ads as a Part of Content Marketing Strategy – Content Advertising

Content advertising means creating content to promote it through paid distribution channels. Depending on the purpose of your content and the potential audiences, you can use a variety of paid channels to get your content out there. This can include paid social, PPC campaigns, sponsored placements, and any other type of paid promotional opportunities. The idea here is to combine digital marketing and Content Marketing under one umbrella to drive sales.

When it comes to ads, the takeaway is to brainstorm what makes a person click on your ad? What does a customer expect from your brand? Once you have a clear picture of this, you’ll be able to devise the ad copies that your brand needs.

Here are the key points to keep in mind for Content Advertising-

  • Know your audience.
  • Set your business goals precisely.
  • Always invest in quality content.
  • Repurpose concepts from top-performing organic content.
  • Experiment with new ad formats.
  • Conduct A/B testing for results.

Any content format can be created as part of a content advertising campaign. For instance, you could create a whitepaper focusing on common problems in the industry and promote this through paid social ads. Moving forward, let us have a look at some of the advantages of content advertising.

The biggest advantage of content advertising has over organic Content Marketing is that it doesn’t rely on search or discoverability. That means if you’re paying to promote your content, you don’t have to worry about appealing to a wider audience, or trying to appease the SEO gods to make an impact. You just need to find your audience and use whichever distribution channel suits your requirements.

Another advantage of content advertising is that it enables you to zero in on laser-focused topics that may be considered too niche to succeed organically. It means you can find specific points and tailor your content to meet the needs of your customers. 

Remember, leveraging user intent and understanding the pain points of consumers in your conversion funnel is crucial to the success of any content advertising campaign. Make sure that your content is going to the right people, with the right offer, at the right time. 

Aligning Social Media with Content Marketing

Content marketing and social media complement each other. Here are a few elements that apply both to Content Marketing and social media marketing. To succeed in your content and social media marketing strategy, you must address them in both- 

  • Objectives
  • Buyer personas
  • Product 
  • Editorial plan

What are the Aligning Objectives in Content and Social Media?

  • Help your audience understand the subject matter specialization.
  • Entertain your audience with fun and relevant content.
  • Educate your audience on new best practices.
  • Convince your audience to buy your product with strong content.

To turn your business goals into social media goals, you first need to convert them into the marketing equivalent, then the Content Marketing equivalent, and finally into social media marketing. 

Social media is the prime vehicle on the Internet that drives your content in the right direction. It has many reliable platforms that you can use, which means you are not driving your Content Marketing vehicle on just one street. Social media can engage your targeted audience, give you a global publishing platform and reach out to a broad audience to establish brand awareness.

You must align with social media to make your Content Marketing campaigns a roaring success. This alignment needs some planning and strategy. 

Companies need to get creative and enthusiastic about spreading their content to the right people. Don’t let your investment in content marketing go to waste by sitting on some of your most valuable marketing assets.

10 reasons why you may need a digital channel strategy?

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Where do you start if you want to develop a digital marketing strategy? It’s still a common challenge since many businesses know how vital digital and mobile channels are today for acquiring and retaining customers. Yet they don’t have an integrated plan to support digital transformation and company growth and engage their audiences effectively online.

So, if you don’t yet have a strategy, or maybe you want to review which business issues are important to include within a strategic review, we’ve set out the 10 most common problems, that in our experience arise if you don’t have a strategy.

You’re directionless

Companies without a digital strategy (and many that do) don’t have a clear strategic goal for what they want to achieve online in terms of gaining new customers or building deeper relationships with existing ones. And if you don’t have goals with SMART digital marketing objectives you likely don’t put enough resources to reach the goals and you don’t evaluate through analytics whether you’re achieving those goals.

You won’t know your online audience or market share

Customer demand for online services may be underestimated if you haven’t researched this. Perhaps, more importantly, you won’t understand your online marketplace. The dynamics will be different from traditional channels with different types of customer profiles and behavior, competitors, propositions, and options for marketing communications.

We’ve got marketing tools to support your research and planning. Our popular competitor analysis module in our RACE Practical Digital Strategy Learning Path is packed with templates and matrixes to review the relative performance of your key competitors. Plus, find out more about your audience’s intent with our Google keyword planning tools.

All our marketing training will support you and your team to build a winning marketing strategy to reach, convert and retain more customers and accelerate your ROI from digital marketing. Sound good? Take your next steps to a winning strategy by getting started today.

Existing and start-up competitors will gain market share

If you’re not devoting enough resources to digital, or you’re using an ad-hoc approach with no clearly defined strategies, then your competitors will eat your digital lunch!

As a member of Smart Insights, we’ll keep you updated on the latest trends and innovations in your sector. So you can stay ahead and not fall behind.

You don’t have a powerful online value proposition

A clearly defined digital value proposition tailored to your different target customer personas will help you differentiate your online service encouraging existing and new customers to engage initially and stay loyal. Developing an omnichannel marketing strategy is key to this for many organizations since the content is what engages your audiences through different channels like search, social, email marketing, and on your blog.

You don’t know your online customers well enough

It’s often said that digital is the “most measurable medium ever”. But Google Analytics and similar will only tell you volumes of visits, not the sentiment of visitors, what they think. You need to use other forms of website user feedback tools to identify your weak points and then address them.

You’re not integrated 

It’s all too common for digital marketing activities to be completed in silos whether that’s a specialist digital marketer, sitting in IT, or a separate digital agency. It’s easier that way to package ‘digital’ into a convenient chunk. But of course, it’s less effective. Everyone agrees that digital media work best when integrated with traditional media and response channels.

That’s why we recommend developing an integrated digital marketing strategy, so your digital marketing works hard for you! With your integrated plan in place, digital will become part of your marketing activity and part of business as usual. 

Digital doesn’t have enough people/budget given its importance

Insufficient resources will be devoted to both planning and executing e-marketing. There is likely to be a lack of specific specialist e-marketing skills which will make it difficult to respond to competitive threats effectively.

As a member of Smart Insights, you’ll have access to strategy and planning tools including performance and digital maturity benchmarking, and regular marketing data reports, so you can keep track of your position in a competitive landscape.

What is SEMrush and Why Should I Use It?

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What is SEMrush?

SEMrush is an SEO tool used by professional SEO managers. It contains a database of around 35 million keywords, which are continually researched and used to better discoverability for various websites. This data is gathered directly from Google’s Adwords and Search results, which allows you to get full visibility of your online traffic. Without tools like SEMrush, it can be quite hard for managers to properly maintain their SEO as they will lack the essential information.

What are the benefits of using SEMrush?

Better marketing strategy

Designing a marketing strategy for promoting your company can be quite tricky. And, as it is with most things, the best way to start is by researching your competition. By finding out which moving industry software other companies are using, you will be able to improve on their ideas and make your marketing strategy work. Well, luckily, that is what SEMrush is all about.

Keyword research

One of the most apparent benefits of using SEMrush is the possibility to efficiently research keywords. SEMrush will allow you to quickly identify keyword phrases that will bring you traffic to your website. Also, it will help you find related keywords that are associated with particular root words. This will allow you to reach your client base more efficiently, as these keyword associations are mostly based on client behavior. And, to keep proper track of your keywords, you will have access to the number of monthly searches connected to them.

20 Billion Keyword Opportunities, All at Your Fingertips! Sign up for free

Keeping track of rankings

Knowing whether or not your marketing strategy is working is best done by checking your Google rankings. The higher your rank is on Google, the greater your website value is, and the easier it is for people to find you. Well, SEMrush allows you to monitor your rankings continuously. Remember, SEMrush connects to both Google Analytics and Google Search Console. That allows you to compare your current ranking to previous ones and helps you organize your marketing strategy in the long run.

Advertising gains of using SEMrush

Now, there are two ways in which you can approach companies for affiliate marketing. You can either be first. Or, you can provide the best possible content. And, although providing great content is necessary, being first is usually much more straightforward. Luckily, this is one of the benefits of using SEMrush. By using it, you will be able to:

1. Find out which domains the companies are using.
2. Which keywords they use for their ads
3. How much traffic they generate with their ads.
4. And the cost that is behind the ads.

Backlink Analysis

Another critical aspect of growing an online presence is the inbound links. By using SEMrush, you will be able to keep track of other companies’ backlinks. Furthermore, you will quickly see the quality of the links and how well they connect to moving or storage. That will help you in designing an effective backlink strategy, which is essential for generating moving leads a maintaining an online presence.

Guest Blogging

Guest blogging is a great way to approach online marketing, especially if you create good content. But, it can be quite hard to find out which websites are worthwhile since there are so many. Well, that is where SEMrush can again be of great help. With SEMrush, you can do the necessary research to figure out if the site you are considering is worth blogging for.

What Are Email Marketing Strategies and How Do They Work?

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What is Email Marketing?

Email marketing is a highly effective communication medium to promote products or services. It is one of the digital marketing strategies used to develop relationships with potential customers or clients. Email marketing involves newsletters with updates on the company or promotions of sales and exclusive deals for subscribers etc. At its best, email marketing provides businesses to keep their customer’s notified regarding the products or services.

How Email Marketing Works?

It is easy to set up and follow an email marketing campaign, which makes it accessible for small businesses. You can easily add a newsletter sign-up option to your website. The main advantage of email marketing is price. Compared to other types of marketing, emailing is an economical way to advertise your company’s products or services.

A regular newsletter is an easy and powerful way to send updates about your company, forthcoming events, and exclusive offers. There are lots of email software available on the market today. With the help of the software, you can easily schedule automated promotional emails for customers who haven’t purchased recently. 

Email marketing helps you to target specific groups or individual customers. For example, a restaurant might send an email to customers with offers on their birthdays. This can help a business to develop and maintain a good relationship with a customer. 

Email Marketing Strategies

Effective email marketing necessitates effort. Here are a few strategies for making the most of your email marketing campaigns.

Create Your Own List

All you’re going to do by sending an unrequested email is turn off most of the people you were wishing to turn into customers. Whether through your website, in your store, or at an event, make it clear when customers are opting into accepting your emails.

Obey the Law

Email marketers must adhere to the rules of the CAN-SPAM Act. These rules incorporate having a non-deceptive subject line, providing a clear way to unsubscribe, and including your name and address at the end of the emails.

Mix Up Your Messages

Don’t just send out commercials to buy all the time. Use your emails to build compatibility with customers by yielding your expertise or that of others, delivering them tips and insights they can value. Share information that lets them understand more about you and your company.

Appreciate Your Subscribers

Treat your list well. Remember that the people you’re interacting with have trusted you with their information; they deserve your respect. If you want a chance to convert them from customers to audiences and even preachers for your brand, then make them feel curious.

Follow a Schedule

Adhere to a schedule if you’re doing a newsletter. Sending out an email on the same day (or days) every week will help your followers know what to anticipate from you and when.

Optimize for Mobile

Studies by marketing analysts have consistently discovered that just under half of all emails are opened on mobile devices. That means, if your email doesn’t display correctly on mobile platforms, half of your viewers are going to think you don’t know how to correctly craft an email.

Conclusion

Email marketing is the use of email to promote a company’s products and services or to associate with customers. When it’s done properly, email marketing is a powerful sales driver. When it’s done wrong, email marketing can come across as spam that annoys customers. The best marketing emails are optimized for mobile devices, value the customers, and follow a proper schedule while blending up the messaging.