Month: March 2015

5 SEO Best Practices Trending in 2015

Posted on by NextJSjointviews

“Content is king. But marketing is queen and runs the household”– Gary Vaynerchuk

Jay has just started learning about the scopes of digital marketing and following the advice of one of his friends, had spend money on creating a business website and writing blog posts, making videos and images and all content of the sort for the website. He waited for few weeks after creating a beautiful website to boost his business but, nothing happened! He was worried and of course, frustrated thinking what could have gone wrong?

What really happened?

May be due to his lack of knowledge or in the hurry to achieve a result, Jay forgot to add a main ingredient to his digital marketing strategy-SEO!

No matter how good the content of your website is, your marketing skills are of no use until your business grabs attention among customers. You need to have all elements to pull customers towards your brand and therefore, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) plays a significant role.

“The best place to hide a dead body is page 2 of Google search results”

Google is the most used search engine in the Internet. Internet users are always impatient and while searching online, they tend to check only the websites in the first page of the search results. Therefore, it is important for your business website to be there in the first page of search results for customers to find out about it.

SEO helps in improving your page ranking and in increasing web traffic through various techniques. Therefore, for every business, it is necessary to have a SEO specialist. If you don’t have one, you can go for a SEO specialist or hire a digital marketing agency like Jointviews that can satisfy all your marketing needs.

The SEO techniques applied vary over years and they are still in the path of evolution. If you are into marketing your business online, it is necessary for you to be up to date with the latest trends in SEO.

Here are 5 SEO best practices that are trending in 2015 that you can utilize to improve your page ranking and to help your business reach the right audience in the coming months:

1. Content is king

Content has great value in digital marketing. A good quality and informative content has the power to influence people and convert them into permanent customers.  Any content that you add to your website must be related to your business and should contain relevant keywords. This trend seems to continue even in 2015.

2. Conversations given more priority than keywords

Before, a matching keyword would have brought your website to the first page of search results. But now, things have changed. Search engine looks specifically for the meaning, context and intent of the word typed in the search query.  Therefore, you should focus on putting efforts towards a key word phrase in order to engage in a conversation with your customers.

3. Visual-based SEO

2014 was the year of visual content when websites that topped search engine results had high quality videos and images as content. The trend remains the same in 2015. The Search Engine Results Pages are choosing websites with text and visual elements in them over those websites with just text as content.  Also, video marketing in YouTube can help you build website traffic by sharing the video in social media sites.

4. Mobile-friendly SEO

No one bothers to carry a laptop around these days. Internet is easily available in mobile phones and that is what the people prefer. According to the statistics, mobile Internet usage has surpassed desktop Internet. According to the estimates, there will be at least 50 billion local searches via mobile Internet and therefore, mobile-friendly SEO is the need of the hour.

5. Online security is a priority in rankings

If your website deals with online transactions and contains sensitive information, make sure that you are using proper security measures to guard the information.  Online security certificates and use of https instead of http is going to decide your website rankings in 2015.

8 Trending Digital Marketing Tactics in 2015

Posted on by NextJSjointviews

Digital marketing has undergone a substantial change over the years. What worked a couple of years ago might be a total flop now. With evolving customer behaviours and changing business models, a marketer has to constantly keep evolving and think of ways to reinvent his business tactics. If you thought you had used all the tricks up your sleeve in 2014, then you’ll be surprised by the major digital marketing trends and predictions of 2015. Any smart marketer would want to get ahead of things and anticipate the next big trends to get an upper hand in the market. So, here’s a compilation of some major trends in digital marketing that are expected to dominate in 2015.

  1. Content Marketing

Content marketing had played a very important role in digital marketing over the past few years and will continue to be on the rise in the coming year too. This will be the year where content will finally get its due, and will become more about quality than about quantity. So, make sure you have a dedicated team of content writers, who will create successful content writing strategies and produce first-rate content. Reach out to your customers in writing. High-quality and relevant content will not only attract followers, but will also increase your search engine ranking as well.

  1. “Mobile-First” Approach

In 2014, if you have tried to make your website responsive, then the year 2015 will be the year for the Mobile-First approach. With a majority of consumers relying on their mobile phone for everything,you’ll have to make a shift from a mobile-friendly website to a mobile-first website. Design keeping a small screen and a slow connection in mind. Long load times can drive viewers away. So, prioritize on speed and make accessing your content on mobile easy.

  1. Video Marketing

Usage of videos for marketing purposes has worked in the past and will continue to do so in the year 2015. Given the response of consumers to original video content, it is not a surprise to expect this trend to continue in the coming year too. Brand video content will be a serious contender, so it is but wise to set aside a fund to invest in making some fabulous brand promotional videos.

  1. Personalized Marketing

A personalized approach to marketing is expected to be the next big thing in the year 2015. Companies who adopted this method in 2014 were able to notice a steady increase in the sales. The fact being that such content encourages consumers to stay longer on the website and also fosters customer satisfaction. So, focus on creating personalized content in the year 2015.

  1. Real-time Marketing

Real-time marketing is a marketers’ tool to close the gap between online and offline experience. According to a recent study, marketers not only noticed increased customer engagement, but also increased conversion rates and improved brand perception by using this technique. For this tactic to work, you have to have an “always on” social team in place that will understand your target audience and implement real-time marketing efforts.

  1. Minimalistic Approach

Yes! Less will more in the year 2015. There will be a shift in how content will be presented visually on websites, and simple, user-friendly designs will top the list. Endless scrolls, countless emails, too much text, complicated designs will be a definite no-no. Keep the design minimalistic with clean open space, bright colours and crisp edges. This will capture the limited attention span of consumers. Keep the content short and simple.

  1. Personalized Emails

Savvy marketers will swear by personalized emails. With most customers relying on permission-based e-mailers to get to know the latest promotions and offers, this is the right way to reach people effectively. It has been noticed that the click through rates and conversion rates are relatively high for personalized emails. So, if you have not personalized your emails still, then this is the right time to do.

  1. Marketing Automation

Marketing Automation will be the buzzword of the year 2015. If you think it’s just about automating tasks, then you are wrong. There is more to it than that. It’s about optimization. It’s about connecting with your customers in an authentic way by bringing together your data, relationships or channels. This technique will be your tool to streamline resources and manage data effectively and efficiently.

Content Marketing: What is it all about?

Posted on by NextJSjointviews

People ignore all sorts of traditional marketing techniques these days. Interest in television advertising and print ads are on the decline. The moment people realized that traditional marketing has started to lose its awesomeness and Internet is where you can find your audience, they have turned to digital marketing.

“Good communication means good business”

If you are planning to market your business online, you cannot do it without content marketing since that’s the way you get to communicate with your clients and convey the idea about your business to them. It is popularly said that “Content is King” and good content, can undoubtedly boost your business.

Content marketing: the definition

The standard definition of content marketing goes like this:

Content marketing is the creation and sharing of valuable content in order to gain customers and to turn the existing customers to repeated buyers. The content will always be related to what exactly you are planning to sell.

What makes Content Marketing unique?

One might think all the buzz about content marketing is nothing but a fad. But, the fact is that content has always been the soul of marketing. Just give it a thought. Unless you know something is valuable, you are not going to buy it. How do you know something is valuable? Through informational content! But the importance of content has come to the forefront only in the past few years.

Despite content being the soul of marketing, there is a one major difference between traditional marketing and content marketing. All other forms of marketing techniques advocate the hard sell. i.e. They try to sell you the product while, content marketing tries to empower the customer by making him more knowledgeable about products and their benefits.

The now intelligent customer stays loyal to his source of knowledge more often than not.

Why do you need content marketing?

Because content is all you get to hear right from the moment you take your first step towards digital marketing. Rest of the marketing techniques just follow it.

  • An advertisement alone doesn’t compel customers to buy a product, valuable information regarding the product does
  • A Social media network is a great medium to make your business reach majority audience, but only with great content
  • It’s always the content based on which Google ranks your website so that people get to access your business
  • A great content leaves a great impact on people, letting them to know , like and trust your products

Different forms of content marketing

You create good content, but how do you make sure that it reaches out to the potential customers? That’s why there are different forms of content marketing, which include:

Blogs

When you hear the word content, the first thing that comes to your mind is obviously a blog. Blog contents contain relevant information about a particular business or product. Blog posts instil a sense of trust in the customers by giving them all necessary information about your product and helping you strengthen your brand.

Newsletters

You send newsletters to potential customers, each of the publication speaking about a particular topic of interest each day. It is considered as a great marketing strategy to attract customers and encourage them to visit your business websites.

E-mails

E-mail marketing tops the list of the most successful techniques used in content marketing. In e-mail marketing, you collect e-mail Ids of potential customers and mail them some informative content or offers. It is a means of indirect marketing where you don’t try to sell the product to the customers but you give them information that may be of great help to them, thus making them eager to learn further about you and your business.

Social media

Social media networks are very much popular amongst Internet users and that is where you have majority of your potential customers. Through social media, you can post, tweet, share and dialogue anything and therefore, it is a great medium to share your content, links to your blogs and website posts etc.

White papers

White papers are documents that contain long content, meant to promote a particular product. They introduce a problem and with the help of case studies, research findings and content of the sort to argue that your product or business is superior to other businesses in solving the issue.  It is somewhat like boasting about your product, but if you are sure about your business, what’s wrong in showing it off?

Videos

Video marketing is gaining popularity these days. Videos are effective marketing tools since they help you convey to the customers an insight about your business, how they can help you solve an issue etc. through effective content. Be it interviews, testimonials or guides, you get to show off all information about your business through videos. But make sure that the videos are short enough since people have a very short attention span and they tend to get easily bored.

E-books

E-books are of great advantage for your customers who are keen to learn more about your business and products. You can convert your best content into digital format and sell them or give away to your customers so that they can attain deep knowledge about your business.

Images

Images speak better than words at times. Therefore, a powerful image with great design can be the best marketing strategy to help you spread the word and gain more customers

Infographics

Inforgraphics is the trend these days. It is a design led graphic that speaks to customers with powerful images and relevant words that can explain even complex things in a simple manner.

How can content marketing help your business?

Content serves two different entities – customers and search engines. It builds customers’ trust and helps you rank better in search engine result pages (SERP). Adopting content marketing can benefit your business in the following ways:

  • Generate in-bound traffic to your website
  • Increase engagement with potential audience
  • Generate more leads
  • Increase sales
  • Helps in brand-building
  • Cheaper than traditional marketing

Here are some interesting stats about content marketing:

  1. Content marketing is employed by 93% of B2B marketers (Content Marketing Institute)
  2. About 60% people are inspired to look for a product after reading about it online!(com)
  3. Out of all the marketers who blog, a massive 82% report positive ROI for their inbound marketing (hubspot)

How can Social Media Marketing Help You Retain Customers?

Posted on by NextJSjointviews

Posts, likes, shares, comments, tweets, +1s! If you thought that’s all social media platforms are about, you were wrong. Apart from showing off your location and status to the world, social media platforms are also among the best means to enhance your business.

“A brand is no longer what we tell the customer it is. It is what customers tell each other it is”- Scott Cook

Social media platforms are viewed as the “next big thing” by entrepreneurs mainly because it is where most of the potential customers will be since majority of the world are Internet users. But, some people disagree with that. They feel that social media marketing doesn’t really bring any huge difference to their business.

However, the statistics say something different… (source)

In 2014,

92% marketers felt that social media marketing was important for their business and out of the 92%, 80% of the marketers felt that social media marketing has increased traffic to their website.

97% marketers have already set their foot in the world of social media marketing. But 85% of them are still not sure of which social media tools to use to yield best results.

The statistics themselves reveal the potential of social media marketing and its positive effect on business.

Social media marketing can help you retain customers in the following ways:

Brand recognition

You should never spare an opportunity to show off your content and earn a place for yourselves amongst the crowd. Social media networks are the best platforms you can opt for to earn recognition for your brand. Not only does it help you to grab the attention of new customers, but also familiarizes  existing customers with your business.

Brand loyalty

Social media networks can be used to build a sense of trust and likeness among your customers since it enables you to connect directly to your audience. Therefore, utilizing the social media tools to the fullest and a finely planned and executed marketing strategy can influence your customers to stay loyal to your brand.

More chances to convert leads to business

The content you post in your social media platform is an opportunity for you to convert your site visitors to paying customers.  Through social media marketing, you get to interact with your customers. You get to know their reaction to your products and for almost every positive interaction, conversion is possible.

Higher conversion rates

Social media marketing can result in higher conversion rates. Also, it helps in improvising your brand according to the taste of the customer. Since you get to interact with the customers through social media networks, you can know about what they like and dislike about your product. Also interaction with your customers can help you in building trust and faith in the customer’s minds. Thus you can build a greater audience and improve your conversion rates.

Higher brand authority

You might have seen how people appreciate or criticize a brand in social media platforms. Keeping the negative feed backs apart, every time they mention the name of your brand, it is marketing and it compels others to keep themselves updated about what is happening to your brand. You can use this opportunity to interact with people on a regular manner and earn their faith.

Increased inbound traffic

Without social media marketing, inbound traffic to your site may be restricted to your already existing customers. Every profile you create on social media platforms link back to your website and the content that you post there will help you earn new customers.  Inbound traffic also depends on the quality of content you post. With better quality content, you will be able to enjoy better inbound traffic leading to higher conversion rates.

Lesser marketing costs

According to 84% of the marketers around the world, taking an effort of 6 hours per week itself can result in an increase in traffic. Spend a couple of hours to plan and another couple of hours to create quality content. That’s all you may need to start seeing desired results and it is not much of an effort. Once your brand is popular, you need not spend more on marketing it.

Improved Search Engine Rankings

Search engine rankings play an important role in earning you permanent customers and enhancing your business. People tend to notice your business only if the website appears in the first two pages of the search engine. Criteria such as regular updating of blogs, optimization of tags, sites pointing to your website, content that is not plagiarized etc. are not the only things that are considered by Google while ranking your website these days. Since almost every brand uses social media to promote, the presence of your business on social media might have an influence on your website’s Google page rank too. Being active in social media gives search engines a signal that your brand can be trusted and is loyal.

Interaction with customers

Social media is a communication platform just like telephones and e-mails.  You can interact directly with your customers and know their opinions on your product and their expectations. You tend to provide customer care at a personal level in social media networks and thereby prove that your brand is trustworthy. If a person complains about your product via social media, you can address the issue in a very short time and try to solve it. Or if a customer appreciates you, you can thank them and offer information about additional products from your brand.

Customer Insights

When you market your product through print ads or TV ads, you have to wait for a long period to know about the customer reaction. You need not wait that long when it comes to social media. You can read customer opinion in the form of comments. You can analyse what they want and improvise your products accordingly. You’ll get to know the contents that interest the customers and thus improve the content you post. At the end, all these interactions help you create a strategy that can help you enhance your business.

If you are still not sure about using social media for business, you need to know the following things

The competition is on

While you stay away from social media, there already exists an intense competition between different brands selling the same products as yours. When all your competitors enjoy the benefits of social media, such as increased conversion rates and web traffic, why should you stay idle?

Sooner you start, larger will be the audience

Social media is all about earning new acquaintances and getting social. In a similar way, you can earn as many potential customers once you enter the world of social media

Nothing to lose

You don’t endure any significant loses if your social media marketing isn’t successful.  Also, the money and time you spend on social media is nothing much compared to what you spend for other marketing techniques.

The earlier you go for it, the better your benefits will be.