Month: March 2017

5 Innovative Email Marketing Strategies for Startups

Posted on by NextJSjointviews

Did you know that email marketing has the highest return on marketing investment? This primary source of lead generation gives an average return of 38$ on every 1$ spent! Marketers world over are going bullish on this direct marketing channel as there is no dependency on social media platforms or search engines here. The frequent changes in search engine algorithms and social media rules can make any regular marketer dizzy and hence they are turning to low cost email marketing services for small businesses.

We have 5 innovative email marketing solutions for startups to kick-start their effort:

  1. Integrate Email Marketing with Content Marketing

There is a high probability of your mail ending up in the spam folder if it is irrelevant to the recipient. Nobody wants a hard sell pitch in their inbox. Mails will not be read unless they are relevant to the audience and this is the reason why content marketing extends to include mails. According to Mailigen, emails that are relevant to the recipient drive 18 times more revenue than general broadcast email.

 

It is important to first build a relationship with potential customers by sending them what they want to read about. Your mails should be information that the reader looks forward to receive. This can only be achieved with providing quality content that is relevant to the reader.

2. How to build Mailing List

Email marketing is great for sales conversion. But how do you build your mailing list? Apart from gathering email IDs of existing customers and followers on social media, you can collect data of visitors to your site. You can also offer a free newsletter or information guide in lieu of email ID. You can also exchange data with businesses that are relevant to your industry but not a competition.

Always build a database of people who are actually interested in your product/service and information. Email list segmentation increases click-through rates by 5 percent. Buying random lists will only increase your cost with no return on investments.

3. Get Smart with Smartphones

The power of smartphones cannot be overstated.75% of the Gmail’s 1 billion users access mails on mobile handset. HubSpot reports that 69% of mobile users delete emails that aren’t optimized for mobile. It is therefore important to optimize your mails to mobile and also explore ways to take advantage of this. For example, many marketers include a link to their app on app stores in their mails.

4. Exciting Email Campaigns

There are many campaigns that can be strategically planned to keep your readers looking forward to your mail. Surveys and quizzes are a great way to engage your readers. Not only will this give you an insight into your audience, your readers will also look forward to the results of survey they were a part of.

Referral campaigns are another way to take advantage of your existing mailing list. Samples, freebies and discounts can be given on your product/service for referring a friend.

5. Personalize and Customize

Email marketing is the best suited channel for personalized marketing. Use all the marketing automation software available to give your readers a personalized experience. Many brands address to reader’s first name in mails and this instantly builds connection. Keep your mails interactive and ask for feedback often. It is important to grow everyday and avoid getting boring and stale in your mails.

Compared to Pay-Per-Click, and social media advertising,  you need only little investment for starting email marketing campaigns. When you implement it in the right way you can get high returns and  thereby more conversions in the long run.

 

 

Why Videos are so Popular in Social Media Marketing Campaigns

Posted on by NextJSjointviews

It is said that what you say is as important as how you say it. Marketers are always finding better ways to reach out to their targets and engage them in a meaningful way. The Cisco Visual Networking Index has forecasted that video will account for almost 70% of consumer internet traffic by 2017. Videos are more likely to be shared in social media as compared to a written article. According to Nielsen 64% of marketers expect video to dominate their strategies in coming years. This is why social media marketing services are also emphasizing on creating more video content for their clients.

Here are the reasons why videos are gaining popularity in social media and are one of the best ways to connect with your audience:

Visually appealing

Do you remember the colorful pictures in your textbooks disappearing as you graduated to higher grades? Didn’t the books look scarier and less appealing each year?

There are four primary learning styles: visual, read-write, auditory and kinesthetic. Each person has a predominant style but using more of these means that the learner, or in our case the audience, finds it more enjoyable to consume, learn and understand content. Videos can use all of the four styles together and give a richer experience to the users. It is because they engage more of the senses that they are so appealing to social media users.

Ease of Absorption

The human brain always searches for the shortest way to do a task. Generally speaking, our brain has to do many processes to take in the meaning of a written content. In contrast to this, videos give us easily digestible visuals, audios and mind maps to take in. Videos are simply more effective way of getting the meaning of a message compared to a written article. They are also more useful to communicate complex concepts by including animation, simple relation- charts and diagrams.

Reducing Attention Span

The attention span of readers is decreasing day by day as it is proved by the popularity of sites like Instagram, Vine and Twitter. Although the rate of hearing in humans is less than the rate of reading ( 250 words/ min for reading  vs 150 words/ min for hearing), a video packs in more content in a shorter span of time. This is because a lot of information on product/concept is given simultaneously in a frame which would otherwise have required a lengthy written description.

Social media users are hence more drawn to videos and are more likely to share it with their friends who are equally hard-pressed for time in this world of information overload. Many social media marketing services run analytics to understand the attention span of users and determining factors on what content is shared.

Human Touch

Humans are social animals and we are wired to interact with others. In fact, our brains reward us with happy hormones on interacting with others and lack of interaction leads to depression. Videos are closer to reality by enabling users to see the people, their expression and actual demonstrations of tasks being performed. Videos also fulfill our need to know more people and are hence, a more rewarding way of information consumption.

So, when you conduct social media marketing campaign for your client make sure to invest more time and money on creating engaging videos. These videos can surely attract your target audience, generate leads, and thereby leading to conversions.

 

Quality Content Still Matters in Content Marketing. Learn Why

Posted on by NextJSjointviews

Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of intelligent effort- John Ruskin

This quote by John Ruskin is also true for content. So what makes it worth the effort in content marketing?

Quality content is that which creates a unique and value adding experience for your audience. Since the boom of content marketing started about a decade ago, marketers are continuously putting out content on their website and various other platforms. 72% of marketers say that they are putting out more content than last year. Let us see why it is all the more crucial for a business to have quality content in this saturated market.

  • Quality Content is the way to SEO

Search engine optimization values the quality of content. Gone are the days when keyword stuffing could get you on the top. The algorithms are now well equipped to measure the quality of your content by various parameters like user times on a page, number of shares and back-links. As technology advances, search engines will get smarter at ranking based on quality.

In fact, SEO and quality content go hand in hand. Good quality content has optimal keywords, user engagement and shareability by default. There can be no hope of ranking higher on SERPs unless you have consistent and quality content.

Recommend read: 10 Outdated SEO Practices You Need to Discard in 2017

  • Content is the voice of your brand

Your content is a continuous touch-point with the customers. It might even be the first interaction they have with your brand. Content is hence a part of your image to the audience and poor content means poor image.

According to a survey by Global Lingo, 74% of clients are concerned about the quality of the write-ups on the websites. Out of these, 59% percent indicated that poor grammar would prevent them from working with such companies. This is because they wouldn’t trust the company anymore to provide good service and quality content.

And this is the reason why many content marketing agencies of both start ups and small businesses have a PR team on board.

  • Investment in Content Marketing without Quality is Futile

How many visitors would you get if your page ranks 22nd on the search engine results? All the investment in the website, promotion and content creation would go waste if the content is not up to the mark. Content marketing has no ROI without quality content.

Read Also: How Content Marketing Will Help Your Small Business to Excel

  • Users are knowledgeable

The content market is now saturated and ripe for segmentation. Content must address specific needs and interests of the users. This means that content now has to go deeper into a domain rather than wider across broad topics. The audience consuming content has more knowledge of the domain and will be put off by content that is low on quality.

The quality of your content matters due to all these reasons. It is better to put up three quality content in a week than bombard your audience with ten worthless write-ups.  If you can whip up a continuous stream of quality content, then your SEO, user engagement and content marketing strategy will also fall into place.

 

 

6 Reasons You Should Hire an Online Marketing Agency

Posted on by NextJSjointviews

The internet has opened up a lot of options to grow business and reach your target market.  Anyway, it is important that you cut through the clutter and establish yourself on the internet. Most of the companies do not have the expertise and knowledge on how to do this and hence it is a good idea to have a professional agency to take care of this.

Here are top six reasons why you should hire an online marketing agency:

1. Things are changing fast

Keeping up with the current trends across search engines, social media and platforms is a full time job. It is impossible to manage this with day to day tasks and most of the companies either have an in-house digital marketing team or outsource their works. You need to do the cost-benefit analysis of both and choose the best option. This brings us to the next point.

2. Cost Savings

A functional team for online marketing will include SEO Manager, social media manager, graphic/ visual designer and a project leader. This will not cost you anything less than INR 20,00,000 a year (average industry CTC taken).  Add to this the resources and training required by this team. This cost to company can be reduced drastically by outsourcing online marketing to a professional digital marketing agency.

 You May Also Like: Common Services Provided By A Digital Marketing Agency [Infographic]

3. Industry Benchmark

Hiring an external agency is also a great way to keep tabs on your industry and your competitors. Since digital marketing agencies are out there doing their job day in and day out, they probably have a good idea on your competitor’s agency and their online marketing strategy. Even if they do not have this information directly they are well aware of the industry benchmark and best practices.

4. Novelty

It is too easy to get caught up in your own projects and miss the big picture when you work within the company. Working with an external agency infuses fresh ideas and keeps your vision broad.

5. Access to Essential Tools

Do you have access to best of web analytics software?  Photo collection sites like Shutterstock and keyword research tools like Moz are must have tools for digital marketing. Premium subscription to these software can cost you anywhere upward of INR 60,000 a year. You can avoid these expenses once you assign work to a professional agency.

6. Quality Content is important

Online content is the voice of your brand on the internet. Quality content is very important today to cut through the clutter and reach your customers. The quality of your content not only affects your SEO result but also has a direct impact on your transaction potential. A research conducted by Global Lingo has revealed that bad content would make 59% of your users leave the site. A professional team will have the expertise to draft a compelling content message, devise a content marketing strategy and deliver the content to audience.

Read Also: 10 Outdated SEO Practices You Need to Discard in 2017

Digital marketing requires a lot of research, know-how and learning. You cannot afford to put so much time and effort into something that is neither your core business nor your key role. Hiring an online marketing agency will give you the edge of having an expert team at a significantly affordable cost.

10 Best Ideas to Promote Your Business Using Instagram

Posted on by NextJSjointviews

Instagram is gaining popularity as a mobile social platform. At present, Instagram has about 80 million users, which is likely to increase in the coming years. This popularity has increased the platform’s importance in social media marketing. If you are planning to put your business on Instagram, here’s how you can give your business extra visibility and improve customer engagement:

  1. Set up a separate business Instagram account

If you plan to promote your business through Instagram, it’s important to have a separate account meant only for it. Remember, your business is all about what you offer and your audience. It has got nothing to do with your personal details or photos. Since the idea is to improve customer engagement, here’s what you can do:

  • Include the link to your website

This is a great way to improve website traffic. Include the link to your website under the name and description at the top of the Instagram page.

  • Stay recognizable

As a brand, it’s important to have your own identity. If you fail here, remember, all your efforts will go down the drain. Avoid such situations by choosing an account name similar to that you have used in all other social media platforms. Your interactions and engagement in the account go along with the profile image. Therefore, make sure that your profile image is identifiable and professional.

  • Provide a catchy and informative bio

If you want people to follow your brand, make sure that they are enlightened about what you offer. Provide an attention-grabbing but informative bio with all necessary details. At the same time, try to make it light and interesting.

2. Show off your products

Information in the form of visuals tend to stay in people’s mind more than words. Use this to your advantage with Instagram, which is an image-centric platform. Post photos of the products you offer and that can really help to boost your sales. Here are few tips to make the users follow you through your Instagram posts:

  • Do not annoy them

Remember, Instagram is just a platform to promote your business and not to sell your products. Therefore, you must try to grab attention without being annoying. Try being creative with the photographs of your products. Let the customers feel how great a product is through the images and make a decision, instead of you insisting them to buy your products.

  • Be creative and professional with photos and product description

Product photos and description play an essential role in the decision customers makes with regard to purchasing the product. As I said before, Instagram is not a market place but just a medium to promote your business. Therefore, your product description should not sound salesy. Instead, try to post photos that are unique, striking and full of personality.

  • Let your images reflect professionalism

An improperly cropped or a blurred image isn’t going to impress the audience. Instagram automatically makes your image square (612×612 pixels). Consider this while choosing a photo to post. The best way for an image to show professionalism is through its quality. You can maintain the quality of your photos by saving them at double the resolution size. For example, if you save your photograph at 1024×1024 pixels dimension in Photoshop, it won’t lose its quality when reduced to Instagram’s image dimensions.

3. Show what your products can do

You can showcase different ways to use your product. Also, you can improve user-engagement by asking your followers to post photos of the innovative ways in which they use your products. If the followers feel that they are getting attention, they tend to engage more with your brand.

4. Give your followers the “behind the scenes” experience

The “behind the scene” look may not be aesthetically pleasing, whether it’s a product launch or a photoshoot. But, it adds to the content for promoting your business. Your followers may be excited to have a glimpse of what happens at the backstage and therefore, you must post photos regarding the same. This helps to build a close relationship with your followers.

5. Create lifestyle photos that scream your brand culture

Instagram is not a place where you can make direct sales, pushing your customers to buy your products. Instead, you have to influence your audience and make them feel that your product is what they need, by adding value and appeal to your posts. You can do this through lifestyle photos.

A life style photo consists of real background and models to create a scenario for your product. It lets the customers visualize how well the product works for them if they were using it. Famous brands like Nike and Adidas had already tried this and saw about 8 times better interaction on social media.

6. Offer incentives

Majority of users follow a business or a brand depending on the freebies and discounts they offer. Therefore, do not hesitate to provide special offers, discounts and bonuses whenever you can. This is going to improve customer engagement.

7. Promote events

Hold events and promote them through Instagram. This is going to hugely benefit your business, earning you more followers. You can inform your Instagram followers about the location of the event by geo-tagging and invite them over to join you. Yes! Geo-tagging is a rarely used tool in Instagram; but, did you know that posts with geo-tagging get 79% more customer interaction?

8. Strategize to expand your audience

Posting outstanding photos alone cannot earn you enough followers. It’s also important to devise strategies to widen your audience and earn potential customers.

  • Use hashtags

With lots of feeds being created on a daily basis, your post may go unseen or forgotten quickly. Using hashtags can help to improve visibility of your posts since those containing the same keywords gets grouped together and remains discoverable. However, make sure that you do not use more than five hashtags for one post since such posts seem to have had fewer engagement. You can look for popular hashtags and use them in your posts. It is okay to create your own hashtags if you want; but, make sure that you use keywords and phrases relevant to your brand.

  • Share your follower’s content

Make your followers feel good by sharing their posts on your profile. You’ll see them coming back to see their posts on your feed and may even suggest their friends to do so, thus improving customer engagement.

9. Nourish customer relationships

Remember, you are not here to make some followers and be forgotten. The motive is to convert your followers into loyal, potential customers and you can do this by adopting techniques to boost engagement.

  • Open up conversations with your followers

When you post a product photo, you can add a catchy caption to it that compels the followers to engage and respond. Include a call-to-action or ask a question to start a conversation with your followers. While adding a caption, be careful not to repeat what’s in the image. Make it interesting so that once the customers see the photo and then, the caption, they start seeing the product from a different angle. Also, make sure that the captions are not too long. Make it short but attention-grabbing that makes the customer want to participate.

  • Hold contests

Holding contests help you to gain followers and improve user engagement. This, you can do in 4 simple steps:

1. Decide what the prize will be

2. Post a catchy photo of the prize along with details of the contest in      the caption. 

3. Post a second reminder few days later

4. Announce the winner

  • Respond to notifications

Remember, the response shouldn’t be one-sided. Whenever a follower mentions your brand in a comment, you must respond to them. Thank them when they appreciate you and answer their queries without fail. This is how you can engage them and build a relationship of loyalty and trust.

10. Keep track of your Instagram success

The best way to succeed is by learning from your mistakes. Therefore, it is necessary to keep track of your business’ growth in Instagram. Analyse your successes, keep track of the audience and repeat the content that is working. Find the followers who interact with you often and target them to make them your potential customers. Analyse the timings when the customers are more likely to be engaged in your feed and schedule posts accordingly.

Since Instagram is a part of Facebook, this photo-sharing social platform has active user base that businesses can utilize to their promotional needs. To start your Instagram marketing campaign, you can either hire experts in-house or assign the project to an independent team.

How Content Marketing Will Help Your Small Business to Excel

Posted on by NextJSjointviews

“Content builds relationships. Relationships are built on trust. Trust drives revenue.” – Andrew Davis, Author of Brandscaping

Marketing your new business requires lots of effort. Being a startup, your major requirement now is to get the attention of potential customers. You might have created a well-designed and optimized website that highlights your products and services.

But is that enough?

Let us see what role content marketing plays in successfully running your business.

Several statistics prove that content marketing is the best brand marketing tool. According to a report from eMarketer, 60% of marketers create at least one piece of content daily.


This form of digital marketing is not only affordable, but it is also an effective form of marketing for reaching both your primary and secondary target audience—including everyday consumers and B2B customers.

Content marketing has a positive impact on small businesses, as it

  • Increases SEO rankings
  • Improves brand awareness
  • Creates an identity
  • Builds reputation as a reliable firm
  • Provides value to your target audience
  • Keeps your website informative
  • Improves social engagement
  • Distinguishes you from your competition

With significant changes in the digital landscape, content marketing has changed as well. Now the trend is that your content succeeds only if it provides something that your consumer is looking for. A reliable content marketing agency in India will provide services of experienced writers who can provide diverse types of content, including: Blog posts published on business blog, infographics, newsletters, white papers, e-books, podcasts, videos, downloadable workbooks or templates. 

Consider these Ideas to Improve Your Content Marketing Campaign

Provide What Your Audience Needs

Only relevant information adds value, leading to increase in your company’s exposure. Perform a quality research and find out what your targeted audience is exactly looking for and provide answers to their queries in the form of a content format. For instance, if they are concerned about your business process, better explain it clearly with an infographic content. A valuable content will make them feel the time they spent on it was a good investment. If you get them to think so, they might share this information with others; establishing your credibility and thus building trust with your customers as well as the online community.

Creative Video Content

High quality video content works. Live videos play a crucial role in digital marketing. According to recent study by Cisco, it has been predicted that by 2019, 80% of the world’s internet traffic will be video and online video will be responsible for four-fifths of global internet traffic. Also the news shared by HubSpot highlights that embedding videos in landing pages can increase conversion rates by 80%. 90% of customers report that product videos help them make purchasing decisions. Video marketing provides value as readers show more interest in watching an informative video than taking the effort to read a blog or an article.

Make Content Social

Social media plays a vital role in everyone’s livesthese days. Social media strategies offered by a digital content marketing agency in India helps business to target the right audience and drive more web traffic. With millions and billions of users, social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Digg, Pinterest, Reddit, and more offers excellent opportunities for sharing your brand content.

These platforms are now offering more options for publishing content. Facebook has recently introduced instant articles for publishers to get more of their content in the news feed and thus capture the attention of more users. Such options can be incorporated into your content marketing strategy to create something that engages the customer.

Try E-books as Well

Use Ebooks as lead generation tools. Though time-consuming and expensive to produce, they offer many potential benefits for companies. Typically longer and more in-depth, they can be published less frequently than blog posts to attract visitors to a website. Make sure to link them from an interesting blog post. After reading the blog, visitors might require more content from an eBook to learn more valuable information for their business.


Also, consider infographics that can organize and visualize data in a more compelling way than words alone. Small businesses must be very careful in choosing an content marketing company. Make sure that the chosen content marketing services agency in India provides services of experienced content developers and content marketers.