NextJSjointviews, Author at NextJSjointviews

Guide to Hire an Google AdWords Specialist

Posted on June 9, 2017 by NextJSjointviews

Pay per click or PPC is an essential part for digital marketing mix. SEO combined with PPC campaign will give your business quicker conversions and more traffic. After all, 64% clicks for high commercial intent keywords go to paid results on Google. Designing, launching and monitoring an Adwords campaign requires a lot of learning, experimentation and experience. Here are guidelines to hire an Adwords Specialist who can get conversions for you:

Experience

This is the most important factor to consider. An Adwords specialist must have experience handling numerous Adwords campaigns in the past. Here are the things that count as good experience:

A professional experience at a well-known digital marketing firm is good to have. Someone who has worked a full time job will have formal training under experienced person. This is always better than someone who is self-taught.
Consider the number of years they have been using Adwords. More number is usually a good sign. However, remember that the candidate with the most experience may not necessarily be the best. Consider this point along with the quality of work and success ratio.
Each professional will have managed a different portfolio and may have different area of expertise. Ask if they have specialized in any particular industry or campaign type. We will talk more on different types of campaigns below.

Qualifications

An Adwords specialist will have Google Adwords certification at the very least. Having Adwords certification means that individuals or partners have taken the exam and earned a certification in Adwords from Google. There are various specialization that one can take up in the certification:

Remember that qualification and degrees are an incomplete way to assess anyone in digital marketing. The Google certification exam is fairly simple and does not guarantee best results by the certified partner. These certifications should be looked at as minimum qualification required before assessing other skills.

You can find a certified Adwords Partner in your area here. (https://www.google.com/partners/#a_search)

Skills

These are the skills a good Adwords specialist should have:

Analytical Skills: As a PPC campaign managers have to deal with a lot of data, numbers and statistics to analyze the campaign. You need someone who is comfortable with numbers and has an analytical mind. Adwords specialist should be able to draw insights from these number regarding campaign success buyer’s behaviour. Excel skill would be an add on as it helps to draw insights from number.

Time Management Skills: An Adwords specialists has to manage campaign time limits, budget limits, A/B testing variations for multiple clients or campaigns. This can get too much to handle without to-do lists and weekly planner.

Readiness to Change: User behaviors and Google algorithms are continuously updating and so should your Adwords specialist. He should be someone who is ready to unlearn and try out new strategies. Campaign managers often set more than one variation of ads and test for better results. He should be flexible enough to throw away conventional knowledge and change with times.

Business empathy: Simply put business empathy is the ability to put himself in your shoes and understand your business deeply. Campaign strategies and best practices may vary business to business and Ads needs to be tailored by keeping your prospective customers and business industry in mind.

Service Agreements

Make sure you have clear answers to following questions before you sign up an Adwords specialist or agency:

Who will be handling your account in person and what is his domain experience and certification
What is the breakup of the cost quoted. There will be at least two components to the cost. Campaign budget and campaign management fees that the agency or specialist is charging you. There could also be other additional costs. Ask for a formal breakup of the quote
Will the agency give you access to your Google Adwords account. And how will the account be handed over in case of termination of contract.
What will be the reporting parameters and reporting frequency? Ideally they should connect your Adwords account to your Google analytics data and report in context of traffic from other sources. Other reporting parameters could be costs per sale, cost per click and conversion rates.

Technical Knowledge

Check for technical knowledge of the specialist. Here are some of the basic terms for your knowledge. You can ask questions on the application of these for your business campaign:

CPC – Cost per click is the price you pay for each click on your ad.

Campaign type – There are two types of campaigns possible. One is on the search network where your ad will show up on the Google search result page. The second one is display network where your as will show on the sites and popular video platforms with content related to your keywords. You can ask the Adwords specialist on what campaign would be a good fit for your business.

Negative keywords – These are keywords that you don’t want your ad to show up for. These could be words that come along with your keywords but have no buying intent. Eg: Evening gowns to share on Pinterest

Geo-targeting – This feature of Adwords allows you to target and limit your ad to a particular chosen region only.

Remarketing- This feature displays ads to visitors who have come to your website recently and interacted with your business. Eg: Ad of Makemytrip.com on your Facebook page right after you have checked flight prices on their website.

Split A/B testing– Adwords allows you to run two of more variations of ads for the same campaign. This is for Adwords user to test which variation works better. For eg: You may keep the location as Chennai in one variation and Kolkata in another. It is recommended to vary only one parameter at a time to understand which works.

Share your goals with the prospective hire and ask them how they can help you achieve your business goals. The answers should show you a logical and attainable strategy.

Beware of one person claiming to be a specialist in all the fields of digital marketing such as SEO, content writing, content marketing, Email marketing etc. Follow the above guidelines and hire an agency/person that instills confidence in you by their knowledge and expertise.

Rising Popularity of Chat Bots in Marketing

Posted on June 2, 2017 by NextJSjointviews

A chatbot is a computer program that imitates real humans to communicate with users via audio or text. The main reason for using chatbots is to drive customer engagement. Customers find it easy to interact with chatbots to find answers to their queries than taking the pain of searching for information in the websites.

Chatbots were considered ineffective during the beginning stages of researches on Artificial Intelligence. However, nowadays, chatbots seem to revolutionize communication. Apple’s Siri, Google Assistant, Microsoft’s Cortana are all examples of popular chatbots.

Chatbots are normally used to answer simple customer queries or to provide product/company information. Some apps even use chatbots to answer more complex questions. In future, chatbots are expected to be smarter.

It may learn from previous conversations to give more effective answers. This expectation is the main reason to chatbots’ rising popularity. They started as experimental projects and now, chatbots are taking over the world!

It’s said that 2017 will see more of chatbots in marketing, where it will be used by businesses to communicate and engage with their customers.

The following features of chatbots are making it immensely popular among marketers:

Automated customer service

At present, chatbots are serving only first line customer assistance by answering to simple queries. Tougher questions are passed on to humans in the customer service department to handle. Weighing the capabilities of chatbots, it’s not too far from them actually handling the entire customer service department, thus reducing the workload for the employees and saving time, money and other resources for the company.

Tracking of user data

Even one interaction with the customers can give away loads of valuable data to collect. For a human to do it can be a herculean task especially when the main aim is to provide good customer service. However, with chatbots, it is easy to collect the data while satisfying the customers by answering to their queries.

The analytics and data collected gives an insight of the customer needs and therefore, helps the company to provide with what is demanded. Though the data tracked by chatbots are put to temporary use as of now, it’ll be entirely used for the same in the years to come.

24/7 availability

The chatbots are capable of answering the customers’ query at any time of the day. Also, the instant response by the chatbots will leave the customers satisfied. This will help improve brand awareness and your customers may even promote your brand through positive word-of-mouth.

Versatility

Chatbots offer more than what you think. Apart from customer service, it can be put in any branch of marketing to improve customer experience, steer customer loyalty and to reduce workload. Also, even if it’s to collect customer data or to answer to customer’s queries, chatbots are capable of using their own behavioural data to estimate the best approach to be taken while interacting with customers.

Mobile-optimization

These days, people prefer mobile phones over other gadgets. Therefore, if anything your business offers digitally isn’t compatible in their phones, you are in trouble. The chatbots come mobile-optimized, making it easy for you, saving you from additional expenses and work.

Now, how can this rising popularity of chatbots put to use in various aspects of marketing? Well, here’s how:

Ecommerce

Chatbots mimic human behaviour and hence can be used to provide customer support for e-commerce apps. It can be used to communicate with the customers and inspire them to purchase the products. Since chatbots come with defined rules set for them to intelligently answer to customer queries, there is no doubt of providing relevant answers to the customers and rightly guiding them to what they need.

Also, since the chatbots answer instantly, customers will feel that they can actually trust the brand. Remember, the chatbots’ role in e- commerce doesn’t end with customer support. They can also be used to automate the order process, sell the products and build customer loyalty.

Customer service

By customer service, we don’t mean just responding to the customer queries. It’s much more than that. Chatbots can be used to provide customer service 24/7. It saves you from the additional expense of appointing a customer service staff and providing them with monthly salary.

Chatbots can also be used to introduce a new product to the customers, offer promo codes, obtain customer feedback and provide notifications regarding shipping of products.

Customer acquisition

Chatbots can be used to instantly connect to the customers. When the customers see that they are being supported, they’ll start trusting the brand. Also, they may recommend the brand to the people they know, thus widening the brand’s customer base.

Conclusion

It’s true that chatbots are going to impact the future of marketing. However, it is necessary for businesses to familiarize themselves with chatbots to put them to good use.

9 Indian Startups that have Aced Content Marketing

Posted on May 23, 2017 by NextJSjointviews

Content marketing leaves a lasting impact like no other marketing strategy. Businesses, having recognized the true potential of content marketing in gaining and retaining customers, have already started using content marketing to their advantage.

Startups have more advantages over established businesses when it comes to content marketing. Startups may not have the budget to create and promote large amount of content like their bigger counterparts. However, being passionate about making it to the top will force startups to work hard and churn out relevant but creative content.

Here are some examples of Indian startups that are doing an amazing job with content marketing:

Zomato

Zomato is one site that is a perfect example to the growth of a startup through content marketing. It is an online directory to find the nearest restaurants and now serves 15 countries, raising more than $65 million on the go.

Zomato’s content marketing doesn’t end with regular blog updates. They do not hesitate to try out different types of content including infographics, videos and campaigns. Not all of those different forms of content may click with the audience; however, trying out new things is the only way to understand what works and what doesn’t.

SutraLite

SutraLite is an HR recruitment agency for startups and SMEs. Its content marketing strategy is a bit different. Though some of the articles created by SutraLite are related to their services, the ones that mainly grab attention are those articles not belonging to their domain. These articles help them to improve web traffic and grow.

Brightpod

Brightpod is a web-based project management and time tracking software meant to help marketing teams to sort out and have a clear workflow. It is a part of Synage Software started by Sahil Parikh in 2005. Synage Software is an expert in marketing their products overseas and Brightpod is the latest addition to the list. The constant updates on their blog for customers and marketers alike is what keeps them growing.

Eventifier

Eventifier is a tool that helps to showcase all tweets, images, slides etc. of an event in one page. It is the brainchild of a group of youngsters from Mangalore and was first developed at The Startup Centre. Gradually, they have managed to find a place in the market through their content marketing strategy. Apart from blogs and newsletters, the best form of content delivered by Eventifier includes creating relevant insights for event organizers.

Simply360

With digital marketing companies on a rise, Simply360 is a company whose services every business needs. The social media analytics company that was started in 2009 has more than 25 solid customers to their credit.

Companies like Adobe, WPP and Twitter had also come forward with acquisition offers which the company rejected. Instead of that, they decided to go ahead on their own. Simply360 has made it big by gathering data, dividing them and presenting them in the most suitable way possible. Many of the infographics and analysis created by the company has been adopted by various publications.

Thrillophilia

Thrillophilia is a trip planning portal that has come a long way from being a startup to being listed among the top travel domains. The portal provides large amounts of travel-based shareable content that has played a major role in its growth. Thrillophilia also offers specific activity based and unconventional travel packages.

Buzzvalve

Buzzvalve is a data driven content marketing business that helps companies to manage every aspect of web-based content lifecycle, from creation, distribution, marketing and conversion of content. The startup has big names like UNICEF, ISB, Honda, Fortis, etc. to its clientele and their amazing content and performance has tempted many more companies to hire Buzzvalve for creating content for them.

Buzzvalve has a simple and minimal website but is very clear about what it provides and what the customers can expect from the company. People can get a glimpse of Buzzvalve’s previous works through their social media pages.

Druva

Druva is the ultimate destination for companies for data protection and governance technology. The company that was started in 2008 has about 3000 customers to its credit and has already found a place in US market with revenue of $65 million. It was just a regular startup until one of the co-founders came forward to take care of the sales thus propelling the company to heights it is in today.

The Druva team has used their expertise to their advantage in terms of content they provide. Users can find information regarding anything related to data security in Druva’s blogs. Also, they use LinkedIn for promotions.

JustUnfollow (JU)

JU is a friend management system for Twitter and Instagram with 10 million users across the globe. Now it has been rebranded as Crowdfire, a social media marketing product.

It is a startup with minimal financial resource but has managed to find their place in the market through their content strategy.

Though the content they provide seems similar at times, there has been no compromise in terms of quality and continuity till now. The blogs are mainly about managing your social media accounts and relevant happenings across the world.

Creating Stunning Infographics Improve Brand Awareness. Learn How

Posted on May 18, 2017 by NextJSjointviews

Infographics are a great way to present your content visually.Research shows that our brains process images 60,000 times faster than text! In fact, 93% of all human communication is visual.

Infographics present your data and information in charts and flows with the help of interesting shapes and graphics. They convert your lengthy data into visually appealing and easily digestible bits. Capturing more of user’s attention naturally leads to a better visibility and recall value for your brand. These are the ways stunning infographics can improve your brand awareness:

Infographics are sharable

Visual content is 40 times more likely to be shared in social media compared to other types of content. A good infographic has logical content flow and is to the point. Once you have put together a visual content that conveys your compelling message in a focused and simple manner, it is bound to get shares in social media. More shares in social media naturally mean more visibility for your brand. Do not forget to take advantage of visual social media like Pinterest, Instagram, Vine etc.

Infographic is SEO friendly

Did you know that 55% of website visitors spend less than 15 seconds on a webpage? Infographics can not only increase the time visitors spent on your page but also the number visitors to your site. Articles with visuals get 94% more views. In short, infographics will increase number of visitors to your page, get you more shares and backlinks. Guess what this means? Higher ranking for your page in search engine results!

Visuals stay in mind

Information recall of a visual is 65% after three days compared to 10% for auditory information. This is the most important reason why infographics are great if you want to increase your brand awareness. The user will form an image of the brand based on her interaction with the content. A compelling infographic that gives relevant information will stay in the user’s mind for sure.

Easy to understand

Infographics are the best way to present complex concepts. You can explain multiple relations and correlations; lay down process flow or present variety at one glance. Presenting information in such simple manner displays your expertise in the subject and increases the likelihood of transactions.

Easily changeable and embedded

Infographics can be easily changed into different formats and dimensions to suit various platforms. They are also easily embedded and can be used to direct to your site in one click.

Infographics and video are hot trends for content presentation this year. To get the maximum brand awareness from them, do keep in mind these crucial points:

Drafting a compelling message is the first step to successful infographic. Your infographic must revolve around this central message in the focused manner.
A shabby graphic will do your brand more harm than good. Either invest in a good designer or stick to written content.
Source your data from reliable sources and credit the sources
Use your logo subtly. Using logo subtly but consistently will go a long way in building your brand.

Conclusion

They are one of the popular types of digital content used by digital marketing agencies around the world. Whether your business be B2C, B2B, or any other type, you can definitely include infographics in your content marketing campaigns.

5 Content Marketing Trends that Businesses Need to Know in 2017

Posted on May 15, 2017 by NextJSjointviews

Content Marketing is becoming a part of core marketing strategy for businesses across sectors and regions. 88% of B2B marketers admit to using content marketing. The field of content marketing is still evolving and there is a lot of change happening. So, here are the Top 5 game changers that will shape content marketing for small businesses in India as well as the big brands:

Video Content will be preferred

The Cisco Visual Networking Index has forecasted that video will account for almost 70% of consumer internet traffic by 2017. According to Nielsen, 64% of marketers expect video to dominate their strategies in coming years.

There is a growing popularity of video content among st users and the same will be reflected in the content businesses and brands put out. Videos are more engaging, convey a lot in less span of time and have a greater tendency to be shared on social media. This trend of more content in video format is going to continue this year.

Taking Matters into own hand

As more business realize the importance of a growing audience that comes back for great content, they will start building this audience themselves rather than relying on social media and other platforms.

Recent and frequent changes in Facebook and YouTube algorithms have highlighted the importance of having a loyal following even outside of these platforms. Facebook has recently made changes in its algorithms that give preference to posts shared by friends of users over those shared by brands. This means that getting to your potential customers is that much harder as the direct line of communication is now broken.

These and many more changes have made brands look for other options like mails, apps and even print magazines to directly connect with users.

Quality Content

As the users are bombarded with plethora of content, only the ones with good quality and niche content will get their due. Nobody wants to consume bad quality content in this age of shortening attention span. Even if the content quality is good, users do not waste their time watching something to which they do not connect or agree with.

The content consumption market is now at a stage where we will see specialization of content. This means content marketers will look for and try to chase niche markets. Differentiation of content market can be on various factors like region (urban/ rural), ideologies, demographics, habits and interests etc.

This is the reason why there is increasing demand for content marketing agencies for start ups and small businesses.

Mobile will Rule

This one is a no brainer. We have seen in the end of 2016 that Mobile internet usage has surpassed desktop Internet usage for the first time in history. In this light, all content that is developed has to suit audiences browsing on mobile. The length, tone, call to action in the content will change accordingly. A lot of content will also be distributed through mobile apps.

User generated content

2017 will see a rise in user generated content. Product users and early adapters posting their reviews is a great example of user generated review. People are more prone to trust third party users just like themselves and hence, we see the rise of subscriptions for review channels. The role of bloggers, reviewers and YouTube stars is going to be more prominent in coming year. It is not about putting articles online anymore; but, about managing users and user influencers.

5 Ways to Track and Measure Your Social Media Success

Posted on May 10, 2017 by NextJSjointviews

Nowadays, Social media is everywhere starting from our smartphones, computers to tablets. Knowing this to be true, more and more small businesses are making use of it to reach their targeted market. But if you’re off to a great start and already grabbed great presence by keeping your audience engaged, then it is quite good. But how do you know what’s really working as there are many social media platforms which can be used for your business.

Measuring or tracking the overall success of any strategy can be a difficult task. But this can be easy as there are hundreds of ways now. But the main question is, do you know where to find them and do all they really necessary for your business?

Here is the answer for this…

Facebook Insights

On Facebook, it is quite easy to get the detailed analysis of your page. Just go to your FB page and click insights given on the top. Here you will be able to know about page likes, views, reach, engagements and also any actions occurred on the page.

Not only this much, you can also view the total number of likes. This will help you to find out which time and type of post are best for you and also to monitor your audience reaction to your posts if any.

Twitter Analytics

If you log in to your twitter account page, you can find your followers and how many people you follow. But to view the statistics, you must visit the “Twitter Analytics” page. Click on the profile image given on the top right of your page and select analytics.

As from the image itself it is clear that by visiting analytics page, you will come to know about the 28 days summary of your page. You can view gain/loss of your followers.

Linkedin Analytics

Checking analytics constantly can help you in your social media success. You can check the analytics of your Linkedin page without any difficulty. Just click on the “Me” given on the top right of your page and below MANAGE, select your page. It will navigate you to the new tab, where you can click the analytics tab and select visitors, updates, followers and legacy analytics from the dropdown.

Pinterest Analytics

Measuring Pinterest analytics always will help you analyse which type of images are best for your business to grab the audience. To visualise this, confirm your website first and then go to settings drop-down menu given on the top right corner, click analytics.

YouTube Analytics

Constantly checking your YouTube analytics will help you to know more details about your videos such as Watch time, Average view duration and Views. It will also show you the key things that might be driving traffic to your video.

You can also able to see your top 10 videos and its details. Actually, more your video content speaks to your target audience, better your results will be.

Tracking and measuring your social media performance is really an important thing for every business type. These can help you to find out where you should focus while promoting your brand on social media. It’s a fact you can track your followers and engagement but more than that, it will help you to achieve success.

10 Ways Indian Startups Can Compete with Giants Using SEO

Posted on May 3, 2017 by NextJSjointviews

The importance of SEO needs no introduction. Every entrepreneur knows its potential and return on investment. But getting ahead of giants who have been producing great content for couple of years may seem a herculean task.

There is no need to sweat though. There are ways to get past this and stay ahead in the competition.

Here are 10 ways startups can compete with giants using SEO:

Go Niche

Fighting for piece of the same pie will drain your time and energy. Instead, you could specialize in an area which have been explored not much. There are always pockets in the market which are not recognized by other players. Even if they are recognized, they are too small for the giants to focus on. This could be a good entry point for your page.

Talk about topics and aspects that the giants are not talking about. This strategy can be applied to your products, service, delivery channel, marketing channel and online content.

Localization

Most of the startups want to tap in on the immediate locality. This is even true if you are selling a physical product. Why not specialize in just that? No giant will think about connecting with the audience based on localities.

You can rank number one for a locality by writing and promoting your content to location specific audience using Facebook. You can also participate in local community events or sponsor events that have a good online presence.

Personalize

As a small business you must take advantage of more customer service available per customer. Huge customer base prevents big giants from having a one on one personal relation with their audience.

As start up on the other hand, you can have a close relation with the smaller base of customers. This can be deeply satisfying for many in the world of automation and machines. Use your small size to your advantage and engage in personalized conversation with your customers across various platforms.

Great content

Fortunately not everything is about size and big money. Quality content is about getting into your audience’s mind and answering relevant questions consistently. Create more visual content in infographics and videos.

Keep up to date with the latest trends and deliver what the readers want. It may take some time to beat the competition but it is better to start sooner than later. You don’t want to be in the same search engine ranking three years down the line.

Long tailed keywords

This goes with the strategy to go niche. Long tail keywords consist of keyword phrases that are much more specific than common keyword. For example- ‘Beach facing property in north Goa’ versus ‘Property in Goa’.

It is essentially a trade-off between volume and relevance. Long tail keywords will have lesser search hits but will be specific to what you are selling and mostly untouched by the big players.

Use tools like Google Keyword Planner or Webmaster Tools to find the right balance between volume and specialization.

Develop an online personality

Just like humans, good websites and blogs also have a unique personality. What is your tone and mood? Maybe you want to come across as funny or authoritative? Witty or buoyant? Decide your personality and make it different from what your competitors have. As a start up you have more room to play around with and find your voice. So go ahead. Be different!

Build a Reputation

Building a strong reputation and credibility will earn you a lot of backlinks and trust. Maybe you did a survey of your market that was never done before. You can also have industry experts as guest blogger on your page. Give data and information or any other content that is your forte.

Be a step ahead

There is no easy way out here. You have to be sharp when you are competing with the best. Be smarter and faster. Study more of what your customers want and continuously keep improving on how you deliver that content.

Take advantage of your size

Small is not always weak. Having small teams means less hierarchy which ultimately translates into faster action. It is a well known fact that close knit informal teams produce innovative ideas compared to a formal process driven teams. The startup culture has its own advantages and you must use these to fight in SEO war too!

Market Intelligence

Do you know your competitor’s digital strategy? Where are they getting their traffic from? In the world of internet all the competitor’s moves are open to you. You can check the keywords they are targeting and the source of their traffic and following. Involving a digital and content marketing agency will give you deeper insights and infuse fresh ideas as well.

Conclusion

You can build considerable brand recognition, lead prospects, reputation, and sales conversions through SEO campaigns. Many multinational companies do not give focus on SEO as they want faster results by spending billions of dollars in marketing and promotional campaigns. You can use this to your advantage by investing more time in developing SEO strategies that give you sure success in the long term.

8 Types of Digital Content Created by Content Marketing Agencies

Posted on April 21, 2017 by NextJSjointviews

Your blogs might have been to be a hit among the audience in the past with lots of user traffic, visitors etc. But then, the pace remained the same forever or a bit slower with visitors leaving your site on a daily basis.

What could have gone wrong? Of course! They got bored of the same type of content you kept on giving them.

Being creative is now the only way for your content to get notified. Try a different type of digital content and there, you’ll get to see your site buzzing with visitors.

However, it shouldn’t stop here. Keep trying different types of content from time to time to help your business thrive.

Here’s a list of different types of digital content created by content creation agencies, for you to choose from:

Long form blogs

So, what are long form blogs? Some claim that those blogs with a word count of may be 1500 words while some say that long-form blogs are those with a word count of about 3500 words.

Whatever, the truth is, the idea is to create an article that goes on until you get tired of scrolling. Long form content has always been there; but, it started getting noticed only by 2013-2014.

It has now become the most popular style among bloggers. Long form blogs have become much popular these days because:

Google said it: According to Google, longer content contain more information and therefore, helps solve many queries of the audience at once. Also, some SEO experts suggest that long form blogs rank better in Google search results.

Popular bloggers said it: Bloggers, big and small, have been suggesting for a while that long form blogs are important.

Short form blogs

Short form blogs are those with maximum word count of 1000 words. The fact that short form blogs have lesser word count, that may go down to 250 words or lesser, can make it less popular in SEO.

Therefore, it’s important the blogs being short, should also be precise and unique. The content should be good enough for the audience to stop and take notice.

Videos

Digital content in the form of video gives you a large variety of choices. Regardless of the type it is, a good video always remains etched to the audience’s memory.

If a video is done well, it can be extremely compelling. The duration of the video depends on your requirements (it can be educational, business, marketing). You can check out this blog for using video in your marketing or promotional campaign.

Podcasts

Podcasts are digital audio files that are used to share information through computers or any portable music devices such as MP3 players or iPods.

Businesses usually use podcasts to share information regarding their new products, about the company or about the general happenings in the industry.

Podcasts provide an insight to the audience about how much a business knows about the industry, thus helping to build trust among them. Also, the audience feel directly connected to the business as they get to hear the voice of the presenter.

Podcasts are affordable compared to other marketing technique as the location of creating podcasts do not matter, be it an office or home.

All it needs is a computer, a microphone and software to edit the recordings. Remember, regular podcasts can help your business in attracting your target audience, thus helping to build brand awareness. You can even publish the podcast transcript, thus, adding to the SEO value.

Social media content

Majority of people around the globe use various social media platforms due to which they have found a place in the marketing strategy.

You may not find another medium to reach your content to the audience in a short span of time and the benefit is that, you get to connect directly with your potential customers.

Remember, your content must say more about your brand while keeping the audience interested. Keep reminding them about what you offer. After about five to six exposure, the audience will surely feel compelled to go for your products.

Copywriting

Copywriting is the process of writing advertising materials such as blogs, newsletters, marketing campaigns etc. The words should be persuasive enough for the audience to take an action, thus driving traffic to your business website. Effective copywriting includes:

Attention grabbing headlines that compel the audience to click the link to read further
Content that provides just the information that the reader needs
Interesting content that helps the audience to easily connect with your business, while building trust and brand recognition
Content that tells the audience what to do next, such as signing up for newsletters, click a link to visit a website, social media page etc.

You can implement your own copywriting strategy for promoting your products and services to the right audience. You can use Definitive Guide to Copywriting by Quicksprout as your reference material.

Infographics

Infographics refers to the visual representation of information. The fact that visuals tend to stay in people’s minds than text works in favour of infographics.

As a result, infographics is the most shared content compared to other digital content types. Infographics can include anything such as general information, data, statistics etc.

Almost everyone is making infographics these days and therefore, it is important to be creative with your infographics for audience to take notice.

You can also create gifographic, which is a type of infographic, but contains animated GIF images instead of static images like in normal infographics.

E-books

E-books consist of large content of a minimum word count of 10,000 words, in PDF format and are downloadable. An e-book gives an insight of your knowledge about an industry and is the most effective way of sharing your knowledge with others.

While creating an e-book, make sure that the content is divided into topics making it easier for the users to read. Remember, your e-book’s title plays an important role in the audiences’ decision regarding downloading your e-book. Therefore, make sure that the title is catchy and relevant.

An e-book with just texts is usually considered not worth reading. Therefore, try to include graphics and make sure that the e-book’s content is formatted well to grab attention.

It is always best to create both PDF and HTML versions of your e-book. You can add video and audio to the HTML version.

Conclusion

Rather than using one type of digital content for all of your marketing campaigns, you can use different types as mentioned earlier.

These days, content marketing agencies try to experiment with their content with the aim of attracting target audience, increase engagement, and share to others.

Should Businesses Focus More on App Store Optimization?

Posted on April 18, 2017 by NextJSjointviews

What is App Store Optimization?

App store Optimization or ASO is the process of improving your ranking in app stores such as Google play (on Android phone) or App Store (on iOS phone). It is similar to Search Engine Optimization to rank higher on a Google search, the difference being that here you are vying for the top spots in an App Store search. An experienced app store optimization company can help you in achieving this ranking.

Why should I focus on ASO?

So, why should you focus on ASO and how is it going to help your business? According to Nielsen, 63% of customers search in app store to discover new app. Other channels like app discovery through media, word of mouth and advertisement rank lower than app search when it comes to app discovery. Simply put you are missing out on reaching a large number of potential audiences if you are not making efforts in ASO.

Building an app and putting it up on an app store is only half the job done. The app is not going to have significant benefits unless it is discovered and downloaded by many users. With little but consistent efforts in ASO you can reap the benefits of ranking higher in app searches and hence have more downloads.

How can you do it?

Keyword in Title and description

Just like keywords in SEO, Keywords play an important role in ASO as well. According to MobileDEvHQ, apps that have the relevant keyword in their title rank on an average, 10.3% higher than those that do not. It is important to research what keywords the audience is using to search apps in your category.

Including the keyword in title and description will help the App Store to sift through the thousands of apps available in your category. It will also draw the attention of customers when they see clearly that the app addresses their requirement. The next point talks about how to get the title right once you have zeroed in on the keyword to be included.

How to get the title right

The title should be short, unique and navigational. Titles with more than 25 characters will run off the screen and are less likely to be downloaded.

Unique titles are the ones that are creative and stand out in the crowd of similar sounding apps. Eg: AirBrush: Easy Photo Editor is good versus Photo collage editor, Photo Editor, Photo editor Pro, PhotoDirector, Photo Editor etc.

Navigational titles are the ones easy to remember and don’t get lost in the generic names of the category. Eg: Tinder

Increase number of downloads

This is obviously something that is out of your control. Nevertheless, this is one of the criteria used to rank an app. All the other attributes remaining same, an app that has higher number of downloads is considered more useful by the app store and hence ranked higher.

Ratings and Reviews

Apps that have higher ratings are ranked higher and also have higher number of downloads. You can incentivize users to rate and review your app by giving offers, upgrades, discounts etc.

Ongoing process

ASO is not rocket science. An app with user centricity, simple user interface and good amount of thought and research is more likely to get great reviews and downloads. An app that addresses the core problems in a user’s life will definitely get huge word of mouth referrals.

ASO is more of a consistent effort everyday rather than getting a magical formula at launch. It takes time to get to the top in a world where millions of apps already exist. However, monitoring your app and making necessary tweaks every now and then will reap more benefits than possible otherwise.

Conclusion

The field of mobile marketing is changing daily and so are the rules. An experienced digital marketing expert can help you in app store optimization for Android and iOS Apps.

Best Social Media Posting Timings for Different Industries in 2017

Posted on April 7, 2017 by NextJSjointviews

Social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others can be your marketing weapons. But, only if you know how to optimize your content in a good way for your audience. From facebook posts to tweets, general information to personal experiences and stories, there are few factors that matter to the social media audience.

These are:

Do they actually see the content? (Post timings)
How relevant is the content to them?
Is the content attention grabbing and share-worthy?

All three questions deserve attention and require research. Unless a post gets all three of these right at least to some extent, it will get lost among the massive social media noise.

Here, we deal with Social Media post timings for different Industries in India. We have arrived at these timings looking at popular posts in popular pages, some of which are cited as examples.

Timing is the key factor of promotions of your service or product.

Your audience might prefer using social media sites during precise hours. It means if you share your content at the time when your audiences are on these networking channels, you will be able to gain more followers resulting in the increase of traffic.

Here are few information about when, what and why to post in social networks for various industries.

Entertainment

The entertainment sector is quite huge. And they have found a special liking for social media.

Ideal Social Media Platform– Facebook, Twitter, YouTube

Reason-As Facebook itself is an entertaining factor, most people wish to see content related to entertainment in this platform. It is a perfect platform to promote entertainment related content.

In twitter you can see lots of entertainment content. It’s a news based social media. If you can creatively add content, your next 15 seconds of fame might be round the corner.

Time– Doing postings after 7 pm might show good results in your Facebook page as most of the people become free form their busy schedules at this time. Also, you should share posts after any type of events, even if it’s not part of your original social media plan. In Twitter, you can add tweets as soon as something new happens. It’s like breaking news. For example, the review of an anticipated movie just after it is premiered for the first time. Twitteratti is always online. So, anytime is a good time. Mentions and matter more than just time.

Youtube is really a good platform for promoting content relating entertainment. People usually like to see videos rather than reading a long content.

Type of posts– Events, offers, posters relating to your site in Facebook and quick short breaking news type or creative content in twitter.

Examples of good Entertainment pages– Zee Entertainment, Sun TV Network

Real Estate

Ideal Social Media Platforms– Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn

Reason– These social media platforms are perfect to start a real estate digital profile as it allows to interact with the buyers of past, present and future.

Time– It will be better to do promotions on page after 6 pm as it might be the time when your targeted audience wants to check out new commercials or updates about real estate.

Type of posts– Images of property, posts highlighting features of home such as front porch, hall, fireplace, interviews with architects, etc

Examples of good Real Estate pages– Indiabulls Real, Prestige Estate

Retail

Ideal Social Media Platforms– Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter

Reason– These platforms are must-have factors of a great customer acquisition strategy. All the given social media have effective ad tools and significant reach.

Time– Morning before 11 am and evening after 6 pm will be good to reach your audience in general. But, try to experiment with your timings as people will definitely respond differently to each retail product.

Type of posts– Products with eye-catching descriptions, engagement posts asking them to share their experience. Videos showcasing their unique features, product review videos, etc.

Examples of good Retail pages– Trent, Shoppers Stop

Education

Ideal Social Media Platforms– Facebook

Reason– Facebook pages are really an important resource for students, parents and educational professionals to share and get experiences and ideas about today’s education.

Time– Posting after 1 pm will be good as students, tutors and parents would be busy with plenty of work in the morning.

Type of posts – Online education tools, good study materials, education news and engagement posts asking them to solve puzzle or quiz.

Examples of good Education related pages– Educomp Solutions Limited, McGraw-Hill Education India

Restaurants

Ideal Social Media Platforms – Instagram, Facebook

Reason– Both social media have lots of focus on photo/video posts and the audience is there for informal engagement.

Time –Just before 1 pm is a good time to post as during lunch hours most of the people login into social media networks and might make plans.

Type of posts – Special dishes of the day, images of well decorated food, recipes, engagement posts asking audience to share their recipes, experience, food coupons or offers, etc

Examples of good Restaurant pages – Indian Accent, Peshawri

Fashion

Ideal Social Media Platforms– Twitter, Facebook, Instagram

Reason– Fashion again depends a lot on the visual aspects. This makes Facebook and Instagram ideal platforms as both social media focus significantly on visual content. On the other hand, twitter helps spread fashion related news in quick time, and also encourages conversations between fashion experts, wannabes and followers

Time– Evening is the best time to post. After 4pm, people tend to look for entertainment and Fashion related content.

Type of posts– Dresses of modern trends, costume depending on the occasion that too with the suitable hairstyle if possible.

Examples of good Fashion pages– Digjam, Alps Industries

Automotive

Ideal Social Media Platforms– Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube

Reason– Buying a new automobile is a big decision for any consumer. They would be looking all over the web and checking with their friends circle to arrive at the final decision. Facebook is a medium where they can get a lot of validation for specific products. It is a personal space where people would share their experiences and opinions with friends in different ways. Because of this, it can be a very powerful medium for automobile advertisements. It sparks general consumer conversations as well.

Twitter on the other hand is great because it sparks conversations among automobile experts and between experts & common consumers. So, automobile brands should be on Twitter to influence the influencers.

Instagram is the hip thing right now, and why not? People love gorgeous pictures. So, serve some unique, glam shots of your product and get noticed.

YouTube is where all the automobile lovers look for reviews, tests, upcoming vehicle launches, etc.

Time– Posting after 5 pm is better to promote your brand. It might receive higher interaction rates as compared to other times.

Type of posts– Images, product reviews, unique selling points.

Examples of good automotive pages– Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd

Banking

Ideal Social Media Platforms– Twitter, LinkedIn

Reason– Twitter can establish your presence socially and can build trust and engagement with customers. It’s a worthy tool to improve customer service and to identify and respond to customer queries.

LinkedIn on the other hand is a professional network and ideally suited for advertising anything banking related.

Time– Evening is the best time to post on Twitter. For LinkedIn, morning is better. These are timings when people usually search for new content on these platforms.

Type of posts– Questions to Fans, Promotions, and Contests, informative posts.

Examples of good Banking pages– Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, HSBC Holdings

Healthcare

Ideal Social Media Platforms– Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube

Reason– Facebook is one of the best choices for promoting healthcare brands. Your targeted audience might be looking for healthy living ideas such as exercise and diet.

On the other hand, LinkedIn also plays a significant role in the healthcare field as several healthcare professionals use this platform for sharing their ideas and to do discussions.

Like Facebook and LinkedIn, Youtube plays a significant role in the healthcare industry as normally people prefer to see health related videos as it makes them clear what , when and how to do.

Time– Evening after 6 pm is good for sharing posts, ideas, and content regarding your services. As it is the time when you can see the highest interaction rates in the health related pages.

Type of posts– Benefits of using your services, engagements posts allowing the audience to ask their queries, health tip videos, etc…

Examples of good healthcare pages– Wockhardt Ltd, Apollo Hospitals

Fitness

Ideal Social Media Platforms– Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram

Reason– Posting content on facebook consistently is a way to ensure that you’re staying top-of-the-mind in your fans and followers. Likewise, posting unique and special images and videos on Instagram will help grab attention instantly.

LinkedIn helps to share status and experiences with their preferred industry. But twitter, a real- time fast-paced social network allows you to target a completely different audience and customers for your gym.

Time– Evening and night are the best time to post. After 4 pm till morning 5 am, people tend to look for fitness related ideas.

Type of posts– Engaging question, photo, link, or article.

Examples of good fitness pages– Talwalkars Gym, Fitness First

Conclusion

Don’t take this as final— just test the above data once for your respective industry. You’ll be shocked with the results as this might increase the social media traffic by up to 40-50 %. So, good luck and get social today!