NextJSjointviews, Author at NextJSjointviews

A Checklist to Optimize Your Facebook Ad Campaigns

Posted on January 19, 2018 by NextJSjointviews

Facebook is the leading platform for Pay per Click (PPC) ads. The precision of targeting audience in Facebook is unmatched by any other platform in the history of marketing. Optimizing ads to get best returns has become easier with Facebook adding many new features for better returns on marketing spend.

However, the process itself has become complicated. There is a reason why pay per click advertising is now a profession within itself.

There are tools to optimize how your ad looks, where it is placed, when it is shown and who it is shown to. The acquisition of Instagram by Facebook has also led to integration of Instagram as an extended advertising platform.

Terms such as lookalike audience, Ad relevancy, bidding options can be confusing to many. Fast changes in Ad Manager and Facebook algorithm do not make things any simpler.

In this blog we will look at a checklist to optimize your Facebook Ad campaigns for maximum reach and higher conversions.

Optimize Ad Frequency

Ad frequency is the average number of times each user see your ad. Too little exposure or too much exposure to your ad can hurt your campaign performance.

Too little exposure means that your message will not get through. On the other hand, too much ad exposure will lead to ad fatigue where the audience mentally blocks out your ad or even reports it irrelevant.

Ad frequency of two to three times is recommended for most industries though your optimum frequency may differ. So how do you test your optimum ad frequency? Keep increasing your ad frequency until your Click Through Rates (CTR) and conversions are good. Beyond a point your ad clicks will start to drop and cost per click will start increasing. This means that you have crossed your optimum ad frequency and should keep it lower than this point.

You can manage and monitor ad frequency from Facebook Ads manager > Edit Ad Set. To automatically limit reach, go to Optimization and Pricing to choose daily unique reach option which limits your reach to once a day per user.

Optimize Audience

Facebook’s ability to target audience right down to the micro level makes it so appealing to marketers. No other platform gets more specific than Facebook when it comes to choosing your audience. You must use full targeting features available to get maximum out of your campaign.

You can select your audience based on nationality, region, gender, interests, age and language. You can also input your ideal audience and create a lookalike audience.

Selecting custom audience show your ad to selected groups such as current customers, visitors to your site, or custom list of people you input. This allows you to integrate Facebook right into your conversion funnel. For example, with custom audience you can show relevant ads to customers who abandoned your shopping cart page.

A/B Testing

The success of your Facebook depends on many factors. Some of them are audience selected (age, country, interests, profession etc.), ad frequency, images, ad title, ad copy, call to action, color scheme. You can have many ads by varying each of these parameters. How do you know which ad copy will perform the best? The answer is simple – A/B testing.

A/B testing is a way to run different versions of same ad and measure which ad performs better. You may find out that a green colored call to action button performs better than blue. Or that a particular image results in increase in click-through rate.

Setting up A/B testing is easy. Go to your ad manager in Facebook and create different versions of the same ad. Do not change more than two parameters in the testing version as you will not know which change led to higher success. You can test both the version :

1. You can hide one version and start another or,

2. You can create two separate ads sets under one ad campaign. The new split testing features allows you to compare the results of ad sets within campaign.

Optimize for Ad Relevancy

Ad relevancy is a score of your campaign performance on the scale of 1 to 10. The score calculates how well your ad is performing with the set target audience. It is calculated based on factors such as:

Ad performance and engagement
Positive actions such as clicks, video watches, app installs
Negative feedback like someone clicking ‘hide this ad’

Many marketers suggest that a good ad relevancy score boosts your ad reach and lowers your costs. However, Facebook maintains that ad relevancy is just a measure of your performance and is not used in calculating ad reach or bidding price.

Whatever the case may be, ad relevancy is a good measure of your performance and should be optimized to maximize your ad success. Try the following to improve ad relevancy:

1. Narrow your target audience to make your messaging more focused

2. Improve your ad visuals

3. Create new ad to keep your audience interested. People grow fatigues of same ads again and again

4. Use split testing to learn what works best with your audience

Optimize Bidding

There are many ways to pay for your adverts in Facebook. Spends could be per click, conversion or impressions.

Facebook automatically recommends the best strategy and daily spend for optimum result as per chosen objective of your campaign. You can also manually control the bids and daily spends according to your budget.

Optimizing for bids is subject to your objectives and budget available. For starters, you can trust in Facebook’s automatic bidding to deliver best results.

Let’s brief it up

Setting up Facebook ad campaign can seem daunting at first. However with so many options to fine-tune your ad it is well worth the effort. The important thing is to monitor and keep making changes to get maximum out of your ad spend.

Remember, what works today may not work next month. User behavior and Facebook algorithms are ever-changing. Continuous learning and optimization will give you most out of this most profitable advertising platform.

5 Ways to Create a Business Blog for Your Target Audience

Posted on January 16, 2018 by NextJSjointviews

Business blogs pull traffic and are central to your content marketing success. According to Hubspot, B2B companies that blog more than 11+ times a month attracted 3X times more traffic than those blogging once a month. The success of your best blogs only compounds over time and one successful blog can get you consistent leads for years to come.

The essential aim of creating business blogs is to grow your traffic and reach new markets. For this to happen, your blog must talk to the right market about what they are searching for. Here are five ways to help you create a business blog for your target audience.

1. Know Your Topic

It is essential that business blog writers are well versed with the products and services that you offer. A good blog gives people answers that they cannot find elsewhere and in the form that is easy to understand.

Research the content which is already available online. Study the statistics of the bigger blogs and try to break their monopoly over the audience. This can be done by giving more in-depth knowledge or presenting the same information in an easier form. In any case your blog will sound better if they are written by someone who is an expert in your industry.

Apart from knowing the company’s products it is important to know the branding and philosophy behind a business. This is because your blog is your voice online.
The most important skill to make a blog successful after understanding the topic is the ability to present it in a simple way.

2. Know Your Audience

Right marketing is all about finding the right market and fine-tuning your message to them. Before you start writing the blog always ask these four questions to yourself about the audience:

a. Who are they?
b. What do they need?
c. How much do they need?
d. When do they need it?

Firstly, who are they? This question should answer who your audience really is. Are they small business owners? Do they require information to grow their business? Are they big business owners and need solutions to organize their business?

What do they need? Will the topic you are writing about help them? The title of the blog should catch their attention. The audience should get an instant feeling of security after reading the blog title itself. They should feel “Yes, this blog is going to help me solve my problem.”

How much do they need? It is very important that you understand the main goal of your blog and provide the right amount of information. Avoid overwhelming the readers with too much information or too little information.

When do they need it? At which stage of their business would they need assistance from your blog? If their business is at an initiating phase then how can you help them? Will the same blog be able to help people who have already set up their businesses?

After answering all these questions, make a buyer persona of your audience and write the blog as if you are conversing with them. You now know what, how, why, and when they want information, you just have to provide them with the right answers.

3. Organize the Blog

Organizing the blog includes many factors such as having a strong introduction, structuring the content, breaking the paragraphs after regular intervals, and making the blog look clean.

Using images and videos is a great way to hold attention of the audience. Statistics show that blogs with images get 94% more views compared to blogs with no images.

Remember to include all the necessary information in your blog. Do not shy away from long form blogs that get to the depths of topic. Long blogs with detailed explanation are in-fact doing better in SEO results nowadays.

4. Monitor and Update Your Blogs
This simply means that you should regularly keep track of what the audience wants. Which type of blogs does the audience prefer and how can you evolve your blog into that type. Regularly update your best performing blogs to keep them relevant.

You can even create a small feedback form that your audience can fill once they have read one of your blogs. This will help you create better blogs in the future and at the same time you would be creating a data base of your readers as well.

5. Online Presence
One of the most important steps in creating a successful blog is ensuring its visibility. Visibility is essential for any blog in order to reach its target audience.

In 2017, 66% of marketers reported using blogs in their social media content. This would help you get audience from all the platforms but more importantly you will easily be able to understand how your blog is performing. You will be able to see what people are sharing, liking, re-tweeting etc.

Final Thoughts

These are some ways for creating a successful business blog. Once you understand your audience and their needs, you are on the path of success with the help of your ideas. After all, content marketing is all about giving your customers what they want.

Now that you have the pointers to create a great blog, go ahead and start writing. One last tip would be to write consistently. The more you understand your audience and write for them, the better your blog will get.

How to Use Social Media Profiles to Get Quality Links

Posted on January 12, 2018 by NextJSjointviews

Getting backlinks from social media platforms is critical for your SEO and inbound digital marketing strategy. Quality links to your site indirectly help in your search engine ranking while also giving you targeted traffic for your website. With over 60 popular and niche social networking platforms there is plenty of opportunity to get right visitors to your site. According to Econsultancy’s State of Search Marketing Report 82% of digital marketing agencies integrate social media in their SEO strategy.

Are You Getting Enough Backlinks from Social Media?

You can check traffic from social media platforms by using Google Analytics. Use Campaign URL builder to tag your links and measure them in Google Analytics.

If you are not getting good amount of leads from social media consider using following methods to get quality links.

Use Personal Profiles Too

All social networking platforms have an option to create a personal profile or a company profile. Personal profiles with pictures and names of real persons generate more engagement than brand profiles. This is because people want to connect with real people on social media sites. While brand pages are good for announcements and advertisements, real conversations happen with actual people.

This doesn’t mean you have to discontinue your brand profile/page. What’s important to note is that both brand and personal profile have their own advantages. For example, LinkedIn does not allow company profiles to start a conversation with others. That means you can only respond to queries and your reach is limited. However, LinkedIn company profile allows targeted sponsored posts and many other helpful features.

It is ideal to have personal profiles along with business profile. Be sure to have genuine profiles as fake profiles will damage your reputation. You can use employee profiles to do this.

Build Links in Your Profile

The next step is to build maximum links in your social media profile that point to your website. Without these links all the social following and engagement would be wasted. You can move people further in your marketing funnel by inserting links to lead pages in:

1) Profile Descriptions

2) About us section

3) Pinned posts in Facebook and LinkedIn

4) Video descriptions in Youtube

5) Instagram Stories

6) Photos and photo descriptions(Instagram only allows this for paid ads)

7) Social Media Posts

Add Value to Communities

Only conversations that are in context gain engagement on social media. Promoting your own services or page is not meaningful to anyone. Instead respond to what people and communities are talking about and add value to the conversation with your knowledge. This could be your take on the point raised or a link to related and informative blog. It could even be something entertaining like a funny meme.

People will naturally get curious about you once you start sharing knowledge on a regular basis. This is when they will click to check out your profile and what you do. Promoting your services before building trust and authority is poor strategy to get links from social media. So do not sneak a link to your blog in comments section just yet.

Meaningful Interactions

It’s easy to lose depth of communication in likes and comments. You have many friends on your Facebook, however it doesn’t necessarily mean that all of them will value you equally. To have meaningful interaction is to build relations by helping others reach their goals too. Since you only have so much time to devote to each person you follow, you must choose a few influencers or users that you plan to build long term relation with (more on this in the next point).

Try to reach important users through other channels like email or phone to build stronger relation. Help them reach more followers through cross-promotion or turn their post into an infographic and offer to link it on their blog. Over the long term these relations will pay off by sending more links to your profile and site.

Follow Right People

It’s important to be seen as industry authority if you want good quality links to your site. Your relationship and engagement with the right users is essential here.

Obviously your time is limited and this is the reason you must strategically choose the right people to interact with. Use tools such as Klout, Buzzsumo, FollowerWonk to find right influencers in your industry and monitor social media.

These tools also look at followers list to find an overlap between your and other industry influencer’s followers. This makes getting new followers and links more likely. Cross promotions and comment interactions with these influencers will benefit both of you in the end.

Join Niche Networks

There are lots of niche social networking sites apart from the big players such as Facebook, Linkedin, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter etc. Find out where your target audience is and start posting there. These niche sites typically have higher user engagements because of a stronger community. You will definitely find more success here if you strike the right chord.

For example, Imgur is a great platform to target geeky millennial men. Reddit has an active discussion on different topics (also called subreddits). Quora is another platform to build your authority and drive traffic through your links in answers.

Another advantage of these sites is that they have a transparent voting system which determines which posts, answers and comments are shown first. This makes it very easy to monitor content and know your user engagement.

Post Linkable Content

Some content has more potential to drive traffic to your pages. Links to quiz, comparison blog posts, interview with industry celebrities etc., are compelling invitation to your site. Be creative with content and use fresh features such as live videos, stories, online polls to drive traffic.

Your posts on social media platforms must be a preview into something interesting that drives users to click on it.

These are some of the ways leading content marketers are using to drive traffic from social media platforms. Do you use any of these and what has been your success with them? Let us know in the comments below.

6 Remarkable Ways to Build a Great SEO Team

Posted on January 11, 2018 by NextJSjointviews

A great SEO team is essential for successful digital marketing. Their job is to get more views on a webpage. This needs skills such as understanding audience behaviour, cracking the reader’s patterns and AI Algorithms.

A recent study shows that 93% of online experiences begin with search engines. This number should be good enough to encourage any business to hire and build a great SEO team. This blog will provide you some tips on how you can do that.

1. Hire a complete Team

The first step in building an SEO team is to hire the right people. This hiring has to be done by keeping the positions and work responsibilities in mind. The following experts are required to build a quality team:

Manager: Like every team in a company, SEO team also needs an effective manager. The manager must understand the roles of SEO employees in his team.

A varied experience in web development, content creation, social media marketing and other areas of digital marketing is beneficial as right SEO strategy requires knowledge of many areas of digital marketing. Your manager will also be responsible for making an SEO strategy so a strategic thinking will be an add on.

Data analyst: The job of a data analyst is to conduct research on keywords, studying the webpage traffic and giving meaningful insights after number crunching.

Web development: This is an important role in an SEO team as web developers have to take care of page loading time, internal navigation, and indexing. Their job can also require them to design the pages. Sometimes web developers are shared with other teams.

Content writer: To appear on search engines a blog/web page requires lots of content, it requires good content. Without good, creative and innovative content the web page will not show up in the top links of search engine.

Link building: SEO takes into consideration the quality of links pointing to your content to validate the authenticity of your content. Hence it is advised to designate this work to an expert who understands when and where the internal or external links should be provided. Sometimes this role is merged with a content writer’s role.

2. Keep them updated

Search engines keep on updating their crawling algorithms from time to time. Google is a search engine which keeps SEO experts on their toes. Some of their major updates include Google Panda, Google Penguin, Google Hummingbird. These updates mainly depend on the development of Machine Learning. (ML).

To understand how to get more views on a page, SEO teams must be up-to-date with the ever changing algorithms. To ensure that your employees are on the same page as the latest SEO trends, your team must be continuously learning. In fact, research should be a part of their daily activity.

Good research brings good results. Information related to latest ML developments can be found on many websites and online journals as well. Some examples are: Moz, Search Engine Journal, and Google SEO Guidelines. Subscribing to journals and blogs can help the team in predicting the upcoming SEO trends.

3. Train employees

You may not be able to hire the best SEO specialist in the world. But nothing stops you from training them to achieve world class success in SEO. A good SEO team should comprise of employees who are ready to learn new things. SEO is all about understanding content and what the audience likes to read/watch.

Get them to read all about SEO and conduct SEO related workshops. You could even create courses to train the employees. Make sure your SEO team is working closely with market research to understand their target audience and what they want.

4. Encourage with Awards

Acknowledging the efforts of employees motivates them to work harder. It makes them believe that their efforts have a positive effect on the business and hence it boosts the self esteem of the employees.

Incentives can be provided on a quarterly basis in the form of bonus or it can be given yearly in the form of promotion or raise. Regular recognition of their quality work in the form of awards and titles also works to motivate your team.

5. Create a healthy environment

There is no doubt that a healthy workplace should be provided to employees of every department but the work of SEO operations requires focused attention and sometimes working for long hours. Data crunching, meeting content calendar deadlines and continuous learning can be stressful too.

Breaks for other activities such as games, debates, discussions, art, etc reduce stress as well as build stronger relations. The employees should have good relationship with one another as well. This way they can work as a team together. This would also make them open towards receiving others suggestions as well as giving them.

6. Interact with other SEO experts

Certain exclusive knowledge can be only learnt with experience. Not everything is found online. Make sure your team learns from those who have spent years in the industry. Encourage them to attend conferences, discussions and workshops about SEO operation.

In all these events employees will get tips from the experts, they will witness ideas in the process of being made and most of all these events will inspire them. Seminars are a great way of meeting other SEO teams in your industry and other big influential companies. You team will also pick up new strategies that help them to think out of their daily work.

Final Thoughts

For years businesses have focused on advertisement to attract more customers and in today’s internet age, appearing on the first page of search engines is the perfect advertisement. Try out these tips and prepare yourself to see your business grow.

90 Link Building Strategies to Use in 2018 [Infographic]

Posted on January 10, 2018 by NextJSjointviews

Higher search engine rankings are based on the authority of webpages. As you probably know, quality links can increase your site’s authority as well as improves its SEO value. Link building helps you to increase the flow of high-quality links pointing to your website. It‘s a proven marketing strategy by many businesses for improving their brand awareness.

Google considers quality links to your site while ranking. Links indicate that whether your page is useful as a result. Search engines only want to show useful results to its users. So, all your SEO efforts for higher rankings are imperfect without link building strategies.

Do you want increase your domain authority through link building? Here is an infographic illustrating 90 linking building strategies that you can include in your SEO strategy in 2018.

How to Use Customer Reviews to Leverage Content Marketing

Posted on January 8, 2018 by NextJSjointviews

Word of mouth has always been important for businesses small or big. The word-of-mouth channel has even more reach because of the internet today. This is good news for businesses that deliver on their promise and take care of customer service.

It is common for users to search for a business and look up its reviews and ratings before making a purchase. E-commerce websites know that customer reviews of products greatly influence sales.

According to BrightLocal, 72% consumers say that positive reviews make a business more trustworthy.

Customer reviews obviously affect your online conversion. But is there a way to use them in your content marketing too?

Adding customer reviews in your content gives it authenticity and social proof. Customers are more likely to trust words of other customers. Here are ways to leverage your customer reviews for content marketing.

Social Media Posts

Social media is a place to connect with other people and get social. You can also share the experience of other customers instead of just posting your own blogs, ads and graphics. Thrive, a nutrition centre, posts their customer reviews on social media to gain confidence of other members in community. Seeing others successfully complete the program makes other readers more likely to give your product or service a serious thought.

You can also run a campaign to invite written or video testimonial for your business. LuluLemon, a Canadian athletic apparel retailer, encourages its customers to tag them in Instagram posts. Customers promoting your brand in their personal posts give a boost to your brand authenticity on social media.

Blog

There are many ways to use positive customer reviews in your blog posts.

You can display testimonial in your blog or on side panel on your blog page. This can be done by inserting relevant customer review in a highlighted box.

You can also request your most loyal customers to write a guest blog for you. This is especially good for a B2B company. A blog from a marketing head explaining how your system improves marketing ROI for them can do wonders for your conversion.

Case Studies

Case studies are a great way to use customer reviews for storytelling. Case studies can be a part of your presentation or content on your lead page. They also go well in e-books and email campaigns.

Case studies weave customers’ words into a relatable story. Pick a demographic that is closest to your target market and recount the problems that the customer had before. Like any good story, a case study must have a clearly defined character, struggles, solution to problem and a renewed life after the use of your product, service or advice.

Testimonial

A testimonial page to display all your customer reviews is great when you have accumulated many reviews. Alternatively, you can also display your testimonials in a scrollable carousel format on the home page of your website. Simple plugins like Slidervilla allow you to display your testimonials in a tasteful manner.

Email Campaigns

Emails are another place where you can use user generated content. Using customer reviews and ratings will make your promotional emails more compelling and actionable.

Shape FX uses this beautifully to drive their leads to a purchase.

Lead Page Content

Lead page is the most important page in content marketing. It converts visitors to leads and leads to customers in the sales funnel. An account from customers who have made this transition and happy with the result is a must have on your lead page.

You can also display your ratings earned on third party review sites such as Google seller rating, Yelp or other local business rating sites. Video testimonials and celebrity quotes do even better on lead pages.

Final Thoughts

Customer reviews can be used in many different ways in content marketing. They form the social proof that is needed to convert your leads into customers. Use them in different formats mentioned above to make your content more authentic and your brand more trustworthy.

15 Popular Jointviews Digital Marketing Blogs of 2017

Posted on December 30, 2017 by NextJSjointviews

The end of the year is just around the corner and it’s time to look back at some of the best blogs published by Jointviews Digital Marketing team. We have generated some good piece of content this year in the form of blogs, infographics, and videos.

Considering the popularity, we have sorted out 15 best digital marketing blogs generated by our team this year. Let’s have a look:

15 Best Social Media Monitoring Tools You Can Use in 2017

Social Media Marketing is crucial for any marketing business. But, today social media marketing is not confined to posting and sharing content. You need to use social media monitoring tools to create effective marketing strategies and campaigns. This blog has introduced 15 best social media monitoring tools in the form of an infographic.

9 Digital Marketing Certifications You Can Get in 2017

If you are a person who is so much interested in digital marketing the first thing you should do is to get certified by Google, Bing or HubSpot. Nowadays companies prefer digital marketing professionals with marketing certifications. A lot of free certification courses are now available on the web. This infographic has listed out popular digital marketing certifications that you can acquire in 2017.

15 Best Content Curation Tools You Can Use in 2018

Publishing content that is relevant to your audience gives you good results in Digital Marketing. Content curation helps you to find interesting topics from a variety of sources. It helps you to know the interests of your target audience as well. Using the right content curation tools will help you to offer content that your target audience like to read. This infographic has listed some popular content curation tools to help you create high quality content.

22 Top Email Marketing Tools of 2017

There is a widespread misconception that email marketing is just about creating an attractive email and sending it to many through automated software. That’s all in the past. Now the tools used for email marketing has become so much sophisticated and guarantees excellent results.

A striking feature of these new age tools is that they can predict the outcome of an email or even a social media marketing campaign. We have illustrated 22 top email marketing tools through this stunning infographic.

What is the Scope of Content Writing in India

Can you believe that content for business marketing was implemented since eighteenth century? It’s quite surprising, no? Yes, Content Marketing began in the eighteenth century when Benjamin Franklin published his yearly paper. In early 2000s search engines gave birth to SEO copywriters who finally evolved into copywriters. As Google rewarded quality content and penalized spammy content businesses now wanted professionals to write content.

This blog from Jointviews throws light on different aspects of content writing such as brief history of content writing, role of content writers, importance of quality content, scope of content writing in India and the future of content writing.

How to Set Up Google AMP on Your WordPress Website

Google has officially declared that more than 52% search requests are from mobile devices. SEO experts have confirmed that latest search updates of Google are giving prominence to mobile friendly websites. These facts clearly suggest the desperate need for mobile friendly websites.

This blog talks about the ins and outs of AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) installation. We hope that this blog might help you to set up Google AMP on your wordpress website in the right way.

10 Outdated SEO Practices You Need to Discard in 2017

If you are a digital marketer it’s important to reinvent your SEO skills and strategies to stay ahead of the game. Sticking to the old school SEO strategies cannot assure you higher rankings and some of them are deemed as black-hat by Google. Do you want to get rid of outdated SEO practices? If you want to avoid such wrong SEO practices go through our blog on outdated SEO techniques. This blog has discussed 10 outdated SEO practices you need to discard in 2017.

How does Social Media Support Content Marketing?

Content is at the centre of all digital marketing efforts. But how do you ensure that your content reaches your readers once it is ready? According to CMI 93% of B2B marketers list social media as one of the top five content marketing tactics. This blog helps you understand that how you can use social media for successful content marketing.

How Influencer Marketing Powers Content Marketing

Influencers are users who are popular online and have good number of followers and user engagement with them. They are looked up to by many people and have the ability to influence opinions. They could be popular YouTubers, Instagram celebrities with following of more than 10,000 of Facebook users with active user engagement.

This is one the popular blogs published by us in 2017. The blog gives you a clear picture of Influencer marketing and how it boosts your content marketing efforts.

Top Google Search Trends in India 2017

Google has released its country specific lists of the top trends in online search data for 2017. As usual, showbiz and cricket dominated the Google search trends in India. Google has listed top searches of the year into 9 categories. This infographic illustrates the search trends of the year in an interesting manner.

Creating Stunning Infographics Improve Brand Awareness. Learn How

Infographics are a great way to present your content visually. Research shows that our brains process images 60,000 times faster than text! Let’s understand the different ways you can use infographics to improve brand awareness via this blog.

10 Best Ideas to Promote Your Business Using Instagram

Instagram has more than 80 million users now and it is likely to increase in the coming years. If you are planning to put your business on Instagram you can read on this blog to get 10 best ideas for business promotion.

9 Indian Startups that have Aced Content Marketing

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.

Get ready to know about 9 Indian startups that have done exceptionally well with content marketing!

How to Create a Content Marketing Strategy that Works Best for SEO

Most businesses are now focusing on creating more content than ever before. The major thing to note is that the content is used everywhere and influences every other type of marketing strategy. This blog discusses some points that help you create a content marketing strategy in line with your business goals.

25 Best Tools for Improving Your Content Writing Skills

Improving your content writing is one of the best ways to succeed in the SEO world. High-quality content can boost organic site traffic, improve SEO rankings and strengthen your on-site conversion rates.

Get familiar with 25 best tools for improving your content writing skills via this blog.

Final Thoughts

So, that is all about our digital marketing efforts in 2017. We will strive to generate engaging and relevant content in 2018 as well. Thanks for reading and we wish you a great year ahead.

Repercussions of End of Net Neutrality on Digital Marketing

Posted on December 26, 2017 by NextJSjointviews

Nixing the net neutrality regulations that were enacted in 2015 will definitely affect the way digital marketing works. It will also have an effect on brands, consumers and digital marketing agencies. Even though the repeal will take weeks to come into effect there will be potential changes in the way the internet works. Ending net neutrality may stifle innovation and lead to search engine bans. It will for sure have a change in the web traffic that comes through organic searches.

Changes in the Digital Market

There will be a considerable change in the way digital marketing works when the freedom to access content, run applications, attach devices or obtain service plan information is revoked. Smaller brands that have a smaller budget may find it difficult to put their foot down in the digital market. The internet began with the concept of decentralization, making way for the free flow of information. Start-ups will now have to spend a considerable amount to reach their consumers. Basically, it treats one piece of web traffic differently than another piece of traffic. Let us look through the changes net neutrality might bring about on digital marketing.

How it might affect Digital Marketing

Since 1950s Internet Service Providers (ISPs) were prohibited from engaging in prioritization or blocking of websites and slowing broadcasting speeds while browsing a particular site under the law. The recent repeal of net neutrality in the US will no longer require ISPs to provide unrestricted access to the internet. It means that large players who can afford to hit the competition can partnership with ISPs to eliminate competition from smaller, less funded competitors.

Net neutrality evoked competition between all sizes and forms of businesses. This created a demand for digital marketing services such as content marketing, SEO, pay-per-click (PPC), and social media marketing which inspire organic web traffic. Inherently the new law might increase advertising costs.

However, the end of net neutrality may open up a plethora of opportunities for advertisers, agencies, and digital marketers. This might go to an extent where brands may have to start paying up for better bandwidth and one ISP versus another. The new change might take the digital marketing platform from a consumer-centric marketing to a business-centric marketing.

Throttling is favouring one piece of web traffic more than another. It is assumed that throttling and paid prioritization will deliver unpaid websites more slowly than other paid traffic to the user. This opens up opportunities to create unlimited bandwidth or free bandwidth offers where there might be different rate plans to avail different websites.

There prevails a fear in internet discussions that non-neutrality might give service providers unfettered control over the information that can be accessed, and might threaten the freedom and future of the internet. ISPs can choose what users can browse based on what they pay in the absence of net neutrality.

What it means for Digital Marketing Agencies

Agencies used to score with creative content and innovation to help small businesses stand up to their larger counterparts. With non-net neutrality, the same marketing industry is supposed to go frenzied as small brands will have to pay up more from their marketing budget so that they can be visible in the bustling web traffic.

In the absence of an equal playing field, ISPs might be deciding what content gets delivered to users at what speed. It is also assumed that content marketing might be affected because if users can’t access a particular content why would they promote it. Creating and promoting content is likely to be more expensive. On the other hand pay per click will not be affected (of course it is paid for).

The fact is that giant websites can pay ISPs to include them in a higher tier, while your personal blog or your small venture’s business website will always be in the lower tier as you can’t afford to spend huge sums towards keeping up in the higher tier. This means that fewer businesses will be competing in the real scenario, fewer businesses means less competition and thus less demand for digital marketing services.

Anyhow, the outcomes of net neutrality will take some time to come into effect and we can only assume the consequences. Let us hope for a fair, free-flowing battle of wits in the digital marketing scenario.

9 Mistakes to Avoid While Hiring a Content Marketing Agency

Posted on December 22, 2017 by NextJSjointviews

Quality content needs continuous effort and time. This is the reason why many companies choose to hire a content marketing agency for it. It’s not enough to publish just any content on the saturated internet anymore. Content marketing needs compelling content to work successfully.

Bad content can actually leave you in a worse place than you started in. It is difficult to re-build your reputation and authority once it is spoilt on social media. Adidas had to face the public heat after their tweet on Boston marathon which unintentionally reminded everyone of the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing. Adidas recovered with a heartfelt apology. However, smaller brands may not have a chance to recover from a social media post gone wrong with the same ease.

Delay in promised content, website ownership issues, followers database privacy, breached timelines are all real issues that companies face while dealing with content marketing agencies.

We have put together a list of 9 mistakes that companies usually make while hiring a content marketing agency. Read on to avoid them and hire the right agency for you.

1. Not Knowing the Service Team

Sales personnel are usually the first ones to meet you from the content marketing agencies. They tell you about the success they have had with other clients and show you a vision for your content too.

That is great! But who is actually going to put this plan in action? Do you know the team who you will work with? Are they passionate about your growth and will they understand your brand? These are a few questions you must ask before you seal the deal. Many companies sign up impressed with the sales person only to be disappointed with the results of delivery team.

Request the salesperson to put you in touch with the content team and know your content strategist, content writer and SEO consultant by name.

2. Having Unclear Goals

Being fuzzy about your marketing goals is also a mistake that people make. It is better to take your time and think about this before you start hunting for a content marketing agency. Some of the questions to ask are:

What do you hope to achieve with a content marketing plan?
What does your brand stand for and stand against?
How will content marketing fit in your overall marketing strategy?

The final pieces of strategy will of course be put together by your agency. However, these are some of the answers that a content marketing agency cannot just make up. These must come from you. Being unclear on these would be starting on a wobbly foundation.

3. Not Checking for Relevant Experience

It is important to separate experience from relevant experience when it comes to choosing the right agency. It would be a mistake to go for an agency based on its size and popularity alone. Many a times, niche agencies specialize in start up, small & mid-sized brands or certain industries.

Look at the past record of the agency to know the industry and size of clients they have worked with. Also look at the success rate they have had with those clients. An agency who has worked with companies similar to yours will be better able to understand your challenges in content marketing.

Also look at the agency’s own website, blogs and content they produce for themselves. How can you trust a content marketing company that doesn’t market itself successfully through good content?

4. Not Budgeting Time and Resources Required

Many companies think that they can ignore content marketing totally because they have outsourced the work to a content marketing agency. This is far from the truth. Even though your agency will take the task of creating and strategizing content, you still need to account for time that will be required for communications, approval of plans, share references and resources.

Nobody wants a content that does not sound like the voice of your brand and lacks authenticity. Be sure to ask for weekly meetings (virtual if face to face is not possible).

5. Not Having a Clear Written Agreement

Having a written agreement on terms of service and deliverables is important to avoid running into problems later. Make sure everything is written down to the last detail with timeline for delivery.

6. Falling for Impossible Promises

Never fall for agencies that promise to achieve unbelievable goals in a short time. There is no short-cut in content marketing. It requires time for your rankings to go up no matter how good your content is. There is no fixed recipe for viral content, so beware of anyone who promises it to you.

Working with agencies that employ unethical practices (such as buying followers, black hat SEO, keyword stuffing) without creating valuable content can get you red-listed from search engines and other web platforms.

7. Choosing Cheaper Option over Quality

Choosing an agency without checking the quality of content is actually expensive. Cheap content that lacks value doesn’t get you anywhere. You will just end up paying up for content that nobody wants to read.

If you lack the budget for a good agency currently it is advisable to wait until you have one. You can also request for financing options or part consultancy until then.

Paying for content that lacks quality is actually counterproductive and leads to extra work of re-building your reputation later.

8. Thinking of Content Marketing as a Project

Content marketing is an ongoing strategy rather than a short term project. It is not a campaign that you do but a philosophy that you follow. Changing agencies frequently can be damaging for your content marketing plan. Hence, it is important to look for a partner who will be with you for the long-term. This brings us to the last mistake that people make.

9. Not Looking for the Fit

It is important to look for an agency with a cultural fit. We do not mean same regionality or nationality here, but a partner who understands your purpose of business and shares your working values. This synergy helps in producing content that has a strong voice and builds long term trust. Ask yourself if you can trust them as a long term partner before signing up.

Final Thoughts

When done right content marketing will be a continuous source of leads and revenue for you. Remember that results can take six months to a year to show. So choose your partner wisely and choose them for the long term.