Tag: small businesses

10 Best Online Advertising Strategies for Marketers

Posted on by NextJSjointviews

About 10 million people visit the Great Wall of China every year.

Don’t you desire a traffic figure for your website that sounds as appealing as this?

No worries, we got this! All you need to do is tweak your marketing algorithm and follow the right strategy.

It can be overwhelming to choose from the myriad of schemes available, especially for beginners.

Moreover small businesses and startups need to be practical about advertising campaigns and spend wisely. What they need is a cost effective and functional campaigning strategy at the same time.

Let’s have a look at 10 most effective online advertising strategies that gave the most successful marketers a head start.

1. Target your audience

This strategy is the foundation to fabricate an effective brand image. If you do not target a specific audience for your product, you are utilizing resources in vain.

Many businesses miss on this important aspect of campaigning.

Based on your existing customer profile you can target audience with similar psychographics and convert more leads to prospects and then to customers.

Be it online or offline, make sure the presentation and visuals of your brand intrigue your customers.

2. Personal Branding

As digital marketers, do we even have to think twice before saying Neil Patel and how he channelized his popularity to build a multi-million dollar empire?

That is how amazingly this technique works. Branding yourself helps you leverage your personality to gain trust and credibility.

The way you present yourself determines if or not people will want to buy from you. As it’s easy to predict your viewpoints once they see you and listen to you.

Boring as it might seem in fiction, predictability is all what people want in real life.

3. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

The technical structure of your site determines the search position ranking of your website.

This structure is fabricated by SEO to bring your website under the lens of the search engine.

It is a form of paid online advertising which is achieved through optimization of the content on the website. It helps generate more targeted traffic.

4. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Ads

Pay per click ads is the inorganic mode, used to drive traffic to a website. As an advertiser you pay the publisher when the ad is clicked by a user.  PPC basically means the amount spent to get a click on the ad.

The advertiser bids on the keywords specific to the target audience.  Bidding implies the amount he is willing to pay the advertising service for a click.

5. Native Ads

These kind of paid ads are embedded onto the website in a way that they blend in with its visuals and functioning. Hence, the name native ads.

If you sponsor your content on a website, you must keep up with the consistency of the native user experience.

According to figures reported by sharethrough, consumers looked at native ads 2% more than editorial content and spent the same number of seconds viewing.

They provide a decent experience as they do not interrupt website usability. Strategists may find it more appealing than video ads.

Furthermore, native ads can bag you more prospects owing to the use of click bait headlines.

6. Social Media Marketing

Social media is the heart of the marketing system. You have the scope of pumping your content through various channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram depending on the brand personality and the target audience.

This method might not get you quick results but has the maximum potential for a long sustaining brand image. Not to mention, your content is your trump card here. It is important that you give your audience a delightful experience.

This method helps gain visibility and drives brand equity. Given the reach of social media, you can build inbound traffic using your syndicates.

7. Email Marketing

For this one to work, you need a strong follower’s base.

Mind you! Email marketing can be tedious but has potential for ROI.

Keep content easy on the eyes and brand at the top of the mind.

Poor content quality will not leave you without your targets marking you as spam.

Target your purchase lead list or those in the current customer database.

Email marketing increases trustworthiness and enhances the chance of repeat business. It psychologically moulds the customer to believe that you value the relationship with them causing them to stay loyal and be your verbal advocates.

8. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a kind of outsourcing program which emerged as a result of market complexity.

This is a performance based strategy whose success lies in the efforts of the affiliate. The affiliate gets the website visitors and buyers in return for a reward.

The merchant, network, publisher and the customer make up the core of the affiliate system.

9. Big Data

You may run as many ads online but if they are not seen by the right people, it is not a bang for the buck.

You might have come across ads for products you just viewed on an e-commerce website popping up on a different website you visit. Ever wondered why?

This is the result of up-front research of marketers and their inorganic marketing strategy put together.

They make sure their ads are viewed by the target audience with the aid of big data.

Big data is only a high-standard way of addressing a database containing relevant information, gathered from various sources in abundance.

Advertisers use the big data information to run online advertisements on screens of the audience of their interest.

For example,

They will use marketing data from different sources to determine the youth visiting a particular website are also interested in music instruments. They will run music instruments on sale ads micro-targeting that group.

10. Text Link Ads

This is basically hyperlinked text on a website or a blog. It works well in monetizing a website. When visitors click the link, you as an advertiser have to pay the publisher of the blog or website.

The pay is in accordance with the pay-per –click method.

The popularity of the blogger or the website on which you link these ads plays a crucial role.

In addition, these ads improve the search engine ranking of your content.

Conclusion

Each of the above strategy mutually compliments the benefits of the other. For optimizing your marketing process it would be best to glean them all tactfully.

Do share your experiences if you found the information helpful. If you feel we have missed out on some important strategies, please feel free to share in the comments.

Choosing the Best Content Marketing Agency: Tips for Startups and Small Businesses

Posted on by NextJSjointviews

Marketing can be a changeable world, as the trends to keep up with,analytics to track, reports to create, consumers to reach, distribution channels to optimize, emails to send, and a ton of other things fighting for your attention.

Startup marketing is a unique challenge often times because of the limited resources, whether it’s time, money or talent. The key role content marketing plays in driving leads and delivering results is something most businesses are aware of.

Content marketing has become an integral part for businesses, whether it is a start-up or small business.

According to the Content Marketing Institute, content marketing can be defined as “ A strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience – and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”

If you are not familiar with content creation or marketing, it is better to outsource the task to any professional content marketing agency.

A reliable agency can help you to focus on your target market. Here are certain tips for businesses to consider when choosing the best content marketing agency.

1. Flexible with Diverse Forms of Content: It is important that the agency of your choice should understand where and how your potential customers spend their time online. From landing pages and white papers to eBooks and news articles, it is important to make sure that content marketing efforts are in such a way to attract your targeted audience.

2. Look for the Quality of Previous Works: By reviewing marketing agency’s previous and current customer references and piece of content, campaigns and work, start-ups or small businesses could evaluate their capability before hiring.

3. Content Marketing Success and Latest Technology: It’s important to know that your agency is using the latest technology. Make sure that you ask questions, research technologies and tools they are using to improve content writing skills and understand how your agency will use the data to optimize performance.

4. Checkout their work and its quality: Make sure to have a clear idea about their current as well as previous work. Read out their content marketing case studies and how they assisted their clients, how skilled their content writers are. If possible, get a phone interview with those clients.

5. Check whether they are trustworthy, transparent, and credible: Trust is the vital part of any business; you should have a clear view about the agency, meaning, you should make sure that the agency is good for its word and they can work in line with your business goals.

Take the time and study your needs and options available. People buy from business they trust and you can build their trust by utilizing high-quality, intended, and properly optimized content that your target market actually wants to read and is likely to share.

You may find many agencies, where each agency is different and every provider carries unique specifications. All you have to follow is to partner with the best content marketing agency, who can assure you quality services with consistency.

Choosing the Best Social Media Marketing Services for Small Businesses

Posted on by NextJSjointviews

Social Media Marketing (SMM) is an integral part of digital marketing. Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram are used by marketers to drive traffic, distribute content and provide a customer experience. According to Social Media Examiner, 92% of marketers have increased their exposure through social media and 80% had positive results in terms traffic.

This blog is for you if you have your own business page and want to improve returns from social media marketing. Social media marketing includes all the activities done online to market your product or service. SMM can lead to more following, increased traffic to your website and customer relationship building.

Whether you are considering hiring a digital marketing agency or buying  SMM software to manage on your own, following is the information you must know to choose the best SMM service for your small business:

  • Have a Documented Strategy

Has your marketing agency developed a written documented Social Media Marketing Strategy? Not having a formalized plan will only lead to ineffective posting on social media platforms. Here is what you can do to document a formal strategy:

1. Know your audience Think of the profile of followers you want to generate on social media. Quality of traffic is as important as quantity. Develop buyer personas and document the needs of your target audience.

2. Develop content to address those needs. Content creation must fit into the broad content plan that you have developed.

3. Make a content calendar to plan when you will share your content. This will ensure consistency in your posting.

4. Also share interesting content by other players in your industry. This could be industry reports, studies and news. Post polls to engage users.

  • Use Social Media Marketing Tools

social-media-marketing-screenshot

There are many tools that allow you to manage all your social media accounts at one place. Platforms like HooteSuite, SproutSocial and Buffer are well known. Using these tools will allow you to schedule posts, track user engagement and monitor your growth on social media.

According to eMarketer, 60% of small business owners say they are not able to track ROI from their social media activities. Tools like Kissmetrics allow you to measure the ROI for each platform  and track traffic and conversions coming from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc. It also tracks multiple site visits to give the long lifecycle return from a visitor.

  • SMM must be tailored to your business

The goals of each small business will be different on social media. Define your ultimate goal clearly. Do you want to drive social media traffic to your site or just want to increase brand awareness in the audience?

As a small business you may also have some budget constraints. Here’s the good news. You do not need a huge budget to market on social media. High level of targeting allows you to reach your relevant audience and convert them.

  • Visual Content

According to Buffer, visual content is 40 times more likely to be shared on social media. Many of the social media platforms like Instagram and Pinterest are visual platforms. For this reason, any SMM service that you choose must have experience in producing infographics, images and videos for each channel.

  • Paid Marketing

All social media platforms have paid marketing tools that make your posts and ads visible to target audience. In fact, major social media networks are focusing on paid channels to monetize their platforms.

It has become difficult for business pages on Facebook to be visible without running an ad campaign. Instagram has introduced carousel ads and ‘shop now’ buttons to its ads.

social-media-usage-screenshot

As per above graph 92% of marketing professionals are using Facebook to advertise. You can start on Facebook with a small budget. The platform is sure to give you returns by micro targeting your audience based on age, location, interests and much more.

Although social media is only one part of digital marketing, it is by far emerging as the biggest and most influential part of it. According to Hubspot’s marketing statistics, more than half of marketers who’ve been using social media for at least two years report it helped them improve sales.

SMM failed for the others because succeeding at social media requires keeping up to date with the latest algorithm changes and new features. You can take help of a digital marketing expert who will take care of all the above points mentioned.

 

Why Hire a Content Marketing Agency for Startups and Small Businesses

Posted on by NextJSjointviews

Needless to mention, any business thrives only when it has a solid customer base. With so many startups and businesses targeting the same consumer segment, it is your prerogative as an entrepreneur to do everything that is within your reach to differentiate yourself from your competitors.

In what way is my product or service meeting the needs of my customer?

In how many ways is my product different from others?

These are the two questions of introspection that should drive you to take certain measures in line with your marketing strategy. All for the sake of generating leads which will ultimately become your brand loyalists, thereby increasing your sales, your marketing strategy should be your prime instrument for change.

It is a thing of the past when customers were influenced to buy certain products that flashed on their TVs or in their morning newspapers. Billboards and hoardings too became promising advertising tools promising a greater reach. But this is not the scene anymore. With technology penetrating into every sphere of human life, the World Wide Web is the pivotal marketplace to checkout and order stuff.

Just signup with your chosen e-commerce website, select a product of your choice, order it online and receive the delivery at your doorstep without any fuss. Doing away the strain of physically knocking on the doors of a showroom, shoppers can shop for their needs from the comfort of their living rooms.

Offering a great deal of freedom and convenience to the shopping fraternity, online shopping has revolutionized the way in which people pick up and use stuff. And what makes this type of business proposition click?

Content – The Magic Wand of Words and Pictures

Primarily focused on customer engagement, it is only through good website content that you can attract the attention of potential customers. It can be a social media update or a compelling blog post. Both these are the techniques that will engage your customers while paving way for a stronger brand positioning.

Genuine content tagged with images and videos is what drives your customers to pause for a second to understand what you are conveying. And if they like it, they will go a step further by sharing it within their contacts.

Commenting about your offering is another way in which online shoppers influence each other. Basically adding value to your service or product, it is only through effective content that you can increase traffic to your website; eventually leading to good sale figures.

The Need to Hire a Content Marketing Agency

Notwithstanding the fact that a professional setup can handhold your business on to the right path, the same belief holds good when it concerns hiring the services of a content marketing agency. Signing up the dotted line with such agencies will deliver you the following advantages.

1. The team of content marketing executives will help you organize, implement and test your content marketing strategy. Along with this, the added advantage comes in the form of tracking the progress of your strategy.

2. The agency can step in to give your current content marketing activities a facelift.

3. When you compare the cost v/s the numerous benefits that an agency has in store for you, allocation of a certain budget will lower your expenditure when you do not have to hire a full-time content strategist or a graphic designer. The team will step in to take care of all your content requirements at a much lower cost.

The Job Description of a Content Marketing Company

Having identified the functional and financial advantages of hiring a content marketing agency, now is the time to discuss about the different ways in which such companies help boost your sale figures.

1. A single-window service that will take care of all your content marketing needs including web content writing, SEO initiatives and all the aspects of your content marketing that will impact your supply chain.

2. The agency helps you gain a comprehensive idea of your business goals looking through the lens of your online presence. Recommending changes to the content alongside fixing content deficiencies will hence be the responsibility of the team.

3. As an outside agency, the team of content marketers will be able to offer you objective suggestions to build your brand. Tagged as a reliable source of marketing information, it is through their years of marketing experience that you will be able to create your market niche.

4. A consolidated report from the professional agency will help you assess whether the current situation is in sync with what was agreed upon earlier as part of the agency contract requirements.

5. Teaming up with a content marketing agency is a purse-friendly decision when you will be spared of incurring employee training costs.

6. Helping you realize your short terms goals, a content marketing agency can be of utmost help when you are hard pressed to deliver an urgent project. While your workforce is getting tuned to the upcoming project, you can be at peace to work around a complete marketing plan offered by the agency. The prompt implementation of your marketing plan does wonders to your bottom line, allowing you to make the most of an unexpected opportunity.

Conclusion

Mindful of the advantages of hiring a content marketing agency for your small entrepreneurial venture, it comes as a wise move to hand over the reins of your content requirements to professionals. Bringing to the fore the cost-benefit analysis, it is evident that the benefits outweigh the costing factor of availing professional content marketing services.

Allowing your business to thrive with unique and high quality content, you will able to differentiate yourself from your competitors by signing up with professionals who can bring in informative and engaging text, videos, webinars, podcasts and infographics. All these enhancements to your website will make you stand apart in your business circles, not only through a better online presence but also in terms of long-standing profitability.