What Your Audience Wants to See on Your Social Media Pages

Posted on by Chris Jenkin

As they all say, content is king! But how do you continue to provide the best content when the demands for content marketing continually change over time? How do you make sure that your content marketing efforts don’t go to waste? One good thing to remember is to pay close attention to your audience. Do you still know who your audience is? Are you giving them content that’s useful to them?

HubSpot Research recently made a remark on how 2016 initiated a new phase of technology, one wherein consumer preferences and new innovations are important factors to consider for every marketer. If you are trying to improve your content marketing practices, the key to doing so is to identify if you are providing your readers the right content. So how do you determine this?

Here are some of the latest trends as told by industry experts:

 Videos

Video has largely become a vital part of content marketing. As projected by experts, 80% of web traffic will come from video by the year 2019. This will represent an impressive increase in video content and especially the amount of time people spend watching YouTube and Facebook videos.

How to make use of video content for your advantage?

  • Keep videos within two minutes in length to ensure viewers watch the entire clip.
  • Add captions and animations to your video so it’s easy for viewers to understand the message, even without listening to anything.
  • Cover breaking news, since this is something more users are interested in seeing.

 Social Media

Social media is never going to die, at least anytime soon. As a matter of fact, its audience is only growing bigger every day. To date, there are 1.7 billion daily active users on Facebook, 500 million on Instagram, 313 million on Twitter, and 150 million on Snapchat. These individuals are consuming more content compared in the past. Because of this, content creators have started to make use of these channels to connect with their target audience.

How do you maximize social media for your brand?

  • Use relevant hashtags sparingly. It’s not good to use multiple hashtags that aim to increase Twitter engagement. You can use a branded campaign hashtag for your audience to easily find content.
  • Use social media for your videos to gain more engagement through likes, shares, retweets or replies.

 News Articles

Nowadays, more and more people are using the internet to stay updated with the latest news. Based on the findings of experts, readers want to keep up with news articles; however, they don’t really read these articles thoroughly. Many readers tend to skim-read the articles or even get the gist of the content through the headline of the article.

How to boost engagement through news articles?

  • Provide an accompanying video to a long article so that those who don’t have time to thoroughly read the text can use the video.
  • Maintain your reader’s attention by using bullets, images, and by breaking up larger text paragraphs. 

Research Content

Readers are also looking for original research they can easily consume and understand. An evidence of this is proven by how successful infographics have become over the years. Your readers no longer want to spend long periods of time trying to decipher the information you provide them. Instead, they are more likely to appreciate it if you spent some of your resources providing a visual element that could prove to be useful for the content they are searching.

How does one make the most out of research data?

  • Make sure to provide effective data visualization through an infographic.
  • Remember to use color in providing the information you have collected as this improves your content’s readership and the attention span of your audience.
  • Break up text in easily digestible images. Remember, people tend to skim-read now instead of reading the entire text.
  • Provide actionable content so your readers know how they can apply what they just learned.

Information provided through an infographic can be more easily remembered by an individual compared to their reading text.

Knowing these things can help you with your content marketing strategy. You no longer have to second guess your tactics since you already know what it is your readers are searching for. In this way, you know that your efforts won’t go to waste.

Content Marketing Goals You Should Aspire to Accomplish

Posted on by Chris Jenkin

For years, the saying “content is king” has been used online to discuss how important content truly is. As a matter of fact, it has turned into a cliché that people try to use to justify their actions. But at the end of the day, no matter how good your content is, it’s just content unless it gets read by the right people. This is the big difference between those who have found success on content marketing. If you are a digital marketer and you wish to excel in your line of work, it’s time to know more about the secrets of content marketing and just what you really ought to be doing with your time.

In order to be successful with content marketing, you need to thoroughly understand your business goals and your marketing efforts. Having knowledge in this can be a big help for you to create content that serves these goals. It can be useful for you to know how you will be able to convey your message through blog posts, eBooks, email marketing, advertising, and podcasts. By knowing how to make your content work, you don’t waste any time with what you publish online.

Here are some content marketing goals you should be setting for yourself:

#1: Gain the trust of your audience

As someone who’s into content marketing, you should know that your ultimate goal is to gain the trust of your readers and build rapport with them. Whenever you post interesting and valuable content, your readers learn from it. And in the process, they start to trust in what you have to say. With continuous work, they’ll see that you know your topic and what it is all about. They start seeing your personality and what it would be like to work with you.

#2: Attract new visitors to your system

One way you can get new visitors to your website is to know how to stand out. You need to be able to publish compelling content that will attract your website visitors to share your content online and even start a conversation with you. Through this, new people start to discover you and your content. The reason why you need new customers to find you is so you can keep your business healthy. And with content that gets shared online, you’ll be able to start doing business with new people.

#3: Be open to prospect pain

As a content marketer, you have to realize that not everyone will be accepting of what you post. This is particularly true in a time when people can easily find a solution to all of their problems—health, parenting, money, technology, and even what to cook for dinner. The trick, therefore, is to understand how you can be of help to your readers. You have to understand what their problems are so you can target to answer these. It’s also possible that you can use this as a topic guide for future content.

#4: Talk about solutions

Going back to the previous point—you have to provide a solution to the problems brought up by your prospects. You have to identify the fixes you may know for those problems. If you are selling a business that can help them solve their problem, you don’t need to tell them that anymore. Instead, focus on showing them how they can get the help they need from the product you are offering.

By knowing how to set goals with your content marketing, you’ll be able to find success with it in no time.

 

 

 

Important Digital Marketing Tips Every Startup Company Needs to Remember

Posted on by Chris Jenkin

For anyone who’s ever launched a startup, you already know how difficult it can be to kickstart the business and let other people know about it. Even if you are alone in your line of field, you may be competing against other startups who are doing the same practices as you. This is why you need to know how to properly launch your business so that it will become a success. The best way to go about this without it costing you a lot of money is to invest heavily in digital marketing.

Considering you’re a startup business, you are most likely deciding to do as much as possible on your own. This is so you can save money by not hiring another individual to take over the tasks you need to accomplish for your brand. Thankfully, there are a number of tools you can use to help you kickstart your brand online. Here are a few of the important digital marketing tips you need to remember:

Invest in Social Media

Social media is every startup business’ best friend. As a matter of fact, it is one way you can create buzz about your brand and the products you intend to sell to your customers. Prior to setting up accounts on these websites, you have to know how best to make use of social media. This includes knowing which sites will work for your brand and which ones won’t. You also need to know how often you need to post in these websites so that you don’t end up putting off your audience. At the same time, you need to know how best to speak through your social media posts so that your personality will shine through. You will need to learn these things especially since you will be the only one to handle your social media accounts.

Take Time to Learn About SEO

If you already have a website, you have to make sure it has been optimized across all platforms. This way, it will be the first website to pop up on a search results list. On the other hand, if your website is being used for e-commerce, you have to make sure that it is secure. On both, you have to check that your headers, tags, and descriptions are used appropriately. Avoid stuffing your content with keywords just so you can get a higher ranking on your page.

Produce Quality Content

Whenever you’re posting content for your readers, you have to make sure that it contains the right information and is valuable to them too. The content you produce should have a conversational tone with a mix of some humor in it. Every time you post on social media, you can use the content to connect with your readers so you can invite them to engage in.

Consider Sending a Newsletter

A newsletter can help your business grow because it helps remind your followers about the products and services you are offering. You just have to remember that the newsletter you send should contain all the right information that is relevant for your industry. If you can, start out with a monthly newsletter so that your readers will not be bombarded with information all the time. If you see that the newsletter is working, you can increase it to every two weeks instead of just once a month.

Offer Rewards to Loyal Customers

While you’re still budding as an entrepreneur, you may have already come across some customers who swear by your brand and trust in what you bring to the table. These customers may have even recommended your business to their friends and family, which is why you should be ready to reward them with something they will enjoy. As a bonus, you can also offer them a discount whenever they sign up for your newsletter.

Don’t Forget to Network Offline

You should not limit your business practices to just online. Instead, see to it that you expand your network by meeting more people from different walks of life. This is a great way you can introduce your business to other people so they will be aware of it. By tapping on offline networks, you’ll be able to continue your business’ growth and not just solely rely on social media to do it for you.

These tips are a great way for you to let people know of your brand, especially if you’re working with a tight budget. When you are able to put money into your marketing efforts, you can upgrade your strategy to include other things that can help grow your brand more. But until then, these tips will do a great job on their own.

5 Ways to Use Emotional Intelligence in Your Marketing

Posted on by Chris Jenkin

As a marketer, you have to make sure that the campaigns you launch are hitting your audience. This is how you can measure how effective your campaigns are and whether or not you should be using these campaigns again in future projects. But in the case of making your marketing campaigns work, are you sure you are doing it right?

One of the best ways you can do a better job in your marketing campaign is by involving the use of Emotional Intelligence (or EI). But how do you measure EI? How do you know you are doing it right?

What is EI?

First things first– it’s important to dissect what Emotional Intelligence is and what it’s not. In a nutshell, EI refers to an individual’s ability to understand behaviors, impulses, moods, and control these to relate to a particular situation. By using EI with your marketing campaigns, you are able to target your customers at the right time and place as well as get to know them deeper.

In order to incorporate EI onto your marketing campaigns, you will need to establish a meaningful relationship with your customers. The best way you can do this is to understand what goes on in your customers’ minds when they think about buying your product. You will have to understand your customers’ experience with your product before they even reach out to buy it. Based on this, you can start carrying out a successful strategy to use to hit the right buttons when you market your product.

How to Use EI in Marketing

So how do you incorporate EI onto your marketing campaign? Here are 5 important things to remember when reaching out to your customers:

Listen Genuinely

Nowadays, there are a number of social listening tools that you can use to understand what your customers are passionate about. Before you invest time, money and effort in digital media, make sure that you use tools like Hootsuite or Social Mention to get to know your customers’ thoughts. Once you listen carefully to what people are saying about your business, you’ll be able to come up with a strategy on how best to go about with your digital marketing. And in using these tools properly, you’ll be able to have success in your marketing campaigns.

Before Anything, Add Value

Before you try to sell your product to people, you should remember to add value first. This is usually pretty natural for individuals who prefer to give instead of take. In such circumstances, they will feel a strong inclination to help other people by serving them with the products and services they offer.

When you add value to your product, you get to find ways to improve and boost your customers’ lives. This will help you identify who your brand is and what it represents. Using this data, you’ll be able to show your customers your identity as well as know why they should be investing in your brand. You can do this by letting your customers get to know you. Before asking for a sale, you can let them know who you are as a business.

Concentrate on Attraction

When you’re marketing to your customers, focus on how you can attract your customers in instead of interrupting or distracting them. Instead of giving the idea of selling, be a storyteller. Talk about the features and benefits of the product you are selling so they know what makes it a good option for them. Let them know what your brand and company stands for and how you are attributing to making the world a better place somehow. With this, your customers will feel enticed to buy from you since you have taken the time to tell them a story you love to share.

Avoid Being Creepy

As a marketing professional, you have to identify when you cross the line between being insightful and creepy. You may not know it, but you have already crossed the line (and maybe even broken some laws in the process). You have to look for ways you can be insightful and delight your customers instead of creeping them out by the amount of information you know about them and the habits they have. Even if you use social media tools to get information you need, you have to keep things at a general perspective.

Show Respect

Respect begets respect. This is why you have to remember when you should avoid going overboard when you are trying to sell your customers something. Not only will this let them know that you respect them, it will also avoid getting your customers annoyed with you. If you keep on hounding your customers to buy your products, they will most likely get turned off and will avoid you altogether.

Knowing these things, you can use EI to your advantage so you can effectively segment your customers. This will not only help you get the business you need but will also improve your customer relations.

 

5 Signs Your Website Needs a Makeover

Posted on by Chris Jenkin

From time to time, it’s important to give things a fresh, new look. No matter what it is, it’s important to keep things updated so that it stays in tune with the current trends. This same principle can be applied to websites, especially since they are being viewed by people throughout the world. By giving your website a makeover, you can get rid of things that no longer apply to your business as well as give your business a better image.

Giving your website a makeover is something that can benefit you in the long run. Because of your website, your customers are reminded that you are in business and know where they can find you. At the same time, it helps you gain new contacts in other areas where you have not advertised. For these reasons, a makeover is something that you cannot afford to ignore.

But how do you know that your website needs a makeover? Here are some signs:

Your website does not convert visits into leads.

The main reason why you have a website is so you can convert your website visits into leads. Once your website is unable to do this, it’s not doing its job right. A website that has been given a recent update should be optimized enough to win customers and generate new leads. You have to check whether or not your website is able to draw in new visits and grab their attention. At the same time, you have to encourage visitors to stay on your website and convince them to sign up for a free trial or a newsletter. With this, you’ll be able to get your website to actually do its work for you.

You can improve your website by the following actions:

  • Improve user experience
  • Create catchy call-to-actions
  • Compose attractive headlines
  • Optimize landing pages
  • Create clear and succinct contact forms
  • Offer conversion-oriented content

If you have a website that looks pretty much like a brochure yet doesn’t effectively convert visitors, then a makeover is much needed.

Your website has a cluttered homepage.

Compared with website design from years ago, the modern websites now have a simple, minimalist look to it. The main purpose of the design from previous websites was to give users a number of things to enjoy and images to look at. Websites also enlisted lots of information that often made it too much to take in. Information overload led to a high bounce rate. Because of this, many webmasters realized that in order to draw in more users, information should not be too overwhelming.

For this reason, there are many websites today that have a clean and uncluttered homepage. These websites are very easy to navigate and often have an appealing look to them. You may need to assess whether or not your homepage is cluttered so you can start giving it the makeover it needs. Apart from the design, you should also concentrate on removing unnecessary links and trim down your content to what’s needed. As for the photos, go for high-quality yet fast-loading images. By giving your readers the information they need without too much distraction, they will most likely visit your website again in the future.

Your website does not allow people to find you in social media.

Nowadays, your presence on social media plays a vital role on being online. It not only lets people find you, it helps you create a relationship with your customers. If you haven’t already done so, you need to take time to create a presence on websites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and many others.

Once you have created your social media accounts, the next thing you need to do is to link your website to your accounts. This will make it easier for your customers to share your content on social media. In turn, this will boost your ranking and build a strong footprint for your brand.

Your website doesn’t show the latest web development.

Most of the time, websites are handled by web design experts who can identify whether or not it is equipped with the latest advancements in the online world. If you own a website and you are trying to see if it is still updated with the latest web development, you can hire a professional agency to take a look at your site. They will verify if your website is equipped with HTML5 instead of Flash as it is no longer an advised tool to use for animation.

Apart from this, it is important to check the platform used and see if an update has been installed. This does not only make your website more pleasant to look at, but will also be protected against viruses, spam, and any potential security breach.

Your website is not yet optimized for mobile devices.

Fact: The number of users viewing a website with a mobile device has exponentially grown. It is now the device being used by many people to check out a website, whether they’re on the go or just at home. This is why it is important that your website should be optimized for mobile devices.

Here are the signs that your website is not yet optimized:

  • Content format is incorrect when viewed on a mobile device
  • Links are hard to click
  • No response when tapping on a phone number

These are just a few signs that will let you know if you need to upgrade your website. While it may cost you to give your website a makeover, it will definitely be worth it in the end. And as a website owner, it’s an investment you need to make to stay relevant.

Tips for Successful Content Marketing

Posted on by Chris Jenkin

It’s been said many times — content is king — and it’s true, but there are still some business owners who don’t give importance to the exciting opportunities being provided by content marketing.

When it comes to developing a content marketing strategy, the process is not entirely easy. In most cases, it requires flexibility and experimentation. There is always something new to discover and try out to find a campaign strategy that works best for your line of business and the target group. You will need careful planning, research, and implementation in order to identify the best strategy for promoting a successful sales plan.

Here are a few ways you can be successful with your content marketing:

Audience

Get to know who your audience is

One of the surest ways you can be successful with content marketing is to see to it that you are targeting the right people with your campaign. You have to conduct a study to determine the demographics of what you are promoting. At the same time, you have to make sure you use the right tools to reach out to your target audience. When you are able to hit the right people with your campaign, you can be confident that they will also take the time to share your content to their friends. It becomes a valuable form of marketing with little cost.

Engage with your audience

It is not enough that you produce high quality articles every month. You should also take the time to engage with your customers. In the past, companies focused on building their brands by using a one-directional approach. This strategy, however, has long ago died when social media took over. You can now produce high quality blog posts, share new ideas on social media links, and even go on message boards just so you can interact with your readers. Not only are these great ways to engage with your readers, it also allows you to learn more about your audience.

Quality

Focus on content quality

Whenever you send out content, it will be read by your followers and other potential customers. For this reason, you have to make sure that the content you send out has been well-written, and probably by a professional writer. Whether you decide to write the content on your own or hire a talented copywriter, you have to make the decision carefully. This is because any poorly written article could potentially damage you and your brand. If you are not too confident with your writing, it’s best to hire the services of a professional so that you can most effectively get your message across.

Continue delivering quality articles

Once you have found the right copywriter for your content marketing strategy, you should plan to keep writing more articles. It is advisable that you produce up to 15 articles per month. If you can’t commit to producing that much, adding one or two blog posts per week may be a good approach, particularly if you are just starting with your content marketing campaign.

Measuring Effectiveness

Measure how effective you are

Keep it a challenge to continually improve your content marketing strategy. One way you can do this is to keep tracking comments, responses, and shares whenever you publish a post. There are a number of tools, both free and paid, that you can employ to help you decipher how effective your strategy is. Using this data, you can assess just how well you are able to get your message across and also identify what type of posts your audience looks forward to reading. In the long run, you can build your brand through the campaign strategy you follow.

Remember, the more content you produce, the better it will be for your content marketing strategy. Just make sure that the content you produce is useful, relevant and timely. But even so, don’t limit your engagement on just content creation. Above everything else, you need to cultivate your relationships with your customers through social media. Follow these tips and you’ll be on your way to a successful content marketing campaign.