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In the past, influencer marketing was just an ancillary marketing tactic. However, it has grown into a mammoth $5-10 billion industry today. In fact, $1.5 billion was spent just on Instagram influencer marketing in 2018. The reason for this is simple. Influencer marketing’s ROI is at par or better than other modes of marketing, according […] The post Understanding the ROI of Influencer Marketing [Infographic] appeared first on Marketing...

This is a guest post from, Brian Mechem, COO and Co-Founder of Grin, a software solution for companies who run influencer marketing programs. Grin’s software powers some of the best influencer programs in the world, providing insights on ROI and adding efficiency to the influencer marketing process. Connect with Brian and Grin on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

The post Understanding the ROI of Influencer Marketing [Infographic] appeared first on Marketing Sparkler.

There are several ways in which you can attract new clients to your service-based business. One of the most effective is via community involvement. Don’t get worried that you don’t have time to go to your local community meetings. Community involvement can happen both online and offline. There are communities that exist only online and […] The post Attracting New Clients Through Community Involvement appeared first on Marketing...

There are several ways in which you can attract new clients to your service-based business. One of the most effective is via community involvement. Don’t get worried that you don’t have time to go to your local community meetings.

Community involvement can happen both online and offline. There are communities that exist only online and there are communities that exist only offline. You can do both for best impact, but if there is a reason you can only participate online, that is fine too.

Attracting New Clients through Community Involvement

There are two types of communities you can get involved in. You can involve yourself in a community of your peers, or a community of your audience.

Peer Groups

In terms of peer groups, there are peers with whom you are in direct competition, and those who offer complementary services to yours. Both can help you get clients. However, the complementary group will be more beneficial to you because they are not direct competition. Consider that when you get involved in any particular group.

Business focused groups, mastermind groups, industry focused groups and so forth all exist to help you educate yourself further and provide connections. You can get clients through word of mouth when a peer group member feels you would be right for a position because they have come to know you. Peer groups also offer opportunities for joint venture (JV) partnerships which can widen and expand your audience.

Niche Groups

Audience or niche groups are the best place for you to spend your time because you can find groups full of your ideal clients. You can locate these groups by looking at local meetups in the area, searching for groups on LinkedIn, and searching for and joining message boards devoted to a particular niche.

The key to making niche groups work is to join the group, freely answer questions for them and let them come to see you as part of the group. Let your signature line speak for itself, and do not try to sell your services at all. I repeat, do not try to sell your services. Nobody likes newbies who join groups just for self-promotion. People will come to you when they see that you offer what they want via your normal sharing mechanisms.

Tips to Make Your Efforts Pay Off  

First and foremost, no matter which groups you choose, be a free and open source of information regarding your niche. This is how people will get to know you, trust you and start seeing you as someone to refer to others or hire.

There can be problems with choosing to spend more time in communities of your peers, rather than in communities consisting of your niche audience. Doing so can result in a problem finding your ideal clients and being stuck in a bubble of competitors.

You want to focus on spending more time in communities that are made up of your ideal audience than with your peers. However, you want to also participate in peer communities so that you can become known as a community expert.

Don’t be afraid to share what’s going on in your life or business. Talk about a book you’re reading that’s inspiring you, a mindset shift that you experienced, or a customer interaction that made you smile.

Let people in and give them a chance to get to know you. It might feel scary (especially at first!) but as you do it, you’ll begin to be an active member of amazing communities filled with caring and supportive people.

When joining a new group, get to know the culture of the group first, before offering your services.
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Finally, when you join either type of group you want to realize that when you first join, you are the new person and you are unknown. No one is going to trust you immediately – whether they are meeting you in person or online. Take the time to get to know others before offering your services in any manner, and get to know the culture of the group. Let your business card or your signature line do the selling for you. Make participation your goal and more clients will be the result.

Ciao,
Miss Kemya

The post Attracting New Clients Through Community Involvement appeared first on Marketing Sparkler.

Research claims that most small business owners do their own digital marketing instead of leaving it to experts. At the same time, they are also completely responsible for other key areas of the business, such as operations, finance, customers service, and product development. To handle this variety of responsibilities well, you need to make the […] The post Time Management Tips for Business Owners Doing Their Own Digital Marketing appeared first on Marketing...

Research claims that most small business owners do their own digital marketing instead of leaving it to experts. At the same time, they are also completely responsible for other key areas of the business, such as operations, finance, customers service, and product development.

To handle this variety of responsibilities well, you need to make the most use out all of your resources, with your time being the most important one, due to its limited nature.

Time Management Tips for Business Owners Doing Their Own Digital Marketing

Here are some time management tips which will help you be more efficient in the world of digital marketing, at least until your budget allows you to start outsourcing.

Plan your work hours

Planning your work hours can save you from working under a great deal of pressure which is almost unavoidable if you start your business hours unprepared. Otherwise, you’ll end up putting up fires or doing other people’s tasks, instead of focusing on activities which bring the greatest profit to your company.

Here are a few things for you to begin with:

• Determine when you are most productive.  Everyone has that time during the day when they are most productive, the hours which they like to spend on solo activities and the hours they thrive for collaboration. Try to determine what works best for you, and try to organize your work hours accordingly.
• Manage your workspace.  For handling your digital marketing you might need some peace and quiet, as you’ll be creating content. So, be sure to keep that in mind when making a plan of your daily activities. Think about what it takes for you to concentrate, and make sure that your workspace will provide such an environment.
• Plan time wasters. When planning your digital marketing activities, it’s essential to allow for interruptions, such as phone calls or emails, employee meetings, or anything that can take your mind off the task you are working on, and schedule some time for them too. Block a time box for those activities too, and do your best to fit your tasks into a pre-designed time frame.

Time Management Tips for Business Owners Doing Their Own Digital Marketing
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Set your priorities

The world of digital marketing comes in all shapes and sizes, and if you don’t select what to focus on, you will waste a lot of your valuable time.  

Here is what you should do to stay on top of things:

• Make a selection. There are all sorts of content and different channels you can publish your content on. The key is to define and focus only on what is beneficial for your company. For example, you don’t need to have a profile on every social media platform to be visible and successful. If you are not sure what would fit your business the most, try to determine what channels your competitors use, and what kind of content they provide for their customers. This will save a lot of your time and effort. Also, identify the preferred channel of your target audience and use it to interact with them.
• Make a to-do list. List all the activities you should do during your workday, and mark the ones which are important and urgent, and include the ones that only you can do. You can use a tool like the Eisenhower Matrix to determine which tasks you should do first, which can be scheduled for later, as well as the ones you can delegate. Following the list and ticking off the items when they are finished will relieve you from the anxiety of unfinished works, and give you a sense of progress.

Dear business owners: you don’t need to have a profile on every social media platform to be visible and successful.
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Track your time

After all the hard work we do, engaging in many various activities during the day, it is very hard to determine how long it takes us to complete every individual task, let alone an entire project. In order to become more efficient in your business, you can learn more about effective time tracking benefits. Three key benefits of tracking your time:

• Cost/benefit analysis – First, determine how much time and money you spend working on your marketing project. Monitor some basic metrics of your campaign, and you can get a pretty decent idea as to whether or not your efforts were worth it.
• Review your plan. Getting the picture about how long it takes you to write a single blog post can be beneficial for planning your future daily activities.
• Spot time black holes. If you log all your activities during work hours, you will also notice all the hidden time traps you tend to fall into, and try to avoid them in the future.

When you monitor the basic metrics of your marketing campaign, you can get and idea as to whether or not your efforts were worth it.
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Schedule your breaks

Regular breaks during your day at work are also vital for your efficiency. Skipping breaks and much-needed rest may lead to burnout. This is especially important when you are working on your digital marketing activities, as they sometimes require hours of sitting in front of your computer. If these hours are not planned wisely, the effects can be devastating for your body and mind.

• Use the Pomodoro technique – You can try out the Pomodoro time management technique if you want to be productive, while at the same time maintain a healthy balance between working and resting. For this technique, you should parse your work into 25-minute sessions. After each session, there is a 5-minute break. After 4 of these cycles, a longer break is planned, lasting no less than 20 minutes.
• Change the environment – To be extra productive, it is a good idea to use these breaks to stimulate your creative flow instead of spending them in front of a screen. It is a good idea to get out of your workspace and change your surroundings, as it will help you relax and unwind.
• Be active – There is nothing better for rejuvenation than going for a brisk walk, or doing a sequence of yoga neck and shoulder exercises. Not only will you benefit from it physically, but also mentally, as your mind also needs a pause from all the hard work.

Try out the Pomodoro time management technique if you want to be productive, while at the same time maintain a healthy balance between working and resting.
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If approached strategically, doing your own digital marketing can be a great way to promote your business, and bring you enough profit to invest in a more professional solution. Be sure to organize your time so that you can keep yourself updated with the latest trends and your competitors’ online activities, as that will help you achieve your goals.

Ciao,
Miss Kemya

This is a guest post from Marko Maric, a digital marketer and a part-time blogger. He mostly covers topics revolving around marketing, business, and productivity. Follow him online at @mmmaric for more.

The post Time Management Tips for Business Owners Doing Their Own Digital Marketing appeared first on Marketing Sparkler.

Far more than a visual paradise for millenials and a home of inspiration for DIYers, Pinterest has tremendous capability as a central tool in any social media marketing strategy. Often skipped in favor of Facebook or Instagram as the platforms of choice, Pinterest can actually help to drive business sales. A whopping 55% of Pinterest […] The post Mastering Pinterest for Small Business Owners [Infographic] appeared first on Marketing...

Far more than a visual paradise for millenials and a home of inspiration for DIYers, Pinterest has tremendous capability as a central tool in any social media marketing strategy. Often skipped in favor of Facebook or Instagram as the platforms of choice, Pinterest can actually help to drive business sales. A whopping 55% of Pinterest users come to the site specifically looking for products.  

Wondering how to leverage the power of Pinterest? Start by creating a free business account, then build it out with rich keywords to boost exposure in searches. Next, you’ll want to think about your ideal aesthetic and commit to staying consistent with it. Want more ideas?

Mastering Pinterest for Small Business Owners

It only takes seconds to create a business account on Pinterest. But it’ll take more than this to craft and execute a profitable Pinterest strategy. Here are three interesting facts you need to know about Pinterest:

• 90% of pinners use Pinterest to make purchase decisions.
• 80% of Pinterest users access the platform via smartphone.
• Pinterest can be optimized for relevant keywords and uses a hashtag system, much like Instagram.

These are the facts you need to know and make use of right now! What people are using Pinterest for, how they access Pinterest, and how you can get found on the platform. Check out the infographic below from Fundera for extra pointers on how to craft the perfect Pinterest profile for your small business, which includes:

8 Easy Steps to Crafting the Perfect Pinterest Profile for Your Small Business

5 Companies with A+ Pinterest Strategies (and how you can use these strategies)

Happy Pinning,
Miss Kemya
Pinning at pinterest.com/misskemya

The post Mastering Pinterest for Small Business Owners [Infographic] appeared first on Marketing Sparkler.

If someone asked you to describe your ideal client, what would your description consist of, beyond the typical demographics like gender and age? What’s the educational level? Income? Family situation? Years of experience in their field? Better yet, let’s talk about the factors that matter: Are you meeting them where they are to actively engage […] The post How to Define Your Ideal Client appeared first on Marketing...

If someone asked you to describe your ideal client, what would your description consist of, beyond the typical demographics like gender and age? What’s the educational level? Income? Family situation? Years of experience in their field?

Better yet, let’s talk about the factors that matter:

Are you meeting them where they are to actively engage in the conversation, provide insight, and brand yourself as the authority?

A PR guru once told me, you should know your ideal client so well that you could write a page in his/her diary. What?! She blew my mind, but I never looked at “target marketing” quite the same way since.

How to Define Your Ideal Client

Defining your ideal client can happen in a variety of ways. The best way is to decide who they are prior to creating a product or developing your services. But, many people do it the other way successfully; it’s just a little more difficult.

Before we get started, let’s address the elephant in the room.

Your product/service may appeal to a broad range of people. People of different ages and backgrounds. And you may feel like you shouldn’t have to define your ideal client, pick a target audience, or niche down because you can serve soooo many people.

While all of this may be true, here’s the reason why you must define your ideal client:

Everyone is not a target market strategy.

No matter how many people can benefit from your products/services, you need to define an ideal client so that you can FOCUS your marketing efforts to reach that one person. Trying to reach that ONE person, your ideal client, will help you to shape your sales language, tailor your brand, and position yourself as a solution. Focus is a blueprint.

As you are working toward defining your ideal client, ask and answer the following questions.

Who do you really want to work with?

It’s important to know the type of people you want work with. Write down your ideal candidate and leave nothing out. You want this to be your perfect, ideal customer that would exist in a perfect world. Do you want to work with life coaches who earn six figures? Do you want to work with stay at home mothers who are trying to start small businesses of their own? Do you want to work with early adopters or people who are afraid of technology? It’s up to you who the customer is.

How to Define Your Ideal Client: Who do you really want to work with?
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What problems can you solve?

When you define who your ideal client is, ask yourself, what problems can you solve for them? Can you get them more organized and help them streamline their processes? Can you teach them something that they need to know to be successful? Do you have a product that solves a problem such as helping them accomplish a task easier, or providing them with more energy throughout the day? List their problems; list your solutions.

Do you have a specific geographical location you want to serve?

In many cases, with online marketing your thoughts automatically go to serving the global community as a whole. But, you probably should narrow it down to “English speaking” or American or Canadian or something else entirely. Maybe you realize as you’re studying the issue that your clients and customers live in your own town, or maybe you realize they live in many towns all over the world, but are English speakers.

How much money do you need to earn?

This may seem like a strange question but it’s an important determination on whether or not your chosen client base, and the products and services you want to provide, will generate the income you need. If you’re only capable of producing products or services for a finite amount of people at a particular price, this becomes very important.

When defining your ideal client, you need to know how much money you want to earn.
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How much disposable money does your ideal client earn?

If your clients and customers cannot afford to buy what you’re selling then you’ll have trouble meeting your goals. Determine in advance what type of money they can afford to spend. Figure out what type of quality of products and or services they are expecting for that amount of money.

What types of clients do you absolutely NOT want to work with?

As important as it is to know with whom you want to work, it’s also important to know the types of people you absolutely do not want to work with. This doesn’t mean that you are shunning them; it only means that they’re not right for you. Keeping the door closed to those whom aren’t right for you helps you leave room for those who are.

Knowing the clients you WANT to work with is just as important as knowing who you do NOT want to work with.
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What types of business do your ideal clients participate in?

Do your ideal clients already have their own business, or do they work for a business? Does your ideal client buy from your competitors? If so, why do they choose to buy from them? Knowing the activities of your ideal client is an important way to get closer to them so that you can be a resource to them.

What are your core values and how will you align your business with those?

These can be very personal values and ethics, and what you want your business and brand to represent to the public. They can also be only related to your business – it’s up to you. If you can match your values, and your business’s values with your clients’ values, you’ll have a perfect match that will help you match up your marketing efforts to attract the right customers.

The big lesson here is that if you work with and sell to only people that you want to be around, like, and care about emotionally, you’ll have a much better business model to work with. You’ll be able to stick with this ideal client long-term, building solid relationships, and continue to solve their problems and fill their needs.

Action Item

If you can clearly define your ideal client, finding them online or offline won’t nearly be as cumbersome than if you cast a wide “every man, woman, and child” fishing line approach to finding your customer.

Action item: Take 20 minutes and see if you can develop a profile of your ideal client, based on answering the questions above. Then compare this profile to your marketing efforts. Do these sync or is there a disconnect?

Ciao,
Miss Kemya

The post How to Define Your Ideal Client appeared first on Marketing Sparkler.

Dwell time, otherwise known as the length of time a user spends on your website before going back again on the search results to look for something else ‒ is a crucial user experience metric. It gives you an idea of whether or not users find your content useful, and if it meets their needs. […] The post 8 Web Design Tips To Improve Customer Dwell Time On Your Website appeared first on Marketing...

Dwell time, otherwise known as the length of time a user spends on your website before going back again on the search results to look for something else ‒ is a crucial user experience metric.

It gives you an idea of whether or not users find your content useful, and if it meets their needs.

According to a study by Search Engine Land, the average dwell time for sites that rank on the top 10 of Google search is as high as 3 minutes and 10 seconds.

8 Web Design Tips To Improve Customer Dwell Time On Your Website

But the question is, how do you retain users once they visit your site? Use these eight design tips to encourage visitors to stay on your site longer.

1. Use Clear Navigation

To channel customers through your sales funnel, it’s crucial to make a distinction between you as the business owner and your customers. What you think is essential to your business isn’t always what is important to your customers.

For instance, while you may think your company history and other background information is vital for your business, most users are not visiting your website for this reason.

Instead, they came to learn more about (and hopefully buy) your products and services. Providing the easiest path to this information is essential if you want to hook your customer’s interest.

A site that is easy to navigate provides the following benefits for your visitors:

• Extended ‘per visit’ duration – If both your desktop and mobile sites are easy to navigate, users won’t keep on asking the question, “where am I?”.
• Lower bounce rates – The less time customers have to spend time on your site looking for the information they need, the less likely they will be frustrated and bounce away from your site.
• Clear, concise information – Your site structure is essential. By keeping your navigation menu simple, with clearly labeled content, customers can easily search for what they’re looking for.

Your site visitors want useful content and info on your products and services. Are you making this info easy to access?
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2. Engage Visitors

Since your primary objective is for visitors to spend more time on your site, you need to capture their attention quickly and keep them engaged with the content on your website.

Most users prefer pages that:

• Are quick to load ‒ ideally 2 seconds or less.
• Have a straightforward and visually appealing design.
• A clean and user-friendly layout

If you have a website that’s tailored to be responsive and easy to use, it’s highly likely that users will be prompted to navigate through multiple pages, thereby increasing dwell time.

3. Offer Better Content

To encourage visitors stay on your site longer, you have to provide material that’s worth their time. Therefore, you need to understand who your target audience is, and then create a type of content that satisfies their needs. Use multiple visual elements such as images, texts, audio to video to make your content stand out and immediately catch the viewer’s attention.

In all website design, the point is to highlight the content. If you know up front what type of content you plan to use, you’ll be able to craft a better design that focuses on the content and brings the content to life. Making the design point toward and highlight your content will increase your sales exponentially.

To encourage visitors stay on your site longer, you have to provide material that’s worth their time.
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4. Keep It Simple, Yet Informative

To increase customer dwell time, keep it simple, yet informative. Make your content relatable and maintain a friendly tone of voice. Avoid using overly-complicated words that will force users to open a dictionary just to understand. Let’s face it, if customers do not understand the language used they will leave your site altogether.

Instead, using short and simple sentences is the key.

Sytian, a company that specializes in web design in Manila, makes it plain: “Simple websites convert better because they tend to focus on delivering the message first. Simplicity always wins when it comes to making sure that your website visitors understand your company, product, and services.”

If visitors have to open a dictionary to understand the language used on a website, they will leave.
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5. Utilize White Space

Once you choose the types of content that you want to include (and don’t worry, you can always add more types later), you can focus on the format that each element will be showcased. The layout of textual content matters as much as the layout of graphical content.

White space, also known as a negative space, is actually a positive aspect in web design. In its most basic form, it’s the empty spaces in between the elements of your site.

The judicious use of white space and other elements are paramount in creating a user-friendly experience that enhances your audience’s life, rather than simply distracts them.

Focusing your attention on all forms of white space in your site makes everything scannable, easy on the eyes, and legible. As a result, this leads to increased customer dwell times.

6. Modify Loading Speed

You only have seconds to grab the attention of your site visitors. This is especially true of first time visitors who are not yet familiar with you. The loading speed of your site has a direct impact on dwell time.

According to surveys done by Akamai and Gomez.com, 47% of web users expect a site to load in 2 seconds or less, and 40% tend to abandon a site that isn’t loaded within 3 seconds.” – From Kissmetrics

This is why you need to monitor your website’s speed. Otherwise, visitors will leave your site and move on to your competitors. Tools like Pingdom make checking your website speed a simple process.

47% of web users expect a site to load in 2 seconds or less, and 40% tend to abandon a site that isn’t loaded within 3 seconds.
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7. Make Your Colors Matter

Colors tell a lot about you and your brand. Color has the power to grab the viewer’s attention and even modify their purchasing behaviors.

After all, colors have proven time and time again to provoke different human emotions. Understanding the psychology of colors and how different colors are used for marketing in your niche can help you to improve your customer experience.

Therefore, using contrasting colors can make critical elements on your site, such as your call-to-action (CTA) buttons, testimonials, banner headlines, etc., to stand out. Be sure all links you want visitors to click are in a  contrasting color and easily visible.

You can also utilize highly contrasting colors in the background, as well as highlighting hues on different page elements that you want to draw attention to.

Website tip: Be sure all links you want visitors to click are in a contrasting color and easily visible.
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8. Optimize for Mobile

A lot of people these days browse exclusively on their phones and tablets rather than use a desktop or a laptop. In today’s world, this proves why it’s crucial to create a mobile-responsive site. Mobile-responsive is no longer an option, it is a necessity.

Mobile-responsive simply means that your site’s layout and design changes so that it can accommodate tablet or phone screens.

A huge chunk of your web traffic will come from mobile users. This is why most sites today have adopted a “mobile first” orientation.

Ever experienced landing on a site where you have to pinch and zoom and scroll sideways constantly? It’s a pain, right? Chances are, you’d likely give up, bounce from the site, and look for another source instead. You don’t want your visitors to experience this on your site!

Final Thoughts

Dwell time isn’t the only ranking factor, but your site and the content you publish can significantly benefit from it. By applying these tips in your website, you can dramatically improve the overall user experience, content quality, and improve the dwell time of your website.

Ciao,
Miss Kemya

This is a guest post from Kenneth Sytian, Founder and Owner of Sytian Productions, a company that specializes in web design in Manila. Kenneth has worked in the web and app development scene for almost a decade. Click here to connect with Sytian on Facebook.

The post 8 Web Design Tips To Improve Customer Dwell Time On Your Website appeared first on Marketing Sparkler.

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