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Content marketing is a digital marketing strategy that focuses on quality content creation to drive website traffic, increase exposure, build brand awareness and generate sales and revenues. In addition, content marketing helps establish trust, loyalty and credibility for a brand. In spite of having numerous benefits, most brands seem to ignore content marketing. They focus more […] The post 7 Content Marketing Tips For Small Brands In 2020 appeared first on Marketing...

Content marketing is a digital marketing strategy that focuses on quality content creation to drive website traffic, increase exposure, build brand awareness and generate sales and revenues. In addition, content marketing helps establish trust, loyalty and credibility for a brand.

In spite of having numerous benefits, most brands seem to ignore content marketing. They focus more on other aspects of digital marketing like SEO and social media marketing.

In fact, most brands and digital marketing agencies make this elementary mistake. They forget the fact that Google and other search engines prioritize quality content and credible information above other strategies.

The intent of the internet is to provide users with the best possible form of content by publishers. This does not mean that other aspects of digital marketing are less important.

However, content marketing is the foundation on which other strategies flourish. Think of it in terms of a building’s foundation. The stronger the foundation, the better will the structure be able to withstand hurricanes, cyclones, earthquakes and other natural calamities.

For brands, both big and small, content marketing offers to build that foundation. In this article, we will look at 7 content marketing tips for small brands that can be immensely helpful.

Content marketing is the foundation on which other digital marketing strategies flourish.
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Myths and Benefits of Content Marketing for Small Brands

But first, let us start by dismissing some myths surrounding content marketing for small brands.

Myth 1: Content marketing is an expensive investment to make.

This is definitely not the case. If you are strategic about your content marketing strategy, the expenditure is similar to (or even lesser than) social media marketing services.

Myth 2: Content marketing is a slow process and results take nearly two to three years.

This is the biggest myth of them all. Content marketing strategies like guest posting and blogger outreach start showing increased website traffic within weeks.

Myth 3: Only bigger brands should opt for content marketing.

Small brands should absolutely go for content marketing. Content marketing offers small brands the same benefits that it does to any other entity.

5 Reasons Why Content Marketing Benefits Small Brands

Content marketing is beneficial for small brands for a number of reasons.  Some of the most obvious reasons include:

• • Content marketing helps in climbing Google’s Search Engine Rankings Page (SERPs).
  • It helps in driving newer audiences and prospective consumers to your website.
  • Great quality content helps establish your credibility as an industry authority voice.
  • It opens up new sources of monetization and commerce for your brand.
  • Content Marketing improves the performance of SEO, SMM and other digital marketing strategies.

The benefits of content marketing outweigh the risk and investment in the ratio 5:1. Most brands and agencies shy away from content marketing, as they do not possess the expertise to execute it. The key expertise being the need to create quality content for a small brand. If you do not possess the expertise in house, there is a simple solution: outsource it!

Let us now look at 7 content marketing tips for small brands that can help deliver the above benefits.

7 Excellent Content Marketing Tips For Small Brands In 2020
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7 Excellent Content Marketing Tips For Small Brands In 2020

1. Narrate your brand story from a solutions point of view.

One of the biggest benefits of content marketing is how you can leverage your content. People are tired of product pushers. They want to connect with brands that offer solutions and strike a chord.

Therefore, you want to narrate your brand story from a solutions-based point of view. This approach will help you stand out from your competitors instantaneously. As a result, you can firmly establish your credibility and build brand awareness.

Through your content, you will be able to educate and inform audiences. This will help you in assuming the mantle of a problem solver and solution provider.

Once you are able to establish your trust, you will automatically see a bump in actual product sales and queries.

By keeping this intention and integrating it with a strong inbound marketing strategy, you will achieve the maximum benefits for your brand.

2. Maintain an active and informative blog section on the website.

Over 60% of brands on the internet do not pay attention to their blogs. They fail to realize that a blog is essential for the entire spectrum of digital marketing. If you are trying to rank for keywords, your blog articles stand the best chance.

Once people land on your blog, they will automatically want to inquire about the products and services of the brand. This point borrows heavily from the first point on the list. The idea is to ‘convince and convert’.

Customers who come through this approach become repeat customers. They also refer the brand to their friends and colleagues. A blog can cover diverse issues of the industry and offer solutions to important problems.

The community building aspect of a brand can be easily executed on a blog. This is where the most engagement, comments and feedback will take place.

3. Use guest posting and blogger outreach services.

A content marketing strategy without guest posting and blogger outreach is incomplete. These two digital marketing strategies that lay heavy emphasis on content are critical for the success of your brand.

They help in reaching new audiences who are already interested in your industry. The spike in website traffic that happens once you secure a guest post in an industry authority site is phenomenal.

The right agency can help in optimizing your guest posting and blogger outreach strategy. This is not as expensive as some agencies make it out to be. You can save a ton of money through the guest posting expertise of an agency. The winning factor? Quality content!

With the right content, no publisher will want to deny you a space on his or her website. The aim is to get your content and links in front of related audiences. Always remember, for Google, relevancy is the new page rank!

When it comes too getting your content to the top of the SERPs, remember: relevancy is the new page rank!
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4. Integrate SEO, social media and content marketing.

Cross-pollination of content across multiple platforms will help you increase your digital reach. This is where SEO and social media marketing become very important. You cannot just start writing articles on your website.

You need to sit down with your SEO team and analyse what are people searching for or reading. This is where keyword analysis becomes crucial.

By using long tail keywords, and creating content around them, you will be able to create content that people are already looking for on the internet.

In terms of social media, the aim should be to share as much content on your brand and the blog as possible. This will help in diverting traffic from social handles to your website. Good content translates into shareable content. This in turn forces people on social media to visit your website.

5. Optimize your content for best results.

Creating regular content according to keyword research is not enough. With increasing content on the internet, you need to make your content stand out.

This means creating complete articles. In other words, you need to create long format articles, which are keyword rich and are formatted correctly.

You will also need to work with your design team on images and videos for your content. The more videos you create, the better will be your reach and ROIs. Please make sure of the fact that content just doesn’t stand for written text. It also includes video, GIFs, image albums and images.

The idea is to present the richest content for users to consume along with optimizing it for search engines. Attractive titles, regular publishing and promoting content is essential to drive results and success.

6. Take a stand on social issues, and be a meaningful brand.

The people who use the digital ecosystem are changing. Social media, ecommerce and blogging sphere has changed in a dramatic way. If you look at it, almost all brands are providing the same products and services. So how can you stand apart?

Social consciousness has become more prevalent in the digital era, as brands have become increasingly comfortable with using content marketing to take a stand on meaningful issues in society. Issues like LGBTQ rights, gender equality, veganism, foreign policies, etc. are some of the most dominant issues trending across social media that affect millions.

People like brands that voice their opinions and take a stand. For example, you might have seen the Nike’s Emmy award-winning ad with Colin Kaepernick. That is how a billion dollar brand reinvents itself in a disruptive yet economically productive fashion.

By highlighting issues that people face and integrating it in a smart and meaningful manner with your brand, you can expect to win over the consumers of your competitors. You can use blogs and social media to push the messaging through.

7. Be patient and see the strategies through.

Content marketing is a long-term investment. However, that does not mean that you will not see short-term gains. Some brands fail at content marketing as they abandon a perfectly sound strategy in a couple of months.

From improvements in your website metrics to increase in traffic, you will start experiencing these within months.

However, to gain a stream of loyal followers and consumers, you will have to be patient. I am not going to lie. Convincing people takes time, especially if your content is not up to the mark. However, once you are able to win over someone, that person is not going to go anywhere.

This is why content marketing is the biggest trust-building digital marketing strategy. In order to reap rewards from content marketing, you need to devote at least a few months of consistent effort to experience the best ROI from your digital marketing efforts.

Conclusion

Content marketing is not as complicated as agencies and experts make it out to be. In fact, it is simple, direct and guarantees definite ROIs. For small brands who are looking to venture beyond social media marketing, content marketing is a feasible option.

Your content should talk about your brand and its story. Products and services come later on. However, that should be the order of things. Once you reverse the same, people are going to migrate to someone who talks less about their products and more about other things.

That is just how human beings function and read things. Content marketing is better for brands as it appeals to human psychology. At the end of the day, every brand should intend to create content that resonates with their audience.

Once a chord is struck, you can do all the direct selling in the world!

Do let me know what you thought about the article in the comments section below. Valuable feedback is always welcome.

Ciao,
Miss Kemya

This is a guest post by, Mashum Mollahis, an entrepreneur, founder and CEO at Viacon, a digital marketing agency that drive visibility, engagement, and proven results. He is a passionate blogger and blogs at MashumMollah.com.

The post 7 Content Marketing Tips For Small Brands In 2020 appeared first on Marketing Sparkler.

You’re out there networking like crazy. You’re chatting with people about your business, you’re attending networking mixers. You’re meeting people at luncheons, workshops and conferences. You even met a couple interesting people in that long line at the grocery store and exchanged business cards. Now what are you supposed to do, other than file a […] The post The Most Critical Element of the Networking Process appeared first on Marketing...

You’re out there networking like crazy. You’re chatting with people about your business, you’re attending networking mixers. You’re meeting people at luncheons, workshops and conferences. You even met a couple interesting people in that long line at the grocery store and exchanged business cards. Now what are you supposed to do, other than file a bunch of business cards somewhere? You shared small talk, now what?

The Most Critical Element of the Networking Process

The “now what” question is where many business owners get lost. Here’s the thing: people who are successful at networking, a la connecting with others, are successful because they understand the importance of building relationships.

So, what’s the first step in building relationships with people you meet while networking: follow up!

Follow up is the most critical element of the networking process!

Now you can take the initiative and follow-up with these 3 simple action steps:

So, what’s the most important step in building relationships with people you meet while networking: follow up!
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Follow-up with an Email

Send the person a quick “Pleased to meet you”, “Nice talking to you about X”, “Had a great conversation with you”, “I’d like to keep in touch for” note. Don’t wait to send that email for fear of looking spammy or aggressive. I understand the apprehension, but you want to continue the conversation while you’re still fresh in their memory.

As an entrepreneur you’re always looking to be first in line for your audience. Sending a brief “nice to chat with you” follow-up email the same day or within 24 hours is not spammy, it’s just good business. Just like you would immediately send a thank you note to the person who interviews you for a job, think along the same lines as you follow up with people you’d like to connect with.

Continue Networking via Social Media

I know this sound so obvious, but for many professionals it’s not so easy. Reach out and find those people you want to keep in touch with. You can find them on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, their website, etc. Take a look at their social media presence, and if you’re moved to do so, connect with them.

However, if you’re looking to connect via LinkedIn or Facebook, do not send an empty request to connect. (For more about that misstep, please review my earlier post on connecting with a personal message.) Use your connection request as a way to re-iterate a couple of points made during the conversation to refresh a person’s memory and show your sincere interest in building a relationship.

Consider a typical example: You attend an event, talk to 50 people and return home with a stack of business cards and promotional literature.

• Person A is someone you met during the event. They send you a request to connect via LinkedIn, and include a specific point about your conversation and how much they enjoyed meeting you.
• Person B is someone you met during the event. They send you a request to via LinkedIn, except they send the canned auto-message.

Who would you rather connect with? Person A of course! Why? Person A took the extra 2 minutes to refresh your memory, and offer a reason for you to connect. Person A showed more interest in building a relationship with this simple action.

Non-personalized connection requests can be viewed as empty gestures. Auto-verbiage is no different than sending an empty message, so don’t make a bad impression, or worse, look like spam. Spend the extra two minutes, and your effort will go a long way in establishing the relationship you’re looking to build.

Networking Tips: Non-personalized connection requests can be viewed as empty gestures. Take time to tell people WHY you want to connect.
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Set A Follow-up Meeting

Was the conversation meaningful enough that you want to set a follow-up right now? Go for it! We’re all in business to grow, so take the lead and let the person know you’d like to follow-up. If they’re local, offer to meet them for coffee or drinks. If not, set up a call or Skype to continue the conversation.

Keep in mind, you won’t necessarily want to connect with every single person you meet around town and during your networking activity. This is perfectly fine. It’s not about building a network based solely on quantity, because follow-up takes time. Build your network based on quality conversation, quality interests, and quality connections and you will enjoy following up with people. It won’t be a chore, because you’re genuinely interested in these quality connections.

*Gasp* What say you Miss Kemya? Isn’t it important to network based on quantity, the more connections the better? In theory, yes, quantity is essential. However, let’s be practical folks.

A small business owner/solopreneur that manages so many to-do’s by themselves is not going to have time to do the proper follow-up it takes to keep up with so many budding relationships. When your time is limited you naturally look for any excuse in the book NOT to do something. So why try to follow-up with every single person you meet while you’re networking? It’s just not practical in most cases.

When you have a great conversation with someone or just get a good vibe from then, you naturally want to follow-up and connect. Which takes the stress and apprehension of following up out of the equation. Which means you’ll be more likely to follow-up. Therefore, you need to weed out people who you simply aren’t interested in. Save yourself the headache and the procrastination, and you’ll probably get more done.

Bottom Line

There’s more to networking than showing up! You have to take the lead to pursue opportunities to build your network. Follow up is the critical action most people take for granted, don’t let this happen to you.

You never know what opportunities you may miss as result of not following up with some great people you’ve met along your journey. If you’re feeling particularly adventurous, go ahead and reach back in that business card pile you’ve been amassing all year and start reconnecting with people you’ve met. They just might remember you!

Ciao,
Miss Kemya

The post The Most Critical Element of the Networking Process appeared first on Marketing Sparkler.

When you need to find out information, whether it’s opening hours for a store, the best treats for your puppy, or specs on a tv you’re thinking about buying, chances are you will take this first step: hit the Google button. If you operate a business out of your home, or you own a store […] The post 7 Keys to a Profitable Google My Business Profile appeared first on Marketing...

When you need to find out information, whether it’s opening hours for a store, the best treats for your puppy, or specs on a tv you’re thinking about buying, chances are you will take this first step: hit the Google button.

If you operate a business out of your home, or you own a store or shop, your Google My Business (GMB) listing is an effective and very powerful way to publicize your business in the local community, and drive new customers to your door.

In an earlier post we reviewed how GMB boosts business and profits. Now it’s time to talk about how to set up your GMB Profile.

Once Google understands more about your business, they can help match you with various search queries. The most valuable of these is for you to receive a prominent listing in Google’s 3-Pack. That coveted 3-pack!

In the above example, for instance, you can see that if you were searching for spray foam contractors, in the lower peninsula of Michigan, you’d probably come across a result like this:

By far, Retrofoam of Michigan would get the nod. Why?

• Even though they’re second, the first result doesn’t have any stars or reviews.
• They have more stars and reviews than the third option.
• They have business hours posted, unlike the first result.
• If I moved to Michigan, they’d be the closest to me (proximity matters in a lot of local searches).

7 Keys to a Profitable Google My Business Profile

Now that you understand Google My Business fundamentals, here are seven surefire tips you can follow that will help you attract new customers.

1. Complete Your Business Information

If operate a local business, keep your business name, address, phone number, hours of operation, and business category at the very least – updated. Nothing will turn a customer against you then them trying to locate you and not being successful.

2. You Can Now Add Business Descriptions

Previously on GMB, the only noteworthy way to tell Google and searchers about your business was through the Google My Business Category list of which there are over 2,300 options.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t always give enough information especially if you’re in a niche market. Descriptions will also improve your search rankings in Google.

3. Upload More (Better) Images

This comes straight from Google: “Businesses with photos receive 42% more requests for driving directions to their location from users on Google, and 35% more clicks through to their website than businesses that don’t have photos.” If you want potential customers to visit your location, rather than your competitors, add some photos to grab their attention.

4. Respond to All Reviews

The reviews on your GMB page can be a deciding factor in whether or not a buyer engages with your brand. When making a purchase decision, people look to others for their opinions and personal experiences.

Here are some statistics about local consumer reviews:

• 97% of consumers looked online for local businesses in 2017
• 85% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations
• Positive reviews make 73% of consumers trust a local business more
• 68% of consumers left a local business review when asked
• 30% of consumers say they’ve judged a business based on its responses to reviews

What further motivation do you need?

5. Use Your Posts to Promote Events, Offers, & Content

Before Google Posts, if you wanted to share your content, you had to do it on your website and social platforms. Now, you can have your content show up on Google Search and Google maps in your business’ knowledge panel. So, what kind of content am I talking about?

• Blog posts
• Products/services for sale
• Promotions and sales
• If you don’t have a blog, write mini articles that demonstrate your expertise, with a link to connect for more info.
• Company news
• Create events and share as well (sales can be events, too)
• Media mentions
• Repost your popular social media posts
• Tie in holidays to your product/service offers.
• Local happenings, if applicable
• Take screenshots of reviews and post.

Essentially, post what you sell, and write to demonstrate your expertise. By the way, it doesn’t matter whether you sell products or services, it works for both. Hope this gives you some ideas!

6. Upload Videos

There is no better way to attract, engage, and communicate with your customers and prospects than through video. It’s a powerful medium that you can leverage via your Google My Business listing.

Create your listing, and optimize your profile to boost your business, and expand your visibility in local search results.

Ciao,
Miss Kemya

Are you using Google My Business to expand your visibility in local search?

The post 7 Keys to a Profitable Google My Business Profile appeared first on Marketing Sparkler.

What is conversion rate optimization (CRO)? Conversion rate simply means the percentage of website visitors, ad viewers or emailed customers that go on to convert. It’s the rate at which you turn opportunities for conversions – be that sales or form submissions – into real conversions. However, despite being a vital part of any marketing […] The post 5 Approved Strategies to Increase Website Conversions appeared first on Marketing...

What is conversion rate optimization (CRO)? Conversion rate simply means the percentage of website visitors, ad viewers or emailed customers that go on to convert. It’s the rate at which you turn opportunities for conversions – be that sales or form submissions – into real conversions.

However, despite being a vital part of any marketing strategy, CRO is often overlooked. The reason for this is two-fold. Firstly, many marketers are still stuck in a bricks-and-mortar mindset: they think about their site or their client’s site as a store, and they think of their role as being to get as much foot traffic moving through the store as possible.

The second reason is that CRO is often powered by more up-to-date data and technology. And not everyone’s caught up yet. Here we share five great tactics for optimizing your conversion rate.

5 Approved Strategies to Increase Website Conversions

1. Develop a CRO strategy based on data.

CRO often means changing what your customers see and experience based on who they are and what they want. And for that, you need data.

The standard analytics platforms can be really useful here. With Google Analytics and Facebook Insights, you can find out things like:

• • How old your customers are
  • What part of the world they’re from
  • When they’re logging onto your site
  • Which pages they love and which pages… not so much

Once you know who your customers are, you can go on to the next step.

2. Determine whether your CRO strategy is appropriate for your audience.

A definitive profile of your average customer might mean a rethink of your current strategy. Young professionals, baby boomers and teens are all likely to respond better or worse to certain messaging.

Likewise, on a more practical level, your customers’ browsing habits might reshape how you run your ads.

For example, if it turns out the majority of your site visitors browse your site on weekdays, but only convert on weekends, then you might want to redirect email and social budget to weekends only, when they’re more likely to convert.

However, not every customer is the same. Which leads us to the next step.

3. Use marketing automation to power dynamic content – targeting specific segments of your key demographic.

This is an example of where CRO is driven by the latest tech. Modern services like SharpSpring allow you to serve up different variants of key landing pages, and other content, to different segments of your demographic. This kind of flexibility is the future of CRO.

Essentially, you track your customers across different platforms, and build a demographic picture of them complete with interests and preferences. Then, when they land, your dynamic content serves up the version of your page, form or ad that’s most likely to chime with the particular user.

Use marketing automation to power dynamic content – targeting specific segments of your key demographic.
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4. Polish your trust signals

One web page element which always has a high impact on website conversions is a page’s ‘trust’ signals. Broadly speaking, these break down into two categories:

• • Peer trust – signaling to the customer other customers also love your products and services
  • Expert trust – signaling to the customer that other experts in your field respect your work

To signal peer trust, include links and content from and to your social channels. Let your customers see how happy you make people just like them. For more in-depth trust signaling, feature a long-form testimonial. The best testimonials are those which deal with doubts customers are likely to have.

For expert trust, try featuring accreditations, prestigious partnerships or any glowing praise you’ve received from authoritative sources in your niche. Let them see you know what you’re doing.

Trust has a high impact on your website conversions. Are you using these signals?
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5. Build instant trust with an out-there pledge that’s all for your customer.

A sure-fire way of earning your customer’s trust is to offer them a truly great deal straight off the bat. Understandably, customers can be a little less trusting online than they would be in-store, face-to-face with someone.

So, to jump that hurdle, go above and beyond as soon as they land. This could take the form of a money back-guarantee, a free sample or consultation, or a fantastic price reduction.

All of these tell your customer you’re sure they’ll be back after just a little exposure to your product.

Feel free to get a little creative here. A great example of a brand getting this kind of offer right is Shoes.com mystery flash sale, which offers each visitor a custom, mystery deal they have to click to reveal. Who could resist?!

Do you have a conversion rate optimization strategy for your business?
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Ciao,
Miss Kemya

The post 5 Approved Strategies to Increase Website Conversions appeared first on Marketing Sparkler.

When you release a new product, it’s important that you get the product launch right. If you can capture people’s attention and build some hype, you can capitalize on that momentum and make a lot of sales in the first few weeks. But if the launch is a flop, people will quickly lose interest and […] The post How To Prepare Your Website For A New Product Launch appeared first on Marketing...

When you release a new product, it’s important that you get the product launch right. If you can capture people’s attention and build some hype, you can capitalize on that momentum and make a lot of sales in the first few weeks. But if the launch is a flop, people will quickly lose interest and it’s hard to get people excited about it again.

How To Prepare Your Website For A New Product Launch

One aspect of the product launch that businesses tend to forget about is the website. They simply focus on the sales page itself. However, there is more to updating your website that creating a new sales page. By making changes to the website, you can prepare for the new launch and get your existing customers excited about it. These are the best ways to prepare your website for a new product launch.

Finalize The Bulk Of The Product First

In all of the excitement of a new product launch, many people forget about creating a timeline from announcement to live. This is important because you need to deliver on time if you are building the anticipation. If you add a new page to your site advertising a new product coming soon, and then it’s another year until it’s actually launched because you keep making last minute changes to the product, people will forget all about it. When you do finally launch the product, sales will be low and the launch will be a disaster.

That’s why you need to stop tweaking the product and get it ready for launch before you start making any changes to the website. If you have the bulk of the product ready to go, then you don’t have to worry about delays and disappointing your audience. Don’t start announcing you have a new product coming soon, and you’re just at the conceptual stage. When the lead time is too long between your initial announcement and launch, you lose all interest in the product.

In all of the excitement of a new product launch, many people forget about creating a timeline from announcement to live. Don’t make people wait too long or they will lose interest.
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Set Up The Product Page Early

You need to make sure that everything is ready to go so when launch day comes around. If there are any technical issues, it could have a big impact on sales. That’s why you need to get a web design company to create the product sales page and test it early on.

During the build and test phase, a simple coming soon page will get visitors interested. That way, people will see it on there and it will build a bit of hype, and you can be sure that it’s all ready to go when you launch. If you are able to create a notification list via email marketing or text messaging before your product launch, even better. This way, when you launch with your official “it’s live” announcement, you’ll have a list of interested prospects at the ready to communicate with.

Then when it’s time to go live, you can simply turn off your ‘coming soon’ page, and turn on your sales page.

Add A Countdown Timer

A countdown timer is a great visual cue to remind existing customers that you have a new product coming, so they are ready and waiting to buy it as soon as it is launched. Don’t take over the whole site with it, but put it somewhere visible on all of the pages, in the top corner, for example.

A countdown timer is a great visual cue to remind existing customers that you have a new product coming, so they are ready and waiting to buy.
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Add A Popup

Other ways you can draw attention to the new product is with a popup strategy. Before you shake your head no, popups work. So add a popup to your website announcing benefits of the new popup. You can also use an exit popup if you want to add another subtle way to tell more website visitors about the product.

Add A Banner Header

Adding your new product to your banner header is another way to get eyes on your new product. This could be a temporary addition specifically during the launch period, or you can rotate the banner with new products every time. No matter how long it stays up, the banner header on your website is a great in your face place to add visuals about your new product that people will definitely see.

Don’t Change Too Much

Even though your new product is going to be the focus of your marketing efforts in the near future, it’s important that you don’t go overboard and build the whole site around it. If people enter your site and all they can see is promotions for your upcoming product launch, how are they supposed to find your existing products? You don’t want to alienate them by bombarding them with adverts for a new product. I think many of us have experience this overkill on the new product and it tends to be annoying.

Therefore, you want to create your sales new page, and put some information on the launch in the sidebar, but keep the rest of the navigation features the same.

How To Prepare Your Website For A New Product Launch
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Now That You’re Ready

It’s important that you prepare your website ahead of the product launch so people know that it’s coming. Focus on the benefits of the new product with your teasers, and you’ll get people excited and ready to buy. Set up these features on your website, and more important, est all links before your big launch day. You want to make sure you are ready to deal with the orders when they start coming in, and minimize any tech issues in advance. There’s nothing worse that buy links that don’t work!

Ciao,
Miss Kemya

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Ever since the rise of social media’s popularity in the mid 2000s, marketers have predicted that social media will play a major role in digital marketing, or internet marketing, as it was often mentioned back in the day. However, as social media networks evolve, so does the role of social media in digital marketing. It […] The post What is the Role of Social Media in Your Digital Marketing Strategy? appeared first on Marketing...

Ever since the rise of social media’s popularity in the mid 2000s, marketers have predicted that social media will play a major role in digital marketing, or internet marketing, as it was often mentioned back in the day.

However, as social media networks evolve, so does the role of social media in digital marketing. It has continuously evolved over the years. In the past, it was solely about promoting our brand, product, and/or service. But today, it’s a lot more.

Below, we will discuss 6 important roles of social media in digital marketing. How are you using each of these roles?

What is the Role of Social Media in Your Digital Marketing Strategy?

1. Cost Efficiency in Social Media Marketing

Social media is one of the very few digital marketing channels where you can promote your brand, product, or service for free, while still reaching a huge number of potential audience.

Yes, organic reach has dramatically declined in the past half decade or so, and social media today is increasingly becoming a pay to play platform where you need to spend on advertising and paid promotional options to reach your audience.

However, the fact remains that there is still the possibility of doing organic social media marketing for totally free. Yes, it will take longer and you will need to be consistent, but it is possible.

Social media marketing should be a combination of both paid and organic approaches, ultimately balancing cost vs time. In short, it’s a very versatile digital marketing channel where you can control your budget. In turn, it is also one that will reward your efforts in building consistent, genuine value.

What is the Role of Social Media in Your Digital Marketing Strategy?
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2. Social Media is Where The People Are

There are almost 3.5 billion active social media users in 2019, growing by 9% in just a year. So, if you are not focusing your digital marketing efforts on social media, you are simply missing out on a massive number of potential customers.

On the other hand, being on social media today is no longer a luxury for businesses, but a necessity. With social media, people are getting all sorts of information all the time. This is why customers are really valuing social proofs as one of the key factors influencing purchase decisions.

Having a proper social presence is characterized by consistent, valuable posts to your profiles. When coupled with mentions from important influencers, media, and happy customers, social proof becomes extremely effective.

Social media is no longer a place where you simply promote your product and/or service. It is now a place to showcase your quality and personality as a brand.

Social media is no longer a place where you simply promote your products and services, but a place to showcase your quality and personality as a brand.
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3. Social Media as The Modern Customer Service Channel

A key innovation provided by the advent of social media is the availability of a real-time two-way communication channel between businesses that are free and transparent. That is, everyone can see your conversation.

This phenomenon, however, can be a two-edged sword. On the one hand, it can provide a more efficient and effective way to communicate with your customers while showcasing professionalism to others who see the conversation.

On the other hand, when someone posted a negative review of your product, or when you handled a situation wrongly, everyone can also see it.

Studies have suggested that consumers are more likely to engage with brands that frequently respond to complaints, including (and especially) the negative ones. At the same time, they are more likely to move to other brands (competitors) when they are disappointed with a brand over a social media conversation.

Social media is a customer service channel, whether you like it or not. Be sure to respond to complaints and negative reviews quickly and in a positive manner.
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4. Social Media To Gain Customers Insights

On the previous point, we have briefly discussed how social media is a transparent channel where customers can observe various conversations.

However, this also works in your favor, as social media can be a major source to get customer insights.

By observing social conversations — whether manually or via various social media marketing tools — we can get various behavioral data from current trends you can capitalize, their specific problems, what they thought about your product (or your competitor’s), and especially their needs.

Analyzing this data, and how it changes overtime will be a very useful insight not only for social media marketing, but also the whole digital marketing strategy.

As mentioned, various social monitoring tools can help you in this aspect. Nowadays there are also various A.I.-powered tools that can analyze a huge amount of data in real time.

Social listening is invaluable. Listen to your customers via social media to figure out what they want and need.
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5. Social Media as a Branding Platform

With the size of audience in social media networks, and the transparency of communications—both we have discussed above—, social media has evolved to be on of the most effective branding tools available today, a way to stand out among your competitors.

The aim of branding on social media is obviously to boost awareness. However, given how saturated the social media platforms are nowadays, getting noticed amidst all the noises can be difficult.

So how should we do it? There are three main efforts to consider:

• • consistency in your content (quality and quantity of your posts),
  • consistency in engagement, and
  • relationships with other brands and influencers.

While paid advertising and other paid promotions can help with brand awareness, ultimately it’s your organic efforts that are going to bring sustainability.

While paid advertising and other paid promotions can help with brand awareness, ultimately it’s your organic efforts on social media that are going to bring sustainability.
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6. Social Media To Encourage Conversions

Social media can be involved in all the stages of the buyer’s journey. It can build brand awareness, as previously discussed, and convert visitors (both website visitors and visitors to your social media profiles) into prospects. Finally, social media can be used to educate prospects until they are ready for a purchase, converting them into customers.

Again, consistency is key here.

Practice all we have discussed above consistently. Engage with your prospects and customers, including and especially for negative complaints/reviews. Be consistent in your content quality, and consistent in brand messages.

Your main goal here is to persuade, either by touching the audience’s logic, emotion, or both. For example, excellent customer service in handling complaints and bad reps can encourage people to trust your business (playing with emotion). For some other people, a proper education about your product’s unique value can cause them to convert.

Are you engaging your prospctes via social media, to increase yoru conversions?
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Conclusion

Social media should be a very important aspect of any digital marketing strategy for software companies, mainly due to the amount of people that are active in social media networks.

If you are not putting your marketing efforts on social media, you are simply missing out on billions of potential market that might be converted into prospects and customers.

Ciao,
Miss Kemya

This is a guest post by Mike Khorev, writer-editor of marketingunfolded.com.

The post What is the Role of Social Media in Your Digital Marketing Strategy? appeared first on Marketing Sparkler.

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