How to Increase Traffic Without Paying For it
If you know, a lot of your online success depends upon web traffic on your site. Every business with an aim to build a good online presence is doing everything possible to increase the traffic and ensure the success they wish for. Businesses with a good budget can run paid ad campaigns, PPC, offer free goodies, and much more to get high traffic. But, what to do if anyone has a tight budget and is unable to run campaigns that require some serious investment for getting the traffic? As, without it, getting recognition and growth seems impossible. This post is all about strategies that’ll help you out in improving the web traffic without spending much or we could say anything specifically for that. Once you finish reading this, you’ll have a lot of ideas that can be implemented to improve the position of your brand online. With these tips, not even businesses with a tight budget, but also with enough in their kitty can increase online traffic and take their business to new heights. All you need to do is implement them in the right way and at the right time. Tips for increasing web traffic without specifically paying for it Create content The answer to most of the problems related to digital marketing is great content. Similarly, when we talk about increase web traffic, content creation is one of the best things that you could do. And the important thing, it won’t ask you to pay for bringing the traffic as people will come on their own. In whichever niche your business is, posting something unique, interesting, genuine, and relevant will first attract the search engine bots and it’ll help you rank higher on the SERP. Now you can imagine, if people can see you on the first page of the search engine results the chances of being clicked become high thus, it will increase traffic on your site. Content creation is a necessity for the digital world because it will give better insights into your business to the audience. Hence, with engaging content, you can save a lot on your paid promotions and get quality traffic on your website. On-page SEO SEO is the next best thing for getting high genuine traffic on your website. Here, we are talking about on-page SEO which includes internal links, content quality, tags, user-interface, and site design. Only optimizing this will get you the authority to move to the first of the SERP ranking. SEO is the most basic yet key factor when it comes to the ranking of your website along with getting some quality traffic. Optimizing site according to the webmaster guidelines is a big factor to improve the reputation of your business and people love to choose the ones with a better reputation. Build expertise with relevant topics Showing that you are an expert in whatever you are doing is one of the best tactics of grabbing customer’s attention. Plus, this also does not require paying anything specifically to increase traffic on your website. So, it is advised to create blogs and articles related to your business’s niche and post them. Remember, as we discussed in the first point that any content you create must be unique & genuine, and that applies here as well. Showing your expertise never means that you create content exactly that is available on the internet with your competitors. How would you make the difference doing that? The key here is to tell people something they don’t know and that has not been covered by your competitors yet. Considering this will show knowledgeable you are in a particular topic and this will also help grab the attention of search engine bots to find you authoritative enough to rank above your competitors. And hence, high rank means high visibility and that opens enough gates to increase traffic. Social media Social media has become very common these days, for both, individuals and businesses. And why not, it has given a lot to businesses and has become an integral part of people’s lives. It is a platform with millions of users and businesses of all niches can find their target audience here. Now, creating an account on social media is free and if you get to attract your target audience here, it won’t be a difficult task for you to bring them on your website. Remember, social media is the best platform to get genuine organic traffic that has a good chance of converting into leads. For all this, you need to stay active on all your social media accounts and post some quality & relevant content regularly. If people find your posts engaging and interesting, you will not require much time to build your brand’s authority and followers without paying anything to anyone. In simpler words, we could say that social media is one of the gates of the success that you need to unlock. Ensure regular guest posting Guest posting is a must and undoubtedly it is one of the best techniques of building links and increase traffic from other’s web platforms. It is also considered as good practice by search engine bots, thus helps in improving your SERP ranking as well. Creating and posting a guest blog that is relevant to your business’s niche and has some unique information will say a lot about your brand. If people reading your guest post find it engaging and informative, then they will move to your site to see what else you can offer. Doing this will also build your brand’s authority. Here’s a catch, you need to find some popular and trusted sites related to your niche and try getting a guest post there. Considering this is a great idea to get a good boost to web traffic, that too with genuine visitors. Use Infographics A quality and engaging infographic can deliver amazing results when it comes to increase your web traffic. Creating an infographic requires data with important information and you need to display
How to Reduce Costs and Avoid Laying Off Your Staff
The competition is fierce in the market and it requires a lot of resources to stand strong. The time for every business does not remain the same throughout its life. There are ups and downs, and it is important for every business to know how to stay focused when the time is in their favor and how to tackle the situation when it is not. We can take the current situation as the best example as COVID-19 is killing businesses all over the world and threat is on the job security of employees. Besides such pandemic, there are also businesses that see such a worst time in their lifespan that apart from firing their employees they don’t find anything else to manage the expenses for staying in the hunt. We can understand that sometimes the situation is worse and instead of cutting the cost companies find no better option than letting off their employees. But you need to remember that by firing your employees, you are also letting off their experience and loyalty. You might hire new employees later on at a lower cost but getting the experience could not be so easy. Thus, you need to know some alternatives by which not only you can save the cost but also retain your valuable employees. You might be wondering how it will be going to happen but yes, there are certain tactics that can help you cut cost without laying off your staff. Reading this post will help you know the strategies that could save you the valuable experience of your employees in the time of crisis along with saving money. Tips to reduce cost without laying off your Staff Reduce working hours This could be one of the best strategies that one can adopt during the crisis as your employees will agree to work for lesser hours at a lesser wage for some time rather than not working at all for nothing. This implies to make your full-time staff work part-time until the situation becomes better. The theory here is simple, that at the cost of one employee, you can retain two and that too with the experience. In this way, you will save the cost and your employees could save their job. Considering this is a good idea to save money along with the key experience & loyalty of your current staff. If you are running a large business, then this tactic could be a defining factor in saving a lot during tough times. Remember one thing, be clear while implementing this to your employees so that they ensure that their job is safe and it’s only the unfavorable time that company is facing. Doing this will not affect the deliverability or efforts of the staff and you can make sure that they are working dedicatedly. Reschedule working plan Another defining strategy that you could adopt to keep your employees on board while managing all your business’s expenses is changing the roaster. There are businesses with outcomes changing on a day to day basis. If you are engaged in such a business and facing a financial crisis despite doing everything required, then chances are that you might be missing out on days that could deliver better than others. This is because you might be following a standard Monday to Friday roaster plan. What you can do is try out a different working plan for your employees and keep weekly off on days that are less productive. This could work well and you might not even require to laying off your staff. Let temporary employees go Most businesses hire employees on contract to get a specific job done and after that, it’s not mandatory to keep them. Thus, to save the cost you can let your contract-based employees go as they will not raise any questions because they are already aware that their position is not permanent. This will help you cut the cost while retaining your regular employees who are dedicatedly working with you for years. Unpaid furloughs During the time of crisis, even employees want to switch on their own but not all. There are people in the organization who served it well and want to stand alongside during tough times as well. They understand that time is not always in your favor and bad times do arrive, thus, they will give their consent on the decision you will take to save the company. The next best thing that you can do to reduce costs without saying goodbye to your staff is to encourage some unpaid leaves. This might sound strange to some of your staff but it is a better idea than laying off completely. Another tactic with unpaid furloughs you can do is reducing working weeks a month or working months a year. What we want to say with this is, that you can reduce working weeks to 2.5 to 3 per month or working months to 8 or 9 a year. This could be a little bit harsh but with this not only you will save the cost but also the valuable experience of your employees. Cut a small percentage of salary Salary is for what we all work dedicatedly to meet our expenses and ensure the growth of the company along with our growth. While cutting the salary when your employees have not done anything wrong could be a harsh option during crisis time. While if we talk about it keeping job security in mind, then retaining staff at a bit lower salary could be the best idea than completely laying it off. Don’t forget to compensate smartly for the salary cut that costs you nothing to ensure employees that you are doing it due to the financial crisis not intentionally. Reconsider PPC advertising An effective PPC advertising campaign requires some handsome amount of money to generate genuine leads. There are businesses that rely mostly on PPC campaigns for generating leads and for that, they also spend a lot. Now, when the
How to Use Pinterest for Your Business
Visuals hold some serious importance in this digital market-centric world. That is the reason why social media platforms focusing on images & videos are gaining so much popularity. One of such social media platforms is ‘Pinterest.’ It is an image-sharing social media platform that also supports the sharing of videos and GIFs in the form of pinboards. Besides simple images, infographics and GIFs are also becoming popular and people are using them to a good effect. Businesses are reaping more benefits through the use of such visuals by providing quality information to their target audience. Taking this into consideration, Pinterest is one such social media platform that is a must for businesses to grow stronger online and build authority. This post will tell you some tips on how to use Pinterest for your business & brand to a good effect and reap benefits. Tips to use Pinterest for your business Create a business account The first thing you are required to do to use Pinterest for your business is to create a business account. Fill all the required details with genuine information, link your website, and connect this account with your other social media accounts like Instagram & YouTube if you want to. Creating a business account will give you free Pinterest services like Pinterest analytics and other important tools for measuring your success. It also gives the flexibility to link your business and personal accounts and switch in between whenever required. Share your products Once you’ve created a business account, the next best thing you can do with Pinterest is to share your products by creating pins. In Pinterest, pins comprise image or video and one of the best strategies to use this social media platform for your business is by pinning your own products to share with others. It could also be done by sharing your products on other’s boards with a similar theme. Remember, pins can be created without linking back to your site, but it is advised to always include a link back to the landing page on your site to ensure users easily reach there to buy the product. Create interesting content It doesn’t matter what you are doing to promote your business online, content always holds the key. On Pinterest as well, it is important for you to post some quality content for your readers. Each of your pins must have a qualitative description so that people have the zeal to know more and for that, they will visit your website. No doubt that visuals are more important but you cannot ignore texts either as they will describe what’s there in the image. So, be creative and selective while writing the content. Connect with pinners Pinners are the Pinterest users who share images, videos, and other visuals on their accounts. Just like other social media platforms, it is necessary for businesses on Pinterest to connect with people. To connect with pinners, you can use boards that are a theme-based collection of different pins saved by users. Based on your business’s niche, you can create a board and share it with people. Not only with product’s themes, but the board can also be created to promote your brand in different ways like a board of your customers using your products, before and after the effects of using your product, benefits received through your products, and much more. Another thing you could do is participate in group boards to give wide exposure to your pins. Remember choosing the board which is relevant to your business’s niche. Ensure visibility of your pins Keywords are very important when it comes to ensuring the visibility of what you post on Pinterest. You need to make sure that the keywords you are targeting must be in your boards, descriptions, and pin names. Because that’s how you will be visible when someone searches on Pinterest. You can also optimize for Pinterest SEO by doing keyword research and also be pinning from your website. Being specific could also be a defining factor for your Pinterest SEO. Create a content strategy that delivers It is important for you to create content that is not pushy or salesy rather which is informative. Educate people on why they need the product you offer and what benefit they’ll receive through it. This is the best tactic by which you can convince people to purchase your product. The reason is that people will only buy something when they are aware of it and know how helpful it is. Your content strategy should be strong enough that pinners who show interest in your pins could be easily taken to the marketing funnel. Make it easy for pinners to shop Pinners love to shop directly and if you don’t give them enough ease to do so, it is likely that you will lose customers. What we mean by saying this is to allow pinners to shop easily through your pins by taking them directly to the purchase page when pins are clicked. Considering this will help you get customers through Pinterest and if they like your product, they’ll pin it as well and you’ll get better recognition. Engage with users Just like Instagram, Facebook, and other social media platforms, you need to engage with other users on Pinterest as well. Appreciate their efforts by thanking them for re-pinning your pins, follow them to encourage them to follow you back, ask for feedback by requesting them to re-pin products in your catalog, and much more. Engaging with users us the best way to build genuine relationships that will last for long. Remember, more the interaction, better & stronger will be the relationship. Create a contest Another tactic of using Pinterest for businesses is to hold contests by giving exciting prizes in return and that could be free goodies, discount coupons, exclusive offers, or something else like this. You can ask users to re-pin their favorite pins in your catalog for participating. This will ensure better visibility of your brand
Importance of Facebook for Marketing
Everyone is talking about the digital world and why not, going digital is making the lives of people easy. When it comes to businesses, the digital platform has done wonders and is still making a strong mark for brands that are shifting focus towards it. With all efforts made by businesses to promote themselves on the digital platform, social media should be the one to get most of the attention. The reason why we are saying this is because of the popularity that social media has gained across the globe. There are millions of social media users in the world and the numbers are rising at a good speed. That’s why this platform has become a key one for the promotion of businesses. When we talk about social media, the first thing that comes into our mind is Facebook. When Facebook was first introduced for public use, no one would have thought that it will become a necessity for brands to get the attention of the target audience. In around a decade and a half, Facebook has reached to a level where it no more requires any introduction. This social media platform holds high importance for businesses when it comes to marketing and this post is focused on telling you some key benefits of Facebook for your digital marketing efforts. Benefits of Facebook for Marketing Huge exposure One of the key reasons why social media has become so popular for businesses is the exposure it gives. Similar is the case with Facebook, it holds importance because it can give a huge exposure to your brand and makes it easy to find the target audience. People love to spend time on Facebook by sharing their thoughts, photographs, and much more. This is a big reason for its popularity and having billions of users. When it comes to businesses, Facebook offers many channels through which they can make their presence on this platform. Some of the ways include Fb ads, dedicated business pages, creating groups, joining communities, and other paid promotional activities. Engaging in such activities on Facebook will get the attention of people, and the interested ones will reciprocate accordingly. All will depend upon the strategies adopted by you to promote your business. Remember, if people like your content, they will share it with others and that’s how the exposure you will get keep multiplying. Your starting point Not all startups can have a company’s website and the main reason for that could be a tight budget. Designing a website requires some amount of money and initially, not all businesses can afford that. So, what to do in such a scenario? How to promote digitally? It should not be a matter to worry for such businesses as Facebook is there for a rescue. One can create a Facebook page to promote the brand and add relevant content at virtually no cost. Businesses can add all of their products on the Fb page with their unique points to grab the attention of people. Facebook also gives a great opportunity to businesses with a limited budget to promote using paid advertisements. They can choose from various advertisement campaigns like Cost Per Click, Cost Per Million, or Cost Per Action as per their budget. Plus, it also gives you the flexibility to set the daily limit of how much you want to spend. This makes Facebook for important when it comes to marketing. Target potential customers This is one of the most interesting features Facebook offers to businesses. With Facebook marketing, you can narrow down your target audience by setting the parameters that define your potential customers the best. For example, if your product or service is best for ladies aged between 25 to 40, you can set this parameter and the ad will only be shown to ladies of this age group. Another feature it offers is to set a certain area in which your services are available and anyone present in that area and looking for the services you offer will see your ad. This will also reduce the budget required for ad campaigns and you can use it for other important activities. Besides everything, you can also run contests for your target audience and encourage them to participate by giving something in return or attract them the way you can. Improves brand awareness and traffic Interacting with people on Facebook is a great way to get the attention of your target audience and get your brand noticed. Solve the queries of people regarding the products/services you offer and tell them how they can help in solving their problems. Considering this will also be great to improve the brand’s loyalty. Interaction on Facebook is easy and people can easily respond to your posts. In this way, you will receive more engagement thus, better loyalty for the target audience as well. People who will be satisfied with your answer will love to know more about your brand and they’ll visit your website. And in this way, your web traffic will get a boost. Gives detailed insights Another reason why Facebook is important for the marketing of a business is the insights it delivers. Through graphical representation, it can show how much people have engaged with your posts, how many followers you have gained, page likes you’ve got, recommendations, page views, actions taken on-page, and much more. All these insights are enough for you to optimize marketing strategies accordingly and derive better results in the future. Taking these analytics seriously will help you make your brand strong and ensure improved recognition & brand authority. Keep the existing audience engaged If you have an established business, then having a presence on Facebook will help you keep your existing audience engaged with regular one to one interaction and by posting relevant & engaging content. This will also let you build trust with people and maintain their focus on your brand. Through Facebook Live, you can periodically interact with your target audience in a much better
Importance of Having a Strong Brand
The digital platform has become an integral part of businesses across the globe. Without this, they cannot even think of surviving in this world of fierce competition. If you want to create a mark, you need to create a good reputation for your brand, or else, you will fail to attract your target audience. If you research, you will find that there are numerous brands related to your niche, and to get attention, you really need to influence your target audience strongly. We cannot deny the fact that the competition is so tough that many businesses don’t get attention even after making really serious efforts. But they can’t stop trying as success is not a guarantee that you’ll get in the first attempt. This post will tell you how important it is to have a strong brand in this competitive world and what advantages it will get. What makes a strong brand? If you think that a strong brand only means having giant stores, big hoardings, huge turnover, and celebrity endorsements, then you might not be completely right with that. Yes, it is right that many strong brands have all these factors but that doesn’t mean these ones are necessary. There are 5 important factors that’ll help you make a strong brand. A clear reason for why people should choose your brand. The strong promise of your brand towards the target audience. Should have a clear target market. Clear & effective branding. Focused marketing strategy according to the latest trends. These factors will ensure that you are on the right path with clear goals, thus, they’ll help you establish yourself strongly in the market. Besides, don’t forget to ensure quality and uniqueness in your products or services. Benefits of being a strong brand Make you different This is one of the prime benefits of having a strong brand. Only those who are different from others will be recognized by people in the crowd and recognition is most important when it comes to the digital world. Having strong brand value will differentiate you from others and people could easily find you in between numerous competitors. Thus, you will have the highest chances of getting more attention even if there are many competitors. With this, people will easily recognize you and prioritize you over others. Reduced risk of commoditization Having a strong brand means people trust you and the products you provide. They love to use your brand because it is unique and satisfies them completely. In this way, you will be able to connect with your target audience emotionally and this is the best way to get their support. Plus, it will also give you the power to set a price accordingly and not many will be worried. Now, when people trust you completely, there is the least chance that they will compare your brand with other normal brands. Loyal customers A strong brand is a sign that people trust it completely and they are loyal towards it. It’s because you have provided them with excellent quality products and they have started recognizing you as a trustworthy brand. Thus, if they are satisfied with your products or services, they will not go anywhere else. If you continue like this, the loyalty of your target audience and customers will increase and it’ll be of great help to achieve long-term goals. Perception of quality A brand can become strong only by delivering value to customers through its products/services and customer service. Now, when a brand has created its strong position in the market, people will start believing that whatever this brand provides is of excellent quality. This means, that you don’t have to make enough efforts to convince people about the qualities your product has, as they already believe in you. All you need to do is tell them the features you are offering to them. Plus, it is also seen that people also create a perception of good product quality that has not even arrived in the market. Yes, we are talking about new product launches, when a strong brand announces that it is going to launch a new product, people already believe that it will be of genuine quality. That’s how influential a strong brand is. Better success with new product inventions The strong brand leverages you the support of your customers not only with your current products or services but also with the new ones that are you are going to launch. That’s how important having a strong brand is. Innovation is a must because without that you cannot stay for long in the market and a strong brand identity helps you get good attention to your new product launches as well. Not only support and attention, but you will also get demand for new introductions to your target audience. In simpler words, we could say that with a strong brand you already have a good base for your innovations to disclose. Attracts real talent Google is the dream company that most of the young talent wants to work for and that’s because of its strong brand influence. Similarly, there are many such companies with a strong brand that people want to work with according to their interests and qualifications. Such brands don’t need to search for new talent as it gets attracted automatically because of the brand value company has. This is another reason or we could say the importance of having a strong brand. And you can imagine what value a true talent can deliver to your brand. Plus, it will also help you create the best team which is not only hard to beat but also provides innovative ideas whenever required. Better relationship with communities A strong brand is always admired and creating one will pose you as a true expert in your industry. This will be of great help when you join communities or forums related to your niche. There, you will be able to engage in discussions, and participants will give attention to what
Why Follow Competitors on Social Media
Every morning when we pick our phone, the first thing that we do is check notifications in our Insta, FB, and other social media accounts. This is how influential or we can say important social media has become is all our lives. We don’t want to miss even a single notification from our friends or the brands that we follow. (https://glasshousefarms.org/) We must say that social media has become a necessity for a large percentage of individuals across the globe and even businesses as well. This platform holds so much value to the brands that their popularity and status cannot stand strong without having a presence there. That is the reason why millions of businesses are actively engaged in social media and interacting with their target audience to ensure good brand recognition and authority. Having a presence on social media gives the opportunity for businesses to learn from their competitors. Yes, you read it right, social media provides the best opportunity for you to do better than your competitors and for that, you are just required to follow them. In this post, we will tell you the benefits of following your competitors and how it could be defining for your marketing strategies. Reasons to follow your competitors on social media Know your competitors The first key benefit of following your competitors is that you get to know them. This is one of the best ways to keep an eye on the products or services they provide and compare them with yours to identify whether they are the same or different. Following your competitors will give you deep insights into their business as they share with their target audience. By acting as a loyal client, you can also get to know everything they share with their premium customers and that would be of great help for your business. In this way, you will be able to strategize better for your brand and have maximum chances of overpowering them. Know the way they react The conversation is the key to open new opportunities for lead generation and getting sales. The way businesses react with their audience decides how loyal they will be and what response businesses will get. Now here is the catch, if your competitors are getting great engagement from their target audience and it is reciprocating the way they have thought, then there has to be something in the way they interact with the audience. The communication strategy of your competitors might be different from yours and some of the others as well. Hence, the best way to know the way they react and interact with their audience is to be part of the audience and monitor closely. See how they reply to conversations, how they tackle negative comments, and what tone they use while talking with the mass audience. All these parameters will help you improve the way you interact with the target audience. Know what’s next in their kitty This is a big plus of following your competitors on social media. Companies first inform about their new releases to their target audience through social media and if you follow them, you will also get to know better. While, if you also have any upcoming new product release, it will help you make it sooner or delay according to the response of the audience on the competitor’s product. If you see that the response is good, you might delay the product launch and if the response is not satisfactory then launching your product early could be a good idea. Know what is working for them When you follow someone, especially business on the social media platform, you will be able to see everything they do on their account be it a simple post, contest, or something else. This will tell you which strategies are delivering the best results and which are improving their brand reputation. Getting insights into all this will be of great help to optimize your strategies and implement them in the right way. You can check the type of content they are posting, their branding strategies, promotion tactics, and relationship with their audience. Focusing on all these parameters used by your competitors will give you better ideas to plan for your brand. Know what is not working for them Positives and negatives are part of everyone’s life and this implies to businesses as well. Not everything you do will go in your favor and that’s how everybody learns. So along with knowing what is working for your competitors, it is also important to have an idea of what is not working for them. Doing this will give you an idea of what you should avoid doing with your marketing strategies. For example, if you see videos posted by your competitors are getting less attention than infographics, then it might not work for you as well. While, if you want to try something that is not working for your competitors, you need to be more careful and use different tactics to get the attention you desire. It is advised not to get your hopes high while trying those tactics. Know how they handle customer issues Following your competitors will give you the authority to read customer reviews and post one you want. The theory is simple, if your competitors are doing better than you, then their clients and target audience is trusting them and they are getting better customer service as well. Remember, not all wants discounts, there are some people who look for better product quality and better customer service, and such an audience is the loyal and genuine one. So, you will see that your competitors must be addressing each of the issues faced by their customers and making every effort to solve them. You will encounter that even with harsh customer comments, your competitors are maintaining a soft professional tone and apologizing for the bad experience even when it’s not their fault. To some, they might be giving compensation with the apology.
Grow your Brand with Social Media Contests
Social media is ruling the world and it won’t be wrong to say that millennials cannot imagine their lives without social media. Not even millennials, generation Y is also actively engaged with social media. This has become an integral part of our day to day lives. We love to share our photographs, emotions, achievements, and many other things with our friends on social media contests. This platform has gained so much popularity in less amount of time that no one would have thought of. Over the years, social media has also evolved a lot that now, it is not only important for people to share photographs and memories, but it has also become a key part of businesses across the globe. Considering their popularity and importance, we must say that no business can think about digital marketing without social media. This post will be focused on telling how you can build your brand using contests on social media and improve recognition. Running a contest on popular social media platforms is a great way to attract genuine online traffic, build authority, increase user engagement, and boost traffic. Let us see how you can do it. How to build your brand by running social media contests Define the goal Whatever you do, having a clear goal is a must because that will keep you focused and help reach it sooner. So, while running a social media contest, the first and foremost thing for you must be the clarity of what you want to achieve through that. Some of the common goals could be: Increase in web traffic Better user engagement Genuine lead generation Improved brand authority and reputation Strong social media presence Growth of email list These all you can achieve by running an effective social media contest. But it is not necessary that every business wants all of them, some might look to achieve only a few and that could be different from the list provided above. Thus, to strategize which type of contest you should run, it is important to know your goals first. That will make it easier for you to move ahead. Know your audience The next important thing you need to do is to understand the audience you want to target. This is necessary because knowing your audience will help you generate specific content for them to get the desired attention you want. Creating a contest according to their interest will ensure better engagement and to know what entices them, you need to understand them. Knowing your audience includes the age-group you want to target, their lifestyle, interest, and income. All of these parameters are important based upon the niche of your business and the products or services you offer. Whom you want to target must also be clear before running any contest on social media. The prize should be worthy Deciding everything beforehand is always a good idea to prevent any last-minute hassles and ensure better results. Now when we are talking about a contest, there must be a prize as well for which your target audience will take part in. Based on your business’s niche, type of contest, and your target audience, you need to decide the prize you will give to the winner of the contest. Remember, the prize you choose must be worthy enough that tempts people to take part willingly and seriously follow all the rules & regulations set for the contest. For example, if you have a business of footwear than you can offer the winner with one of the premium shoes of your brand or a massive discount on the purchase on store or online. The prize is what people will participate for and if it is interesting, more and more people will participate for the contest to make it a big success. Set clear rules Whatever contest you want to run, its rules must be clearly stated so that everyone can understand them and follow them. Try to keep rules simple and wherever possible include an example to make people understand better. If rules are not clear, it could become a problem for you at a later stage. Creating a bullet point list of rules is always better to ensure easy to read appearance. Including a link where people can ask their queries regarding the rules or contest would be a great idea. Use a predefined yet unique hashtag Hashtags are becoming increasingly popular day by day on almost all social media platforms. With your contest as well, a predefined hashtag will be really helpful. You can include this in your rules that using the hashtag provided by you is a must for every participant. Doing this will make it easy to find contest entries and minimize any chances of missing even a single submission. Considering this will also make your hashtag popular and that will be of great help in the future. Choose the type of contest Now when you have prepared all the essentials for your social media contests, it is time to decide which type of contest to run. This will hold the most importance in deciding the success of the contest. Choosing the right contest according to the business’s niche and interest of your target audience is vital. Remember, the contest must be interesting enough to grab the attention of the target audience and keep them engaged so that they reach the end of the contest. Promote your contest Be it a brand or brand’s contest, promotion is always necessary to reach out to the target audience and tell them that you are running a contest with amazing prizes. While promoting the contest, using the right channels is the key as that’s where you will drive participants from. We must tell you that never only rely on free promotions, considering paid ones also hold the key. A combined effort will get you a lot of participants that you want. Promotions can be done on popular social media accounts relevant to your business including Facebook,
Digital Marketing Mistakes You Should Avoid
Every business needs to be digital in this technologically advanced world, and if it is not you cannot think of its success. Everything is going digital be it shopping or marketing and it is necessary as well. The digital platform has become the main source of leads for most of the businesses and why not, this platform is the most popular one with millions of active users. Irrespective of the business’s niche, digital marketing holds equal importance for everyone. All they need to do is pick the right marketing strategy based on their goals and expectations. But there are businesses, that with zeal to do everything, end up doing things they should not do, and that hurts them in the future. There is no doubt that digital marketing is one of the key focus areas for all businesses but it is also important for them to see what is right to do and what is not. This post will tell you about some of the common mistakes that businesses end up doing with their digital marketing strategies. You must avoid those, and knowing about them will help you strengthen your digital marketing campaign with the least chances of error. Digital marketing mistakes to avoid Having no goals Goals are a must in life to stay focused and avoid being distracted. Whatever you do, it must be clear in mind what you want to achieve through that. The theory is the same with digital marketing as well, you must know why you are adopting this strategy or starting the campaign. There are businesses that know digital marketing is important for them but they don’t have a clear idea of what they want through that, and that’s where the problem arises. If you don’t know your goals, you won’t be able to pick the right tactics and even the right audience for your campaign. Thus, you must know your goals, be it high web traffic, lead generation, sales, or subscription before starting the digital marketing campaign to make your strategy accordingly and move ahead strongly. Ignoring mobile users Forgetting mobile users is a serious crime when it comes to digital marketing and if done, you might face a serious punishment as well. You must know that more than half of the world’s population is using smartphones and without the internet, those smartphones have no value. The evolution of smartphones has made it easier for people to use the internet and they prefer doing so for general surfing like shopping, looking for services online, making payments, accessing their bank accounts, and more. The key reason behind this is the ease and speed by which they do so without worrying about where they are. While this is not the case with desktops as they are bigger and can only be used you have a proper place to sit. Several studies have shown that there are more mobile internet users when compared to desktops, and the reason you already know. Thus, it is necessary for every business thinking to make a mark in the digital world to have a mobile-friendly website, and if the budget allows, an app as well. Remember, most of the business that you will get digitally is from mobile internet users, so never ignore them and optimize your site and everything else you do online for mobile users. Not listening to the audience Remember one thing, without your audience, your business cannot flourish as no audience means no leads and eventually no sales. Thus, make it a habit to listen to what the audience is saying, whether it is unhappy with your service or has any suggestions for the betterment. If you don’t listen to them why would they, and hence, you need to take every single thing said by them on a serious note. Your audience wants to get heard for their queries and responding is one of the best ways to create a strong relationship with them. Ignoring what your audience is saying will create a negative image of your brand and depict that you are not concerned about delivering good customer service. So, while running your digital marketing campaign, do pay attention to what the audience wants to say and how it wants you to reciprocate. Ignoring offers and discounts Not always, but it is important to give offers and discounts to grab the attention of new customers and increase sales. It creates interest in people to grab the product before the best deal ends and there are chances that they will stay with you for long in search of more exciting offers. Some businesses have this theory in mind that giving discounts might be a loss for them but this is not the case, doing so increases the chances of getting more leads. Giving the best deals is also a great idea to increase web traffic and that could eventually help in improving SERP ranking as well. Having abandoned social media accounts Using digital marketing tactics and not experiencing any improvements in your online position is really heartbreaking. But this is only possible if you do something wrong and one of those reasons could be keeping social media accounts sidelined. Having social media accounts does not define your digital presence, for that, you need to stay active there and engage with your followers & target audience. Abandoning or ignoring your social media accounts could not get you the success you are looking for. Social media is the king when we talk about digital marketing tactics for businesses, without it, your businesses cannot speed up. So, avoid this and make yourself present 24/7 for your target audience and regularly post relevant content to keep them engaged and share the information they like. Taking blogs lightly Remember, it doesn’t matter what is your business’s niche, blogs are always important in showing your target audience and others about your expertise in whatever you are doing. So, if you think that blogs are not meant for the business you are
How to create engrossing and effective visuals from simple data
Be it a presentation at conference or a meeting or the home page of your website, visuals are always effective and interesting. They provide an attention-grabbing touch to the page or content they are added and could also be a deciding factor in ensuring better engagement of the audience. Visuals are more compelling than a written piece of information and they attract people easily & create interest. They are also an integral part when it comes to the SEO of any website and also of any content be it a blog post or a presentation in a meeting. One misconception most of us might have with the visuals is about the data. We think that the data for visuals need to be complex and bulky. But this is not true and we need to understand this. This post will tell you about some tips and strategies for create amazing visuals from a simple data and even limited piece of information. What are visuals? When we talk about digital marketing, images, infographics, videos, and GIFs play an important role in defining the success of your website and social media accounts. All these are known as visuals and they are not a choice to be used rather they are necessities. A single visual can speak more than a content of 1000 words. If used in the right way, visuals could be the key for the success of your digital marketing campaign. Tips to create visuals Content is the priority A visual displays a piece of information and for that, content is required. So, the first priority should be unique and informative content. You need to create a content with precise and concise information that will be put in the visual. One thing to remember while creating the content is that it should be data-driven because that is what will make your visual effective. While, if your data is facts-based, it will just be the icing over the cake. Try to tell a story Visuals are best at storytelling and that is what engages people more. With whatever information you have, just try to tell a story through visuals and for that, you can use infographics to a good effect. If you are able to create a story with facts, then it could be a wonderful thing for you. For example, if your product or service is capable of solving a problem of users, then your visual could include a brief description about the problem that viewers can relate followed by the benefit of choosing your product or service. Chart could be the best A chart is one of the most commonly used yet simplest form of visual that has the power to demonstrate most complex of numerical data in simplest form. Thus, if you have some data like the growth of your customers in recent years or the rise in the subscription made by your audience in last 5 years, then representing this sort of information in a chart form will be great and compelling. You can find numerous examples of how to represent an information through charts in interesting manner. All you are required to do is research to create a unique design. Remove the add-ons The key to create an interesting and effective visual is to include only relevant information as any add-ons could be distracting and they might make it a messy one. Anything that is not supporting or justify the information you want to deliver must be removed. Plus, be smart with the design also, as choosing a heavy one might also mess things up. Include different data visualizations This is of importance when you have enough information for creating a visual. In such a situation, it is important to use different data visualization designs to ensure that the information is being conveyed clearly. A combination of different types of graphs, charts, and pictorial representations will be a great idea. All of this will make an engaging and information-rich infographic that people would love to share. Ensure easily readable font style Creating a unique visual never means that it should be so stylish that it becomes difficult to read what is written. So, whatever template design you choose, make sure that font style is clearly readable and if necessary, make it bold. Make sure that headlines have larger font size than the content to depict the information correctly. Even if you have simple & limited data, all your text must be clearly readable because that is most important as if people are not able to read all the rest of your efforts will be wasted. Choose colors effectively Colors play a vital role in creating any type of visual as they will make it appealing and attention-grabbing. But you must know that not all colors combinations work well and while choosing them, a special care must be taken. The key here is to use contrasting colors that make every information appear easily while on the other hand, you can choose bright colors for displaying key points. Remember, the better you color combination is more impactful will be the visual. Less sometimes can be more When it comes to including data in the visual, not always you require bulk of the information as sometimes, a small piece of information could do the job the more data cannot. So, if you have limited information, try to represent it with relevant yet attractive pictures like icons, clipart, or symbols. Your ability to innovate could be the deciding factor here and if you are finding it difficult, do consider help from a professional. Your minimal resources can deliver best of the information. Be original Last but not the least, only originality is admired by people and even search engine bots like original content. So, while create visuals, it is necessary for you to know that being unique is the key. Thus, whichever visual you are creating, try to be unique and ensure that it is delivering the right message that you
How to Increase Audience Engagement
To ensure a strong online presence, it is important for you to have a company’s website because that’s where people will land in the end to get more details. A website is an online platform for a business where interested people can visit and see what’s in there for them. But for users to check your website and spend some quality time, your website needs to be attractive, informative, and easily navigable. Because one of the most important things for your website is the user’s engagement and only this will help you get the visitors to the call to action on your website. While on the other hand, if you are not able to engage the audience on your site, no matter how many visitors come, you won’t be able to achieve your goals. If a user lands on your site, it is important that he/she spends enough time searching for the information he/she seeks and getting details of it. This way, the reputation, and authority your brand will improve along with the position of your website in the search rankings. Now, for a user to spend time on the website, it should have almost everything that the user is looking for and for that, you need to consider some points. This post will cover all the important tips by which you will be able to improve audience engagement on your site and take your brand to the next level. What is Meant by Audience Engagement? In simpler terms, audience engagement can be defined as the active participation of your website visitors with the content present. It is also known as the scenario where people are spending enough time on a website reading the content they were in search of and are convinced enough to do what you want them to. A site or even a business’s social media profile with good user engagement has a high chance of driving the audience to the call to action with complete consent. Plus, high user engagement gives you a more loyal audience along with a high number of returning customers and conversion rates. Engagement of people is very important for a brand to succeed in this extremely competitive world. This is because only engaging with something can help anyone know details about it and that’s how they can decide about its qualities and unique points. Tips for Increasing Audience Engagement Consider site speed First and the foremost thing that you need to consider while designing your website is its loading speed. If the site is slow to load, it is likely that not many will wait to load it completely and then look for the information they want. Keep this thing in mind that the audience doesn’t have patience, it wants things to get done quickly and a slow loading website surely cannot meet the expectations of people. Thus, the first rule of increasing audience engagement is to have a fast loading website that doesn’t let visitors wait for much to see the information they are in search of. To ensure good loading speed, it is advised to choose a good hosting provider and avoid having a shared one. This is the prime reason for having a slow loading website. Another reason could be the inclusion of videos and images with heavy file size. So, you need to optimize your web pages accordingly to ensure quick loading. To check the current loading speed of your site, you can take the help of various tools available on the internet. Know the needs of your target audience Remember, the site is yours but it will be used by the target audience to get the information they want. Thus, it is important for you to know the needs and requirements of your audience and optimize your site accordingly, because when visitors don’t get what they want, why will they stay? The audience will only engage with your site when it finds the information provided by you relevant and qualitative. The simple theory here is to fulfill the needs of visitors and they will ensure better engagement. For that, you need to know what they want and provide that through your website. Do proper market research, look into what competitors are offering to their customers, act like your target audience to know what to provide better, and look for strategies to improve user’s experience on your site. Considering these points will help you stand different in the crowd and you will see results soon. Simplify the layout of landing pages Sometimes, landing pages with too much content could also result in bad user engagement and a high bounce rate. This is because having too much content creates confusion and visitors cannot decide what next they should do, and eventually, they end up leaving the site. Having a high bounce rate not always mean that the quality of content is low, sometimes it is also due to the clutter present on your site. Thus, it becomes important for you to have enough white spaces in between the content of landing pages so that users can easily visualize the elements present there. Despite having unique and quality information, you need to place it tactically on the landing pages so that it gets the attention of users. And when people will find it suitable for them, their engagement level increases. It is advised to only keep necessary elements on the landing pages that you think are relevant for the target audience as placing unnecessary ones will only make them messy. Another important thing that you need to consider is the font size and font style, it should be easily readable, as if it is not, you cannot even think of any engagement. Quality always overpowers quantity Always remember this while posting anything on your website that quality should be your priority not the quantity. By delivering valuable and qualitative to your target audience, you can expect most of them to come back for more. But by only focusing