How to Deal With Debt By Doing Business Marketing Smartly?

Published on: 04 June 2018 Last Updated on: 03 September 2024

Small businesses and startups often find it much easier to borrow the lion’s share of their capital. Finding an investor is never completely off the table, but it is not an easy task to do. It is much easier to find lending organizations, who are ready to test out the abilities of the new entrepreneurs to multiply their monies.

Very soon, a time arises when the creditors expect at least a part of their invested money back. Now, this is a time most entrepreneurs know will come, but none are ready to face. It is almost always “too early” or “too sudden.”

Online marking, when you are already in massive debt?

Online marking, when you are already in massive debt

Gaining momentum for a new business not only takes time and effort, but it also takes some serious marketing skills. By marketing, we do not mean TVCs, hoardings, and pamphlets. Those are ancient forms of advertising that no one even notices anymore. If you are in such a situation, what you need is a stable dose of online marketing that will make you visible to your target audience.

Here comes the biggest conundrum in the world. When a business is already nose-deep in debt, can it afford to plunge further in by going in for online marketing? That entirely depends on your perspective of online marketing. Your contenders and contemporaries may think online marketing to be an added expense, but you know what almost 71% of the US population is already online and looking for businesses like you. So, would you deem online marketing as an added expense or a smart investment?

You need a website first :

website

The first step of online marketing is getting your own presence established online. It means an excellent site. By nice, we mean something that’s functional, professional, SEO optimized, and capable of attracting and converting traffic. It should represent your selling theme, services, and products perfectly.

Building a website is no easy feat. You may have the enthusiasm to build a website from scratch, but not all entrepreneurs can have the coding skills and analytical skills needed to construct a working business website. Building a website from scratch can take up a lot of time, and it takes a lot of algorithms to perfect the buying and payment process. Either you can opt for DIY website builders like WordPress or Joomla, or you can surely approach a professional website builder.

A professional website builder will again cost you a few bucks. If you are thinking of building a PHP based website from scratch, it will also take considerable amounts of time. Now, this is not going to be cheap for your business. Therefore, it is not uncommon for entrepreneurs to wonder if going for online marketing is the best way to a debt solution.

The inspiration you need :

So, let us tell you a real-life success story. Initially a nobody, Rank Fishkin started out with his own tech startup and went plummeting into a $500,000 personal debt. From there he is now the owner of the world’s largest SEO, social media, and content marketing website Moz that is netting about $40 million in revenue for the last seven years. That is a success story better than any fairy tale you will ever hear. Was it easy? Did it involve magic spells? No! It required endless hours of smart digital marketing strategies and intelligent investment moves.

The moral of the story is: just because you are nose deep in debt, does not mean you can invest in something new. Digital marketing and social media marketing are the new ways to reintroduce your brand to a new world of potential buyers. People are waiting out there right now to hear from you about your products and services.

How to find them?

Finding the right people at the right time is the only “magic” you need to perform. You will need a few social media listening tools like HootSuite, Buffer, and Social Sprout. These offer a few free services. Their premium services cost less than a Grande. Of course, you will need to work on your social media account before you start listening to what people are saying about your brand online! So get started. Create a professional Facebook page, Twitter account, and at least an Instagram page. You need to post daily. Sometimes twice a day. Engage in regular conversations with your customers. Stay visible and exciting.

If you ever run out of original content, do not shy away from asking your followers for some. Do it tactfully. Introduce new photo contests, quizzes, and polls with attractive rewards. That is the way to create user-generated content. It is the most efficient way to keep your page and wall filled with meaningful content every minute of staying online.

Investing is not the problem, not spending in the right places is :

Online marketing is an investment in every way possible. It is like putting a bait to catch the bigger fish. Using the right keywords in your product descriptions, doctoring your URL to suit the liking of the bots, and including image tags to become visible during Google image searches are all parts of that investment. Still, you may want to consult your personal financial advisor before you take the plunge. You need to be in touch with your financial reality before you can make new investments. Your financial advisor or your debt counselor should help you in understanding the debt program’s details. Your current debt program may have reservations about making new investments or certain kinds of investments unless you pay off a certain fraction of the amount you have borrowed.

Most businesses end up in a fiscal dead-end due to ignorance and bad decision-making, rather than investing in new marketing. We have seen companies drown because they were not adventurous enough and they have always played safe. In 2017, online marketing is not a luxury or an option. It is a compulsion you need to embrace before your competitors take away all your potential clients. Making yourself more visible on the internet will get you more sales and profit. It will help you make more money and pay off your debts faster than usual.

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Content Rally wrapped around an online publication where you can publish your own intellectuals. It is a publishing platform designed to make great stories by content creators. This is your era, your place to be online. So come forward share your views, thoughts and ideas via Content Rally.

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5 Ways Marketing Strategies Will Change Post COVID-19

To think life will go back to normal post-Pandemic is a pipe dream. The world underwent a paradigm shift to the new normal, and there is no returning now. The COVID-19 Pandemic has brought many changes we couldn’t have ever predicted. The unheralded health crises impacted nearly everything, from personal affairs to governmental decisions and even corporate matters. Business operations, in particular, faced quite a few alterations. Digital mediums took over the world by storm, and e-commerce businesses experienced a significant rise in demand. These reshaped business activities welcomed a considerable restructuring of marketing strategies. Marketers primarily shifted their focus to online tools, giving digital marketing an unanticipated hype. Given the technological innovations rate, marketers expect to see many more advancements in the marketing department post-COVID-19. Read below to find out how marketing strategies will change after the Pandemic. 1. The Importance of Online Presence: If businesses have to choose one takeaway from the crisis, it would be essential to have an online presence. With strict lockdowns and restrictions on going out, the entire world switched to conducting and participating in businesses online. Many also realized the convenience such platforms bring. Hence, owning a website has now become an essential business marketing strategy. Almost 56% of businesses with a website perform better as compared to the ones without a website. Besides, a website is one of the most powerful digital marketing tools. It marks your presence on the internet and helps you get more reach. A website also lets you upload a customizable flip book or eBook where you can share all necessary details about your products and services. It is an exceptional technique to spread awareness about your brand, attract traffic, and eventually boost sales. A website gives your customers ease of access and costs much less than traditional marketing, and dramatically impacts investment return. It is a proven worthwhile investment. An authentic-looking website enhances your business’s professionalism and adds value to it. Hence, having a website is vital for a business’s success. So, it is safe to say that website marketing will be a critical element post-COVID-19. 2. The Emergence of Social Media: Social media is undisputedly the king of marketing. The world is quickly becoming digitally advanced, with social media users increasing rapidly. Nearly 83.3% of people use social media worldwide, and the figure is likely to grow by 10% each year. Not only that, 71% of businesses have a social media account, out of which 90% experience improvements in sales and growth. 90% of users connect with brands through social media, and 54% of consumers make purchases from brands after scrolling through the brand’s social media account. The statistics above prove the criticality of a social media presence for businesses. The future is uncalled for, but one thing is for sure; social media’s regime will only grow. Social media helps connect brands with potential customers and allows marketers to make informed decisions based on the target audience. It also gives businesses an incredible opportunity to grow. The paid advertising options on Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat are the easiest, quickest, and most affordable promotion plans for your business. So, you can popularize, promote, and increase your brand’s overall ROI without breaking the bank. Social media is here to stay and quite possibly grow into a platform unimaginable. Hence, social media was, is, and will remain, marketers, fundamental focus. 3. Video Marketing: Video marketing was every marketer’s favorite even before COVID-19 and is still growing phenomenally. Studies confirm that videos interest more users than any other graphics form and carry great potential for attracting customers. YouTube and other video streaming sites are experiencing an incredible increase in usage. These sites allow businesses to market their products and services or raise brand awareness in the form of high-quality videos. Video content also plays an essential role in emails. It exceptionally increases your email’s click-through rates and decreases the unsubscribe rates. Additionally, it boosts your SEO by attracting traffic and increasing your site’s searchability and visibility on different search engines. After seeing how effective video marketing leaves on the brand and consumers, it is likely to grow and remain a powerful marketing strategy in the future. 4. Customer Retention and Loyalty: One major disadvantage many businesses had to face due to the Pandemic was to cut down costs in essential areas like marketing. As a result, markets had to shift their focus to different, long-run marketing tactics like building customer loyalty. Customer loyalty helps you stay one step ahead of your competitors. Loyal customers give you valuable feedback, increasing your business’s rating and eventually attracting new customers. Building customer loyalty considerably reduces your marketing spending, but retaining a customer also leads to a more profitable outcome. Remember, customer retention is what powers customer acquisition. The free word-of-mouth promotion your business gets from loyal customers is one of the most significant benefits of building customer loyalty. Loyal customers are also likely to make purchases repeatedly and trust your business enough to pay premium prices. 5. Less Is More: The Pandemic has stipulated marketers think about innovative marketing strategies without having to go all out. They have to find ways to develop creative marketing campaigns, which are both practical and inexpensive. Moreover, with a limited budget, marketers have restricted resources which they have to ensure to save for more than one campaign. In short, the coronavirus has compelled marketers to do more with less. Marketers need to make efficient use of technology to find solutions and make decisions quicker. The “less is more” trend will continue long after the Pandemic is over as marketers turn their attention to enhancing innovation and improving skills. Conclusion: Businesses will undoubtedly have to deal with the pandemic effects for a long time to come. However, organizations have to push ahead. The Pandemic led to several changes in consumer buying patterns which marketers cannot ignore at any cost. The changes in consumption techniques encouraged marketers to think ahead and think creatively. Even though companies cut down the cost of marketing immensely due to COVID-19, the role of marketing has thoroughly increased during the Pandemic. However, there is still quite a lot of room for growth and innovation. These alterations in marketing strategies are likely to continue and grow post-COVID. Read Also: Key Components for Your Marketing Stack How To Foolproof Your Digital Marketing Strategy? Why Email Marketing is the BEST Digital Marketing Outreach in Singapore

Creative Marketing Strategies to Put Your Small Translation Business

As the owner of a translation business, you know firsthand just how much a good marketing strategy can make or break you. However, your current advertising strategy often makes you feel like your company is getting, well, lost in translation. You need to make a change as soon as possible. But you're just not sure where you should start when it comes to updating your marketing plan. In this post, we're sharing both print and digital advertising tips that you can't afford to miss out on. When you're ready to dominate your target market and outrank your competition in the search engine results, keep on reading. Start with Your Website Especially when you're running an international business, you need advertising tips that can reach everyone on the globe -- at the same time. In short, while a strong website is important for every company, it becomes even more essential for brands who need to reach people in different time zones and across different languages. In other words? Even though you're running a translation business, it doesn't change the fact that nearly 3/4 of consumers say they prefer to read content in their first language. Start by looking for the right tools and plugins that will automatically change your site's language to the language of the user. But don't stop there. Having an intuitive and branded web design are also key digital marketing tips. This matters because people will stay on a site they find easy to use for much longer than average. Pop-ups, autoplay features, or just sites that take forever to load won't cause them to click away after three seconds. This helps you rise in search engine rankings. First of all, ensure your site loads quickly and completely on desktop and mobile devices. Use menu options at the top of your page to help users find exactly what they're looking for as fast as possible. If you're blogging (more on that in a minute) make sure you've taken the time to properly categorize your past posts. Above all, keep your homepage engaging and organized, like on this website. Finally, don't forget to include your company's contact information on not just the homepage, but every page of your internal website. Remember that consumers won't always come to the homepage first. Don't make them hunt around on your site to find out how to get answers to their questions or sign up for your services. Blogging and Guest Posting Now that we've covered how your website will drive more customers to your translation business, let's talk about how blogging can increase your site visitors by around 300%. We understand that blogging is a lot of work -- and, if you have to hire professional content services to write your posts for you, it can also be expensive. So, why is it worth it? First of all, it helps to increase your authority and brand recognition within your target market. By providing information-based (as opposed to sales-driven) blog posts, you strengthen consumer trust in your brand. Plus, blogging also tells Google and other search engines that you update your entire website more often than companies who just have a static site. This means that you'll be able to outrank your competitors in the search engine results. Plus, you'll also have more indexed pages (AKA, pages that have been read and categorized by Google.) This also helps you get higher up in the search engine result pages. Blogging also gives you an amazing opportunity to connect with your target market and shorten your overall sales cycle through the use of keywords. By naturally including keywords (what people type into search engines when they need a translation business) in your content, your website will show up in front of people who are ready to buy exactly what you're selling. But blogging alone isn't enough. You also need to get into guest posting. This is one of the best online advertising tips because it gives you the chance to broaden your market and increase your brand awareness at the same time. Write articles and blog posts for popular online journals, websites, and even forums that are relevant to the translation industry. Other Key Digital Advertising Ideas Of course, your digital marketing strategy shouldn't begin and end with site design, blogging, and guest posting alone. There are a few other digital marketing tips you should take into consideration, too. Make sure that you claim your third-party listings on platforms like Google My Business, and fill out your profiles as completely as is possible. This is especially helpful when it comes to connecting you to your target market. Those third-party listings are also important because they allow your customers the chance to leave online reviews for your business. While having a testimonials section on your website is a good idea, most consumers feel that third-party site reviews are less biased. Make sure you frequently read and respond to these reviews -- yes, even the bad ones. You want to prove to potential and current clients that you take their input seriously. Social media is also essential in the online marketing world. However, especially since you're a smaller business, we suggest that you conduct some market research to find out which platform your customers spend most of their time on. Focus your efforts there first, and then expand to other platforms. If possible, aim to post three times a day: morning, noon, and night. Finally, never underestimate the power of an e-newsletter. Not only will this allow you to let your leads and current customers know about new product offerings and flash sales. E-newsletters can also help to build up a personal connection between you and your market. You can feature employees of the month, tell customer stories, and even ask for feedback in survey form. Offline Advertising Tips for Your Translation Business Yes, having a strong digital marketing strategy is incredibly important for your translation business. However, it doesn't mean that you can completely ignore print marketing or offline marketing in general. Now, let's take a look at some seriously effective marketing ideas that don't require an Internet connection. Host an Event One of the best ways to get your name out there is by hosting an event in your local market. You don't have to spend a lot of money in order to increase your brand recognition -- you just have to focus on inviting the right people. Invite other local businesses to a dinner at an international restaurant in your area, or host a "language night" at a local school. Focus on event spaces that have a global feel -- even having a "movie night" where you show a popular international film could work. We suggest handing out promotional products at these events. This way, even if attendees don't need translations services now, they'll know who to call when they do in the future. Don't Underestimate Mailings Relying on the cousin of the e-newsletter, paper mailings, to get the word out about your business is still an effective marketing idea. People love getting "snail mail," especially as it becomes rarer and rarer. Whenever possible, hand-address your envelopes to increase their open rate. When you send out mailings, think outside the holiday card or business pamphlet alone. Instead, consider including things like a magnetic calendar, so that customers can have your company in their heads all year long. You could also include a paper card with a discount code. The same goes for simply including a physical coupon offering them a percentage off of your services. Also, slip in a few of your business cards, and handwrite a note on the back of them. You may also want to create a branded letterhead or stationary, in order to increase your brand recognition. It's all about building a personal connection between you and your leads. Grow Your Translation Business with These Tips We hope that this post has helped you to better understand how to market your translation business both on and offline. Remember that conducting thorough market research -- and knowing when to ask for the help of a professional marketing team -- will take you a long way. Looking for additional advice about how to build your brand? Want to ensure you're creating evergreen content that your market will love sharing on social media? Want to understand how good web design increases your conversions and grow your traffic? Our blog can help you to learn all of that and more, so keep coming back to us for more advertising advice. Read Also: What To Look For In A Transcription Service Provider

4 Lessons Content Marketers Can Learn from E-learning Courses

Content marketing is one of the most dynamic marketing disciplines because it involves engaging consumers through a piece of content you create for boosting website traffic and sales for your business. This isn’t easy to achieve because consumers constantly change, meaning that the parameters for creating good content that will engage them to change accordingly. This is one of the key reasons why content marketers need to keep themselves up-to-date with the latest techniques and learn the right way to approach content creation. In this article, we will talk about what content marketers can learn from online courses. If you are not convinced, stick around for a while and learn about the connection between content marketing and elearning courses. 4 Lessons Content Marketers Can Learn Through E-learning Make sure that your writing is concise and absolutely clear and leave no room for readers to misunderstand it. The content that you put out should be easily understood by everyone reading it, and give readers a sense that they are accomplishing and learning something important. Here is the name of four lessons that content marketers can learn from eLearning courses. 1. Being Topic Relevant And Staying On Topic Learning courses include relevant and meaningful content that engages learners and motivates them. The same logic can be applied when creating content for marketing purposes. You need to include specific information that will engage the audience. Consumers will be deeply engaged in your content if they find valuable information that revolves around the general topic. If you are providing information that is not closely related to the topic or simply talking about unimportant things, they will lose interest in your content. So, make sure that you don’t lose perspective and stick to the main topic. This is not always easy to do because of the fact that you simply won’t know what people would like to learn from your content. Working hard on putting yourself in the shoes of your target audience is essential in order to create engaging and concise content. 2. Segmenting Content And Giving Readers The Freedom Apart from the fact that you need to create content that can be intriguing to your target audience, you also need to give them the option of exploring your content the way they see fit. Elearning is effective because learners create a hypothesis and they try to prove it. You must allow people to navigate through your content, test ideas, and give them the time to make their own conclusions. By segmenting content into clear paragraphs and subheadings, people will also be able to decide on their own which information is new to them, and which isn’t. For example, if we are talking about an instructional blog post, a reader can quickly skip over the steps they know already and find the information they are looking for. Try as best as you can to avoid creating linear content that has no scope for interactive involvement. Let your learners choose what they want to learn. For instance, online management training courses give learners the option to make choices that will affect their training outcome. Although you don’t have the option of allowing too much freedom and action, you should look to simulate similar structures within your content. 3. Building Engagement On An Emotional Level People whom you are targeting with your content need to have those elements that resonate with their personalities. A person won’t be able to learn if that learning content doesn’t engage that person emotionally in a positive way. The same rule applies to content marketing as well. In order to be effective and keep the target audience engaged while being memorable, it needs to invoke positive emotions in those consumers. If a person thinks that some information is unimportant, they will probably not remember it. You need to learn a lot about your target audience and fight some broad characteristics that most of them share. For example, you can use their job or level of education to your advantage and include relatable information within your content that will have them connect with what they are reading or looking at. 4. Make Your Content Digestible Simplicity is the key in content marketing and this doesn’t mean that you shouldn't focus on some more complex topics. Always explain them in the easiest possible manner. Learning courses always try to deliver knowledge in a simple and understandable way, and your content should be similar. First of all, make sure that you split up your long paragraphs for added clarity. Include bullet points, divide information, and highlight information that is essential. This way, you won’t exhaust your readers and allow them to digest your content, piece by piece. It is also important to learn the right type of content for explaining certain topics and not to stick bluntly to one type of content just because it is easier for you. Use charts, infographics, pictures, illustrations to quickly explain something without having to write long paragraphs that have the potential to be misunderstood. Wrapping It Up: The business management training can be very complex and it slowly introduces learners to the terms and techniques until they have all the knowledge they need to participate in advanced training lessons. These are the key features of eLearning courses and the main reasons why they are so effective at teaching people. Engaging people in your content and allowing them to memorize it quickly is vital in content marketing, and these above-mentioned four things will help you achieve that without fail.

How to Deal With Debt By Doing Business Marketing Smartly?