Explore Some Interesting Marketing Trends for Your Business in 2018

Published on: 01 August 2018 Last Updated on: 01 August 2024

How effective is your business marketing strategy? Have you been successful in staying abreast with the latest marketing trends? Have you been implementing effective strategies for measuring your success? If the answers to the above questions are no, do not lose heart. You are certainly not alone on this count. Several small businesses and SMEs do not even bother to find out if at all their business marketing tactics are working successfully. Here we would be examining some of the latest business marketing trends that are dominating the scenario today. You are advised to follow these strategies for gaining incredible business success.

Tune Your Market Strategy :

A small segment of business owners is aware when their market strategies are tanking. This could happen due to lack of planning, poor planning, haphazard attempts at success and no foresight. Successful digital marketers know that a large portion of their budget must go into content marketing on blogs, social media, and emails and so on. Good content must be created and promoted so that the business is noticed and can take off.

Plan, Plan, Plan

Less than 40% of businesses have effective content marketing strategies in place. Some fail due to poor quality content, others because they don’t target their audience properly. A good marketer always tracks activity through each stage of the funnel and ensure that the strategy is fine-tuned when things go wrong.

Tracking & Measuring :

How to gain marketing success digitally for your SMEs could still seem to be a mystery for many of you. A huge percentage of small business entrepreneurs, as much as 46 percent to be precise, actually do not have any idea if the marketing strategies for their businesses are effectively working or not.

Thanks to the present cutting-edge technologies, you are in a position to keep on tracking all your marketing returns, expenses, and debt. For example, you could today find out exactly how much it would be costing your business for acquiring a new customer. You must consider all dollars diverted toward various areas of marketing including social media, website, blog writing, trade shows, direct mail, paid social, etc. you must consider factoring in all you have already spent on all these important marketing elements and then divide the amount by the number of new clients you acquire every month. Moreover, you must find out from exactly which marketing channel you are able to get new clients and more inquiries. It is imperative to consistently track ROI.

Social Media Marketing Is Currently the Rage :

As per a recent study, it has been predicted that 2018 is surely going to be the year of intense social media promotion and marketing. Among the SMEs, an impressive 71 percent is expected to gain new clients by using social media platforms effectively for marketing their brands. This present marketing trend must be given a lot of importance and most entrepreneurs are appreciating and understanding the effectiveness of social media marketing. Social media is certainly one of the hottest business marketing trends.

Facebook is obviously the prime choice for small businesses as 79% of entrepreneurs would be using Facebook in all their marketing endeavors. Will your business be benefitted if you incorporate the social media marketing plans into your business strategy?

According to some Facebook exponents, Facebook success is all about going mobile. If you wish to maximize the impact of Facebook in the marketing and promotion of your business, you must dedicate all your efforts at generating and delivering everything mobile-friendly.

Virtual Reality Is Common :

Virtual reality is gaining importance by the day and is, therefore, becoming a common marketing tool for both small and big brands. The actual challenge would be to utilize Virtual Reality or VR in such an effective way that it really makes sense for both your target audience and brand messaging in general. VR marketing actually is an emerging trend and now is the right time for exploring the options that are available to you and getting well ahead of the competition.

Pinterest :

Pinterest is actually regarded as a niche social networking site. However, it is forecasted to be a huge success. The best way of grabbing marketing attention is by utilizing Pinterest Lens and its versatility and functionality for engaging effectively with consumers and showcasing your mind-blowing style, products, and services.

Artificial Intelligence :

Early exponents of AI or Artificial Intelligence have categorically realized the efficacy of AI in boosting user engagement. However, incorporating AI into any site’s chatbox such as the Facebook messenger could be creating more creativity and it also helps you to understand clearly the target market of the brand. Artificial intelligence would be addressing consumer needs and issues with perfection and the same degree of efficacy as a human agent. Remember it would be quite effective and helpful if the artificial intelligence experience absolutely delights your customers in basically lighthearted and fun ways.

Conclusion :

This year marketing trends have focused on honesty and authenticity. The latest marketing trend is to focus on stark reality or brutal honesty and this marketing trend is winning a lot of acclaim and appreciation. Marketers could discuss their products and explain clearly how advantageous those products or services are. They must, at the same time, tell their target audience the scope for improvement and the flaws that may still exist. All these statements could be supported by truly objective customer reviews. Authenticity for brands is the hottest marketing trend today. Around 86 percent of the customers feel authenticity is of utmost importance while deciding and evaluating the brands. Around 60 percent of consumers believe that user-generated content is the best form of authentic content.

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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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Avoiding Sales And Operations Planning Mistakes

When it comes to sales and operations planning, a lot of mistakes can be made throughout the process, and you won’t be successful. Planning for the sales and the operations is going to lead the organization to the peak of success. But faults and errors are going to cost more than this. For beginners, the sales mistakes chances are enormous. Take a look at the common mistakes and avoid making blunders. 5 Common Planning Mistakes In Sales And Operations The organizational structure and the profit are entirely depending upon the organization’s sales and operational system. Therefore, avoiding these sales mistakes can help you execute best practices and reap the rewards. Here are five common sales mistakes which can lead your organization to a dark and challenging state. 1. Lack Of Executive Ownership The big sales mistakes happen when the executive leadership team doesn’t fully own the sales and operations planning process. If leadership isn’t engaged, then it won’t be as successful. If the leaders aren’t involved, it’s essential to understand why. It could be you aren’t giving them the tools to run the company or consider information that is easy to understand. A good technology platform may also be the key. The best processes and people can only take you so far, and technology can help speed up the process and allow the team to shift focus from just calculations to analysis, which is more important. 2.Lack of Cross-Functional Engagement The whole point of using the sales and operations planning process is to make sure the entire organization is moving in the same, right direction. This can be hard to do if there isn’t any involvement from the key stakeholders. If you aren’t having sales, operations, or finance teams engaged in the process, you won’t be successful. Usually, this is due to a lack of a way to translate between the different views of information. To make the process work, you need to have the same information exposed to each stakeholder in the form they need and understand. You can start small and work your way up to more significant projects, but you need to extend the scope to all the different people and provide the required translation to make sure everyone is on the same page. You may go through History and How to Increase Sales in Your Confectionery Shop 3.Focusing On Just One Number For years, the mantra of sales and operations planning was to get to a one-number plan, but this can be too simplified and limits the value of planning for many executives. Executives are paid for predictability, and they are hired to manage sales mistakes risk. Planning can be a great tool to help, but only if you aren’t falling for the one-number trap. Instead, it helps plan in ranges and have a best case, worst case, and expected all in the process. The ability to know what can happen if things don’t go according to the plan is priceless information. 4.Complexity It’s essential to keep it simple when it comes to metrics. Companies can become paralyzed by making the wrong decisions when looking at hundreds of different metrics. On the other hand, having things too complex can prevent companies from asking the right questions. You should pick your big 10 to 15 metrics and then go with them. Then, track these metrics and make the performance transparent. Therefore everybody can understand why these metrics are being tracked, what they are, and how to learn from the numbers. Common sales mistakes can be avoided by knowing the metrics and analyzing the data. 5.Not Having Documentation In order to learn from past mistakes, you have to have documentation. You need to capture all the assumptions and knowledge that goes into the plan. You need to provide a tool to capture this information and make it easy for teams to contribute. For instance, if you are collaborating as a group using social media, then be sure to capture those chats and embed them into the plan, so you are able to understand the context of changes or decisions six months later. If you aren’t learning from history, you are doomed when you will repeat it and won’t succeed. Conclusion: Sales and operations planning can give you great results, but you may not achieve success if you aren’t executing the process correctly. These are the common sales mistakes that may happen at any time. If you want to avoid making these mistakes, always look at the operation and data collection before planning. What is your strategy to avoid making mistakes for the sales and operation plannings? Do not forget to share your opinion in the comment section. Read Also: This Is Why Social Media Is Essential in the B2B Sales Process Getting Help from an E-Commerce Expert to Boost Your Online Store Sales

Magento vs. Shopify: Which Is Best For Your E-commerce Store?

The first quarter of 2019 has almost passed, and it has been predicted that 18% of the purchases will be made online by 2040. Further, 95% of the orders will be facilitated by e-commerce store. Considering the above statistics, it comes as no surprise that the fate of your online business is dependent on how your website works. But did you know that all your website operations rely on the choice of your e-commerce platform? Now, as the online store owners narrow down the choices, they are only left with two main platforms as the contenders- Magento and Shopify. While both platforms can create a one-of-kind e-commerce store, they differ in many areas. To start with, Shopify works best for smaller businesses. On the flip side, Magento is aimed at enterprise businesses. This post is going will give you an in-depth insight on Magento and Shopify and help you decide which is an ideal platform for your e-commerce store. Magento and Shopify in a Nutshell: e-commerce store Magento: Launched in 2007, Magento is a self-hosted e-commerce platform that powers a number of web stores. The platform is open source and comes with two versions including community (suitable for developers and small businesses) and enterprise edition (best suited for mid-sized and large e-commerce stores). The usage of the platform is free, but you’ll have to pay an amount for premium apps, themes, and hosting. Irrespective of the price you have to pay, this platform is best known for its flexibility, ability to customize, and scalability. Shopify: Shopify is a hosted e-commerce platform that allows single-step order fulfillment and lets you set up a store with a custom domain and a theme. This platform comes with an easy-to-use interface and is more for beginner developers. Moreover, it comes with a 14-day free trial, allows integration with over 70 payment gateways, and is available in almost every language. Although there are numerous Shopify alternatives available across the web, what sets this platform apart from others is its ability to set up a dynamic store in no time. You will have to pay for the platform after the free trial, but the Shopify team takes care of all the technical tasks. Magento and Shopify: What Numbers Say! Description Shopify Magento Number of Websites 600,000 250,000 Number of Extensions 2,400+ 3,000+ Number of Themes 60 (external purchase is allowed) 12 (external purchase is allowed) Now when you are aware of what these platforms are, here is a feature comparison of Magneto and Shopify. 1. Basic Functionality and Ease of Usage: Both the e-commerce platforms have all the basic store functionalities that are easy to use and maintain. But if we compare both the platforms, Shopify is a drag and drop website builder. Magento has a steep learning curve, and you will have to learn some technical terms to get through the e-commerce store development process. With Shopify, the developer can add the products; customize the look and feel of your store and set up the payment process in no time. The best part is you can make the entire e-commerce store without any technical knowledge. In Magento, you have to learn some code to develop an entire e-commerce store. Not to forget, they have comprehensive user guides that walk you step-by-step through various processes. They also have a forum from where you can learn some tricks of the trade. 2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) When it comes to SEO, both have great search engine optimization capabilities. However, you’ll have to leverage extra plug-ins in the cases for both platforms. But in the case of Shopify, SEO features are automatically built into the website, even in the product pages. 3. Themes and Templates Availability: In terms of themes and templates, both platforms offer highly-functional customization capabilities. They let you edit the raw code directly and give you full control over the design and appeal of your e-commerce store. Coming to the differences, Shopify offers a wide variation of mobile-optimized themes. Although many of them are free, if you go for the paid ones, your store gets a professional look and gets equipped with great sales potential. You also get the option to add new pages, change the color palette, move or resize the elements, and integrate the social media feeds. When it comes to Magento, it has 12 themes. Out of 12, 10 of them are fully responsive. This platform does have free themes, and the paid ones also start at just $1. With this platform, you can also create your theme or template from scratch. You have the option to add a slide, newsletter, and animation to the website. 4. Inventory Management: All Shopify plans allow unlimited products in the store. Magento also allows you to add or create an unlimited number of products on the website. But Shopify is one step ahead in this point due to its integration with drop shipping inventory apps such as Oberlo. Further, in Magento, you have the risk of slowing down your website. 5. Hosting Features: Your website's performance, storage, security, and speed are dependent on the hosting you choose. Did you know that 40% of people will abandon a website if it takes more than three seconds to load? This will result in a loss of customers as well as revenue. As Shopify is a hosted platform, it takes care of your entire domain and hosting needs; offers you 24*7 support, and let you concentrate on your business. Magento comes with two hosting options, including Open Source and Cloud. In Open Source hosting, you have to buy your domain and hosting. But in the case of Cloud, your e-commerce store is hosted and maintained by Magento. 6. Payment Processing: Shopify platform is already equipped with a payment processor, which is known by the name of Shopify Payments. If you use Shopify Payments for your e-commerce store, you won’t be charged any transaction fee. Moreover, it comes with the support of 60 external payment processors. For Magento, you will have to download the extension of the payment processor that you want in your e-commerce store. You can look for these extensions in Magento’s marketplace. However, some factors that make Magento worth the consideration are international market coverage and support for multiple languages. Summing Up: When it comes to choosing an ideal e-commerce platform, there are lots of factors to consider including interface, scalability, number of themes, templates, speed, load time, cost, search engine optimization, and more. Is Shopify worth it? If your considerations are ease of usage, availability of themes, not wanting to pay the transaction fee, and having the hosting and bandwidth taken care of, look no further than Shopify. It is user-friendly, has a payment processor, and comes with an array of themes to help you get started. But if you are technically savvy and want to build an e-commerce store for a large enterprise, go for Magento. With this platform, you will also have to find your hosting provider, which can become expensive, as your business scale. Moreover, there is a chance that you might have to invest some time as well. If you are still stuck on the decision, skim again through the comparison of features, weigh their pros and cons, and make the best choice for your business. Read Also: What Are the Common Causes of Catastrophic Injuries? Top 5 Sites Like Solarmovie To Watch Movies Online Do I Have To Pay Out Of Pocket For Wisdom Teeth Removal?

Why You Need to Include Voice Search Optimization in Your Marketing Strategy

Voice search has come a long way since its error-prone beginnings. It used to be the star of funny home videos because of its propensity to deliver hilariously inaccurate search results. It’s a preferred way to get fast and accurate information about local businesses and products online. It’s also becoming an integral part of our daily lives, thanks to advancements in natural language processing and machine learning. Modern voice search systems have greatly improved their understanding of context and nuances in speech, making them much more reliable for tasks such as finding directions, setting reminders, and even managing smart home devices. As technology continues to evolve, voice search is expected to become even more sophisticated, offering personalized experiences and seamless interactions across various platforms. If you’re not making room for voice search optimization in your marketing strategy, it’s time for a change. Start now to optimize the content and data on your website and elsewhere so it will appear in verbal search results. Doing so will get more eyes on your business so you can grow your customer base and your profits. Why Voice Search Optimization Matters The goal of voice search optimization is to make it easier for customers to find your business when conducting spoken searches on their mobile devices. The rising popularity of voice assistants like Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri makes it more important than ever to focus on voice search optimization. The way people speak and the way people type tend to be very different. Therefore, you need to make sure your content uses phrases and keywords people are more likely to utter when using voice search assistants. Doing so can boost your chances of being found by relevant customers. Voice search optimization is important for all businesses. But it’s especially vital for brick-and-mortar industries that rely primarily on local customers, such as legal services, retail, hospitality, and entertainment. Shoppers are more likely to use verbal search options when they’re looking for location-based results for these types of services. How to Optimize Your Content for Voice Searches To lead ready-to-buy shoppers right to your door, make it easier for them to find your business when conducting verbal searches. Whether you’re a plumber developing your website or a lawyer creating a law firm digital marketing plan, voice search optimization should be a major focus. Here are some tried-and-true techniques for optimizing your content for voice search: Prioritize Local SEO It’s estimated that around 46% of Google searches include localized terms. If you’re not properly optimized for localized searches, your business is unlikely to show up in relevant search results. That means potential customers are more likely to visit competitors who are better at prioritizing local SEO terms in their content. You can use a variety of techniques to improve your local voice search results. Start by creating a Google Business Profile and regularly updating it to ensure it’s always accurate. Next, add location-specific pages to your website. Make sure these pages include location keywords such as your state, city, town, and surrounding cities. You should also maintain an active presence on local social media pages so nearby residents become familiar with your brand. Aim at The Long-Tail Keywords People are likelier to use highly specific phrases when conducting verbal digital searches. Therefore, you should target long-tail keywords when optimizing your content. Long-tail keywords comprise phrases people often use when searching for goods or services online. For example, “divorce lawyer in San Diego, California” is one example of a specific, localized, long-term keyword. These types of keywords tend to be highly specific and have less competition and search volumes than any short-tail keywords. However, they also tend to have higher conversion rates because shoppers who use them are typically ready to buy. If you’re serious about targeting local voice searches, use a good saturation of long-tail keywords in the overall content. Optimize for Mobile Mobile optimization and voice search optimization are two peas in the same pod. They should both be given equal consideration and weight in any adept digital marketing plan. Consider the fact that over half of global internet traffic comes from mobile devices. If you’re not targeting a mobile audience, you’re almost certainly missing out on traffic and potential sales. To optimize for mobile, make sure your website loads correctly and rapidly on mobile devices. You should also prioritize responsive design, which adapts instantly to whatever device a visitor is using, whether it be a smartphone, desktop, or tablet. Responsive design reduces bounce rates and ensures visitors have a good experience on your site. Use the Right Language When people type out their online searches, they tend to be as concise as possible. For example, they might type “Las Vegas barber” when searching for a local place to get a haircut. But if that same person used their smartphone’s voice search feature instead, they would probably use more grammatically correct language. For example, they might say, “What’s the best barber in Las Vegas?” or “What are the best places in Las Vegas to get a haircut?” Often, people ask long questions when using voice search features or AI assistants. To excel at voice search optimization, anticipate the language and phrases people are most likely to use when searching for your business offerings. Then, create content that provides the best answer to their questions in a natural, conversational way. The Future Of Voice Search The voice search is more like having your own personal assistant right at your fingertips. Or maybe I should say, Voice range! This is bringing a huge change in the way we interact with the technology. Thus, the future looks much more exciting. More and more people are using their voice search to look for different information, services, and products. The answers are always ready for you, and they are fulfilling your requests. As voice technologies continue to improve, we can expect more innovation and intuitive ways to keep interacting with all of our devices. So, if you are planning to stay ahead of the curve, it’s time to reimagine how this voice search can benefit your business. From optimizing the website content to creating various voice-activated experiences, voice search is going to bring a lot more opportunities in the world of voice search marketing. Conclusion Voice search has evolved from a seldom-used tool to a major player in the marketing world. If you’re not currently optimizing your content for voice searches, it’s not too late to start. Use the tips above to make sure your website and content are positioned to help you capture more traffic from voice search queries.Read More... How To Foolproof Your Digital Marketing Strategy? 4 Ways to Use Mobile Marketing in a B2B Marketing Strategy 4 points to consider when creating a Great Content Marketing Strategy

Explore Some Interesting Marketing Trends for Your Business in 2018

Tune Your Market Strategy :

Plan, Plan, Plan

Tracking & Measuring :

Social Media Marketing Is Currently the Rage :

Virtual Reality Is Common :

More Dependence on Interactive Content :

Pinterest :

Artificial Intelligence :

Conclusion :

Tips on Selecting a Storage Solution for Your Growing Business

How To Choose The Best Broker For You

Content Rally

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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Related

Avoiding Sales And Operations Planning Mistakes

Magento vs. Shopify: Which Is Best For Your E-commerce Store?

Why You Need to Include Voice Search Optimization in Your Marketing Strategy

Explore Some Interesting Marketing Trends for Your Business in 2018

Tune Your Market Strategy :

Plan, Plan, Plan

Tracking & Measuring :

Social Media Marketing Is Currently the Rage :

Virtual Reality Is Common :

More Dependence on Interactive Content :

Pinterest :

Artificial Intelligence :

Conclusion :

Share this Article

Tips on Selecting a Storage Solution for Your Growing Business

How To Choose The Best Broker For You

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.

Leave a Reply

Popular

Follow Us

Recent

Related