Tag: Business Marketing
Explore Some Interesting Marketing Trends for Your Business in 2018
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. More Dependence on Interactive Content : Several brands, particularly in the B2B sector are relying heavily on PDF content or blog content for generating leads as an integral part of content marketing tactics for their organizations. 2018 is going to be the year of interactive web experiences which ultimately help in boosting engagement. These experiences would be demonstrating amazing thought leadership content definitely in more impressive, visual, and animated ways. 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. Read Also : Marketing – What’s Right For Your Business? Know Why Content Marketing Is Important For SEO Digital Marketing: Utilize Facebook To Support Your Hospitality Business
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How to use IT to Save Your Business Money
In a world that’s focused on making your business fly, ‘return on investment’ (ROI) is a term that’s usually talked about when you’re planning SEO, PPC or social marketing strategies. In fact, IT can offer a huge ROI for your business – simply by streamlining processes that could otherwise see your team or contractors spending unnecessary time struggling with sub-par systems and devices. We’ll walk you through 6 of the best ways to save money, with nothing but IT as your tool… How to use IT to Save Your Business Money: Explore open-source software : It’s easy to forget that Microsoft, Google, Adobe and the other huge software and service providers aren’t the only companies out there who create worthwhile resources. If you’re used to working for a company, you might take it for granted that the typical applications you’ll use (think; word processing, spreadsheets, customer relationship management, accounting – and much more) are just there for you within a few clicks – but actually, those pieces of software cost a significant amount of money. The truth is, the household names are the ones we know about because they’ve got the budget to market their products far and wide – but in fact, there’s a host of great open-source applications out there that are completely free to use – you’ve just got to know where to look. Open-source is more than just a money-saving tip though, in fact, there’s a world of developers who believe open-source is the only way you can truly reflect user’s needs in the long term – and many of those developers commit themselves to maintain and adjusting the free software to suit businesses just like yours. This TechRadar list offers some great open-source applications that’ll definitely help your business save money when compared to full price alternatives. Let employees work on their own devices : ‘Bring your own device’ (BYOD) such a simple idea – yet so many businesses resist it. When you let your employees use their own devices to do company business, you’re saving huge amounts of money – and actually increasing productivity at the same time. Countless studies have shown that employees are more comfortable and more productive when they use their own devices for work tasks – and the maths really adds up: If using a device you’re familiar with only saves 10 minutes each day – that adds up to an incredible 45 hours over the course of a full working year – essentially offering you a free week’s worth of work if you’re happy for employees to use their own machines. Of course, there are security considerations to be made – and BYOD is likely to be impractical if you’re handling a lot of sensitive client information, but if you’d like to take away a huge chunk of capital expenditure from your budget, these could be problems you’d be happy to work around. Outsource support : When it comes to money-saving, good tech systems can give and take in similar measures – but one of the largest costs to consider when you’re installing IT relates to the people who are going to support it. If you’re a small company, even if you only have a very small number of employees, you’re probably going to need someone to support your IT systems – and if you don’t have that person in place, you run the very real risk of not being able to trade if your IT network goes down. So, what does the maths look like? Well, you’ve got a $40,000 basic wage for someone who comes with the skills set needed to keep a network up and running by themselves – then you’ve got to factor holiday cover, sickness, maternity/paternity leave, training and what happens if that person decides they’d like to work somewhere else. All in all, carrying IT staff can be problematic – and extremely expensive – which is why managed network providers (MSPs) are becoming more and more popular with small to medium-sized businesses. With an MSP, you’ve got the potential of 24/7 access, 365 days a year – plus no need to worry about keeping an individual up to speed with the latest accreditations and training programs. You simply pick up the phone and access the support – which, most of the time, can be applied to your systems remotely. If you’d like your tech to save you thousands – you could do a lot worse than finding a good MSP and treating them like they’re one of your valued team. Buy resources ‘as a service’ : If you’re bringing your IT support onboard as an outsourced service – why not do the same with your applications, platforms, and infrastructure? In the last 10 years, larger tech companies have realized that there’s an increasing number of small businesses becoming established year on year – and those companies simply do not have the money that’s needed to buy expensive software licenses, development platforms and costly networking infrastructure straight out of the gate. The solution? Offering all of the above on a subscription basis – pay for only what you use, whenever you need it? A result is an increasing number of people opting to move to solutions like Microsoft Office 365 and Google’s G-Suite – both examples of ‘Software as a Service’ (Saas). That said, it’s not just cloud-accessed software that’s available in this manner, Microsoft now provides email exchange servers on a similar subscription basis too – with the robust security you’d expect from one of the biggest tech companies on Earth. All these things are made possible by the cloud – the concept of storage and services that are hosted centrally, with your internet connection bridging the gap between your business and the resource. Of course, you’re going to need a connection that is stable and fast enough to allow uninterrupted access – but that’s more than realistic for most internet service providers. Interestingly – the monetary benefits of SaaS are actually likely to be two-fold, as there’s an increasing body of evidence that suggests people actually work more effectively together when they’re collaborating online, even when compared to sitting next to one another in an office space. If you want to increase productivity and reduce costs with the help of IT tech, you could do a lot worse than to explore which of your required resources could be procured ‘as a Service’. Read Also : How Does Modern Technology Propel The Success Of Your Business? 5 Affordable E-Commerce Shopping Carts For Small Business What Are The Benefits Associated With Crowdfunding For Businesses?
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How to Deal With Debt By Doing Business Marketing Smartly?
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? 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 : 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. Read Also : 5 Marketing Tips To Help Grow Your Business On Instagram Discovering A New Promotion Position For Your expanding Search Engine Marketing Business Top 8 Benefits Of Professional Business Cards
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