Online Marketing Blog Articles September

2. Dos and Don’ts for Businesses Upon Using Social Media Marketing Registering for a social media account is as easy as one-two-three. There is not much you need – just a valid business email address, a few clicks here and there and you are good to go. This makes social media marketing in a way a very powerful tool for businesses yet easily accessible and manageable. As it has become businesses’ strongest ally in online marketing strategies, more and more digital marketers are pushing for more marketing campaigns via social media. Like everything else in the world of marketing, business ethics should strictly be observed in social media marketing. Here are the dos and don’ts of using social media as a marketing strategy: DOS 1. Do the 80/20 Rule Make sure 80% of you posts are relevant and useful information for your target audience while 20% are posts about your products and services. 2. Check Analytics regularly Each of the social media platforms we use have options to view account analytics. Use this feature to understand your audiences’ behaviors and preferences and to know the demographics of your traffic.

3. 3. Make a checklist Check for the following: grammar, links, schedule, and tagging. Make sure grammar is on point – you do not want your audience to make fun of your grammar don’t you? Check the validity of your links as well – make sure they route to the correct site when clicked. Also, finalize all your tags and what time and day you will post. 4. Be original and unique The purpose of a social media marketing is to make your brand known and show people how different you are from other brands in the same market. 5. Choose the best platform Not all social media platforms are for your brand. When you bank on images then Instagram and Pinterest are the sure ways to go. For regular brand status updates and promotions and if you wish to communicate with your consumers, then Facebook, Twitterand the like are the better options for you. 6. Use visuals Majority of those who are in social media are visual-people. Whenever they browse through the platforms, they always stop and check posts that are visually enticing. Make sure to make your images and posts attractive enough to lure audience to check them. 7. Interact with your audience Use social media toget your customers’ observation and rating for a particular event you just hosted or their views on the product you just launched. Social media could be another tool you can use for customer service. 8. Complete your social profile This is very important. This is where your target audience will get the gist about your products and services and who you are as a company. When you leave blank information such as the ‘About us’ section, then the chances to convert a potential follower is decreased. 9. Be consistent Though being too predictable is not good at all times, make sure you are consistent with your social media postings. If you have been posting ‘feel-good’ quotes every Monday to start of the week, then make sure you post every Monday for the weeks or months to come.

4. Your customers might be waiting for this to derive inspiration for a busy week ahead. 10. Post mobile-friendly content Majority of the world’s population is on mobile so when you are posting a link to a website or a landing page in social media, make sure you insist on your web development team the need for a custom web designthat is mobile-friendly. DON’TS 1. Spammy posts Do not overwhelm your audience with so many posts a day. Your audience might consider you a Spam and filter out your posts. 2. Liking own posts You want to boost your page and post likes but please do not like your own posts. This will come off as funny and weird especially when your audience will find out. 3. Deleting negative comments Never delete negative posts or comments by consumers. Whenever there is a negative comment regarding your products and services, or a recent event you had, address such comment properly by apologizing and making up for the mistake. Try to reach out on a more personal level by asking the person if you can meet with him or her. 4. Pixelated images You will never be visually appealing if your images are pixelated. Invest on your graphics team and check the resolution of every image content before publishing. 5. Irrelevant content In connection to the 80/20 rule, make sure the post you make for your consumers are relevant to them or your expertise. If you are a pet store or clinic, then post about tips like caring for a new born puppy and not what is the latest gadget out for grabs in the state.

5. 6. All CAPS post WHAT DOES AN ALL CAPS POST SIGNIFY? You get what I mean right? 7. Abusing hashtags Do not overload your posts with so many hashtags. Limit your hashtags to 3 or 5. It does not look good for posts to have 10 or more hashtags. Use only relevant ones for your posts. 8. Plagiarism If you want to be original and unique as a brand, then never plagiarize content and ideas from other businesses. If there is plagiarism in writing, there is in social media marketing too. 9. Not responding to comments or posts Respond to all comments, suggestions, complaints and questions directed at you. Do not neglect any of these. When you address your customers’ concerns, you are improving your brand’s reputation. 10. Auto-responders ‘Humanize’ your interaction with your audience. There may be options for auto-responders like in twitter but it is always better to come up with personal responses. They connect you to your audience on a much personal level. Make these dos and don’ts your bible for social media marketing. If you make sure to stick to this list, you will surely come a long way in the field of online marketing. Empower your strategists and share this list to them today!

6. Digital Strategies for Optimum Customer Experience If you run a business it is vital that you must leverage the power of digital media and technology to enhance customer experience and support. With shoppers always looking for easier and better ways to connect and interact with you, the onus is always on your team to successfully to use digital media and its strategies to provide your shoppers the best possible service. With companies like Amazonraising the bar up every now and then, even your organization should create strategies that ensure a synergy between customers and your company. So here are some of the modern digital plans that you can execute to provide your consumers the best experience. 1. Your Digital plan should complement the traditional process Whatever you make or decide you must keep in view your company’s value and current tradition. Most firms make the mistake of haphazardly introducing an app or technology that drifts away from the core or is completely irrelevant to the cause. Your company has to make or introduce something which directly benefits the consumers and also adhere to your values. For example, to make the payment process simpler, at your brick and mortar store, you can easily introduce an online payment app so that your customers can save time—which is one of your mottos—and have a seamless personal experience.

7. The Starbucks app is a great exhibit of this. If you check the numbers, 7 million sales are done via their app even though the coffee is still served and sold in the traditional way. But, the idea has certainly been useful for the company and its customers. Even Hilton allows its loyal users to select a room via their app when they book with them. Your team should come up with a similar plan to provide buyers that extra bling the next they shop with you. 2. Using technology to customize customer experience 70% of customers want personalized shopping experience: Source Shoppers love it when you offer them ‘customized and personalized’ experience. This is one of the best ways to grasp the attention of your buyers. By doing surveys and technology like co-browsing, you can understand what the actual taste of your consumers is and make a strategy on that particular data itself. This will allow you to understand your consumers better and would promote greater conversion rates. Just make sure you have enough data to shoot out personalized group e-mails, alerts, or notifications so that you can charm a particular set of viewers. Just try to figure out these things first before making tailored made e-mails: 1 2 3 4 5 Location and demography of your possible consumers Age bracket Taste and buying pattern Interests and likes E-mail ids 3. Understanding what the customers need 9 out of 10 of the world’s top hundred brands have a mobile app: Source If you want to jump to the digitalization bandwagon, make sure to take a surveyfirst and check out what your consumers need. If you have an existing online community, then a survey won’t hurt. You must ask questions like these to your shoppers and followers: 6 7 8 9 10 What technologies and systems would you like us to have? In what channels or mediums, you want to connect with us? Would you prefer to use an app? Will you like self-serving? Should we offer 24×7 support and sales?

8. Although the data will be raw, but you will still get a good idea on what you must make and create to serve your shoppers. This will allow you, later on, to optimize customer experience. 4. Identify the channels yourself first and provide cross-channel linking Since digitalization is too big to ignore in this era of ‘customer first’, you must start identifying the channels you can use. Here two things matter the most—what your customers are comfortable with and what’s your budget for digitalization. The service that you provide must be seamless and it must be as per the demography of your shoppers. 53% of consumers in U.K have changed brands thanks to bad usage of digital channels by businesses: Source Companies can connect with their shoppers via various means, but that doesn’t mean they must do it with all. Strategies that they pick and choose are as follows: 11 E-Mail marketing 12 App 13 Online website 14 Community 15 Automated Calls 16 Text Messaging 17 Social Media 18 Web Chat etc. Apart from this, your organization must also provide cross-channel support to your shoppers so that everyone in your company can have all the data they need when they have to talk to a consumer. For example, having a customer’s preference, case history and previous complaints etc. handy can be pretty useful for all your departments. 5. Using Social Media and Tools Online sales in U.S. will reach $ 500 billion by the year 2020: Forrester Online Retail Forecast Since there is so much at stake, you cannot put your guard down for one single second. Thus, you always have to be active on Social Media too, where the world lives these days. It is a must and it is one of the most fruitful ways to interact with your shoppers. With nearly two billion people using social networks, you cannot ignore the benefits of connecting via this medium.

9. Your buyers can use social media to connect with you and give out their reviews, opinions, suggestions, feedbacks, complaints, and compliments through it. Apart from that, you can even use social media to promote your company. Social media can also act as a great channel where you can convey your offers and notifications to all your followers. Also, you can easily rely on tools and applications too if you believe you want to break down the barriers to proper communication. Final word Using the traits of digitalization and technology can certainly provide your shoppers the seamless experience that they seek from your side. It could also enable your team and employees to serve your buyers better—and in the end, help you to map and create a better framework for substantial growth of your business.

10. How to Make a Good Site Structure for Better SEO It takes more than just a beautifully crafted website filled with all the best graphics and powered with the most expensive template with the most features for an online marketing strategy to work. For a better search engine optimization, a custom web designthat fits the goals of the business and addresses the clamor for information of the audience is what is vital. Having a website for your marketing needs is not a walk in the park. In order for your website to deliver and perform well, you have to make sure it is a haven for search crawlers and a site that favors well with users. Here are 5 tips to achieving a good site structure for better SEO: Decide on what keywords to use. Before anything else, web developers and designers should have a legit understanding of what the business is all about and what the website is for in the marketing of the business. Research the target keywords for the website. These keywords are very important in ranking the site in search engines. These will be the keywords users will input in search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo. Use tools such as Google Trends, Google’s Keyword Planner, Bing Ads Keyword Tool and so on to help you determine which keywords will bring you the most searches.

11. Plan your site’s architecture first. Use the results of your keyword research in coming up with a hierarchy of your site. Distribute these keywords among the pages of your site. To come up with a hierarchy, draw a diagram first with the most important search ranking pages on top and with the lesser important pages trailing down. To give you an idea, the homepage should be on top as it contains the important details about your business and the gist of what you offer to consumers. The next levels would be the main pages of the website such as the About Us, Services, Projects, Contact us and so on. Your homepage links to these individual pages. Build your link power. Make sure you have enough external and internal linking working for you. Use all other sites you have like your social media accounts, forum portals, and partner or affiliated websites for your external linking. These links will drive more relevant traffic to your website. Internal linking also helps in driving traffic to pages within the site. Linking strategies help boost search engine optimization. Create a flat link structure. When planning a site, make sure that the structure does not keep customers away from the most important pages. This is done through a flat link structure. With this kind of structure, the important pages are only a few clicks or links away from the homepage. Make your site optimized for mobiles or tablets. The number one consideration for digital marketers when it comes to online marketing is to make sure all online marketing strategies – social media marketing, websites, landing pages, paid and organic search efforts, are optimized for mobile usage. More than half of the world’s population are already on mobile. Since it is expected for majority of your audience to be on an ‘on-demand lifestyle’ then surely these people are almost always on mobile too. People nowadays not only use mobile phones to access their social media accounts. A considerable number are using mobile phones to visit websites as well. When it takes time for users to access a certain website on their mobile phones, or when the website itself appears different or broken, then chances are your potential client, customer or audience will hit back and will no longer go back to your website.

12. The planning and design stages of launching a website should be done properly and meticulously. A carefully thought of website will bring your business so much luck. In conclusion, in order for you to achieve a good site structure and better search engine optimization the first thing you need to do is to research for your targeted keywords, second is to come up with a diagram for your site’s architecture, third is to provide backlinks – external and internal links to improve your traffic, fourth is to choose a flat link structure rather than a deep link structure, andlastly to make your site optimized for mobile or tablet usage.