Author: Narmada Pandi

Categories
Industry Insiders

lifecycle marketing vs. sales funnel

The 21st century has made its mark in history to be an era of economic revolutions. The commercial and business industry has never bloomed in history with such remarkable achievements and milestone findings before. Innovation has become the cornerstone of business with Customer Satisfaction as one of the central themes, unlike the earlier strategy which was centralized more on a profit-based system.

When it comes to business strategies entrepreneurs mostly resort to two kinds of strategies: the conventional method of Sales funneling and the modern method of Life Cycle marketing which is more popularly known as the Customer Journey. Both of these are quite similar in various aspects and are seen to focus on similar stages of a customer buying a product. Such business strategies aid us in understanding the various factors affecting our business, and planning and implementing an efficient business strategy to increase lead conversion. Ultimately the goal of both these strategies is to increase the leads on our products henceforth increasing our business. Even though they are similar in many ways both of them have separate and unique central ideas when it comes to analyzing the market. Let’s dive deep into the specifics of both to get a more clear perspective:

Sales Funnel

The Sales Funnel aka marketing/purchase/conversion funnel is one of the most primitive yet quite successful and efficient business strategies that focuses on customer conversion and revenue. The core principle is rather the direct economic development and prosperity of your business. It was first introduced as the AIDA model in 1898 by E. St. Elmo Lewis. Here AIDA stands for the different funnels: Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. The 1904 January to June of the magazine Salesmanship portrayed it as a chart explaining exactly how the mechanism of the AIDA model works.

As the diagram itself shows Sales Funnel is a marketing technique implemented n these four levels of purchasing. The process is drafted in such a way that the consumer gets to know and understand more about your business to indulge them with your company and nurture the then-formed bond at each funnel. These funnels may actually vary in nature according to the kind of business and target audience you have. However, the broad classification almost covers all possible phases that you might encounter. They are:

Awareness

The initial point of contact with the customer, where he or she is just a curious child oblivious of your products and your brand. The sole idea in this phase is to educate them about your products and nurture the curiosity that has to maintain their interest in your brand. We use various methods like SEO, Content creation, Social media marketing, paid to advertise, and other types of web presence to enhance this curiosity and enlighten our customers about the products and services we offer. This is also the phase in which we focus to make put brand more popular with the target audience and try to analyze how the customer came about knowing or choosing our brand.

It was found that about 39% of consumers give up on a website if the site and its graphics take too long to load. The technical SEO techniques we implement in this primary funnel help us to eliminate such issues hence maintaining our site traffic.

Research

The Research funnel as the name suggests aids the customer in understanding and learning about the company by providing them with various tools. This includes Custom content, FAQs, and new forms of information like live videos and apps. It is quite pivotal to use more engaging ways of helping the customer understand your company as you don’t want them to get bored of your brand through monotonous forms of information.

Decision Making

The final decision-making funnel intends to give that last push to your customer to buy the product. When it comes to the point of buying the product the consumer always looks out for the various options and packages you provide. Hence lead nurturing at this stage is mainly implemented through exclusive promotions, free trials, and consultations as incentives to buy.

Purchasing

In the end, your lead flows into the last funnel making the lead a customer. At this point, our chain of actions is focused on turning them into return customers and developing loyalty within them to our company. A variety of incentives like using newsletters, digital feedback cards, reward programs etc are brought into place to revisit and allure the past leads and to keep their interest fresh.

Why Sales Funnel?

The sales funnel strategy has been in the industry for a long time now and it has proved to show better results. It is a very straightforward way to ascertain the best way to allure leads. However, it also has another important aspect that will aid your business planning. Upon reviewing the analytics at each funnel and the response of the customer to each of your incentives, you could revamp and modify your ideas and themes. This also assists you in planning your annual budget as well as a proper content and marketing strategy for the future.

Life Cycle Marketing

Life Cycle Marketing(LCM) aka Custome journey is one of the most successful modern marketing strategies that has a prime focus on the customer’s sales experience from the discovery of the brand to purchase. It has been noted by several critics that this method is more relevant to the modern consumer. Just like in the sales funnel strategy LCM also has distinct phases into which this focus is divided.

The framework of LCM is centered around inspiring lead conversion by focusing on the customer and not the sale which makes it different from the Sales funnel strategy. This is the major difference between both these strategies and hence the Sales funnel strategy is sometimes called primitive when compared with LCM. The idea of LCM sprouted from the fact when a customer feels connected to your brand around 57% tend to spend with you and 76%vwill prefer to buy from you over your competitors. This statistic makes LCM extremely relevant for the modern market. After all, numbers don’t lie!

The various stages of LCM include: Awareness

The first part of Life Cycle Marketing is very similar to the first funnel. This includes the discovery of your brand by the consumer and the part where they decide whether or not he is interested and should learn more. What makes LCM different here is its value-based approach that is not so sales oriented. It was observed that modern consumers detest the aggressive pressuring sales strategies and find a more value-based approach comfortable, This comfort of the customer is the very essence of LCM.

At this level, LCM focuses on High-quality content that is oriented in such a way that it plants s seed of trust in your consumer about your company and make them aware of what your brand and domain stand for. We motivate the customer to take action through various tools like High-quality SEO blogs that would also spread brand awareness, Lead magnets and e-books, Videos, Social media Content, Original research, case studies, and a  Community building around your brand creating an intimacy with the consumer.

Intent

A combination of both the Research and Decision making funnels, the intent phase focuses on indulging and interacting with the consumer on a one-to-one basis. This level aims to understand the customer and his needs and nurture a close relationship with him. Various methods of Conversational marketing like LiveChatting, Chatbots, etc are used at this level to gain the attention of the consumer and interact with them more informally.

Decision

This stage marks the consumer becoming a customer by choosing your brand and purchasing from your company based on the awareness and intent that you allured in them. At this stage, LCM focuses on giving them a warm welcome to their brand and providing immediate assistance in case of any queries. Lifecycle marketers also give immense importance and reach out to get Customer feedback as they never want the customer to feel like any of their reviews are left unheard. This is the very stage that bears the fruit of all the effort that we put into the previous stages.

Loyalty

The Loyalty level is a vital part of Life Cycle Marketing. Lifecycle marketers never want our customers to feel like a stranger once they have joined the brand. Even though marketing to those in the loyalty phase is similar to marketing to purchasers in the sales funnel, The focus is completely different. This focus is something that lacking in the sales funnel strategy and one of the prime reasons that critics argue LCM is more suitable for the modern consumer.

In LCM this phase is centered around giving attention to the overall experience of the customer nf what they could do to make them feel more valued hence retaining the sale. Once again, It’s not the repeat purchase that they focus but it is the customer dissatisfaction and experience. Devices like Thank-you cards, follow-up emails, and exclusive access to new products are normally issued at this stage.

Why LCM?

LCM as mentioned explicitly above assists us in building and improving quality customer service within a brand. It also spread light onto new ideas and courses of action we could resort to improve customer experience and creating loyal customers. The customer journey also plays a pivotal role in understanding where and how we could improve our products and the brand itself. As we give the core attention to the whole journey of the customer we can redeem customers’ full value for a lifetime of doing business than just a single sale.

The Last Call: LCM or Sales Funnel?

We have already gone into detail about the minute and detailed aspects of both LCM and Sales funnel and what sets them apart. Even though it has been suggested that the LCM strategy is more suitable for the modern consumer the analytical power and advantage of the Sales funnel strategy can’t be left unnoticed, after all a business is more about sales than customer loyalty. However, this very line of thought is why LVCM came into being in the first place. People just don’t like aggressive sales tactics. Even though the Sales funnel is primitive in these terms it has been proven to work efficiently in the past few decades of its existence.

So the last call is solely based on you and what your business is. You have to choose what suits your business and your product the most and most of all it has to align with your ideals.

Categories
Digital Technology

how online learning can transform your business

When it comes to the opportunities that come with using an online learning platform, the benefits much exceed the costs. Your partner engagement,  sales managers, and HR will be grateful to you for making their jobs easier. E-learning may be utilized for new employee adaptation, compliance training,  online learning, customer training, corporate training, personal and professional growth of current team members, and partner engagement. When appropriately tailored to specific needs, one such platform allows you to inform rather than instruct others about what you want them to know.

These are some of the ways online learning will help you change your business –

  1. Convenience – Employees gain from e-learning since an online program can be accessed everywhere, at any time, and on any device, whether it is a tablet, a cellphone, or a laptop. One can learn while traveling to work, on vacation,   waiting for a buddy at a coffee house, or at home sick. In turn, e-learning systems allow firms to quickly collect comments from trainees or notify them of the most recent developments.
  2. Save time -You do not need to waste time as a company owner seeking training, resources, or places. When you see the need to teach staff on a certain topic, you create a course and integrate it into the platform. When compared to traditional learning, online learning consumes 40-60% less employee time.
  3. Satisfaction – The final stage in the knowledge-building formula is to determine what is required to ensure that learners have a positive learning experience. This step will include identifying the resources and opportunities that learners will require to help them apply their new information and skills, but it will also necessitate the identification of inspirational instructional strategies that will assist learners in maintaining interest, attention, and desire for the teaching materials.
  4. Sustainable and environment friendly – Because it removes the requirement for paper handouts, online training decreases your carbon impact. Courses, evaluations, and feedback may all be completed online. Certificates of achievement are also available online.
  5. Staff involvement – Employees are more motivated and involved in corporate operations as a result of implementing e-learning for them. Furthermore, according to Molly Fletcher Company, online learning may raise worker participation by 18%.
  6. Employee retention can be improved -Employees rank opportunities to grow and learn as the most important driver of positive work culture, therefore establishing a solid learning program is an excellent strategy for increasing talent retention. You demonstrate to your staff that you value their development and growth by engaging in an e-learning platform and providing tailored, role-specific training.
  7. Attracts more young people – Opportunities to improve and learn are highly essential to 59% of Millennials, 41% of Baby Boomers, and 44% of Gen Xers when searching for a job.
  8. Results – The first step in building educational experiences is to determine the intended outcomes. This will be your guiding light in making decisions about the development and design of the educational experiences you’re building.
  9. Win more deals – A McKinsey study found that sales teams who receive tailored education are 1.3 times more inclined to outperform their colleagues. Your e-learning platform is the key resource for the sales force to learn more about their clients and the items they offer.
  10. Cost efficient – E-learning is far less expensive than traditional classroom learning. You are not required to pay wages for instructors and trainers, pay for a class, or pay for learning tools and catering as a company owner. You only pay a group of developers who are working on the online learning platform. Nobody ever stated that developing e-learning software was inexpensive. However, it is a worthwhile investment that will eventually pay all of the expenditures connected with the regular classroom.

CONCLUSION

To remain competitive and attract people, your company must provide opportunities for learning and growth that progress careers. E-learning is becoming increasingly significant as a means of upskilling and transforming your staff in this modern generation of flexibility and hybrid working.

 So, we hope that you have learnt about the advantages of e-learning for your business with this blog.

Categories
eCommerce Marketing

everything you need to know about digital transformation

What is digital transformation?

To meet changing market and business requirements, digital transformation is the practice of employing digital technology to build new — or adapt current — culture, business processes, and consumer experiences. Digital transformation is the redesigning of the company in the digital era.

It extends beyond typical jobs like marketing, sales, and customer support. Instead, digital transformation starts with how you perceive and interact with consumers. Having digital technology at our side, we have the opportunity to rethink how we conduct business — how we connect our consumers — as we go from paperwork to spreadsheets to smart systems for business management.

BASIC STEPS TO DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION –

  • FIND THE MEANING OF DIGITAL MARKETING FOR YOUR ORGANIZATION-

Because there is no globally acknowledged concept of digital transformation, the transformation process will range considerably from one company to the next. There are several things that one must consider.

Furthermore, there are many distinct stages of transformation for each section of your business, so you must decide what you want to alter.

First and first, it is critical to consider the broad picture and determine why you require digital transformation and also what benefits it might offer to your firm.

You’re ready to proceed once you’ve decided why your firm requires digital transformation. This will allow you to outline your plans and choose which resources you will employ.

  • FIND YOUR CAPABILITIES 

A digital transformation is not something that happens immediately. It’s a trip that needs meticulous planning and execution. To begin with the digital transformation stages, you must first examine your firm and comprehend its existing situation. This includes assessing every aspect of your company, from your social media and website visibility to the customer relationship management (CRM) system. Once you have a good idea of where things currently stand, you can start making plans for change. Remember that change is a continuous process, so set realistic targets and create flexibility to handle future changes. You may start your road to becoming a digital company with a good plan in place.

  • CREATE THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION STRATEGY

Digital transformation does not have to be comprehensive or occur all at once. In actuality, this isn’t always the most feasible or productive strategy. Instead, divide your change into doable chunks and create a detailed plan. Collaborate with stakeholders to gain buy-in at all levels and ensure that everyone is on track with the strategy. Most essential, don’t be hesitant to alter your strategy if something isn’t working. The key to navigating your digital transformation path is to be nimble and responsive. You can produce incredible outcomes with the appropriate approach and execution.

  • ENSURE THE SKILL SET IN YOUR EMPLOYMENT 

There have been a lot of digital transformation initiatives that have not gone as intended. The primary cause of this tragic sequence of events is a lack of necessary abilities.

It’s not altogether unexpected given that digital transformation initiatives include the usage of new technology, which organizations may find difficult to implement owing to a lack of capabilities.

To conduct digital transformation, it is reasonable to conclude that high-quality human assets are required.

If you want to complete your project effectively, all of your staff, regardless of their management rank, must have a particular set of digital abilities.

  • BEGIN THE TRANSFORMATION

It is now time to put the digital transformation strategy into action. Setting realistic objectives and timetables, as well as guaranteeing that everyone within the business is dedicated to reaching them, is essential. It also entails remaining flexible and adaptive while you carry out your strategy, as well as being open to making changes along the road. You may put the business up for achievement by staying focused on your objective and remaining adaptable in your approach.

It is critical to start gently and ensure that everything is operating well before going onto the following stage.

BENEFITS OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION-

  • DRIVES DATA-BASED INSIGHTS –

One of the most significant advantages of digital transformation is the ability of your company to gather and analyze data that can be turned into practical, revenue-generating insights. Previously, your data was dispersed over several disconnected platforms, or worse, you may not have gathered or utilized it at all. Digital transformation will allow for more robust data collecting, centralized data storage, and the development of tools to evaluate and interpret data into information that will support informed business decision-making.

  • ENCOURAGES COLLABORATION –

Many individuals are afraid of change. The concept of a complete business undergoing a big digital transformation could be intimidating for personnel ranging from executives to entry-level workers. All procedures and tactics must be addressed, right down to the fundamental structure and business culture.

Employees may bridge generational and social differences by using the correct tools and training to engage in dialogues and learn together. A strong leadership mentality with clear instructions can boost the workforce’s digital intelligence and inspire cooperation.

  • GOOD RESOURCE MANAGEMENT 

Digital transformation combines resources and information into a set of business tools. Rather than scattered software and databases, it consolidates company resources and removes vendor overlap. In 2020, the typical number of apps utilized in enterprise enterprises will be 900. Databases, applications, software, and databases may be integrated into a centralized repository for corporate insight through digital transformation.

  • CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE 

Customers have high standards when it comes to digital experiences. Customers are used to having many options, quick delivery and reasonable cost. The new fight for brands is the customer experience. According to Gartner, more than two-thirds of organizations think they compete primarily on customer experience.

One way to differentiate your business from competitors is to demonstrate that you value your customers’ privacy. Provide the client authority over how personal data is gathered and utilized, and give them the freedom to make data-related decisions.

  • ENABLES DIGITAL GROWTH –

The third and most important advantage of digital transformation is this. The primary act that sets the groundwork for all subsequent corporate growth is digital transformation. Your organization will swiftly become outdated if you do not invest in digital business transformation. We’ve seen industry titans like Kodak, Toys R’ Us, and Blockbuster go bankrupt in recent years. Why? Because they were unsuccessful in their digital transition. Digital transformation is a must. It’s not the cherry on top of a great business. To withstand the digital tsunami that is swallowing the planet, you must evolve. You’ll gain the advantages of digital transformation and then become bigger and more profitable in the process.

CONCLUSION

A digital transformation is a continuous and challenging process. However, merely concentrating on consumers and following these procedures might result in significant growth.

Digital transformation could be motivated by a goal to enhance efficiency and productivity, or by shifts in the industry or competitive landscape. In many circumstances, it will be a combination of the two. Whatever the motivation for going on the digital transformation path, having a clear strategy and goals in mind from the start is critical.

Categories
SEO

high quality backlinking

What are high-quality backlinks?

Backlinks are links from other websites that point back to your website. These links can be earned by providing useful information and creating useful content, or they can be purchased through automated services such as article writing and forum posting. The most effective backlinks are those that come from sites that have the same target audience or target keyword as your website. To get these types of backlinks, you need to create content that is relevant and interesting to people who are likely to link to it. When it comes to SEO, high-quality backlinks are those that come from sources with high authority. High-quality backlinks are links that you earn, not ones that you buy. They’re considered high quality because they come from external websites, which are sites that are external to your site and that have a high ranking in the Google search engine results page or SERP.

High-quality backlinks are important for SEO because they help you move up the rankings on search engines, which means more people will find your website. They are also important as they help build trust with search engines.

When Google sees that many other sites around the web are linking to your page, it knows that what you’re offering must be valuable for them to do so. Additionally, having high-quality backlinks for your site in terms of SEO is critical. It’s how you get more exposure from search engines and increase traffic to your site. The main thing to consider when developing a strategy for getting high-quality backlinks is that it’s not about quantity, it’s about quality. You want to build relationships with other sites where people will link back to yours naturally, not by paying them or asking them directly in a way that feels like spamming or blackmailing them into giving you a link.

Overall, the more high-quality backlinks you have, which are links from highly reputable websites and pages, the more likely it is that Google will consider your site relevant to the search term that someone searched for. If you don’t have enough blue links pointing to your website, it’s unlikely that people will find you when they search for something related to your niche.

How can your site benefit from high-quality backlinks?

In the world of SEO, backlinks are one of the most important factors for determining where

your site will rank in search engines. Having multiple high-quality backlinks pointing back to your site can have a huge impact on your site’s performance. 

  1. Having high-quality backlinks helps with search engine optimization. When someone searches for something relevant to the content of your site, google will see the links from other sites and consider them as votes for your page. The more votes you have, the higher you’ll rank in the search results. If you’re able to get your content shared across multiple domains with links pointing back to your website, it will increase the ranking of your site in the search engines.
  1. Each link is a chance for traffic that wouldn’t normally be coming to your site. You can use this traffic to grow an audience or make sales. It’s also a great way to get feedback from people who aren’t already interested in what you’re doing. They’ll be able to tell you what they think about your product or service so that you can improve it. Additionally, when people see other sites linking back to yours, they’ll be more likely to visit those pages and explore what you have to offer. This will result in more organic traffic coming from search engines and social media platforms, as well as more direct visits from people who have been referred by others who have linked to your site.
  1. Having high-quality backlinks can also help build trust with users and create a stronger relationship between them and your brand or business. Having others link back to your site helps build credibility, which makes people feel like they know more about you than they did before they clicked on one of those links which brought them here. This can help increase conversions because if someone feels like they’ve done research on an item before purchasing it, then they’re likely going to trust in whatever product or service that company offers to get high-quality, niche-relevant backlinks on your website.

How to Get Quality Backlinks and why do you need to get quality backlinks?

They’re a crucial part of building a strong online presence. But not all backlinks are created equal. Some have the power to boost your search engine rankings and help you attract more visitors. Others, on the other hand, can hurt your site’s performance in search results. With that, high-quality backlinks can be

a huge asset to your business. They can drive traffic, increase your rankings in search engines, and bring more customers to your site.

How do you get them and what makes them so valuable?

High-quality backlinks come from sites that are authoritative in their niche, meaning that they’re well-respected and have earned the trust of their readership through high standards of professionalism and quality. These sites also have a large number of backlinks pointing back to them. That means they’ve been around for a long time and have earned the respect of many other sites. To get high-quality links, you need to start by finding sites like this yourself. 

How to determine whether a backlink is of high quality or not?

  1. The link should come from a domain that has a high authority and trust rating.
  1. The anchor text of these links should be checked. The anchor text is what’s seen in the blue highlighted part of a link when you hover over it. This is typically used as an ad for that website. If most of these links use very general terms, it’s not going to do much for you in terms of search rankings.

What not to do when trying to get quality backlinks – Common mistakes 

If you already know how to get quality backlinks for your site, then you should also know that there are certain things that you should avoid at all costs. 

  1. Using the wrong anchor text. 

Anchor text is the text that’s in the link itself that you click on when you go from one page to another. If you want people to click through and read your page, then don’t use words like click here. Instead, use words like read more or see more details. That way, when people click on those links, they’ll be more likely to stay on your website and read it instead of going right back to where they came from.

  1. Forgetting about keywords in your content.

Keywords are words that people search for when they’re looking for something specific on Google or other search engines. You want these keywords in your content so that people who are searching for those things will find what they’re looking for when they come across your site. Furthermore, be sure you don’t commit the mistake of not thinking about your audience. This is so simple, but it’s often overlooked by people who are trying to get high-quality backlinks. You want to make sure that your content is relevant to the audience you’re targeting. 

  1. Not knowing what makes a good blog post.

A lot of times, people will just create content without really understanding what makes something interesting or engaging. It’s important that you do some research into what makes good blog posts so that you can make sure yours fits into this mold as well.

  1. Not checking if your links are indexed before sending them out. 

If you send out links without checking if they have been indexed yet, then they won’t count toward any rankings. So make sure that this step is taken care of before moving on with any other parts of your campaign strategy.

Where and how can you get high-quality backlinks?

  • Google Search Console.

This tool allows you to see which sites link to your content and where those links are located on each page. This can help you determine which pages have the most authority and therefore lend themselves best to obtaining new backlinks.

  • Majestic SEO.

This tool allows you to see who is linking to your site, as well as which pages they are linking from and how many links point back toward your site from each page. It also provides information on social media profiles that mention your brand name or company name, helping you determine where the best place might be for new backlinks on social media platforms like Twitter or Facebook.

  • Ahrefs

This tool evaluates the quality of incoming links by looking at several factors, including anchor text, URL length, and domain age. 

Different ways to get quality backlinks

  • Blog commenting.

Blog commenting is one of the most effective ways to generate traffic and build relationships with other bloggers in your niche. If you have time and energy, this strategy can pay off big time.

  • Guest posting.

Guest posting is another great way to generate traffic for your website or blog by writing articles on other blogs that are related to yours. It’s also a great way to build relationships with influencers and industry leaders.

  • Social media sharing.

Social media is one of the most popular ways people communicate today, and it’s also an excellent source of backlinks. When you share content on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest, those sites often include links back to your website or blog as part of their normal sharing process, which is called embedding. These links can help boost your rankings on search engine results pages.

Things to be kept in mind while trying to get high-quality backlinks 

It’s not a simple process. You can’t just pick a few websites and hope that they’ll link back to you. Instead, you need to create a strategy for how you’re going to go about getting those links.

  • Make sure that you have an optimized site that has been cleaned up and checked for spam. This is important because if your site is not optimized, it will not be able to attract the right kind of traffic and people will not be willing to link to it. Furthermore, your website has to look good. You want something that’s visually appealing.
  • Make sure that you are using good-quality content.

This means that the content should be original and well-written by professionals who know what they are doing. If you want people to link back to your website, then they will need something worthwhile to link to. Your content also has to be interesting and useful so that other people will want to read it and share it on their own.

  • You need to focus on building relationships with other sites in your niche or industry so they will want to link back to yours. The best way to do this is through social media platforms such as Twitter or Instagram where people can easily connect with each other online. You can also identify websites that are relevant to yours and see if they have any open spots for guest posts or interviews. If so, then you can reach out with an email explaining why you think their audience would be interested in your content.
  • Try contacting people who run blogs with large followings and ask them if they’d be willing to include one of your blog posts on their site as an affiliate link.
  • Be sure to link only to sites with good reputations. You don’t want to be associated with anything sketchy or spammy.
Categories
eCommerce Marketing

your guide to WordPress SEO

What is WordPress and Why is WordPress SEO so important? 

WordPress is one of the popular platforms for content management. It makes up almost 35% of the whole internet, the most chaotic yet wonderful advancement of modern man. Even though WordPress started as a blogging platform it was only a matter of time for the open-source platform to blow up to be one of the most common, easy and loved platforms for content marketers. The elegance of WordPress lies in the simple fact that it was made with absolute simplicity that with just a bit of getting used to, even a kid could have made a website for himself. This ease made it a target for several big business tycoons along with the very common content creators. Currently the largest stage for content marketing, WordPress becomes a competitive place to survive as well.

Just as we said if anyone could make a website how can I highlight mine? The answer to this very question lies in Search Engine Optimisation. The very reason for WordPress to reach this epitome of success is that it made SEO elegantly beautiful for anyone and everyone. There are several simple yet marvelous tools in WordPress SEO that would boost your content to thrust it to the top in every d]search. For any content marketer, the dream is to have as much site traffic as [possible. Well, the technical issues will surely be a headache in that case as well. However, through some measures, you could build a smoothly running website that would most likely pop up first which in turn erupts the number of clicks on your website. PURE ECSTASY for a content marketer!!!

What are the practices I could use for Proper WordPress SEO?

As we just discussed, WordPress presents us with a variety of options to do efficient SEO of your website. Let’s go ahead and discuss some of the most vital points to keep in mind while we get on with the task of ranking your website first in search engines and reaching that state of ecstasy.

1. SEO Friendly URLs, Permalinking, Internal Linking

Any content you would be present on your website will have an associated URL with it and obviously if it’s a lengthy one you would surely make sure to optimize your content with relevant links within the content. This is a very important aspect of creating optimized content and hence from these very roots of structuring our content SEO comes into place.

By default, the URL associated with your website is often lengthy, puzzling to the reader, technical, and not at all  SEO optimized. For eg: https://www.wowowow.com/?p=10467http://example.com/archives/123.

This is surely boring and tacky from a user’s perspective and the same goes for the search engine. Hence it is quite pivotal to make sure that your URLs are customized and truncated. The Permalink option provided by WordPress in the settings part helps you with this where you are given the option to customize the URL and make it as user-friendly as possible. By user-friendly, we would like to imply that something about your content itself could be a part of the URL.

Another part associated with links that are often underestimated and are of paramount importance is Internal Linking. It is indeed trivial to add links that would direct to a separate webpage in case the user wants to refer to that particular term or topic. However external linking would deviate the attention of the user from your website to another. Internal linking that would direct your user traffic to the website itself optimizes the user activity in favor of your website and hence contributes incredibly to your website traffic.

2. SEO plugin

WordPress also provides a list of SEO plugins that add more functionalities and several tools to your SEO strategy. The competition between these plugins is also very high, hence there is a good number of plugins out there offering various kinds of services. Choosing the right plugin for your website according to the demands of your website is simply a very important part of bringing your website higher in ranking. Make sure to understand the various aspects of what the plugin claims to offer and how it would suit your content strategy.

 Also make sure to choose a plugin that is easy to use, efficient and can support your website in various aspects. You wouldn’t want to add several plugins to your website for different uses and crash your website now, would you? After all what good is high site traffic if the website itself is no longer accessible? So choose something that can deliver a decent all-around performance in the aspects of SEO that you like to focus on. Be wary of their cost as well. Choose something that would suit your budget and don’t be worried or intimidated by the high number of plugins available in the market. Through the in-depth analysis of the features of the website, you will surely be able to find an efficient and affordable plugin.

Some of the popular SEO plugins of WordPress include Yoast SEO, All in one SEO, Rank Math, etc.

3.XML Sitemap and Adding your Site to Google Console

XML Sitemap is yet another important term to keep in mind in the case of WordPress SEO. It is simply a specially formatted list of all the individual pages on your website. This would aid the search engines to find all of your relevant content. Adding an XML Sitemap doesn’t optimize your content or boost your site’s ranking, however, it helps the search engine to find your pages and rank them. It is very clear from this that adding XML Sitemap is hence a very pivotal part of building your website. Certain SEO Plugins would do this job for you as it comes as an inbuilt function. 

Another important thing to do is to add your website to the Google Console. Google console is a marvelous service provided by Google which offers you several tools that will help you analyze the activity on your website. It gives you exact information on detailed reports about all sorts of activity on your website and the traffic on the website. This would efficiently aid you in modifying your SEO strategy for more optimal performance of your website. It would give you a third-person view of how each page of your website would appear in a search, the number of clicks your site gets, and what exactly the user searched to get to your website and you could also trace the activity of the user to see what the user used your website for; All of them assist you in structuring future content for better results. Another important benefit of having your website added to the Google Console is that it keeps a constant check on the working of your website and would immediately alert you in case of any hindrance. The console checks your sitemap and essentially “crawls” through your website to analyze every detail that the tool could use while analyzing this data to use MonsterInsights to analyze your organic traffic. MonsterInsights would help you in viewing your insights from Google Analytics right from your WordPress dashboard.

4. Keyword Research, Tags, and Optimised Images

The most elemental part of WordPress or SEO, in general, is Keyword Research. The efficient use of keywords to highlight the services offered by the website to reach the target audience is the cornerstone of SEO-optimized content. Hence it comes at the very beginning if you come up with an SEO strategy. The keywords are nothing but words or phrases that the user has to type in the search engine for him to reach your website. Hene the ample use of these keywords in your content would simply assist the search engine to find your website first for matching the user’s request with the correct response. Hence it’s trivial to structure your content accordingly so that it gets enough attention during the search. This has a direct implication of boosting the rank of your website.

Yet another important aspect is to come up with unique and creative title tags and Meta descriptions for your content. This plays a vital role in developing and sustaining the user’s interest and attention to your website. These services are also provided by certain plugins but they follow a certain algorithm while doing so, so it’s suggested you give it a check to see if the originality is preserved. 

Images are another vital part of your content. Optimizing the filename of your image, and adding clear Alt texts are all elemental yet of paramount importance. Adding Alt texts to your images makes your content more accessible and helps all kinds of users to get the required context on your content.

5. Security and Speed of your Website

We could build a very pleasing and quite optimized website by following the above directives and maintaining the consistency of adding curated topics. And yes this would ideally lead to high traffic on your website potentially increasing your business. However, as we thought earlier if the website itself crashes, or gets breached by a hacker then all of these efforts would be in vain. Hence we need to make our website secure.

Around 20,000 websites get blacklisted by Google for malware and around 50,000 get blacklisted for phishing. When this happens it doesn’t show up at all in any search results thereby throwing all your SEO to waste. If blacklisted, a site will not show up in any search results.

This indicates that the security of your WordPress site is significant for good rankings. Several online platforms will help you out in keeping your website secure from other websites. Another important thing to keep in mind is to have a reliable hosting provider. WordPress by default suggests three such providers and with such a reliable source you could ensure the smooth and efficient running of your website.

Categories
Featured

promote effective impulse buying

promote effective impulse buying

An impulse purchase or impulse buying is an unplanned decision to buy a product or service, made just before a purchase. It’s the purchase made on the spur of the moment. One who tends to make such a purchase is called an impulse purchaser or impulse buyer. 

The decision taken by the customers to buy a particular product is the result of suddenly seeing the product. The significant factor that drives an impulse buy is the shopper’s emotional state. It may also be due to exposure to an extremely effective promotional message. It has been found that 50 per cent of purchases are unplanned. These purchases, especially impulse buys, present an opportunity for retailers who can entice consumers to deviate from their shopping lists.

What drives us to buy those things we don’t need or really can’t afford to use?

Basic evolutionary drives and the tactics retailers use together make us more susceptible to spontaneously spending our money. Shopping in a sense is a feel-good activity and many say it’s a feel-good activity it makes people feel happier instantly. 

Another prime mover is the money that we aspire to save. The feeling of getting a deal motivates us to spend more. So when you come across a notice or an advertisement detailing that a discount is prevalent only for a short period, we feel like we should grab the offer soon and take advantage of that deal that we fear that we may have to pay more in the future. In such a case we automatically go over and look for it, and then usually buy it even if we’re not sure if we want it because it’s on sale right then and there and it might not be there tomorrow.

On average, customers only visit about a third of the retailer’s floor area. It is here that the architecture of a store impacts consumer satisfaction, which in turn might spur impulse buys. This happens when a store takes you from shopping for a specific item to shopping for shopping’s sake. A classic example of this is the “Gruen effect”, implemented by Victor Gruen, an architect who pioneered the first American shopping malls, which made use of light and space to dramatically stage goods in storefront windows that captured the attention of passersby thereby making them customers. Here the sudden instinct to spend cash overpowers our decision to spend wisely and judiciously. It’s about the aspiration, will, mindset and the environment that they try to create.

Retailers pay close attention to how their floor plan can change store behavior. Grid layouts emphasize speed and convenience. Or freeform layouts allow exploration, which can make customers visit more parts of the shop. 

Spots of light take your mind and eyes to the entrance of the showroom and even before you know it, you have taken the scenic route. So with proper lighting, you can steer consumers’ attention toward the different areas and different product selections. 

The secret persuaders at the supermarket checkout area

As pointed out, retailers adopt certain measures to get customers to do impulse purchases before leaving the store. It’s not just those factors that attract customer attention. The role of secret persuaders at the checkout area is also worth noting. They silently, by their very presence, convince shoppers to reward themselves. Candy, snacks or magazines are effective impulse items, and they may be the last chance to increase sales before the shopper leaves the store. 

Use Point of Purchase- Displays both content displays that inform shoppers of certain benefits of a product. 

For example, a sign that promotes a particular soap.

Samples not only showcase the benefits of the products but also applies the social influence

principle of reciprocity of the product. Samples represent a form of gift to the shopper who in turn may feel obligated to reciprocate by making a purchase. Usage of novel, unusual and high-contrast stimuli also helps a lot in this process. It needs to be understood that the shoppers will not go in search of impulse purchases like they do for products they wish to buy. In this situation, extra effort needs to be put in to draw a shopper’s attention to impulse items. This can be done by highlighting impulse purchase zones with brighter colours, additional lighting or unusual decorations. It should be kept in mind, that the products you consider impulse items must fit this purpose and criteria. Grabbing the shopper’s attention won’t help if the highlighted item isn’t the product most shoppers are willing to purchase spontaneously. 

Another major method to adopt is verbal prompting. It can be used in a retail setting as well. Every time a shopper interacts with sales staff, special offers or the latest innovations and new products in stock could be mentioned. Prompting the customers can also be done through visual cues. For example, by Displaying signs indicating which other items can be used in combination with another product you might show a picture near a sofa to indicate which pillows match the sofa design present products with companion items bundle presentation shows shoppers how products can be used in real life. A customer who plans to buy wine glasses might also buy table decorations or other tables where all these products are so appealingly arranged that the shopper cannot resist, however.

How to boost that bottom line and sell a lot more impulse purchases?

Impulse purchases add up fast. Consumers, however, are more likely to spend an extra bit of cash in a physical store. This is because in-store retailers have more control over the entire in-store experience and they can easily introduce the customer to other options available for a similar kind of product.

What exactly are the steps that you can take to improve your impulse purchase sales?

Five easy ways that you can maximize your store’s performance with a few small changes.

  1. Start with the product of disability. No one will purchase a product that is not properly placed or which is not seen. The structure and arrangements of your retail space matters, and there are ways to highlight particular impulse purchase items. 
  1. Get a lot of signage, large signs. Try to grab the attention of the customers and direct them to those areas. They can make the customer feel like it’s too good of a deal to pass up. Use bright colours. 
  1. Use rounded corners on displays too curved around the edges to appeal more to the average consumer. They’re seen as more welcoming and less intimidating. Packaging matters to the look and feel of a package and can affect a customer’s perception of the product. It gives a great shopping experience and adds to customer satisfaction. Make a few changes to try out and see if sales change. You also need to choose the location of your impulse products carefully. In addition to making sure the product is easily seen, take some time to consider where to position your impulse buys. The common spot is at or around the sales area. It’s near the checkout zone, where you’ve probably noticed the most impulse buys in many retail stores.
  1. Seasonal items are also a great way to fill your impulse buy shelves. These are one of the best choices for your checkout space and it is suited to the impulse displays as they cater to that sense of urgency. As such products will be available for a short time there’s the possibility to bring more customers.
  1. Don’t forget about pricing strategies too. Pricing your products well, giving discounts, bundles or sales add appeal to the purchase and makes it more attractive to the people. Make it affordable. Place lower-priced impulse buys near the checkout area.

During the time of shopping, consumer behaviour is largely found in our subconscious. Most of us love spending money and we’ve been trained to feel happiness when receiving something new, limited time or limited product promotions and still a sense of urgency in the shopper. Putting a constraint on a deal makes it seem even better, Upping the perceived value of an item is a great extra push to convince someone to make a purchase.  By this, you can get the shoppers excited about the unique and new products. Those products that are exciting can bring in great demand from the customers. Like the other strategies mentioned, try out several changes and monitor how they impact sales in your product margins. This will aid in finding the most optimal combination. Finally, make sure you’re relying on a great retail team.

How do you create the advantage of impulse buying?

1)Create FOMO ( Fear of Missing Out)

Only 50 Remaining. 

Don’t miss out

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Summer sale

Placements

Identify the impulse products/services. On an e-commerce site/website, you should put these items on your homepage.

2) Simplify the buying process

3)Provide ease of access to customer support

The phenomenon of Impulse buying is getting great attention from consumer researchers as well as marketers. Having a good sense of knowledge about the factors triggering impulse purchase is very much needed for companies 

Categories
Featured

inventory management for SMBs

inventory management for SMBs
What is Inventory?

The most trivial explanation for the term inventory is nothing but the products and commodities that a business sells. This could vary from clothes, shoes, beauty products, or cleaning supplies to paper goods, food products, or beverages. A business succeeds in the simple fact that they sell these products at a reasonable profit margin to make revenue.

This inventory can be broadly classified into four categories:

  • Raw materials or components
  • Works-in-progress (WIP) 
  • Finished goods 
  • Maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) goods 

All of these need to be directly monitored and any problems that might arise in these cases must be addressed immediately as they are all interrelated. Hence if one of them faces an issue all four categories are affected directly or indirectly.

Other important factors related pertinent to inventory is cab be analysed elegantly by answering these very basic questions: Where one stores the product? The capacity of storage and How your inventory is stored? Answering and contemplating the essence of these questions take us toward one of the most pivotal concepts of modern-day commerce known as Inventory Management.

What is Inventory Management?

Inventory management is one of the most vital elements of successfully running an SMB. It refers to Inventory management refers to a step of paramount importance when it comes to commerce and trading where one tracks the trading and movement of stocks of the company. It also includes other aspects like the Buffer Stock, Overseeing the orders received and the stock in place. 

The goal of setting up an effective Inventory management system is to maintain a stable and ideal inventory that ensures enough stock for the received orders ie to maintain an adequate amount of stock, all the while controlling the cost and ensuring a beneficial profit margin. It’s a very elaborate mechanism which starts from the production of the commodity from raw materials and ends when the finished product reached the customer’s shelves.

The Importance of Inventory Management

Inventory management is considered a cornerstone for the success of a small-scale or medium-scale business because with an elegant strategy in place a proper investment management plan can actually reap benefits that might overtake giant companies themselves. Hence every company relies on strategising the most effective plan to manage their inventory. Lack of proper Inventory Management can throw your company into peril as it could lead to some devastating scenarios as follows:

  • Loss of profit when too much inventory gets sold
  • Can lead to disruption of sales causing potential damage to the company’s reputation
  • Poor management can lead to displeased and angry customers who will seek out your competitors which will lead to a loss in business.
  • Delayed Shipments
  • Stockouts and Spoilage
  • Capital getting stuck on products that ran out of demand
  • Sunken cost due to wasted inventory

.

Inventory management does a marvellous job of tackling all these threats and reaping benefits that put you leaps and bounds ahead of your competitors. With an appropriate and sophisticated plan of action for investment management one can ensure:

  • Increased productivity:  Productivity of the SMB is increased marginally as capable management software allows the operations and work in the warehouse to be completed quickly
  • Reduced Costs: Through precise projections of demand and order using the software the company can manage the inventory with a fresh stock of the right amount
  • Happy Customers: With an efficient system in place the business will be able to provide the customer with quality products n time boosting the customer’s satisfaction
  • Less Waste and Theft: Proper awareness of the amount of stock will aid you in knowing what to sell and how much to sell so that they won’t be expired
  • Improved efficiency: Proper management guarantees the seamless flow of stock making the whole process fluid and revitalises your SMB
  • Better cash Flow: The strategy will also assist you in finding prospects for freeing up capital for other marketing cavities that will help you improve your SMB
  • Eliminate errors: Mechanised checking of stock saves you a lot of time and helps in preventing human errors while keeping track of stock
Choosing the right Software for your Inventory Management

 When it comes to choosing software for the Inventory management of your SMB it is only customary that you first dwell on the problems you are facing in doing so. One should try to choose the most adequate software that would address all the current and possible problems that may arise in the future when it comes to inventory management. Another important aspect to keep in mind is the kind of stock and inventor you are managing. The current market is flooded with various software and it is very often seen that they all specialise in one certain aspect of inventory management. So choose the one which addresses the most crucial part of your kind of inventory.

Yet another factor of preponderant importance is the kind of SMB you are and who will be using the software. This can be broadly seen by understanding the perspectives of Business to Customer(B2C) companies and Business to Business(B2B) companies. One thing that is common for both is that the software should be able to aid them with multi-channel management. This also helps in avoiding overselling. This simply means that the software should assist them in managing their inventory on various platforms at the same time. For B2C companies the most preponderant part is to fluidly process and manage real-time data from sales in marketplaces, physical stores and a native website to ensure consumers get what they want when they expect to get it. Therefore installing an Application Programming Interface(API) that vividly depicts Point Of Sale(POI) is their primary step. So they would seek software that would effortlessly make this happen. For a B2B company, the aspect of paramount importance is the seamless management of the multi-channel environment.

Upon targeting these factors it becomes trivial that the software is expected to integrate various other aspects of the business and inventory management along with its nuances so that there is an impeccable connection between inventory management with back-office financial systems enabling real-time visibility for stating inventory accurately in financial reports and it rejuvenates the forecasting capabilities.

The ideal modern inventory management software is expected to be completely automated, ensures flawless multi-channel management, and is accessible, intuitive and secure to use and handle from anywhere across the globe. 

Maintaining the efficiency of Inventory Management?

The introduction of cloud-based inventory systems revolutionised the Inventory Management sector to a marvellous degree. This ensures a secure and reliable system for adequate inventory management. An efficient software can have a significant impact on SMB and this impact can be broadly analysed in three ways

  • MOVING ON FROM A PEN-AND-PAPER SYSTEM

Digitalising the records of inventory management through installing completely automated software shall surely make the process much more fluid and mobile. According to the State of Small Business Report, 46% of SMBs either use a manual system to track their inventory or do not monitor their inventory at all. And this is exactly why many of them are falling behind in their margins of profit. Digitilaising such mundane and vapid tasks also assist in making Inventory management an effortless task and the labour can be used elsewhere in the process for better productivity.

 ELIMINATING INVENTORY SHRINKAGE AND THEFT

A manual inventory system often leads to shrinkage and theft of stock. This is completely expunged through computerising the process. The National Retail Federation 2018 Retail Security Survey ranks shoplifting or external theft (35.7%) and employee or internal theft (33.2%) as the two leading sources of inventory shrinkage. This grave issue is flawlessly tackled by the software

  • PREVENTING OVERSELLING AND UNDERSELLING

Efficiency can be boosted and the cost of production can be cut to a good degree by implementing some very basic methods. This helps in maintaining the overall efficiency of your inventory management. Some of them are:

  • Order Products in Bulk: Helps in reducing Shipping Costs
  • Consider just-in-time (JIT) inventory:JIT refers to a fulfilment strategy where the stock is ordered and sold simultaneously just in time to ship. This minimizes the storage cost and dead stock.  This keeps the on-hand inventory at a minimum.
  • Consider dropshipping: Dropshipping corresponds to a management strategy where the supplier ships the order on your behalf eliminating the handling and storage cost for you.
  • Accept pre-orders:Helps in building hype for your product and also aids you in studying the market and demand for the product
The Various Techniques to implement an efficient strategy for Inventory Management

So far we have elaborately discussed the various perspective of Inventory Management and why it is so pivotal in successfully running an SMB. It is vital for us to also grasp the awareness of the various techniques of inventory management as well. Some of the very basic and widely known techniques are as follows:

The Barcode System

In this system, a Barcode is given to all products which acts as a unique signature to it throughout the process of inventory management. KIt helps in speeding up the process and keeping a clear track of the product and its whereabouts in the procedure.

RFID Tracking

This is a more advanced method f tracking the product using microchips. The chip stores all the important information regarding the product and is more convenient as it makes the process more automated and simple when it comes to processing them in the warehouses. The RFID tracking system is the most adequate for tracking large volumes of products. An RFID system ensures impeccable efficiency as there will be lesser and your staff will be more efficient in processing orders.

Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) Reordering

This mechanism is centred around the theme of reducing inventory costs and making them as minimum as possible. EOQ reordering aids one in determining the best time for reordering to minimize your overall inventory costs (product ordering costs and inventory holding costs).

With the EOQ method, you can calculate how much inventory to reorder so that you do not end up paying more storage fees than you need to.

The ABC Method

This is one of the most common and widely used inventory management techniques. T categorises stocks into three kinds A, B and C. This assists them in prioritising their product concerning which can bring more profit. The categories are:

Category A: Most valuable products of the SMB contributing to 70-80% of company revenue. One must make sure to have enough stock of this commodity.

Category B: Products that are considered very important but not as valuable as Category Ac

Category C: Least valuable products but they still play a pivotal role in the company’s profit.

The product shifts between these categories according to the prevailing demand and cost and this should be done through regular analysis of the market.

FIFO and LIFO Method

FIFO stands for the first-in, first-out method of inventory control. This aims to sell the oldest stock as soon as possible to bring in fresher stocks and avoid old products from piling and hence prevent the loss that can be caused by piling up of old expired products.

On the other hand, the LIFO or Last-in, First-Out method targets selling the newest inventory is sold first. This assists in prohibiting the products from becoming obsolete.

Categories
Digital Technology

project management tools and operations: what’s the connection?

Whether it be for media planning for your client’s digital launch campaign or strategizing your clients’ social media management strategy, it can be hard to keep a track of each individual subtask that each contributing member must carry out. Some tasks will have a dependency on other tasks to proceed further to completing it. What a project management tool can do is organize, structure, and track your tasks but more importantly what it does is that it gives visibility.  

Endless spreadsheets, briefs and task lists. Keeping all of this under one confined data space is no small feat of achievement. The time and effort that is taken into maintaining all these files is a huge hassle and this time can be better utilized. Say goodbye to the headache of inaccessibility and myopic visibility.

What is a project management tool?

To put it in simple words, it is a platform that streamlines planning, tracking and management of projects under your organization. Gone are the days where you need to lug around your planner and rack your brain on whether you missed out on any important points. You don’t really need to dread documenting all these tasks as you can go as far as to automate the workflow and how each task should be structured.

Let’s break it down with the help of an example. Let’s say that you are preparing a social media calendar. The work that goes behind social media calendars are carried out by three teams: the creative designing team, the copy team and the social media management team. While strategizing doesn’t really need to be tracked, the individual deliverables need to be monitored so that this process runs like clockwork. Let’s say that an idea for a post dated on 10th October 2022 is not yet ready and the creative team is dependent to start working on their designs. Wouldn’t it be easy to just have all of this data centralized? And that’s exactly what a project management tool will do for you.

Why does the operations team need to be at the cusp of evolving project management technologies?

In any organization, big or small, the operations team is the one that essentially coordinates between several other teams to get all work done. This team is the one that works behind the scenes. In an advertising agency, they are at the heart of the organization and provide proper bridges between each team for efficient and effective collaborations.

What a project management tool does for this team is just simplify their job portfolio. Consider that an SEO plan needs to be made for a client and the content team has to get back on the number of blogs that they need to write to drive organic search volumes to their website. All of these things can be easily monitored and tracked to a large extent and sticking to deadlines is no longer hard! The operations team at every agency aims at structuring every single task into smooth and efficient processes with infallible structure. This goes in the line of the purpose of the adaptation of these platforms and tools.

From a planning perspective, it is easier to allocate the right person to the right task with just a few clicks. Automation of workflow eradicates the manual documentation of tasks. Board and Calendar views make sure that your project is going on track. Team members don’t need to go crazy over finding that one client brief because all these tools have an excellent file storage system.

Our 5 Top Rated Project Management Tools

  1. Asana: This is your go to app and is our number 1 rated app. All blustream’s projects are onboarded on to Asana. Asana just doesn’t serve as a project management platform but it has an efficient file storage system which makes everything centralized and visible.
  2. Trello: Trello has excellent communication channels. It has been the most implemented tool in a lot of Fortune 500 companies. Trello excels in terms of visual features. You can view your project tasks in different views with the additional advantage of having unlimited task lists for precise detailing of project deliverables.
  3. Notion: Notion excels in terms of keeping tabs on team tasks. Their task board is simply one of the most visual yet organized ways of depicting project tasks and deliverables.
  4. JIRA: Jira has the amazing feature of creating user stories and issues. You can clearly set priorities and discuss your team’s work based on multiple settings and visibility search options that the platform has provided to the end user.
  5. Basecamp: Basecamp’s messaging board is simply amazing. This particular feature in itself can be used to give depth to team projects. Basecamp also has the most perky interface which is very interactive and fun to use.

We strongly believe that being current and evolving as technology evolves is one way to grow your business. Data, content and technology is at the heart of what we do. As a result, every team needs to keep up and the more execution-oriented teams need to play their role in staying current.

Categories
Content Marketing

Content Marketing vs Content Brand Marketing

Content Marketing vs Content Brand Marketing

For an effective online presence, content is essential. It can produce nine times more leads than outbound marketing and raise brand awareness. But in order to see results, you must use it correctly and pick the appropriate kind of content.

Your company could suffer if you don’t comply with this. But how can you tell if you are appropriately leveraging content? And if you want to promote business growth, should you choose content marketing or content brand marketing?

In this blog, we’ll examine the two forms of content and evaluate which is now most suited to meet the demands of various businesses and customer demographics. You’ll discover how the two differ from one another and the best ways to use them in your company.

Defining “Content Brand Marketing”

Brand and content marketing go hand in hand. Its main goal is to increase brand recognition and establish a connection with potential customers.

Content brand marketing does not always involve the promotion of a particular commodity. Instead, it emphasises the purpose of the brand and provides answers to queries such as why the business is in operation.

Defining “Content Marketing”

The goal of content marketing isn’t to strengthen consumers’ relationships with a brand. Instead, it concentrates on gaining customers’ trust through resolving their issues.

Most of the time, your goal is to identify client problems and address them through your product. Basically, you give your customers helpful material and advertise your goods to increase client loyalty and conversions.

Let’s examine a real-world illustration:

Your target market consists of teachers who want to start teaching online through online courses.The issue is that they are unsure of which platform to choose. You can instantly fix that by providing them with a guide that lists the top online learning resources, or goods.

They can study your instructions, pick the platform that best suits them, and start teaching online using that platform. Even while it isn’t as exciting as content brand marketing, it will undoubtedly increase sales.

Why is understanding the difference between content marketing and content brand marketing important?

It might be disastrous to not understand the distinction between content marketing and brand marketing. In reality, it could impair both your strategy and the perception of your brand. If you utilise these two interchangeably, it’s mainly because your material isn’t tailored to your audience and relevant to them.

They’ll become frustrated, too. Additionally, your efforts will be futile. Consider the fact that consumers who are unaware of what a CRM platform is are currently unable to select a solution. They are seeking more information at the top of the funnel.

At this point, you should involve them in content brand marketing so they can learn more about the CRM platform and the goals of your company.

Making a distinction between the two will result in better personalised content and the desired outcomes.

So, what is the difference?

Branding with content is significantly different from marketing with content. Conversion optimization and lead generation are the sole goals of content marketing. That is very different from content brand marketing, where establishing relationships with your target market and raising brand awareness are the major objectives.

What does that mean for your firm, and when is a particular technique more appropriate?

The goal of content marketing is to increase leads and sales.

By strategically employing the brand’s products to address the concerns of your customers, content marketing focuses on generating leads and conversions.

Content Brand Marketing Is A Master Storyteller

Content brand marketing is about building a rapport and conveying the brand’s values. The easiest (and most fun) way to do that is to publish stories that will help you get closer to your customers and deepen your rapport with them.

Content marketing is less adaptable.

The primary goal of content brand marketing is brand awareness.Whether it’s a major journal or a social media outlet, you can post it anywhere.

But because content marketing is primarily focused on conversions, it is much less adaptable.

For instance, unlike content brand marketing, you won’t be able to target everyone with a piece about apps for freelancers. Instead, you’ll focus on a select group of prospects who fit within your expertise. This makes it much harder to advance and less versatile.

In terms of sales and conversions, though, it can work wonders for your business if you can find the proper location.

Content brand marketing produces quick outcomes.

It will take a lot of effort to establish rapport and trust with your audience. You need to progressively begin marketing your items to strangers in order to turn them into leads.

The entire sales cycle is a labor-intensive, complicated procedure that requires time.

The objective of content brand marketing, however, is much simpler to achieve. Only brand awareness, which is at the top of the sales funnel, is of interest to you. Additionally, your prospects are not required to take out their wallets and think about making a purchase. Instead, all they have to do is relax and take in the interesting stuff you offer.

You also don’t have to worry about adhering to any SEO best practices, sales strategies, or keeping up with the latest developments in digital marketing. You simply publish content, share it with everyone online, and increase brand recognition.

Final Reflections

It might seem comparable to content branding and content marketing. However, there are several significant distinctions to be aware of. On the one hand, content brand marketing is concerned with increasing customer engagement and brand awareness. It emphasises forging an emotional connection with the brand.

On the other hand, lead creation and conversions are the focus of content marketing. It offers your product as a solution to the issues faced by your readers, boosting sales.

Categories
Content Marketing

The Top 10 Benefits of Content Marketing

The Top 10 Benefits of Content Marketing

You’ve probably heard of content marketing by now, but if you haven’t used it yet, it could be because you have doubts about its long-term advantages and are hesitant to invest extensively in something that might just be a fad. The perceived complexity of the strategy may scare you, making you hesitant to start if you don’t know what you’re doing. Or you might have held off because you’re busy with other marketing strategies. 

If this is you, you should be aware that one of the most valuable, powerful, and practical marketing tactics available today is content marketing. Let these top ten advantages persuade you:

1. More content on the site:

It might seem like an obvious conclusion, but investing more effort in content marketing will result in more material for your website. This translates to more reasons for your customers to linger around, more chances for them to grow familiar with your brand, and more trust, all of which will increase conversion rates. Longer user engagement on your website is always a good thing, and great content encourages that. See The Top 10 Benefits of Blogging On Your Website for more information on the advantages of on-site content.

2. A greater presence in search results:

Your blog will add a new page to its index each time you publish a new post. Although having more quality pages indexed can provide you more possibilities to rank for more search queries, having more pages does not always equate to greater search traffic. You shouldn’t have any issue showing up for those searches if you target long-tail keywords and topics that your consumers commonly search for.

3. Increased domain authority:

Writing more material of a higher caliber will make your website appear more knowledgeable, authoritative, relevant, and trustworthy. The more inbound connections from outside sources that material receives, the higher the domain authority of your website will become. Since a greater domain authority is highly correlated with better search rankings, the more high-quality content you provide, the more visibility you’ll stand to gain from organic search across your entire website.

4. More referral traffic:

Your dedication to the guest posting aspect of your content strategy will determine how successful this one is. You can link back to your website when you make guest contributions to other media. One guest post on a popular, reputable website with a suitable audience could bring thousands of new visitors to your website.

5. More followers and traffic:

On social media. For greater exposure, syndicate your content across all of your social media networks. By doing this, you will increase the number of users who view and read your content. Additionally, users will have the chance to share it with their friends and followers, considerably expanding your audience. You’ll gradually gain more and more social media followers for your brand, which will increase social media traffic.

6. A higher chance of conversion:

Your main goals while creating content should be to engage, educate, assist, and add value for your audience. After you’ve taken care of it, you may use the area you still have to promote one of your goods or services. You can simply boost the amount of conversions you receive if you act diplomatically. Just keep in mind that “tactfully” is the crucial word here; avoid turning your material into an advertisement.

7. A better reputation for the brand:

People will form an opinion of your brand as they read your writing. If consumers find what they read to be useful, educational, or enlightening, they will have a positive opinion of your company. Additionally, if consumers see your work appearing on outside websites and in their social news feeds, they will view you as a more credible thought leader in your field.

8. Better connections with readers and customers:

The number and recognition of your audience may expand with a stronger brand reputation, but the loyalty and intimacy of your customer connections may also rise with excellent content. Your clients may form a more intimate bond with your business if you use the personal brands of individuals to generate and distribute content. Their loyalty will be practically assured for as long as they continue to purchase your products if they begin to rely on you as their main information source.

9. Usefulness to everybody:

A “terrible” industry for content marketing doesn’t exist. Content marketing is a major approach that can be used by any company in any industry. Manufacturing is a traditional, “un-sexy” industry, but it can nevertheless offer insights on market trends or just make its industry more approachable and relatable to consumers.

10. Reduced marketing expenses and value of compounding:

Only time is spent on content marketing. It delivers compounding returns, which makes it even more cost-effective. A content marketing plan may not produce many results in the first few months, but growth will start to be visible in the next few months. More increases will occur in the following several months. By the time you’ve invested a few years, your return may easily regularly treble your investment (or more).

Content marketing is accessible to everyone in any business, affordable, safe, and advantageous in a variety of ways. You’ll see results more quickly and more effectively if you invest in it sooner rather than later. There is no reason content marketing shouldn’t be a part of your marketing arsenal, whether you want more traffic, better conversion rates, or simply better relationships with your consumers.

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