Influencers And Bloggers – Page 10 – BluStream Marketing Solutions

Marketing with Memes: What difference does it make?

Post author By Sushanth Shyamsundar
Post date November 2, 2022

What are memes?

Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins coined the term “meme” in his book (1976) The Selfish Gene. The word is a combination of the Greek words “mimeme” (something imitated) and “gene” which rhymes with “chorus”.

In Dawkins’ definition, memes involve how “our ideas, ideals, culture and habits reproduce themselves. Almost like a virus, they move from person to person by copying, sharing and replicating.”

Dawkins suggested that egos also exist in the animal kingdom, suggesting that they have some evolutionary basis. We are all willing to pass on memes that serve a purpose. Memes that aren’t worth sharing die out fast. A University of Vermont study even found that infectious diseases follow similar patterns of spread to Internet memes.

Today’s social networks are perfect for passing on these cultural genes. Once a message resonates with an audience, it can go global almost instantly. The most successful memes usually capture a moment, thought or feeling in a visual, social media form.

This timeliness does not have to be in the original self; The user can add it with new text or using it in a new context. Take the classic “distracted boyfriend” for example. You can’t say you haven’t seen this image — which first appeared online in 2015 — in one form or another.

Reasons to Use Memes in Marketing

In an interview with Wired magazine, Richard Dawkins confirmed that Internet memes are similar to what he imagined, saying, “It’s all that happens.” As such, anything can be a self; Dawkins himself received the self-treatment several times.

Reasons to Use Memes in Marketing

This meme started on Reddit , where users Photoshop beautiful images of Shiba Inu dogs into various backgrounds. The dog’s curious expression creates a humorous confrontation with its new environment.

The meme spawned the satirical cryptocurrency Dogecoin, which was later backed by Elon Musk and is now the shirt sponsor of Premier League football club Watford FC. This trajectory is crucial to the life cycle of online memes; they are contagious, but they are also infinitely adaptable and take on a life of their own.

Another new form of currency where memes are showing their value are non-fungible tokens (NFTs). A woman whose picture in front of a burning building as a

-year-old sparked the “disaster girl” meme just received half a million dollars after selling it as an NFT and used the proceeds to pay off her loans and donate to charity.

So memes are a cultural phenomenon that seems to have been with us for a while. Does this mean that brands should use memes in their marketing?

Advantages of using memes in marketing

1. Memes are cheap to create

Internet memes have a certain homely charm. Anyone can contribute and add text to the classics of the genre using sites like Meme Generator.

Brands can use memes created by others in their marketing campaigns, but if you intend to use them for marketing purposes, it is recommended that you create your own memes. Marketers have to work a little harder to keep up with cultural trends.

The hardest part is coming up with a witty title. This example from BarkBox provides a handy reference point:

It relates to your brand and audience without destroying the relationship with a pushy sales message.

Skillfully executed memes are a cheap and cheerful way to attract interaction on social media.

2. Memes can be a powerful brand marketing tool

You can also create content suitable for memes. In other words, brands can create content that can become its own self.

For example, when Netflix released a preview for its Bird Box series (like the image below), it was the basis for countless memes:

Bird Box reviews were not very kind. Melanic McFarland of Salon wrote, “Is it good? Not really, but it doesn’t have to be.” Thanks to what we might call the “meme effect”, people watched Bird Box anyway – it had 5 million views within 7 days of its release. Netflix even had to warn people not to try eye contact tricks to recreate memes.

Recently, the huge success of the Netflix Squid Game has spawned countless new memes, many of which – like those that fit the format and boost Netflix ratings – are understandable only to those who have seen the show. Brands also quickly began to get involved. Pepsi has already gotten over 37,000 likes on this Instagram photo with the iconic Squid Game visual reference (no spoilers!) next to one of the drinks titled “When You Know You Know.”

It is important for marketers to embrace the spirit of a trend like the squid game if they want to use it as a brand communication tool. The Pepsi example is playful and the text “If you know that you know” gives a suggestive nod to other fans.

A company like Netflix has an advantage with its content factory and Hollywood stars. However, memes don’t need that gloss to appeal to a mass audience. The more widely known, the more people see the brand. And the best memes last for years.

3. Memes can show your company its human side

When companies use memes, they inevitably show their human side. That could mean gently poking fun at the brand’s traditional ways, as in this picture of Denny’s:

Denny’s jumped on Facebook’s “10 Year Challenge,” which has already gone viral. It didn’t try to hijack the trend for its own purposes, but combined it with fun in a different way than the self format.

A 2017 online study of complex contagion patterns that accurately predicted the duration of the ALS Ice Cream Challenge found that when people see a meme that reflects their current mood, they feel seen. As a result, they share the meme in hopes of finding social validation from other social media users.

That said, memes don’t always have to be funny. They can be thought-provoking and insightful, not just frivolous. However, it is safer for brands to start with lighter memes, as more serious images tend to be political. Denny’s offers a convenient plan for this; brands do best when they show some self-awareness.

4. Memes Generate Instant Reactions

Memes appeal to marketers for all of the above reasons. Their raison d’etre is to go viral, and that’s what every brand has been talking about since the advent of social media.

There are no guarantees on this side and most memes die out quickly. But brands should see this as a learning opportunity, not a reason to abandon the meme. While the meme experiment isn’t destructive (we’ll get to those examples later), marketers can use memes to get instant feedback from their audience.

If it fits your brand, you should try creating a meme. They are cheap to make and usually fade quickly if not raised. And when they go viral, you may find you’ve tapped into something you never knew about your audience.

The Running World meme promotes a sense of community and is essentially a “joke”. really just runners (and their friends). This approach might not work as well if the audience didn’t get the joke, but it wouldn’t hurt to try. However, brands should be careful. This example from the potato chip brand Ruffles is common in social media folklore as an example of how not to do it:

It’s too focused on the brand, doesn’t give the user a reason to share , and uses a format that has been seen too many times. Every time someone adopts a meme, they have to add something new to the existing list.

It’s also worth noting that the cultural (and political) meaning of memes can change over time, as this documentary chronicles how Pepe the Frog went from an innocent amphibian to a divisive symbol. By following the basic principles of self-marketing, brands can avoid these pitfalls.

Reasons to use Memes in Marketing :

Brands need to be aware that memes only help achieve certain marketing goals. When they publish a sales message, users are immediately rejected. This brings similar considerations to our marketer’s Reddit guide. The most important thing is to understand the pulse of the audience and join and add something that affects the moment. Brands that wrongly undermine morality and pay the price.

However, memes can be part of a serious strategy. When adding memes to your marketing plan, keep these tips in mind:

Keep Up With Pop Culture: It’s important to keep up with current trends; relevancy is the lifeblood of a viral meme.
Show self-awareness: If you want to convey your brand’s message, use humor to turn around and show the human side.
Finding the right channel: Memes are everywhere, from Snapchat to LinkedIn, but they vary in form and tone between channels. For example, TikTok memes use music as an additional element.
Use an on-brand tone: It’s important to remain professional even when participating in a social media challenge. Customers expect the brand to act according to its traditional identity.
Research your audience’s preferences: Identify these cultural preferences using social media marketing tools before launching a marketing strategy.
Join Trends and Challenges: Because they are already viral, they offer guaranteed visibility. Just make sure you use this coin wisely.
Build a meme library: The same memes keep popping up all the time, and their familiarity is comforting. Keep a library of memes and quickly edit text when an idea strikes.
And look at image licensing: a bit of a boring point to cover, but an important one. If you’re collecting images to create new memes, check for possible licensing considerations.

Digital Media

Digital Marketing for B2B

Post author By venky
Post date November 2, 2022

This might be a challenging question, especially when you are facing several marketing challenges. There are so many things that you need to think of and plan if you want to achieve success with your B2B business.

With so many businesses focusing on digital marketing, your company must find ways to stand out and build trust with potential customers. If you’re ready to take your B2B business up a notch, read on for 6 effective digital marketing strategies that will get you there quickly!

If you want to achieve this, you’ll need to understand the digital transformation process and how it impacts your business. With this in mind, let’s take a closer look at the role of digital marketing.

How Digital Marketing Works

Digital marketing is the process of developing and maintaining a relationship with your audience through creating, accessing, and sharing content on digital channels such as social media, email, chat, and other forms of communication that are open to your audience.

As a marketer, you must be able to integrate all these different channels into one cohesive message. This requires good communication skills. You must be able to effectively communicate with all audiences—including B2B ones—and ensure that everyone understands what’s happening in your company by using the right tools.

This requires creative thinking and data-driven communications that are integrated into a consistent experience for the entire environment. The key is to build relationships with people who can help you accomplish these goals.

Building Relationships

You need to understand how well each person understands what you’re selling or helping them do so they can make their voice heard in their own way—for example, by creating content for social media or interacting on an e-commerce marketplace site; by providing feedback; by offering advice

In the B2B world, things can get a little tricky. It’s not as simple as reaching out to as many people as possible and hoping they’ll eventually buy your product or service. In fact, something like that will probably backfire on you.

Instead, B2B requires a more strategic approach to digital marketing. You must think about who your target audience is and how to reach them authentically without coming across as salesy or unprofessional.

After all, no one wants to be sold to all the time! So we’ve compiled a list of 6 effective digital marketing strategies for B2B businesses that will help you grow your business in the right direction while keeping it personal and professional at the same time.

Consistently publish quality content

It sounds obvious, but it’s important to remember that you have to have content for your B2B marketing strategy. Most B2B companies focus on content about their product or service. You, however, can also publish helpful blog posts about your industry and your customers.

As you create these blog posts, make sure they are consistent with your brand and that they are of high quality. Always aim for above 80 percent quality on your blog posts. This will keep your readers coming back for more and will help you build authority and trust in your industry.

If you have a marketing team, make sure they have scheduled content creation times each week. This will ensure you have a consistent flow of content to keep your readers engaged and it will take some pressure off you as the marketing director.

Integrate email marketing with lead nurturing

Email marketing is a great way to nurture leads and create a one-on-one relationship with your customers. Think of email marketing as an ongoing conversation with your B2B leads. You want to constantly be engaging with them and building trust through your content and emails.

To engage with your leads and nurture them, you can create email sequences where you send emails at different stages of their journey with you. You can send emails to new leads right away to let them know you exist and are here to help.

Sending emails to your leads at various stages in their journey will help you increase your conversions and sales as your leads trust you more and become customers. You can use email marketing software like HubSpot or Convio to create email sequences, send emails, and track your results.

Implement ad automation with personalized ads

Ad automation with personalized ads is a great way to scale your B2B marketing efforts and make sure you’re reaching as many people as possible. You can do this by creating several ad variations with different calls to action and different audiences.

As you run these ads, they will show up in different places across the internet. On social media, on Google and other search engines, and on third-party websites and apps. As you run these ads, they will also personalize the ad for each person who sees it based on what ad they were shown and what they click on.

This way, even though you’re running one ad that is being shown to many people, everyone sees an ad that is relevant to them. You can use advertising automation platforms like Sprout or HubSpot to set this up and scale your ad campaigns.

Create SEO-optimized Quality Content

This may sound similar to the content creation strategy above, but there is a difference. The consistent publishing of quality content will help you to rank higher on search engines like Google. As you write blog posts, you can include keywords that are relevant to your industry and product or service.

You want to make sure these keywords are natural and not forced. When you write, allow your readers to be your focus and not the search engines. Then, when you publish your blog posts, you will use SEO best practices like title tags, meta descriptions, and other elements designed to help your posts rank higher.

This will help you reach more people in your industry and people who are looking for your products or services. This will also help you reach more leads and increase your sales.

Leverage LinkedIn for B2B Marketing

LinkedIn is a great place for B2B marketing. It is a professional network where people go to learn about their industry, see what their peers are doing, and network with people in their industry. This is the perfect place for B2B marketing!

You can join groups related to your industry and post helpful content like blog posts or articles. You can also comment on other people’s posts and engage with your industry. You can also look for people in your industry and try to build relationships and make connections with them.

This is a good idea because you don’t want to spam people with sales pitches. You want to engage with them and help them. This is especially important if you are looking to build a long-term business relationship.

Build a Solid Brand

We’ve talked a lot about building relationships with your leads and prospects, but what about your brand? Your brand is the first thing people see when they come across your business online. It is the image you create and the reputation you have.

When you are marketing yourself, you want to make sure you are building a strong brand that is consistent across all your marketing channels. You do this by having a clear mission, creating a strong logo and brand colors, and defining your voice. Your mission statement is a one or two-sentence statement about what your company does and what problem it solves.

Your logo and colors are the visual elements representing your company. The voice is how you speak to your audience. It is how you write your content, tweets, and posts. It is how you communicate with people. When you are building a strong brand, you are creating consistent connections with your leads and customers.

Summing Up

Digital marketing is an essential part of any modern business. It’s how you reach new prospects and introduce your brand. That being said, you can’t just start posting on social media and expect people to find you.

You need a digital marketing strategy that’s tailored toward your audience, and one that considers the various channels available to you. With the right mix of content, targeting, and timing, you can build a strong online presence and generate leads for your business.

Now that you know how to get started with marketing for your B2B business, take a moment to subscribe to our newsletter for similar informative content. You can drop down your questions in the comments below or contact us through social media.

Social Media

Developing ROI Driven Social Media Strategies

Post author By Harsha Vardan Hariprasad
Post date November 2, 2022

What is a social media strategy?

Simply put, a social media strategy is a plan that outlines your social media goals, the tactics you will use to achieve them, and the performance metrics that will be tracked. Your strategy doesn’t have to be complicated. You want a simple and precise plan in meaningful, measurable ways. This will help you identify channels and tactics that succeed and those that fail. Watch this webinar to learn how to love your social media strategy! Ultimately, your social media strategy should increase your target audience’s brand awareness and engagement across social media.

What are the benefits of a social media strategy?

Maybe you’ve run a successful social media campaign or you’re good at engaging with the content you post. This one time success is within reach. However, the hardest part of social media marketing is consistency. Do you understand why the campaign or post was successful? Can you copy it easily? Creating a social media strategy can be scary to think about, but it offers many tangible benefits for your business, such as

A Guide to All Social Media Activities
Improving Brand Awareness
Providing Communications Customer Service and Support
Improving Audience Targeting
Driving and Increasing Website Traffic
Content Optimization
Generating Higher Quality Leads
Creating Social Media Influencers
Promoting your unique content that can go viral (remember the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge?)
Offer social commerce and shoppable posts
Information, which you can analyze and measure

As you can see, social media has huge benefits, so creating a strategy will help you achieve your business goals and increase customer engagement.

Although content Marketing and Social Media Marketing are closely related, there is a difference between them.

Marketing strategy is the right place to start if you want to direct and improve your social media activities. It includes some basic elements like audience research, creating personas, choosing social media platforms and more. Content strategy focuses on content formats and results. So you should look at content creation, communication and tone, content timing, etc.

What is a social media engagement strategy?

Your social media engagement strategy is important because it creates relationships with your audience across different networks. It helps you manage your community through social media and build your brand.

The two main goals of an engagement strategy are:

Community management: This can be done by offering advice via a blog, responding to post comments, answering channel surveys and taking surveys or polls to learn more about your customer base. .
Grow your following: Interaction is key here, so provide valuable content such as engaging video content, attract potential customers with free content or contests, or simply present your brand as active and helpful by engaging people in your networks in a responsive manner.

User Generated Content (UGC) can play a key role here because it is proof that the people who support your brand are talking about it and are not coming from your company or marketing team. Here are four great examples of UGC to inspire you.

What are the steps to building a successful social media strategy?

Now that you understand the basics of a social media strategy, let’s move on to the steps you need to take to create a strategy. We’ll also highlight where you can integrate your content strategy and engagement strategy into your overall social media activities to ensure you’re covering all the bases.

Here are 5 steps to creating a successful social media strategy, including:

1. Know your target audience

The first step in developing any strategy is to know your target audience. There are thousands of different categories of people on social media, and you want to target your ads and social media posts to those few who will actually convert into potential customers. And for that, Ms. Alka Thakur uses her expertise to help clients identify their right target audience on social media and then figure out ways we can serve that audience.

The second part of this step is also to do a lot of research on anything and everything related to your product and service category, from competitors to other market entrants with similar service products, and only then can you develop appropriate strategies to proceed. your business marketing plan

2. Create interesting content

The second and most important step would be to create content that your target audience would not only be interested in seeing, but would be interested in. The content you create defines your current customer base and helps attract new customers. Our Nagpur social media marketing company at OSK works round the clock to help clients create the best content for social media.

3. Engage with your followers

Your followers can be existing customers or potential customers who are interested in your brand. Either way, it’s the best way to get a return on investment from whatever you’ve spent marketing your brand on social media. communicate with followers, not only to retain them, but also to engage them and know their feedback to improve our products and services. In this century, where the customer is king, it is important to know exactly what the customer wants and needs. Running regular sweepstakes, contests and other engaging activities will help your customers connect with you on a brand level as they would benefit from the brand more than just the product or service.

4. Use a separate content strategy for different social media platforms

Now we all know that there are some different groups of people who have adopted different social media platforms and to target them you need different social media strategies for each platform. If you post content on Facebook aimed at the younger generation, which is often used by Gen x and boomers today, the result will obviously not be as effective. Ms. Alkal has always had a habit of using different social media strategies for each client for their different social media accounts and this has been very beneficial to the clients we serve.

5. Stick to your brand theme

Every brand has a theme created from the beginning that later becomes their identity. But for it to become their identity, they need to be consistent with their theme and allow customers to associate your brand with that theme. Only if a customer can retain and remember the small but important details of your brand are they likely to stay or return. By creating a specific color palette on Instagram or using a similar pattern in their posts, the client connects with them and thus increases brand awareness for their customers, ultimately increasing their ROI.

Digital Technology

QR Code Marketing

Post author By Sushanth Shyamsundar
Post date November 1, 2022

What exactly is a QR code?

The QR stands for quick response. They’re essentially squares with black and white symbols on them. Every QR code is unique and holds encrypted information like a website link, product landing page, promotional details, coupon, or other information. Whenever someone scans the QR code with a smartphone or tablet, the code reveals the encrypted information, taking the user to the desired destination. This is very similar to that of a barcode, but it can hold more and different types of data.

How to use QR codes for marketing?

To have a successful marketing campaign, you have to know who it is you’re marketing to. Whether you’re conducting a survey or poll, asking people to sign up for an email list or taking orders, it’s important to get information from customers through some kind of an online form.

The most common purpose of a QR code is to direct users to a specific landing page. This page could have a sign-up link, a campaign page, or even a product catalogue. The possibilities are virtually endless. Make sure your QR code directs users to your campaign’s landing page rather than a home page. This way, users don’t have to navigate to the correct page. Also, make sure your website is mobile-friendly, as many users will be scanning on the go. Make QR codes fun and exciting by including instant coupons, freebies and offers. Instead of having a customer clip a printed coupon, you can create a QR code that saves the offer directly to the user’s mobile wallet. Users can then easily provide the digital coupon during checkout at a physical retailer. You can also direct QR scanners to an online store. Instead of asking them to manually enter a promo code, you can set it up so the discount is already applied at checkout.

Promotional QR codes are very versatile. You can integrate them into print ads, direct mail, or even a giant billboard. A whopping 92% of consumers consider online reviews when they’re searching for local businesses. So turn your biggest customers into your biggest advocates? Simply include a QR code on product packaging along with a brief message encouraging customers to scan the code and leave a review on platforms like Yelp. Throwing in a freebie for leaving a review won’t hurt either. Use QR codes to incentivize customers to download and use your branded apps. Context is key here the QR codes direct users to apps that complement the ad or printed material where the code appears. 71% of shoppers report that digital billboards grab their attention more than online ads do. Pairing outdoor spaces with QR codes can enable innovative marketing ideas to flourish.

What’s great about using QR codes in your marketing campaign is the convenience of tracking and reporting. With web analytics and other campaign measurement tools, you can easily track the number of scans over time, capture geographic data, and gather additional info to measure your return on investment.

No matter how you decide to integrate QR codes in your next marketing campaign, they’re a great way to promote interaction and engagement, not to mention super efficient.

You can drive data collection from an online form, direct customers to a website, or deliver instant coupons, freebies and offers. You can also direct customers to social media pages, download or launch apps from QR scans, and even conduct scavenger hunts. Whichever way you choose to use QR codes, one thing is for sure your customers will have a unique experience.

Five tips- How to integrate QR codes into your marketing strategy?

Determine where the QR code should go. So what landing page or page on your site or where do you want the user to end up when they use the QR code? What’s that destination? Figure out what that URL is.
Take that URL and create a Trackable URL from it. One way to do this is to add a simple ref code to the end of your URL. To do this, simply add a question mark, reflected by whatever you feel, which will help you identify the campaign. This is a really important step because you’re going to track the performance of your QR code, and without doing this, you won’t be able to do that.
Generate your QR code. There are many free QR code generators. Just go to Google and search QR code generator and you’ll find several tools. Pick one that you like. Use the Trackable URL, paste that in there, and generate the QR code. By doing this, the QR code will fire that URL that you created when somebody uses it.
Once you have generated your QR code, download that image and add it to your marketing materials or your ad campaign so that it’s in your TV commercial or on your flyer or wherever you want it to be, so somebody can use it.
Track the performance of your QR code over time in analytics. So within analytics, because you created that Trackable URL, you’ll be able to see the performance. You’ll be able to see how many people use the QR code, how many people landed on your landing page, how long they stayed, if they converted, if they became a lead, if they made a purchase, everything. That’s the beauty of using the Trackable URL. Now you can track the performance of things like print materials, flyers, direct mailers, TV commercials, and brand campaigns of all sorts by using your QR code, you can then track the performance if you use the Trackable URL.

Some ways you can use QR codes in marketing campaigns.

You can boost brand identity because QR codes could impact retention, loyalty, and brand advocacy. By providing creative, convenient ways to use your codes, you can reach the right people on their terms.

Brands can now customize QR code designs, including their colours, CDAs and frames. After personalizing your QR code to fit your brand, you can then drive traffic to your website, link them to Google Maps, or send them to social media accounts.
You can increase brand transparency because QR codes can help drive that transparency. Manufacturers and brands must be transparent about what’s in their products and how it’s made. By placing codes on packages, wrappers, and containers, brands can make it simple for consumers to click through to find out more about the product. This transparency promotes engagement and also builds trust and improves brand reputation.
Increase Customer Engagement- Empowering customers to pay on their terms not only makes life easier but can also help increase engagement.
QR codes can avoid the situation of customers carrying cash or cards and enable convenient and contactless point-of-sale transactions.
What most folks care about the most is generating more leads. What’s important to keep in mind here is being cohesive with the customer journey and adding value. It’s great to get more leads, appointments, phone calls, and all those bottom-funnel metrics that we all care so much about. But maybe it’s adding value somewhere at the top of the funnel that shortens that customer journey and leads to a higher lifetime value.

Are QR codes still relevant?

They’ve been around for years, and marketers have debated whether they are the next big thing or are nearing extinction. Many businesses are trying to keep their daily operations safe and contactless. And it turns out QR codes are the solution.

Digital Media

Digital Marketing Transformation Roadblocks

Post author By venky
Post date November 1, 2022

Digital marketing transformation is a process. It’s not something you can do overnight (or even in a month or year). It involves change, which means resistance, friction, and challenges along the way.

You cannot just expect to magically transform your marketing department; you have to work at it every day. Many obstacles stand in the way of digital marketing transformation –at every step of the process.

If you’re serious about making progress, you need to know what those roadblocks are and how you can overcome them. Read on to know the 6 most challenging roadblocks to Digital Marketing Transformation and how to overcome them.

Lack of budget and resources

The first thing that comes to mind when thinking about obstacles to a digital transformation is a lack of budget. This can be a big problem, especially for smaller companies that don’t have the budget in place to invest in digital marketing.

Ideally, you want to put around 25% of your marketing budget towards digital channels. But if you don’t even have that percentage allocated to digital marketing, then how are you supposed to implement a digital transformation?

While you didn’t expect it, there are many ways to square off the situation. One, you can do a proof-of-concept to show that your solutions are effective, and then seek funding based on that. Two, you can partner with an agency with the resources you need to scale.

Another way around it is to use the in-house resources you have by outsourcing non-core activities. Lastly, you can buy in from the C-level, including your CEO and CFO. Convince them that this is where the future lies and that you need funding to get there.

Change Management is your biggest obstacle

You can have the best ideas and most sophisticated technologies, but if you don’t have buy-in from your team, you’re not going to get very far. Whether you’re managing a digital transformation in-house or through a consultancy, you need to instill trust in those around you that this new approach is going to be better than what they’re currently doing.

You need to show them that you’re not just here to “fix things”, but that you’re actually looking to improve their situation – and that of the company as a whole. This is why change management is the biggest obstacle to digital marketing transformation.

If you don’t do a good job at managing the change, you might overwhelm your people. Or, you might end up with a lot of pushback and resistance that could potentially put your transformation on hold.

Lack of talent

If you were to poll marketers about their biggest challenge, many would say that they need more talent. The sad truth is that the digital marketing industry is short on good people – especially skilled professionals who can handle complex marketing transformations.

If you’re managing a transformation in-house, you need to be very careful that you don’t bite off more than you can chew. You don’t want to take on tasks that are way above your level and lead your organization to fail. If you’re hiring an outside agency to help with your transformation, then you also need to make sure you have the right talent on the job

If you’re not sure about the need for a particular post, or you’re struggling with the quality of the work, try hiring a freelancer for the job. Once you’re comfortable with spending more, shift to regular employment if the freelancer is ready for it. You want people who are not just skilled, but who also have the experience needed to handle your situation.

Data quality is a big issue

Data quality is a huge issue when you’re going through a digital marketing transformation. Whether you’re implementing new technologies or just trying to normalize your data across platforms, you’ll probably run into issues with data quality. You may have data that are not up to date, that doesn’t have the right attributes, or that has issues with quality.

If you don’t fix these problems, they could cause serious issues when trying to give your organization a comprehensive view of customers. If your data isn’t standardized, you may have issues when trying to combine datasets from different sources. This is a challenge organizations will face as they move toward a data-driven marketing approach.

One way to overcome this challenge is to adopt a data-first approach. First, you have to identify the core questions your marketing team needs to answer and then find ways to get those data points. Once you have those data points, you can start cleaning, formatting, and linking them together to create a data lake.

Brand fear and organizational silos

If you’re working in a large organization, you might notice that not all departments are on the same page. Marketing teams are often siloed from one another. In addition to that, a lot of people are afraid to “step out of line” and get creative or try something new. You need to find a way to overcome both brand fear and organizational silos.

You might find that some departments are resistant to the changes that digital transformation could bring about. Or, you might find that there’s just not a lot of communication between departments. This can be a huge problem when trying to implement a digital transformation.

Silos can form as a result of brand fear. One particular department could actually cause problems for the rest of the organization if it is trying to protect its brand or fear changing. Marketing transformation leads to change, so you need to make sure that other departments understand this and are on board with the changes you’re making.

Marketing Budget

One of the most infamous and talked about issues in digital marketing is the marketing budget of the organization. Small, medium, large or non-profit, every organization’s marketing budget becomes the gap between the seller and the audience. Marketers often seem to forget to integrate the legacy line of business applications.

While many factors affect the brand’s reach to potential customers, and some of them are almost free to implement and manage, reaching your target audience with guaranteed success comes at a cost that almost every organization struggles to get over. For more than half of all businesses, budget is the primary roadblock to marketing.

Organizations should consider investing in platforms just as much as they invest in traditional marketing ways. One way to go around this hurdle is by pre-planning your budget. Every little consideration plays an integral part in the final marketing budget, be it intern training costs or software maintenance costs.

Conclusion

Digital marketing transformation isn’t easy, especially if you’re trying to do it in-house. But it’s something that every marketing team needs to do. If you want to stay relevant in the future, you have to make this transition. If you’ve been putting it off, it’s time to make some serious changes.

Luckily, there are many resources out there that can help you. What’s important is that you understand what the main roadblocks are and how you can overcome them. You’re on your way to digital marketing transformation success if you can get buy-in from the C-level, instill trust in your team, and address data quality.

That said, if you found this article informative, consider subscribing to our newsletter, you can even spot us on social media and seek guidance, it’s free!

eCommerce Marketing

Impacts of AR and VR on eCommerce

Post author By Sushanth Shyamsundar
Post date November 1, 2022

The recent proliferation of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) technology has significantly changed the way consumers interact with e-commerce brands. Recent research shows that 80% of US consumers are aware of VR, while 79% of those who have tried it would do it again.

Global adoption of immersive technology is definitely on the rise, led by the UK, US and China. In fact, 95% of the world’s VR devices are currently manufactured in China, and its own government is committed to supporting the development of virtual reality throughout the country.

How will AR and VR affect e-commerce retailers and what does the future hold?

Both AR and VR offer today’s digital consumers a unique opportunity to go (of course) into an immersive experience where they can get up close and personal with a brand and its services or products. This bold new online shopping trend brings with it a wealth of possibilities.

Here we explore how VR and AR are impacting e-commerce, as we ask what the future holds for the relationship between these new technologies and e-commerce.

Bridging the Digital and Physical Worlds:

While many experts and publications have announced the death of the high street, it appears that we are in the midst of a brick and mortar renaissance.

E-commerce brands are now able to deliver a more personalized customer experience than ever before, turning brick-and-mortar stores into an extension of e-commerce and vice versa. And with huge e-commerce players like Amazon gearing up for the brick-and-mortar arena, AR or VR-based features seem to have great potential to bridge brick-and-mortar and e-commerce experiences.

While many established e-only brands are reluctant to set up brick-and-mortar stores due to cost and resources, it is possible to partner with brick-and-mortar retailers using AR and VR platforms, programs and brand awareness initiatives.

To illustrate how these ubiquitous technologies are shaping e-commerce in physical terms, let’s look at the well-known American retailer Macy’s. To improve its in-store shopping experience and accelerate its business growth online, Macy’s has selected 69 furniture stores in the United States that now offer innovative, engaging features, functions and displays.

Using the seamless combination of VR and AR to its advantage, Macy’s has combined online and offline shopping into one seamless, highly connected experience. Its latest initiative, “Visualize Your Space,” allows shoppers to place different pieces of furniture in their home environment while shopping in-store.

Here, customers can see, touch and experience products in person and use comprehensive technology to decide whether they are worth buying. As a result of this AR-based initiative, the typical cart size in these tech stores is said to be 60% larger compared to other Macy’s furniture departments.

Additionally, this success based on AR and VR has had a positive impact on the brand’s e-commerce sales, with its in-app sales growing by 50% at the beginning of last year. What a testament to the power of the marriage of VR, AR and e-commerce.

Extreme Personalization and Immersive Online Shopping:

The interactive nature of VR and AR means that online consumers can now enjoy a much more personalized and meaningful shopping experience.

Although many are aware of AR and VR-based technologies, and despite their proven e-commerce success rates, 61% of brands do not use the technology at all. More and more e-commerce brands are now using these features to personalize and differentiate their customer experience.

Many Fortune 500 companies such as Walmart, Boeing and UPS are using VR for consumer marketing in addition to educating, training and inspiring employees.

One of the early adopters of VR technology, Amazon recently patented a mirror with Body Labs that can dress you up in virtual clothes, adding extreme personalization to the brand’s customer experience.

This part-reflective, part-transmissive device, when fully realized, zooms in on the wearer’s face and transports them into a reflective environment where they can virtually try on different outfits, allowing them to make informed choices based on real-world interaction. without leaving home.

Another notable example of brands using VR to drive extreme personalization while creating an immersive shopping experience in practice is the growing Snapfeet. An AI-powered algorithm uses a 3D biometric image to allow customers to scan themselves with its proprietary app, offering a series of “custom” recommendations based on characteristics such as shoe size, foot shape and style preferences. This immersive application also presents its recommendations with an interactive 3D image that allows the user to visualize the products before buying them:

Although this innovation is in its infancy, it has already been well received by critics and consumers, suggesting that it will see a lot of growth of this type in the near future.immersive online shopping experience in boom.

AR, VR and the Future of E-Commerce:

Research shows that in the US alone, around 22 million people experienced VR in 2018, and that number is expected to rise to

9 million by the end of 2019. That’s an incredible adoption rate.

However, here are some predictions about AR, VR and e-commerce in the near future:

AR and VR will continue to drive and shape experiential marketing, giving e-commerce brands more tools and opportunities to deeply invest their audiences in their offerings. . . products, services or content in a mobile or virtual sense.
The continued growth of immersive technology allows e-commerce brands to make brand storytelling much more interactive and engaging, allowing the user to control content and connect with the company on a deeply personal level.
As AR becomes more and more integrated into our daily lives and applications and virtual touch points are readily available at every turn, e-commerce companies can use the data generated by these touch points to completely customize the user’s online shopping experience.

eCommerce Marketing

Turning Around your decreasing web traffic

Post author By Harsha Vardan Hariprasad
Post date November 1, 2022

While every website has its site-visit fluctuations, you might notice a sudden downward trend, these might be because of the experimental moves you’re taking but it could be a result of a lack of planning.

The first thing that you should do is to check if there’s some technical issue with your website or if it’s just an issue for your users. Power cuts in your targeted regions might be a possible reason for this. Any incident that affects your viewership might be a problem.

Once you’re sure it’s nothing from the above reasons, these should be your next steps. Loopholes in your marketing strategies could be potential reasons for this downfall, here are some elite strategies that you can use to get back in the game, these are in no specific chronological order.

Ad stop!

That’s right, these are times when your paid campaigns are overtaking your organic traffic. Your paid ads are having such rankings and significance to them that your organic rankings are just getting overshadowed.

The only way to know if this is true is to turn off ads that are performing well and see if your traffic goes back to normal. If this doesn’t help, make sure to turn on your ads back, you don’t want to lose valuable clicks in the meantime.

Have you been fined?

While you might not realize it, something on your page could have been tagged ‘fishy’ by Google. Google has a dedicated set of penalties for issues ranging from plagiarism sins to your content law violation crimes.

Though the possibilities of getting a penalty are pretty meager because it should be a regular practice for you to check plagiarism, if you do get penalized, you’ll see it in your Google search console notifications. Analyze your mistake and correct it to get your traffic rolling again.

Back to Backlinks

Backlinks are a key channel that streamlines traffic to your page. If the pages that have your link are losing traffic, then it’s obvious that even your page will lose it. It might as well be that the page that linked you, found someone else.

Whatever the case is, the scenario demands contact with the page that backlinked you. Ask if it’s just the usual traffic loss or if have they stopped linking your page due to lack of relevance. If the latter has started linking other pages, you must upgrade and find another firm to backlink you.

Link to external content.

That’s right, it isn’t necessary that something’s wrong with your existing content, it just might be the need for something new, keep evolving. If a site has an article about something related to what you’re trying to sell or promote, then link them instead of posting the same article on your own page.

You might think that you’re sending off your users, but you’re actually adding value to their intent, which later will be awarded loyalty.

To make sure this works well, try posting a tweet or sharing the post on another social media platform like LinkedIn and Facebook before publishing it on your own website. This way, people will see it first and know who wrote it—and if they like it, they might click through from there!

Are you the undisputed?

Don’t forget that you’re not the only marketer out there, there are thousands of marketers selling the same service in the same niche and so the competition is tough. So you’re probably losing traffic because you’re simply not ranking the same.

Your competitors might have a hold on better ranking keywords or just overall better responsive content. See where you’re lagging, don’t just blatantly copy them, but learn and implement ways to make your content relatable and competitive again.

Which page is it?

Which pages are hurting the most on your website if your traffic is dwindling? Your homepage, category pages, blog posts, or item pages might be a good place to start. You may be able to get some ideas as to why your traffic has declined and what you might need to do to improve it if you see a drop in blog posts.

You may have to concentrate more on content creation or otherwise promote your category and item pages through your other digital marketing efforts if you see a drop in traffic. A decrease in traffic to category or item pages might be due to SEO issues or user experience problems, particularly if you have recently made some changes.

Update your old content

Statistics: It might as well be the case that your content has just been outdated. It’s no more relevant to the new user intent or maybe your stats are stale. Rankings, charts, or any other kind of statistics change with time, it doesn’t mean that you have to upgrade them every day, but at least regulate them once in a while.

Make it more relevant: If you’re still using the same old design and text in your blog, there’s no way anyone will want to read it! Updates like re-designing the entire site or adding new sections are great ways of making sure that people who visit your site will know exactly what they’re looking for and find it useful when they get there. Remember, you just have to update them while preserving your brand identity.

Answer box trap

This user-friendly feature by Google isn’t so ‘friendly’ to marketers, these are simple answers to user queries that are visible without the need to open up a website. Google smartly picks up the page with the simplest yet the most satisfying explanation of the query.

If you find yourself stuck in the answer box trap, simply edit that part of the content into a longer, more detailed statement, so that it’s partially visible on the answer box and makes the user open up your page. Don’t worry, this won’t be called a trap to the user, you’re just claiming what you deserve!

How’s the ambiance?

After all the boxes are checked and you still can’t figure out what’s wrong with your content, well then it might be your easy-kill enemy, UX. Check if your website has lost its beauty, it might be your out-of-fashion user interface.

Constant updates to the graphics, navigation and overall user experience of your website are essential, keep updates rolling. Better navigation and stack updates make your site faster, and you already know the ups of having a faster website—you’re simply ahead of 2/3rd of the competition.

Conclusion

Now that you know how to bring back traffic to your site, it’s time to get started! Make sure you have your plan in place and follow up with the steps outlined above. Remember: there is no one-size-fits-all solution—each tactic will work differently depending on what kind of site you have, what content is already on there, and other factors. If at any point during this process things start going wrong or don’t seem right for your business, don’t hesitate to make adjustments until things look right again.

If you liked this article, you might like the others on our page, be sure to check them out. For any questions, drop them down below in the comments, or just find us on social media.

Industry Insiders

Customer Experience: What it’s all about

Post author By venky
Post date November 1, 2022

What is Customer Experience (CX)?

In short, customer experience involves putting the customer first. This requires an unwavering focus on the customer’s experience with the brand. This includes everything the customer touches, hears, handles or sees during the interaction with the product or service. CX requires companies to care deeply about their customers and serve them in the best possible way.

Companies that excel at CX:

Delight your customers
Create a true emotional connection with them
Turn them into loyal fans and advocates
If you can provide customers with a great customer experience when they interact with you – at all touch points – you can stay behind your competition and receive financial rewards.

What is Customer Experience (CX)

What is Customer Experience Management?

Organizations that create exceptional customer experiences know that experience management is an ongoing process and the mindset of the entire organization rather than the responsibility of just a few employees.

Managing CX includes:

managing customer expectations
adopting an ongoing CX mindset
increasing awareness of your brand or product
protecting against shrinking margins or competition

Increasing customer retention and loyalty several competitive elements to consider when looking at the overall customer experience:

First, what are the business priorities of your organization – for example, to increase revenue or profit

Second, your brand – how the company stands out, what it is famous for and how it does things differently

Third, the customer – how you satisfy their needs, how you achieve her goals with minimal friction, and how you satisfy their emotional needs

It may seem like a simple exercise to satisfy all three of these elements, but you will quickly discover that there can be conflicts between them. them and congratulations. For example, your customer’s requirements may not match your business goals – and sometimes they may even be polarized. The job of customer experience management is to find the sweet spot for all three.

What does a CX manager do?

Companies offer products and services long before customer experience was formalized as a topic. Some may ask who now has to fulfill this role and related tasks in the organization? Because digital is the primary channel of the customer journey, digital marketers are often best positioned to take on the role of CX leader and drive awareness of the customer experience across the enterprise.

While providing a great customer experience is everyone’s job in the organization, some people may not know exactly what they need to do or question why they should spend their time doing it. CX leaders must identify and answer these questions.

It is important that CX managers implement detailed processes that enable:

Aligning employee behavior with the overall CX strategy
Creating and measuring data that provides customer insights
Products and services are intended for both internal and external users.

It is also important for the CX manager to assess how competent their organization is in various technologies before starting CX transformations. By evaluating individuals and teams and conducting digital maturity assessments, they can set realistic goals based on their ability to meet customer needs.

Finally, it is critical that CX leaders act as the voice of the customer – and bring the voice of the customer into the boardroom, the dining room and the shop. It should have an impact on decision-making at all levels of the organization.

What is Customer Experience (CX)

How does CX affect performance?

Customer experience can sometimes seem difficult to measure because it consists of so many moving parts, from sales to service. One of the most compelling reasons why an organization should pay attention and invest in its customer experience is the link between CX and financial results.

Great customer experiences can improve companies’ financial results. Brands that excel at CX are found to increase revenue and create more shareholder value than brands that do not. That’s why it’s important to measure the value of CX in your organization, compare yourself against your competitors and work to improve areas where you’re not doing well.

Forrester, a research organization, rates companies to create a Customer Experience Index (CXI). Forrester’s CXI score measures how successfully a company delivers customer experiences that build and maintain loyalty. It shows in several areas how certain brands rank and what the average score is. It’s a powerful tool for understanding who is doing CX well and where you stand against your peers.

What is a service shadow? To truly understand and improve the CX, you must experience its service as a customer. This should apply to the entire organization: everyone should shadow the real customers who interact with the company. This type of observation is called a service shadow. By performing regular maintenance checks, you will quickly discover areas of poor performance and opportunities for service improvement.

The service shadow should cross many different and important channels, including calls and digital services. It can help create a simple customer journey template that lists all the steps and available channels so you don’t miss any of them. You need to have a deep view of the entire customer journey to form a complete picture and fully understand the needs of your customers.

What is Customer Experience (CX)
What is Customer Experience (CX)
What is the Customer Experience Pyramid?
What is Customer Experience Management?

Customer experience is something that every organization manages, intentionally or not. There are no hard and fast rules about what you should do. This means understanding that many interrelated processes, tools and responsibilities must come together to deliver an overall great experience. Organizations that create exceptional customer experiences know that experience management is an ongoing process and the mindset of the entire organization rather than the responsibility of just a few employees.

Managing CX includes:
managing customer expectations
adopting an ongoing CX mindset
increasing awareness of your brand or product
protecting against shrinking margins or competition

Increasing customer retention and loyalty several competitive elements to consider when looking at the overall customer experience:

First, what are the business priorities of your organization – for example, to increase revenue or profit.

Second, your brand – how the company stands out, what it is famous for and how it does things differently.

Third, the customer – how you satisfy their needs, how you achieve her goals with minimal friction, and how you satisfy their emotional needs.

What does a CX manager do?

It is important that CX managers implement detailed processes that enable:

Aligning employee behavior with the overall CX strategy
Creating and measuring data that provides customer insights
Products and services are intended for both internal and external users.
It is also important for the CX manager to assess how competent their organization is in various technologies before starting CX transformations. By evaluating individuals and teams and conducting digital maturity assessments, they can set realistic goals based on their ability to meet customer needs.

What is Customer Experience (CX)

How does CX affect performance?

Content Marketing

Expand Your Email Marketing Database

Post author By Sushanth Shyamsundar
Post date November 1, 2022

E-mail marketing continues to be a leading marketing channel for businesses of all sizes. It’s also considered one of the most effective marketing strategy. Because of its continued effectiveness, marketers can’t afford to overlook opportunities to grow their e-mail databases.

It’s the marketing channel that sees the highest open rate and click through rate. However, many businesses are struggling with their e-mail marketing efforts because of the rise of spam filters and general users becoming increasingly wary of suspicious offers from strangers.

With the right strategies, you can build your e-mail marketing database in no time. Here are 5 easy ways you can grow an email database and increase your e-mail marketing success.

Landing page

Before moving forward to any strategy, the first thing you need to shape is your landing page. This is the page that’ll convince your users to subscribe to your newsletter in the first place. The landing page should have enough information and should communicate with the user in such a way that the user sees immense value to your page.

Analyze your landing page yourself and see from a user’s perspective, ask yourself that if the page adds any value to you or not. If it can’t add value to you, I can’t add value to the user. Make your form easier to fill, removing any unnecessary fields of input will just induce boredom in the user.

Lastly, express the benefits the user will get after signing up with your newsletter, how frequently will they receive updates and what’s coming up next. Keep your landing page optimized to yield the best value out of the upcoming systems. Now that you know how to optimize your landing page, let’s move onto these mind blowing strategies.

Run Referral Programs

Referral programs are a tried-and-true way to grow your email marketing database. A referral program offers rewards — like discounts or free products — to customers who refer new customers to your business.

For example, let’s say you sell eco-friendly cleaning supplies. You can offer customers who sign up for your e-mail list a free pack of your eco-friendly cleaning cloths when they refer a friend to sign up for your e-mail marketing list.

When customers know they’ll receive tangible rewards for signing up for your e-mail list, they’re more likely to do so. And the people signing up after receiving the referral, are just another layer of goodness in this strategy.

Offer a Free eBook or Guide

People love free things — especially when they’re Business-related. Offer a free e-book or guide to your customers in exchange for their e-mail address. You can even offer this in exchange for them visiting your site.

Your customers will appreciate the free content and be more likely to sign up for your e-mail list in exchange for it. When choosing the type of e-book or guide you want to offer, be sure to select something that will appeal to your customers and help them succeed at their goals.

E-books and guides can cover topics like business growth, productivity, career development, or any other topic related to your business or industry. In fact, e-books make great lead magnets because they’re low-cost to produce and provide substantial value to customers.

Leverage Existing Relationships

If you already have business relationships in place, you can leverage those relationships to grow your email list. You can ask current customers, employees, or other stakeholders to refer their contacts to sign up for your e-mail list.

When asking for referrals, emphasize the value your e-mail marketing program brings to the table. Ask your customers to refer their contacts based on the value your e-mail marketing program brings to their businesses.

Host a Contest or Sweepstakes

Are you looking for a way to provide value to your customers in exchange for their e-mail addresses? Hosting a contest or sweepstakes is a great way to provide added value while growing your e-mail marketing database.

You can host a contest or sweepstakes on any platform you prefer, but we recommend running it on social media. E-mail marketing is great, but it doesn’t always reach as many people as social media.

Hosting a contest or sweepstakes on social media will increase the amount of people who see your e-mail marketing campaign. Customers who enter your contest or sweepstakes will be more likely to sign up for your e-mail list in exchange for an entry into the prize drawing.

Use Influencers to Grow Your Database

For an added boost to your e-mail marketing efforts, you can enlist influencers to grow your e-mail marketing database. Surprisingly enough, a large number of influencers still use e-mail marketing to grow their brands.

You can reach out to influencers in your industry or niche and ask to be added to their e-mail marketing campaigns. You may have to pitch your e-mail marketing campaign to a handful of influencers before you find one who will add you to their lists.

Whether you work with a single influencer or multiple ones, you’ll benefit from the increased exposure your e-mail marketing campaign will receive. This increased exposure will help you grow your e-mail marketing database and reach a wider customer base.

Wrapping up

E-mail marketing is an essential tool for businesses of all sizes. While it’s important to grow your e-mail database, it’s just as important to keep your lists clean and compliant. If you want to avoid spam complaints and improve your e-mail marketing results, you need to take the time to remove unwanted subscribers from your lists.

A quick recap, e-mail marketing is the most effective marketing strategy, there are several ways to expand your database. You can run a referral program, offer a free e-book or guide, host a contest or sweepstakes, or enlist influencers. With these strategies in your toolkit, you’ll be growing your e-mail databases in no time.

If you liked this article then make sure to subscribe to our newsletter, comment any queries down below. If you’re seeking some professional advice or just want to connect, find us on social media.

Content Marketing

Hacks to Win with a Customer-centric strategy

Post author By venky
Post date November 1, 2022

Digital tools and channels have dramatically changed the way shoppers shop. They have more power and will search online for more information before contacting a sales representative. Thanks to digitalization, the fate of marketing campaigns and sales pipelines is largely in the hands of the buyer. Despite this shift in power, many organizations have yet to adopt a customer-centric approach to marketing and sales.

They care about their products, marketing, sales and success. They are worried about themselves. But now it’s time to look at everything through the eyes of the customer. Your success starts with knowing your buyer.

What business challenges do your customers face? What are their options? What are they trying to achieve? What environment do they operate in? These key questions should underpin how you market and sell to them. Your primary motivation should be to identify and meet the buyer’s needs. Or in the words of famous entrepreneur and marketer Seth Godin, “Don’t find customers for your products, find products for your customers.”

So, are you ready to use your customer-centric attitude? I have developed a simple modern marketing map that you can use to show the success of your marketing strategy. And it’s no surprise where you’ll find the customer…

Pillar 1: Influencers

Building relationships with industry influencers is an important first step on this modern marketing roadmap. These are the people your prospects trust, the people they listen to, the people they learn from. Associating yourself with these people not only increases your visibility; it also increases your credibility. According to McKinsey, peer referrals generate more than twice as many sales as paid advertising.

Influencer marketing has the power to humanize your brand and engage customers much more organically; The most important thing is to accurately identify those influencers or “smarty pants” in your buyer’s world who can improve your offer. For example, if you sell data solutions, who are the big data experts? If you sell in the Internet of Things (IoT) space, who are the bloggers covering the topic? Whether you use LinkedIn or social listening tools, you should be looking for thought leaders, practitioners and early adopters. When a person has power in their field, they have influence, and that influence can help you amplify your message and become visible and credible to a much wider audience.

Engaging and engaging with influencers doesn’t just benefit marketers. Increasingly, salespeople don’t just sell sales; in their quest to add real value and educate the buyer, they become deep experts and should also learn from the “smarty pants”!

Pillar 2: Content

Confident modern shoppers actively go out and search for information and try to find their own solutions. Therefore, the problem for salespeople and marketers is that these buyers no longer respond to cold communications and traditional broadcast marketing techniques.

Call, email, call, email = skip, delete, skip, delete.

Traditional tactics are failing as buyers turn to search engines and social networks to educate themselves through digital content consumption. The important question is; what content? After all, no one tweets your newsletter!

It is important to target content not only at different stages of the buying process, but also at specific buyers, because the content that interests and motivates them varies according to their characteristics and preferences. If your buyer is deeply technical, they will look for deeply technical content. If they are very strategic, the same technically oriented content will not resonate with them in the same way.

Above all, you should create content that tells a story and is human, in various formats. It can be an educational video, an educational webinar or podcast, a newsletter (if the target group is B2B), an e-book or an infographic. The format you choose ultimately depends on the buyer involved and where they are in their customer journey. It is important not only to create content, but also to take care of it. Content curation basically involves sharing third-party content that appeals to your target audience. In most cases, you then need to curate the content of the influencers you are trying to build relationships with.

Once created, you need to share your content in the space where your target audience exists, engages and learns, be it LinkedIn or Twitter. You want your audience to be compelled to care about your content. That’s why content is the mainstay of social selling and modern marketing; buyers are much more likely to consume content from people and more than brands and logos. Therefore, the “shareability” of content should be a key factor in its creation, curation and distribution.

Pillar 3: Community

I deeply believe in ecosystem and partnership. For example, we started a community at Eloqua called Topliners. It was an online space where our customers could communicate, where our employees were engaged and where our partners were trained. We’ve shared inspiring success stories, hosted support forums and published informative content. We even host offline events to bring our community together.

A company that has been extremely successful in growing a customer-centric community is Gainsight, which is helping to define and grow the customer success movement. At the heart of their mission is to create “the largest community for customer success.” They do this in four ways;

Their Customer Success University, which offers several e-learning modules to help customer success managers improve their skills and add value to their employers.

Pulse Local, an online community with local chapters that hosts meetups and networking events to complement its online chat community. .
Pulse Conference, an annual conference that favors thought leadership and relationship building over product focus.
Career Hub, jobs for companies looking to hire customer success professionals.

By creating opportunities to connect with customers and build community, you can improve the ongoing effectiveness of your marketing strategy, build your brand image, earn customer trust and increase revenue!

Pillar 4: Advocacy

Your best salespeople are not on your payroll. These are your customers who are willing to say good things about you. Not only do today’s shoppers have more choices, they also have a louder voice that you can leverage for your brand.

The traditional concept of customer influence is some kind of referral program based on collecting referrals to help salespeople build credibility with your business and get more customers. But what does the referral program offer the customer in return for the referral? This is a one-way approach that provides no benefit or incentive to the customer.

In my opinion, the best advertising programs are the ones that find ways for you and your business to add value to your customers. For example, if your clients are quoted or referenced in the media when they appear at events or win awards; you can expand their reach through your social media.

The key to developing influence is clear communication. It doesn’t oversell or let the customer buy before they are ready. You need to create an amazing end-to-end customer experience; great products, honest and accurate marketing, responsible sellers. Even as a salesperson, my job was never to sell. It understands where the customer is in their buying journey, helping them to be ready to buy and then guiding them to success.

If you want to turn a potential buyer into a true advocate, you need to plan your entire advocacy process. Being a lawyer is not an accident and it is not an accident. It’s about the people, the relationships you build. Experiences that evoke emotions must be created. Protection is mutual and worthwhile. Be your customer’s advocate so your customer wants to advocate for you

Summary

The most effective marketing strategies are driven by a customer-centric culture. In a customer-oriented organization, every process begins and ends with the success of the customer in mind. It’s a culture, not an event or a department. Every part of your business must be aligned with the single goal of creating an optimal customer experience. If you do this for your customers, they will in turn support your success.

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