Category: Digital Marketing

How Can You Protect Your Website Against Negative SEO?

May 1, 2015

With a lot of focus on black hat SEO techniques, people often forget that there is another threat lurking around the corner. Negative SEO has turned out to be one of the most formidable forces against good link building and site administration. A number of companies and individuals have lately become victims of negative SEO, which is a term used to describe unethical practices meant to bring down competitor’s SEO rankings. If black hat SEO techniques are meant to increase search engine rankings unethically, negative SEO aims to bring down genuine websites’ SEO rankings by attacking them with spammy links, copying the website’s content and posting it all over the web so that Google thinks it is duplicating content & also crippling a website’s speed by sending across thousands of requests each second to your server. It can also mean that a potential negative SEO crook contacts of other websites who have linked to you and ask them to remove those links by impersonating you. Having a website and damaging someone’s reputation on social media also is related to negative SEO. What could be done to protect a website against negative SEO? In this article, let us take a look at a few steps that are intended to help you protect your own website: 1. Set up Google Webmaster Tool alerts First, you need to turn on the Google Webmaster Tool alerts, which will notify you if Googlebot cannot access your website or if something else goes wrong. However, by this time, the damage would have already been done to your website. Thus, it is important to keep other options in hand. It is not possible to simply rely on Google Webmaster Tool alerts. 2. Keep checking your backlinks The best way to safeguard yourself against negative SEO is to check your backlinks often. You need to create a system that will help you to track all your inbound links with the help of tools like Link Research Tools, Google Webmaster Tools or Open Site Explorer. CognitiveSEO helps you to automate this process. If you see an unusual number of low quality backlinks, there is something wrong going on. 3. Demand for bad links to be taken off Sometimes, you can directly ask those who have been troubling you to take off those links that bother you. It might not work but it is always a good idea to be proactive and search everything in our toolbox. You can also request Google to intervene when things go out of hand. At least, you will have proof that you contacted those who were linking your website with spammy links to remove them. 4. Ask Google to remove suspicious backlinks You can request Google to disavow backlinks that seem spammy. If you are not able to do so, you can try and update your disavow.txt file. You can make a list of links that you don’t want to link to your website and you can upload it to Google. Another way to do this is by using the Spam Report Form that will help Google to know which site is spammy and which isn’t. It is not clear if this trick will work but it is worth trying. 5. Engage a reputation management agency At times, it is a good idea to contact a reputation management agency, if there are a lot of unfair and negative comments about your company on social media. Sometimes, competitors leave behind nasty comments so that your company’s reputation goes down on social media. You could seek the services of a reputation management company to sort this problem out. Looking forward If you are unable to do anything at all about negative SEO, you can seek professional help. One of the other ways to tackle negative SEO is to build a website that is so awesome that no amount of unfair and unethical SEO practices would harm you. If you write content that is so authoritative and formidable that every other important site links to your website, the effect that spammers would have on you will drastically reduce. It is important to bear all these tricks in mind and protect oneself against negative SEO. It is a real threat and it is wise to contact professionals when things go too far.

Read More »

Four Best Practices to Dramatically Boost Your Social Media Presence

April 29, 2015

To have a social media presence has become one of the most important steps to achieving success. A lot more people are using Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn today than ever before. In this background, companies really have to work hard to stand out from others. Only an engaging social media strategy can help companies to do that. However, it is not just enough to have a social media strategy in place and assume that everything will fall in place. You need to know certain best practices that can dramatically increase your company’s social media presence. In this article, let us take a look at what these important steps to conquering the social media space are: 1. Hybrid social sharing with automation and real-time updates It is not possible to update your social media accounts all the time. However, it is important to automate certain blog posts, images, videos and news so that they are circulated on social media in a timely manner, especially, when the traffic is high on social sites. Yet, it is also equally important to not automate everything. In order to prove that you are not an automated bot, you will have to dedicate at least 50% of your social media activity to real-time sharing. This includes answering to people’s queries, replying to complaints, solving issues, thanking people for feedbacks and actively engaging with your audience. 2. Track your social content It is one thing to be active to share posts on social media and another to track & measure your ROI. In order to do so, you have to have an effective strategy in place. You need to use tools like BuzzSumo, Hootsuite, Buffer App and others to track who shared your links, why it was shared, what were their demographics & psychographics and how best you can connect with that person. This will give you important insights about your social media strategy and help you to arrive at solutions that you probably didn’t even know existed. Tracking and measuring social content is one of the most important ways to achieve social media success. 3. Optimize your social media profiles One of the most important ways to boost your social media presence is to ensure that you make your social profiles look better. This will help people to find your social profile attractive and stay on for a longer time. If your social profiles are not uniquely designed and if they look outdated, people will lose interest in your activities. It is important to keep the target audience in mind and develop social profile aesthetics that will appeal to your chosen buyer personas. This might cost a little money in the beginning, especially, to get your profiles designed professionally. However, in the long run, it will help you to get back all that you spend and more. 4. Actively build a network As we mentioned earlier, you need to use 50% of your social media resources to engage in conversations in real-time. It is not enough to automate your social media activity and forget about it. You need to actively engage in conversations, build an intelligent network, choose your influencers and use those influencers to advocate your product. This is a very important aspect of social media marketing. Influencers are known to help people make decisions better than advertisements. If you can make a list of all those influencers with a good social media presence, your own social media presence will be boosted. Be intelligent in doing this, otherwise, you might come across as a self-promotional aficionado. Final thoughts If you follow these recommendations and best practices, you could be rest assured that it won’t take long to achieve the kind of success one wants. You might not even need to hire a professional agency, if you cannot afford one. Only, you need to follow the steps below to ensure that your social media presence receives a big boost. It will take a little patience, some hard work and a lot of creativity to achieve success.

Read More »

Video Blogging – The Next Big Thing Taking The Internet By Storm

April 20, 2015

Attracting more than 1 billion unique viewers every month is easy now. With video blogging (vlog), it is easy to engage your audience and let them know your story. Using video is simple and something very different for the marketers in their marketing space. It is amazing to see the use of video marketing right from the beginning of 2015. Apparently, it has increased the consumers understanding of products by 74%. What’s Behind The Winning Video Blogging Strategy? Successful video marketing is not just about the format, but the execution of the right plan. However, inefficient ways of using video blogging can ruin its entire purpose. Here’s how marketers seeking to use this super video platform can follow its simple etiquettes Keep It Simple You don’t always need a professional photo shoot kit for your blog’s video. You can sit in front of your Smartphone camera and make a short and interesting video. The How-To videos help your business stand out of the crowd. Moreover, embedding the videos onto your website can increase the interaction and engagement factor, especially if you can include your video with a relevant blog. Keep It Short Make your videos less than five minutes for giving it more in-depth. All you need is a 60 seconds video and establish a rhythm in your posting. Style Your Video Include your artwork, updated content, images, custom URL in your video and link it to your website and social media pages. Choose the best thumbnail and upload a custom thumbnail. Use Humor Nothing can be better than making people to smile or laugh. Include subtle comedy in your script. This helps people to lighten up and develop the right attitude towards your products and services. Have A Plot Your videos need to have a story. The story should be engrossing and well connected to the products you are selling. Let Your Video Talk People prefer to watch than to read. Limit the use of text in the video and let your ideas flow through creative drawings and animation effects. Viewers grasp more from what they see rather than what they read. Relevant Marketing Choosing topics that are always relevant to your audience’s need works the best. News, questions & answers, events & happenings or commercials & press can make your video bogging go instantly viral. Explore Multiple Distribution Channels In order to reach out to the maximum audience, you need to create an integrated network of distribution channels. Share your video across multiple and specifically targeted sites if you want to explore its full potential. How Do You Do Video Blogging to Inspire Your Creativity? #Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Video When you do product reviews or create a how-to-video, put in more questions that needs further explanation and demonstration to clarify the points. FAQ video helps the existing, future and potential customers to get the answers of those frequently asked questions. This shows your responsive nature to your viewer’s needs, thereby increasing the trust and the like factor. #Featured Video In Your Facebook Page Video posts have the maximum organic reach of any type of Facebook post. However, your Facebook Page video should be a good representation of your business. Uploading video directly to the Facebook page enhances the reach of your video posts. A short video slideshow or a video clip can reinforce your post’s content. #15 or 6 Seconds Video To Reach Instagram Or Vine Users 15 seconds video on Instagram or 6 seconds video on Vine, it is possible to show people ‘behind the scenes of your operation’ demonstrating something inspiring and valuable. With Vine and Instagram, you can upload short video clips to easily reach different section of audience with video content. #Product Review Video Blog Video blog to review products is an effective method to gain the attention and create more loyal customers. Unboxing a product to show viewers exactly what they get when they buy products earns you a trustworthy entity. People become more confident to get associated with your products. They believe this as unbiased reviews and is a source they can trust. #Curated Videos To Create YouTube Channel Even if you do not create your own videos you can create a YouTube channel by curating the best YouTube videos created by others. Once you’ve a YouTube channel comprising of videos of top industry thought leaders, you’re already having a subscriber base especially when you start posting your own videos. #Embedded Videos to Improve Blog Post You can increase your social engagement and enhance blog post by embedding video posts on your website. In this context, you can also embed Facebook and Twitter video post. Embedding the Facebook post allows people to view and like the video without leaving your blog post. Facebook allows you to embed Facebook videos directly into your website or blog. Similarly, when you embed a tweet with video, visitors can watch the embedded video, follow your Twitter account, reply, retweet, and favourite that tweet directly from your blog post. What Is Most Important Behind A Successful Video Blog? Although there are several effective steps to build a perfect video, the real success relies on the quality and relevance of its content. This means you need to create interactive and engaging content and guarantee a high standard of audio and visual effects. Your videos can be your sales superstar. People love to watch videos that have stories to tell. As a result, effort should be made to optimize videos to garner the attention and build a larger and more motivated audience.

Read More »

Indus Net Technologies(INT.) Demystified Digital Marketing Once Again

April 17, 2015

Indus Net Technologies (INT.) once again conducted a workshop on Digital Marketing for the senior managers of the city of Kolkata; and this is not the first time that we have organized such an event. INT. has already conducted similar workshops in all the major cities of India like Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Bhubaneswar and Chennai within a period of just one year. However, this time we once again chose the location of our headquarters for conducting this exclusive workshop on Digital Marketing. Being the brainchild of our CEO and the main speaker of the event, Mr. Abhishek Rungta, the workshop has been rightly named as “Digital Marketing Demystified”. Mr. Abhishek Rungta, being into the internet marketing business for more than 17 years, is believed to be a knowledge house when it comes to digital marketing. Over the years, Mr. Rungta has not just gathered exhaustive knowledge about this comparatively new marketing medium but his immense love for technology has helped him master the field at ease. It is this love for technology that made Mr. Abhishek Rungta take his business of Digital Marketing, Web Development and Enterprise Mobility to reach global limits. Now, as named, Digital Marketing Demystified was surely a doubt-clearing workshop for the senior managers operating out of Kolkata. Mr. Abhishek Rungta not just completely justified the purpose of the workshop but even went beyond limits to make the attendees of the workshop go back with a clear idea of what digital marketing is all about, what are its different techniques, how to strategize and implement those techniques, what are the dos and don’ts of digital marketing etc. Conducted on 10th April, 2015 at Hotel Hyatt Regency of Kolkata, this full-day exclusive workshop for the senior management even included a number of case studies in the form of videos that helped the attendees get a better insight into the subject. The workshop was jam-packed with the CEOs, COOs, Directors, Marketing Managers and Assistant Managers, Corporate Communications & PR Heads etc. of some of the reputed companies of Kolkata like Institute of Computer Accountants, Sweethandi.com, MNetra Reporting and many more. Apart from them, Ms. Rita Bhimani, the eminent PR personality and professional Corporate PR Consultant, even attended Digital Marketing Demystified. To quote her, “Abhishek is a phenomenal communicator to give us the kind of input we have got. It was helpful and interactive. It took us to another level. To me, its being a great great experience and I feel INT. has done an amazing job”. Other attendees were even of similar opinion and appreciated the initiative. All in all, Digital Marketing Demystified proved its exceptionality not by enlightening people about digital marketing but even by giving the attendees enough opportunity to know each other during the business networking lunch organized for them. To know more about the event, visit http://www.digitalmarketingdemystified.com/

Read More »

Social Media Myths to Overcome in 2015

April 15, 2015

Social media is seen in different perspectives by marketers. Some take it too seriously while others consider it a time waste. It is a fact that social media carries a lot of weight and plays a significant role in influencing customer decision making process. But before you choose any particular social media service, you must know if your audience is present there or not. Do you have a plan in place or you are just entering for the sake of it. How much time can you afford to spend in maintaining your social media profile? What is the source of your content generation? Are you able to connect with decision-makers and influencers in your industry? Social media is a relatively new platform for businesses. Both the network owners and business owners have realized how to exploit this potential. Networks are becoming more user-friendly and business-friendly. The most awaited launch of “Facebook for Business” in 2015, says it all. Such initiatives come for a reason. This article is written to bust the most popular myths and take a new approach on how marketers see this. 1. You don’t need a plan It is a fact that social media is easy to use and helps you to interact with your customers but for a business, one needs comprehensive planning to pursue your goals of social networking. Quite often, interaction is high in the beginning and slowly comes down to negligible. Such a pursuit is better not attempted. For instance, the reason is people join your Facebook page with the hope of learning something new but if you don’t meet their expectations, they will soon unfollow you. Determine your goals and objectives for each social network profile you have. What is the follower growth rate you have projected? How many queries do you respond every day? (This is significant when businesses start receiving a number of queries but are never answered.) Criticism spreads like fire on social media. How do you plan to handle it? All these questions need to be a part of your social media strategy. 2. Complacency about the size of your target audience Unquestionably, size of your target audience does matter and it helps you to allocate your marketing budget. But to take advantage of target audience on social media, you need a focused approach. If your focus is just on to increase the number of followers of your social media profile, without wanting to, you will fail miserably. In the end, it is not the number that matters but quality interaction with a small group of people. You can’t expect to engage in quality interaction with all your followers. Identify the ones who show more interest and curiosity than others and take it from there. If you are able to satisfy a small group, word-of-mouth will start paying you. Moreover, running a huge social media campaign requires time and resources (money and man power). For a small business that might be naïve in running a social media page, it is always safe to start at a small scale. Quality engagement with a smaller group helps you to understand your target audience better and prepare yourself for a bigger battle. 3. You need to be present on all the leading social networks It is not necessary to have a profile on every leading social network. Choose the number and the ones that you are comfortable and determined to work on for a long term. Every network has unique features and capability. There are various supporting tools and tactics to enhance the capability of every network. Why not explore one network acutely rather than dirtying your hands in all and get nothing. For instance, tools used by marketers on Twitter include Bitly, Buffer etc. Bitly allows you to shorten the length of the URL being shared and you can share the links on multiple Twitter accounts. You can also see the stats for Bitly links on your dashboard. Similarly, Buffer allows you to schedule your tweets throughout the day. 4. Use every post to talk about your business This is one of the biggest myths that need riddance in 2015. It is true that you wish to educate your target audience about your business so that they become your customers. But you can’t bore them with marketing pitch on every encounter that they have with your post. Talk about anything but business. Look for the relevant issues or trending topics that intrigues your audience. You have to look for the right opportunity to talk about business. Sense the mood of the audience before you start a discussion. Ask about their preferences and likings. Ideally speaking, social media is a place where people are relaxed and expressive about how & what they feel. Audience need not ever get an impression that you have come with an agenda to sell on social media. 5. It is okay to commit grammatical or spelling errors There has been an exponential growth in using creative spellings and very little attention to grammar by users on social media & instant messaging services. Though there is nothing wrong in doing so but such practice makes today’s generation vulnerable. However, marketers should keep away from such a practice as it does not look professional. You might be talking about casual topics that interests the audience but your audience will not take you seriously if you start a similar practice. As a marketer, you have to lead by keeping your communication professional. Casual spellings carry a risk of non-seriousness. In your effort to tune with the audience, you lose out to your competitors. 6. It’s just interaction, why measure it? It might look unimportant at first glance but measuring the statistics associated with your social media audience helps you to know your audience profile. With what they read, like, share and tag, you can design your product & marketing communication. Your content can be more focused. You can analyze audience demographics and study the differences among different groups.

Read More »

Crisis Management on Twitter

April 10, 2015

When it comes to information dissemination, social media is increasingly replacing traditional forms of media. Of all these social networking or social media tools, Twitter has emerged to be the most important for companies when it comes to offering customer service. It is increasingly being seen that Twitter is also great at crisis management, no matter what the situation is. It offers a kind of immediacy and intimacy that other social media tools cannot. Facebook, though more “personal” is not really personal when it comes to Facebook pages. However, Twitter can be very personal when you need to mention someone directly or send a direct message. Impersonal as it may seem, Twitter is a very powerful form of personal communication tool that can be used in times of crises. Twitter presents an explosive opportunity to bring disruptive change and focus on crisis management. It helps companies to address issues that previously required a lot more effort and resources. Moreover, the kind of immediacy that Twitter provides is second to none. In this article, let us take a look at how Twitter can help you to manage crises that may occur from time to time. 1. Be prompt Whenever there is crisis, it is important for you to be available on Twitter to address questions directed at you. Prompt responses to queries and anxious tweets will only help you to build a positive image. This is one example of making use of a negative situation to build your image. Always make sure to answer every query no matter how frantic, in a prompt manner. When you respond immediately to frantic tweets, you have already solved one problem. Anxious customers usually say things that they do not mean to and when you delay a response, it may soon get out of hand. Before a crisis situation goes out of hand, respond promptly and effectively. If you are unable to solve the problem immediately, give the customer or client a certain time period within which you can solve the problem. Just knowing that you read their problem will help them to calm down and the crisis situation gets deflated. If your company deals with services and products which may cause medical or legal emergencies, hire a special team for managing your accounts on Twitter. 2. Show empathy Whether it is a small problem or something huge, always be empathic. Do not sympathies with your audience but make sure that you answer their queries and really try to understand what their problem is. You need to walk in their shoes or at least imagine what it might feel like, before responding to queries or problems. Empathy usually solves a lot of problems that is usually created during times of crisis. If you are able to prove that you are not just another automated social media account that mechanically responds to crisis related queries, you have already set yourself apart. It is important to do this because not many companies handle crises effectively. When you display empathy, kindness and understanding, your audience or followers will know that you are a company that is not merely interested in profits but also in the well being of customers and clients in times of crisis. So, do not forget to display your empathic side and ensure that there is genuine kindness involved. This will take you and your brand a long way. 3. Inform and educate Sometimes, managing a crisis involves informing and educating people who are unaware that there is a crisis. You need to be as professional and kind as possible, especially if it involves breaking bad news. If it involves breaking unfortunate news, it might be a better idea to personally call up the customer. However, minor problems and issues can be announced and informed on Twitter in a quick manner. This helps clients, customers and audience to save time and take action. When you inform people about an existing crisis, you must also inform them how you are going to manage that particular situation and what role is expected of them. Usually, you should ensure that they need not do anything except being aware that there is a crisis situation unfolding and that you are at work trying to resolving it. This will keep them in loop and help you to avoid a situation where you may be blamed for not informing them about the problem in hand. Educating also involves directing your clients, customers and followers to act in a certain manner. If they need to be directed to do something, do it so in a brief manner. Avoid sending several tweets for one particular instruction as that may confuse your followers. 4. Be honest If you messed up on something, own up to it. Do not deny or hide the fact that there is something wrong. If it is your fault, all the more reason to own up and ensure that there is a foundation of honesty. An honest company will survive even the toughest of battles. You should ensure that you will be able to answer every query and every frantic tweet in a calm and composed manner. You should be honest about what the crisis is all about as dishonesty can turn into a crisis in itself. When you reveal the truth no matter how harsh it is, you will find that you are in safer hands. People are incredibly tenacious and they have the ability to withstand all kinds of crises. You just have to have the courage to break the news in an honest manner. In fact, if you are honest in your tweets, you will be respected for it and you may even earn the goodwill of your customers in spite of the crisis situation. you just have to ensure that you are not hiding anything and prove that you are trying to do what you can to deflate the crisis situation. 5. Be humble Humility is one of the most important factors of managing a

Read More »

Link Building in 2015: The Game Has Changed

April 8, 2015

SEO professionals often find it difficult to explain to their clients that link building is as important as it ever has been. Most clients often point out to the fact that link building exercises have a bad reputation and that Google has often penalized websites which engage in link building. This is only partly true. Google has consistently updated its algorithms in order to ensure that malpractices are not encouraged and that every website has a fair opportunity to be displayed in search results. Which is why, when Google senses that something is amiss and that a company is aggressively building links, it penalizes that particular website. Google has found a number of ways to detect websites that engage in such SEO malpractices. What most people will not tell you is that Google encourages web administrators to build links and to connect with each other. Google just wants web admins to play it fair and safe. With that in mind, ethical SEO professionals will tell you that link building is not the problem but unethical means of building links is the problem. On that note, SEO professionals understand that link building is an effective exercise to bring websites together and to create information that is compelling & worthwhile. Further, Google just wants website owners to link to websites that are relevant and eventually help in putting all information on the Internet together. With this in mind, let us take a look at how link building will fare in 2015 and what you need to know about building links this year ahead. 1. Understand what link building is One of the most important tasks is to understand what link building is. In 2015, if you believe that link building is an enigmatic exercise, which involves various SEO professionals messing with bots and algorithms, you probably have got it wrong. When we speak about link building, the goal is rather clear – we try to get desirable websites to link back to our websites and when we write compelling content, we link to authoritative & desirable websites. While it is easy for us to link to desirable websites, getting those websites to link back to us is difficult. In order to get backlinks, you need to define what your link building strategy is. If you are planning to get a backlink from The New York Times, you probably will not succeed. However, it might be possible to get a write-up published in a magazine or a newspaper where your business is located. This involves having a good PR professional or a publicist who will make your case. In fact, SEO is more about public relations today than it was a few years ago. The trick is to figure out how to get those desirable websites to link back to your content in a fair and ethical way. 2. Understand the project Whether you are building links for your own website or for your client, you need to understand the project in hand. It will take a while to understand what you are trying to do and how it actually needs to be done. You need to understand the website’s quirks, its niche, readers, visitors, clients and the target audience. Then comes the part, which involves understanding the psychographics and demographics of various entities involved. You also need to understand and analyze the unique selling proposition of the website & how it affects the way you market your own products and services. All these need to be tracked, analyzed and even measured along the way. It will take some time to get a grip over these factors but eventually you will know that link building also involves understanding the project in a deep and profound manner, as described in this paragraph. In fact, link building solely depends on understanding a given project from the grassroots. This will help SEO professionals to look for those sites, which are particularly helpful when it comes to seeking backlinks. 3. Understand the importance of content A few years ago, SEO professionals did not pay much attention to content. Content marketing was either unheard of or was in its initial stages of growth. With the content boom taking place a few years ago, blogs, social media, e-books, whitepapers and other forms of content have become very important. Whether a website will link to you or not depends on the kind of content strategy that you follow. In order to ensure that your SEO campaign goes well, you will have to probably take your content marketing plan more seriously. You will need to come up with ways to ensure that your content is worth paying for and that it is not written mechanically. Incidentally, content writing needs to be a lot more organic than SEO professionals would like to believe. In 2015, we will continue to see an upsurge in the growth of content marketing and SEO will involve understanding how to market and distribute content that is created & then, attract backlinks that are of value to the company. Thus, we can say that link building involves a lot of content marketing as well. 4. More companies are online Link building is going to be a lot more important in 2015 than it used to be in previous years. The reason for this is, a lot more companies are online and the need for building effective links to ensure visibility is much more important today. The coming months will see many more companies trying to create a space for themselves online and this will involve content marketing and SEO. If you want to survive or make your presence felt, you will have to have a very consistent and different link building strategy. It is simply not enough to write blog posts and get people to link. You will need to function as a PR team to get authoritative websites to link back and thus, help you to achieve the success you have always wanted. It is not

Read More »

Steps to Leverage Inbound Marketing by Paid Marketers

April 6, 2015

Paid marketing has long been the preferred method for many companies as it involves less effort. A client pays for PPC, display, sponsorships, affiliate marketing and promotions and expects that the leads will come through. Usually, they do but the Internet and the world in which we live are evolving at a great speed. Paid marketing is just not enough to get all that a company would want in order to increase conversions. Inbound marketing, which was once not taken seriously by a lot of paid marketers is slowly gaining recognition even among some of the staunchest paid marketers. Inbound marketing techniques such as SEO, content, social media, email marketing and webinars, forums, media mentions & word of mouth advertising have all begun to gain more importance. The reason for this change is the evolution of social media and the way people have begun to use the Internet. In this article, let us take a look at how paid marketers can leverage inbound marketing. 1. Borrow persona profiles Content writers often understand their target audience the best. They instinctively know what their readers want, how they need to approach them and how well they can categorize & label them. This bit of information is very useful to marketers, who often depend on less intuitive methods to categorize people. Buyer personas can be borrowed by paid marketers from inbound marketers and use the data for marketing campaigns. With so many social media tools out there and a wealth of data that is available on social media, it is even easier to come up with buyer personas for inbound marketers. By borrowing these buyer personas from inbound marketers, paid marketers can use the data to look for high-value leads. 2. Leverage design Inbound marketing involves SEO, web design and landing pages. All these involve a great deal of design and it is difficult to not avoid a situation where inbound marketers do not have to spend on design. Paid marketers, on the other hand, feel the need to use design as well but the budget often crosses the limit. Paid marketers can borrow design from inbound marketers and specifically, landing pages can be leveraged again. Design is a very important aspect of paid marketing and good design is known to drive a lot of traffic. When paid marketers have already diverted funds towards other tasks, it becomes difficult to pull money for getting new design created. 3. Borrow information related to keywords SEO and social media professionals depend on keywords to hunt for more leads. In fact, keyword search still remains one of the most important methods to hunt for leads. Paid marketers can borrow keywords, in order to create PPC campaigns and other paid forms of advertising, which too need to be based on keywords. When inbound marketers have already done the homework, paid marketers can use the data and information for their benefit. A good set of keywords can help marketers to come up with great paid marketing campaigns, which will ultimately help in getting leads from some of the most unlikely places. 4. Reuse content again Paid marketers need to also access content written by content marketers. This can be a great way to reduce the burden of creating new content from scratch. Existing content can be reused or rewritten, in order to ensure uniformity of thought across paid and inbound marketing teams. A lot of money can be saved when content is re-purposed for paid marketing. Content is not easy to write and what has been written needs to be used again, even if it means rewriting it. Once inbound marketing teams complete their research and finish writing, it can be used by paid marketers as well. Looking forward Google and other search engines have begun to evaluate websites based on their social signals, which certainly is an inbound marketing technique. Paid marketers, thus, have begun to use inbound marketing techniques, in order to brace for the changes that have already occurred. What is more, paid marketers can actually leverage inbound marketing for their own benefits. All these factors suggest that paid marketers need not hesitate to borrow and feel inspired by inbound marketing.

Read More »

The Power of Visual eCommerce Marketing

April 3, 2015

Visual elements are powerful in this internet-savvy world. They can tell a story, inspire and persuade. Although sale is the primary goal, fostering an emotional connection through visuals can ensure repeat business. And that is why most of the online ventures wish to create an environment that invokes relevancy and attention between the customers and the brands. With social web going visual, eCommerce merchants are surely on Cloud 9. Visual marketing is significant for invigorating the right sense of sight for your online visitors. Not only this, social networks including Snapchat, Pinterest and Instagram also involves social elements as commenting, following and sharing. It is time to empower your fans to shop with a single click and eliminate their guess work. Here’s how you can make a buzz with the top three visual-rich marketing tools for your eCommerce business. Snapchat With 100 million active Snapchat users, this mobile app has gained popularity with people of all ages and retailers for driving in more business. Moreover, with its recent addition of text messaging and video calling features, this social media app has become influential in gaining audience’s attention. With its three most powerful attributes, you are sure to gain access to your customer’s heart and mind: Sense of urgency: Snaps encourage quick purchase decisions with either a ‘YES’ or ‘MISS OUT’ opportunity. Users are left with seconds to jot down the discount code or take a screenshot of any exciting voucher, thereby, building a sense of urgency. Storytelling experience: With ‘My Story’ platform, you can add series of videos, photos and doodles into one story and share it with your Snapchat circle. Moreover, with the chance of viewing multiple times over 24 hours, stories can have a longer life and impression. Type messages back and forth: The ‘chat’ feature of Snapchat allows users to click and hold on individual messages and save what’s important. The rest of the messages disappear. Even the video chat feature enables quick sharing of videos along with the ability to chat with your customers. Statistics to Support its Usage 1 billion number of Snapchat stories are viewed per day 400 million Snapchat snaps are sent every day 70% of Snapchat users are women Pinterest With its 70 million users, not only is Pinterest one of the fastest growing social networks but also the number of sales through Pinterest typically exceeds Facebook and Twitter. Some of its super beneficial features provide great business opportunities for the online marketers: Promotional and rich pins: Promoted pins allow brands to reach the best targeted audience and enable you to pay Pinterest only if users click through and read the content. Rich pins, on the other hand, contain valuable information within the pin itself. You can use five types of rich pins including movie, article, place, recipe and product. Pinterest boards: You can create boards to narrate the stories of your brand besides pinning your products. It is an effective way to keep consumers coming back to you. ‘Pin It’ button: With ‘Pin It’ button integrated on each product pages, visitors finds it easy to click through various items and easily take the next steps to share it with other followers. Buy button: Companies will soon enable users to buy various items through a ‘BUY NOW’ button. Merchants can drive purchase of their products from the site to increase sales conversions. Kosei app: The app drives business by making personalized and powerful product recommendation. The app also helps brands to improve its content. Statistics to Support its Usage 70% users use Pinterest to get inspiration on what to buy 67% uses Pinterest to keep up with the latest trends they like 50% conversion comes from Pinterest traffic 53% makes online purchases after they see items in Pinterest 39% uses Pinterest to receive special offers from brands Instagram With 300 million user base, retailers are flocking into Instagram site in hopes of garnering the attention of their target audience. By incorporating Instagram photos onto your website, you can engage the users with your brand on this happening social network platform and also provide them additional useful information. With its ability to increase the visibility of your brand, Instagram is a brilliant database to promote your upcoming products. This open social network also encourages the creation of user-generated content. Here’s how you can effectively engage with Instagram audience: Instagram Direct: Merchants can send messages containing photos or 15 seconds videos to their target groups. This is similar to Twitter’s direct message functionality. Instagram video: 15 seconds highly engaging video on new products and services or customer test imonials are effective on this popular channel. Insider program: Make announcements of sales, special events or new products and ask for feedbacks on desired features, prospective products, customer service or shipping related issues. Instagram ads: Ads get carousel treatment with links on it. You can now place multiple photos in one sponsored post allowing users the option to click on other content. The carousal allows for sequential storytelling, over multiple images. Statistics to Support its Usage 70 million photos are posted via Instagram on an average day 70% of Instagram users log in at least once a day 20% of global internet users between ages 16-24 have Instagram account 23% of teens consider Instagram their favorite social network channel Visuals Communicate and Connect with Your Target Audience The whole idea behind creating visual marketing is to get your viewers excited about your brand. Visuals are processed much faster in the brain than the texts. However, make your graphics and videos error free. Make sure that they communicate unambiguously. Great visuals always speak the right language.

Read More »

Facebook Groups – Your Business Tool to Drive Customer Engagement

April 2, 2015

Every business has their secret weapon to bring in new customers. Today’s topic of discussion centers around one such secret if you have none for your business. Do you think promoting your brand through your business Facebook page will suffice? Well! There’s potentially a lot more to it than that. Let’s explore the most underutilized aspect of Facebook. The strategy is about creating Facebook Groups to lay the foundation of the best customer service. Facebook Groups – Your Weapon to Increase Your Visibility and Networking Facebook Groups is all about providing an easy way to segment customers, creating communities around specific products, providing a network forum for customers, improving customer service and most importantly, driving new sales. Facebook Groups allow conversations and exchange of ideas. However, do not misunderstand Facebook Groups with Facebook Page. Pages are managed by an organization while Groups can be formed by anyone. Checklists Before You Join a Group You can join up to 6,000 Facebook Groups If you’re unsure about where to find groups, start with Facebook Graph Search Focus on only 10-20 active groups Measure your group against a few criteria including active group members, low spam, members of a specific Facebook Group, impressive description etc. Check the ‘About Section’ of any new group to learn about their business goals You may also restrict group membership based on qualification Avoid groups who focus only on sales and promotions & do not contribute to any valuable conversations Utilizing Facebook Groups for Marketing Build Your Community The basics of Facebook marketing start with building a community. A group should be about its members and how they contribute to your business. However, networking is equally important for your group members. They should make connections and discuss about your offerings. I found it easier to communicate with people through my Facebook Group than it is via email. I feel that having the group creates a more personal connection between my brand and my clients. It gives me an added level of support. Create a Competitive Market Place The real reason behind Facebook Groups being so powerful is its capability to market your products and services overnight. Post your products and make your fans go crazy to buy them. However, do not spam with unnecessary clutters. Discuss current events and offerings Facebook is the right platform to discuss about the latest happenings of businesses. And Groups are great places to keep up with current events and updates in your industry. If you’re conducting any business event, welcome your group to participate and ask for suggestions if required. Let them brainstorm ideas, share resources, answer questions and create strong relationships with one another. After all, satisfied customers promote brands on Facebook more than any other social network. No other medium is as good as Facebook Groups in highlighting your offerings and making your customers fall in love with your brand. Offer them varieties of products and the best deals to encourage conversations around each of these individual offerings. As people tend to be more personally connected to conversations in Facebook Groups, group members are more likely to see your updates. Value your customers Reward your customers within the group and make them feel special. Post their pictures on Facebook and let your community know about your ‘Happy customers’. Choral your loyal customers and keep them motivated to talk about your brand. Use the group to follow up with your clients and solve their queries. Another smart approach is to encourage your group members to help you reach your goals. Utilizing Facebook Groups for Customer Engagement Construct a Customer Support Hub Use closed Facebook Group to deliver support to customers in need of any help. Eventually, it also becomes a central place to receive feedback on what is and what isn’t working for your business. The whole idea is to generate an open dialogue between you and your customers by giving them a specific location to ask questions. Group members who have already made a purchase are more likely to engage with your brand, if they’re happy with your customer service. The closed group forum allows your customers to get direct access to you. Form Networking Hubs for Existing Customers Use secret members-only groups to create a personalized and classified feedback loop. This is a great customer engagement and retention tool. This group is an ideal spot to provide extra value to your special clients. If your brand has a more exclusive audience, a private group is a perfect fit in to your business. Lay a hub to build customer awareness and interest in your brand Start an open group to focus on business niche. Use your open group to establish yourself as an expert and to network with others in the industry. Provide content in a more personal and community-focused way and allow your group to talk about your brand. Incentives are the best way to attract customers and build their interests in your brand. Bonus for Facebook Groups Facebook’s ‘SAVE’ function works for Facebook Groups content. This is an added advantage for members who have the luxury of reading and responding to something when they have more time. This reinforces your brand. This is not the end; Facebook definitely needs a pat on its back. To make business prosper, Facebook has also introduced a new app for the Facebook Groups. The app allows easy sharing, chatting and keeping up with Facebook Groups. The app also simplifies the process of discovering new groups, joining the new groups and viewing all notifications.

Read More »

Services

Industries

Company

Resources

Press Kit

MENU
Book a Free Consultation
CONTACT US

Let’s connect!

Loading form…

Book a Free Consultation
CONTACT US

Let’s connect!

    Privacy Policy.

    Almost there!

    Download the report

      Privacy Policy.

      Book a Free Consultation