Apple CEO Tim Cook this week embarked on a visit to China to strengthen the tech giant’s relationship with one of its most important markets. However, the trip comes amid sluggish sales of the new iPhone in the country and growing U.S.-China tensions over technology and trade.

According to an Oct. 18 Bloomberg report, China is critical to Apple’s business. It is the company’s third largest market after the U.S. and Europe. Apple relies heavily on China for manufacturing — nearly all iPhones and other products are assembled in factories there. The Chinese market is also crucial for Apple to maintain growth as smartphone sales slow in Western markets.

However, in recent years, Apple has faced challenges in China. The new iPhone 14 series had a lackluster debut as it faced intense competition from local brands — like Huawei, offering advanced 5G devices at lower prices. Chinese consumers are also holding on to their devices longer before upgrading.

During the Trump administration, the U.S. government put several Chinese tech firms, including Huawei, on trade blacklists

Additionally, under the Trump administration, the U.S. government put several Chinese tech firms, including Huawei, on trade blacklists over national security concerns. This prompted patriotic sentiment among Chinese consumers to avoid American brands like Apple. Over the past two years, lockdowns across China to control COVID-19 outbreaks have also impacted supply chains and consumer demand.

During his China visit this week, Cook met with key government and business leaders to shore up Apple’s position. He met with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao and emphasized Apple’s contributions to China’s economic development and job creation, aiming to reassure Beijing that Apple’s business activities align with China’s policy goals.

Cook also visited NetEase, one of China’s largest gaming firms, underscoring Apple’s push into digital content and gaming services in China. And he visited a top university in Beijing, highlighting Apple’s focus on cultivating talented Chinese engineers and researchers.

Cook’s visit demonstrated Apple’s commitment to the Chinese market at a difficult time. However, some key challenges remain. iPhone sales still face tough competition from local brands offering high-spec devices at lower prices.

U.S.-China tensions around technology and trade issues continue, particularly after new U.S. export controls on advanced semiconductors aimed at restricting China’s capabilities. Additionally, China’s COVID restrictions have hampered both supply and demand — with a recovery likely to be gradual.

Featured Image Credit: Pexels; Thank you!

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In the ever-evolving landscape of social media, X’s Community Notes feature stands out as a beacon of transparency and accountability. Yet, this very tool is now under the microscope, accused of causing a substantial decline in the platform’s advertising revenue. Elon Musk, now the owner of X, claimed in a CNBC interview on May 16 that the platform suffered a $40 million loss in ad revenue due to Community Notes on advertiser posts. But let’s delve deeper into this assertion.

Empowering the digital citizenry

Community Notes was conceived as a democratic instrument, granting users a voice in the expansive digital agora that is X. This tool enables the community to challenge posts, ensuring that misinformation or deceptive content doesn’t go unchecked. For a note to be publicly visible on a post, it must garner a specific level of consensus within the community.

Once established, this consensus must be sustained for the note to remain. This design decentralizes authority, fostering a collaborative spirit among users and ensuring that only widely accepted notes remain visible.

If Musk’s claims hold water — that X lost $40 million after major advertisers faced community backlash — it suggests that a decentralized, consensus-driven user base might wield more power than anticipated. Moreover, it also raises interesting questions about the fragility of major brands that we see and recognize every day, but apparently in environments that restrict transparency and accountability. By this logic, $40 million could be the price of human–brand equality on X.

While X’s user empowerment is evident, it begs the question: How do other platforms, like Facebook and YouTube, or even traditional advertising spaces like Times Square, measure up in terms of transparency and accountability?

The advertiser’s dilemma

Apple and Uber, both major brands, have faced the brunt of community scrutiny on X, according to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal. Both companies recently saw their ad posts receive Community Notes for alleged false or misleading claims. While some brands such as Uber have retracted their ads following negative community feedback, others such as Apple have stood their ground until their brand loyalists came to the rescue. Ignoring how terrible of a day it is for the brand’s head of socials, such situations reveal the often unnoticed tug-of-war between advertisers and online communities like X.

As noted twice already, Musk hinted at a link between the ascent of Community Notes and dwindling ad revenue. But reports from publications such as Vice and Slate suggest a broader narrative.

A surge in hate speech on X, especially after Musk’s takeover, deterred advertisers from associating with the platform. Established brands, wary of Musk’s tumultuous leadership and his decision to lay off content moderators, retreated from X. This void was filled by lesser-known advertisers, often with dubious intentions. In his article on Vice, Matthew Gault underscores the rise of junk ads and dropshipping entities on X.

It’s hardly surprising that the community finds common ground in flagging deceptive posts from these advertisers. In essence, reputable brands distanced themselves from X due to Musk’s cost-cutting measures, leading to a surge in unscrupulous advertisers. This new wave of advertisers now faces scrutiny from a volunteer moderation force, which Musk paradoxically supports yet blames for the drop in ad revenue.

The political paradox

Slate offers an intriguing angle, suggesting that the consensus-driven nature of Community Notes becomes its downfall when politics enters the fray. Political posts often polarize the community, rendering the feature ineffective. The system, instead of mitigating misinformation, becomes gridlocked, unable to achieve consensus due to the divisive nature of politics. With an election on the horizon, concerns mount over X’s potential to influence public opinion and real-world outcomes.

This polarization hinders the platform’s ability to self-regulate. It also raises concerns about democratic discourse and the risk of echo chambers reinforcing divisive beliefs.

The narrative surrounding X’s Community Notes is multifaceted. While it symbolizes the potential of community-led moderation, it also reveals the challenges of scaling such a system on a platform as vast as X. The ongoing discourse underscores a pivotal challenge of our digital era: balancing user empowerment with platform integrity.

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Are you looking for ways to increase customer engagement? If so, you’re in the right place!

Engaging with your audience is one of the most important aspects of running a successful business. Not only does it create loyalty and trust between your company and your users, but it can also lead to increased sales and happier customers overall.

This post will discuss fifteen effective strategies that you can use to engage with your clients and build strong relationships with them. From creating meaningful conversations on social media to providing personalized experiences at every touchpoint, these strategies will help you make sure that your customers feel heard and appreciated (leading to greater success for your business)!

1. Social Media Engagement

One great way to engage with your clients is through social media.

You can use platforms like Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram to start conversations, answer questions and show appreciation for customer feedback.

By engaging with your audience on social media, you can create an open dialogue that will help build trust in your company and ultimately lead to more sales.

2. Personalized Experiences

Providing personalized experiences can help people feel valued and more connected to your business.

You can do this by using data to create tailored offers, providing individualized customer service solutions or simply sending out special gifts or discounts for their birthdays.

Whatever you decide to do, make sure that you’re taking the time to make each client feel special and appreciated!

3. Customer Loyalty Programs

Creating loyalty programs is another great way to improve customer engagement and reward them.

Your loyalty program can include perks like exclusive discounts, free shipping, or early access to new products.

All of these will encourage people to keep coming back again and again.

4. Customer Management Software

Using customer management software can help you track customer engagement and ensure that everyone feels heard.

These tools can help you organize customer data, follow up on conversations or complaints quickly, and analyze customer behavior to understand what they’re looking for.

5. Community Building

Building a community around your brand is another great way to engage with your audience.

You can do this by hosting events, creating online forums, or simply offering clients a place to connect and share their experiences with each other.

By doing this, you’ll be building an engaged group of advocates that will help spread the word about your business.

6. Feedback Collection

Collecting feedback from your customers is essential for understanding how they feel about your products or services and what changes they would like you to make.

You can gather feedback through surveys, polls, or simply by asking them directly during conversations.

Taking the time to listen and respond to feedback is a great way to show them that you care about their opinions and will help build loyalty in the long run.

7. Online Reviews

Online reviews are one of the most powerful ways to engage with your clients.

Encouraging them to leave honest feedback about their experience can help you identify areas for improvement and create more personalized experiences for future customers.

You can also use online reviews as an effective way to promote your business, by highlighting positive customer testimonials on your website or social media channels.

By showing that you value customer feedback and responding to it in an appropriate manner, you’ll be able to create a positive reputation that will help drive more customers your way.

8. Customer Education

Educating your clients on how to use your products or services is another great way to increase engagement.

You can create helpful content, webinars, or even podcasts to make sure that users understand how to get the most out of what you’re offering.

This not only helps to increase engagement but also ensures that customers are using your products in the right way – leading to better experiences and more sales.

9. Gamification

Gamification is another great way to engage with customers and encourage them to interact with your business.

You can do this by creating competitions where customers can compete for rewards or give them points for completing certain tasks (like leaving reviews).

Whatever you decide to do, make sure that it’s fun and engaging so that people are encouraged to come back again and again.

10. Engage with Influencers

Influencer marketing is becoming increasingly popular and is a great way to reach more customers and increase engagement.

You can do this by collaborating with influencers in your industry who have their own loyal audiences of followers.

By partnering with the right celebrities, you will be able to tap into their network and reach a potential new audience that might not otherwise have heard about your business.

11. Utilize Automation

Using automation tools can help boost customer engagement.

Connect your website with automation tools to send out personalized messages or discounts based on user data or create automated campaigns that target specific customer segments for maximum engagement. If you don’t know how to do this, you can always hire backend developers.

Automation can also help monitor your audience feedback more effectively so that you can quickly respond and offer solutions when needed.

12. Offer Customer Support

Providing excellent customer support is key to any successful business – especially when it comes to engaging with customers.

Offering fast responses, easy-to-use help centers, and even live chat options are all great ways to ensure that clients feel supported and taken care of – leading to higher levels of engagement and loyalty in the long run.

13. Relevant Content

Creating relevant, high-quality content is another effective way to engage with customers and build trust in your brand.

This could include blog posts, newsletters or even videos – whatever works best for your audience!

Make sure that you’re providing content that adds value to their lives so that they’ll keep coming back for more.

14. Personalized Email Campaigns

Personalized emails are a great way to engage with clients and show them that you understand their individual needs.

You can do this by segmenting your email list and creating targeted campaigns based on customer data like location or purchase history.

This will make the content more relevant to each individual user, leading to higher engagement levels and more conversions.

15. Live Streaming Events

Live streaming events can be a great way to engage with your users in real-time and give them an inside look at your business.

You can stream product demos, Q&A sessions, or even webinars – all of which will help build trust in your brand and keep customers coming back for more.

Final Words

Engaging with customers is essential for any business – no matter the size or industry.

By following these tips, you’ll be able to increase engagement and create stronger relationships that will last in the long run.

So go ahead and start engaging today!

The post 15 Proven Ways to Increase Customer Engagement and Build Loyalty appeared first on ReadWrite.

Digital assets are the foundation of modern marketing, presenting a variety of formats to tell a brand’s story and engage with clients. However, quantifying and organizing digital assets can be overwhelming, especially as brands try to keep up with new channels and trends. With each new piece of content generated, how much of the older assets become lost or forgotten, collecting digital dust in the process?

As marketers, we create large volumes of digital content. In fact, nearly 329 million terabytes of data are created each day.

Picture your brand’s digital landscape. What does it look like? Is it overwhelming consumers’ feeds with unwanted noise, or is it delivering useful resources they’re looking for?

To connect with consumers before they even enter their brand’s ecosystem, marketers need a way to paint a clear picture of their digital library, visualizing existing assets and forming connections between them. This also allows brands to organize their assets within a control hierarchy and see opportunities to grow or scale back to strengthen their brand footprint and more effectively promote their message.

So, what’s the most effective way to organize a brand’s asset stack? The MACH-6.

Meet the MACH-6

The MACH-6, or 6-Level Marketing Asset Control Hierarchy, is an organizational framework for brands, helping them gain clarity of their assets according to a hierarchical stack determined by the degree of control a brand has over them.

The MACH-6 is a tool for owned asset optimization (OAO), providing brands with a holistic view of their digital footprint. Discovering opportunities to expand reach through atomizing content or creating entirely new owned assets becomes easier.

In short, the MACH-6 allows brands to establish an asset-first approach to satisfy the needs of their audience, building meaningful relationships in the process.

Understanding the content hierarchy

As marketers, most of us are familiar with the varying degrees of control over our brand assets (wouldn’t it be great if we could guarantee news coverage of our brand would be entirely accurate and favorable?). The MACH-6 breaks these degrees of control into three categories: owned, managed, and leveraged. This organization helps brands recognize the level of control they have over their content.

Picture a table with six layers. The higher you go, the broader a brand’s reach, but the less control it has over the content. While losing control seems counterproductive to brand management, working up to this level is necessary to reach new audiences and draw more consumers in. However, this can only be successful when brands are ready to deploy a comprehensive library of owned assets to support and inform the content coming from the layers of leveraged and managed assets (and provide owned touchpoints for later transactions).

Owned Assets

The MACH-6 should be built from the bottom up so that brands can form a sturdy base with owned assets, which they have complete control over technically and creatively. This category is broken into three layers: foundation, ground level, and Tier 1.

This stack begins with brand basics like company values and purpose, brand language and visual identities, proprietary data and IPs, customer personas, marketing positioning, and executive and employee ambassadors. These assets build the strong foundation that the entire marketing strategy should be based upon. What consumer data can you use to inform content production? How should content be written? What purpose is an asset driving for your mission? All assets should be connected to this foundation to maintain consistent brand messaging and positioning.

Then, we move up to websites, including sub-brand websites, at the ground level and Tier 1 above, which includes pillar content, blog posts, tools, downloadable content, and corporate communications. These assets are fully controlled by the brand and create an external representation of the foundational base.

Managed Assets

Split into two layers — Tier 3 and Tier 4 — a brand’s managed assets are pieces of content that the team has some control over. The brand controls these messages, but channels that are not. Continuing from the three layers of owned assets, Tier 2 includes public relations, events and communications, social media, bylines, ads, and emails. While a brand technically owns and manages its emails and social media accounts, Instagram, Gmail, Microsoft, and other platforms and email marketing tools ultimately control how the content is delivered, creating some limitations.

Tier 3 encompasses company profiles and ally websites, organic search, sites like Wikipedia, and content syndication. Brands can strongly impact these assets with their lower MACH-6 layers but have less control over what content is, and how it’s shared.

Leveraged Assets

The top level of the MACH-6 structure focuses on influence and consists of user-generated and third-party content that brands can guide or direct in some ways but ultimately cannot control. Examples include affiliates and influencers, reviews, word-of-mouth communication, user-generated content, and news.

In reality, the stronger the owned assets a brand creates, the more controlled messaging the managed and leveraged channels have to pull from. That increases the chances that a brand’s preferred narrative is shared more often and to more consumers.

How to implement the MACH-6

With the MACH-6, brands can zoom out and assess their entire network of assets. This is a critical first step to organizing data and managing content, allowing brands to build a more effective strategy.

Regardless of a brand’s size, most will have a vast ecosystem of content that they have invested time, energy, money, and other resources to build. However, much of that content goes underused or becomes forgotten because it is improperly organized.

The MACH-6 allows brands to be better equipped to identify and understand their needs, sharing and creating the appropriate assets to help move them through the journey to conversion.

But how do you begin when approaching a mountain of assets?

Understand your audience

To organize your brand assets and prioritize your focus areas, you need to know what your target consumers are looking for and how you can provide it through your assets. Map out your consumer journey to understand what channels your audience uses, where they go for specific answers, what types of content they trust and use, etc. This will give you a blueprint to lay your current MACH-6 over to understand areas of opportunity for your brand better.

One note here — the consumer journey has changed. It’s no longer (and perhaps never was) a linear path. Ensure your journey map is current and honest, showing modern consumers’ complex and sometimes fragmented journeys.

Audit your assets

The ultimate goal of the MACH-6 is to help brands successfully implement an OAO strategy. Auditing your existing assets and understanding which level of the structure they belong in, will help you determine what you have too much or too little of in each of the layers and allow you to make adjustments where necessary.

Where do you have a gap in owned assets? How can you shift resources to expand certain tiers and perhaps reach new audiences throughout their journeys? This also allows you to ensure your brand’s messaging is communicated at every level of the MACH-6 —  consistency that will help with your brand’s credibility and awareness.

Audits also include looking over financials and prioritization. How can you better pair your budget with your consumer journey and preferences? What pieces of content aren’t performing well and can be optimized to make a larger impact?

Understanding your digital landscape will give you a stronger strategy to connect with consumers and drive business results.

Build your foundation

First, ensure you have a strong base of branding. Educate your entire organization on your brand basics—your vision, mission, purpose, and values—and make any updates necessary before expanding your work to the full MACH-6. Then, don’t shy away from your brand’s foundation. This messaging should echo throughout all of your brand content, so don’t hesitate to proudly publicly share your brand basics, and always ensure your assets are connected to them.

Next, look to your Ground Level and Tier 1 owned assets — the key to a brand’s success online. Identify gaps in your owned assets and fill them with content that matches your brand’s foundation.

For example, if you don’t have any unique tools or downloadable information, consider ways you can better provide value to your consumers with guides or templates that support their journeys. Or, brainstorm ways to expand your digital footprint, like creating a new website for your brand to publish blogs, media, downloadables, and other assets that connect you to your core consumers, directly answering their questions and addressing their needs.

Regardless of reach, optimized owned assets are a brand’s most powerful tools, enabling brands to take action when necessary but maintain the creative and technical freedom to communicate and share their story.

Optimize your content

The MACH-6 is part of a larger marketing asset ecosystem that provides brands various opportunities to expand and reach more consumers. While essential for business growth, a more extensive reach requires relinquishing some control.

To balance your assets and maintain some control, ensure your brand’s owned assets are optimized to be discoverable. Use data-backed strategies to appeal to Google — focus on high-volume search keywords and questions, build author authority, and then create a consistent schedule for publishing new content. Or boost engagement and visibility by including unique visuals, questions, and how-to guides.

With a greater depth of owned resources optimized for visibility and user experience, more consumers, journalists, and publishers will find your brand and identify it as an authoritative voice in your area of focus.

This helps to solidify your brand’s messaging further and establish its tone, making it recognizable and influencing the narrative created by your leveraged assets in Tier 4. In fact, building a solid foundation of owned assets increases the effectiveness of managed and leveraged assets.

If you build it, they will come. So be prepared.

Many of us will recall a big news story or memorable Super Bowl ad when we think of successful marketing tactics. These draw a lot of attention and bring brands in front of more people than they would normally reach. But, brands have a limited window of opportunity to capitalize on the extra attention.

Without a framework of optimized owned assets that use data and branding to answer questions and proactively meet the rising demand, brands can miss out on the increased visibility, which will fizzle out as quickly as it appeared. Capturing attention is half the battle and people are more likely to continue researching a brand after a significant event.

When brands have a library of diverse assets built before this significant draw, the new audiences will have plenty of touchpoints to learn about the brand and make connections. This will help create brand awareness, establish trust, build brand loyalty, and convert customers. In fact, Kia recently demonstrated just that.

By auditing, organizing, and balancing the content in a brand’s vast collection of digital assets, a brand is better equipped to create and share a steady stream of touchpoints to reach a broad base of consumers. As the brand grows, so will its library and the opportunities to build awareness, connect with audiences, and ultimately convert sales.

The MACH-6 is a tool that helps brands organize and visualize their asset stack to assess every potential consumer connection point and deploy the right content to the right people at the right time. This gives brands control over their owned assets at a foundational level that can transfer across all marketing assets and channels.

With the MACH-6, brands understand how their assets meet consumer needs and become empowered to make meaningful connections for the long term.

Featured Image Credit: Photo by Ketut Subiyanto; Pexels; Thank you!

The post What is the MACH-6? How to Use it to Optimize Your Content Strategy appeared first on ReadWrite.

Email marketing is one of the most effective tools to reach customers and engage with them. It eliminates the need for expensive campaigns, efficiently building relationships with customers and engaging them with your product or service.

This post will discuss some essential email marketing statistics that marketers and business owners should know.

These statistics will help you understand how successful your email campaigns are and how to make changes to improve results. These insights allow you to optimize your emails for maximum effectiveness and better ROI. Additionally, you’ll get a clearer picture of what kind of content resonates with your audience so that you can create more targeted campaigns that drive more conversions.

Insights for Email Marketing Success

What creates success in email marketing? That’s what these email marketing statistics will cover. Use these as inspiration and ideas to make your own email marketing score big wins.

Personalization Boosts Click Rates

1. Emails with personalized titles experience 26 percent more clicks.
2. Incorporating customer names or mentioning recent purchases can significantly increase email open rates.
3. Personalization nurtures customer engagement and fosters stronger connections with the audience.

Mobile Optimization

1. Approximately 49 percent of all users open their emails on mobile devices.
2. One in five emails is not optimized for mobile phones, resulting in lower conversion rates.

The lesson is that marketers should prioritize mobile optimization to engage a wider audience and conduct thorough testing for visual appeal and functionality.

Return on Investment (ROI)

1. Email marketing ROI can reach as high as 4400 percent, surpassing other marketing channels.
2. Email marketing remains remarkably cost-effective even with large-scale campaigns reaching thousands of subscribers.

A/B Testing for Optimized ROI

1. A/B testing can improve ROI by 28 percent.

Utilizing A/B functionality in modern email marketing services is highly recommended. Testing will help determine the most effective campaigns for the target audience, enabling the optimization of future messages.

Average Open Rates

1. Average open rates across industries sit at around 17.6 percent.
2. Marketers should not panic if one in five subscribers opens their emails; a 20 percent open rate is considered above average.

Email marketing’s success lies in mobile optimization, personalized content, A/B testing, and understanding industry benchmarks.

Given the significant mobile user percentage, optimizing emails for mobile devices is crucial. Personalization boosts engagement, increasing click-through rates.

A/B testing informs effective strategies, leading to better ROI.

Understanding average open rates provides context for campaign performance; aiming to surpass these benchmarks indicates successful audience engagement. Mastering these elements unlocks the full potential of email marketing for marketers.

Global Email Marketing Insights and Statistics

These are useful statistics you should know about worldwide email marketing numbers. These details will help you see the potential of your business.

1. Globally, a staggering 347.3 billion emails are sent and received daily, showcasing email communication’s wide-reaching impact.
2. 99% of email users check their inbox daily, with some individuals checking up to 20 times daily, highlighting the consistent engagement potential of email marketing.
3. 61% of consumers prefer email contact from brands, indicating that email remains a preferred and effective means of communication.
4. 49% of consumers want to receive promotional emails from their favorite brands on a weekly basis, showcasing the demand for regular updates and offers.
5. 41% of email views occur on mobile devices, while desktops account for 39%, emphasizing the importance of optimizing email content for both platforms.
6. The average email click-through rate (CTR) stands at 2.13%, providing a metric to gauge the level of engagement with email content.
7. 77% of the ROI comes from segmented, targeted, and triggered email campaigns, emphasizing the significance of personalized and relevant content.
8. 47% of emails are opened or discarded based on the subject line alone, making it a critical factor in email open rates.
9. Subject lines with urgency and exclusivity result in a 22% higher open rate, presenting effective strategies to entice recipients.
10. Popups on a website can increase the email list by 1.375%, offering an actionable tactic for growing subscriber lists.
11. 15.8% of emails are missing or caught by spam filters, highlighting the importance of maintaining email deliverability and sender reputation.

The statistics underscore the significance of email marketing for marketers. It remains a major communication channel for consumers, demanding consistent and personalized engagement.

To succeed, you must optimize content for mobile and desktop and employ compelling subject line strategies.

The remarkable ROI, driven by personalization and automation, showcases email marketing’s cost-effectiveness.

Test subject lines and use popups on websites can enhance campaign efficiency and grow subscriber lists. Be vigilant against spam filters; it is essential for ensuring successful email deliverability and minimizing lost opportunities.

Email Marketing Statistics in eCommerce

Online shopping and eCommerce businesses rely on email marketing to drive sales and success. Here are statistics on email marketing related to eCommerce and ways that it can help you grow your online store.

1. $230 Million in Purchases: Demonstrating Email Marketing’s Revenue Influence
2. Email marketing contributed $230 million in purchases during a single quarter, highlighting its significant role in driving revenue for businesses.
3. Companies with over $10 million had an average of 133.97 list segments, ten times more than those with revenue under $100,000. This emphasizes the correlation between income and the number of list segments maintained by businesses.
4. Abandoned cart emails and other automation collectively generated over $50 million in one quarter, showcasing the effectiveness of automated email campaigns in boosting sales and conversion rates.
5. Abandoned cart emails enjoy an average open rate of 45%, indicating their effectiveness in re-engaging potential customers who left items in their carts.
6. 68% of millennials reported that promotional emails influenced purchasing decisions, reinforcing email marketing’s relevance and appeal to this key consumer demographic.
7. 38% of marketers actively use email to reduce shopping cart abandonment, acknowledging its potential as a valuable strategy to recapture lost sales opportunities.

The statistics show email marketing’s significant impact on revenue generation for your eCommerce site.

The $230 million in purchases attributed to email shows its effectiveness as a revenue-driving tool. Automated campaigns, like abandoned cart emails, bring in substantial revenue, too.

Email marketing also significantly triggers millennials’ purchasing decisions, underscoring its relevance to this key group. 

By addressing shopping cart abandonment through email strategies, you can reclaim lost sales opportunities and improve conversion rates. In this way, strategic and targeted email marketing is essential to unlock its full potential for driving revenue in the eCommerce industry.

Conclusion

These compelling statistics tell a story: that of the transformative power of email marketing.

It’s not just a tool for communication but a significant driver of customer engagement and revenue generation for your business.

Whether it’s a matter of enticing click-through rates, achieving an impressive return on investment, or triggering beneficial customer behaviors like recapturing abandoned shopping carts, email marketing stands at the forefront.

The information we looked at here also underscores the need for personalization, automation, and strategic content to boost your email campaign results.

If you’re not already leveraging the power of email marketing, now is the time to start. Harness what it can do to engage your audience, grow your brand, and drive your business to new heights.

Featured Image Credit: Provided by the Author; Stephen Phillips; hostreviews; Unsplash; Thank you!

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Brands are under immense pressure to advance and evolve as customer buying trends change, budgets shrink, and broad economic factors become increasingly complicated.

In response, many companies are turning to emerging applications of well-known technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to make their companies more agile, competitive, and responsive.

These technologies provide powerful buyer insights that allow companies to understand better when customers will make a purchase, what they will buy, and when they will engage.

According to a Deloitte survey, 79 percent of respondents have fully deployed three or more AI technologies, a 15 percent year-over-year increase. As AI and ML technologies become more ubiquitous as mainstream services soar in popularity and serve as proof of concept for many business leaders, everyone seems to want more. To accelerate AI and ML adoption, three-fifths of businesses intend to increase spending on digital transformation by the end of 2023. Of course, simply throwing money at the latest tech trends doesn’t guarantee business success.

The key lies in leveraging data, a company’s most abundant and valuable resource, to directly enhance AI and ML solutions that impact core KPIs at the enterprise level. These systems can help companies achieve two foundational objectives: increase top-line revenue and reduce overall costs by enabling new efficiencies.

Here’s how leaders can leverage strategic applications of this technology to remain agile and create compelling customer interactions with impact in 2024 and beyond.

#1 Collect the Right Data & Collect it with Consent

Many companies are overwhelmed by the volume, velocity, and complexity of customer data they collect. They are unable to convert this raw data into actionable customer-facing interactions.

One survey of CIOs and senior IT leaders found that nearly three-quarters of respondents said they were struggling with data management, and most companies are discarding the vast majority—up to 90 percent—of the data they receive.

Effective AI and ML implementation is predicated on accurate, actionable, and timely customer data, so companies must turn off the firehose of information instead of collecting the correct information at the right time to inform the right decisions.

Brands can leverage several data sources to obtain this information, including:

• Transactional data from credit card and other financial services
• Customer-collected data from surveys, research, and other buyer-centric sources
• Loyalty data from product offerings and other promotional opportunities

Specifically, focus on incentivizing customers to provide 20 percent of the data that provides 80 percent of the value.

The brands best positioned to receive the highest value data will acquire customers’ consent before collecting data, capitalizing on transparent data collection practices to solicit support and build trust.

The results of building customer trust with this approach can reach all the way to the bottom line. Eighty-four percent of consumers say they are more likely to share information with brands with transparent data practices and policies, 77 percent say it impacts their purchases, and 50 percent say they will purchase more from transparent brands.

The message for innovative brands is simple: obtain explicit consent from individuals before collecting data. Users should be able to opt in or out easily. Some consumers will undoubtedly opt-out, but those that remain, when properly nurtured, become the backbone of solid brands.

#2 Compile a “Single View of the Customer”

Compiling a “single view of the customer” means having a complete and accurate understanding of a customer’s needs, preferences, and behaviors based on all the data and interactions a company has collected about them.

This can be achieved through multi-platform infrastructures that allow businesses to store, track, and analyze customer data from various sources, such as sales, marketing, and customer service.

Such efforts focusing on the value exchange must gather the information to complete the 80/20 guiding principle, which relies on progressive profiling to provide a single customer view across all touchpoints.

#3 Create Real-time Interactions

Real-time interactions can propel people through buying by delivering the information, insights, and promotion needed to convert leads into sales.

While customers expect real-time, hyper-personalized interactions, many anticipate that brands won’t be able to deliver. One industry report found that 44 percent of Gen Z shoppers and 43 percent of millennials “expended more effort than expected to complete an interaction.”

In 2023 and beyond, time is a valuable currency. Companies can increase conversions by deploying AI and ML solutions to power real-time interaction management systems that foster emotional connections, identify potential pain points, and optimize the buying journey.

Many brands continue to rely on static content to entice buyers. AI and ML solutions let brands move beyond this, delivering real-time, personalized interactions at scale.

#4: Create Hyper-Personalized Experiences for customers

A McKinsey & Company report found that 71 percent of consumers expect brands to provide personalized experiences, and most are disappointed when they don’t deliver.

Customer data is key to personalizing customer experiences, but many brands are overwhelmed by the firehose of information, making the sheer data volume and information sprawl an impediment to progress.

AI is making sense of this information and using it to generate targeted advertising content that empowers personalized experiences at scale.

Marketing, commerce, analytics and data, and merchandising can use AI in different ways to present targeted content to prospects and customers through lightboxes, promotional links, special offers and discounts, and platform onboarding efforts.

AI is moving brand marketing away from content repositories that present plausibly engaging content to consumers to an environment where analytics, profile information, and segmentation data can be used in real-time to create customer-centric, generative content that converts buyers.

In retail advertising as one example, AI allows advertisers to present advertising content with surgical precision in ways that we could only dream of five years ago.

Truly Data Driven

Leveraging AI and ML is becoming increasingly crucial for brands to maintain relevance in a digital-first world, to remain competitive, and to create compelling customer interactions. Businesses can increase top-line revenue and reduce costs by collecting the correct data, compiling a “single view of the customer,” and creating real-time interactions.

However, it’s important to note that simply investing in these technologies is not enough. The key is using data, a company’s most valuable resource, to impact core KPIs at the enterprise level directly. As AI and ML adoption continues to rise, companies implementing these strategies will be well-positioned to remain agile and stay ahead of the competition.

Featured Image Credit: Pixabay; Pexels; Thank you!

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In the world of software development and operations, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) and DevOps have emerged as dynamic allies, forming an unbeatable alliance for building and maintaining robust, high-performing systems. Together, they bridge the gap between development and operations, fostering a reliability, agility, and collaboration culture. This unique partnership unleashes the true potential of modern IT organizations, ensuring seamless user experiences and unparalleled business success.

SRE and Its Role in DevOps

In a survey conducted by Blameless, it was revealed that an astounding 50% of participants adopted the SRE model, employing either dedicated infrastructure-focused engineers or embedding full-time SREs directly into their services.

Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) is a pivotal discipline, harmoniously partnering with DevOps to ensure unparalleled success. SRE’s unwavering reliability, availability, and scalability focus perfectly aligns with DevOps goals.

Key principles of SRE

Error Budgets and Service Level Objectives (SLOs): Balancing innovation and stability through defined performance targets and acceptable unreliability thresholds.

Automation and Monitoring: Core to SRE, enabling faster and consistent deployments aided by proactive real-time system health data.

Incident Management and Post-Mortems: Prompt, collaborative responses to disruptions and learning from failures to prevent recurrence.

SRE’s primary objective is reliable, highly available, and scalable systems, enhancing user experience, customer satisfaction, and trust in the product.

SRE and DevOps unite with shared objectives. DevOps focuses on rapid development and continuous delivery, while SRE infuses reliability from the outset. SRE’s post-mortems offer valuable feedback to enhance the development and deployment processes, fostering a collaborative and robust product.

DevOps and Its Role in SRE

DevOps’s core is the commitment to harmonize software development and operations seamlessly. Utilizing CI/CD, developers continuously integrate and deploy code changes in small increments, promoting rapid, low-risk releases. SRE benefits from this approach, embracing a controlled, measured approach to system changes in pursuit of service reliability.

Collaboration and communication form the bedrock of DevOps culture, fostering cross-functional teamwork and ownership. For SRE, this results in faster incident resolution and heightened system resilience.

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and configuration management are invaluable tools for DevOps and SRE teams. Automating infrastructure provisioning ensures consistency and minimizes manual errors.

DevOps’ agility, speed, and collaboration seamlessly align with SRE’s reliability mission, preserving innovation and swift delivery. The marriage of these methodologies guarantees SRE goals without compromising DevOps’ efficiency.

The Benefits of SRE and DevOps Collaboration

When superheroes unite, a formidable force emerges, and in the realm of technology, the dynamic duo of Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) and DevOps epitomizes this success. This perfect partnership brings forth an array of astounding advantages, propelling organizations to unparalleled efficiency and dependability.

Improved System Reliability and Uptime

Visualize a world where systems never falter and uptime is assured. SRE and DevOps collaboration makes this vision a reality. The teams prioritize system reliability by defining crystal-clear Service Level Objectives (SLOs) and error budgets. Vigilant monitoring and seamless automation nip potential issues in the bud, warding off catastrophes before they materialize. The result? Resilient systems and seamless user experiences.

Faster Incident Resolution and Recovery Times

In times of crisis, every second counts. SRE and DevOps collaboration empowers swift incident resolution and recovery. The teams respond promptly to incidents by using advanced monitoring tools and shared communication channels. Blameless post-mortems foster continuous improvement, enhancing their agility in sustaining services.

Enhanced Collaboration Between Development and Operations Teams

No more friction or finger-pointing between development and operations teams. SRE and DevOps collaboration fosters a culture of cooperation. Developers prioritize code maintainability and stability, while operations offer insights for optimizing pipelines and infrastructure. The result is a harmonious symphony of teamwork, facilitating a smooth and resilient development lifecycle.

Increased Automation and Efficiency in the Software Development Lifecycle

Automation enthusiasts, SRE, and DevOps together wield the power of efficiency. Repetitive tasks vanish as automation takes the stage, freeing up time for innovation. CI/CD pipelines streamline development, minimizing human error. IaC enables effortless environment creation, ensuring consistency throughout development stages. The result is an impeccably tuned machine driving organizational growth.

Best Practices for Integrating SRE and DevOps

Nurturing a collaborative culture is the cornerstone of successful integration. Break barriers between teams, fostering open communication and knowledge sharing. Form cross-functional groups, combining SRE and DevOps expertise for better understanding, empathy, and problem-solving.

Define reliability goals with SLOs and error budgets. Set clear thresholds and align efforts for system performance.

Automation is key. Implement automated deployment, IaC, and monitoring tools. Swiftly respond to incidents, learning and improving without blame. Drive continuous improvement and enhance resilience.

Tools and Technologies for SRE and DevOps Collaboration

Reliable monitoring and observability are the bedrock of SRE and DevOps collaboration. These tools provide real-time insights into the health and performance of applications and infrastructure. With comprehensive dashboards and alerts, teams gain a clear understanding of system behavior, enabling them to detect anomalies and respond swiftly to potential issues.

Popular tools in this category include:

Grafana

Grafana is an open-source analytics and visualization platform that allows users to query, visualize, and understand data from various sources. Here’s a brief overview of how Grafana works:

Data Sources

Dashboards

Querying and Aggregation

Templating

Alerting

Plugins and Integrations

Community and Support.

Datadog

DataDog is a popular monitoring and analytics platform used by businesses to gain insights into their applications and infrastructure. Here’s a brief overview of how DataDog works:

Data Collection

Data Aggregation

Visualization

Alerting

APM (Application Performance Monitoring)

Infrastructure Monitoring

Log Management, and Collaboration and Integrations.

SigNoz

Signoz is an open-source distributed tracing system designed to monitor and troubleshoot complex applications in real-time. It provides insights into the performance of microservices, helping developers and operations teams identify bottlenecks, latency issues, and errors within their systems. Here’s a brief explanation of how Signoz works:

Instrumentation

Spans and Traces

Distributed Context Propagation

Data Storage

Visualization and Analysis:

Alerting and Monitoring:

Integration with Other Tools.

CI/CD Pipelines and Version Control Systems:

The harmonious synchronization of SRE and DevOps is propelled by the gears of CI/CD pipelines and version control systems. These pipelines automate the code deployment process, ensuring swift and dependable software delivery. Git, a widely-used version control system, enables seamless code management and rollbacks. Integration of these tools ensures a smooth release process, minimizing deployment-related incidents.

Configuration Management Tools:

Configuration Management Tools maintain consistency and repeatability across the infrastructure. Automated setup and configuration of servers prevent configuration drift and ensure system reliability. Tools like Ansible, Puppet, and Chef allow SRE and DevOps to manage infrastructure efficiently and with standardized practices.

During incidents, efficient incident management and seamless communication are vital. Platforms like PagerDuty and VictorOps enable real-time alerting and collaboration among teams. Chat tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams foster cross-team communication, aiding SRE and DevOps in collectively resolving issues.

Conclusion

The convergence of SRE and DevOps orchestrates an exquisite symphony, harmonizing reliability, scalability, and agility. This fusion, intertwining SRE’s system stability and incident mastery with DevOps’ collaborative automation, begets heightened reliability, swifter deployments, and elevated customer elation. Embracing this potent alliance heralds the genesis of resilient and efficient systems amid the relentless rhythms of modern technology.

Inner Image Credit: Provided by the Author; Thank you!

Featured Image Credit: Photo by krakenimages; Unsplash; Thank you!

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When exploring how to build an international brand, the benefit of studying the European and Asian markets is an excellent strategy.  Market expansion can provide opportunities to reach further audiences and extend the equity and voice of a brand. Increasing market size can lead to overall brand growth and a chance to compete for a share in a previously unexplored market.

Why Europe and Asia, specifically? These markets are at different levels of development, with fast-growing commerce markets. They can offer significant rewards to brands bold enough to think beyond their home borders.

What to Consider When Expanding a Business Internationally

When thinking about building an international brand, familiarize yourself with the challenges that often arise with global expansion. Recognizing that expanding business globally is not suitable for everyone is essential. Entering new markets introduces a new set of nuances, and companies should reach a certain level of stability domestically before considering international strategies.

Venturing abroad requires a solid understanding of your product and target segments. Many factors will impact brand viability, from language use to logistics and local laws. Even if a product is already ideally suited to foreign markets, brands are challenged with building infrastructure in new locations, dealing with different payment customs, and the murkier challenges of marketing to new cultures and sensibilities.

How to Take Your Business International

Once you’ve weighed your options and are ready to expand internationally, how can you scale up your strategy? Your domestic strategy is complex enough; how will international laws, regulations, and customs factor in? Consider these actions:

1. Do proactive work to ensure relevance.

Check the suitability of your product or brand in the new market. Can you see ahead and identify potential problems? Can you clearly define segments that show you have opportunities to succeed there? Being proactive rather than reactive will enable you to expand at a healthy pace, scale your business, and avoid locations that could spell trouble for your brand. You need to plan ahead to define your international brand on your own terms.

2. Apply a digital strategy to your expansion plans.

Technology can ease the challenges involved in international expansion. With access to data and AI tools, you can become more intentional and informed when making expansion decisions and get to know your international customers before introducing the brand to them. International business and technology go hand in hand. As technology becomes more advanced and accurate, data capabilities advance with it and can tap into localized market data, providing valuable insights and making international expansion a greater possibility than ever before.

3. Gain a steady foothold.

Don’t move into five new territories at once; test new markets one at a time and ensure you have a stable foothold in a single unique location. This way, you can adapt and pivot product offerings and marketing strategies in one place and perfect them before taking those learnings and applying them to another market. You can test your offering on a new audience, analyze what needs to be changed, and form strategies based on real situations.

Finding local partners is another way of tapping into regional understanding and expertise, setting you up for success in a new market. No matter how you choose to execute, with a solid international expansion strategy, expanding your business globally is just another path of growth for your business — and it can open a wide range of audiences and opportunities.

Featured Image Credit: Communication; Pexels; Thank you!

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Establishing a robust online presence is imperative for businesses seeking sustainable growth and increased visibility in the ever-evolving digital landscape. This comprehensive guide will outline eight crucial steps every business should undertake to improve its online presence. By implementing these strategies, you can position your business for success and outrank competitors in the digital realm.

1. Develop a User-Friendly Website

To captivate online visitors and enhance their browsing experience, it is paramount to have a well-designed and user-friendly website. Ensure your website is visually appealing, easy to navigate, and optimized for various devices, including desktops, tablets, and smartphones. Incorporate intuitive menus, clear calls-to-action (CTAs), and visually engaging elements to guide users seamlessly through your website’s content.ll

2. Create a Visual Aspect That Leaves a Lasting Impression

A visually captivating logo and a well-defined brand color scheme are vital to establishing a solid and memorable brand identity. Let’s explore how incorporating these visual elements can enhance your online presence.

Design an Eye-Catching Logo

Your logo visually represents your brand and can leave a lasting impression on potential customers. It should be unique, easily recognizable, and reflective of your brand’s values and personality. Consider the following principles when designing your logo:

• Simplicity: Aim for a clean and uncluttered design that is easily understandable.
• Memorability: Create a distinctive and memorable logo, leaving a lasting impression on viewers.
• Relevance: Ensure your company logo aligns with your brand’s identity, industry, and target audience.
• Versatility: Design a company logo that can be scaled and adapted for various platforms, including websites, social media profiles, print materials, and signage.

Select an Appropriate Colour Scheme

Colors evoke emotions and play a crucial role in brand perception. Choose a color scheme that resonates with your brand’s values, personality, and target audience. Consider the following factors when selecting your brand’s color palette:

• Brand Identity: Determine the emotions and qualities you want your brand to convey. For example, blue can signify trust and professionalism, while yellow can evoke feelings of energy and optimism.
• Audience Preferences: Research your target audience’s preferences and cultural associations with colors. Different colors can have varying meanings across different demographics and cultures.
• Color Harmony: Select a harmonious combination of colors that work well together and provide visual cohesion. Consider using color theory principles such as complementary, analogous, or monochromatic color schemes.

Investing in a well-designed logo and a thoughtfully selected color scheme can enhance your brand’s recognition, establish a consistent visual identity, and leave a lasting impression on your target audience.

3. Implement Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Strategies

Enhancing your website’s visibility in search engine results is crucial for attracting organic traffic. Optimize your website using targeted keywords relevant to your industry and niche. Furthermore, conduct thorough keyword research to identify high-value keywords your target audience will likely search for. Incorporate these keywords strategically within your website’s content, meta tags, URLs, and headings to increase your chances of ranking higher in search engine results.

a. Conduct Keyword Research

Keyword research is the base of successful SEO. You’ll want to identify words you will use throughout your content that are relevant to your customers and align with your industry. Check if your target audience uses search to find what they want.

Use keyword research tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Moz Keyword Explorer.

b. Optimise On-Page Elements

On-page optimization involves optimizing various elements within your website to make it search engine-friendly and user-friendly. Pay attention to the following elements:

• Title Tags: Craft unique, concise, and keyword-rich title tags for each page. Place the primary keyword towards the beginning of the title tag to maximize its impact.
• Meta Descriptions: Write compelling meta descriptions summarising each page’s content. While meta descriptions do not directly impact rankings, they influence click-through rates (CTR) and can drive more traffic to your website.
• Headers and Subheadings: Organise your content using headers (H1, H2, H3, etc.) and subheadings to improve readability and help search engines understand the structure of your content. Incorporate relevant keywords in these headings to signal the content’s relevance.
• Then, URL Structure: Create user-friendly URLs that are concise, descriptive, and include targeted keywords. Avoid using numbers, symbols, or generic parameters in your URLs.
• Keyword Optimization: Incorporate relevant keywords naturally throughout your content, including in the opening paragraph, headings, subheadings, and body text. However, avoid keyword stuffing, as it can harm your rankings.

d. Build High-Quality Backlinks

• Earning high-quality backlinks from authoritative and relevant websites is a fundamental aspect of SEO. Backlinks act as votes of confidence and signal to search engines that your website is trustworthy and valuable.

4. Create High-Quality and Engaging Content

Content is king in the digital realm. Producing high-quality, informative, and engaging content is a powerful way to establish credibility, attract visitors, and encourage repeat visits. Develop a content strategy that aligns with your target audience’s needs and interests. Moreover, regularly publish blog posts, articles, videos, infographics, and other forms of content that offer value and keep your audience informed and entertained.

5. Build a Strong Social Media Presence

Harness the power of social media platforms to amplify your online reach and connect with your target audience. Create and maintain active profiles on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube, depending on your business type. Regularly share compelling content, engage with your followers, and foster meaningful conversations to cultivate a loyal community around your brand.

6. Leverage Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing has emerged as a potent strategy to expand your online presence and reach new audiences. Identify influential personalities, bloggers, or industry experts whose values align with your brand’s identity. Collaborate with them to create content, reviews, or endorsements highlighting your products or services. By leveraging the influence of these individuals, you can significantly boost your brand’s visibility and credibility.

7. Harness the Potential of Email Marketing

Email marketing remains a highly effective tool for nurturing leads, fostering customer loyalty, and driving conversions. Build a subscriber list by offering valuable incentives such as exclusive content, discounts, or free resources.

Craft engaging newsletters, personalized offers, and automated email sequences to deliver relevant and targeted messages to your subscribers. Segment your email list based on user preferences and behaviors to enhance the effectiveness of your campaigns.

According to oberlo.com (Email has made its way from simple messages between academics to widespread global usage. In 2022, the number of email users worldwide was forecast at 4.3 billion (Statista, 2021). This figure is set to grow to 4.6 billion in 2025, making up more than half of the expected world population.

8. Optimise for Local Search

For businesses with a physical presence, optimizing for local search is essential. Claim and optimize your business listings on prominent online directories such as Google My Business, Bing Places, and Yelp. Ensure that your business information, including name, address, phone number (NAP), and operating hours, is accurate and consistent across all platforms. Encourage satisfied customers to leave positive reviews, significantly influencing local search rankings.

9. Analyse and Adapt

Tracking and analyzing your website’s performance and user behavior is crucial to continually enhancing your online presence. Utilize analytics tools such as Google Analytics to gain insights into key metrics like website traffic, bounce rate, conversion rate, and user demographics.

Also, Identify areas of improvement, experiment with different strategies, and adapt your approach based on data-driven insights to optimize your online presence effectively.

Conclusion

In today’s digital landscape, businesses must prioritize their online presence to thrive and surpass competitors.

By following these eight essential steps – developing a user-friendly website, implementing SEO strategies, creating high-quality content, building a solid social media presence, leveraging influencer marketing, harnessing the potential of email marketing, optimizing for local search, and analyzing and adapting.

you can strengthen your online presence, attract a larger audience, and achieve sustainable business growth. Embrace these strategies and unlock the immense potential of the digital realm for your business.

Featured Image Credit: Monster; Pexels; Thank you!

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eWorldTrade is a visionary platform that aims to connect businesses and companies from around the world. It is an online b2b portal that has been serving for the past 10 years. This platform is providing reliable and quality services with cost-effective business solutions.

Joining hands with a trusted platform like eWorldTrade implies that your business is in safe hands. It provides endless benefits to its customers, buyers, sellers, suppliers, and manufacturers. To sum up, it is an all-in-one b2b platform that has proven to be the best and has become the largest marketplace in the whole world.

it is a comprehensive marketplace for all businesses can wish for. Low on budget? no worries because eWorldTrade has amazing and reliable memberships that any company can avail of according to their budget.

Working with eWorldTrade means that you get endless opportunities to work with reliable and trusted companies from around the globe. Not only do you get global exposure but it also attracts customers from every nook and corner of the world.

Entertain with Secured Business Transaction With eWorldTrade

When a company is sized around 501-1000 employees it becomes a duty to provide them with a secure and legitimate system. This is what eWorldTrade is known for. It has earned a certification of ISO 9001 in quality management and by all means it provides its customers and businesses a guaranteed security.

All the transactions are secured no matter which country you belong to, no scam will be experienced throughout the business dealings. They support various bank cards for making payment modes feasible for all local and international customers. Whether you are an importer or exporter all the business transactions are end-to-end verified and secured without leaking any confidential information.

Hence, the two-factor authentication method is utilized to confirm that it is a legitimate transaction and that it is safe from both the side; eWorldTrade and the businesses. Any company that has satisfied clients asserts the reliability of the company and that it has followed a legitimate business process.

Let’s Check eWorldTrade Reviews For Further Confirmation

The best way to know about the credibility of any company is to look for the clients’ reviews. So, let’s proceed with reviews given by the traders themselves.

eWorldTrade Review From Overseas Client

“I am a sports equipment supplier from Canada and I recently got to know about eWorldTrade, at first, I was a little scared because online business dealings are mostly scams but there was no scam during the proceeding with eWorldTrade. Fine to say that I am satisfied with my payment methods and can blindly proceed with my transactions.”

Another of the eWorldTrade Reviews

“I am Julius from North America. I recommend eWorldTrade for many reasons but secured payments are the very first thing that attracted me to this company. I cannot recall a time when I was forced to share my personal details instead all my information was kept confidential.”

Become An Authorized Partner With eWolrdTrade

Many businesses have been thriving since the day they joined eWorldTrade. Not only have they grown their businesses throughout the world but have earned in numbers. Having earned foreign exchange from multiple countries is a good sign that your company is going global.

You get the chance to market your business around multiple digital channels. You can be featured as an authorized partner by simply getting featured on eWorldTrade.com. The title itself makes a reputation and leads you to other leading companies for collaborative business.

Not just marketing but you get the training session too. Suppose you have stepped recently into the business market and have little knowledge regarding business dealing. eWorldTrade has experts that will assist you through the session. They will expose you to new opportunities that can flourish your business in remarkable ways.

eWorldTrade Reviews from Clients That Took Top-Notch Training

eWorldTrade platform has been generous enough to train businesses, it was quite surprising for me. The account manager was kind enough to guide me with the financial solutions and how I can grow my business without splurging money on unnecessary things.

More Of eWorldTrade Reviews

“Such a reliable company to work with. It was quite a surprise for me when I received a call for training. The training went well and trust me I feel so grateful to them for going out of their way to support small businesses like mine.”

Manage Your Company with Smart Tools

What more does a business want from a marketplace that helps the businesses to grow to throw advertising and marketing tools? Have a detailed insight into your sales and customers with smart tools. The analysis tool is available for business owners where they can have extensive detail of the customer data.

Buy a membership and get the chance to have a website specifically designed for your company. You do not have to run after designers to design a website for you. All you need to do is buy a suitable membership and get everything with a click.

eWorldTrade provides social media marketing, logo and brochure designing, graphic video, and Google search engine optimization all of this is just a membership away. They are providing digital services at amazing prices.

eWorldTrade Reviews from Satisfied Membership Holders

“Reasonable annual charges with endless benefits! I must say that these digital services are too expensive even to consider. I deal in gadgets and I needed my business to be known in many countries. I availed of the exclusive membership and since then my business is reaching sky-high.”

Another of the eWorldTrade Reviews

“I’m so glad to avail the digital services by eWorldTrade, it was my dream to have my own trusted website with no scams and they fulfilled my wish. All I did is got myself a golden membership. Now I get all the premium services any business would dream of.”

More of eWorldTrade Reviews

“It was my first business and was quite scared to choose a b2b platform for listing products since many other charges crazily just for a product listing. I got my hands on a platinum membership and now I can list up to 20 products without paying extra charges for the whole year.”

The post eWorldTrade Reviews – Trade with Global Buyers and Sellers for an Immaculate Journey appeared first on ReadWrite.

As the digital landscape evolves, so do the tools and strategies needed to make businesses succeed online. Search Engine Optimization itself, as a business marketing strategy, has had its ‘death’ declared so many times because it felt like it was no longer relevant. Yet, it’s still here, more strongly than before.

More so, consider the AI revolution that’s currently taking place. Does that mean you should throw away all your old tools and start using AI for everything? It would have been cool if it were that easy.

However, managing a business is not. And search engine optimization is not easy either. That’s why we have reviewed five different categories of tools that your business must invest in to hit your SEO goals and enhance your presence online. Beginner or expert, these tools will make your life easier and your results better.

Keyword Research

Paying for Google Search ads is the fastest way to appear on top of the search engine’s results for relevant queries (if you have enough money). However, the most valuable way to get to the top and remain there is by organically matching the content on your website to the most common terms searched by users.

Data from keyword research tools are organized into lists of the most common keywords relevant to your website. Hence, they are great resources for finding new content ideas, connecting with your audience, and improving traffic.

When choosing a tool for keyword research, you should be okay with free tools such as Google Trends or Google Keyword Planner. However, they each have their limitations. Google Trends is geared toward general knowledge and shows you nothing besides trendiness. Google Keyword Planner, on the other hand, lies within the Google Ads system and is geared towards paid ads, rather than organic search.

As far as free tools go, you can’t do much more than data coming from Google itself. But paid tools take you steps further with improved results, clear insights, and seamless automation. Popular paid tools such as Ahrefs and Moz sit on the high end, costing upwards of $100 for subscriptions. More affordable ones include the Eye10 Keyword Planner, which starts at $39 and includes everything you should expect from a keyword tool: ideas and suggestions, monthly search volume, difficulty level, and the ability to export results.

Analytics

Search engines have an incentive to ensure that their top search results are relevant to the user. But this is not a static process and several (hundreds of) factors come into play.

When your business relies heavily on traffic coming from search engines, you can’t help the occasional jolting feeling when the search engine updates its algorithm such that your efforts seem obsolete. At other times, your efforts are indeed obsolete and you must have been doing something wrong once you notice that your ranking and traffic have taken a hit.

The point here is that, as far as SEO goes, there is always something to improve upon. Always. And how would you know that if you don’t have the right tool to analyze what’s happening? Sometimes, the website itself is the problem; at other times, user behavior may be shifting towards what your website is not yet optimized for. Still, search algorithms may just be doing their thing and it’s affecting you negatively.

Google is, by far, the most popular search engine. So, its Search Console tool is, without a doubt, the best free tool for monitoring your site’s presence in search results. It helps you troubleshoot any issues you might have and ultimately make informed decisions to enhance your website presence.

Content Creation

Everywhere you turn, there is a proliferation of blogs, podcasts, newsletters, videos, webinars, etc. Basically, it’s the content creation revolution and there is an emerging work field of ‘creators’, professionals who apply their creativity in crafting digital content that resonates with their audience.

The most popular creators are individuals, such as MrBeast and Khaby Lame but many businesses have found themselves increasingly locked into content creation because it is a great way to market their brands. Whether it’s a blog or a newsletter, ebooks, or whitepapers, creating content is the order of the day. What you should be thinking about is how to make it better. And there is a solid toolkit for that.

For creating written content, Grammarly is the defacto spelling and grammar checker although others such as the Hemingway Editor and ProWritingAid are excellent alternatives. Canva leads in the graphic design aspect as a highly user-friendly tool for creating social media posts, videos, infographics, presentations, and much more.

Capcut, Descript, Audacity, Buzzsprout, YouTube Studio, etc. are useful for editing, preparing, and distributing your video and audio content for your audience. And any collaborative task manager or workspace tool will help you easily manage your content calendar.

Link Building

Link building is a top-three tactic for getting ahead in SEO. Over the years, Google has developed an immense capacity at detecting and penalizing websites determined to manipulate its algorithm via unethical practices such as link farming and link spamming. The best way to build links today is to earn the backlinks as well as the authority that comes with them.

Ethical link-building opportunities abound but going at it manually can be daunting and frustrating, given the tough competition in the industry. Even something as ‘simple’ as requesting a guest blogging opportunity requires that several moving parts are working without friction. First, you have to publish linkable content, then conduct outreaches, optimize your links and anchors, find broken links and unlinked brand mentions, and monitor competitors. The whole time, you still have to track the effectiveness of your link-building efforts.

As far as link building is concerned, there is no all-in-one tool. It is more likely that you’d be using a combination of various tools to achieve different purposes. For finding link opportunities, SEMrush and Ahrefs offer very useful features. Pitchbox, Buzzstream, and JustReachOut help you to reach out to and collaborate with influencers. Eye10 Backlink Monitor is great for analyzing your backlinks to determine their impact and find issues.

Social Media Management

For many customers today, especially those of the younger generation, a business that lacks a social media presence is as good as not existing. Businesses have responded likewise, by not just establishing their presence on social media but assigning whole teams to control the narrative about their business online.

But social media is not just a PR or a communications tool; it boosts your SEO too when managed strategically. For instance, sharing links to your website increases brand exposure and provides extensive content distribution. Social media might not be an element of SEO ranking, but its benefit such as enhancing your brand recognition and reputation online can contribute immensely to your website traffic.

The entire cycle of creating, publishing, and monitoring content on social media requires strategic workflows, and there are tools that would help you save time and make it less overwhelming, particularly through automation. Buffer, Hootsuite, and Sprout Social help you manage several social media accounts in one platform, including scheduling your posts and accessing comprehensive analytics data. And for building simple landing pages, Linktree is hands-down the most popular tool.

Conclusion

Staying ahead of the competition in a field like SEO takes a lot of hard work. Plus, sustainability is hardly guaranteed; one wrong turn and your website and business are sinking. But these tools can help you to stay afloat when used properly. These are the aspects of SEO you should focus the most of your attention upon.

The post 5 Must-Have Group of Tools for Every Business and SEO Specialist in 2023 appeared first on ReadWrite.

Instagram has become one of the most powerful marketing platforms for businesses to market their products and services. That’s the reason why almost all small and big businesses are now using Instagram as part of their social media marketing campaigns.

This has crowded the platform with similar types of content,  massively increasing the competition among marketers. If you have been facing the same situation, you need to change your marketing tactic. 

Instead of following the same old ways now, you need to focus on more creative ways that will help you attract more leads, boost your visibility, and increase your sales. 

After all, there’s no point wasting your time on Instagram marketing if it isn’t helping you boost your conversions. To help you out, we have come up with a few effective Instagram marketing tips that actually work for businesses. 

So let’s check out what they are. 

1. Create Visually Compelling Content

Instagram is a visual platform. So whenever you post content on this platform, you need to ensure that your posts are visually appealing. By creating visual content, you can not only gain attention from your audience but also attract more followers to your profile. 

Now the question is, how do you create visually compelling content? There are various ways of doing that. You don’t need to hire a professional photographer to make it happen. 

Just follow the best photography practices and edit your images well before posting them on Instagram. There are various tools available for it. Do your research and see which one fits your requirements to get the best results. Taking a look at its features and pricing before using it can help you understand if it can be useful for your business.

2. Create a Consistent Brand Aesthetic

Another very effective way to leverage Instagram for your business is to create a consistent brand aesthetic. Doing this is very important to help your audience differentiate your content from that of your competitors. 

By using a consistent brand aesthetic, you can not only stand out but also help your audience recognize you the moment they view your post. If you’re not sure how to get started with it, don’t worry. You can simply start using a template with your logo and brand colors for your posts. 

3. Pay Attention to the Captions

There are many marketers who don’t consider captions as an important marketing factor. If you’ve made the same mistake before, stop repeating it now. Your Instagram captions are equally important as your visuals.

They help you deliver your message more effectively and help you get better results from your marketing efforts. Your captions are also important to create awareness and attract the required attention. 

Sometimes instead of just posting an image, it can be helpful to add a catchy caption to help your audience understand the context of your post.  

4. Use Hashtags Strategically

One of the main aims behind using Instagram marketing is to boost brand awareness through increased visibility. If your posts aren’t visible to your audience, then there’s no point wasting your time and effort on creating your posts. 

By using your hashtags strategically on your posts, you can ensure that your posts are visible to a wider range of people. Hashtags help people discover your content more easily. 

When this happens more often, people start recognizing your brand. This, in turn, boosts credibility by building trust amongst your audience. As a result, your conversions increase, and your sales start increasing too. This happens because people like to buy from brands that they trust. 

By using your hashtags strategically, you can boost your visibility, create brand recognition and gain trust from your audience.  

5. Host Giveaways

If you want to increase your posts’ engagement and your Instagram followers, try hosting giveaways. Giveaways work because people love freebies and gifts. 

So when they see a brand hosting such an event, they rush in to participate with the hope of winning the prize. 

The trick is to announce a great prize. This helps you attract more participants more easily. The good news is that such events help you dramatically boost your conversions as well. For example, it helps you increase your email list. 

When people participate in the giveaway, they would definitely want to know if they have won the prize. So if you tell them that the results will be announced through email, they will surely submit their email addresses to know if they are the winner. 

Similarly, it can help you increase your followers. You can do that by asking your audience to follow you on Instagram to participate in the giveaway and know the results. 

Conclusion

Instagram marketing is super powerful in helping you boost your conversions and achieve your goals. But to be able to gain the best results, you need to know what works and what doesn’t. The above tips are just a few ways to gain good results from your marketing efforts. So do try them out now.

The post 4 Instagram Marketing Tips That Actually Work appeared first on ReadWrite.

The power of influencer marketing is multidimensional, as it simultaneously affects different aspects of brand success: exposure, reputation, audience engagement, customer loyalty, and conversions. Influencer marketing is a way to tell your company’s story to the millions simultaneously through the mouths of those who already have the ear of your target audience. Here is word-of-mouth marketing in 2020 and beyond.

There is power in social media influencers.

The power in social media is generated by influencers — individuals whose content resonates with broad audiences, impacts their lives, changes their mindset, and even affects their purchasing decisions because of their authority, knowledge, or position.

“Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make but about the stories you tell.” — Seth Godin

Influencer Marketing: What Is It and Why You Need It?

Influencer marketing is one of the most effective digital marketing tactics to enter the trust circle of potential customers. These people are an automatically loyal community since your brand is introduced to them by a person they already trust. Customer loyalty is the primary factor impacting the buying decision, particularly in times of a recession, when uncertainty toward the future is soaring in the air. That’s why it’s so crucial for companies to invest in building trust and give customers more confidence.

Influencer marketing is fueled by an ancient but still actionable word-of-mouth method. It allows you to accelerate online brand expansion by partnering with a thought leader who can be the first to start the word-of-mouth chain nourished by helpful content instead of ads. According to McKinsey, word-of-mouth marketing generates two times the sales of paid advertising. At the same time, Deloitte reports that customers acquired through word-of-mouth have a 37 percent higher retention rate than by any other means. 

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Customers come and return to a brand trusted by influencers. They are considered experts who always keep abreast of the latest industry trends and recommend something really worth attention. To drive brand growth and success, businesses should learn more about influencer marketing and actively leverage it in the digital age.

Benefits of Influencer Marketing: a New View

Influencers build friendships, not “brand” relationships

If you ask customers what kind of relationships with a brand they’d like to have, you will likely hear about something similar to friendship. People want to feel appreciated and know that brands care about selling and empowering and inspiring them. Influencer marketing is the key to building human connections between a brand and its target audience. 

Interacting with a brand through a prism of the influencer’s positive feedback, customers feel more value in what the brand does and creates. They start associating its products and services with authoritativeness and reliability as they are recommended by the leading niche experts, aka thought leaders. Influencer marketing transits brand-customer relationships to a more personal level and makes them friends.

It allows you to discover what resonates with your customers.

When partnering with influencers, you can explore what types of content, messages, and visuals work best with your target audience. Influencer marketing allows you to promote your brand and conduct “field studies” on the influencer’s social media pages, investigate how they are interacting with potential customers, and what drives audience engagement. 

By monitoring and analyzing influencer-audience relationships, you can learn more about your customers, define better strategies for your future marketing campaigns, and improve products.

It helps provide anticipated WOW & emotion-driven engagement.

Leveraging the benefits of influencer marketing, you can introduce your brand engagingly and creatively. Influencers are mostly driven by creativity, curiosity about getting new experiences, and desire to bring value to their followers. They invest time and effort in producing highly engaging content that targets people who might be your potential customers. 

Making your brand intro a part of the influencer’s amazing content, you significantly raise chances of making the WOW effect, creating an unforgettable first impression, and driving continuous customer engagement. It helps provoke the person’s thoughts about a product and forths the first emotional interaction with it. 

Companies should care about creating emotional bonds with a target audience because they are fertile soil for growing customer loyalty. Consumer loyalty is a significant business value since it helps smooth sharp edges of customer experience and keeps conversions up. When emotional connections are damaged, rational (or even critical) thinking rears up again, and it may negatively impact sales in the future.

It promotes a brand through useful content instead of ads.

People trust advertising much less than before. On the contrary, word of mouth still is relevant and actionable even today. The sunrise of new digital innovations has just given it a new boost. Today, most of our words are digital and can spread at wind speed across the web. You can add your brand more significance and amplify word of mouth arising around it by producing quality content that inspires people and helps them tackle the most actual problems. 

At the same time, you can also save time on content production and reach a new audience with the help of influencer marketing. Influencers may endorse your brand and introduce it to their followers, involving your brand information in their own content. 

It is a highly cost-effective digital marketing channel.

Social media influencer marketing is becoming one of the most actionable digital marketing channels, even if compared to email marketing, paid search, display advertising, and affiliate marketing. According to Convince & Convert, 22% of digital marketing managers find influencer marketing the most cost-effective customer acquisition channel. As reported in a study conducted by Tomoson, influencer marketing brings a $6.50 return on investment for every dollar spent.

Is Influencer Marketing Worth It? 

Influencer marketing is a goldmine that may help companies keep the target audience’s attention in the highly competitive digital world. Is it worth investing in? Only you can answer it for sure. However, before you do it, just look through the above-mentioned values arising when someone influential talks about your brand once again. 

A successful collaboration with thought leaders can help you increase brand awareness, conquer the hearts of a new audience, gain its loyalty, grow brand popularity, and multiply revenue. It’s a powerful machine producing new, exciting human-brand interactions bringing plenty of benefits for both of them.

The post Word-of-Mouth Marketing in 2023: The Power of Social Media Influencers appeared first on ReadWrite.

In an age that everything goes viral on social media within a few hours, disinformation and black propaganda is the last thing that a business needs. An unhappy customer, competitors, or even foreign government-affiliated attackers can be the director of a wide-scale disinformation campaign.

Big brands are usually the common targets of disinformation campaigns due to clickbait purposes.

In addition to the reputation, the bigger brands need to be concerned about fake news impressions on the stock market. According to the survey by CHEQ, fake news costs the stock market $39 billion annually and $78 billion for the global economy.

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You can’t expect regular users to look for the originality of news or video that they watch on social media. They believe what they see. It is a fact that social media users these days are too bored to seek the originality of what they see. Therefore, it is the responsibility of a business to protect its customers from being exposed to disinformation campaigns.

Disinformation campaigns can take different forms. They can be deep fake videos, sharing a tweet with false information at a large scale, or blog posts trying to tarnish a business’s reputation.

In every media these show up in, individuals and companies need to be well prepared and not be confused. Here are some proven and effective ways to confront disinformation campaigns that target businesses.

1. Be prepared for any scenario

When dealing with disinformation campaigns, always remember that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. If your business is not exposed to disinformation yet, it doesn’t create any safe zone for you against future endeavors.

Every business needs an “Emergency Response Strategy” when the reputation and identity are in danger, and customers are overwhelmed with a bunch of false information like worst buying experiences and defamation.

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Teams in different departments should be involved in the development and implementation of this Emergency Response Strategy strategy.

The roles and responsibilities of each team must be clear to prevent confusion in response. Bafflement helps the attackers to multiply the impression of their disinformation. So just stay calm and try to lead and manage the situation appropriately.

Social Listening

One good way to prevent the situation from getting out of control and limiting the spread of false information is to strengthen social listening. Social listening has been initially a part of marketing programs, but it is also essential to oversee the information shared on social media about your brand in disinformation campaigns.

2. Engage and communicate

When it comes to tackling disinformation campaigns, engagement and communication are key. Attackers are trying to create a toxic atmosphere around the brand by spreading false information to change people’s mindsets. Let’s think of this as a battle between good and evil.

Spread the correct news with your audience.

The evil tactic is focused on sharing false information, and you can thwart this tactic by spreading the right news and engaging with your audience. The infantry of the brand goes through different platforms and starts sharing information that is the opposite of what the attackers insist is true.

Address your audience directly — tell the truth of the situation.

Address your audience directly and tell them what is happening. Engagement helps to reduce the effectiveness of disinformation campaigns. Use the verified accounts in social media to respond to the misinformation to ensure the users that the response is coming directly from the brand.

Starbucks’s response to the news of “Dreamer Day” Campaign on Twitter is a good example of answering directly from the brand.

Shortly after the news broke, Starbucks actively warned its users on Twitter about the campaign, saying it is a hoax. This is how to take care of your customers.

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3. Take legal actions

The last thing you can do is to take legal actions against the source of disinformation campaigns and the people circulating those fake news on social media. The company’s legal team can file a complaint on local courts and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Requesting platforms to remove fake news is another option on the table.

Some platforms like Facebook and Twitter have taken positive steps to counter fake news and pursue stricter policies. However, brands can directly ask social media to remove fake and false information.

Image Credit: joshua miranda; pexels

The post 3 Ways Businesses Can Tackle Disinformation Campaigns appeared first on ReadWrite.

To help you create a powerful brand identity for your business, we asked founders, CEOs, and marketing professionals for their best advice. From personifying your brand to determining your unique value proposition, here are the top 10 tips shared by these experts on developing a strong brand identity.

• Personify Your Brand
• Choose a Searchable Name
• Cultivate an Internal Brand Culture
• Find a Name That Fits
• Invest in Consumer Research
• Create a Brand Style Guide
• Prioritize Your Audience
• Avoid Sending Mixed Messages
• Define Brand Values and Personality
• Determine Your Unique Value Proposition

Personify Your Brand

For creating a brand identity, one valuable tip I swear by is to personify your brand. It may sound silly, but asking questions like “How does my brand like its coffee?” can unveil important insights about how your brand would engage with your target audience.

By giving your brand a personality, you make it more relatable and approachable. This helps your customers connect with your brand and makes it easier for you to identify and resonate with your ideal audience. So, ‌infuse your brand with a unique personality that leaves a lasting impression!

Choose a Searchable Name

Make sure your company name is searchable. Our company, Handwrytten, is a brand and is searchable thanks to its unique spelling. But if we were “Handwritten,” it would be much harder to find news postings, blogs, and other media that mention us.

David Wachs, Founder and CEO, Handwrytten

Cultivate an Internal Brand Culture

One fundamental step in creating a powerful brand identity is to build a unified internal brand culture. This involves cultivating an environment where all employees understand, embody, and advocate for your brand’s values and vision with passion.

Effective internal brand culture makes every team member a brand ambassador, leading to a consistent representation of your brand in every interaction, both internally and externally. This helps to ensure a consistent brand message and improves employee engagement and performance.

Kevin Hall, Marketing Operations, Webserv

Find a Name That Fits

Create a name that sets the tone for your company. Make sure it’s not prosaic or something snazzy for the sake of being snazzy. You’re not naming a garage band. You’re giving your company a name.

“We call ourselves Patriot Coolers because we sell top-brand coolers and drinkware for the outdoor enthusiast, but also because we donate proceeds of our sales to Homes for Our Troops.”

We donate to a nonprofit that provides housing for wounded military veterans. Patriot Coolers fit us like a glove. That’s what you should go after. Find a name that fits your brand like a glove.

Marcus Hutsen, Business Development Manager, Patriot Coolers

Invest in Consumer Research

Every brand wants to have a stronger brand identity. Still, few will invest money in order to find out where their current brand identity stands. Even fewer will invest in changes to their branding to determine the impact it will have on their future brand identity.

Every brand that cares about its company’s future should invest in consumer research to determine where it can improve its brand identity.

Jason Vaught, Director of Content, SmashBrand

Create a Brand Style Guide

A brand style guide is a document that takes the guesswork out of how your business should be portrayed within your marketing. It should include your core values, logo variants, logo usage guidelines, font system, color palette, photography treatment, iconography, patterns, textures, mockups of the branding in action, and social media templates.

When the brand identity elements within the style guide are created with a strategic approach, the business will attract its ideal clients with ease.

This guide helps to ensure that the business’s visuals and messaging will look consistent across its promotions. It’s an asset that can be distributed to team members for internal marketing initiatives and/or outside of the business for external project collaborations.

Megan Gersch, Owner and CEO

Prioritize Your Audience

Understand the audience you are targeting in great detail if you want to create an appealing brand identity. Understand their needs, goals, and discomforts. Make use of market research to help you create a memorable brand identity.

Different client groups might receive customized experiences thanks to segmentation. Visuals become a potent language when you carefully choose your fonts, colors, and artwork. The voice and tone of your brand must be genuine and consistent. Create a voice that matches the language and principles of your audience.

By putting your audience first, you can establish a connection that fosters loyalty and long-lasting bonds. Make a lasting impression on the hearts and minds of the people who matter most to your company.

Jay Kingman, Owner, Aniko Branding

Avoid Sending Mixed Messages

While developing a strong brand identity, avoid sending mixed messages to your customers. Clearly define what you want to convey and use language and visuals that resonate with your target audience. Just because something makes sense to you doesn’t mean it will be easily understood by your customers.

Resist the temptation to imitate your competitors. Even if they have successful branding, copying them won’t make your brand stand out. Instead, analyze their approach and add your own unique twist to differentiate yourself within your industry.

Maintain consistency between your online and offline presence. While there may be slight variations in your print materials and online platforms, ensure that your colors, typography, theme, and message remain consistent.

This helps build a cohesive and recognizable brand. Avoid blindly following trends that don’t align with your brand’s essence. Stay true to your brand’s original vision and iterate upon it.

Luke Cheetham, Founder, uRisk Legionella Testing

Define Brand Values and Personality

One tip for developing a solid brand identity for your business is clearly defining your brand’s values and personality.

Think about what your brand stands for, what sets it apart from competitors, and what kind of emotional response you want to elicit from customers. This can involve creating a mission statement, developing a brand voice and tone, and identifying key brand attributes you want to communicate through your marketing and messaging.

By clearly defining your brand’s values and personality, you can create a consistent and memorable brand identity that resonates with customers and helps differentiate your business in a crowded market.

Brad Cummins, Founder, Insurance Geek

Determine Your Unique Value Proposition

Developing a strong brand identity for your business requires careful consideration and planning. One crucial tip or step to take is to define your brand’s unique value proposition.

Defining a brand’s unique value proposition involves understanding and articulating its distinct benefits. You can do this by following these steps:

1) Identify the target audience and their needs.

2) Research competition to find gaps.

3) Determine the brand’s specific benefits.

4) Identify differentiators.

5) Craft a clear value proposition statement.

6) Ensure consistent communication across touchpoints.

7) Continuously refine based on feedback and goals. Align it with the brand mission, values, and positioning.

Published First on GRIT DAILY. Read Here.

Featured Image Credit: Photo by JD Danny; Pexels; Thank you!

The post How to Develop a Strong Brand Identity for Your Business? appeared first on ReadWrite.

YouTube is the second largest search engine, and Facebook’s algorithms increasingly favor video content. If you’re not posting video to these platforms (and others) regularly, you’re likely missing out on traffic and sales. Remember you can entertain while you educate. Here are the dos and don’ts of brand awareness videos.

Creating a brand awareness video is trickier than writing a blog.

An ill-thought-out video can go viral for the wrong reasons or simply be ignored. So how do you steer clear of bad or boring videos? Here are a few do and don’ts to help keep your videos relevant and entertaining, and your view counts high.

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 Do: Use Humor, Parody, and Pop Culture References

Since the dawn of advertising, brands have used humor to get their message across. Online, cutting through the noise is even more vital, so effectively using humor is an excellent strategy.

One way to use humor is to parody other brands, pop culture icons, or other popular video formats. Dollar Shave Club used this strategy in 2012 and racked up millions of views by parodying explainer videos.

Then, The Beard Club (formerly Dollar Beard Club) piggybacked on the original with this parody of a parody. Both videos also gently lampoon the exaggerated manliness that is commonly used to advertise men’s products like razors or deodorant while simultaneously conveying the benefits of their product through a knowing wink.

Mattress protectors are a pretty dull topic, but this video from Purple featuring a family of Bigfoots is an excellent example of how humor can turn even the driest information into something entertaining. The script is perfectly paced, balancing out hilarious one-liners with important facts about the product.

Don’t: Rely Too Heavily on Gimmicks

Video from ShipServ is a prime example of relying on a weak concept (sorry, ShipServ). It uses stop motion animation with Lego figures to explain how their online marketplace works. It’s a cute gimmick, but after a few seconds, it gets old.

While a clever gimmick can be enough on its own to get the audience’s attention, beyond the Lego figures, ShipServ made minimal effort to draw their viewers in beyond using animation.

The message they are trying to convey, that ShipServ is a cheap and effective way for maritime businesses to advertise, gets lost.

Do: Use Subcultural Knowledge to Let Your Audience Know You “Get Them”

Rockwell Automation’s Retro Encabulator video from 1997 takes an engineering in-joke about technical jargon and transforms it into a masterful parody of corporate videos. By knowing their audience, Rockwell was able to create a cult hit that is still remembered fondly (along with their brand name) 20 years later.

Don’t: Make Things Too Complicated

Remember, you’re trying to communicate something memorable to your audience. While it’s desirable to throw in unexpected elements, always ensure that the message you are trying to communicate comes through clearly. Although this Stella Artois commercial features Matt Damon and an important issue, the message gets lost due to some clunky math at the end.

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Do: Use Popular Formats That People Understand, Like Documentary

Video content doesn’t always have to be funny or over the top. Sometimes, presenting informative content via a format that people understand can also work, as in this video from Income Store.

Don’t: Be Amateurish

 Producing video content doesn’t have to be expensive. If you’re game, you can even try your hand at producing it in-house. An excellent way to ensure you don’t create something embarrassing is to run your concepts, scripts, or rough cuts by your customers first and see how they react. That’s one way to avoid producing shockingly amateurish and un-self-aware videos like this one from Fred and Sharon’s Movies, which went viral for all the wrong reasons.

Do: Use Controversy and “Out of the Box Concepts” to Get Attention

Underwear brands have always thrived on controversy, but Culprit Underwear takes things to the next level with sex, exploitation, and over-the-top aesthetics in an outrageous video that is sure to shock and offend while it educates.

Brands are often afraid to take risks with their ads, but controversy can help you cut through the noise and reach your intended audience in a crowded marketplace, especially if your competitors are playing it safe.

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It also helped in this case that the creative agency wanting to take the risks was sister company Culprit Creative.

Don’t: Be Boring

Consumers have so many options for consuming content on the web that the biggest crime of all is simply being boring. If you had a choice between clicking on a safe, sanitized message from a brand, or something that might make you laugh, cry, or even outrage you, which one would you choose?

It probably wouldn’t be this mediocre video from Ernst & Young, that’s for sure:

Next time you are creating a brand video, put a little thought into it before you start. Are you playing it too safe? Is your concept too bland or amateurish?

What’s the best way to communicate your message to the audience? It may mean the difference between a lifetime of brand recognition and merely blending in with the crowd.

The post The Dos and Don’ts of Brand Awareness Videos appeared first on ReadWrite.

We’ve long been aware of gaming’s transition from pastime to multi-billion-dollar industry but 2020 has seen the live-streaming community grow tenfold. In October 2020, 1.6 billion hours were watched across Amazon-owned gaming platform Twitch, the highest the platform has ever seen, and almost double the 839 million hours watched in October 2019.

What Brands Should Know About Twitch Influencers

Despite providing businesses with reach to huge audiences and unique insight into their target consumers’ thoughts and behaviors, Twitch remains a relatively under-utilized advertising platform. But for those brands willing to spend the time recruiting the right Twitch influencers and finding creative ways to communicate with their audience, there is much to gain.

On Twitch, typically hard-to-reach audiences (think males aged 21-35) are highly engaged and brand-loyal, making them a goldmine for advertisers, while increasing diversification in the gaming sector allows for brands to target the right people with the right message.

What is Twitch?

Launched in 2011 and bought by Amazon in 2014, Twitch is the world’s leading live-streaming platform for gamers. The property builds communities based on users’ shared streaming interests. Twitch users broadcast their live gameplay by sharing their screens with subscribers. This allows them to see and hear what the player is experiencing in real-time.

As viewers watch Twitch streams they are able to comment alongside other gamers. Depending on what channel they are watching, viewers can ask questions or make suggestions and receive real-time responses. Streams are automatically saved by Twitch, which affords subscribers the option to rewatch previously streamed games. Viewers communicate with one another through Twitch chat.

In short, the platform combines engaging video content and live-action viewing with the interactivity and community of social media.

Does Twitch Cost to Use?

Twitch is free to join. Users can view and stream content for free, as well as follow favorite streamers. However, many users pay for monthly subscriptions to their favorite streamers. This gives them a variety of premium perks such as special emoticons (called emotes) to use in a stream’s chat room, badges, special alerts, exclusive chat rooms and competitions, and ad-free viewing optionality.

These subscriptions also benefit the streamer and are one of the popular ways to make money on Twitch. Twitch offers three payment tiers ($4.99, $9.99, $24.99). Twitch partners and affiliates are officially receiving 50% of the total subscription fee.

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How Twitch Viewership Grew Due to the Pandemic

Due to COVID-19 lockdown restrictions and changes in consumer behaviors, live-streaming boomed in 2020. With work, relationships, and events forced to move online, many who had never experienced or had limited experience with live-streaming platforms such as Zoom were suddenly using them for hours each day.

Online streaming and gaming platforms have surged in popularity as people turn to them for entertainment during home confinement. Twitch has benefited greatly from the trend: the platform’s record-breaking viewership last October represented a staggering 99% jump in year-over-year growth for the platform.

Interestingly, the record number of hours saw a shift in how Twitch is being used. The platform’s ‘Just Chatting’ section is now likely to be its most popular destination of the year, according to Doron Nir, CEO of StreamElements, a provider of live-streaming tools.

Talking to Forbes in November 2020, Nir credited the growth in Twitch’s non-gaming category to the wide-spanning interests of gaming communities and cited the U.S. presidential campaign as a conversation booster.

What Opportunities Does it Open for Brands?

Despite being geared towards gamers, Twitch also features a large variety of non-gaming content. The platform hosts live and recorded broadcasts on subjects such as music, sport, and cooking. It is apparent that a growing number of people are discovering their own use for Twitch; whether for escapism, socializing, or entertainment.

Instagram may be the birthplace of the influencer, but this year’s events have resulted in a significant drop in sponsored content on the platform. According to a report by Launchmetrics, sponsored influencer posts on Instagram decreased from 35% in mid-February to 4% in mid-April, with influencers within the categories of travel, fashion, and lifestyle most affected.

However, 2020 saw an increased interest in gaming, fitness, education, and DIY tutorial content, which prompted an uptick in brand collaborations on Twitch. There was also a noticeable increase in video performance, with the leading campaigns delivering an average of more than one million views.

According to Twitch research, Twitch users are more likely to seek expert opinions before buying expensive products. They tend to buy products they see advertised, making the platform a highly beneficial place for brands to advertise.

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Who are the Influencers on Twitch?

Twitch influencers are different to that of Instagram or other social media platforms. They offer their subscribers live entertainment, rather than pre-recorded video or static images.

Twitch influencers are streamers with an engaged audience that can interact with them in real-time.

For brands, this functionality allows for live feedback from potential customers. It also gives them the chance to get to know their target clientele in a real-life setting. For subscribers, it fuels interest and promotes conversation in an organic, authentic way with the audience playing a role in the creation of the sponsored content. 

Unlike celebrities who often shy away from interacting with fans, gaming’s biggest names actively seek out interaction with audiences. And subscribers are happy to pay money for this service if they feel the interaction is genuine. 

Streamers can make a million-dollar career out of gaming, with data showing the five top-earning streamers on Twitch earning seven-figure incomes.

The website’s highest-earner in 2020 was Felix ‘xQc’ Lengyel, an ex-pro Overwatch player. Lengyel boasts more than four million followers on the app. And he brought in more than $1.8 million USD (with more than $1.5 million of that coming purely from subscriptions to his channel alone). 

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Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins, perhaps the gaming world’s most recognized profile, was omitted from Twitch’s list of top 10 Twitch earners for 2020 after spending much of 2020 exclusively streaming on Microsoft’s ill-fated streaming platform Mixer before it shut down. Now back streaming on Twitch to his 16.5 million subscribers, Blevins will undoubtedly top the 2021 list. 

When choosing an influencer to partner with, brands should consider both a gamer’s follower count and engagement rate. Brands may yield better results from partnering with a micro-influencer with a hyper-engaged audience. 

How Twitch Influencers can Boost a Game’s Playership 

Twitch influencers have proven to be able to establish, grow and command huge followings. Also, they can have a significant impact on the sales of products within the gaming industry. The success of a video game marketing campaign heavily relies on gaming influencers. 

In February 2020, Electronic Arts in cooperation with Respawn Entertainment released its new game Apex: Legends. And made $92 million within a month. This was despite not doing anything to promote the game prior to its launch and the game being for free. Users only paid for extra features and additional equipment for characters. 

So, how did the game amass such a huge following? 

Electronic Arts enlisted Ninja to play the game for 14 days and tweet about it. It’s reported that as a result, the game received 10 million sign-ups in the first three days of streaming. Neither Ninja nor Electronic Arts confirm how much money Ninja received for the endorsement. But Reuters reports he earned $1 million for it. The influencer play also saw EA’s stock price and market value rise by 16%, or $4 billion, in the three days after Apex: Legends launched. 

Twitch Marketing isn’t Just for Gaming Brands 

As the gaming world continues to grow and diversify. Non-endemic brands are getting in on the action, including those in the beauty and fashion categories. Large brands such as Hollister and Gillette now have dedicated marketing dollars to Twitch. Labeled a ‘virus-proof job’ by The New Yorker, pro video game streamers are an appealing investment for brands right now facing unprecedented challenges. 

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MAC Cosmetics began sending products to Twitch influencers in 2019 in hopes of audiences asking them what makeup they were wearing. The same year the brand released a product collaboration in Asia of five lipsticks inspired by the female characters from the video game Strike of Kings. The collection sold out in less than a week online, and all units on Tmall sold out in one hour. 

How can Brands Partner with Twitch Streamers? 

While some brands have established a presence on Twitch—some via their own Twitch channel—Twitch marketing remains in its infancy. For brands looking to begin advertising on the platform, there is plenty of time to get creative and see how Twitch can benefit their business. 

Perhaps the most obvious way for a brand to gain a presence, gaming tournaments and esports afford businesses an opportunity to engage with their consumers. Twitch’s demographic skews to the younger side (73% of the platform’s users are 34 years or under, with 41% between 16 and 24 years), making it an ideal place for brands targeting Gen-Z and millennial audiences. 

Businesses can also host exclusive branded digital events. Music festivals and game shows give them access to large, built-in audiences. With tutorial content gaining increased interest in 2020, many brands are showcasing themselves (or their product) via live-streamed ‘how-to’ classes. Round tables have also proven to generate engagement while being low-cost. An example of this was Bernie Sanders’ Twitch marketing strategy, which saw him conduct interviews and host rallies during the primary season. 

Twitch is trying to reward streamers who are really engaging with their audience. This is good news for brands looking to implement Twitch influencer marketing. There are plenty of types of promotions influencers can participate in when partnered with a brand. Be it live unboxing, shoutouts, stream mentions, giveaways, brand merch, promo codes, or live chats. It’s worth noting that audiences best respond to authentic messaging. 

Partnering with Twitch Influencers is a Winning Strategy

Interestingly, 2020 saw brands adjust their marketing strategies to accommodate for consumer value changes, with campaigns focusing on feel-good or socially relevant content. Many brands are choosing to frame content in a way that is fresh and relevant to their audience (e.g. productivity hacks, brain-boosting snacks) and spread awareness about COVID-19 health warnings and recommendations. 

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Despite decreases in digital marketing budgets, a number of brands have either kept or increased spend allocation for influencers. As Twitch continues to grow its audience, and sponsored content continues to generate more views and more engagement, Twitch influencer marketing is proving a winning formula. 

How to Approach Twitch Influencer Marketing 

Your choice of Twitch influencer will depend on your brand goal. If you’re looking to boost brand awareness, partnering with a Twitch influencer with a large following is your best bet. If you’re wanting to increase sign-ups, you’ll instead want to enlist an influencer who has a record of driving good click-through rates. 

Select a Twitch influencer based on your target audience. Demographics are key when establishing an engaged and loyal customer base. Therefore, aligning with the right influencer can help you to reach the most beneficial viewers. 

The most important part of Twitch influencer marketing is analyzing how your partnership went. Was it successful? Were your goals met? This will help your brand to fine-tune its Twitch marketing strategy. 

All in all, live-streaming could help you unlock a new way of generating interest and revenue for your brand. And if Twitch’s growth rates are any indication of what’s to come, brands ignoring the opportunities of live-streaming advertising are most likely to be left behind. 

Top Image Credit: caspar camille rubin; unsplash; thank you!

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Business leaders and marketers across all industries want nothing more than to connect with their readers and grow their brands. However, they face many challenges along the way. One of the biggest hurdles is convincing users to invest in a product or service. The simplified solution is to build engaging product landing pages.

The thing is, not all landing pages are created equal. You have to know how and when to connect with customers if you want to find success.

Technology has changed the digital marketing landscape forever. We now have more ways than ever before to communicate company and product benefits. Marketers can improve on-site engagement and sales when they use the tools they have at their disposal.

Now, let’s dive in and look at several actionable ways you can use tech to create high-converting product landing pages.

Show Relevant Lead Magnets

Lead magnets are one of the best things you can do with your product landing page. Simply put, these are exclusive content and offers designed to generate leads and provide value to readers.

Common examples of lead magnets include:

• Discounts
• Case Studies
• Infographics
• Event Invitations

These offers are crucial for improving conversions because, on average, 40-70% of qualified leads are not ready to buy. If a customer leaves without interacting with your brand in a meaningful way, they will likely forget it exists.

On the other hand, if a user joins your email list, you have a direct line to stay in touch and build rapport through lead nurturing.

The key to getting people to click a lead magnet is to offer something the reader will find valuable. This concept will vary based on the intended audience. Segmenting visitors based on their unique interests, goals, and pain points can help you come up with inventive and effective lead magnets.

There are plenty of different lead-generation plugins that allow users to create attractive and engaging offers for product landing pages.

Make Mobile-Friendly Product Landing Pages

Google has made it clear that they want business leaders to optimize their websites for mobile. When you consider that over 68% (smachballoon dotcom) of the global population owns a mobile device, this shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Online shoppers use smartphones and tablets to engage with brands, read reviews, and shop. Mobile apps are on the rise that allows consumers to do all of this and more. If your website or app, including your landing pages, is not optimized for mobile, you could miss out on significant traffic and clicks.

There are many ways to ensure your site is ready for mobile users. Here are a few tips to keep in mind:

• Use a landing page builder that comes with mobile templates.
• Reduce the size of images and host videos off-site for faster loading times.
• Make sure buttons and navigation work with handheld devices.
• Test your product landing page with multiple operating systems and devices.

You’ll find that putting smartphone users first in terms of page design and functionality can lead to a tremendous boost in conversions.

Optimize for Voice Search

While we are on the topic of mobile devices, let’s talk about voice search. Did you know that around 30% (pushengage dot com) of all searches were conducted without a screen last year? In other words, people use smart speaker devices or voice assistant apps on their smartphones and computers to search for websites, information, and products.

Websites not optimized for what a customer might say have a slim chance of appearing in the results for these types of searches. The good news is you can start making changes today to make your landing pages voice search-friendly.

We suggest including FAQs at the bottom of each product page. This seemingly small addition can significantly impact how people engage with your brand.

At face value, an FAQ section answers vital questions asked by your target audience. The option to see these questions and answers can guide users and help them determine if your product or service is right for them.

Behind the scenes, FAQs can help build your search presence, particularly when it comes to voice search. When someone uses voice search, they typically ask a question. If your landing page answers their inquiry in a concise and accurate way, Google may relay the answer you provided to the user.

You can also appear in the featured snippets at the top of Google for specific keyword searches. It’s worth mentioning that over 40% of voice results come from featured snippets.

It’s also a good idea to add schema markup to your website. Schema markup is behind-the-scenes code that allows Google to better understand your intent. Marketers use this SEO strategy to inform Google about product availability, prices, and more.

The bottom line is this; if you want to attract more visitors to your landing page, even if they aren’t using a screen, voice search optimization is a must.

Focus on User Benefits

A fundamental mistake many business owners make when designing their product landing pages is they spend too much time focusing on features instead of benefits. The two ideas are similar but differ in one important way.

Features are what your products can do. Benefits describe how features will ultimately help the end user. For example, a social media marketing plugin might promote a feature called a social wall. Most potential customers, even those skilled in social media marketing, will wonder exactly what they mean and why they should care.

Now, imagine if, instead of promoting a social wall feature, the company stated that this feature allows people to share all of their social media feeds in one place, which can boost brand awareness.

The second description is more detailed and explicitly tells users how they will benefit from this feature.

When designing your product landing pages, keep your customers’ needs in mind. Instead of writing a bullet list of features like you’re in an investor call, spend some time thinking about your product from your customer’s eyes. Write benefit-oriented descriptions, and people are far more likely to engage with your business.

Show Social Proof

Social proof is an excellent way to improve your landing page conversion rate. If you’re unfamiliar with the concept, social proof is a psychological phenomenon that causes people to do things based on other people’s experiences. We all tend to trust people and businesses that are respected by others.

The most common type of proof is user reviews. Think about the last time you bought something from Amazon. There’s a good chance you scrolled to the bottom of the page to learn what other people thought of the product.

If you saw only 1-star reviews, you likely decided to pass and look for a similar product with better reviews. Similarly, a bunch of 5-star reviews may have prompted you to place an order.

Research shows that user reviews and other types of social proof can have a noticeable impact on conversions. In fact, surveys suggest that 83% (trustpulse dotcom) of people trust customer reviews over traditional advertising.

There are two primary ways to add reviews to your landing page. The first method involves placing an open-ended review form on your page, just like Amazon. Customers can review your products, and future visitors can see how others feel about your brand.

The other way to show reviews is to pull positive feedback from social media and surveys. You could include a section on the product page that reads, “see what others think of (product)!” A few glowing reviews can turn a prospect who is on the fence into a happy, paying customer.

You can also use live sales notifications and trust seals to capture visitors’ attention and convince them to take action.

Split Test Product Landing Pages

Much like the rest of your website, your product landing pages need to evolve with the needs of your customers. Split tests are a great way to experiment with new ideas and improve clicks.

Split tests, also known as A/B tests, involve changing a page, email, or social media marketing campaign for 50% of your audience. These changes can be subtle, like switching the verbiage on a call-to-action, or they can be something more noticeable, like a complete color swap.

The objective of split testing is to see which version of the page leads to more clicks and sales.

Let’s say a marketing team decides to test their call-to-action by changing “subscribe now”  to “subscribe and save.” After enough time has passed – we suggest two weeks to a month for each test – they look at the results.

If the subscribe and save option saw significantly more clicks, the team may use this new call-to-action on pages they want to improve.

It’s possible to test many different aspects of your pages, but it’s worth mentioning that tracking one test per page is the best option. Multiple tests make it hard to determine what led to better (or worse) results.

Final Thoughts

Online businesses need product landing pages to generate leads, sales, and interest in their brand. Every industry is different, so it’s always a good idea to introduce new strategies slowly so you can figure out what works.

The tips presented today will help steer your product landing page in the right direction. The tools and resources you need to improve performance and connect with more customers are out there. The only thing left to do is get started.

Featured Image Credit: Provided by the Author; Thank you!

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What is the first strategy in a marketer’s mind when they need to increase their brand visibility online?

Most brands use the same toolkit:

PPC ad campaigns for landing pages, SEO for higher rankings from search engines, and targeted ads on social media. They have one goal: more sales right here and now.

But such an approach may lead to a dead end, even if your budget is high and your marketing campaigns are of high quality. The pitfall here is a customer’s path to your desired action: It may differ from what you think.

If you take a standard sales funnel as an example, the path will look like this:

The people at the top level don’t even know your brand exists, so it’s not a good idea to offer to buy something right away.

What to do?

Use all alternative promotion channels. It is critical to boost visibility where most of your targets are active and to build a positive brand reputation there.

Below you’ll find 13 such channels to consider. Choose the most relevant to your niche and brand identity — and your target audience will see you.

13 Channels to Consider for Your Brand Visibility Boost

1 — Content marketing

It sounds like a cliche, but the content is still king. And it will continue to be king in 2023. With that in mind, it’s worth focusing on content marketing campaigns: They are among the most compelling instruments to influence brand visibility online.

Consider guest blogging on niche media and publications at third-party resources like relevant Q&A forums (Quora, for example), online newspapers, and article directories. Free resources like Medium, Reddit, SlideShare, and LinkedIn are great for content syndication:

Not only will they make your brand more visible, but they can also bring you natural backlinks, more traffic, and, as a result, higher rankings in SERPs (again, for better visibility).

For this strategy to work, ensure you craft high-quality, informative content relevant to your brand goals and target audience needs.

2 — Social media

Your brand’s presence on social media goes far beyond sales. First and foremost, it’s about providing the followers with handy information that answers their questions and helps them solve daily problems.

Look at big brands:

Do their social media accounts sell 24/7? They don’t; otherwise, users wouldn’t subscribe to them. Instead, big brands use social media channels to remind about themselves: They post educational and helpful information, organize contests, communicate with the audience, share news and perks for clients, engage with quizzes, etc.

Source

All these allow them to engage a broader audience, promote brand authenticity, and build trust. Plus, branded visual content on social media works to increase brand visibility online:

When your custom (branded) content is appropriate and instrumental, users are more likely to save and share it, thus boosting your brand awareness in their social environment.

3 — PPC ads

Yes, PPC ads attract users who come to Google with a transactional search intent, i.e., when they want to purchase, download something, start a trial, etc. However, PPC ads you create via Google Display Network also work to build your brand awareness:

While users who see your ads on websites don’t intend to buy right now, they will notice you anyway and may think of your brand the next time they need corresponding information.

Big brands often use PPC ads to attract users’ attention to new products or discounts.

4 — Media ads

Known as web page banners, such ads work like billboards on roads: The main goal is to grab a user’s attention and make a brand more visible. To reach as many websites as possible, marketers advertise through specialized networks. (Google also has one.)

The only problem here may be such a long-known web user behavior as banner blindness:

People tend to ignore page elements they perceive to be ads. Plus, competition is super high: Big chances are that your media ads will sink in the crowd of other ads, and users won’t notice them.

So, ensure this channel will work in your particular case; otherwise, it’s worth considering some more native ads instead.

5 — SEO

Higher rankings in search engines are a giant step toward increased brand visibility. The higher, the better: As we all know, users pay much attention to the top 3-5 results in SERPs and don’t care about lower positions; websites that win Google Snippets and the tops of SERPs get more loyalty and trust from searchers.

Long story short, search engine optimization does matter for visibility.

So, do your best to craft high-quality SEO content satisfying informational search intent. It is much more effective in the long run than short-term SEO manipulations some specialists still practice in the hope of fast results.

6 — Influencer marketing

You know the rules:

Collaborate with popular YouTubers and Instagrammers whose audience relates to yours. As a rule, their followers are super loyal and engaged, so the promo of your products or services on their channels will influence your brand visibility greatly.

Source

7 — Interactive content

Contests, flashmobs, challenges, sales — such content are super engaging, and users enjoy participating and, thus, promoting your brand to a broader audience. Brands often use interactive content on social media when they need to represent a new product to the market, and they also invite influencers to such campaigns.

You can make up any contest or challenge you want. The main thing is to mention your brand name or product and decide on the award to motivate the audience to participate. Also, it’s critical to craft content relevant to your business goals and your targets’ needs.

8 — Referrals

For users to help you promote a brand, provide them with corresponding instruments. Why not consider affiliate marketing or make them your referrals? Your client invites a new customer or subscriber — and gets a discount or another bonus from you.

Such a referral program helped Dropbox to increase sign-ups by 60%. Users were happy to share links with others because they got extra storage space for each referred friend.

Discounts, giveaways, free trials, and other goodies always work. Feel free to use them for any type of brand promo.

9 — Video Marketing

Video is your friend for winning new platforms and getting more visibility. Now it’s not just about advertising but also entertainment content, as well as the processing of informational requests.

Your video channel may cover interviews with niche specialists and your team, webinars, Q&A sessions, helpful advice, etc. It’s your instrument to build brand awareness, get more audience, and build authoritativeness and trust.

Please pay attention to video design: A short stylish intro is an opportunity to mention your brand to the audience again. A few views are already enough to cement your brand in their memory. Be creative: video storytelling tactics will work best here.

10 — E-book

Free e-books are a great lead magnet for users to get to know your brand and subscribe to it in search of more content like that provided. The challenge here is that the process of e-book creation consumes tons of resources:

To make it high-quality, engaging, and informative, get ready to spend time, energy, and budget on research, planning, writing, and designing a book. Otherwise, the game won’t be worth a candle: E-books make sense only if they are informative, a la “all-inclusive.” If they are of low quality, users will get disappointed, and your brand will get a reputation of nonprofessionals in the niche.

11 — Guestographics and instructographics

As you may guess from the name, this content type relates to an oldy-moldy infographic.

But:

While infographics may inform users about everything, instructographics provide instructions on how to do something: They are about step-by-step and how-to guides with a super high potential for sharing because they explain complex data in an easy-to-digest format.

Users love sharing such content, so it’s your chance to reach a broader audience: Just do your best to design instructographics so they would grab attention and help users solve a problem.

The full version

Guestographics are infographics you create in collaboration with other brands. For example, they provide content, and you — design, or vice versa. Guestographics allow you to build brand awareness, reach a broader audience, and establish connections.

12 — Podcasts

Content is not only about text, pictures, or video. Audio format is the best one to reach people who are lazy or busy to read but will be happy to listen while doing a few things at once.

Podcasts remain the top trend in 2023, and streaming giants like YouTube and Spotify support and encourage users to practice them. So, if your target audience prefers this format, you can use podcasts to promote products and connect with customers.

If you have no resources to manage a podcast, you can collaborate with popular podcasters who are influencers in the niche to share brand stories and invite the audience to learn more about you.

13 — Stickers

Let’s face it we live in an era when people communicate more by pictures than words. And before we go into telepathy, why not take advantage of brand visibility and promotion via stickers?

Many companies are already doing this, offering free branded stickers in exchange for various perks. Users then exchange those stickers in messengers, thus increasing your visibility to a new audience.

Please note: This instrument works only if your branded stickers are super cool and engaging and you know how to use them right. Otherwise, it can be just a pleasant bonus to use inside your company.

In a Word

With all the competition and user behavior changes online, it becomes more and more challenging for marketers to introduce brands and products to the audience. Direct ads won’t always work, even if you have a budget for PPC and social media targeting ads, so it’s high time to rethink your promotion and user acquisition strategies.

In this article, you’ve read about 13 alternative channels for brand promotion. Use those most relevant to your niche, business goals, and audience needs — and your brand visibility will skyrocket.

All Image Credits: Provided by the Author; Thank you!

The post How to Increase Your Brand Visibility Online in 2023 appeared first on ReadWrite.

The need for community is hardwired into the human psyche. It’s why most people enjoy spending time with others. Being part of a community fosters connections, builds a sense of belonging, and encourages customer loyalty.

Is it any wonder, then, that so many companies try to build communities around their brands?

Organizations that are successful at creating communities among both internal and external stakeholders can gain many advantages. Perhaps the biggest benefit is a core group of steadfast supporters. Just look at Disney’s branded community, which no doubt has had a hand in shaping the entertainment giant’s impressive profitability.

The Rise of Superfan Marketing

Over the years, Disney has generated an army of superfans. Among those superfans are stars like Katy Perry, Neil Patrick Harris, and Tim Tebow. However, Disney’s superfandom isn’t limited to big names. Anyone who identifies with Disney’s ethos and ecosystem is welcome to join the brand’s community. And if you’ve ever tried to talk a Disney superfan out of their beliefs, you know it’s impossible. They’re faithful cheerleaders.

Another benefit to developing a brand community comes from a marketing perspective. Community members develop an inherent sense of pride. That pride becomes an impetus for them to share their experiences freely.

For example, community members of an organization or brand frequently post unsolicited shoutouts on social media. That kind of word-of-mouth advertising is powerful because it’s so raw and genuine. Remember: Consumers tend to trust the words of influencers and peers over the words of companies. So any authentic and unprompted praise for a brand carries a lot of weight.

A final benefit to brand communities is the development of a stronger brand identity. Businesses can struggle to create and develop identities. A community can help solidify its identity and even guide its evolution.

Patagonia’s community is an example of how the brand community drives and informs the corporate identity—and vice versa. It’s no secret that Patagonia cares about environmental concerns. Its community does, too, which further deepens Patagonia’s green initiative impacts.

The bottom line is that businesses that want to get ahead can achieve more when they promote community development. And you can start the seeds of a community right away. The key is to take a page from a thriving company with a burgeoning community like CitizenShipper.

The CitizenShipper Model: Getting Community Right

To understand CitizenShipper’s community, you first need to understand how the company works.

CitizenShipper is essentially a portal. The portal connects people who need items shipped with people who can transport those items. It’s essentially a “rideshare” platform for treasured (and unique) stuff. Whether you need someone to take a piano across town or a puppy across the country, you can depend upon CitizenShipper.

Though CitizenShipper’s model serves a gap, it’s the company’s expanding and expansive community that has catapulted it to success. CitizenShipper continues to make the most of its community in several key ways.

1. The company has allowed customers to lead the brand community direction.

Like many companies, CitizenShipper launched with a wide target audience in mind. However, one audience grew faster than any other. That audience? Pet parents and dog breeders. Unknowingly, CitizenShipper had tapped into several unmet needs of pet lovers.

For instance, many pet parents either couldn’t or didn’t want to transport their beloved animals via traditional airline carriers. Consequently, they used CitizenShipper to find pet-friendly drivers eager to take their furry best friends from point A to point B. As word of CitizenShipper spread among pet parents, breeders began to take notice, too.

CitizenShipper leaned into serving this unexpected and vibrant community that was beginning to flourish. For instance, the company added extra background check must-haves for pet drivers. It also set up automatic Pet Protection Plans.

Those customer-based changes have paid off and prompted community-fueled growth. As a result, CitizenShipper has brought about the safe travel of more than 77,000 domesticated animals over more than 100 million miles.

2. The company concentrates on hard-to-ship and highly treasured items.

In addition to pets, CitizenShipper focuses on shipping people’s most treasured (and sometimes unwieldy) belongings. Think motorcycles, heavy equipment, fragile objects, and watercraft. Plenty of owners feel an emotional attachment to these belongings. Consequently, they want their treasures to get the white-glove treatment.

How does this drive a sense of community?

When someone’s rare collection of china pieces is brought safely from Portland to Miami, that person is delighted. And a delighted customer wants to have those same good feelings again and again. The result? The customer looks for other opportunities to use CitizenShipper and become a repeat buyer.

The more repeat CitizenShipper buyers there are, the bigger the community becomes. From a cost-per-lead standpoint, regular customers are a huge boon to the bottom line. The more times an existing customer comes back, the less is spent on lead acquisition. That means a brand community can have a direct influence on profit margins.

3. The company serves as a gathering place for people to meet.

When someone posts a listing on CitizenShipper, the listing is seen by countless pre-vetted drivers. Consequently, interested drivers can bid on the listing, and posters get to decide which driver meets their needs. Though this is a systematic process, it’s not an impersonal one.

As a company, CitizenShipper has done its best to promote personalization, above transactions.

Yes, a transaction occurs. But the transaction has a very human touch. An example of this can be found in the use of communication between shippers and drivers. All drivers are encouraged to send pictures of and information about their progress. This keeps everyone in the loop and makes the experience a more individualized one.

It’s not unusual for strangers who met as posters and drivers on CitizenShipper to stay in touch after working together. As these networks of relationships grow, the networks fuel the growth of the broader CitizenShipper community. The relationships encourage more reviews, which further validate the trustworthiness of the company.

Without its brand community, CitizenShipper might be just another portal. Instead, it’s a business that’s fast becoming a household name.

Featured Image: Blue Bird; Pexels.com. Thank you!

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