5 Tips to make your content marketing more successful

Content Marketing is a boon if tackled correctly and strategically. It calls for high quality and frequent updation for it to be successful. Very often when we think of content marketing we restrict to Blogs but that is not the case. Adding written content to the website and social media platforms artfully so that the most relevant and popular keywords are connected is the most basic and important requirement. This helps in increasing the visibility in search results and bringing the website on top searches which in turn increases the traffic to the website with relevant browsers.

Today we bring you 5 tips to make your content marketing strategy even more successful:

 

1. Understanding the audience:

This is the first and foremost important aspect for a successful content marketing strategy to be successful. Understanding your audience gives you a perspective on their needs and demands and a guide to design the content marketing strategy around. What to write, how to write are addressed properly when the correct set of audience is identified and understood.

2. Timeless Content:

Creating content that doesn’t go out of context is one of the best moves for any content marketing strategy as then the content is here to stay and keeps bringing more and more browsers even long after the content was posted. 

3. Quality Content:

Often we focus on quantity over quality to keep the website updated but that proves to be a misconception in the long run. Quality content ensures relevant browsers and organic traffic and is also very crucial in converting them into sales. With quality and relevant content you get repeat browsers which marks the true success of a content marketing strategy.

4. Build Email Subscribers:

With email subscribers, you create a pool of browsers with similar choices and interests and who might look forward to your content as it is relevant to them. Email subscribers receive the updates in a mail and brings them to the website for more. 

5. Be patient and re-strategize:

Content marketing takes time and patience to show results and calls for patience and dedication. But keeping in mind the dynamics of your industry it is also important to revisit and re-strategize in order to understand the mistakes and stay in top of things when it comes to content marketing.

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Digital Marketing Strategies: What is the difference between Paid Vs Free Traffic?

Before we get onto what is Paid traffic and free traffic, we need to understand the word traffic in the digital world and how it is important for a website. Digital traffic can be defined as the number of users visiting as well as taking an action like purchasing, saving or subscribing on the website. It can be said the every digital marketing strategy is aimed at getting traffic to the website. 

Free Traffic:

Free traffic or commonly known as organic traffic is the mostly generated through the website content itself, your social media and SEO. In order for your website to generate a good level of organic traffic or free traffic, the content needs to be top quality, original and fresh! This helps in gaining visibility through SEO and good placing in the search results which helps in redirecting the traffic towards your website. For social media to generate free traffic for the website, you need to have good networking and an understanding of your target audience.

Paid Traffic:

Paid traffic is when the advertiser i.e. you pay the publisher for the traffic they redirect to your website. The most popular method to gain paid traffic is the Pay Per Click method. This includes banner ads like we see on Facebook, twitter and other social websites or blogs. Another method for obtaining paid traffic is with keyword bidding (Google Adwords and Microsoft Bing Ads) for better search engine results.

Pros and Cons for Paid Traffic and Free Traffic:

Although paid traffic is the fastest route to generate website traffic and is successful in reaching a wide number of users, it is not a medium that generates customer loyalty. This is the reason it is often known as rented traffic as it does not ensure a repeat view from the user, whereas on the other hand, Free traffic has more branding and brand image associated with it since it involves high research and quality content curation relevant to the user. It requires a great deal of time and energy and an expert strategy to achieve.

It may appear that free traffic is the best option to choose since it is free and generated through content purely but it is also important to note that free traffic does not necessarily ensure conversion into sales. With paid traffic the results are quicker and the leads generated are useful, given that the strategy is on point.

Hence, we can conclude that both Free Traffic and Paid Traffic have their pros and cons, they hold a very different set of approach and it all depends on your set of requirements, which traffic to choose.

5 Ways content marketing helps your business.

In this digital age, content marketing has become an integral part of any digital marketing strategy and with huge competition in the market, all businesses are in the race of grabbing the customers attention. In order to get ahead, business owners and marketers need to get crafty with their marketing strategies in order to get noticed by their target audience. Content marketing is one of those creative marketing strategies. Content marketing is when small businesses communicate with their target audience by providing information instead of a sales pitch. This content needs to be relevant and enticing to the customer.

Content marketing proves crucial for small businesses in the following ways:

1. Builds brand awareness 

Regular and authentic content builds create a name and brand for small business. The content increases and improves visibility of the business by updating fresh content regularly. This helps the customer in remembering your brand and doing business with you when their need arises the next time. 

2. Convinces and encourages the customer to take action

Just like any sales, the customers may need added encouragement to make a purchase or take any other action such as subscribe or register. This task can be very creatively handled with correct content marketing as it can encourage the customer to take an action by slyly convincing them.  

3. Creates your identity as an expert in the industry

When your content is correct and is updated frequently, the customers often start looking up to your website for information with a certain trust and considering your brand or website an expert in the matter.

4. Keeps the website fresh and updated

With regularly updated content, the website remains fresh and can become more and more visible in search results. A stale and less frequently updated website tends to attract less customers or browsers the next time. This hampers the reach of the website. 

5. Helps build a community 

Regular viewers, subscribers and bloggers come together as a community and exchange ideas and information through the blog/website. This also brings new people to the website. Covering new and unique topics relevant to the events also brings in more viewers and helps create shareable content which can help increase the visibility on social platforms.content marketing helps your business.

In this digital age, content marketing has become an integral part of any digital marketing strategy and with huge competition in the market, all businesses are in the race of grabbing the customers attention. In order to get ahead, business owners and marketers need to get crafty with their marketing strategies in order to get noticed by their target audience. Content marketing is one of those creative marketing strategies. Content marketing is when small businesses communicate with their target audience by providing information instead of a sales pitch. This content needs to be relevant and enticing to the customer.

Content marketing proves crucial for small businesses in the following ways:

1. Builds brand awareness

Regular and authentic content builds create a name and brand for small business. The content increases and improves visibility of the business by updating fresh content regularly. This helps the customer in remembering your brand and doing business with you when their need arises the next time. 

2. Convinces and encourages the customer to take action

Just like any sales, the customers may need added encouragement to make a purchase or take any other action such as subscribe or register. This task can be very creatively handled with correct content marketing as it can encourage the customer to take an action by slyly convincing them. 

3. Creates your identity as an expert in the industry

When your content is correct and is updated frequently, the customers often start looking up to your website for information with a certain trust and considering your brand or website an expert in the matter.

4. Keeps the website fresh and updated

With regularly updated content, the website remains fresh and can become more and more visible in search results. A stale and less frequently updated website tends to attract less customers or browsers the next time. This hampers the reach of the website. 

5. Helps build a community 

Regular viewers, subscribers and bloggers come together as a community and exchange ideas and information through the blog/website. This also brings new people to the website. Covering new and unique topics relevant to the events also brings in more viewers and helps create shareable content which can help increase the visibility on social platforms.

5 Digital marketing aspects to grow your business

Every digital marketing is strategist keeping in mind the business’s needs and goals. Since every business has their own USP, they need to have their own digital marketing strategy that works best for their brand image and their product. Earlier when sellers were the trendsetters, it didn’t matter much what the customer feedback was, but today due to such huge advancements in technology, it is the customer calling the shots, making it very important to know the customer’s feedback and quantify their digital activities. This resulted in tools that help marketers to devise and observe the digital marketing activities and their effects. Some of these tools are:

1. Pay Per Click (PPC)

Pay per click, commonly referred as PPC, requires the users to click on links in order to generate revenue whereas for retail stores, the aim is to lead the customer to their shopping page and get direct sales. Hence, PPC requires careful and skillful planning and strategizing in order to obtain maximum results. 

2. Social Media optimization (SMO)

Social media has brought and new wave of digital marketing platforms for all business small or big. With social media names such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest,Instagram and now Snapchat provide easy and free digital marketing platform to business owners even with no or minimal marketing experience. This has resulted in small business owners coming online and promoting their product while interacting with their customer at the same time. 

3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search Engine Optimization or SEO is vital in generating organic leads to the website. SEO works by identifying and analyzing the keywords searched by the relevant or target audience to increase the visibility of the website in search engine results. These keywords help create a trail of breadcrumbs for the user to follow and reach the website and also provides an insight to the business owner as to what the audience is looking for online.

4. Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

Conversion rate optimization is a system to convert the website visitor into a customer. Three tools that help us in CRO are:

1) Google analytics provides a set of credible keywords that are favoured by the users and have a high probability of converting the browsers into customers.

2) Scroll map and hit map tells us what the user was looking for in the website and how far did they browse within the website.

3) A/B test and Multivariate test helps recognize the progressions, big or small, to a website that encourages a better reaction from the targeted audience or users.

5. Online Reputation Management (ORM)

ORM is vital to create and maintain a brand image of the business online, hence it refers op the core of digital marketing. In order to manage the reputation of the product or business in the digital world, feedback provided by the customers plays an important role. As digitally it is easier for the business owners and customers to interact globally in real time, ORM is the major element to achieve success in creating and sustaining a brand image.The major role of ORM includes:

1) Prompt response on queries

2) Using feedbacks efficiently and

3) Carefully handling adverse feedbacks.

Why is a Blog crucial for any business to grow?

Blog has become an integral part of digital marketing strategy for every business. This new trend has gained more popularity over the last few years as more and more brands are coming up with their own blog sites. A Blog not only help the buyer but are also beneficial to the seller. 

Here are a few benefits of maintaining a Blog:

 

1. Exchange of Information:

Through a Blog, the seller and buyer have a dialogue among them, the seller can better convey information and receive the feedback from the buyers. This helps the sellers to improve their product and services.

2. Know the Audience:

With good information on the blog, the target audience can be engaged. And with the correct target audience , not only can the sales be increased by manifold but it also helps as a marketing tool in the market.

3. Brand Image:

Once the target audience is engaged, with good content strategy, a blog helps creating a brand image in the minds of the audience. With a great brand image, new leads and traffic is generated as the brand gets recognition in the market.

4. Introduce new product:

A blog is a great free platform to introduce a new product or service or even make your audience aware about the detailed information regarding an existing product, which is not possible with other marketing tools.

5. SEO:

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. SEO is the process of increasing the visibility or ranking of a website or webpage on any search engine’s result. Relevant and active content on a Blog helps in it getting indexed on the search engine results.

A blog offers a long term results. With traditional marketing, the advertisement once shared is available for a limited time frame, whereas information on a blog stays for the lifetime. Anytime someone searches for the information over the internet, they are directed to the relevant link. This keeps the views and leads on the blogs increasing. Some help generate leads even after longer time since they are posted.

It is very important for the business to maintain a blog with relevant keywords and information pertaining to the products. It is also crucial to keep the posts updated with fresh articles to keep the business active on the digital network.

Reasons why smartphones are new business locations

The definition of marketing is changed the we use to see nearly two decades back. While the distance of the market has decreased from miles to just few clicks from the device in your hand, the span has increased from local customers to global reach. This changed has been witnessed since the inception of smartphones. Smartphones are becoming the integral part of many lives and gaining the span at a faster pace. From checking time, playing games, connecting with people socially to buying, paying bills and looking for information, people are dependent on these small screens more than they look at PCs now. It has not only changed the life of the consumers but also plays a vital role in digital marketing strategy of any business available online.

Being a pocket size device this has overruled the importance of desktops and laptops for searching information. People are free to search any information at their ease of time. They look for information while they are on the way, free time during office or even at their leisure time at any time of the day. It is popular amongst all age groups who gets benefits from it depending on the nature of the work. From studies to finding destination of travel, they don't have to sit at one designated place for anything. 

This has also resulted in multiform increase in the searches made every second. More than half of the traffic is due to the searches made through smartphones. This has also benefited business in multiple ways. The businesses are more often searched, which assist them with getting greater and more extensive market. They are not only considered a medium to sell, but has also helped businesses to make the marketing strategies according to the tastes and preferences of the buyers. 

The introduction of responsive websites has helped business to give a better experience to customers while they explore the websites on the screen which otherwise leads to higher bounced rates. 

Also, the option to pay online through links to banks, or other means like payment, wallet or so has given users a convenience to shop anytime with security. The trend of having a personalized mobile apps and links to social media has benefited business to gain loyalty of the customers with data around their location, age group, preferences. This has also helped them to provide personalized promotional options to customers to retain their attention and revisits.

The links to social media on the smartphones has given the opportunity to the businesses and consumers to interact and gain benefit out of the communication. The frequent queries helps the business to understand the requirements of the consumers and solution of the queries brings the consumer closer to the products. The businesses have grown remarkably by adapting to smartphones. While being connected to the users all the time, they are gaining their loyalty and revisits have opened avenues for revenue generation.

SEO Is Now 'Search Experience Optimization'

Credits
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/273868

Snapchat For Beginners: 6 Ways To Use It For Your Business

There’s no questioning that Snapchat is the medium of millennials and Generation Z, with nearly half of the app’s users under the age of 25. With over 200 million active users (100 million active daily) and over 400 million “Snaps” sent every day, Snapchat not only has a fast growing audience, but an engaged one.

Even if your company doesn’t specifically target teens and twentysomethings, there’s a good chance Snapchat could still be a good fit for you. Utilizing the platform positions your company as current, relatable, and on top of the latest technologies. We live in a digital world where traditional marketing mediums are still alive, but becoming less and less relevant, so it’s important to keep up!

Snapchat’s Rapid Rise to Success

In 2014, Snapchat was the fastest growing social app, experiencing 57% growth over the course of the year. While Facebook Messenger, Pinterest, and Instagram all grew at astonishing rates, none could keep up with Snapchat’s downloads. It’s one of the most popular social networks today – and for a good reason. Most platforms lend themselves to sharing images and videos with your friends or followers, but Snapchat has found its place in the industry by putting a twist on this more traditional means of social sharing.

The app allows users to send pictures or videos to their friends that are visible for 1-10 seconds once opened. In addition to taking a photo or video, you can type one line of text (unless you copy and paste from the Notes app), include emojis, and use a drawing tool for additional illustration and personalization.

Then you select who you want to send the Snap to from your list of friends (you can find them through your phone’s contact list, by username, or location) or publish directly to your “Story.” This feature publishes your Snap in the feed of everyone who follows you rather than you manually selecting who you want to send it to. Anything published to your Story can be viewed for one day, so it allows for greater visibility and a little more permanence.

Marketing on Snapchat

Even with the ability to screenshot or replay Snaps (you can pay 99 cents to replay a Snap three times), many business owners and marketers are skeptical about how valuable this means of communication really is. But the temporary nature of Snapchat is what draws many users to it. You don’t have to put as much thought into what you’re sending because it’s only out there for your friends to see for a maximum of 24 hours. It encourages spontaneity and thrives on the fast-paced, fleeting nature of its prime user base.

Snapchat has a lot to offer the marketing world as well, and companies are flocking to the network to take advantage. If you have a following on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, use these platforms to encourage people to follow you on Snapchat. An easy way to do so is by changing your account’s profile picture to your Snapcode, which allows people to screenshot the image and automatically add you to their Snapchat friends list.

Being able to connect with your loyal followers on several platforms certainly has its benefits; they’re likely to remember you and trust you over other brands. And users aren’t going to waste time following accounts or viewing Snaps that aren’t of interest to them, so you can be confident that you’re reaching a qualified audience that wants to learn more about you.

Snapchat is a common ground for real-time images and video, and has also become an integral part of participating in live events. While other livestreaming tools have gained traction, Periscope in particular, Snapchat has taken more of a community-based approach to stand out.

Having users submit photos or videos from their point of view at an event adds unique perspectives, whereas a Periscope stream consists of just one vantage point. You can also utilize the text, filters, and drawing tools to add a little something extra to your Snap or Story.

How Can a Business Utilize Snapchat?

Now that we’ve spent a little time learning about what Snapchat has to offer, let’s dig into the most popular features and strategies to see how your business can make it work.

Keep up with the latest news and trends

A feature that has expanded rapidly in the last year is “Discover,” where publications and news outlets provide a synopsis of trending stories through a series of articles and videos. This brings news to an audience that may not be tuning in to the news on TV or online to find out what’s going on in the world. Teens and young adults rely on social media as their main source of breaking news, and Snapchat is perfectly catering to this tendency.

Discover has expanded to 20 news and media outlets, including CNN, People Magazine, Cosmopolitan, BuzzFeed, and ESPN. Videos can be as long as 15 minutes and articles are about the length of a typical blog post. Discover channels are updated every 24 hours to ensure they are providing the latest and most important news to users, while also keeping with Snapchat’s real-time nature.

Share a Story

The easiest way to engage on Snapchat is through the Stories feed, where you can piece together a series of images and videos to share with your followers. The limited lifespan of Snaps offers a great way to deliver a call-to-action that creates a sense of urgency and buzz. Whether you’re promoting a new product, special sale, or commenting on a trending topic, your Story is where you let your Snapchat (and brand) personality shine!

For example, Chipotle (username: chipotlesnaps) grabbed their followers’ attention by sharing that the band Walk the Moon was going to be taking over their Snapchat account for a day.

Many brands team up with celebrities or popular figures and let them be “in charge” of their account, sharing exclusive insights to get people talking.

Tip: Take a picture of this Snapcode. Then go to your “Add Friends” feature, click “Add by Snapcode,” and then select the image. Now you’ll be able to see all of Chipotle’s snaps!

While a lot of businesses probably can’t have a band, athlete, or celebrity grace their Story, there are so many other (free) ways to make your company stand out. From product launches to employee activities and office life, the rest of this post will give you some easy content ideas for your Snapchat.

Use filters and Geofilters

Snapchat’s free filters are another means of personalizing a Snap or Story, allowing users to incorporate humorous and creative elements into each image and video they share. All you have to do is press and hold on whoever’s face is in the camera’s view so that Snapchat can line the filter up properly. From distorting your face shape to spitting fire, users can’t get enough of these filters, and there are always new ones being introduced.

If you have the location services turned on for Snapchat, you can also take advantage of custom Geofilters wherever you are. Once you take a Snap, swipe left on the screen before sharing to see the variety of filters available to enhance the image. If your business has multiple locations, you can shed light on these different cities or add local appeal if you’re a hometown hero.

Below is a very appropriate Geofilter for those of us in Buffalo, New York:

Snapchat also recently announced the addition of On-Demand Geofilters, which allows users to design a custom image in Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator and use it as a filter. All you have to do is submit the Geofilter to Snapchat with the region you want it to appear for and the time period it should be available – up to 30 days. While this is a paid feature, pricing starts as low as $5, so any business can get involved in this unique branding opportunity!

Launch new products

Much like a release party, Snapchat is a proven effective place to launch new products or services. You can encourage users to follow you by hinting at a sneak peek or major announcement on other social outlets, and make it clear that Snapchat will be the first place you can find out about this breaking news. Creating a sense of exclusivity and urgency will not only help you build up a following, but it will make the message seem that much more exciting.

Taco Bell (username: tacobell) was an early adopter of this strategy back in 2013, using Snapchat as a platform for a “secret announcement,” the reintroduction of the Beefy Crunch Burrito.

Not only was Taco Bell the first major company to start using Snapchat, they also broke the mold and used it as a marketing platform.

How do we know it was effective? Look at how many companies are following suit!

Showcase your team

Aside from marketing the products or services you sell, Snapchat can be a useful tool to show off your awesome team and office space. With so many companies competing for sales, those that take a more personalized approach are likely to earn the trust and business of their followers over those that stick to a formal corporate strategy.

People love to see behind the scenes of where the magic happens at their favorite companies. Showing who is behind the products you make and the services you provide makes you relatable and human, and that goes a long way when it comes to brand preferences and making a purchase decision.

A great example of this is Mashable, an online news platform that caters to the “connected generation.” If you check out their Snapchat (username: mashable), they often feature videos of their office and employees discussing a trending topic or trying out a new product.

You can’t help but feel like you know these people personally because you get a peek into their corporate culture. It’s a company with personality, and it certainly encourages me to use them as a news resource.

Participate in popular live events

Through the “Live Stories” feature, events have become a staple for Snapchat users. Those attending participating events can submit their own pictures and videos to the designated Story, and a team at Snapchat will go through the submissions and string together a video sequence. User-generated content allows engagement between those who are at the event and those who aren’t, but are still interested in following what is going on.

All different types of events are taking part, including music festivals like Lollapalooza, sporting events like College Gameday and the FIFA World Cup, and others like New York Fashion Week. It’s another way that companies can interact with followers, while adding an extra element of engagement through the contributions of attendees.

So there you have it. These are some legitimately valuable ways to incorporate Snapchat into your marketing strategy, and none of them require a major time or financial investment. From showing off what makes your company unique to adding creative flair and participating in popular industry events, there are probably a lot more options available than you originally thought!

Snapchat is entertaining, interactive, and separates those aimlessly following your company from those who are really interested in what you have to say. And isn’t reaching the right audience one of the most basic fundamentals of marketing? If your company is looking to take your social media approach up a notch, give Snapchat a try. You might be surprised how much it adds to your digital strategy.

Oh yeah, we’re on Snapchat too! Follow us by username (mainstreethost) or taking a picture of our Snapcode!

Credits: http://www.business2community.com/brandviews/mainstreethost/snapchat-beginners-6-ways-use-business-01469344#uArjxbs2v7GdY12I.97

McDonald’s former strategy and digital boss predicts marketers will move from brand to 'community marketing'

Marketers that are just focused on getting closer to consumers through media and ignore that the importance of standing something are missing the importance of advocacy in the battle for growth, warned McDonald’s Europe's former chief strategy, customer and digital officer Pierre Woreczek 

The rhetoric around “customer centricity” has gathered pace of late with the rising adoption of the title ‘chief customer officer’. The likes of Notonthehighstreet.com, John Lewis, British Airways and Tesco – all with expanding digital offerings – have introduced the role to their organisations to ensure the creation of a seamless customer journey, from marketing through to transaction. However, it’s no longer enough for these changes just to prioritise pushing the brand to as many people as possible and instead they have to play to win the “advocacy battle”, according to Woreczek

“We should be, more than ever, a customer centric organisation. But I ask – what was it before?” he continued. “Being customer centric is not enough. People are judging organisations with more elements in their hands so now I’m talking about winning the advocacy battle. We need to be more focused on advocacy." 

Nike and Danone as examples as those which have gotten a head start. While they might have started out selling a product (shoes and food), they now stand for something more and ask customers to buy into that. Nike is now a company which sells ‘wellbeing’ to shift its fitness products while Danone axed its profitable biscuits division after it made a decision to stand for health.

Speaking at the iMedia Data Marketing Summit last week, Woreczek’s prediction was that to drive advocacy, reflecting the role of the company will be as important as providing a great product.

“Profit will only happen if people understand the value of a company and can buy into those values,” he said. “Corporate strategy has become more important than brand strategy […] companies are the engine of the brands.”  

For marketers, their role will shift from being the creator of brands to the creator of the experience and “to transform critical issues into magical moments.” They will also move from brand marketing to “community marketing”.

“We don’t have media channels, we have communities. How many marketers say ‘I am in charge of making this community happy’. No, they say I’m in charge of the brand,” he said.

 “It’s a totally different way of approaching how you do business. Today we evaluate a company based on financial results. I can tell you that we’ll evaluate the value of a company based on the number of advocates they have.” 

Credits : http://www.thedrum.com/news/2016/02/15/mcdonald-s-former-strategy-and-digital-boss-predicts-marketers-will-move-brand

How to Use Influencer Marketing to Boost Your Traffic and Conversions

Especially when it comes to business, where it is arguably changing the game each day. In the past, companies could use their influence to convert potential consumers through paid ads or some other marketing strategy. Social networks have changed all of that, which is best evident by the recent emergence of influencer marketing.

People no longer turn to companies to inform them about what they want or need. They look to other people, people whose influence and expertise regarding a certain industry is valued among the users. Take for example, YouTube vloggers. They have millions of followers, their videos have hundreds of millions of views, and companies are lining up to collaborate with them. And it’s not just YouTube. It’s pretty much the same story when it comes to Twitter, Instagram, or Pinterest.

As you can see, the focus has shifted to individuals, and people respond better to being addressed directly, as opposed to being served some marketing strategy by a faceless company. This is definitely the era of influencers, so let’s take a look at 11 ways you can make influencer marketing work for you in order to attract more visitors and boost your conversion rate.

1. Put your audience front and center

Since your ultimate goal is to convert your visitors into paying customers, it’s only logical to build your marketing strategy around them. This means you should literally focus all of your efforts into getting to know your audience first and anticipate how they might react. It will also help you figure out which influencers they would follow and the type of content they would prefer. That would also include checking out appropriate blogs, articles, tweets, YouTube channels, or forums.

People are more inclined to value the opinions of actual people, in this case influencers, instead of those of a company, because they are more likely to be genuine. They are independent third parties, unlike the companies trying to sell them their products.

Here’s what Carter Hostelley, CEO and Founder of Leadtail, has to say about it:

“Building relationships with influencers can be a very effective way to reach your target audience in a more credible manner than simply buying advertising. With that said, “influencer marketing” is not an overnight process.

It starts with knowing who the most relevant influencers are in your industry segment. There are now a number of software tools available to help you do that. My firm Leadtail also puts out reports which are helpful if you’re targeting influencers of the C-Suite.”

2. Decide what type of influencer you need for your campaign

Once you’ve figured your target audience, it is time to decide what sort of influencer would best serve your campaign. There are numerous aspects to consider when doing this, such as the tone with which the influencer addresses the readers/viewers. Depending on your niche, you may need someone who’s efficient at getting them to take action, or a thought leader, or perhaps even an industry insider.

Aside from choosing the niche, the topics, and the number of influencers you want to get on your side, you also need to decide on what sort of reach you are after. Is your goal to use influencer marketing to drive traffic to your website or blog, or do you want to strengthen your social media presence and increase your reach? This one is highly dependent on what you think is best for your brand.

Ted Coiné, CEO of The Extraordinary Influencer Network gives his input:

“Once you’ve identified potential influencers, and you’ve vetted them closely for relevance (there is a lot of bad advice out there, and hundreds of tools designed to help you in this, not all of which are worth much), we’re ready to address your two questions. I’ll start with why it’s important.”

3. Seek out influencers

After you’ve fleshed out the mythical beast that is your influencer, you can take steps toward establishing some sort of contact with them, and the best way to do that would be to pay attention to what’s happening on social networks. If you can manage to get an influencer to act as an advocate for your particular brand, your job is pretty much done.

While this seems simple enough in theory, in reality, you will have to work hard in order to line up your brand with the content that influencers are providing for their audience. Once you manage to pull that off, nearly everything else will fall into place by itself.

There is a flip side to that coin, too. You can use social media to find out which influencers are already spreading word about your brand, so you can fortify your collaboration.

Mark Fidelman, who is a managing partner over at Fanatics Media and Forbes columnist points out the following:

“For Fanatics Media it’s critical that we get to know the influencers because of three main reasons. First, we typically get 20-25% lower rates than the average agency. Second, they are more likely to go the extra mile for us. Third, they’ll help our clients better position the product based on their understanding of the market. Once the relationship is established, everything becomes easier”

Joe Griffin, co-Founder and CEO at ClearVoice shared his take on the matter:

“Influencers are at the top of the heap when it comes to social currency. You aren’t going to gain an influencer’s respect unless you are participating in the same conversation circles, and actually adding value to the narrative. Once you catch their attention, you can begin a relationship by becoming a contributor on their website, and requesting their contribution to yours. We’re all about promoting the heck out of their content when they contribute to our site through both earned and paid social media. The more you can amplify their message, the stronger that relationship becomes, and the more repeatable their contributions can be.”

4. Become a driving force behind content creation

We are not just talking about content you’ll create, but also about content created by influencers and readers alike. It’s very simple: the more content there is out there about your brand, the more visible it is, which means more traffic, better conversion rate, and more leads. Now, there are several different ways you can get influencers and readers to generate content for you.

For instance, everybody is on Instagram nowadays. You can use this to your advantage by uploading images of users using your product to your brand’s official Instagram account. Also, with YouTube vlogging being all the rage nowadays, you can give away stuff for free, or coupons, and receive a mention that way. Take part in Facebook and forum discussions, and publish some of the user-generated content through your official channels. They will love it. Carter Hostelley, CEO and Founder of Leadtail, expanded on his previous comment by adding:

“The next step is to get on the radar of these influencers. You can do this by following, sharing, and referencing them on social media, and getting introduced via your LinkedIn network.

Now it’s time to establish and build a relationship. This comes from helping them first. Make them look good on social media, provide them with quality introductions, use and purchase their services, etc. Overtime, these influencers will be more than happy to recommend and promote your company’s brand, too.

At Leadtail, we’ve also been successful in building strong relationships by collaborating with influencers in crafting truly unique content pieces… since influencers have the same challenge as everyone else in developing quality content”.

5. Realize that paid ads have lost their mojo

There is only so much a person can take in terms of ad exposure before they have had it, and with people’s reliance on TV, internet, and social media, all of which feature ads, that margins are getting narrowed every day. Naturally, people respond to this exposure by getting used to the ads, and tuning them out, which renders them almost useless.

What you should aim for as a marketer is providing useful content for the readers, because that’s the way they are getting their information these days. Instead of having services and products forced upon them through ads, they turn to those brands which are more subtle about their sales pitches and which provide information they can actually use. Those brands are also more likely to have influencers promote their product.

Brett Relander, founder of Launch & Hustle, talks about the importance of that approach in his article 5 Metrics to Measure Influencer Marketing:

“The main reason that an influencer campaign can be so successful is that it rests on the ability of the influencer to obtain buy-in from the audience. Consequently, it is vital that you measure the sentiment regarding your businesses marketing message. Through evaluating the way in which your brand is perceived by your target audience, you will be better positioned to identify areas that may not resonate as well with your target demographic and adjust your marketing message accordingly. Along the same lines, you can also see which messages receive the most favorable reaction, giving you the opportunity to increase awareness around that message the influencer is delivering”.

Ted Coiné shared another crucial bit of advice:

“People don’t trust marketers (do you?). But people trust influencers by definition – that’s what makes them influential. If you want potential customers to buy from you, then you have to get their attention in such a way that they’re open to learning more about what you might sell them. Influencers are the key to that. You tie your brand as closely with your influencers as these people will let you, and mindshare opens up among a whole population of prospective customers whom you probably had no “in” with before. Mindshare leads to marketshare. The why of influencer marketing shouldn’t be much of a question by now.

The how, though, is surprisingly confusing for most of the brands I’ve studied. That’s why there is so little engagement with influencers currently in a brand’s program – they’re on the rolls, but they aren’t doing much for your brand. That’s also why turnover is so mindbogglingly high among influencers – they practically quit as fast as you can recruit them.”

6. Reward your influencers

While you have no legal obligation to do this, a little thankfulness goes a long way. If you have influencers spreading positive word of mouth about your brand, the smartest thing you can do is to give them yet more reasons to talk about it. How? You can reward or compensate them for their efforts.

You can give them money, although be careful with that one, not because of the cost, but because you want the content they put out about your brand to be as honest as possible, otherwise it just turns into a paid ad, and that approach, as we pointed out earlier, has largely ran out of juice, because users can spot it a mile away.

You can also give away free products, discounts, commission, or share their content on your website and even publicly thank them for promoting your brand. Remember, nobody asked them to do it, so the decent thing to do would be to thank them and respond accordingly.

Michael Brenner, CEO of Marketing Insider Group, put it this way:

“The best way to establish strong relationships with influencers is to start by helping them. Share their content. Like and comment on their posts. Re-tweet their quotes. And write 5-star reviews for their books on Amazon. It’s really important because influencers have established not just authority but also massive social followings. So if you can get them to want to share your content as well, you can gain some nice organic and social traffic and engagement with your target audience. One note of warning: don’t ask influencers to do you a favor before you’ve built a relationship. If you follow these guidelines, they will be much more likely to come and speak at your events or participate in your content efforts. And then try to earn their support of your content marketing efforts”.

Yet more advice from Ted Coiné:

“The same thing that would make a top-notch customer service professional would make an all-star influencer program leader as well: empathy, and the honest desire to serve. Want to know what will best motivate your influencers? Ask them! In as many words. Say, “What would make this relationship a big win for you?

Then shut up. Listen. Take notes. And give your influencers what they told you they want! Note that this will have to include financial compensation commensurate with their influence and the services they provide you, but you’re a professional: you wouldn’t do it any other way.

Simple, yes, but extremely rare. If you can pull this service-first habit off, you will have your industry’s most influential influencers eating out of the palm of your hand for years to come. In fact, their friends will line up around the corner to join your program.”

7. Think of influencer marketing as seamless advertising

As opposed to traditional advertising, which is focused solely on selling the product using not-so-subtle techniques, influencer marketing is more efficient because it places the brand, or a product, within a more organic context. The brand promotion is still there, but it’s not the only thing being offered to the readers. They are also provided with actionable and useful content they can read and apply the information they’ve received to solve their real-life problems.

Overall, it’s a lot more pleasurable and natural experience for the readers. It does require for some extra effort on your part, but it’s worth it, because you will earn their trust for real, and not through some convoluted marketing ploy.

8. Get involved right now

And we’re not just saying this to get you riled up, either, because influencer marketing is the fastest-expanding method of turning visitors into customers, according to marketers. Its growth is faster than that of organic search. Email and organic search have been around for a while, which means if you are looking for a way to aggressively, yet naturally expand your influence, influencer marketing would be your best bet, which means you need to strike the iron while it’s hot.

This, of course, doesn’t mean you should neglect organic search and email. In fact, you should use them, just as you would use every other method out there which can help you elevate your brand’s recognition.

9. Don’t be afraid to be wrong

We are not talking about overcoming your fear of making a mistake. We are talking about the wide margin of error you are allowed when it comes to influencer marketing. Let us elaborate. According to research, influencer marketing is currently the most cost-effective marketing strategy there is, with marketers being able to generate revenue that is several times larger than their investment.

This means you have room to experiment and figure out what works best for your brand, because you are very likely to at least break even. And if you succeed, you will have a bigger budget at your disposal, which opens up even more possibilities. This is the best time to get in on it.

10. Use influencer marketing to boost your SEO results

Although Google has changed its algorithms recently and shifted their focus to seeking out high-quality content, SEO is still a viable option. So in addition to creating content for your brand, you need to get both influencers and readers to participate in the process of content creation. The biggest brands in the world rely on user-generated content and social media mentions heavily, because it makes them more visible on Google. You can do the same for your brand.

11. Keep track of everything

One major advantage of digital marketing over its analog counterpart is that you can keep track of everything and use all that information to develop and fine-tune your marketing strategies. Not only can you immediately access every single post, share, or like, but you can analyze every single aspect of influencer marketing using software such as Google analytics, which is free, yet amazingly powerful. You can even monitor the demographic aspect of influencer marketing, and time of day/days of the week which have been the most fruitful in terms of visitors and shares.

Credits : http://www.business2community.com/marketing/use-influencer-marketing-boost-traffic-conversions-01444268#7PXqgJwwQhDEP6Ei.97

How kirana stores are embracing technology to engage better with customers

BENGALURU: P Mahendran's Muthukani Stores in Chennai's Villivakkam is like any other kirana store, but with a slight twist. If you were to enter his shop, you will find an LED screen showing various offers and also a custom-made tablet to generate bills and keep accounts of customers.

Muthukani Stores is one of the many kirana stores across the country that have embraced technology so as to engage better with the customer, even as a bunch of startups, such as Snapbizz, Applicate and Goodbox, exploit this largely untapped space through retailer only or consumer-facing apps.

"We are trying to disrupt the biggest space of retail business in India, much bigger than the size of all ecommerce put together. The potential and scale of opportunity is huge considering that 90% of the $500-billion retail market is still being serviced by these small retailers," said Ranjeet Kumar, founder and chief executive of Applicate IT solutions, whose product Trade Gini is targeted at retailers.

The retailer app connects the kirana store to various authorised suppliers of brands, helps them keep a track of the inventory, generate bills, decide various offers based on suggestions, and updates the retailers on prices, schemes and offers.

"We give the retailers a custom-made tablet, a printer, a scanner and a wireless LED TV. The TV can allow brands to connect to the customer at the point of sale — images keep popping on the screen. The retailers can earn money out of this, too. One can now give printed bills and also connect with the customers through SMSes," said Prem Kumar, CEO of Snapbizz. According to the startups, the entry of technology brings down transparency issues and creates a level-playing field.

"Before, if there was an update from the company only, say 30%, of retailers would get to know," said Kumar. "We even have a helpdesk to address all issues and connect to the brand directly for any queries. We are also working on bringing in more languages."

Bengaluru-based Goodbox offers a consumer-facing app, integrated with MobiKwik payment gateway and caters to even local restaurant brands and government agencies like Bengaluru's electricity board, BESCOM, other than the local grocery stores.

"Our app's backbone is a chat platform, which is a connect between the customer and the retailer. The app user has options of 'My list' and 'Near Me', where they can have a record of all the items they buy and see all the merchants near their location, respectively," said Abey Zachariah, cofounder and CEO of Goodbox.

The business model of these startups revolves around taking a cut from the suppliers and companies for visibility, or raising money through subscription.

The kirana stores are welcoming technology as it makes a difference in their daily lives.

Credits : http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2016-01-28/news/70150265_1_small-retailers-kirana-store-mobikwik