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Internet Marketing Company, fishbat, Shares 5 Ways to Help Grow Your Beauty Brand Through Effective Social Media Strategies

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Image result for Internet Marketing Company, fishbat, Shares 5 Ways to Help Grow Your Beauty Brand Through Effective Social Media StrategiesPATCHOGUE, N.Y. /PRNewswire/ — As part of their ongoing effort to teach companies how to self-promote, internet marketing company, fishbat, shares 5 ways to help grow your beauty brand through effective social media strategies.

Think the beauty industry is too saturated for your brand to make an impact on social media? Think again. Your beauty brand can grow its following and increase awareness by leveraging proven social marketing strategies.

In a crowded industry, it’s essential that your beauty brand produces compelling content to drive awareness and generate likes, follows and shares. This may sound like a daunting task, but do not be intimidated – the visual-heavy beauty industry was made for social media sharing.

Read on for 5 ways to grow your beauty brand through effective social media marketing.

Show Them How It’s Done
Tutorial videos and how-to’s should be a staple of your beauty brand’s social media content and for good reason. Not only do they show your beauty brand’s products in action, but they also deliver the added value of educating your viewers on how to use your brand’s products.

Conciseness is key when it comes to creating tutorial videos for social media. Rather than share a twenty minute video demonstrating a full face of makeup, consider creating several shorter videos showcasing specific products. “How to Create a Cat Eye,” “How to Make Your Lips Look Fuller,” and “Contouring 101,” are great examples of the kind of short-form tutorial videos that your beauty brand should be creating. Be sure to make your video titles descriptive by including your brand and product names.

Don’t limit your brand to tutorial videos exclusively. How-to infographics showcasing your beauty brand’s products are also a useful way to extend your brand’s messaging and increase awareness.

Utilize User-Generated Content
Utilizing user-generated content is an effective way to grow your beauty brand. Create a unique hashtag for your brand and encourage your followers to use it to showcase themselves in photos and videos using your products. Not only can this content be repurposed to fit your brand’s social media channels, user-generated content also organically advertises proof that your products are effective. If you have the time, add a personalized comment on each user’s tagged photo your followers will appreciate your brand interacting with them!

Give It Away
Social media contests and product giveaways are a unique way to reward your beauty brand’s existing followers and generate new ones. Promote contests that require entrants to perform several tasks to win such as following your brand, tagging a certain number of friends in the comments of the contest post, and liking the contest post itself. Frequently hosting contests and giveaways will introduce your beauty brand to a steady stream of new social media users, thereby creating organic engagement. Be sure to post complete terms and conditions to your beauty brand’s website.

Be Influential
Partnering with social media influencers is an effective way to promote your beauty brand. Much like user-generated content, influencer campaigns show off your products in an appealing, organic way. Finding influencers that align with your beauty brand doesn’t have to break your budget. Very often the influencers with smaller followings, frequently-called “nano” or “micro” influencers, deliver higher engagement rates than those with millions of followers, since their audience is targeted.

Don’t Overlook Memes
Breaking up your promotional content with clever, relatable and inspirational memes is a great way to foster community within your following and create a personal connection with your users. Memes are an opportunity for you to share your beauty brand’s unique voice and give your followers a break from being marketed to.

About fishbat
Digital Marketing Agency fishbat is a full-service online marketing firm that takes a holistic business approach to their clients’ digital marketing programs. The fishbat team understands the importance of business principles just as well as the nuances of the latest digital technologies. fishbat offers every digital marketing service available from digital marketing research and planning to brand development to website and asset creation through social media management and search engine optimization programs – all custom calibrated for both B2B and B2C businesses.

 

[“source=prnewswire”]

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Blogging

How to Make Money Blogging in 2019 (+Easy Ways to Start Today!)

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Image result for How to Make Money Blogging in 2019 (+Easy Ways to Start Today!)

The year is 2019. Influencers, bloggers and even racist YouTubers are making money — millions of dollars, in some cases — hand over fist.

Well, not everyone is necessarily making millions, but they can make a lot of money, and you can, too!

Monetization strategies aren’t just advertisements and sponsorships anymore, either. In fact, some aren’t even relying on the website builder software typically associated with the space. Internet personalities have revolutionized and expanded the methods by which they make money on their content.

So, once you’ve learned how to start a blog, you should start thinking about how to make money doing it. In this article, I will cover how to monetize through advertising, selling products, affiliate marketing, and providing services.

How to make money from a blog

  1. Start a blog and publish useful content regularly
  2. Establish and audience by sharing your blog on social media
  3. Engage with your readers! This helps build a substantial readership
  4. Make money by advertising – CPC, CPM, CPA, and private ads
  5. Make money by selling products – merchandise, branded goods, eBooks, apps, etc.
  6. Try affiliate marketing – earn commissions promoting other bloggers or companies
  7. Provide services – attend workshops, speak at conventions, offer classes

How to make money blogging

Many internet personalities will use a blend of different monetization methods rather than just relying on one. They opt to cherry-pick options that align best with what they can handle and are best for their brand. This results in a much more robust, diversified income stream that is more resilient to fluctuation.

Big disclaimer here, friends: while it isn’t necessary to have a large following to monetize a blog, having a large fanbase and a thriving professional network will garner more from the monetization solutions discussed here.

However, bloggers who choose some of the options below stand to make more money sooner compared to those that don’t employ any monetization strategies until they have a substantial readership. Bloggers who start early will be more familiar with the tools of the trade and will typically give themselves more time to think of a long-term monetization strategy.

These steps are the backbone to getting your blog up and running. There will be tips toward the end concerning content posting, but for right now we’re just going to focus on getting your blog online and ready for use.

Advertisements

Advertising is the most popular monetization tool used by internet content creators. From YouTubers to bloggers, advertisements lend themselves to easy money from popular content. Since online advertising has become widespread, the process to set up advertisements on most content sites has become streamlined. There are a few different ways to advertise:

CPC, CPM and CPA ads

In this day and age, it’s impossible to go anywhere on the web without seeing an ad. But not all ads are created equal, and understanding their differences as a blogger is important when considering which kinds to host on your site.

CPC (“cost per click”) ads, sometimes called PPC (“pay per click”) services, are typically images in the sidebar or header of a webpage. If the content is written, the ads can also appear between bodies of text. For this type of ad, an amount is paid every time a visitor clicks the ad.

CPM (“cost per mile”) ads work similarly to CPC ads in terms of their appearance on a webpage, and an amount is paid for every 1,000 impressions, or times, people have clicked the ad.

CPA (“cost per action”) ads are among the least popular for content creators because an advertiser must either receive a sales lead or make a sale for the creator to make money on the ad. While this is a better model for the advertiser, it can mean missed ad revenue opportunities for content creators.

cpm-cpc-cpa

In some cases, advertisement-based monetization systems are built into some platforms, notably YouTube and WordPress.com. However, there are extra hoops to jump through for creators themselves to access that income stream, and until they meet certain criteria like paying for an advanced plan, the platform itself will reap the rewards.

Alternatively, content creators can turn to supply side (SSP) platforms to monetize their site for them by selling ad space on their site in real time.

Private ads and sponsorships

Popular content creators will often be directly approached by advertisers if they drive enough traffic. Content creators also have the option to contact advertisers themselves if they feel so inclined. Either way, working directly with advertisers removes the middle man and allows creators to set their own ad rates.

Private ads are particularly popular in videos or podcasts, where hosts can be heard verbally advertising a product or service before they begin their show. However, it’s not uncommon for bloggers or writers to shout out an advertiser in their works. This type of relationship can be thought of as a sponsorship of sorts. Bloggers that advertise products or services sometimes host giveaways of whatever they’re advertising. (Who doesn’t love free stuff?)

Selling products

As a staple of capitalist society, selling products is an excellent way to make money. Bloggers and influencers are known for advertising products, but many also produce their own products depending on the type of content they’re recognized for. Bloggers with large followings have fanbases interested in buying physical or digital products they create.

With the advent of Patreon and similar fundraising software, it’s easier than ever for internet content creators to host tiered membership systems, with members at each level receiving different products. (If you aren’t familiar with Patreon, it is a membership platform that allows artists to run a subscription content service.)

While it was intended for artists, creators from every corner of the internet have found ways to use Patreon, and with good reason. The intent of the platform was to give artists a viable monthly income in return for things like exclusive digital art, how-to’s and even lessons.

There are examples of each product type below. However, creators should absolutely get creative about their product marketing. Standing out and selling something unique is a great way to generate income and draw more attention to your brand.

Physical products

Everybody loves merch, and a significant following can make physical products a viable stream of income.

  • Merchandise — Many internet celebrities will start producing merchandise related to their content, including items like apparel, mugs and posters. Merch can serve a dual purpose, both driving revenue and serving as advertising.
  • Crafted goods — Many blogs are focused on art or other crafting hobbies. Well-known members in the space can put their goods up for sale on their private websites, e-commerce platforms, or marketplaces like Etsy.
  • Books — Plenty of bloggers end up consolidating some of their work and expanding it into a full, published book. Similarly, sometimes artists will create physical magazines or compilations of their work and distribute them both on- and offline.
  • Branded goods — It’s not uncommon for bloggers and influencers popular in specific spaces like makeup or fashion to start producing their own lines after they’ve become critically successful. While this option usually occurs after some time, it can cement a personality as a more permanent fixture within a space and as an expert.

Digital products

Bloggers and artists are known for their digital bodies of work. Putting some of it up for sale or offering related digital commodities seems like the perfect segue into monetization.

  • eBooks — Many published bloggers will offer eBooks in lieu of, or alongside, physical copies of their books. eBooks are easier to offer since the author doesn’t have to worry about producing, distributing or shipping a physical book.
  • Art — This option is particularly, and not surprisingly, popular among creatives. While many artists will post their work on blogs or online portfolios, they can also take commissions or sell premade works for private use.
  • Online classes and courses — Online classes, offered either in real time or on demand, can be an excellent option for bloggers who are well-known for being particularly good at their craft.
  • Apps, plugins or themes — Plenty of content creators are known for their coding or digital design prowess. Those designing themes, for example, will often put a watermark or a link to their website or page in a corner of their theme to continue to draw traffic.
  • Exclusive podcasts or music — Plenty of podcasters or musicians will sell their works digitally. Others also offer exclusive tracks or podcasts with a paid subscription plan or a one-time payment.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is the process of earning commissions for promoting another person or a company’s products. It’s similar to a sponsorship, but instead of being paid for a shout-out in a video or podcast, the content creator is paid for every person referred to the product or service via a special banner, link or promo code. Moreover, it’s an easy way to advertise products or services that one has personal experience with and can therefore safely vouch for their quality.

affiliate marketing

Providing services

Popular content creators become leaders in a space, and as a result, can be asked to host a variety of services to supplement the monetization options tied directly to their website or work.

  • Public speaking and meetups — Content creators are frequently asked to speak at conventions and seminars. Often these presentations or talks are recorded; posting them online can serve as a great reference to their work and drive more awareness of it.
  • Workshops and classes — While some bloggers will turn to offering online courses, some prefer hosting them in person. The chance to meet a famous blogger and learn from them is a lot more enticing than just viewing a recorded online seminar.

How long does it take to make money blogging?

That’s a hard one, sport.

A blogger, artist or internet personality will need a substantial and/or devoted following to reliably make money this way. It’s unrealistic to expect that you’ll be able to quit your day job after a few months of blogging. Some bloggers say that you should expect to wait a year or two before making a healthy full-time income — provided you’ve done a good job monetizing your blog.

The time between starting your blog and making decent money with it isn’t easy. Making a living off blogging or creating content requires patience, creativity and a lot of effort.

[“source=learn.g2crowd”]

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Tech Update

HTC’s not done making phones, but it needs to find new ways to stay alive

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

By Ivan Mehta

HTC, the maker of the first ever commercially available Android phone, is still keen on making new devices, even after a disappointing year that saw it lose $330 million in the fourth quarter.

A report from DigiTimes suggests that the company has waved off any suggestions of quitting the smartphone business. Indeed, a cursory glance at HTC shows a company continuing to launch new devices. Just this year alone, it released the Desire 12 and 12+, the U12 life, the U12+, and its yet-to-be available ambitious blockchain phone the Exodus 1. HTC says it plans to release a 6GB RAM/128GB ROM version of the U12 Life before the end of the year.

Credit: HTC
HTC’s blockchain phone the Exodus 1

Despite all the efforts, the future looks stormy for HTC. Per a Reuters report in July, TrendForce, an analyst firm, set a yearly estimate of just 2 million smartphones produced by HTC in the 2018 calendar year. That’s a dramatic fall from grace for a once-dominant phone manufacturer.

The company’s financial statement for the quarter ending in September, declared that its quarterly revenue (for Q3 of the year) has tanked from NT$4.0 billion ($129.3 million) from $NT15.7 billion ($507.6 million) for the same period last year.

HTC Vive Pro

HTC also produces VR headsets under the Vive brand name, in partnership with Valve. According to a report by TrendForce, Vive will sell around 600,000 this year. However, with VR still a niche interest, this is unlikely to be the goldmine HTC hoped.

HTC can no longer rely exclusively on its handset business. It needs to diversify its operations, much like its rivals Samsung and Apple. Here are some potential avenues for the company to explore, in order to find solvency:

Mainstream and affordable VR headsets

HTC’s standalone VR headset – the Vive Focus – just launched in 37 countries North American and European countries. While as mentioned earlier, HTC’s set to ship 600,000 headsets this year,  its competitor Oculus shipped 289,000 units of its $179 Oculus Go just in Q2 2018.

You know what, Derek? I will actually keep this on.

A report from Superdata predicts that Oculus will sell 2.5 million units of the Oculus Go and its upcoming standalone VR headset – the Oculus quest – the next year. HTC can benefit from such numbers, but it might have to provide a discount on the Vive Focus’ price of $599.

The company can also partner with Google to produce an affordable Daydream headset to reach more consumers. After announcing the Daydream VR project in 2016, only Lenovo has managed to make a standalone VR device. Google can use an old ally like HTC to revive Daydream and make it more mainstream through a new device, and grab a chunk of the $6.9 billion VR market.

AR/VR games and content

Last quarter, Vive studios announced ‘7 Miracles,’ a full-length VR feature film, which also won some awards. Vive studio can design experiences for bigger feature films and games apart from making movies. AR and VR content industry will reportedly hit $3.2 billion in 2012. HTC can certainly benefit from this revenue stream.

[“source=businessinsider”]

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Online Marketing

SIX WAYS BIG DATA CAN REFINE YOUR DIGITAL MARKETING EFFORTS

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Image result for SIX WAYS BIG DATA CAN REFINE YOUR DIGITAL MARKETING EFFORTS

What’s the one thing that all digital marketers must know? The fact that data is king on today’s marketing landscape. Having comprehensive and accurate data is essential for making effective marketing decisions. It can help executives identify industry trends and discover potential customers, making big data analysis important for optimizing your marketing strategies.

Enterprise leaders want to monetize their digital assets, promote an information-driven culture and leverage the full potential of their big data systems. However, most marketers fail to achieve these objectives because they deploy their data scientists poorly. In addition, they don’t devote enough attention to their data-driven initiatives and cast their data science specialists in ineffective, mismatched roles.

Other executives view the innovative resource from the wrong perspective; they mistakenly believe big data projects are solely a technical, administrative organizational feature — rather than a mission-critical operational undertaking. Still, others, fail to recognize that veteran executives may be resistant to change and neglect to position their unwitting data science team for a successful big data project launch.

The Numbers Reveal the Strength of Big Data

According to management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, core offerings generate 75-percent of most enterprises’ revenues — of which marketing executives undervalue and underprice at a rate of 30-percent. To understand how this impacts overall revenues, realize that a 1-percent across-the-board price hike would generate 8.7-percent in increased gross profits with no impact on sales volume.

44-percent of enterprises use data analytics and mining to boost consumer response rates and generate insights that guide executives in developing relationship-driven strategies, according to marketing consulting firm Forrester Research. Furthermore, according to a report released by Boston Consulting Group (BCG), 58-percent of chief marketing officers (CMOs) believe that search engine optimization (SEO), as well as email and mobile communications, are the areas where big data systems are having the largest impact on their organizations.

Here are six ways that big data can help enterprise leaders avoid these mistakes and position themselves to refine and improve their marketing efforts.

Use the Right Keywords With the Help of Big Data

If you don’t understand your customers’ behaviour, then how can you effectively market your products? The use of big data can help identify how visitors are finding your website and what keywords they used to get there. Understanding this information will allow you to explore related keywords and focus on the ones that drive the most traffic.

Big data can also help you optimize your website so that when potential customers arrive, they see the products that interest them most. With this in-depth understanding, you can select which products to show different segments of your consumer base and effectively optimize sales.

How Successful Was Your Last Campaign?

Big data can help you identify the success of your last marketing campaign. The online marketing landscape has changed relatively recently, and the number of businesses participating in this change has never been greater.

Each year over 5.3 trillion display ads are served to internet users. In order to stand out, your advertising initiatives need to pop. Using big data will help you to streamline your campaigns and target customers who are most likely to respond so that you can make the most out of your marketing budget.

Use Data to Load Your Content with Statistics

Content can serve as an initial touch point that funnels consumers toward a desired action. When creating content, you need to know what your customers might look for and what they might find interesting.

Using data, you can discover key insights into customer behaviour that helps you to create quality content and increase audience engagement. For instance, if your audience consists of a younger demographic, you want to use language that appeals to that generation.

Use Data Analysis to Choose Marketing Channels

Americans look at their phones an average of 47 times a day. Potential customers shop differently when they are on a mobile device rather than a desktop. Analyzing mobile user data will help refine your customer acquisition process and increase your mobile shopper conversions.

Technology and big data have changed the process of finding new customers. Business leaders who understand how to use data analysis will be able to stay on top of technological trends such as mobile marketing.

Uncover New or Potential Target Audiences

In order to grow your enterprise, you need to do more than keep your existing customers happy — you need to find new business. Big data can help you find new audiences and determine which groups are more likely to buy.

When evaluating new potential audiences, it’s important to know their intent. Understanding this will help you to develop relevant content. For example, are they using your app to relax or are they actively looking to buy a product or service? Using big data can help you to customize your content accordingly.

Real-time data is extremely valuable and can provide you with insights that further your understanding of the intent and mindset of your audience. Using tools like Quantcast can help business owners find relevant target audiences and grow that asset to create a larger customer base.

Better Analytics Lead to Optimal Design

With big data providing key insights into user preferences, business owners are now able to create optimal designs at a lower cost. This improves their ability to influence consumers.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning technology, as well as access to volumes of data about consumer preferences now, allow you to discover how to optimize branded items, such as customized logos with colours and font styles that boost consumer engagement. With data analytics optimization you can lower design costs and increase revenues.

By utilizing these six methods, you can be sure to refine your marketing efforts and optimize your current campaigns. But don’t think that the job is done there. Once optimized, be sure to continue analyzing the data and making continual tweaks.

[“Source-gadgets.ndtv”]

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Online Marketing

4 Advanced Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Website With Online Marketing

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

4 Advanced Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Website With Online Marketing

The following excerpt is from Robert W. Bly’s book The Digital Marketing Handbook. Buy it now from Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | IndieBound

When you’re trying to attract more visitors to your site and standard sources of traffic are failing you, it’s time to take your efforts to the next level. Try these four methods for increasing the volume of site traffic.

Content marketing

Content marketing gives you dozens, if not hundreds, of creative ways to focus on the core problem your business — or a product — solves. It includes online articles, blog posts (including guest blog posts), infographics, ebooks, white papers, case studies and audio or video productions.

Content marketing is effective. In fact, it generates three times as many leads as traditional outbound marketing but costs 62 percent less. So what’s the secret to content marketing? Adding value to everything you create. If you’re not sure how you can add value through content marketing, ask your existing customers or list members what kind of content would be helpful to them.

The key to content marketing success, according to Jim Yu, the CEO of content marketing firm BrightEdge, “is to present the right content to the users at the time they need it in an engaging manner, across all channels they visit.” And be sure you’re publishing frequently and consistently. If you cover one topic, publish at least once a week. If you cover two topics, publish at least twice a week. If possible, publish every day on the content categories that will attract the right audience.

Related: 10 Laws of Social Media Marketing

Influencer marketing campaigns

Influencer marketing is marketing that focuses on using key leaders to drive your brand’s message to the larger market. Rather than marketing directly to a large group of consumers, you instead inspire, hire or pay influencers to get out the word for you.

Why choose this strategy? It’s effective for over 80 percent of marketers who’ve tried it using social media influencers. And customers acquired through this channel are retained at a 37 percent higher rate than those acquired through other means.

“Influence will lead marketing efforts by 2020,” says Ted Coiné of TalentCulture. “It’s the most effective form of ‘advertising’ there is, and when coupled with a solid content strategy, no TV or Facebook ad buy can even compare.” So how can you find influencers? Free tools, such as followerwonk from Moz or BuzzSumo, can help. Fee-based research tools are also available, such as Kred, Klout, PeerIndex, GroupHigh, Little Bird and Keyhole.

Related: 4 Ways to Market Your Business for Free

IP-specific online advertising with geo-targeting

What we’re really talking about with IP-specific advertising is geo-targeting: the method of determining the geolocation of a website visitor and delivering different content to that visitor based on his or her current location, such as country, region or state, city, or metro code or zip code; organization; IP address; internet service provider (ISP) or other criteria.

You can use geo-targeting to increase engagement and conversion rates of new marketing campaigns. Geo-targeting allows for measurement and personalization at a more complex level than possible with traditional media. Here are a few good starting points for using location-based targeting:

  • Offer incentives (sales, discounts, promotions) to visitors in a specific geographic area.
  • Target messaging to visitors based on proximity to a store, physical office location or competitor’s location.
  • Share marketing messages that are specific to local advertising media markets.
  • Customize the language for a specific geographical location.

Related: Use These 5 Steps to Create a Marketing Plan

QR codes

Quick response (QR) codes provide another way to gather contacts for your traffic-driving efforts. QR codes act like bar codes and pro­vide a smartphone or tablet user with immediate access to a given web page where the user can read the message and take the next step. You could say the QR code is your invitation to a user to begin an offline-to-online transition.

Marketing with QR codes is one of the easiest mobile marketing strategies to get started with, according to Jamie Turner, co-author of Go Mobile (Wiley 2012.. It does, however, require you to have a mobile website (in addition to a standard version) to direct smartphone users with a QR code.

Before the QR code comes the plan: Where are you going to send users and what do you want them to do when they get there? You’ve got to know the answers to those questions before you start a QR code marketing campaign. In addition, the QR code needs to be big and clear enough that even low-quality phones can scan it. And there should be a clear indication of which types of mobile devices can use the QR code. If it’s for Android only, iPhone users will be irritated if they try to scan it and get poor results.

Creating the QR code you’ll use is perhaps the easiest step in the process. And it won’t cost you anything because there are free QR code generators online, such as QR Stuff and Kaywa QR Code.

What are some ways you can use QR codes? Try these:

  • Add a QR code to the Contact page on your website so visitors can download your contact information to their smartphones.
  • Add a QR code to your business card so people can instantly download your contact information (or respond to a lead-generating offer).
  • Include a QR code, or codes, as part of a webinar presentation for audience engagement.
  • Add a QR code to your LinkedIn and Facebook pages to pull people into your website.

You can also use QR codes on direct-mail pieces to help you gain useful information from your campaigns. The scans can tell you which offers are working best and which geographical areas are responding the most. This knowledge can guide you in refining your next campaign.

[“Source-entrepreneur”]

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Online Marketing

5 Basic Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Website with Online Marketing

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

5 Basic Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Website with Online Marketing

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

The following excerpt is from Robert W. Bly’s book The Digital Marketing Handbook. Buy it now from Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | IndieBound

Never depend on only one or two channels when driving web traffic to your site. Justin Bridegan of MarketingSherpa writes: “It’s always best to have a variety of traffic sources. This minimizes the risk of your website being decimated if your main traffic source dries up.”

With that in mind, let’s dig into five ways you can drive traffic to your site.

Affiliate marketing

This doesn’t just mean you should become an Amazon Associate or Click­Bank affiliate and use that status to drive traffic to your indepen­;dently owned website. Instead, you should start your own affiliate program, where you partner up with people who’ll promote your product or service — generating revenue for both of you and building your email list in the process.

How exactly do you go about finding an affiliate and convincing them to promote your product? All you need to do is set up a page on your website that explains the benefits of promoting your product. In addition to detailing how big of a cut they’ll get from each sale, you’ll also explain how they’ll benefit from being associated with your brand. Include a sign-up form to make it simple for them to contact you. Then, promote the page to individuals and a wider audience in a targeted niche.

Co-registration

This traffic generation strategy has to do with online advertising. It’s a process for collecting subscribers by co-advertising along with other site owners or companies collecting opt-in subscribers. Here’s how it works: When the user opts in to receive an offer from the other participant(s), they’re given the option to subscribe to your information as well.

Co-registration allows you to target a specific demographic or customer subset. Depending on whom you partner with, co-registration can be less expensive than other types of marketing. Also, with co-registration, building your email list doesn’t depend on the amount of web traffic you’re able to generate.

There are two major players in co-registration: Opt-Intelligence and CoregMedia, and many choose to work with them. But, there are also smaller companies worth looking at, such as AfterOffers and BirdDogMedia.

Email

Just a few years ago, the average ROI for email cam­paigns was 4,300 percent. That fact alone should inspire you to focus attention on email marketing.

Because 56 percent of customers are more likely to buy with a personalized experience, you want to personalize your email marketing messages. In fact, the average open rate for emails with a personalized message was 18.8 percent, as compared to 13.1 percent without any personalization, in 2016.

The goal of email marketing is to convert an interested customer into a paying customer by driving traffic to sales pages. You can increase clickthrough and conversion rates by making sure the email and the sales page it hyperlinks to are promoting the same offer.

Google and Bing pay-per-click advertising

Pay-per-click advertising (PPC) is a model of internet marketing in which advertisers pay a fee each time one of their ads is clicked. Es­sentially, PPC gives you a way of “buying” visits to your site, instead of earning those visits organically.

Search engine advertising through Google or Bing is one of the most popular forms of PPC advertising. You’ll bid for ad placement in a search engine’s sponsored links when someone searches on a keyword that is related to the advertised offering. PPC success is achievable if you focus on:

  • Keyword relevance. Develop PPC keyword lists of terms relevant to your audience. Use these lists to write keyword-driven ad text.
  • Landing page quality. If you’re sending people to a landing page, optimize it with persuasive, relevant con­tent and a clear CTA, tailored to specific search queries.
  • Quality score. Both Bing and Google offer quality scores, which rate the quality and relevance of your keywords, land­ing pages and PPC campaigns. Advertisers with better quality scores get more ad clicks at lower costs.

Lead magnets

A lead magnet is a free content offer — an ebook, white paper, case study, e-course or checklist. Your lead magnet should be so relevant to your prospect’s needs or problems that they can’t help but ex­change their contact information to get it.

Of all the possible offers — ebooks, white papers, you name it — which are the most effective lead magnets? Here are five:

  1. The cheat sheet. The problem-based specificity of the cheat sheet, also called a tip sheet, makes it very appealing to pros­pects (and it’s fairly easy to create).
  2. Free templates. These are extremely popular and generate lots of leads, but make sure the template doesn’t replace your service or product offering. Templates can be in Word, Excel or any other common program.
  3. Free training videos, workbooks or a combination of the two, delivered through daily emails. Think about problems that require multiple steps for your customers to solve. These can make ideal step-by-step training products for your lead magnet.
  4. The swipe file. This is a collection of tested and proven copywriting elements (such as headlines and email subject lines) or creative ideas the recipient can use to simplify a project.
  5. Tool kits. These can be a little more complex to create, but because they’re filled with resources, they can make excel­lent lead magnets. You can use existing resources, blog posts and other content to complete your tool kit. Common tool kits include a variety of content types, such as ebooks, worksheets, checklists and video.

[“Source-entrepreneur”]

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Blogging

5 Ways Small Businesses can Benefit from Blogging

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

5 Benefits of Blogging for Small Businesses

Startups prefer online promotion over offline promotion because the former is cost-effective and yet often has shown definite results. Because blogging is the default window leading to online promotion, more and more brands are getting into it these days.

For a small business on a shoestring budget, investing time and resources in blogging is a better option tha other marketing alternatives. Blogging can aid in getting a high ranking on search engines and in gaining social media visibility?

But anything beyond that?

The Benefits of Blogging for Small Businesses

Let’s find out:

Establishes Thought Leadership

Blogging is instrumental in establishing thought leadership. Small firms need it more than their big counterparts. That’s because big companies can spend money and skip intermediate phases in the sales funnel. But small businesses have to pass through them.

Contrary to what many believe, thought leadership is not simply an accompanying factor in the sales cycle. It impacts a customer’s purchasing decisions when he’s on the payment page. The ORM overdose has made average customers suspicious about the claims made by brands about their products. But customers are less suspicious about industry thought leaders.

Another benefit of thought leadership is it attracts efficient employees, who might otherwise work in big companies. Some of those employees feel the corporate houses are soulless places to work. Big companies don’t allow employees to perform fully up to their potential. Small brands, especially the ones that are thought leaders, grant them this privilege. What’s funny about thought leadership is it doesn’t go hand in hand with paid efforts. Customers always take promotion with a pinch of salt.

Organic efforts, especially blogging, establishes thought leadership.

Content Planning

Blogging makes content planning easy for brands. In fact, the two are not separate. Brands that excel in blogging are those that plan their content in a meticulous way.

How exactly is content planning beneficial for startups?

Proper content planning can save cost and increase ROI. Brands, both big and small, unnecessarily shell out money due to wrong content planning. Big brands may not keep track of every dime they spend, but small businesses do. Cost-cutting and ROI increase are the focal points.

The following are essential for content planning:

  • Consumer demographics,
  • Problems consumers face, and
  • How branded products offer up solutions.

Of the factors above, some help brands to understand customer idea feedback. The next step of content planning is drafting the content in accordance with such feedback. Audience reactions can clue marketers in on the acceptability of the posts they publish. Once they garner audience appreciation, they can move on with the accompanying writing style.

Strategizing each step is content planning. Content planning helps to measure content marketing ROI, which is difficult otherwise. In the absence of industry-approved publishing metrics, proxies like virality and engagement factors are used. But via content planning, we can figure out more rigorous ROI measurement factors.

Monetizing the Blog

Very few give it a serious thought. They should because the majority of startup companies are bootstrapped. Blog monetization can be an alternative way for them to make money. It’s not rocket-science. There are ample resources on how to create a money-making blog from scratch.

Some hold monetizing a blog reduces the odds of establishing thought leadership. That’s not true. Making the site cluttered with ads is not a good idea, but paid promotion via in-text links (to a limited extent, of course) and giving favorable reviews to sponsors are great ways to monetize a site without putting banner ads on it.

Other than financial benefits, blog monetization can help startups expand their network. As they explore the financial opportunities, they can partner with other bloggers and with industry influencers. They may hop onto the money-making bandwagon if given a chance.

How-to Guide

Startups don’t hate DIY as much as big brands do. That’s because big enterprises can take care of all product related needs of customers — from packaging to promotion. Startups, on the other hand, offer specific services targeted at specific requirements.

Customers who go for DIY may need supporting tools and additional services. They expect these at lower cost, which rules big brands out of the equation. Only small businesses can understand and meet their requirements. Here’s an example:

Let’s say a small business operates in the chimney flue manufacturing industry. On the blog page of its site, it can offer guidelines on how to install a new chimney flue. A homeowner can do the installation himself, but he needs to buy the flue from a store. This is how small businesses can endorse DIY and yet publish how-to guides on their sites.

Tutorials and how-to type posts can quickly draw reader’s attention. How-to-led DIY can make someone successful in his endeavor or result in failure. The first outcome adds authenticity to the procedure detailed by the blogger (the small business). The second outcome prompts readers to get back to the blogger with questions, leading to a long trail of interactions. Hence, how-to posts lead to a win-win situation.

Getting Noticed

Startups aim to secure funding from venture capitalists. VC firms invest in businesses which they deem worthy of investing. How do they decide whether to invest in a startup or not?

They calculate the possible ROI based on speculations.

For a small business, it’s tough to convince investors that funding it will bring them good ROI. Approaching the investors, and for that matter reaching them, is the first hurdle. Persuading them to invest is the next. And do bear in mind that as a startup, you have to jump all these hurdles without sounding pushy and without bragging about yourself.

Blogging is an excellent way to get noticed by big players. There’s no dearth of platforms if drawing the attention of the big players is on your mind. Admins of third-party B2B blogs will be delighted to publish your posts, provided these posts are useful and offer new information. Then there are publishing platforms like Pulse. LinkedIn is where most of the VC guys are. And they hover over Pulse articles for new insights.

From your blog, people running VC firms will come to know about your achievements, methodology and innovations. You can even present case studies to bolster your claims. From case studies, investors can get a glimpse of your firm’s internal workflow and business process. If they are impressed by these, they may invest. Choose relevant topics, do a lot of research and offer solutions. In short, give VC firms all the reasons to notice you in the crowd.

Summing Up

In the era of content marketing, blogging is bound to help a business climb up the ladder of success. However, the efforts put into it must be precision-guided. The five tips shared here can make sure of that.

[“Source-smallbiztrends”]

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Blogging

5 Ways Small Businesses can Benefit from Blogging

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

5 Benefits of Blogging for Small Businesses

Startups prefer online promotion over offline promotion because the former is cost-effective and yet often has shown definite results. Because blogging is the default window leading to online promotion, more and more brands are getting into it these days.

For a small business on a shoestring budget, investing time and resources in blogging is a better option tha other marketing alternatives. Blogging can aid in getting a high ranking on search engines and in gaining social media visibility?

But anything beyond that?

The Benefits of Blogging for Small Businesses

Let’s find out:

Establishes Thought Leadership

Blogging is instrumental in establishing thought leadership. Small firms need it more than their big counterparts. That’s because big companies can spend money and skip intermediate phases in the sales funnel. But small businesses have to pass through them.

Contrary to what many believe, thought leadership is not simply an accompanying factor in the sales cycle. It impacts a customer’s purchasing decisions when he’s on the payment page. The ORM overdose has made average customers suspicious about the claims made by brands about their products. But customers are less suspicious about industry thought leaders.

Another benefit of thought leadership is it attracts efficient employees, who might otherwise work in big companies. Some of those employees feel the corporate houses are soulless places to work. Big companies don’t allow employees to perform fully up to their potential. Small brands, especially the ones that are thought leaders, grant them this privilege. What’s funny about thought leadership is it doesn’t go hand in hand with paid efforts. Customers always take promotion with a pinch of salt.

Organic efforts, especially blogging, establishes thought leadership.

Content Planning

Blogging makes content planning easy for brands. In fact, the two are not separate. Brands that excel in blogging are those that plan their content in a meticulous way.

How exactly is content planning beneficial for startups?

Proper content planning can save cost and increase ROI. Brands, both big and small, unnecessarily shell out money due to wrong content planning. Big brands may not keep track of every dime they spend, but small businesses do. Cost-cutting and ROI increase are the focal points.

The following are essential for content planning:

  • Consumer demographics,
  • Problems consumers face, and
  • How branded products offer up solutions.

Of the factors above, some help brands to understand customer idea feedback. The next step of content planning is drafting the content in accordance with such feedback. Audience reactions can clue marketers in on the acceptability of the posts they publish. Once they garner audience appreciation, they can move on with the accompanying writing style.

Strategizing each step is content planning. Content planning helps to measure content marketing ROI, which is difficult otherwise. In the absence of industry-approved publishing metrics, proxies like virality and engagement factors are used. But via content planning, we can figure out more rigorous ROI measurement factors.

Monetizing the Blog

Very few give it a serious thought. They should because the majority of startup companies are bootstrapped. Blog monetization can be an alternative way for them to make money. It’s not rocket-science. There are ample resources on how to create a money-making blog from scratch.

Some hold monetizing a blog reduces the odds of establishing thought leadership. That’s not true. Making the site cluttered with ads is not a good idea, but paid promotion via in-text links (to a limited extent, of course) and giving favorable reviews to sponsors are great ways to monetize a site without putting banner ads on it.

Other than financial benefits, blog monetization can help startups expand their network. As they explore the financial opportunities, they can partner with other bloggers and with industry influencers. They may hop onto the money-making bandwagon if given a chance.

How-to Guide

Startups don’t hate DIY as much as big brands do. That’s because big enterprises can take care of all product related needs of customers — from packaging to promotion. Startups, on the other hand, offer specific services targeted at specific requirements.

Customers who go for DIY may need supporting tools and additional services. They expect these at lower cost, which rules big brands out of the equation. Only small businesses can understand and meet their requirements. Here’s an example:

Let’s say a small business operates in the chimney flue manufacturing industry. On the blog page of its site, it can offer guidelines on how to install a new chimney flue. A homeowner can do the installation himself, but he needs to buy the flue from a store. This is how small businesses can endorse DIY and yet publish how-to guides on their sites.

Tutorials and how-to type posts can quickly draw reader’s attention. How-to-led DIY can make someone successful in his endeavor or result in failure. The first outcome adds authenticity to the procedure detailed by the blogger (the small business). The second outcome prompts readers to get back to the blogger with questions, leading to a long trail of interactions. Hence, how-to posts lead to a win-win situation.

Getting Noticed

Startups aim to secure funding from venture capitalists. VC firms invest in businesses which they deem worthy of investing. How do they decide whether to invest in a startup or not?

They calculate the possible ROI based on speculations.

For a small business, it’s tough to convince investors that funding it will bring them good ROI. Approaching the investors, and for that matter reaching them, is the first hurdle. Persuading them to invest is the next. And do bear in mind that as a startup, you have to jump all these hurdles without sounding pushy and without bragging about yourself.

Blogging is an excellent way to get noticed by big players. There’s no dearth of platforms if drawing the attention of the big players is on your mind. Admins of third-party B2B blogs will be delighted to publish your posts, provided these posts are useful and offer new information. Then there are publishing platforms like Pulse. LinkedIn is where most of the VC guys are. And they hover over Pulse articles for new insights.

From your blog, people running VC firms will come to know about your achievements, methodology and innovations. You can even present case studies to bolster your claims. From case studies, investors can get a glimpse of your firm’s internal workflow and business process. If they are impressed by these, they may invest. Choose relevant topics, do a lot of research and offer solutions. In short, give VC firms all the reasons to notice you in the crowd.

Summing Up

In the era of content marketing, blogging is bound to help a business climb up the ladder of success. However, the efforts put into it must be precision-guided. The five tips shared here can make sure of that.

[“Source-smallbiztrends”]

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Online Marketing

7 Ways To Maximize Your Online Marketing Budget

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

7 Ways to Get the Most Out of Your Online Marketing Budget

I try to promote the idea that marketing isn’t an expense; it’s an investment. Every dollar you spend should be working toward earning you more than a dollar in benefits, whether that means more conversions, attracting more traffic, or just increasing your overall brand exposure.

In any case, throwing more money into your marketing and advertising strategy is almost sure to earn you more results if you allocate budget strategically. The key to achieving efficiency in a marketing campaign is to make sure you’re getting the full value out of every dollar you spend—no matter how big or small your budget is.

These are some of the best approaches to earn you the highest return from your marketing spend:

1. Use complementary strategies.

You can get more out of your marketing budget by distributing it among strategies that naturally complement each other. Rather than investing in two completely separate tactics, you can invest in two tactics that naturally enhance each other. For example, content marketing and SEO are two strategies that could feasibly be invested in separately; but if you invest in both of them, each will help the other see better results. In this case, content will give you more opportunities to build relevance for your target SEO keywords, and SEO will drive more traffic to your content so it gets more views, shares, and conversions.

2. Ditch what isn’t working.

This is a strategy that too many marketers are unwilling to follow. If you have your budget distributed evenly among three separate campaigns, and one is clearly getting inferior results compared to the others, don’t keep dumping your money into it—ditch it. There are some exceptions to this rule; some strategies, like SEO, take at least several months (depending on the competition) to fully develop. But for the most part, if you’re consistently seeing lackluster results from one of your investments, don’t invest any more money into it, even if its ROI is technically positive.

3. Repurpose your material.

Every marketing or advertising strategy you use will demand some type of core content or material. For example, in social media marketing, you’ll need short headlines or updates, along with on-site material to link to, and every ad you create will need a central message and a call to action. If you create new material every time you have a marketing need, you’ll end up in a constantly demanding cycle of creative effort. Instead, you can recycle content from one medium, and reuse it in other applications in the future.

4. Avoid overpaying.

Even if you take a mostly DIY approach, you’re still going to end up paying for some of your resources and services. For example, you might pay a graphic designer to help you finalize an ad design, or you might spend some money to boost one of your Facebook posts to a wider audience. When paying for services, do your research, and avoid overpaying; marketing services range from very cheap to very expensive. Sometimes, those cost fluctuations are justified. Other times, they’re completely unfounded. Look at each provider’s experience, the value you’re getting for the money, and all other options available to you.

5. Experiment.

If you’re seeing a positive ROI on a given strategy, that’s a good thing—but chances are, there’s another strategy out there that can give you an even higher ROI. For that reason, it’s vital that you’re willing to keep experimenting. Try different tactics, different content, and different audiences, and make sure you measure and compare the results you get. This is especially important when there are major changes in a given field, or when a new technology makes a previously inaccessible strategy available to you.

6. Target your audience effectively.

Every marketing strategy is more effective when it’s targeted specifically to the right audience. Many marketers, especially newcomers, make the mistake of “optimizing” marketing strategies to reach as many people as possible. There is some credence to the idea that reaching more people gives you more potential visitors and customers, but if your messages aren’t relevant, they aren’t going resonate, and it won’t matter how many people you end up reaching. Even if you’re working with large volumes of customers, all your messaging should be specifically targeted.

7. Trust the experts.

Finally, though you should spend your money wisely and frugally, it’s far more cost efficient in the long run to hire an expert who knows what they’re doing, rather than hiring a novice or trying to do the work yourself. Experts are going to have access to more resources, they’ll be able to operate more efficiently, and you’ll be able to hold them accountable for whatever results they get in your campaigns. Once you find an expert worth paying for, keep investing in them.

Spending more money on marketing isn’t always the best solution; sometimes, optimizing the money you’re already spending can earn you better results than a direct increase in cash flow. If followed consistently, these efficiency strategies should lead you to a more productive and higher-returning marketing approach, especially if you stick to them as your needs and budget increase.

Remain vigilant, and don’t spend any more money than necessary to see the results you want.

[“Source-forbes”]

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