The Importance of Strategic Partnerships for small Businesses
Strategic partnerships are mutually beneficial for both your small business and the partner, especially when both businesses are not competing.
The Second Edition of The Marketing Experience Summit Kicks Off!
It’s finally happening – The Marketing Experience Summit is back – Bigger, Better & Virtual! The marketing space may feel like it is getting fiercer and competitive, audience behaviors are changing rapidly and it may feel like your ad spend budget can not get anywhere fluffier. Only the marketers who adapt and change their tactics will stay ahead of the curve. In 2020, we had seasoned speakers at the summit who shared profound knowledge and skill-sharpening ideas. This year, our range of speakers are marketing experts from renowned organizations. DIGINEXT 2021: The Marketing Experience Summit is a one-day FREE virtual event led by industry professionals with proven track record. Covering topics ranging from Digital Marketing, Content Creation, Growth, Brand Communications, Content Marketing Strategies and Digital Marketing Trends for 2022. Each session offers valuable advice to skyrocket your marketing initiatives and improve your existing marketing channels. At the end of this event, you will have loads of tactics you can implement in your marketing campaigns to generate quality results. Reserve your seat HERE.
The Fifth Story
The Fifth Story: Who We Are The Fifth Alley was founded with one mission in mind: demystify the core essence of marketing for businesses. Ours is a story of greater impact – becoming the leading marketing partner, fully committed to serving Startups, SMEs & Entrepreneurs. We are driven by empathy and take pride in providing the best solution possible to small and medium businesses. We are constantly seeking new ways to demonstrate that small businesses can be profitable, scalable, and still have the best interest of their customers at heart. And to achieve this, we believe it would take creativity, empathy, and good planning. Our team are exceptionally talented marketing professionals, who over time have worked with some of the best in the industry – cutting across real estate, EdTech, entertainment, fashion, art, tourism, and consulting – having created, developed, and executed winning marketing strategies for businesses across the African continent. We aim to serve business globally and we are proud to say that we are fully equipped with the right ideas to scale any business to the very top. Our founder believes that businesses can reach their goals in the most cost-effective and measurable way using cutting-edge marketing solutions and this is what The Fifth Alley is building. We will tell the stories of businesses, build stronger and authentic relationships, and create lasting memories. Marketing shouldn’t be complicated; we’ll show you!
Video Marketing: An Important Part of SEO
Videos have always played an important role in Google ranking and visibility. For such a long time, organic search results have been showing video thumbnails and this means a higher brand visibility and more website clicks. So how does video Help SEO? Now that we are talking about organic visibility for Google rankings, building a strong video marketing strategy is now more important than ever before. When you search for something on Google, videos now appear all over the search result pages. You can find rich video elements and even video carousels for every Google search these days. Apart from increasing your organic visibility, videos have been found to also boost engagement on your site. This has been found to be a powerful ranking factor because Google wants its users to visit and like each page that is returned in search results and to continue engaging with the site instead of just leaving immediately. In other words, if you put a useful video on your site this can indirectly help your Google ranking and get users to like and trust your site. Some ideas for video content to increase your organic SEO These actionable ideas will help you to create meaningful video content for your business that would help with everything that we have discussed above. Collaboration videos: These can be interviews webinars Q&A sessions or even video reviews. For every time you feature someone, that person could be an influencer on your video, you are tapping into their existing community and trust. The beauty of collaborating with people for creating video content is that you can use their authority and thought leadership to generate views and conversations. Customer videos: Tap into your loyal existing customers by setting up an easy competition, encouraging them to submit unboxing videos, video testimonials, video reviews and offer the rewards to the best efforts. You can also spotlight your customers and recognize their efforts by giving them a shout out. Host events or webinars: Every business out there is trying to actively engage their users by hosting webinars or events. These can make great long-form video content that can boost your brand’s SEO ranking and engage potential customers. You can record, organize, monetize and publicize your event. Related: Follows these secrets to make viral videos. Key takeaways: Videos will give you a great deal of visibility on Google’s organic search results. By creating useful video content, you can boost brand awareness. Videos can also improve your site engagement and increase your organic rankings. Examples of video content to add to your content strategy are interviews event and customer videos.
Why Blogging is Still Relevant in 2021
Everyone these days keep asking the same questions Are blogs still important in 2021? Is it relevant to spend time, money and effort in creating a blog in today’s social media space? The answer to all of these questions the answer is yes! But first let us make sure we note these three things: Blogging is about long-term – It is about creating meaningful relationships that will pay off over time. Blogging is about sharing topics that are interesting and can add value to your audience – Simply put that blogging is the ability to give valuable advice over the internet. Blogging, of course takes time to create long form posts, but at the end of the day, it is about talking to your customers and building conversations. The truth is, customers are now very smart. They do not have so much time to spend on content that do not add value to their lives. Only when you offer your readers something valuable to read that you’ll be able to get their attention and start a conversation. Creating unique content Never ever make the mistake of repeating the same content every time. Your readers would know and that would definitely get them irritated. So how do you create unique content? It is simple! Create content with your own vibe. Share your experiences and your expertise. Share knowledge with people that are hungry for information. Don’t forget to read a lot. There are a lot of unique ideas for your blog that you can get from reading. You need search engine optimization For SEO, blogs are still relevant till tomorrow. Of course there might be other ways to increase your SEO ranking, but building a Blog is one of the easiest ways to improve your SEO score. How are blogs able to do this? Blogs help rank your website for specific keywords. Churning out blog post with different keywords can allow you to optimize your website and attract various audiences. If you are a sports company, you may want to rank for keywords like “top 10 footballers of 2020” or “highest paying athletes of the decade” on several blog posts. This makes sure that you are really penetrating your target audience. Become better at Copywriting One of the most valuable skills to learn in 2021 is copywriting. If you can persuade people by the things that you write, you will never lack money. You will be able to write compelling sales copy. You will be able to send emails that get high open rate and responses that you want. You will be able to convince customers to make a certain purchase at a certain time. I need you to spend time learning copywriting because it would be a good investment that you can make for yourself. In summary, blogging is not dead. It just keeps evolving. It may be harder now because everyone is literally trying to fight for the number one spot on Google, but there are so many benefits with blogging, and I think if you don’t have a blog today, you need to take a first step and create one. If you do things the right way you will see growth in 2021 and beyond.
How to Build a Social Media Strategy in 2021
We’ve seen so many businesses going into social media abruptly. They have a basic idea on what to do on social media, but they simply do not understand how to begin or where to even start from. Some businesses just employ an intern and give them access to the company’s social media accounts for them to do whatever they want, because they are young and perceived to be social media savvy. However, we’ve gone past that stage of posting on social media and hoping it gets attention. Every business must have a well-detailed social media marketing strategy that creates a pathway for growth that’s inevitable. Because if you don’t, your competitors will prey on your weaknesses and garner more traction and engagement than you. Here is our 5-step social media strategy for businesses in 2021. 1. Set a realistic social media goals A problem most businesses face on social media is that they spend so much time setting unrealistic targets. Today, they’ll like to hit 1,000,000 views on YouTube, tomorrow they want to get 100,000 followers on Instagram While this may be possible, does this fit well into your business planning as a whole? Ideally, you should set strategic goals that can complement your overall business objectives. Make sure your goals are: – Specific – Measurable – Attainable – Relevant – Time-bound The SMARTer your goals are, the more easy it will be for to meet them. 2. Decide your social media target audience One common mistake made by businesses on social media is that businesses often think everyone is their target audience and everyone will like them. False. Social media isn’t a merry-go-round where it’s all fun and stuff. Look back at the goals you set in step 1. There is no point having an audience who can’t engage with your content or help you meet your business goals. Most times, you want your social media followers to be prospective customers. So you need to have a target group (age, location, gender, interest, etc) Check how competitors are using social media A lot of businesses don’t just operate on their own. Of course, there will be competitors who have the same or similar business with yours who also use social media. You’ll need to know what they are doing. What are their content types? Whom are they targeting? What social media platform are they trying to dominate? Feel free to conduct a competitor analysis to help you get a better understanding of their strengths and weakness. By doing this, you’ll be able to understand what potential customers expect from business in your niche. Tools like sprout social and SEMRush can be used to spy on your competitors and find out their best performing content. This will inspire you to create and share similar, but better content. Plan the types of content you will share To be successful on social media, you definitely need high-quality content. Content that organically gets traction and engagement. One mistake business make is that they always thing it’s appropriate to share excessive sales content. Nobody likes being sold to, remember that. People are on social media to have great conversations from content that inspires them. People are on social media to be social – they never intended to be bamboozled with promotional content. Therefore, you need to strike a balance with the content you share on social media. Let there be a mixture of entertaining and educative content, with a very little percentage of sales content included. You can also share user-generated content, so that your audience feels more in tune with your business. By doing all of these things, you start to understand the types of content that works best for your target audience. Create a social media budget Let’s be factual. You need a realistic budget to grow your social media accounts. Because as with other forms of marketing, social media marketing is quite essential for most organizations. Therefore, you should allocate a budget to it. There’s absolutely no way the success of your social media will happen without having some some of budget to run promotions. It is all part of the social media strategy. What you should not is that you don’t need to spend more than your business earns. Make sure you have a KPI for each social media account, and calculate your return on investment (ROI), bearing in mind the goals you set out earlier in your strategy. Just make sure you consider how much you intend to spend on all your digital marketing channels. Then ask yourself how much of that budget you are prepared to devote to social media. ALSO READ: 8 Facebook Advertising Goals and What They Actually Mean
Product Marketing vs Product Management: Pros and Cons
Product marketing and product management are two distinct roles that often get people so confused. From starting raging debates, to mixing up roles and asking “Who’s job is this?” Some organizations have done a great job in differentiating the job duties and reducing friction between both job titles. Let’s clarify the roles Product marketing is focused on the current products while working on the next products. Think of it as a building mindset – product marketers are either trying to figure out how to sell more of what’s available in the portfolio of current products, or planning to launch new products into the market. This paints the true picture of job responsibility for the product marketer. Product management is focused on developing new products and future products. They work together with product marketing to plan and launch products. They are also researching and keeping up with trends on what the future will bring. This also paints the big picture of responsibility for the product manager. Product managers focuses on tomorrow. They create and deliver the idea behind future products. Product marketers focuses on achieving the business goals for current products and give guidance for launching next products. ALSO READ: Effective strategies that can help boost your career Pros of product marketers One of the primary advantages of product marketing is that you can focus on what the consumer needs. The products you produce are very likely to be what your business is passionate about. Product marketers can focus on making the best product at the best possible price and and consumers will be literally happy. Another advantage of this is that product marketers can develop a solid reputation for providing quality products in the marketplace. As product markers launch and promote new products, they can create loyalty among customers because of the high quality of the product. Cons of product marketers One of the disadvantages of product marketing is that your customers can feel alienated – When product markers focus only on the product and do not pay attention to the customer, they can leave some customers behind. Not only do product marketers need to create quality products, they also need to match it up to a target market. Product marketers who do not spend time catering to their target market, will be leaving sales on the table. Pros of product managers One of the best things about being a product manager is that you get to exercise your creativity and stay ahead of competitors with content and value. As a product manager, you get to align your unique personality with your team to execute a common goal. Here, you will understand difficult customer problems and create the perfect solutions to these problems. Product managers enjoy driving product strategies and marketing specifications. Enjoy the process of balancing new, practical and profitable ideas. Cons of product managers Overcoming the limitations on budget is one of the worse things about being a product manager. As a product manager, learning soft skills to work with everyone requires a lot of time. Learning the art of communication comes with the role. One aspect you’ll certainly not enjoy is the expectations that product managers are also technical and shouldn’t just focus on the bigger picture and market needs, but the product alone. Accountability – product managers need to get used to being accountable for things out of their control. In summary, let us be mindful that product marketing isn’t the same as product management and vice versa.
Follow These Secrets to Make Viral Video Content
What if there’s some special formula that can help you create a viral video that surprises your audience? *Stares into the open space* What if you could discover that special recipe that gets your videos trending over and over again? I can say for a fact that content creators as well as small business owners have been searching high and low for that magic formula that will cause a transformative change to the way they create and publish videos. First off, what exactly is a viral video? Have you come across that video from doggface that went viral on TikTok, and made its way to Instagram, Twitter and Facebook? It was short, sweet and quite creative! His success today is really paying off and we can all agree that viral video changed his life. Viral videos tend to get attention so very fast and are shared so many times on social media, reaching a massive audience who may never have seen your content before. In some cases, international publications pick up these viral videos and that is when it starts to spread like wildfire. So, how can you make a viral video? Okay! This is the hard but interesting part. Some videos go viral organically, others take a lot of work and planning. Creating a viral video is like painting. Having the right colors, making the right strokes are like the important elements to getting it right – but you’ll struggle a few times when starting out. As you move along, you get better at using your equipment and master it’s uniqueness – the painting starts to come alive till you make a masterpiece. ALSO READ: 8 Content Ideas for Instagram Reels #Know your audience This goes further to say that you should also know what your audience wants. In most cases, businesses create videos to educate their viewers about new launches and features. What matters is the concept of the video and how it relates to the everyday human. When you create relatable videos, that resonates so deeply with your audience, you can guarantee the success of that video. #Focus on one message Make it simple, clear and concise. These are the kind of videos that works wonders. Because when it comes to creating highly sharable content, your message must be clear from the onset. So before starting, define what your video is all about and focus on getting that message across as distinct as possible. #User powerful storytelling Use the power of storytelling to create strong emotional connection. Your video can portray a challenge you’re facing and how you overcame them and got successful. Viewers can see how you fall, but you stand up and try again. Through powerful storytelling, it gives viewers the affirmation to keep watching every second. In summary, your video can present a problem and then showcase a quick solution. #Keep it short and sweet You know how they say people on social media have very short attention span? In fact, this study by Microsoft corporation says that the human attention is now less than that of a goldfish. So this means our attention is increasingly in demand. Literally everyone on the internet is fighting for their share of the human attention. Just like social media, viral videos are disruptive. Nobody ever goes looking for viral videos on social media. They simply appear on your feed and grabs your attention. This is why short videos are highly effective. #Offer value You need to focus on giving something valuable to your audience. Ensure that every content you put out there is geared towards “giving”. In everything you share with your audience, go with an attitude to give value, not with an attitude of just getting. This is the right attitude, right mindset. Videos with potential to go viral are intrinsically useful to your audience. So whether you’re entertaining, educating or informing, just make sure your videos are super helpful to those who watch it. Summary Use these secrets to create evergreen video contents. With serious work, creativity and a dash of luck, you’ll go viral soon and very soon! Share this article if you found it useful 🙂
20 Steps to Building The Perfect Online Business
When starting a new business online, it can be quite challenging and rewarding at the same time. Sometimes, the whole process might look simple, but you need to try and narrow it down to a couple of steps to understand it better. The 20 steps highlighted below are very necessary for both online, and offline businesses (you can skip some part if it doesn’t relate). In general, these steps are all relevant and you should possibly take note on the ones that suits best to your kind of business. Related: 6 Online Businesses You Can Start Now. Be Motivated – This is the first step to becoming a successful entrepreneur. If you’re reading this article, there’s a great chance you’ll end up becoming one. Get the required skills – You absolutely do not need a university degree to start up a business, but you do need to equip yourself and be aware of the experiences and skills involved in owning a business. Come up with an idea – In this part, you need to brainstorm ideas that have the potential of becoming a full scale business. Research about this idea – Create questionnaires and surveys, ask questions. Heck, surf the internet to get the answers that you seek. Create a business plan – Now that you’re in full swing of launching your business, you need to create a business plan that includes all the relevant details, what your competitors are doing, your target audience etc. Scout for potential clients – Be on the look out for people and businesses that can buy from you or partner with you. Try to at least get prospective clients before spending any money. Register your business name – It’s a simple, yet necessary step. Establish a unique brand. Find out what makes your business unique, and develop a brand around it. This should be coherent on your website and on social media as well. Launch a website – As soon as you can, establish an online presence by launching a website for your brand. Develop a social media marketing plan – This is just as important as anything else. A solid social media marketing plan will drive your business to grow. Create a test product or service – Feel free to call it a prototype or a beta. By creating a sample, you are giving your audience a chance to test, you get insights before officially releasing the product. Establish key partnerships – Reach out to like-minded individuals, contractors, vendors and suppliers who will agree to work with you and help your business grow. Create company culture guidelines – Create some guidelines for your business, and employ people who will adhere to them. Start selling – Go all out and start selling your products in droves. Network online and offline – Make it a duty to meet people on social media and in person. You simply don’t know who will be a new customer or partner. Use a lead magnet to attract new customers – You want to get new customers as fast as possible and to do this, you need to come up with a lead magnet – a free item that will be attractive to potential customers. Invest in automation software – Make sure to improve and automate whatever you can, to give you more time to focus on growing your business and make your customers happier. Keep learning about your industry – Don’t stop learning and researching to stay ahead of the curve. Reach out to competitors, attend industry conferences, and embrace partnerships. Become a thought leader – Grow your own personal branding and establish yourself as an authority in your niche by speaking at events, hosting webinars and writing articles. Track and Evaluate your progress and keep tweaking – Keep track of your progress and evaluate your results at intervals. This is to determine where you are versus where you ought to be. Make necessary changes as your business grows and learn from your mistakes. What else would you add to this list?
Easy Ways to Monetize Your Instagram Account
Over the past one year, we’ve seen Instagram make exciting changes to its platform. From being able to invite multiple persons to a live session, to launching reels, Instagram shopping and a few other things. So, here are 3 easy ways to grow and monetize your Instagram account. #1 – Become an Instagram Influencer Your unique brand preposition, content type, audience, and niche can really determine if you’ll succeed at influencing. As an influencer, you’ve become a person that naturally drives conversations around topics. You’ve got the backing of your community, by building trust and increasing engagement. No brand can really compete with that. This is why brands partner with influencers to tap into that trust and engagement influencers have with their audiences. Becoming an influencer means that you can work with brands and create sponsored content for them. Share reviews on products or services, drive engagement through contest, or any other creative activity you can put forward. Because these types of partnerships with brands are obviously sponsored, make sure you’re not over doing it, otherwise you will lose you audience trust. How do you plan to charge as an influencer? – Well that will depend on the deliverables you’ve set out to achieve with the brand. #2 – Create Your Own Instagram Shop Instagram has attracted all kinds of creators to its platform – so you’re not just going to see pictures of people on vacation or at parties, you’ll also stumble on pictures that display items for sale. Products? Services? Merch? All of these can be sold on Instagram. If your plan is to sell several things, I strongly suggest that you set up an Instagram shop. It’s an easy integration that allows you add product tags to your Instagram stories and posts so that people can easily shop for those items right there on Instagram. Remember, this only works on an Instagram business account. Make sure you have an approved Facebook shop, link your Facebook page to your Instagram account and have it all set up for free. #3 – Become a Coach Coaching is one of the most profitable business idea on Instagram. Having a beautifully laid out Instagram feed gives you the leverage to attract more followers, increase your audience size and even reach more potential clients. Coaching has so many positive effects for people. Once you portray yourself as someone with valuable skills, knowledge and experience in a particular niche, you can help others identify and develop their own skills. As an Instagram coach, you’ll create paid coaching sessions and work with people closely. ALSO READ: How to influence other people successfully.
