Is Digital Marketing Excusable for Tech Start-Ups?
By Victoria Oladipo The world has become digital, and millions of individuals, businesses, companies around the world use digital marketing to establish relevance and generate revenues for themselves. And even if according to Emarsys, 42% of the world’s population use social media, (which in a way, explains how brands gain visibility on social media and earn much revenues), digital marketing is not another word for social media marketing, as many people think. Rather, it is a form of marketing that is only possible through the use of the internet, to sell products and services. Digital Marketing comprises different online marketing strategies that individuals/businesses take advantage of, to identify, build, and turn an audience to turn into paying customers for products or services. The strategies include: 1) Search engine optimization (SEO) 2) Search engine marketing (SEM) 3) Content marketing 4) Social Media Marketing (SMM) 5) Pay-per-click advertising (PPC) 6) Affiliate marketing 7) Email marketing There are numerous benefits to digital marketing. The most notable amongst all, is that it helps individuals/brands to identify, build and sell to their target audience at an affordable cost, compared to the traditional form of marketing. Having established the importance of digital marketing to the average individual/business, it is totally not out of place for tech startups to leverage on digital marketing, if they are looking to thrive in the digital space. ALSO READ: The Importance of Content Marketing For SMEs While it is understandable that many tech startups at inception are limited in resources and funds, and may be primarily focused on creating the best products with seamless user experience, without a digital marketing strategy in place, brand visibility, client acquisitions and revenue generating opportunities will turn out a mirage. Implementation of digital marketing strategies would not only help tech startups develop the right product/services, but also: help them target the right audience that are in need of their products/services determine the right pricing models improve brand visibility, etc. When new tech startups are launched, they get to compete with other existing brands/companies for the same target audience. These are brands/companies that offer the same product/service as theirs. Also, according to a recent survey by CB Insights, 20% startups fail because they got outcompeted. Hence, digital marketing helps new tech startups stand a chance of successful competition and survival in the digital space. And in cases where a tech startup introduces a new product or service, digital marketing is still needed to identify the target audience, establish and maintain a strong online presence, create a community of loyal customers that can be sold to on the long run. Needless to say, digital marketing is not only important at the early stages of a tech startup, but at every stage. In a world driven by ever-changing digital technology, any tech startup not looking to leverage digital marketing is doing a huge disservice to itself. Conclusively, owing to the fact that the digital marketing industry is always changing, it is imperative that tech startups are up-to-date with the most recent digital marketing trends, and also come up with digital marketing strategies that work, and help them stay ahead of any competition. You can send us a message to provide quality digital marketing services for your start-up.
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
These Mistakes can Kill Your Social Media Account
Mistakes happen very often on this social media space. Some people believe that growing a social media account to a reasonable amount takes only a few days. Others think social media is all about interaction, connecting with people and building relationships. Truth is, there are so many misconceptions with social media and what it does (or can do). What I do know is, you need a good strategy to grow and manage any social media account. ALSO READ: 5 Critical Benefits of Social Media Marketing for Businesses But first, what are those mistakes to avoid? Follow to unfollow: When you follow to unfollow, what exactly is the aim? What is the purpose of that one single action? Incase you didn’t know, when you keep doing this, you’re flouting the policies guiding the social media space, and this will gradually take a toll on your engagement. Ghosting: Ghosting on social media means inactivity. Simply put it as disappearing. Or in many cases it means an inconsistent presence on social media. Today you make one post, and the next time you’re seen active is 30 days later. Remember, the algorithm favors consistency and you need the algorithm on your side. Spammy comments: Now that you’ve decided to become active on social media, should there be any reason to force engagements by using bots to like and comment on posts? absolutely not. Doing this makes your social media account lose credibility and value. At the worst case, you may actually have your social media account blocked. Repeated content: Posted it once and it didn’t get traction, so you posted and kept posting it again? Well, what’s the assurance that would bring about the engagement you’re looking for? Your followers don’t need to hear from you every second. Give room for your content to travel far, be consistent and stick to a content time frame. Not being social: The best way to use social media is to be social. You’re supposed to have fun with the experience, share your journey, learn and inspire others. Yes, you can use social media to get a job, meet business professionals, or find the love of your life. The point is you should be social, find new ways to have fun and connect with amazing people. Follow us on social media to get all the good stuff we talk about: Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
8 Facebook Advertising Goals and What They Actually Mean
Facebook has recently updated their entire layout, the user interface looks more friendly, and the best part is the Ad Center on Facebook pages. Now, advertisers have a concise range of choices when it comes to running ads. In this article, you’ll learn 8 Facebook advertising goals, what they mean, and how best to use them for your next campaign. 8 Facebook advertising campaign goals What is a campaign goal? This simply means what action you want people to take when they see your advert. Realizing what your campaign goals are, is the first step you must take when creating a new campaign. ALSO READ: 6 Online Businesses You Can Start Now Get more messages This ad goal aims at getting people to send you messages on messenger. Facebook shows your advert to prospects who are more likely to require further information before they convert. So when you’re trying to sell a product and you want customers to send you private messages to discuss about the price, quality, or delivery of the product, get more messages campaigns are ideal. Build Your Business If you want people to learn more about your business, this option is your best bet. Facebook will display your advert to people with the same or likely interest as your business and directs them to a landing page. E.g. Through the learn more button. Get More Website Visitors Want more traffic to your blog, website or app? This the the ad goal you should go for. Your advert would be charged based on link clicks. Remember to optimize your landing page for conversion results. Boost a Post This is one of the most popular advertisement goals on Facebook. If your goal for that advert you’re about to run is to get likes, comments or shares, Facebook will show your advert to the maximum audience each day. In less than 5 clicks, you’re good to go. Boost an Instagram Post This also works like the Boost a Post option, but the difference here is that you can boost an Instagram post right on your Facebook page. This works when you’ve linked your Instagram account to your Facebook page. Get More Leads I’m such a huge fan of the lead generation goal because it is so easy to use and can be really versatile. When you create a lead generation form, people interested in your advert can fill the form (capturing their contact details like email addresses and phone numbers). In essence, you can use this ad goal to build your email list, drive downloads, or give exclusive access to discounts. Promote Your Page This objective is super straightforward. Promote your page and get more likes. Simple! This is only available for your Facebook page (Not available for Instagram). With this goal, you can optimize your Facebook page likes but you may be charged for impression or likes depending on your bid. Get More Calls This advert goal is pretty self-explanatory and serves its purpose. Great for promoting your business to get more calls from prospects interested in what your selling or the services you’re rendering. Develop a habit of testing out different campaigns to determine what works and what doesn’t. What advert goal would you be testing first?
Creating a Content Plan in 5 Easy Steps
As with most online activities, content creation involves a high level of creativity. I mean, you don’t just want to create something that is below standard because you want to meet your daily content task. This is where a content creation plan comes in. One amazing benefit of this is that it helps you create timeless content and ultimately, you become an effective creator. The internet of course gives everyone the free will to create and publish. So most people just create and publish. But you’re not just like most people, you’re different. And different people create different content. In this article, you’ll learn how to create a content plan in 5 simple steps. Shall we? RELATED: 7 Things That Make a Great Content LISTEN If you’re really going to succeed in the long term, you must pay attention to what people are saying in your niche. Listening to your audience can help you plan high-quality, effective and consistent content. When you listen, you can be inspired to create content that solves the pain points of your audience. SET YOUR GOALS If you’re not setting goals, you’re setting up to fail. For every content you create, there should be a goal set for it. Why are you creating this content? What does your brand stand for? How can your content be useful to others? These goals drive and motivate you to never lower your standards. CREATE YOUR KPI Measuring your successes helps you determine what types of content are working and the ones that aren’t. If you don’t evaluate and measure, you’ll never know IDENTIFY YOUR AUDIENCE Everyone is not your target audience (you’ve probably heard this before). Who is your target audience? Where do they meet? What kinds of content do they like? Identify your minimum viable group and serve them! CREATE YOUR CONTENT CALENDAR & AUTOMATE Of course, this is the last and final step. Using a content calendar and automating your content helps you stay up to date and it gives you the ability to never miss an important date. If you may have forgotten to post on certain days, an automated content calendar will solve that problem. If you manage several social media accounts, you can understand how overwhelming it can be when you’re doing everything manually. Automation saves you time. What else would you be adding to these steps?
Places to Learn Visual Storytelling for Free
Storytelling has now become more popular when it comes to content creation. It is always exciting to tell a story, what’s more interesting is doing so in a creative way. If you’re looking to enhance your visual storytelling skills, let’s get on with it. SKILL SHARE There are so many free courses on Skill Share to help you find and explore your creativity. COURSERA Coursera is popular not only because they collaborate with leading universities, but also because they offer tons of free courses for visual and digital storytelling. edX On edX you can learn about storytelling with online courses and engaging lessons! Whether you’re a digital marketer or a graphic designer, there’s a free course for you SEE ALSO: 5 Free Digital Marketing Certifications Canva Design School As we already know, Canva is a great resource for creative visuals and graphics. But what you should also know is that Canva has a design school dedicated to help you make beautiful designs. ALISON Get free visual storytelling courses on Alison to sharpen your skills. Not only are these courses courses on demand, but they are engaging and resourceful. The internet is filled with lots of free resources to help you grow in your storytelling skills. Which other platforms should we add to the list?
7 Things That Make a Great Content
There are certain important things that go into creating great content. We are going to be sharing 7 ingredients to help you get your content creation game on 100%. Sounds like a great idea? Let’s dive in! MAKE YOUR CONTENT FINDABLE That piece of content is totally worthless if nobody finds it. One of the best ways to make sure your content (especially if you’re a writer) can be easily seen is using high relevant keywords FOCUS ON ORIGINALITY Original content will always thrive and go a long way, especially for Google ranking. Copying content from other people will water down your creativity. Stop thinking of copying, and start focusing on originality. GREAT CONTENTS ARE SHAREABLE Sharing contents means people like it or people have learnt something from it and that’s why they share it for others to see. Maximize the potential of your content by making it relatable, fun and entertaining so people can share. ADD IMAGES AND VIDEO The internet is large. People learn differently. But visual contents helps people of all types to learn better and faster. Use pictures, videos or graphics to explain your point. GREAT CONTENT PROVIDES VALUE Create educative contents that teaches and inspires your audience, something they find interesting and valuable. Contents that will inform and benefit your audience now and even in the future. GREAT CONTENT CAN BE USER-GENERATED User-Generated content is often more successful than brand-generated contents, because people connect more and can relate more with other people. Sometimes, brands are not. RELATED: Difference between Copywriting and Content Writing BE INTENTIONAL & RESULTS-ORIENTED Don’t create subpar content. There must be an intention for that piece of content and a plan in place to achieve that goal. Ask yourself relevant questions before creating that content. And lastly, track your progress. Will you be incorporating these tips in your content? Let us know!
6 Online Businesses You Can Start Now
It is safe to say that you are keen on beginning an online business today? It might seem like an overwhelming task that you can’t do, however the internet has opened up a ton of alternatives for you to work for yourself. Here are a few online businesses that you can begin right away! Freelance Writing Freelance writing and different types of writing have become the foundation of the internet. In addition to the fact that readers want solid content, entrepreneurs are hoping to recruit writers like there’s no tomorrow. You can without much of a stretch find paid writing gigs just by searching out on the internet! Business & Strategy Coaching Is your strength in helping different organizations succeed? Business coaching may be your specialty. Where numerous entrepreneurs know about their industry, they may require some assistance with different parts of maintaining a business. Advertising, Sales, Web Strategy and that’s just the beginning. On the off chance that you have strong results and business experience, you can rake in some serious cash helping individuals land the business position they need. Virtual Assistant Everybody experiences difficulty completing the entirety of their work and monitoring what’s going on. A virtual assistant’s task can earn you a great deal of cash along these lines. With the expansion in online business entrepreneurs, as their businesses develop – they wind up requiring help! That is the place being a VA can come in. Responding to messages, assisting with client care, even social media. Working hours can be adaptable and you can without much of a stretch work from home. Selling E-books Regardless of whether you compose an eBook or sell another person’s you can rake in boatloads of cash doing so with the popularity of Kindle’s and different types. You can utilize online platforms like Lulu.com or even Canva.com to plan your own special digital book to sell. This is an extraordinary business to begin with low overhead since delivery of the program is totally digital! No compelling reason to print a book or have stock close by – or even stress over delivery. Social Media Manager In case you’re so in love with Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter – why not get paid to play via social media? With software like Buffer, you can without much of a stress oversee clients social media accounts in 1 hour out of each month. In the event that you can make content individuals want to interact with and blend it with the perfect measure of business promotions – organizations wouldn’t imagine anything better than to outsource this work to an expert. You can work from home or even on your smart phone. ALSO READ: 5 Critical Benefits of Social Media Marketing for Business Graphic Designing Do you have an ability making everything graphic and visual? Digital craftsmanship that can be found over the web and on each site – which implies there’s a high demand for this kind of service. In the event that you need to share your creativity to the world, offering visual or graphic design services may be ideal for you. Would you be trying any of these online businesses? These various services can be run effectively from the internet. You simply need to build up a degree of skills sufficiently high to offer the support that individuals anticipate. Having samples of past work in the specialty that you are hoping to begin an online business in can be useful yet in some cases you have to take the jump and begin working before you can get samples.
5 Critical Benefits of Social Media Marketing for Every Business
Social media marketing requires both strategy and creativity. While it might appear to be overpowering, its significance can’t be overemphasized. It’s critical to such an extent that 97% of advertisers are utilizing social media and 78% of salesmen surpass their peers by utilizing social media for their business. In addition, its advantages reach out beyond expanding sales. Be that as it may, not all organizations know about the advantages of social media marketing. Truth be told, half of private companies aren’t utilizing social media to advance their business. That is a disturbing number. Considerably, all the more concerning is that an extra 25% don’t plan to utilize social media later either. Using Social Media to Grow Your Business Create a conversation around your brand: A solid online marketing strategy will create discussion about your brand image, products, and partnerships. Take this model from PlayStation. A basic post saying congrats to Naughty Dog (the organization behind the new computer game Uncharted 4) for its success created feedback on the game. In doing such, they got a lot of feedback about their product. They additionally got individuals talking. Fans were having authentic discussions, all encouraged by social media. Tip: Concentrate on sharing content that normally creates discussion. A portion of those ways are to: Give shout outs to different organizations you interact and work with. Request feedback about your products. Pose open ended questions, at that point let the audience answer to get them effectively included. 2. Develop a brand recognition Picking up brand acknowledgment is one of any business’ most significant promoting objectives. That is on the grounds that buyers need to purchase brands they perceive. Fortunately, web based life takes into consideration simple and compelling brand building. Online life has an advantage over conventional media since it can get your image before individuals significantly more rapidly and without any problem. Besides, it gets your crowd taking a gander at your image in any event, when they aren’t contemplating your image or item. Tip: Pay attention regarding your profile and cover photos. An incredible method to create brand acknowledgment is to put your logo frequently yet strategically. You need to ensure that it’s not overwhelming or distracting. ALSO READ: TOP 10 Tools for Digital Marketers 3. Tell Your Brand Story Utilizing social media is an incredible method to share your image’s strategic brand stories. Viable stories can greatly affect your brand’s image. Your brand story can be basic or broad relying upon what you think will be best. Take this Starbucks post for instance. It essentially recounts the story of somebody finding a new job at a recruitment fair, and it successfully helped their personal image. It has just one image, however the story is effective and clear. Tip: Share stories of individuals who use your products or services. In the event that they give you extraordinary reviews, share it! It’ll spread the message that your product or whatever you’re selling is powerful enough for somebody to give you a positive review. 4. Use Social Listening to Connect with Your Audience Social listening is the demonstration of checking social discussions around specific points. It causes you comprehend what’s critical to your crowd and distinguish patterns your intended interest group is following. You’ll find out about what they’re battling with, which can assist you with making content tending to those torment focuses. You can likewise recognize the tone and language that your intended interest group employments. Tip: Make it a part of your every day schedule to do some social listening and see what individuals are talking about in your industry. In the event that you need to take your social listening to the next level, check out Mention (a social listening device). 5. Build Customer Loyalty and Retention What is better than building brand loyalty and retention for free? Customers follow and engage with the brands they appreciate. Be what’s fascinating is that 53% of clients who follow your business are probably going to be faithful and loyal to your business completely. It’s a conspicuous direct connection: If customers follow you, they are bound to pick you versus your competition. Besides, in the event that they’re loyal customers, they’ll increment your traffic. Tip: Make certain to keep your faithful customers with joy and gladness. Here are a couple of suggestions: Offer promotion codes for discounts through social media to your audience (while staying aware of Facebook’s advertising rules). Ask open-ended questions that allows your followers to answer. Giveaway affordable things, for example, stickers, patches, shirts, sun-shades, caps, and Koozies that will establish a dependable connection.
TOP 5 Free Digital Marketing Certifications
To stay up with the latest online trends, it is critical to continue learning new skills. There are a ton of online courses and certifications accessible online today. A considerable lot of these courses and certifications are free for advanced marketers who are hoping to excel with their own personal brand in the continually developing digital sphere. To turn into a top candidate for your next digital marketing work, certifications give you an edge for HR managers searching for top talents like you. This is why you ought to get an advanced certification to show your skills. Try not to fall behind on your digital marketing skills. Exploiting digital marketing certifications can be utilized to hone your skills and guarantee you a top professional for that new position. Everything tallies when you are building your own personal brand Here are some of the absolute best digital marketing certifications you ought to explore to improve your credibility and notoriety in digital marketing. Top 5 Certifications for Digital Marketers To guide you toward the top digital marketing certifications that are readily available online, We have compiled a list of the certifications that would awesome on your resume and LinkedIn profile. Google Analytics Certification Google Analytics is one of the numerous digital marketers can use to gauge the development of site traffic. It is very easy to use for novices and incredible for advanced marketers. Google Analytics has become a basic to digital marketers as a free tool as part of their digital marketing tool kit. However, becoming an advanced specialist can be overwhelming given how extensive the tool is for is for users. At the point when you become Google Analytics certified, you will get powerful at using Google Analytics inside your organization and can help other people utilize the tool. To become certified in Google Analytics, you should take the Google Analytics test. Google suggests you have hands-on experience utilizing Google Analytics however it isn’t required. You can check the study materials and take the test for absolutely free. In the event that you don’t finish the test, you can re-take it again in seven days. COST: Free Google Adwords Certification Google AdWords is incredible in the digital space. Today, digital advertising is quite a lot more, it has simply evolved. Google AdWords has gotten powerful for organizations hoping to boost the return on investments on their digital marketing campaigns. The Google AdWords certification is an expert authentication for individuals ready to show expertise on Google AdWords. The certification is substantial for one year. To become Google AdWords certified, you have to pass two of the AdWords accreditation tests. These tests incorporates the AdWords Fundamentals test and one of the accompanying tests: Search Advertising, Display Advertising, Mobile Advertising, Video Advertising, or Shopping Advertising. See portrayals of each underneath. COST: Free Google Fundamentals of Digital Marketing Certification Master the basics of digital marketing with Google’s free Interactive Advertising Bureau-accredited course. There are 26 modules to explore, all created by Google trainers, packed full of practical exercises and real-world examples to help you turn knowledge into action. COST: Free HubSpot Inboud Marketing Certification HubSpot through HubSpot Academy additionally offers other free preparation and certifications to assist you with getting better at digital marketing and advertisements. Another certification you should take is the free HubSpot Inbound Marketing Certification. This course will assist you to better comprehend inbound marketing best practices, autonomous of the HubSpot platform. The HubSpot inbound marketing certification is extraordinary for advanced advertisers in light of the fact that inbound advertising examines how to attract customers, convert leads, gain customers, and pleasure them into becoming promoters. This four and a half course contains 11 classes that spread the essentials of inbound marketing or “pull advertising” to draw in likely customers to your website. COST: Free HubSpot Content Marketing Certification Content is the final deciding factor in today’s digital world and content marketing is a center pillar of a successful digital marketing strategy. So becoming HubSpot content marketing certified is something worth being thankful for to accomplish for your profession and your organization. All advertisers today ought to have composing and relational abilities and see how to construct versatile and repeatable procedures to actualize and execute on their substance promoting system. HubSpot’s Content Marketing certification is a three and half hour course. It covers the various parts of content marketing technique, including storytelling, content ideation, content creation system, content repurposing, content promotion and examination. COST: Free In conclusion, digital marketing certifications gives you a competitive advantage. When you add your certifications, make sure you include the dates as at when you received them and when they expire. You may also want to include your new certifications in your LinkedIn profile, on your website and online social media profiles such as your Twitter and Instagram bio. There is a range of digital marketing certifications to choose from today, both free and paid and they can help you to stand out from the crowd. Digital marketing certifications can help you excel in your current job and/or find your dream job. What digital marketing certifications would you like to add to this list?
