“Influence will lead marketing efforts by 2020. It’s the most effective form of advertising there is, and when coupled with a solid contest strategy, no TV or FB ad buy can even compare.” – Ted Coine.
Imagine a situation where a popular blogger is flaunting her brand new designer outfit on Instagram, using a quirky hashtag. Now think of a TV commercial, advertising the same outfit. Which one do you think will grab more attention? At a time when TV ads have become more like a background noise, the answer is obvious – it is the former.
Influencer Marketing is all about influencing the right kind of target audience in a subtle yet impactful way by letting well-known influencers talk about your brand on various social media platforms or otherwise. An influencer is someone who has a set number of loyal followers and can persuade people with their opinions and actions. He/She can be a blogger, social activist, politician, film star, comedian, cricketer etc.
WHY INFLUENCER MARKETING?
A recent study revealed 84% marketers plan on executing at least one influencer marketing campaign for their brand during the next 12 months. Know why your brand needs this form of marketing below:
1. It Establishes Credibility
“An influencer promoting and amplifying your message, your brand, to their audience means credibility, it means additional reach and it means you get an outsized modifier to the conversion process- Rand Fishkin.”
Influencer Marketing not only builds credibility but also increases your brand’s authenticity. People believe what they hear and especially if it is coming from someone whom they can rely upon. Influencers give your brand authenticity because they have certain credibility attached to themselves which they bring to the brand they endorse. These influencers are generally known to give honest opinions and as a result build trust among audiences. It is therefore a more credible source of advertising because it involves personal opinions.
Take a look at how Rebook used Influencer Marketing to build trust among audiences:
To strengthen its brand tagline, #FitnessIsForEveryone, Reebok India teamed up with Chetan Bhagat, an influential writer, to promote its campaign ‘Reboot 100’ – a 100-day transformation challenge with a diet and fitness plan designed for Bhagat. This campaign was a hit as instead of a quintessential model or a movie star, they chose a writer to undergo the transformation.
2. It Targets The Right Kind Of Audiences:
Before you start any business, you need to get your target audience down pat. Who do you want to serve? Who will your product/service benefit the most? Don’t worry about the rest.”- Kevin J.Donaldson.
No matter how creatively you market your brand, if it’s not targeted to the appropriate audience, all your efforts will go in vain. Influencer Marketing plays a very important role as these influencers are experts in niche fields and have a unique set of followers.
For example, a well-known fashion designer will have a completely different set of followers than a food blogger. Therefore, it is important to hire the right kind of influencers to promote your brand.
Here is how Amazon used appropriate influencers to reach the right people:
To increase Kindle Paperwhite sales, Amazon India carried out a campaign called #CrazyForReading in which they featured two of India’s bestselling authors – Amish Tripathi
and Ashwin Sanghi who talked about how Kindle helped them fulfil their love of reading.
It was a clever marketing strategy to choose two renowned authors as it expanded the brand’s reach by targeting the right kind of audience.
3. IT HELPS THE BRAND’s SEO
“A Search Engine can determine who shall live and who shall die”- Mark Goodman.
For your brand to be in the limelight, its search ranking plays a very important role. Influencer Marketing will definitely increase your brand’s SEO ranking as influencers create intriguing content and promote it on various social media platforms. This increases your brand’s user engagement signals, traffic and visibility.
Influencer marketing not only helps in building backlinks through content-driven campaigns but also increases brand awareness.
Consumers trust recommendations from influencers more than any other type of branded content. For example, if a brand offering tech products like mobiles and laptops hires a famous tech blogger to promote it on different social media platforms, chances are high that the brand’s visibility will improve drastically.
Instead of spending excessively on commercial ads, let real people voice their opinions on your brand/ products. Influencer marketing spreads the word about your brand not just cost-effectively, but also optimally to the right audience. It not only results in twice the sales of paid advertising but also has a 37% higher retention rate among audiences. To know more about influencer marketing and how it can help you reach out to the right audience, leave us a message and we will get back to you.
“Advertising is saying you’re good. PR is getting someone else to say you’re good.”
Public Relation (PR) means building brand awareness, enhancing brand reputation and persuading people by generating publicity. In other words, it means building a beneficial relationship between your brand (be it an organisation or a public figure) and the target audience via different media of communication. However, unlike commercial advertisements, in PR, publicity is done via a third person, i.e, either by Journalists (Traditional PR) or by Influencers (Digital PR). But in both cases, the main motive is to highlight the USP of your brand to grab attention.
THE SHIFT FROM TRADITIONAL TO DIGITAL PR
“PR is a mix of journalism, psychology, and lawyering- It’s an ever changing and always interesting landscape.”-Ronn Torossian.
Change is the only constant. From writing mass press releases to typing the perfect email pitches; the PR industry has witnessed a drastic change in recent times. At present, there are two kinds of Public Relations, Traditional PR and Digital PR. They are differentiated mostly on the mode of dissemination.
In today’s dynamic times, it is very important to be adaptive and understand what kind of PR strategy will work best for your brand. Here are the prime differences between Online and Offline PR Strategies:
1. Communication Channels:
Traditional PR communication is a one way process whereas digital PR communication is a two way process. In traditional PR communication, mass media channels like radio, television and newspapers work as a medium to spread awareness. In short, press conferences are held, journalists are invited, press releases are distributed and then the news reaches your audience. Therefore, the audience never gets a chance to directly communicate with your brand.
On the other hand, digital PR communication happens through blogs, websites, influencers and social media posts. As a result, readers or viewers can directly have a one-on-one communication with your brand. For example, if a person reads a PR article related to your brand on the Internet and has a query about the same, he/she can always clear their doubts either by commenting on the blog or by directly e-mailing the brand.
2. Measuring Target Audience:
In traditional PR, you cannot target one particular group of people. For example, a newspaper article on a gadget launch cannot be targeted only to tech-savvy audiences. Anyone purchasing the newspaper can read the article. On the other hand, in digital PR, you can choose who you want to target.
Also, in traditional PR, it is difficult to track audience’s reach but in digital PR, thanks to softwares like CRM (customer relationship management), you can keep an account of how many people have read your blog or other posts. These tools keep an account of influencer databases and also provide automatic reporting.
3. Distribution Techniques:
While traditional PR is all about distributing press releases to journalists and then waiting for them to cover your story, digital PR is about directly informing people through company blogs, social media posts, multimedia content and targeting appropriate influencers on different platforms.
Nowadays, everything is about presentation, meaning it is all about how you present your brand to audiences. Digital PR in a way gives you the creative freedom to highlight your brand’s USPs, the way you want to showcase it. For instance, in traditional PR, even if journalists cover your story, there’s no guarantee that they will cover all the important aspects of your story or will use the exact same words as mentioned in the press release. As a result, the article may not sound the way you wanted it to sound. However, in digital PR, you may choose the words and present your brand in the best possible way to woo your audience.
Both Traditional PR and Digital PR are important and function in their own unique ways. While traditional PR brings you larger reach, digital PR allows you to choose your target audience, exercise control over content and measure the brand’s reach. If both traditional and digital PR are used in tandem, chances are high that your brand will gain maximum publicity.
To know more about digital PR and how it can enhance your brand’s reputation, leave us a message and we will get back to you.
“Building a website without SEO is like building a road without direction.”
Almost every other business now has a website, so it is evident that your SEO strategy has to be on point if you want to stay ahead in the competition. You may create excellent social media campaigns, have fantastic outreach and a great network, but without optimizing your site, you will never be at the top when it comes to search results. And as someone said – “Google will only love you when everyone else loves you first”!
A great SEO strategy comes at a cost, however there are ways to optimise your site with free tools as well. Below is a list of free Search Engine Optimization tools that will help you reach your target without spending anything –
1. Screaming Frog SEO Spider Tool
This tool will crawl, analyse and then audit any site from the perspective of onsite SEO. This is a useful tool especially if you want to analyse medium/large sites, where it is very difficult (almost impossible) as well as time consuming to check all data manually.
Moreover, there are also chances that you might miss a duplicate page, meta refresh or a redirect issue. Using this tool, eliminates those chances.
2. Google Analytics
Google Analytics will track almost all traffic that you get on your website. It will bring up all the pages that receive the highest clicks and impressions from Google. One glance at the CTR field and you will know the pages that have the best Click-Through Rate.
Google Analytics also provides several keyword insights about the phrases and terms users use to visit your site. You can use this information to modify pages with a bad CTR, if any.
3. Browseo
Browseo will allow you to see your website the same way a search engine sees it. This tool will remove all distractions (the styling and formatting) from your website and highlight some portions of the site that are relevant for SEO purposes.
The tool lays emphasis on pure HTML codes and you can easily determine the structure of your webpage. An added advantage of the Browseo tool is that you do not need to download or install anything, you only have to provide your web page URL in the official Browseo site and get started.
4. Google Keyword Planner
If you want to rank higher, you need to know what exactly people are searching for and this is where Google Keyword Planner can help you. All you need to do is enter a keyword/keywords in the tool and it will provide you will all kind of statistics – like monthly search volume, competition, suggested bid, etc.
Apart from that, the Keyword Planner also suggests words and terms that you may not have considered using.
5. Google PageSpeed Insights
With this tool, you can analyse the speed and the usability of your website on various devices. Simply enter your website URL and the tool will test the performance and the loading time both for desktop and mobile devices. It appreciates you for the things that are doing well and suggests improvement opportunities wherever required.
Bonus: The result for mobile devices includes a score for user experience, with grading areas like font sizes and tap targets.
6. Google Trends
Google Trends gives you an idea as to how certain keywords perform in the course of time, along with providing information around geography and certain related terms. It will also provide clues related to other relevant keyword phrases that you can later add to your list.
With Google Trends, you can actually analyse if there is genuinely a market opportunity for your product or service. Identify the trending phrases and create content around them to remain on top of the SEO list.
7. SimilarWeb
SimilarWeb lets you compare traffic ranking, engagement rate, traffic source, keyword ranking, etc. between two websites, which is very helpful when it comes to competitor research.
Without relying on a single channel, SimilarWeb uses a variety of sources to extract the most reliable and accurate data and converts it into beneficial information. With these insights, you can understand the performance of your competitors and their strategies, identify trends and understand customer intent.
8. Siteliner
Siteliner allows you to identify the main issues that can affect your website quality. This tool crawls through the website and identifies problems like duplicate content, broken links, internal pagerank, skipped pages among others.
It generates a live report while in the process of crawling, combining all the important data that it has extracted from the search. Just enter the URL of the site that you wish to scan on Siteliner and click on Go, and the tool will do the rest.
Apart from the above mentioned, there are hundreds of free SEO tools that you can use to attain higher rankings. The important bit is to choose ones that will help you achieve your business goals without cluttering your backend. To know more about such tools and how it can help you in your business, leave us a message below and we will get back to you.
Digital is affecting the way businesses are being conducted in more and more ways. Traditional brands and consumer driven companies are opening up online stores to stay relevant, fight competition and improve the bottom line.
You may think that just by setting up an ecommerce store, your sales will improve drastically. But this is not true. Merely having an online presence is no longer enough, you have to encourage customers to purchase your products to increase sales.
While spending a considerable amount of money for ads and promotions is an obvious way to increase sales, it has a drawback on the revenue generated. Here are some tips that you can use to achieve your target sales without spending a dime-
1. Upselling Products
Often customers are unaware of additional accessories or a newer upgraded version of a particular product that they wish to purchase. This is where the prospect of upselling comes into play. Upselling means persuading your customers to buy something additional (like a power bank with a phone) or a more expensive version of the product they are looking for (Iphone 6S instead of Iphone 6) by displaying and explaining the benefits. Once you educate your customer about the recommended and more expensive product, he/she will evaluate the value and if presented well- make the purchase, leading to extra sales.
Upselling is a wise business strategy, being 20 times more effective than normal cross selling. Two important things to keep in mind are- the product you recommend must fulfil the original need of the customer and secondly the superiority of the recommended product should be made absolutely clear.
Source: Shopify
2. Customer hesitation? Provide a solution
This is a common problem often experienced in ecommerce business – be it big or small. Customers may like something and add it to their shopping cart, only to forget about it later. Statistics reveal that more than two thirds of online shopping carts are abandoned which means you are losing out on sales.
Leaving a product in the shopping cart means that people have liked the product, but there was some hesitation due to which they did not purchase it. It could be due to the high costs or a sudden problem in connectivity.
Making an effort to resolve these hesitations can ensure increase in your sales. Reminder emails, an expiring small discount, free shipping etc all help to remove hesitations and encourage faster decision making.
Source: Zappos
3. All hail e-mail!
Never underestimate the power of a simple email when it comes to ecommerce and online marketing. They work better than social media channels, even outperforming Facebook and Twitter.
More than 60% of customers subscribe to email especially for offers, discounts and free coupons. 70% of such offers and coupons that are sent through emails are used by customers. Almost 80% of people check these marketing emails on a regular basis.
These figures are enough to understand the potential that email marketing has in an ecommerce business. Invest some time in crafting a creative and appealing emails and then wait for the magic to happen!
Source: Starbucks
4. Leaving (Checkout) should be easy
A simple, easy and quick checkout process is one of the most popular purchase drivers in case of online shopping. A confusing, long and tedious or complicated checkout process can often lead to cart abandonment.
Keep your checkout process as simple as possible to increase ecommerce sales. Almost 20% customers abandon the cart if they have to create an account on your site before making a purchase. So, it is always better to keep a ‘checkout as guest’ option.
Remember that your goal is to ensure that customers make a purchase rather than spend unimaginable time on your website. Therefore, facilitate a quick check-in and get out process before they can change their mind.
Source: The Search Engine Shop
5. Let people review your products and let other people see it
Customers trust what other customers have to say more than what you say. Therefore, genuine customer reviews are a must. Often one review is not enough, people normally do not trust a product unless there are multiple buyers backing it. It doesn’t matter if you have a few negative reviews. By responding and acknowledging those reviews, you increase the credibility of your brand. Product reviews also help in the brand’s SEO ranking.
Source: Econsultancy
6. Install Live Chat support
At times, leads fail to convert into customers because they may have some questions or doubts that they need to clarify before going ahead with the purchase. They check out from your site, with an intention to drop you a mail or give a call to clear their doubts. Unfortunately, they might simply forget about it later or avoid going through such a long process.
A live chat support can be of great help in such circumstances, solving the queries of people then and there. It not only provides real-time assistance, but also enhances customer experience and satisfaction. A quick solution to queries and increased customer experience can help you to increase your ecommerce sales.
Source: E commerce Platforms
Ecommerce has caught the fancy of traditionally offline businesses because of the huge profits that can be earned with low investments. To know more about how you can increase your ecommerce sales and keep your customers happy, just drop us a message and we will get back to you.
When sites like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest were mere start-ups, they did not have a concrete monetization plan. Their only focus was to create something that would garner a lot of attention and traffic.
Why?
Once these two things are in place, ways to make money out of websites evolve automatically.
For many people, earning money from a website still seems to be a myth. Of course, this is not something that happens overnight – it requires a considerable amount of hard work. However, with the right techniques and commitment, you can generate consistent revenue from a website.
Here are some ways to earn money from a website –
1. Affiliate Marketing
Clearly one of the easiest and most popular ways of making money through a website would be by affiliate marketing. All you need to do is find a product that you want to recommend to your audience and endorse/promote it to your website audience and email subscribers. Of course, this is applicable to only those websites that already have a considerable audience.
If any of your visitors clicks on the particular product link and makes a purchase, you get a part of that sale price. The commission can be anything from a 30% to a whopping 70%.
Source: Charles Ngo
2. Google AdSense (Pay Per Click)
AdSense allows publishers like bloggers and website owners to enter the immense ad network of Google and enable other advertisers to run ads on your website.
Once you have signed up on Google, a code will be placed on your website. This code identifies the content on your website and then displays ads that are relevant to your audience. For example, if you have a travel blog or website, Google AdSense will show your visitors ads for booking tickets, hotel accommodations, etc. The best part is, you get paid each time someone clicks on that ad. And if your site has enough traffic, be assured that you will earn quite a handsome amount every month.
Source: LinkedIn
3. Selling Ad Space
Apart from Google AdSense, you can sell your ad space directly to companies who
are on the lookout for sponsoring blogs/websites. You can decide the price of each ad space, like the main banner, side banner, etc.
Your payment will depend on the number of visitors that you get. If your website is getting a lot of traffic from multiple sources, your pricing and earning can be very high. However, if your website is new without much traffic, do not expect high revenues.
Source: Make A Website Hub
4. Generating leads for other businesses
It is a fact that every business thrives on new leads that come their way, eager to know about their products and services. Your website can play the role of a matchmaker, connecting two different parties who can be of use to one another.
Say, for example you have a website that deals with culinary skills and all things related to cooking. The contact information of your readers (email id) can provide a lot of value to people who are providing online cooking courses or selling bakery items, etc.
While this method is like affiliate marketing, in case of lead generation it does not matter if your readers buy their products or not. The only requirement here is your readers to get introduced to the other business.
5. Setting up an ecommerce store
A great way to earn money from your website is by transforming it to an ecommerce store. Say you have a WordPress website, you can easily turn it into a WooCommerce store. There are several ecommerce and online stores in the market, so you must ensure that you have a certain USP to stand out in the crowd.
Keep in mind the recent marketing techniques and have a detailed strategy before you decide to set up an online store.
Source: E commerce Guide
6. Accept Donations
If your website has a strong and engaged community, asking for a donation from your readers can be a good way to earn some money. Donations will not make you rich overnight, but are a good way to cover expenses initially, especially if you have just started out.
Websites related to productivity, social and personal development generally have higher chances of getting donations compared to others. Place a ‘Donate Now’ link or button on the website with some engaging, good-quality content that will encourage your readers to donate.
7. In-text advertising
In-text ad networks place sponsored links in the text/content on your website. These ad links have a double underline so that they can be differentiated from normal hyperlinks. When a user going through the content on your website hovers on that double link, the ad will pop out. If your readers click on that site, being the website owner, you will earn some revenue.
While some people have generated quite an amount of revenue with this method, many website owners find it distracting and intrusive for their readers and refrain from using this method.
Source: brandchannel
Making money from your website is not an alien concept, it is a reality. To know more about how your website can help you generate revenue, leave us a message and we will get back to you!
