What is social media marketing?

Social media marketing is the process of gaining traffic or attention through social media sites. To some entrepreneurs social media is the next big thing! It is powerful if used correctly and must be taken advantage of for marketing social media platforms, which are new channels for your brand’s voice and content.

How does social media marketing work?

You can use social media to help reach several business objectives, but the best social media strategies are those that focus on a more narrow rationale for social. What do you want to use social media for? Awareness? Sales? Loyalty?

For social media to be successful, one needs to take into consideration key measures. Are you going to measure ROI? Who will you be interacting with? Who is the target market? What are their demographics? What are you about? Prove that you are more than just a product or a service; you deliver an experience when people engage with your brand. Lastly a content or a channel plan needs to come into action and be distinct.

How will social media marketing benefit a brand?

Your brand will be easier to access for new clients, it will also become more familiar and recognizable to existing clients, thus, brand loyalty will improve. A study published by Convince and Convert found that 53% of Americans who follow brands on social media are more loyal to that brand.

Social media is cost effective. Even the paid advertising through twitter and Facebook are relatively cheap depending whether you set budgets or not.
Every social media platform you exist on is another path leading back to your site. The quality of your content will determine the interest generated. More traffic creates more leads, resulting in more opportunities.

Every post made on a social media platform is an opportunity for clients to convert. Each post creates a chance for someone to react, every reaction may lead to a site visit, which could eventually lead to a conversation. This means conversation rates will become higher. Interacting in social media channels humanizes brands and this is important because people like doing work with other people not companies.

Interacting with your clients on a regular basis shows good faith. When people want to brag or compliment a company they turn to social media. Though this also applies for when they want to complain about a company, so it works both ways this depends on you. The more people that are talking about you on social media, the more valuable and credible your brand will seem to prospective clients. Every customer interaction online is a chance to demonstrate the level of customer service you provide. If a customer complains, you can apologize publicly, if a customer compliments your company you can thank and recommend more products. Personal experiences let them know you care.

With social media, you are able to gain valuable information regarding your target market and what they’re interested in. You will be able to monitor user comments to see what they think of your business, this will help to improve you marketing to them and will result in an increase of sales and new clients.

In all I am able to say that social media has become a platform that has increased communication for companies and creates strong brand awareness, which improves customer service. Additionally, social media serves as a relatively inexpensive platform for organizations to implement marketing campaigns and I would highly recommend becoming part of this movement.



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About Author: Veronique is a young strategy driven Account Manager with a Graphic Design degree as well as an Honours in Brand Leadership.  

Inbound marketing encompasses all strategies involving the use of content–e-mail, SEO, social, and the like–to attract “strangers,” retain their attention, and convert them to qualified leads.

Inbound marketing is an established and, yet, still growing trend. As with any marketing trend, there are hundreds of different strategies and methodologies that define what inbound marketing should look like. The vast majority of position search engine optimization, social, and content creation as the inbound fundamentals.

But, as any trick-shot-shooting basketball player would tell you, the fundamentals only get you so far. The true anatomy of an integrated inbound marketing campaign incorporates a range of core marketing tactics positioned correctly.

 

Understanding the Funnel

Strategies are nothing without a strategy (like that one, huh?). Each level of the inbound marketing funnel needs to involve efforts that build interest in potential customers. My take on these levels is as follows:

 

1. Attract STRANGERS

Develop, post, and promote your content:  E-mail’s, webpages, mobile apps, webinars, seminars, videos, blog posts, testimonials, and the like. The primary purpose of these strategies is to draw potential customers to your content.

Key Performance Indicators: Unique visitors, inbound links, Followers, “Likes,” etc.

 

2. Convert VISITORS

Providing relevant, targeted, high-quality content works to develop your credibility with non-customers. Try to (1) continuously develop and promote content, and (2) build on the relevance of said content for your ever-changing audience.

Key Performance Indicators: E-mail inquiries, time on site, and social sharing.

 

3. Close LEADS

Incorporate lead nurturing and marketing automation to accommodate continuous “touch points” with soon-to-be-customers. Set criteria (lead scoring) to determine when a lead is ready for sales.

Key Performance Indicators: Product orders and annualized values.

 

4. Maintain CUSTOMERS

Incorporate re-marketing–via social media, for example–to increase order sizes and frequencies. Utilize historical data to improve the relevance of the sent messages.
  
Key Performance Indicators: Repeat product orders and increased revenue.

Content is the cornerstone of modern marketing. Instead of forcing your message onto a reluctant audience, your business can use content to attract visitors, leads and sales. Better still, with its low costs and high rewards, content marketing offers an incredible ROI. So how can your business get started with content marketing?

What is Content Marketing?

For a succinct definition, we need look no further than Joe Pulizzi, founder of the Content Marketing Institute:
In other words, businesses attract customers, instead of forcing their products and service onto a reluctant public. There’s less of a need for expensive ad campaigns; no need for invasive phone, email and web marketing; and lower costs and greater marketing efficacy as a result.

How does it work?

Content marketing relies on 3 core tenets: value, relevance and consistency.

 

1) Value

  For content marketing to attract people to your business, your content has to be valuable. It has to offer something – be it advice, guidance, interest, intrigue or controversy – that your target audience genuinely care about. Thankfully, value isn’t hard to create – and with a bit of effort, and a bit more strategy, you can create truly irresistible content.

• Problem solving content: Whether your website visitor is looking for advice, opinions or products, they’re trying to problem-solve. If your content manages to answer your visitor’s questions, and solve these problems, you’ve created genuine value.
• Market-beating content: Your content can improve upon existing content, adding greater depth and detail than anything that’s gone before.
• Emotive content: If your content can elicit an emotion, from delight to disbelief, you’ve created material that people care about.
• Convenient content: Most of the web’s useful information is spread across dozens, even hundreds, of websites. By compiling resources and information together, you create value through convenience.

 

2) Relevance

Value is completely subjective, and one man’s trash may literally be another man’s treasure. In order to attract the right type of people to your business, your content needs to be relevant to your target demographic. A ‘Complete Guide to Local SEO’ is a perfect piece of content for attracting small business owners – but it’s no help if your website sells bespoke leather shoes.

 

3) Consistency

Selling requires trust – and most of the time, wowing a new visitor with a stunning piece of content isn’t enough to ensure a sale. Your business needs to regularly impress, and offer its visitors valuable content time and time again. This consistency builds trust between brand and visitor. It implies an understanding of a visitor’s problems, and a desire to put their needs first. In other words, the more value your business offers to a visitor, the more value you can expect in return.

Types of Content 

 ‘Content’ can be a bit of an ethereal concept, with dozens of conflicting definitions floating around the internet. As Google’s Avinash Kaushik explains, the reality is much simpler:

Virtually any medium can be used for content marketing – as long as your target audience will engage with it. There’s no sense in creating a technical whitepaper for a teenage audience, in the same way that blog posts may be too casual for the technical director of a digital security firm.

 

Blog Posts

Blog posts are the heart and soul of thousands of successful content marketing strategies – and the stats explain why. HubSpot surveyed over 7,000 businesses, and reached the conclusion that blogging businesses generate 55% more visitors, 97% more inbound links, and 434% more indexed pages than their non-blogging counterparts. That means more traffic, more leads, and more sales.

 

Guides

There’s a lot of crossover between blog posts, articles and guides. Whilst a typical blog post probably clocks-in at 500 words, a guide might be more comprehensive and in-depth. Some subjects (like content marketing!) can’t be adequately covered in a short post, and may require multiple blog posts, or a longer guide. There are benefits to both approaches – and the ‘right’ choice will depend upon your target audience, and how they prefer to engage with content.

 

eBooks

eBooks allow businesses to show-off their expertise in the most in-depth and insightful way possible. Typically several thousand words long, an eBook acts as an authoritative resource on your chosen topic – often containing analysis, commentary, quotes, references, images, illustrations and statistics. Creating such valuable resources requires an investment of time and energy – but these efforts are quickly rewarded. By placing eBooks behind a CTA or contact form, you can trade your content in exchange for select details about your visitor – perfect for long-term lead-nurturing.

 

Whitepapers 

 

Videos

Sites like YouTube allow you to quickly create, share and embed videos. These videos are perfect for visually illustrating your content, and help to add variety to your content plan.

 

Infographics

Another visual medium, infographics make use of eye-catching design elements to create engaging and easy-to-digest content. Whilst infographics can’t contain as much information as a post or guide, they’re extremely easy to share and engage with.

Content Strategy

In order to attract the right people to your website, and engage with them in a productive and profitable way, your business needs to define its content strategy.  This strategy will vary from business to business – but you should always address the following 4 elements:

 

1) Buyer Persona

Who are you targeting with your content? What are their ‘pain points’? How can your content solve these problems?

 

2) Sales Funnel

Which part of the sales funnel are they in? Are they new leads, looking for basic information? Are they sales-qualified, and looking for technical information and case studies? Tailor your content according to their progression through the sales funnel.

 

3) CTAs/Landing Pages

How can you tie your content into your own sales funnel? Which offers, promotions and CTAs will you use to nurture your leads?

 

4) Distribution Channel

Which distribution channels will lead to the most productive engagement? Do your leads prefer social media, email or blogging? Choose a channel that resonates with your audience.

About Paul Letourneau
I'm a Digital Creative Strategist with with years of experience working for entrepreneurs, startups and international brands.

Source : http://turny.co/use-content-marketing-create-irresistible-brand/

Digital marketing can be one of the more challenging sectors of the marketing world. It seems that as soon as one initiative is implemented, something new comes along, and you’re always trying to keep up with the herd. That’s why it’s important to stay ahead of the trends, and here are just a few of the innovations in digital marketing that you should keep an eye out for.












Personalization
Whether you’re a big blue chip company, or a small local firm, every client wants to be made to feel special. That’s why it’s important to ensure their experience is personalised, and digital marketers have been striving to do just that. This means that when customers login, they are shown the content that will interest them, that their favourite things are given priority on the page, increasing the time they spend on your site and therefore giving you a higher chance of a sale.

Social media campaigns
Although companies using social media is nothing new, they are certainly becoming more creative with their campaigns, and many have achieved substantial buzz by using nothing more than a clever hashtag. Whether it’s the launch of a new show, product, or idea, giving people things to vote on and tweet about is an easy way to get people curious, and perhaps even get your name trending. The best social media campaigns mix traditional with new media, allowing people to discuss what they’ve seen on their televisions, sharing the experience with others which can generate excitement. Check out sites such as Google Sandbox for information about successful campaigns and inspiration for launching your own.

Cross-channel experiences
Having all your platforms work in harmony is not only key for a user-friendly experience, but makes it easier to control and analyse how people are using them. The internet is no longer for laptops and PCs, and you need to ensure your user experience is compatible with:

• Mobile phones
• Tablets
• Game console browsers
• Handheld devices

Ensuring that there is synchronisation between all these platforms, and that they work with a single login, means it’s more likely that clients will enjoy your site from multiple devices. With many clients checking products online before they go to a physical store, this is essential for capturing clients who are on the move.

Stronger content
Companies are now realising the value of good, tailored content for their site, not only to drive traffic, but to keep clients on the page and hopefully inspire them to share it. The more interesting and creative the content, the higher the chance of social engagement, a great way to generate interest in your site.

Web design that works
In simpler times, web designers only needed to create sites that would be navigated by mouse. However, the past couple of years has seen a massive rise in the number of tablet computers being sold, and this means a lot more users with touchscreens. Therefore, when it comes to designing a site, it’s important to consider how it’ll be navigated by these new users, and how well the various features are going to work. For example, Flash isn’t available with certain tablets, and it can be difficult to scroll through pages on others. You may wish to choose a simpler design to accommodate these users, or re-direct them to a touch friendly version of your site. This ensures you don’t lose clients just because of frustrating website features.

Digital marketing is a fast-paced industry, and that’s why it’s important to always stay ahead. No matter what industry you work in, there are always unique and exciting ways to stay ahead of the crowd and make your business stand out in a difficult economy.

Ref: http://www.creativeguerrillamarketing.com/advertising/latest-trends-in-digital-marketing/

When online shopping started picking up around the world, people got up and took notice. At that time online shopping was in no way or form feasible for Pakistan; with a very minute population having access and knowledge of the internet, it just wasn’t ready. Yet the millions of Pakistan’s who had settled outside Pakistan and were aware of online shopping formed the perfect market.  A number of online shopping websites selling Pakistani goods popped up; with goods targeted towards the diasporas abroad.




As popularity for online shopping grew, Pakistan started experimenting with other models which provided the convenience of online shopping. The credit card model could not work in Pakistan as most people did not have credit cards; online payment through bank account transfers was taken as the logical solution, as were call-order shopping forums.

A number of home shopping, call to order forums and websites popped up. By providing a catalog and phone number, people could experience the comfort of online shopping without credit cards. Catering largely to the electronics, mobiles, cameras and gadgets market, these home shopping ventures have been quite successful and paved the way for online shopping websites.

At present there are a number of online shopping websites such as Azmalo.pk & Symbios that cater to the Pakistani market; ranging from electronics, to fashion, to book, movies and much more, there seems to be a website catering to every consumer demand. While the amount of credit card holders has grown within Pakistan, people are inherently wary of giving their information online and fraud. Furthermore, the younger generation, which forms the majority of the target market do not have access to credit cards.

The younger generation has been the early adopters of online shopping in Pakistan; most websites today target the younger generation with their interface designs and marketing campaigns. The success of online websites and these campaigns can be measured by the volume of such e-ventures that seem to be popping up in Pakistan.

While there have been constraints such as payment systems, logistics of delivery, efficient service, and largely overcoming the wariness of buying online and trusting online vendors, Pakistan seems to be heading towards the right direction.

The future of online shopping seems bright; with more than 23 million people online in Pakistan and people choosing convenience above all other factors, it seems to be only a matter of time before all trusted brand names will have online store fronts supplementing their in-store activities.

Contributed by: Basit Rahman
About the writer: Basit Rehman is an SEO Expert at Rocket Internet GmbH and has been associated with different companies within the same domain.