Category: Digital Branding

The 5 Things You Must Keep In Mind When Choosing The Tech Stack For Your Startup

Steven on June 25, 2020

When it comes to developing a top-notch software product, what do you think is the most important thing to consider? Those who don’t have a tech background, they face quite a lot of issues when they have to choose a tech stack for their product. If you’ve been facing such issues, know that you aren’t alone, and almost every single person with a startup and a non-technical background comes across this issue.

What exactly is a tech stack? Simply put, it is a combination of frameworks and tools that are used in software development of web and mobile applications. In simpler words, a technology stack is all those frameworks, tools, programming languages, software packages, and servers needed for the client-side and server-side of your business, or the “ front-end” and “back-end.” This infrastructure or data ecosystem will vary according to your needs. Some businesses are built on Ruby on Rails, Django, HTML, or Cascading Style Sheets. The Facebook app, for example, is built on JavaScript, HTML, CSS, PHP, and ReactJS.

If you are new to all this, there are two things that you need to do. First, you need to opt for the devsdata software consulting services, and the next thing is to know how to choose the right tech stack. If you end up choosing the wrong tech stack, you can end up with several unwanted issues like extra expenses, and sooner or later, that particular stack will become unsustainable for you.

Image by Olalekan Oladipupo from Pixabay

Choosing a Tech Stack for Your Business

To assist you in this process, today we are here with the five main things that you should keep in your mind when choosing a tech stack for your startup;

1- Consider the stage of your business

Your technology stack is going to play an important role in all stages of your business. If you are in the beginning phase, your main focus should be to launch an MVP as soon as you can. If you don’t have any heavy programming knowledge, then just like others, you should opt for WordPress. It goes without saying that WordPress is one of the easiest and the simplest platforms if you are building a landing page or a website.

Image by James Osborne from Pixabay

2- Project requirement

The second important thing to do is to understand the requirements of your project. Do you want to add some kind of real functionality to your application? Do you want to add the feature of live chat in it? For such a purpose, you should go for the tech stack that’s best with concurrency, and this is where you need to consider “Node”. If you are a blogger working on developing a functional site for increased conversions, then Drupal and WordPress will be the right options for you.

3- The available resources

One of the most influential factors that define the tech stack of your company is the availability of developers who will work on creating your product. You need to consider it if your developers are ready to work with the tech stack you have or not. If you don’t want to face issues in this, then always choose a dynamic developer community tech stack.

4- The cost of maintenance and development

The technology stack you choose directly impacts the cost of development and maintenance. Two things to consider in this case are the maintenance cost and the cost of the developer. Especially if it’s a startup, you’d want to keep the expenses as low as possible. This is why you should do some homework first and then choose the stack that brings you as less added expenses as possible.

Image by Dariusz Sankowski from Pixabay

5- Time to market

The quicker you develop and launch your app, the better it will be for your business and the more exposure you’ll get. When choosing a suitable and reliable tech stack, focus on third party integration, testing, and the developing ability of the developer who is working for you.

Conclusion

With these five things in mind, it will be easier for you to choose a suitable tech stack for your business. To make things simpler, just opt for the consulting services of an experienced company, and you’ll see how things fall into place for you.

Digital Branding

Why Listening Matters in Marketing

Steven on June 24, 2020

Listening and Empathy are Essential to Your Marketing Strategy

Have you ever attended a social event and found yourself talking to someone who only seems interested in what they’re about to say, rather than what you’re saying to them? In the marketing word, it’s not uncommon for brands to do the same thing to their customers. So much information is being yelled at consumers, but a truly successful brand needs to learn the importance of listening to their fans.

Take for example TV ads. While they can be an effective way to reach a large audience base, many find themselves leaving the room or fast forwarding through them to get back to their TV show. Why? It’s simple. People don’t like feeling like they’re being talked at and TV ads have a funny way of making customers feel like that is happening. As marketing has evolved and become more sophisticated, marketers have found new ways to get their information out that takes a more subtle approach.

Social Media for Social Listening

Social media gives brands a voice and customers too, making it one of the best ways to get the conversation started with your audience. These advertising channels create a sense of community, and make it possible for people with similar interests and views to congregate and discuss. Users like pages from brands they care about, and brands can use this to their advantage.

The one disadvantage of this however, is that social media can be like preaching to the choir. This is especially true when it comes to organic social media, since these users have basically “opted in” already to receive your updates. So sending out news updates has to be done tactfully, so they don’t lose interest and feel like your brand is infiltrating their newsfeed too much. Instead, use conversations to your advantage by:

Take Feedback from Customer Reviews – We all want to see the positive reviews roll in, but sometimes the negative ones can provide us with the most insight. Whether it’s a product or service problem, or a customer service issue, keep your cool with a negative comment and find ways to fix your customer’s experience. Negative product or service reviews can help you fix shortfalls in your products to enhance the customer experience.
Listen to Competitors – Another advantage of taking the time to listen is that you can see what competitors are doing well, and what pain points their customers are speaking out against on social media.
Find Relevant Audiences – Looking to your current customers can be a great way to acquire new ones. Taking a step beyond organic, using your audience members and their interests can be a great basis to bring your paid social media strategy off of. Facebook allows you to target users based on their interests. By understanding your audience, you can find new potential customers with similar attributes.
Keep the Conversation Going – Social media inspires conversations among groups of people, and your brand should be joining in as well. Engaging with customers on social media is a great way to build trust, answer questions, and education customers when applicable.

Conclusion

The invention of social media and popularity of blogs, whitepapers, and infographics that can be shared on social channels has created a new culture surrounded around starting conversations. Brands who can hone in on these conversations to understand their customers thoughts and feelings about their products, or even their company as a whole have a unique opportunity. By cooperation listening into your social strategy, you can truly see the pain points of your customers and find new ways to address them, leading to happier, more engaged customers.

Digital Branding Personal Branding

How to Know the Ideal Word Count for Ranking High in a Search Result?

Steven on June 23, 2020

Content is at the center of SEO and is all powerful in driving the campaign towards success. Content connects the brand with the audience and must be of good quality. It generates interest among the targeted audience by being relevant and useful while helping the audiences gain some value from it. Another vital factor to consider when creating content is its length. What should be the ideal length of content or copy that helps to rank in the first place? Is there any optimum word count to achieve the goal? These are questions that every SEO consultant faces when advising clients about the need to enhance the pages with better content. Often, the content length acquires more importance over other considerations like the detail it needs to contain and the audience for whom it is meant.

The notion that longer content ranks better prevails in the SEO circles because there is a feeling that more words demonstrate authoritativeness to search engines and dramatically improves ranking. However, there is yet no firm data available to support the point, and it is more of a myth. But then why is there a general feeling that longer copy can push up the ranking of pages?

Misinterpreted studies

Numerous studies have been conducted to understand the relation between the copy length or word count and ranking. One such study by Baclinko in April 2020 showed that 1447 word was the average copy length for the results that appear on the first page of Google search result. Most people conclude that it is the ideal content length, whereas the result shows the correlation between content length and ranking. The study establishes the correlation only and not the cause.

What is the best copy length (word count) for SEO?

Many factors influence the ideal length of copy or word count, and all these cannot get linked to ranking. The length of the copy must please humans and not search bots. It must be long as needed to help the user achieve their goals on the page – whether providing an in-depth explanation of a topic or subject, quickly identifying an answer to a question, or simply demonstrating the product specifications. The need for users and how to satisfy it should be the top priority when creating content instead of focusing on the word count, and Barrie SEO Services can help you improve your strategy.

Is there any ideal word count?

You would still like to know what would be the best word count to excel with SEO. There is no fixed answer to this because it depends on what you want to achieve with the content for satisfying the needs of the target audience. The goal should be to fulfill the searcher’s query because search engines rank pages according to the content’s ability to resonate with the audience by meeting their expectations. Never does Google consider the content length for ranking but instead emphasize its ability to satisfy the user query. The quality of content and how well it answers the user query is critical for search engines in determining the ranking. Never is the content length of any consideration to determine the content quality. Moreover, there is no reason to draw a comparison with the top-ranking pages and consider it to the ideal for earning the top rank.

The issue of correlation and causation

When trying to understand word count, most people cannot differentiate between correlation and causation that drives them in the wrong direction. When you look at the top 5 results on the SERP for any specific search term, you might surmise that replicating the copy length of that content could help you to earn similar ranks. But this is not the case because besides word count that Google considers many other factors for ranking pages. Word count might only be an indirect factor for ranking. The chances are that longer content is more link-worthy because it is more shareable, as revealed in a Hub Spot study in 2015. Longer pages might contain more comprehensive answers that pushed up the ranking. The correlation is more important than causation. Trying to conclude that content length alone influences ranking is a mistake.

What should be the copy length?

It will be wrong to believe that longer content performs well always and, therefore, the best. The focus must be on creating content that is factually correct, comprehensive, and written, as mentioned in Google’s starter guides. Do not make the mistake of equating comprehensive with long content. Aim for including everything in the content to make it complete without restricting its length, but avoiding making it too long can dilute it or make users lose their patience. Provide exhaustive information that the user wants to know, and the type of query determines how long the answer should be. Searches for historical or scientific knowledge would lead to longer content than searches for the best sports shoes near me.

Factors that influence the content length

Do not have any preconceived notion about content length and try to understand the ideal word count for content. Consider what will help to rank well, focus on the purpose of the page, user intent, and conversion, which will automatically calibrate the content length or word count.

The purpose of a page – How well a page ranks depends on how well you know the purpose for which you are creating the page. Do you want to create an informational page or want the page to act like a signpost that leads visitors to another page? Is it a transactional page? The purpose will determine how much copy would suffice.

User intent – Knowing what the user wants is the best way to figure out what content length would be appropriate. Once you know what the user wants from the landing page, you can make it comprehensive enough to meet those needs instead of making it long just for its sake.

Conversion – Since the content should help users complete an action or facilitate the conversion, the content length must suit the user’s needs.

A longer copy is welcome in many cases, but not the only reason the page ranks well. Aiming to meet user needs is the best way to arrive at the correct word count.

Digital Branding Personal Branding

Marketing Your Start-Up

Steven on June 22, 2020

Once you’ve decided to take the plunge and throw yourself into starting your own business, getting media attention is a fairly big hurdle to overcome. Being new to the market you have to establish credibility and become visible to the media. Exposure is how you gain publicity and a reputation.

Coverage

When you are confident that your branding, company message and content is clear and concise, it’s time to get your message heard. The point of using media is to communicate who you are and what your values are. There are a few different ways to achieve that goal. Utilizing SEO copywriting services will help your business be seen when people are searching the internet for services they are looking to give their business to.

The biggest reason startups fail is because of the lack of exposure. It lends to reason being successful will be difficult if no one knows who you are or what you can do. Start by telling people what makes your product or service unique. Get the backing of those who are happy with your product; happy customers can’t wait to tell anyone who will listen to why they are so satisfied. Word of mouth advertising is invaluable because it’s organic and people trust other people who’ve had positive experiences.

Pay attention to social media. Notice who gets the most attention and align yourself with them. Engage their posts and make your presence known. If these influencers feel confident about who you are or what your business promotes, they will happily post about what you have to offer. Keep in mind, influencing others on social media directly reflects on the one promoting it; if they stand behind a business that is less than worthy of their attention, they will lose credibility.

Platform

Knowing how big of a role social media plays in marketing, you have to be sure you tailor your content to line up with where you are trying to gain exposure. Promoting your business on social media is not a one size fits all. Meaning, you can’t post the same content on every platform you use, you have to tailor the posts to align with the outlet you are using. For example, knowing if the outlet you are using is driven by graphics as opposed to written content, your contribution should be in the format that coincides with the site’s norms; otherwise, it will not be effective.

Think about why social media is so popular. Is it because of the hard sale or the stories that evoke emotion and sentiment? Don’t be afraid to appeal to human nature. Everyone wants to experience something that makes them feel good; tug at the heartstrings and win your audience over with sentiment and forego the hard sale.

You have a story to tell, don’t be afraid to tell it. Let people learn who you are through your experiences and show them how you are making a difference. Once you get people interested in your stories, they will actively seek out more. They will want to learn more about you, your company and the impact you’re making. Once you’ve established rapport and interest, then you can safely sell.

Educate and Compete

Why not take advantage of a captive audience by also educating your targeted audience on what you bring to the table? Knowledge is powerful if used correctly. Don’t discount the appeal of engagement. Hold competitions that appeal to your target and solicit involvement. Not only are you gaining more exposure, but potential customers.

Marketing is as effective as the product or service you are offering. In order to be successful, you need both to be good.

Digital Branding Legal Branding Personal Branding

Everything You Need to Know about Online Brands’ Path to Profitability

Steven on June 22, 2020

There is a common mistake the vast majority of brands make today — they acquire the funds but have no plan for profitability.

When you start a small business website, you should know that following the practices that most other entrepreneurs follow actually leaves you with a narrow window of success. Operating deep in the red and using that as a sacrifice for quick growth is one of the bigger reasons why many new businesses fail.

If you’d like to know what you need to do to become a profitable business in a reasonable amount of time, keep reading.

Place your focus on margins

Getting to figure out the way to profitability fast begins with knowing the cost variables on an income statement and how you can have them tweaked.

These variables include manufacturing, transportation, employee salaries, office rent, shipping, and marketing. Do know that the most expensive variable for digital brands is usually marketing.

When looking at each unit sold, as a brand, you should find out the total cost of operations and production and compare that figure to what is left. For example, if a brand spends $100 to produce a watch and sells it for $300, its gross profit per product would be $200 and the product margin would amount to 66%.

In order to build a sustainable business, the unit economics on day one should be positive. This is the revenue and cost per item sold. As companies scale, margins usually increase and can vary widely depending on the product type.

For example, apparel brands see margins between 40 and 60 percent. Hence, they need to structure themselves differently than companies selling accessories or prestige beauty where margins can top 80 percent.

Consider hiring a business coach

At this stage, it would be great if you could hire a professional business coach. Sometimes you really need a business mentor you can trust and turn to for advice. It is important to have support coming from a great coach.

This will give you some space to work out challenges that are slowing your confidence down. It is really important in situations where you have to deal with crises or conflicts.

On top of that, a good coach will help you see the forest, not the trees. In other words, a good business coach will always have an objective point of view and the ability to quickly identify problem areas that you couldn’t see.

A good coach will also be able to offer solutions or strategies you might have not considered or push you out of your comfort zone so that you can take your business to the next level.

Finally, experienced coaches are good at helping you triage risks and decide which challenges are worth fighting today and which ones are not worth worrying about until later.

If you are new to the world of business, you should definitely consider having this kind of support along your side.

Do not overspend on marketing

It is easy to get lost when spending on customer acquisition. To be precise, many spend too much on Facebook ads, paid search results, and promoted posts. Unfortunately, that kind of behavior tends to eat up a huge part of the product margin.

As a business owner, you shouldn’t scale unless you are quite confident that you will continue to attract customers without spending irrational amounts on advertising.

Some companies ended in hot waters when it comes to their finances. Various subscription-based services faced this problem when old customers started dropping out, finding new customers became harder to acquire.

So, if you are yet to hit the main growth phase, be very disciplined. Projections for future profitability can be distorted by an unexpected competitor entering the market or by a tweak to an Instagram or Facebook algorithm that raises advertising costs.

Try your best to find a customer acquisition model where you are positive on the first order. That may be difficult, but it is a safe way to play things out.

Your plan should begin with digital ads on Facebook, Instagram, and Google. It is easy to experiment with different messages and formats to figure out what works. Once you build a strong community, the ad game becomes easy.

Reduce the number of failed payments

Unfortunate things happen. A customer can have their credit card stolen, their bank can decline a payment due to a network error or exceeded limit.

However, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try to reduce the churn. You should focus not only on the voluntary churn but on involuntary churn as well. This happens when a customer doesn’t intend to stop using your services and wiring money to your business.

Start tracking involuntary churn and get a sense of your overall monthly churn. This will allow you to determine what portion of it is involuntary and how you should start the failed payment recovery process.

See how many of your customers canceled their subscriptions and see how many stopped paying due to credit card declines.

To find out, even more, take a look at their decline codes. This way you can isolate whether the primary issue is:

Expired card
Outdated billing info
Spendy customers who exceeded the card limits
Something else

The more data you gather, the better your results will be when it comes to reducing this type of churn.

Infographic created by Fiserv

Take good care of your supply chain

Do not get surprised by unexpected surges in purchases. If you have your own production line, be careful not to underestimate the need for your products.

When there is a spike in demand, it is time to profit. However, if you fail to handle all purchase orders, you might get the whole positive trend to backfire.

So, try to be as flexible as possible. Stock up on your products and keep an eye on the statistics. Be prepared in case a spike in demand occurs.

Try to have the best possible control over the supply chain. This will also contribute to the speed of scaling, which enables your company to meet demand and ensure that all customers are happy.

Do your best to react to demand in real-time and control costs. If you manage to do that, you will only contribute to profitability.

Final thoughts

The journey to profitability is unique for every entrepreneur. As the person in charge, you have to balance your investments in growth with efforts to generate cash flow.

However, it all boils down to one basic thing — the quality of your product or service. A product that makes sense and proves to be useful is generally a guarantee for a bright future.

Digital Branding

5 Things To Consider While Choosing The Lead Generation Company

Steven on June 20, 2020

Choosing the right lead generation company can be a daunting task, especially if this is the first time that you are looking for one. On the other hand, it’s an undeniable fact that generating qualified business leads is imperative for every business out there. Whether you run a small scale business or a large scale business, at some point, you’d have to work on lead generation, and the wiser thing to do is to hire experts for it.

We’ll be honest with you on this one: leads generation is a difficult task. If you are thinking about doing it yourself, you need to be ready to invest proper time in it as you’ll have to do a lot of research. But if you hire some agency for it, things will get easier for you and you’ll get quicker results.

One of the most common challenges that businesses face is hiring a lead generation company while keeping the cost as minimum as possible. Well, it’s true that the cost does play an important role, but there are other factors too that you should consider when hiring a team of experts to boost your business.

Lead generation graphic

1- Look for an experienced lead generation company

As said earlier, lead generation isn’t something you can do within a day or two. This process requires time, and above that, it requires a lot of experience. Before you choose a company to work on your project, you need to ensure that they do have the right amount of experience in this field. This is the very first question that you should ask at the first meetup. At least hire someone with an experience of 3 to 4 years in this field.

2- Ask about the delivery of results and the quality of the lead source

There are several different types of leads, and there are different strategies that companies use to generate quality leads. This is why you should first ask some basic questions to know how the company works. To understand their workings, you should ask about the delivery of results. If they present all the processes to you in a crystal clear way, then yes, you should proceed with them. However, if you see any red flags in their strategies, you should move on and find another agency.

Lead technology

3- What technology do they use to reach out to the potential clients

We are lucky that nowadays, there are a variety of different tools and technologies available for lead generation. But only an expert can tell which tool or technology is going to be effective. One of the most common things companies do is that they opt for internet marketing to generate leads for a business. If some agency tells you the same that they will be using the internet to boost your business, then ask them the strategy they’ll be using. Internet marketing is quite vast, so you should know the platform that’ll be used for lead generation.

4- Cost

Of course, the cost matters whether you are running a huge business or a small startup. You want the expenses to be as minimum as possible so when you are hiring a company, ask about their pricing policy and what they’ll be charging you. If it’s in accordance with their services, then yes, you should hire them. If not, and if you think there is some margin that you can get cheaper rates, then look for other such companies.

5- Online reviews

Online reviews can tell you a lot about a company’s performance and reputation. Use the internet for maximum benefit and read what people have to say about a particular agency and its result delivery. These reviews can tell you a lot about an agency and whether they are worth your time or not.

selecting a lead generation company

Conclusion

With the help of these five considerations, you can end up with the right lead generation company that will take your business to new heights of success.

Digital Branding Legal Branding Personal Branding

5 Effective Offline Marketing Strategies You Can Use Today

Steven on June 18, 2020

If there’s one thing that’s certain, it’s that we live in unprecedented times. In no other era of human history have people’s lives been changed so fundamentally by technology. At the same time, in no other era have we been so enamored by the past. According to Business Matters, nostalgia marketing has become more popular than ever, with more and more brands turning to retro iconography and techniques in order to capture the interest of a highly online market.

Looking for ways to mobilize that thirst for nostalgia? Check out these effective offline marketing techniques for ideas on how to stand out in a digital world.

Projection Mapping

One of the best ways to maximize technology in your marketing in the real world is through projection mapping. Business.com describes projection mapping as a highly innovative marketing tool that makes use of digital projections on real objects to create distinctive, kinetic advertisements. While it does need significant prep time and can be costly— an average of USD$ 10,000 per minute of projection— the overall effect is attention grabbing and memorable. Projection mapping can engage a wider audience and increase social reach by cutting through the noise and demanding attention.

Direct Mail

Direct mail is perhaps one of the less flashy but more effective marketing techniques that companies like to fall back upon. They do so with good reason — direct mail has an incredibly high ROI, and can cost less per lead than many other marketing techniques. It doesn’t always have to be boring catalogs or paper coupons, either. An article by Triadex Services on direct mail found that plastic postcard materials are 3-5 times more effective than typical paper postcards, improving an already impressive ROI.

Guerilla Marketing

Guerilla marketing has seen a surge in popularity over the last decade, and it’s not hard to see why. SmallBusiness took a look at three small businesses from the UK that employed guerilla marketing techniques such as a double-decker bus turned cocktail bar and a rap song and found that these campaigns were crucial in raising brand profiles. By employing unconventional techniques and creative strategies, companies are able to get greater responses and engagement than through standard, “traditional” campaigns.

Print Marketing

With the rise of smartphone use and the popularity of digital marketing techniques, you’d be forgiven if you thought that print marketing was dead. The reality is far from this, however, and print is definitely here to stay. All Business reports that 56% of all consumers actually trust print materials more than any other advertising method, even email marketing. While print can be costly and hard to update in a fast-paced world, it can still be an effective part of your marketing strategy, especially when used to complement your online efforts.

Business Cards

Finally, one of the best offline marketing strategies you can use boils down to one thing: the humble business card. While many may take business cards for granted, they are especially useful in a B2B context. Referrals and network-building are an essential aspect of any business, and one of the best ways to do that is through distributing your business cards. BNI founder Ivan Misner has written a piece on the importance of the business card and the most effective opportunities for sharing them.

Once you’ve captured the interest of your customers, then you can start work on keeping them. For more tips on building a stronger, more personal connection with your existing customer base, check out our article on ‘Why Retention Marketing Is the Ultimate Growth Strategy’.

Digital Branding Personal Branding

Digital Marketing Essentials for the Medical Community

Steven on June 18, 2020

Technology has transformed different sectors of the economy including the medical sector. The internet has proved to be a critical tool in the marketing world.

Just like any other sector, the medical community has taken advantage of the internet to market their services. According to a study conducted by Google, search engines drive users to medical facility websites three tines compared to other sources. The study also revealed that 44% of patients who search for information via their mobile devices end up booking appointments.

If you are looking to increase your presence online and reach many patients, then consider the following digital marketing essentials:

1. A simple website

Your website is an important element in your digital marketing strategy. It serves as your virtual office. As such, you should ensure that it is designed in a way that makes it easy for users to navigate. This is because not all of your patients may be well versed in technology and the internet.

When people visit your website, they are looking for specific information. You should, therefore make it easy for them to navigate and find whatever information they are looking for – in the shortest time possible.

2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search Engine Optimization is one of the best digital marketing strategies. If you are serious about your online business, then you need to employ the SEO technique.

The search engine optimization strategy ensures that your website is ranked on the first page of popular search engines. Another advantage of search engine optimization is the ability to focus on a specific category of audience.

That means you are able to create certain keywords that target certain patients in your area. For example, SEO can help bring attention to hydrogen peroxide IV oxygen therapy for those who could benefit from its medicinal potential.

3. Email marketing

Email marketing is another great component of the digital marketing strategy of medical professionals. Despite the fact that social media marketing appears to overshadow the use of emails, the truth is that email marketing is still effective. However, its effectiveness depends on how the strategy is being implemented.

Ensure that you segment and personalize emails to reflect the needs and interests of your patients. You cannot send similar emails to your existing and potential clients. In other words, your emails should be tailored to the needs of every client.

4. Social Media Marketing (SMM)

Social media has taken the world by a storm. It is estimated that there are almost 3 billion active social media accounts today. That tells you how much social media is influential in the modern world.

One area that has significantly been boosted by social media is marketing. Most companies have invested in social media marketing – because of its effectiveness. As a medical practitioner, you are able to reach a larger audience within a short time compared to other sources.

5. Content marketing

Content marketing is all about creating content that’s relevant to your audience. It is a marketing strategy that’s almost similar to search engine optimization.

When using a content marketing strategy, you generate content that will attract and drive traffic back to your website. In other words, content marketing guides you in producing content that’s engaging and relevant to your niche.

Digital Branding

How to Get Media Coverage and Good PR for Your Startup

Steven on June 12, 2020

When you are first starting out, one of the biggest issues that you may have is getting media attention. It is difficult to build credibility, awareness, and exposure if you aren’t able to gain media coverage.

It is important to find the right methods of getting media exposure because some may not work when you are first starting out. So, you may need to be a bit creative when thinking about how to get press. This guide can provide you with the tools that you would need to win the media coverage that you need. We will look at:

What is media coverage?
Earned media vs. Owned Media vs. Paid media
Steps to get media coverage for your startup

What is media coverage?

Before you can start applying media coverage tips to your business, you need to know what it is. However many ways you look at it, media coverage basically means publicity and in the world of PR, it can also be called “earned media”.

Your goal is to win earned media, which is a way of building your company’s reputation by using press coverage through third-party media publications. You will also be applying owned media, which would be any content that you are publishing on your own channels.

Earned media vs. Owned Media vs. Paid Media

There are many media and marketing tactics that can grow your company and they may all seem confusing together, but let me break it down for you.

Earned media can include Social media shares, viral content, customer success stories, recommendations, guest articles, product review pages, and media mentions. This is media that you have basically “earned” it comes from the things that you are posting and feedback from your target audience.

What are the benefits of earned media?

Builds awareness: it allows you to reach more of your targeted audience. It opens you up to new customers across different media outlets. It gets more eyes on your product/service.
Heightens your credibility: Producing great articles for publication can demonstrate your industry knowledge and build credibility in your field. It shows that you are informed about the market that you are trying to break through.
Boosts your SEO, Increases your leads and sales, and ultimately increases trust.

Owned media can include Blogs, websites, mobile apps, whitepapers, case studies, social media accounts, and media kits. This type of media is what you create on your own, things that you have put up that are trying to reach an audience.

Paid media can include PPC ads, sponsored content, display/banner ads, and retargeting. It is basically advertising that is directly paid for. This would include using social media influencers to promote your product/service. It can be very effective in driving traffic to your business, but you would need to gain and receive sufficient trust within your target market, which is where the influencers come in.

STEPS TO GET MEDIA COVERAGE FOR YOUR STARTUP

STEP 1: Build your narrative using owned media

You need to make sure that your internal message, branding, and in-house content is in great condition so that when you pitch to media outlets, it seems like you know exactly what you’re doing. If the things that you are writing and posting are lacking in detail and looks like it has been done by an amateur, you are less likely to even care about giving you media coverage.

Make sure that you convey who you are, what you do, and what your values are.

STEP 2: Identify the most relevant journalists

The media coverage that you are trying to get should and need to be relevant to your business. Which is why it is important that you research where and how you want to win your earned media.

Make a list of all the publications that you read and that you are aware is related to your industry.
Use tools to find publications that your competition has put up and have gained media coverage in
Select a few keywords that are related to your business or industry

STEP 3: Setup media monitoring

This is relatively related to the last step, it is important once you have posted or been posted that you listen to what your target audience is saying about your brand, your competitors and anything that is related to your business.

STEP 4: PR Tactics for winning press coverage:

Guest articles
Press releases
Podcast appearances
Product Reviews Page
Newsjacking
Interviews

STEP 5: Goal setting

It is important that you set reasonable goals for yourself. Basically state things that you know you can achieve, because if you aim too high and you are not able to achieve them, it would seem that you are unreliable to your audience.

STEP 6: Start building relationships with the press

Make friends with the press, you need them on your team if you want to emerge into the market. You can start building relationships through social media, connecting with them locally, and using programs like HARO to find the relevant journalists and media outlets for you.

STEP 7: Pitching to media outlets

Once you have developed a relationship with them, you can start pitching to them. However, do not do it in a way that seems pushy. Find a way to connect with them on their level first and then go from there. At the end of the day, they are getting so many messages daily about people that want media coverage, so find a way to stand out and they are more likely to read through your pitch.

Provide a good hook for them to be attracted to by

Providing a fresh perspective
Offering new insight
Challenging the norm
Breaking new ground

Media coverage is a very important part of PR, so figure out a way to be personal and different from the competition. Make sure that what you are doing is relevant to them, don’t waste your time pitching to an outlet that doesn’t accept guest posts, don’t pitch to more than one person at the same publication at the same time, and when you are trying to follow-up, don’t seem too needy or pushy.

You want them to like you. You want them to be interested in what you are trying to get media coverage for. You want to be different.

To get professional help from our PR professional to create your customized email pitches, press releases, press kits, etc. Check out our website and our packages for more information.

Digital Branding

How To Promote Brand Using An Online Community

Steven on June 7, 2020

Building an online brand nowadays goes beyond creating marketing messages. A business requires to form genuine connections with its customers to excel online. Your business acquires more attention and develops as a brand when people can link to it and believe it is dependable.

That’s the reason a brand community can fortify and extend the reach of your brand online.

It’s probable that your business already possesses an active community on forums, social media, or your website. You can build community engagement to promote your brand’s growth. You can even leverage community-designed content to develop your brand.

#Present A Brand Value For Your Community

Customers will spend in your brand as your community signifies the values your brand is all about, permitting you to break your dependence on advertising and promotions.

# Explore Emotions To Grow Customer Retention

View brand communities for a few of the most luxurious brands in the world, such as Porsche cars, Rolex watches, or Montblanc pens. All of us know someone (perhaps yourself) who is an ardent fan and would never think about buying from a rival – whether you possess the money to buy one or not.

When your community members are joined to your brand and the community surrounding it, it builds a switching barrier. Due to their loyalty and investment in the community, they won’t be so price sensitive and will be less probable to shop about.

You don’t require to be a luxury brand such as Rolex for this to function for your brand also. Moroccanoil is a premium body and hair care brand that has built a community, Beauty Circle, around the worth and advantages of utilizing their products.

By exploring the emotions connected to looking and feeling your best, they’ve created a big online brand community, without needing to think about reducing their prices to be the cheapest beauty oils on the market.

Make emotional attachments the bedrock of your community. Irrespective of what you sell, your one-time shoppers will become committed repeat purchasers as loyal members of your brand community.

# Build Valuable Brand Advocates

Your community can’t prosper if nobody is familiar with it. Fortunately, when you motivate your community members, you can alter them from being customers into brand advocates. Advocates like your brand and constitute a precious marketing channel, serving as a community megaphone to aid bring others into your brand experience. Besides, while they’re evangelizing for your business, they even spend double as much as an average shopper.

Energy gum makers Run Gum took complete advantage of community and brand advocates through their referral program. Numerous people don’t know what energy gum is, so their advocates were entrusted to educate outsiders and garner them into the Run Gum community. Run Gum’s investment worked, leading to a 200% growth in repeat purchase rate all due to their brand advocates.

The growth of your community only implies positive things for your business. By motivating brand advocates, they can distribute the value of your brand to help rope in new excited customers, and build a more engaging community experience.

# Understand What Prods Your Customers

The sole way to improve your customer experience is by knowing what your customers are experiencing.

Building an online brand community permits you to know what eggs on your customers, along with what they do and don’t appreciate the customer experience. Laced with all the product reviews, social engagements, and feedback forms, there are plenty of ways to discover everything you can do to make all interactions with your brand delightful.

When Altenew refurbished their website, they wished to discover how much they had improved the online experience. Believing their community would present honest evaluations, they emailed their members to receive some warm feedback. This aided the website project at hand, besides giving insight into what members value. Bolstered with that information, Altenew could better the entire customer experience for their shoppers.

Community members have invested effort, time, or money in your brand. That renders them perfect to offer feedback, aiding your understanding of what your customers truly value concerning your brand.

# Raise Brand Awareness

Word-of-mouth is still the most successful way to increase awareness and develop a business. In reality, people are 84% more probable to trust a recommendation or referral if it emanates from a friend, implying the value of community at an all-time high.

One of the leading ways to increase awareness is through brand ambassadors. The founders of theSkimm, a reputed daily newsletter, ascribe nearly 20% of general company growth to the ambassador program. “Skimm’bassadors” distribute the newsletter with friends and get swat and perks for striking specific referral milestones.

Bumble, the networking and dating app, designed the Queen Bee ambassador program. Queen Bees aid market the app within their networks and localities. They don Bumble-branded swag and hold in-person mingling events with thought leaders and influencers in their cities. These grassroots community efforts have aided 26 million users to form connections in only 3 years.

# Let Customers Discover

Communities not just promote growth, but they can be the most precious and truthful source of feedback for businesses. Conventional product marketing research, like focus groups and surveys, aren’t as trustworthy as once believed.

A series of experiments discovered that, when associating in conventional research, people get the Hawthorne Effect. People know that they’re being examined, so they alter their behavior as a consequence. This same effect doesn’t happen, however, when people exchange on social media and other online spaces.

Online communities, not just aid offer brands a profound understanding of customer requirements and desires, but user-produced content, like comments and reviews, are regarded as more genuine. Regarding 97% of online buyers read reviews prior to making a purchase, it is vital that communities are actively engaging and generating content around a company’s product.

Glossier, a skincare and beauty products brand, has mastered the art of making customers do this. They have built a huge, dedicated community that communicates through Slack, Instagram, and in-person events. Before Glossier inaugurates a new product, its editorial arm – Into the Gloss – will post an “open thread” soliciting advice on what its readers desire.

# Encourage Customer Success

The concept of the lone genius who achieves success single-handed is a fallacy. The most successful people form part of inventive and supportive communities.

Effective communities insert value when they back members, offer a sense of camaraderie, form strategic connections, and constitute a source of advice that members can implement upon their own lives. Community members frequently exchange a passion for individual improvement and continuous learning.

The most successful learning strategies involve communities and promote discussion, instead of having individuals read a book or view an educational video alone.

In reality, Flatiron School, the outcomes-targeted coding school, discovered that the most successful learning method for students is to join them with different learners and industry leaders through online communities and in-person events.

# Push Brand Loyalty To Acquire Followers

Maintaining current customers involved is just as vital (if not more) than acquiring new first-time users. Accenture discovered that two-thirds of customers will “invest more on brands to which they are loyal.” Glossier, for example, holds that 90% of its revenue is by way of returning customers.

The greater time or effort that a person invests in a service or product, the more they’ll finish valuing it. Researchers from Harvard Business School term this the IKEA Effect. IKEA’s business model makes the consumer spend time assembling the products, so they incline to overvalue the brand and products.

Whether it’s by way of in-person events or online forums, communities are core to awareness, brand loyalty, and general success. A powerful and engaged community will produce improved products, learning, and innovation, together with company growth. Nevertheless, to be effective, brands require to create communities that go beyond selling a product and offer value and support for members.

Enhance SEO To Boost Your Product Promotion

As SEO trends are continuously changing, online brand communities are a certain way to ensure genuine and quality User Generated Content (UGC).

Creating a community of people who like your brand permits you to conveniently activate consumers to generate fresh and specific UGC, yielding an ongoing portal of content – this is useful for both getting new eyes on your products.

48% of consumers tell UGC is an excellent way to locate new products, and 25% of search results for the world’s 20 biggest brands are links to user-created content. This is awesome news for marketers.

# Creating Online Community Through BuddyPress

BuddyPress is the social networking plugin for WordPress that allows you to compose your own Facebook. Whether you want to build a social space for your family and friends, build a collaborative environment for your co-workers and partners, or somewhere in-between, the free and versatile BuddyPress plugin is for you.

By selecting a BuddyPress theme with a nice assortment of BuddyPress page templates, your visitors will be offered a consistent user experience as they navigate through your website. This includes the login and registration pages, member profiles, activity feeds, private messaging tools, besides more.

BuddyPress and its add-ons present a plethora of social networking features that when combined with WordPress and the proper theme, present unlimited possibilities.

Conclusion

Creating an online brand community is an investment worth performing. Current top brands know that it is hard, if not, impossible to compete on selection, price, or advertising muscle like it was previously. They know that another brand will always exist ready to lose more on the sale or spend more on that impression. That’s why they highlight on developing an online brand community that cannot be imitated by the competition.

Developing a brand community will not occur overnight, but those who are ready to make the investment will reap the rewards above.

Author Bio

Rohini Oberoi is a passionate blogger at brndle.com . She is an experienced blogger and has written many articles and blog posts on topics related to WordPress, web design, web development, and online marketing.