As we head into 2020, it seems like the competition has never been tougher for businesses. With the business world becoming an ever more global market place, companies need to compete against those offering products and services not just down the road, but literally on the other side of the world.

In this context, effectively marketing your business has never been more important. In order to truly stand out from the competition, you need to do something different. 2020 is the year to truly get creative with your marketing! By moving away from the same tactics used by everyone else, you will attract more clients, build your customer base, and the sky will be the limit in terms of growing your business.

Here are 6 creative ways to market your business and take it to the next level in 2020.

1. Partner or sponsor other organizations

Sponsoring another organization or service is a technique that businesses have been doing for a very long time. However in today’s modern world where many modern forms of advertising are no longer effective, or at least less effective than they used to be, having your brand plastered in the eye of many consumers is a great way to reach them. The key here is to be creative in who you partner with – try to find sponsorship opportunities that are on-brand, very visible and a little left-of-center! Sponsorship opportunities could be for brands and products which are around year-round, or for specific events. This is also not a tactic that is limited to the big brands – smaller businesses can get in on sponsorship too, albeit on a smaller scale. Coca Cola may sponsor the Olympics, while an SME may choose to sponsor a local community event! Maid Marines (they’re maid service in NYC), utilizes this strategy to build their online presence, and put them in front of more potential clients.

2. Exhibit at Trade Shows

Trade shows are a great way to market your business. This rather traditional form of marketing can be somewhat overlooked in the context of today’s digital marketing. However, trade shows remain big business and continue to draw thousands of people to each event, of which there are many. Thus shows are a great way to reach new audiences, along with building your brand. They give you the opportunity to engage with potential customers in an in-depth way, allowing them to test products, ask questions and therefore be more likely to buy your product or service. Having an attractive display booth is essential for attracting attention and drawing visitors to your stand. Talk to a specialist like Fret Free Productions in London to get a booth which will make the most of your presence at each trade show.

3. Hold social media contests

Just about every business understands the importance of social media marketing these days. With 70% of the US population, for example, on social media, this is clearly an area that businesses cannot ignore. Over 90% of US businesses use social media, but many are still using the same tired old strategies and boring posts. One great way to engage with your followers and generate some buzz at the same time is through social media contests. There are a variety of ways to do this – picture contests, hashtag contests, caption contests, invite a friend, and so on. All the better if you can hold your contest across multiple social media platforms.

4. Create shareable content

Another way to get ahead of the social media game and stand out from the competition is by creating something truly shareable. This could be an awesome infographic, and inspiring, funny or useful video, or something completely different. This most important thing is that it is something that your audience feels compelled to share with their friends and family. This means that as your content gets shared, it will reach hundreds if not thousands of people, and have much greater reach than if it stayed simply in your own established audience. You do need to make sure that your content is branded (for example that your logo and preferably website are on your infographics) so that people learn who you are!

5. Media outreach

In the age of digital marketing, PR is far from dead – quite the opposite in fact! Now you have double the opportunity to get into the media, through traditional PR to physical publications and digital PR to online ones! A strong PR strategy can be highly effective in promoting your brand, building trust with your audience and ultimately generating more sales. The important thing here is contacts: build a network of contacts in relevant publications, and then offer them something interesting or valuable to publish! Maid Marines (they’re maid service in NYC), utilizes this strategy to build their online presence, and put them in front of more potential clients.

6. Teach your expertise

Marketing in 2020 will be all about value: it is important to offer something of value to your prospects, in order to capture their attention. What better way to give value then to share your knowledge in your particular area of expertise? There are many ways to do this, such as free blogs or guides, e-books, videos, podcasts, and in-person speaking events. From there, you can build a relationship with your prospects while showing your expertise, and they will be begging to hire you or buy your product.

As soon as we’ve transitioned into the predominant use of digital channels to buy and connect with businesses, we’ve sacrificed a certain level of intimate and personal interaction with the brand in question. To overcome this modern-day obstacle and adapt their business for better personalization, brands now utilize a slew of methods that ensure that customers can engage with them more effectively. Thankfully, there are many online and offline ways to cross that gap in brand-customer interactions that actually use personalization at the heart of their strategy. 

Of course, these methods increase customer acquisition as well, but their primary purpose is to inspire customers to stay loyal to your brand. They have the potential to become your finest brand advocates, to increase your customer acquisition over time, and to boost your reputation online as well as offline, all as a result of proper personalization tactics. Without further ado, here are a few ways to personalize each experience your customers have with your brand and reap the many rewards this approach brings to modern businesses.

On-site customization options

We live in an era when being true to yourself is encouraged all around, and that authenticity is partly achieved by how we make our purchasing decisions. One by one, brands are beginning to allow and encourage a greater level of customization for their products and services, thus effectively allowing their customers to create the brand as they go. For example, you should consider letting your customers add their initials to the product of their choosing, choose color combinations, or add a design detail they love.

Even for brands that sell technology such as laptops, it’s more than possible to let customers build their own ideal product – for a price, of course. The ability alone is often more than enough to inspire greater loyalty since customers then feel that they have the freedom to create their experience as they please, which is the best way to encourage and empower authenticity. 

Utilize data to your advantage

On one hand, it may seem that relying on a slew of impersonal tools that collect information about your customers is anything but personal. On the other, this data is precisely what will give you the insights you need to refine your online presence so as to appeal to each and every individual customer that comes to your online store or subscribes to your newsletter. Data is at the forefront of better market segmentation, and it’s up to you to make use of all the information you gather.

Luckily for growth-oriented brands, modern digital tools also have the ability to filter all of that collected data and create actionable reports that allow you to act rather than waste time analyzing. This seemingly impersonal approach reduces human error as well as bias and gives you access to the kind of data that can elevate your brand’s standing in the online community. This will let you create customer profiles, envision ideal customer journeys, and change how you interact with each customer in time.

Give your efforts a personal touch

Personalization should not end with your data collection or your on-site efforts. In fact, even when the purchase is completed, you should go above and beyond to let your customers know that you pay attention to their needs. For instance, a simple way to achieve that would be to send them a personalized thank-you note. 

You can rely on fast printing services to create such thank-you notes and other printable materials quickly that will impress your customers with every purchase. You can attach a note that encourages them to leave a review on Google and that gives them a personalized discount code for their next purchase, thus inspiring them to come back to your store. Alternatively, printing out flyers that focus on products each particular customer likes is another way to promote your brand in a subtle way as an extension of your efforts to increase engagement. 

Enable social media support

FAQ pages and chatbots are both valid channels for qualifying leads that provide ample information for each and every site visitor. They help shorten the customer journey by giving them directions as to how and where they can find the products they want and give them guidelines on how to use them. However, a growing number of customers now want a more personal support experience, preferably through social media platforms. 

There’s a double benefit to this strategy. First, you get a chance to humanize your brand and adjust your voice to each individual customer that uses these channels to communicate with you. Secondly, that is a perfect research opportunity for you to ask them a few questions or even to complete a survey so that you can get more in-depth insights into their perception of your brand. Both of these perks allow you to improve your personalization over time and to always provide relevant content for each customer on social media.

Your customers interact with various brands every day. In order for your particular experience to stand out and earn their loyalty, you need to give it that personal touch that resonates with their needs. Use these tips to infuse every customer contact with personalization that delivers results, and you’ll allow your brand to gain the traction it needs to grow its customer base and to inspire loyalty at the same time.

When it comes to digital marketing, taking online courses is one of the many ways you can go about acquiring the basics. But what exactly are you going to learn when taking digital marketing courses online?

Well, it depends on the course you are taking, of course! But there are some common themes you’ll learn, regardless of which area you choose to study and which provider you enrol with.

According to Mallory, digital marketing has 6 major activity types: content marketing, search engine optimization, search engine marketing, social media marketing, affiliate and influencer marketing, and email and message marketing. Let’s have a look at some of the topics so you’ll know what to expect by taking digital marketing classes.

SEO and Keyword Research

You can’t live without search engine optimization today. SEO is at the heart of everything. Online courses will teach students how to:

• Properly target keywords based upon a specific niche/industry, website they’re building, or client needs
• Create enriching content online to ensure a website outranks competitors in organic SEO searches
• Incorporate the right keywords, phrases, and “search friendly” details on a website, to ensure they rank highly in organic SEO searches
• The basics of mobile websites, fast load times, product descriptions, blogs, and relevant content, to guarantee higher rankings online.

Without the right keywords, and without properly optimizing a website, it is going to falter. The right courses will teach students the basics of building a website with SEO in mind, to ensure it ranks well within a specific niche for a search demographic.

Social Media and the Importance of Localizing

Think of a popular website today. Does it have a social media presence? If you say no, you’re fooling yourself.

The same goes with local search tools. Many companies today have a Google My Business page. They also have local search terms, city names, local phrases, and popular search terms on their website.

What’s the reason for these things? They matter! Today, websites must:

• Cater to their searcher (include local searches as people will include words like “near me” or include city/state when searching for something online)
• Include social links, in order to engage with their audience and be viewed as a likable company
• Incorporate YouTube, Instagram, Facebook ads, and more.

Basically, companies have to cater to their audience. Almost everyone’s on at least one social media site. So, companies have to be as well.

Marketing courses will teach you how to build an online reputation, how to incorporate localization into website design, and how to interact with audiences, through multiple social media platforms.

How to Monetize a Site

Customers want to make profits. Working in marketing, designing websites, or creating content as a marketer, means you’ll have to help clients monetize their site. Basic marketing courses will teach students the power of:

• Content marketing
• Affiliate marketing
• Blogging and guest writing
• Email marketing and building campaign lists
• Utilizing online podcasts and YouTube marketing
• PPC (pay per click ads) … and more!

There are several ways to monetize a website. If you don’t know how to utilize these tools as a marketer, you probably won’t go far in the industry.

Study Digital Marketing Online

Most marketing careers relies on technical skills and knowledge of online platforms. You need to embrace technology since that’s the most powerful way to connect to customers.

The crucial role of technology makes mean studying online is a natural fit. Online Study Australia has observed, “Studying marketing in an online environment makes great sense with the rise of digital and social media marketing. Marketing professionals need to be skilled at connecting customers to products using technology.”

The different types of marketing courses you can do range from watching YouTube videos, to short diploma courses, to full university degrees. A combination of online courses is perhaps the way to go. Get a grounding by doing a long course and then keep updated and refreshed with shorter courses.

To be more productive means to work better, faster and longer. While being more productive is often a psychological challenge before anything else, there is also a ton of tools and apps that can enhance your productivity. In this post, we present some of the most common ones.

For “offline” storage

More often than not, the simplest tool at your disposal isn’t found on your laptop or smartphone. Even big-time CEOs don’t shy away from relying on a notebook to organize their work for the week. Yes, notebooks are pretty analog, but they can still be quite useful.

Every Monday, for example, you can map out your week in your notebook and prioritize what you need to do in the next five days. Then, if you find yourself working on something that isn’t a part of that list, you can try to stop and evaluate whether or not it’s an actual priority.

For online storage

Dropbox is likely one of the first few apps that gave birth to the concept of an online storage locker for paperwork. In it, you can post files, pictures, videos and other types of data in your own Dropbox section and be able to access them from anywhere.

Regarding data security, there are a couple of security practices you should consider if you want to have maximum defense. Dropbox’s own security provides 256-bit AES encryption for all files and a two-step verification process. By default, all data stored in Dropbox is private. All in all, Dropbox is a robust app for small businesses offering a secure and convenient way to store and manage information.

For having everything in one place

While it may be traditional and classy, the compendium is still one of the easiest ways to organize and secure all your belongings, such as pencils, markers, notebooks, or smartphones, in one place. With a compendium, you won’t have to worry about forgetting that one pencil you like the most, while its zip closure will make sure your belongings are safe and sound.

Moreover, if you’re an entrepreneur, there are a lot of professionally made promotional compendiums that can be customized with your business’s logo. These compendiums are amazing when it comes to branding, expanding the reach of your business, or promoting a new product or service.

For logging time

Auditing hours each day, particularly regarding client work, is an activity which is by no means easy. However, being able to view what you’ve worked on (and for whom) will assist you in establishing the value of your time. Hours is an amazing time tracking resource (with iOS and Internet apps) that will enable you to easily capture the hours you spend on each project.

Reports allow you to audit how much time you spend on a particular client and item. This app is perfect for freelancers or contractors, but also for any individual looking to audit their work time. Some people also use Toggl, a mobile app with easy-to-use interface that lets you log in work hours.

For traveling

In theory, traveling the world is amazing, but the real process can easily become quite stressful with itineraries, boarding passes, and hotel bookings all over the place. This is where TripIt comes to rescue, as it takes everything you need to travel and streamlines it into one place. You can name your travels, set reminders, import all of your travel data, and basically have everything ready at the touch of a button.

Grammarly

Grammarly is a free-to-use and must-have writing application. It isn’t only for writers, but for anyone responding to a recruiter on LinkedIn, sending an important email, or any other crucial document for that matter. With it, you will be able to check spelling and grammar or get context-based suggestions that improve your documents, messages, articles, and anything else that is text-based.

That’s it! Remember that, although these apps can help with specific activities or increase your overall productivity, being more productive requires that you change your negative habits and incorporate good ones.

Building a brand from the ground up can be very rewarding. However, it takes a lot of hard work and usually, a lot of time.

Unfortunately, an unexpected PR crisis can ruin a brand overnight. This can be devastating, especially when the crisis is caused by events unrelated to your company.

This is what happened to the UK dry herb vaporizer company, Vape Elevate. Last summer, a mysterious vaping illness swept the USA. Eventually, this illness was linked to a company selling illicit E-Liquid. Unfortunately for Vape Elevate, this illicit company shared a name with one of its brands; Dank Vapes.

Eventually, customers in the UK were becoming confused between the two unrelated brands and sales were greatly affected.

We spoke to Cara Robinson, Customer Experience Manager at Vape Elevate to find out what lessons she learned responding to a PR crisis.

Act quickly and preempt any damaging news

To this day, Cara’s biggest regret is not preempting the public relations crisis by communicating as soon as possible with her customers

“We were fully aware that a company sharing our name was being linked to the vaping illness. However, because it was happening over 2000 miles away and our sales were unaffected we decided to ignore it – much to our regret”.

By not acting quickly, customers are left to draw their conclusions of events. Even if the conclusions are wrong, it can still be damaging for business.

Cara agrees “Had we not buried our heads in the sand, we could have prevented our customers from confusing our brand with the illicit vaping brand.”

Put yourself in your customer’s shoes

One thing that Vape Elevate did get right was putting themselves in their customer’s shoes.

“We quickly found that anyone searching for our brand on Google would be presented with stories about people falling ill. This is the last thing you want to read when shopping. It was then we knew we had to rebrand.”

By viewing the brand as a customer would, Cara’s team was able to identify exactly where the crisis lay and ensure they came up with the response that best met their customer’s needs.

Have a communications plan

Once a plan of action has been decided upon, the entire team must be singing from the same hymn sheet.

Social Media is increasingly likely to be the first port of call for confused, angry and inquisitive customers. During a PR crisis, any responses customers or press receive should be predetermined and approved by senior management. It’s important to not allow any employees to go rogue.

Sending out a mass email to your customer database is another great way to manage communications. This is exactly what Vape Elevate did as Cara recalls:

“We announced our brand change by sending an email simultaneously to our customers, our suppliers, and the press. It gave us control of the narrative and we were able to reposition the brand change as exciting.”

Top Tips For Handling A PR Crisis

It’s a worst-case scenario that can befall even the most prestigious organization: a public relations crisis. From a string of bad reviews to a serious financial scandal, a negative incident can have a powerful impact on a company’s reputation — no matter how small or diplomatic it is. That’s why it’s critical for every business to have a reaction plan in place. Here are some do’s and don’ts when navigating a PR crisis.

In today’s digital age, news can go viral almost instantly. The implementation of a swift and effective crisis management plan is essential. An organization should address the issue head-on, whether it’s with an apology, an explanation or an announcement. If an immediate, informative response is not possible, the business should at least communicate that it’s looking into the issue and give a reason as to why there will be a delay. Above all else, it’s important to take responsibility for what happened.

Before sending representatives to address the media, make sure they fully understand the response strategy and are given enough information to answer questions. If time allows, set up a practice session to ensure they are prepared. Emphasize that the company’s message must be consistent across multiple channels.

Refrain from saying “no comment,” as these are two of the most damaging words in PR. Shutting down communication leaves a gap for others to fill, and what they say may be worse than the truth. If an organization is waiting for more information, it should let the public know that it is working on a response or a reaction to the situation.

For more tips on how to handle a PR crisis, see the accompanying infographic.

A web template or website template is primarily a web page, which is pre-designed with a custom set of elements, which anyone can simply pick and simply plug-in your text or image to build a fully functional website. Unlike the need for custom coding and designing, the pre-built website templates will let anyone, even those who don’t have any knowledge of coding, to set up their professional websites.

Website templates are usually built with HTML, CSS, and Bootstrap codes and will let anyone tweak the layout to set up a unique website. There is no need to hire a professional developer or designer to construct a website. Nowadays, even many of the developers who are into professional website creation make use of these templates to prepare business websites. Website templates will let the amateur web developers build their websites quickly and easily without the need to do the coding from scratch.

Usage of these templates also lets anyone make websites at a reasonable cost, and the entire process of web development is also made less time consuming with the use of templates. The modern-day templates are also coming search engine ready out of the box, so the users can easily search for and find your products and services online. Each template available out there in the website template repositories are also self-contained. You just have to plug-in your unique content as text, images, or videos, and then tweak the layout according to your needs with drag and drop options to complete the layout and publish the website.

Various types of web templates

As discussed above, the website templates come self-contained as downloadable zip files or kind of an online web builder user interface. If you are a bit coding-savvy, then you can use an HTML code editing program also to do the customization. These could be made simply static or highly responsive and dynamic. You can configure these templates to be adaptive to the needs of any mobile or PC browsing. You can also put the file extensions as.htm, .html .php, .asp and so in. In any case, these could be built using the HTM and CSS codes. The modern-day templates are coming responsive out of the box, and the layout could simply flex to the entire width effectively for a comfortable view.

What are all there in the website templates?

Usually, you can find or include text and images (.jpg, .png or .gif formats), HTML5, CSS3 elements, jQuery, shopping carts, payment gateways, contact forms, slideshows, dynamic image galleries PDF download, video, and graphic players, embedded YouTube, etc. to point out a few. The designs and codes of the web templates may vary largely from case to case, so the users need to be very careful and picky while choosing their most appropriate website template. Ensure that you check all the functions of the template as well as the scripts, functions, and applications you need for your website. With the Designmodo free website templates, you can all add custom text, scripts, stock photos, third-party plug-ins, or anything to the template easily to create custom-built pages. The default stock images could also be replaced with the user content like.jpg or .gif images.

The website templates come as standalone zip files, including built-in scripts for multiple pages. There may have been many developers who worked behind it to create these pre-built templates and for the clients. In addition to it, the website templates can also be purchased by the clients and make use of a developer at their end to customize the layout and design. Most of these website templates can be used as a base, and using a professional to complete it will help save a lot of time and effort compared to building a site from scratch. Using website templates, there is also no restriction as to how to customize a website and what all elements to be included in it later. However, you can also have a look at the user agreement while downloading a website template to see if there are any such restrictions.

More about HTML and CSS-based designs

HTML, as well as CSS, are plain text coding languages which can be used for browsers to render the webpage designs. The latest versions are HTML5 & CSS3, which are now considered as the website standards. It is W3C, World Wide Web Consortium, which updates and maintains the standards for these.

The web templates now come in various flavors, and you need to be very careful while considering the options and choose one. You shouldn’t instantly commit to any design without scrutinizing them. It is also ideal to choose one which will be compliant with the current standards and also ply responsive on the mobile screens. Ensure that the website you develop passes the Mobile-Friendly Test by Google.

Adaptive design vs. responsive design

Adaptive web templates are similar to responsive web designs and will consist of the media queries of CSS code. The major difference in terms of adaptive design is that it targets the desktops and mobile devices separately. There could either be a separate design or another set of web pages for each device. Detection of CSS, PHP, jQuery, or ASP could be used to redirect the users from various devices to corresponding web pages. However, there could be many gray areas in adaptive design. On the other hand, responsive web design only needs one type of development. Bootstrap uses a grid-based system with which the web page gets open based on the characteristics of the browser and the device screen on which the website is open.

There are also many web builder systems offered by hosting companies and proprietary CMS providers. However, while combined with the template designs coming packed with the hosting packages, your websites may not be portable, and you will find it difficult to port it to another hosting server later. So, it is best to stay away from such hosting service add-ons, and it’s ideal to choose independent website templates, which you can seamlessly customize and personalize with code updates.