Results for: content marketing

7 Awesome Automation Tools to Supercharge Your Content Creation Process

Steven on August 11, 2021

Content creation is a key function in digital marketing that demands both time and effort. The content you put out there speaks volumes about your business and your authority in your field. This is why optimizing the content creation process should be one of your top priorities. The more tools and aides your content creators have at their disposal, the more productive they are likely to be.

According to a survey by HubSpot, 68% of businesses use automation in some way. Another report by MarketingProfs says that 92% of marketing agencies are now investing more time and resources into marketing automation. use of automation tools and software has resulted in increased ROI for many marketers who have automated some of their content marketing activities.

If you are looking for the best automation tools that can give you a competitive advantage, here are 7 awesome tools you should know about.

1. Narrato – Content creation and collaboration platform

Narrato is a content creation and workflow management platform that helps you see through your content creation process from start to finish. It’s a great collaboration platform where your entire content team and stakeholders can come together to build great content.

Narrato Workspace can help you:

Collaborate with your content team – You can add your entire content team to the Workspace on Narrato, including your writers, editors, content managers, clients, partners, and other stakeholders. You can assign your team members to tasks and get them to collaborate on any piece of content. You can also share content with partners and stakeholders using public content links.

Manage a team of writers – Narrato is a perfect platform to manage your team of writers – be it your in-house staff or freelance / part-time writers. Content task assignment is super convenient (you can assign multiple tasks to a writer in one go). You can even track work done and payments due for your contract or freelance writers.

Create quality content – Narrato boasts of a powerful content editor, which allows you to optimize your content for readability and gives great content structuring suggestions. You can even run a plagiarism check on content using the editor. What’s even cooler is the ability to create custom content templates to get structured input from your writers.

Organize your content and projects – Narrato offers you a great platform to organize all your content projects in a single place. It’s structured very much like your local or cloud drive with folders and content items. But offers you several other views of your content to facilitate easy access and planning. For instance – a view of all content items without folders and a content calendar view, which is great for planning and tracking content work.

Track content and project progress – All content tasks run through workflow statuses and you can also track the overall progress of your project using project status bars.

Publish and deliver content seamlessly – Narrato Workspace integrates with WordPress and supports HTML publishing as well.

Create a guidelines and brand assets repository – This is a cool feature which allows you to create a guidelines document with attachments, and you can link it repeatedly to multiple tasks anytime.

Pricing: Free at the moment. May launch paid plans soon.

2. Automizy – Email marketing and automation software

Automizy is an email marketing automation tool that helps you distribute your content and engage with leads at the right time. Email marketing is one of the most important areas of any digital marketing strategy. But handling emails manually can be quite tedious. You have hundreds of prospective leads, each at a different stage in their journey towards conversion.

Email automation allows you to send them targeted, personalized emails at the right moment to increase your chances of conversion. With Automizy, you can build your contact list with the help of sign-up forms you create. The platform has an email automation builder that helps you define the entire process of sending an automated email, based on the actions taken by the prospect.

The drag and drop email editor also lest you create high-performing emails without any additional skill requirements. The AI tool on the platform helps by predicting the performance of your subject lines.

Pricing: Paid plans start at $9 per month for 200 contacts.

3. TubeBuddy – Productivity and SEO tool for YouTube

Nearly 61% of digital marketers say they have achieved better ROI with video marketing than with Google Ads. So you can imagine how important it is that your video content performs well, particularly on platforms like YouTube.

TubeBuddy is a browser extension that helps you get more views and subscribers on YouTube faster. The tool helps you with advanced keyword research, simplifying publishing, optimizing content to rank higher in search results, promoting your videos on social media, and data analysis to identify improvement opportunities.

Pricing: They are offering a free plan with limited features. The paid plans start at $7.20 per month.

4. Typito – Video maker to create videos with text

Another amazing video content platform, with a slightly different use case, is Typito. Typito is a video creation app with an easy drag-and-drop editor. You can customize your videos with your brand colors and fonts. You can also add captions easily that are perfectly synced with the video.

The platform offers more than 20 video formats, over 600,000 free images, and 500+ motion graphic templates.

Pricing: The paid plan starts at $29 per month.

5. Jasper – AI-based copywriting software

Jasper is an AI-powered copywriting software that can create high converting copy for ads, emails, websites, blogs, and more. This could be a very useful tool to create a compelling copy during web design and development work, without having to hire a copywriter just yet. It can also be an invaluable tool for your sales, marketing, and customer support teams, saving them a lot of time on content creation.

Jasper can generate several high-converting headlines with just a little input about the product or service for which you need a copy. You can also set the tone for your copy to go with your brand image. The tool lets you translate your content to more than 25 different languages too.

Pricing: The starter plan is priced at $29 per month.

6. CreatorKit – Video tool for content creators

CreatorKit is a video creation tool for creating social marketing videos. The platform lets you create animated videos, stories, and ads for different social platforms with its easy-to-use video editor. It has thousands of templates to fit various social channels.

You can customize videos to reflect your brand and save your customized templates to use again. You can also add price tags, discounts, and other engaging text to your marketing videos.

Pricing: Pricing information not available

7. Zencastr – Podcast recording tool

According to a research report, the number of podcast listeners in the US alone has grown by 29.5% in the last 3 years. Podcasts are a high-potential marketing tool today, competing with video and written content.

Zencastr is a tool that helps you record studio-quality podcasts from anywhere. It allows you to record a lossless 16-bit 48k WAV audio track with each guest, without any time limits. Since it is local recording, the internet connection speed does not matter and you can get high-quality audio every time.

The tool has built-in VoIP that lets you chat, talk, leave live footnotes, and record at the same time. It also has a Soundboard for live editing of your podcasts and an automatic post-production tool to help you achieve the final product.

Pricing: Free plan with limited features for hobbyists. The professional plan costs $20 per month.

Conclusion

Each of these marketing and automation tools is sure to drive more engagement for your business. Content creating and marketing requires skill and effort. But it also demands the right tools and technology to deliver the best results. Try out these amazing automation tools and watch your content performance soar higher than ever before.

Author bio:

Neelam Goswami is a Content Writer at Godot Media, a leading content writing services agency. Her areas of interest include digital and content marketing. She is also an amateur artist and loves to spend time on creative work.

Digital Branding

Why Should Your Brand Story Be Part Of Your Marketing Strategy?

Steven on July 12, 2021

In this fast-moving digital world, developing connections is easy. However, maintaining loyalty for the long term is a tedious task to serve. Maintaining a loyal customer base has become a Herculean task with the high rise of competitors for brands.

The changes in marketing strategies are proportional to the customer base. Today it is not just about promoting the brand, but it is beyond the physical virtues. Marketing is leveling the definition to a more personal connection for the long term.

Emotions are always a strong suit of connection. Strategically implementing emotions through experience or story to a brand brings about differences in reducing the influence to bring a shift. Now let us see what a brand story is and how it is essential in the marketing strategy.

What is a brand story?

A brand story is a narrative strategy that speaks about the values and virtues of the brand. It’s not just about the history of the brand. Moreover, it’s about how and why the brand was established, the guiding principles, and how it would like to reflect in the future.

Storytelling has been an age-old practice that stirs creativity and creates ideas in minds. The act of storytelling is a powerful tool that helps to bring emotional values to concepts and experiences.

Through brand storytelling, the brand conveys its thoughts and shares its values with the customers. It’s about understanding the outlook of the brand and what it stands for. Brand storytelling is not about selling products and services directly. It’s about establishing connections through long-lasting impressions.

Significance in marketing

Brand storytelling is a marketing strategy that is followed by almost all brands today. In this digital era, there are certain limitations to online advertising. The regular practices of personalized emails and sales reminders are now the least effective. They occupy the junk mail fraction with a large number of brands engaging in the same.

An effective resonation of emotions is missing in these forms. With the advancement in technology, customers have a significant realization that it is all automatically generated with mere personal consideration.

A more projective or experienced form of marketing is Storybrand. Rather than showing according to the needs, it speaks about what the brand stands for. A communicative form rather than an announcement where the customer connects to the ideas. Embarking the virtues of origin, the journey through loss and gains, without hiding anything. This method creates a visual image of the brand in customers’ minds, and the emotional sentiments of the brand are consumed.

Establishing a unique identity in the market is an important part. The uniqueness should be conveyed not only through the visual portrayal of ideas but also through values too. Every brand has a different journey of its establishment; sharing personal experiences brings out these values.

How to portray a brand story

Using a set of ornate words would not suffice the purpose of the brand story; content marketing is also important. Here are some factors to consider while portraying the brand story

Understanding the mission and vision

The brand should have a clear idea of its missions and should be able to convey them to the customers. It is about what the mission is, and it’s about how well the mission is related to the brand’s virtues.

The unique understanding and actions taken by the brand will help build its reputation to follow. Moreover, each step taken by the brand for its development is the unique event of the brand story. This helps in defining the visions too. The brand story helps to bring life to the visions of the brand, communicating a better idea.

Connecting with Customer

Not any story would serve the purpose of the brand story. It should connect with the customers. Understanding the customer base is an essential factor. Their values and emotions are of great worth. The brand story should communicate with the customers and help them feel more special and wanted.

Through a transparent brand story, the customers develop more trust for the brand. When the brand shows both negative and positive aspects, it positively impacts customers, showing that the brand works through constant improvements. Linking personal experiences with the brand story helps customers connect better. This brings a sense of inspiration and connection to the brand through motivation.

Choosing the right medium

Communicating the brand story through the right medium is an essential part. The brand story can be showcased through visuals, animation, blogs, voice narration etc. This should solely be dependent on how the brand sets its identity in the market.

Suppose the online presence of the brand is more active than offline. Then the online mode should be preferred. Even in the online mode, too, the essence of the brand story should not be lost in the process of marketing. Choose something that fits the brand’s identity and is most effective. Staying with the trend is important but choose the right platform that best suits you.

Creating excitement and curiosity

The brand story should bring about excitement and curiosity to the customers. Through sharing and understanding the brand, customers should be engaged to explore more. The essence of curiosity is important, and this helps in attracting more customers.

The way of storytelling should ignite the urge to look through the brand and experience the conveyed feeling. A brand story is not a one-time act of communication. It should be a constant relation of surprises and fun. This can only be maintained through developing a continuous story through some curiosity to leave.

Conclusion

A brand story is a foundation of building trust in the customers. Laying facts and numbers to convince an idea or concept is no more effective in modern marketing concepts. The right idea conveyed through the right emotions can only bring the best gain in the market.

It’s not about making a story. It’s all about telling the life of the brand, the struggles of its birth, the hardships of existence. Humans are all about sharing and caring. Sharing a good story creates a deep impact. This very essence lies in the brand story.

Digital Branding

Effect of a Good Chief Marketing Officer on Your Business

Steven on June 14, 2021

If you’re looking to hire a chief marketing officer (CMO), you probably have scanned a lot, even the occasional project manager resume; a short perspective on what you’re looking for, right? It might be frustrating and makes you want to hire anyone. But if your choice of CMO doesn’t work out, it might affect your business negatively.

Taking out information from a perfect marketing officer resume, here are a few things that a good CMO can do for your business.

A CMO does good market research and data interpretation.

Corporate Finance Institute said that a CMO does research which means gathering important information about your company’s target market. One example is what your target customer thinks about your product. Another is if the competition is meeting the needs of the customer better than your company.

The CMO gathers this data using multiple ways, like surveys and focus group discussions. The CMO will then put together the data, interpret the results, and present it to the company executives. A good CMO will be good at putting together this information and make it understandable. Without this data, your company will be blind as to whether your products are doing well.

A CMO develops a good marketing plan.

A CMO’s main mission is to make sure the company grows and that sales and revenue increase. To do that, the CMO comes up with a complete and very detailed marketing plan. One part of the marketing plan will increase your target customers’ recognition of your brand. Another part is ways that will help you get advantages over your competition.

Without good CMOs and comprehensive marketing plans, it will be hard for your company to know what to do. That marketing plan will dictate how you will brand your products, advertise them, and so on. It will be hard to make money without a plan. It’s a given, but be sure to check out your candidate’s skills regarding this in their chief marketing officer resume.

A CMO connects the corporation with the customer.

Sometimes, companies do not know anything about their customers. They are more focused on making their products better but unless your company connects with your customer, you will not succeed. The CMO is the one who can help with customer focus in your company and stays updated about customer preferences.

The CMO must also be technologically savvy since he or she deals with marketing. With social media and the Internet use very high these days, more data is available to be interpreted, including user experiences when using your company website or app. CMOs understand that customers must always be happy when transacting with your company in whatever way. Otherwise, they will leave and look for similar services elsewhere.

While there have been changes in the hiring process, it is still best to check each applicant’s resume. From there, you can choose the best candidate for your chief marketing officer. Remember not to hire just anybody, as the CMO will seriously impact your business.

SaaS Branding

Content Writing: Are You Ready To Grow Your Business?

Steven on June 5, 2021

Is content writing something that can help your business grow? Are you considering writing blog posts, guides, and magazine articles?

If you’re thinking about using content writing to grow your business, start with the end in mind.

You’ll want to focus on the best places to publish, connect with your target audience, provide valuable insights, and be ready to adapt, adjust and pivot.

Get Seen

Even with the best content, you’ll need to find the best places to publish. You can write for authority sites with guest posts – and link these back to your website.

You can publish articles for Medium, the popular publishing platform funded by The Chernin Group (TCG). Medium has transformed how small businesses get noticed because of one simple reason: they receive heavy traffic. Medium has between 85 and 100 million monthly active users. With this massive audience it’s easy to see that you’ll get a lot of visibility.

If you want to publish great content – do it where you’ll get the most visibility.

Connect With Your Target Audience

Do you have the right publicity and media plan to connect with your target audience? Do you have your finger on the pulse of what they care most about?

Are they senior women, searching for tips on healthy living? Are they gadget lovers, looking for the latest cool gadget they don’t want to live without? Are they avid travelers, in search of the next awesome spot on the globe that hasn’t been found out by their neighbors?

When you know who your target audience really is, you’ll also need to understand what they are passionate about. This may come from your own experience – for instance, if you are a senior woman, gadget lover, or digital nomad. Or, it may come from a deep dive into customer data.

Perhaps you have a quiz or survey to help you deepen your understanding of what your target audience truly needs.

Of course, the better you know your audience, the closer you can come to providing them with exactly the content they are seeking. When you do this, they’ll search out your posts, read your Medium articles, follow your tweets, and ultimately buy what you’re offering.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Give Valuable Insights

Content writing is all about value. It’s not just what you consider ‘valuable’ that counts. It’s what your audience is looking for, needing, and wanting.

There are always long discussions about value in boardrooms, think tanks, and business meetings. It’s the kind of conversation that usually gets heated, with strong opinions from every expert. However, the only true value is what the target audience wants.

It’s not, as the scientific expert is pushing: more data. It’s not, as the finance authority insists: more numbers. It’s not, as you might believe, more of what matters to you.

While these elements may be significant for your audience, there is only one true answer on value. It’s what your target audience is craving.

This may fall into two buckets: hopes and fears. Some businesses market, write about and sell hope. They often are painting pictures of the dream life, the ideal solution, and the ultimate luxury you can’t live without.

Other businesses market, write about, and sell fear. They often are highlighting potential problems, looming threats, and how to promote safety and security. They may be selling solutions for problems you’ve not even visualized – until you read their copy.

Either way, connect with your audience. Find out what they are seeking. Orient your writing to reflect their priorities. Consider content, digital advertising, print advertising, and the best ways to reach your tribe.

Iterate, Iterate, Iterate

In product design as well as in content marketing, there is a single slogan to remember. It is: “iterate, iterate, iterate.”

While you might dream of waving a magic wand and getting everything perfect the first time, this is not realistic. You will try out one style, and wait for feedback. You’ll explore one type of content, and analyze results.

When you get feedback, listen. This doesn’t mean that just because your next-door neighbor has an opinion, you’ll shift your entire strategy. Not at all. Listen to the feedback from your target audience. Your neighbor may just be having a quirky day.

In summary, content marketing is a powerful way to share your insights, get your company known, connect with your target audience—and grow your business. It may take some experimenting in placement, topic, tone, and content – but you will see definite results.

Personal Branding

Trouble Marketing CBD Chocolates? Don’t Worry We Have Got You Covered.

Steven on April 26, 2021

The demand for health-related products and services has burgeoning now more than ever because of the Covid-19 pandemic. People are a lot more conscious about their health and well-being and are willing to explore and invest in/buy healthcare utilities. Not just this, we have also witnessed the integration of digital media and technology into all areas of business, changing the way they strategize, operate, and deliver their products and services to consumers.

Another trendy news is that CBD has taken over the market with brands offering a great variety of products. Call it a new fad or the need of the hour but, this hemp extraction is the latest uproar. Today the market is flooded with all kinds of CBD-infused products, and everyone wants to add the best CBD Gummies to their carts. Another such unique product is CBD-infused chocolate. This beneficial and delicious edible has become CBD lovers’ new big thing.

With such growing demand, it becomes imperative to keep up with the competition. If you are looking for marketing strategies to promote/advertise your CBD brand, congratulations! You are on the right page.

Why Is Marketing Important?

Let’s make it clear, ‘You cannot sell anything if you can’t tell anything’ – Beth Comstock.

A research carried out by Data Bridge Market Research (DBMR) reveals that the CBD edibles market is forecasted to expand at a CAGR of 25% between 2020 – 2027. It is a fact that the demand for Sunday Scaries CBD products is reaching new heights with each passing year. New brands are rapidly entering the market with fresh and innovative ideas with a zeal to win the loyalty of consumers.

In such a market condition, both the existing and the new brands must strive to establish their goodwill and build a strong relationship with the customers by reaching out to them and telling them about the brand’s purpose. For this, brands need to start right and take the lead to foster growth and customer loyalty by rebranding. Here are some reasons highlighting the need for marketing in such unprecedented times:

1. Smart marketing can help you to stand out

2. Building healthy relationship/connect with the consumers is fundamental

3. Maintaining a positive brand image

4. Creating brand differentiation is paramount

5. Consumers crave a sense of belonging

6. Keeping up with new advancements

7. To earn an edge over the competitors

8. Understand the needs and requirements of the consumers

9. Helps to drive/boost sales

10. To make informed decisions by determining the survival span of the business

Marketing CBD Chocolates

Cannabidiol is not just another member of the cannabis family. It is a medicinal substance that has the potential for treating a variety of ailments and diseases. Its aid ranges from concerns like anxiety, stress, body ache to the rarest of conditions. CBD can cure and comfort a plethora of issues.

CBD is one of the fastest-growing consumer trends, and CBD-infused chocolates are the new favorites of the cannabidiol community. If you own or are a part of a brand that sells CBD chocolates or any such edibles, here is a list of what you should be focusing on while strategizing a marketing plan for your product:

1. Build your social media community

Since social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook are widely, frequently, and heavily used by everyone, start building a community on social media by spreading awareness about your brand’s mission, purpose, values, and promise.

2. Try out influencer marketing

Influencer marketing has become quite popular today. This kind of marketing helps in reaching out or capturing an organic audience. It also pushes brands to overcome advertising restrictions on strict social media platforms.

3. Invest in paid online advertising

A little paid promotion killed no one. It will instead boost your online visibility. You have to buy time and space for your ads from paid search platforms to publish on search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.

4. Send marketing emails to customers

Email marketing is an excellent way to stay in touch with your customers and keep them informed and in sync with your new advancements and offers.

5. Publish creative video advertisements

There is no doubting the fact that audio-visual is the most effective and impactful form of communication. Get your creative juices flowing and plan on creating good quality video advertisements. Team up with a professional creative advertising agency if required. Since you are promoting health-related services or products, focus more on informing and educating your target audience.

6. Regularly update your website

Make sure your website is always up-to-date. Publish product-centric blogs on your website regularly. Ensure that your website’s UI is user-friendly and organized. Do not forget to publish relevant images/graphics and statistical graphs (if any) to support the information that you are disseminating through your website.

7. Prepare engaging & informative digital campaigns

Brainstorm and prepare thoughtful and interactive digital campaigns for your social media community and target audience. Good research work, planning, and strategizing will go a long way. Collaborating with experienced healthcare professionals will build trust for your brand, which can further boost your credibility.

8. Switch to location-based SEO

If you are an organization with a local branch, investing in setting up a local listing on search engines will be your best decision. Provide all the necessary details, for example, your organization’s name, address, working hours, contact number, and link to your website backed up with some images to help your customers find you easily.

9. Reach out, connect and gather feedback via online platforms

Interactive disposition adds to the goodwill and credibility of a brand.

10. Do not underestimate the power of going online in 2021. Learn from already established and successful brands and most importantly, “Sell the problem you solve, not the product.” – Matt Mazzie

Conclusion

Since the CBD market is expanding and infinite brands are a part of the race, there exist marketers/brands who mislead the consumers by putting up false information about their products. Either they put way less quantity of CBD in their products than they claim to, or they mingle a high dose of content-rich in THC (which can cause intoxication) instead of pure CBD. Cheating the consumers, especially when the impurity of the product can be harmful to their health and well-being, is probably the worst sin a brand can commit. Be a responsible organization and make sure you don’t hoodwink the consumers into purchasing from you.

Digital Branding

5 Must-Listen Digital Marketing Podcasts

Steven on March 22, 2021

Are you looking for strategies to boost your marketing and expand your business by listening to the best marketing podcasts? Podcasts have been a common source of enjoyment for many people. Digital marketing and leverage of marketing are now critical functions for the growth of a brand or a business, prompting marketers to evolve their marketing strategies to keep up with the pattern. According to Oberlo’s research, more than half of US users aged 12 listen to podcasts, and the growth of the podcast has been steady since 2013.

But, if current trends remain consistent, the number will only rise. Despite how simple and inexpensive it is to listen to them, the other half should keep up with some of the most well-known podcasts as well. A podcast is that channel, as it provides an enjoyable, simple, and easy way to stay up to date on the latest digital marketing trends without drawing attention away from your other activities. Podcasts on digital marketing are effective in teaching new skills and getting feedback about your marketing effort.

With whatever level of marketing experience you have, you will find something helpful in the podcasts mentioned here.

The #AskGaryVee Podcast Show

The Ask Gary Vee Show podcast is a magnetization of the same-named famous YouTube series. The Ask Gary Vee podcast, hosted by now-famous online personality Gary Vaynerchuk, addresses new trends and online marketing. Gary Vee, a successful entrepreneur, New York Times bestselling writer, and life coach, is recognized by youtube and digital media to grow.

He also addresses the mantra behind his podcast’s success, becoming an excellent digital marketer, and his path from the podcast to YouTube. His podcast episodes are power-packed with personality, wisdom, and valuable advice. It helps you stay on top of the latest trends and improve your digital marketing skills. Besides, if you have any questions, you are welcome to do so. If there are any questions, you can ask them or send them to GaryVee with the hashtag #AskGaryVee, and he could respond to them in a podcast series.

Gary Vee’s podcast is available on SoundCloud, iTunes, YouTube, and his website.

Duct Tape Marketing

The influential small business marketing guide has transformed into a consultant and an online destination for all things related to it. John Jantsch started Duct Tape Marketing. He has been interviewing opinion leaders, analysts, and writers for his Duct Tape Marketing podcast for over a decade. It gives exposure to the market’s most influential people.

In his podcast collection, called “One of the Best Podcasts for Business-Savvy Fans” by FastCompany, he has a lot to offer to those searching to grow their marketing business. Suppose you want to learn digital marketing fundamentals, mainly organic online marketing, word-of-mouth market research, and content strategy. In that case, you should start listening to this podcast right away. The topics addressed in each episode vary from marketing and advertising and copywriting to online community building, usability testing, and online marketing growth. Be sure you check in as soon as possible if you want to keep one step ahead of the competition and get a steady dose of digital marketing advice.

The Mad Marketing Podcast

Google has reduced the number of organic blue leads seen due to a quest from 10 to 8.5 on average. Mad Marketing, hosted by Marcus Sheridan, founder of River Pools and Spas and a HubSpot affiliate, provides a wealth of digital marketing guidance, specifically in SEO and content market research. The idea is that SEO is rapidly evolving. Search engines like Google are actively improving their algorithms to have a more consistent, efficient, and individual interface for users. Oh before we forget, If you want to remove your name in Google. It is possible.

Suppose you are not familiar with your panda penguin. In that case, however, The Mad Marketing podcast is a valuable series – and it’s even enjoyable.

Marcus also tells a few engaging personal experiences from his work and several stories about what not to do with online marketing in his podcast. Almost all of these podcasts are unique yet equally amazing in their way. So, put on your headphones and plan to be educated if you’re serious about a future of digital marketing.

Marcus’ podcast is available on SoundCloud and iTunes.

This Old Marketing

This Old Marketing podcast, featuring Joe Pulizzi and Robert Rose, is designed to raise awareness of content marketing benefits. Every episode begins with a monologue followed by a series of informative parts, each performed with zeal and integrity. The premiere episode has 185,000 viewers and is growing. Expect clever humor, invaluable perspectives, exciting details, and a newfound appreciation for the power of good narrative in today’s fast-paced, digitally connected world.

Each episode of This Old Marketing includes discussing recent content marketing news and rants from Joe and Robert about current business events. This charismatic duo has excellent compatibility with their fans, treating them as partners rather than mere listeners.

Marketing School

Marketing School is a fantastic podcast to check out if you want to learn about marketing in a short amount of time. Many Digital marketing strategists host the program that provides quick tips to help you take your company to the next level. As most digital marketing podcasts last 20 to 60 minutes, Marketing School takes just three minutes to discuss a critical marketing problem.

The duo’s brief format also means that they can provide you with implementable lessons and valuable marketing insight every day. Duo’s awareness is extraordinary (with nearly 1500 episodes to date). Copywriting, SEO, metrics, conversion enhancement, paid search, content marketing, email marketing, and many more get discussed. It is a podcast you can tune to if you don’t have time to listen to long podcasts.

Conclusion

While there is an almost infinite number of digital marketing podcasts available today, these top five are a perfect way to start. These are among the best marketing podcasts to help you and your business. These podcasts are fun to listen to and jam-packed with information from industry professionals with years of experience. They also bring a unique approach to the table, discussing their strategies for achieving and improving business in the market growth. The best thing about podcasts is that they can be a great way to stay up with the latest because you can listen to them almost anywhere and anytime.

Digital Branding

Marketing for the Digital Age: Steps to Stand Out

Steven on March 8, 2021

Marketing has changed significantly in the digital age, and it continues to evolve. There are quite a few methods that every company in the digital economy needs to learn in order to stand out from the rest. The internet is saturated and the number of products and services available is unparalleled to any other time in human history. Luckily there are ways to promote your business and market ads to your target demographics. Below are a few tips that will help your company market itself in the digital age.

Master SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial for any business that wants to land on Google, Bing, and others. SEO is essential to any company that needs to market itself digitally. It is the process of using keywords, hyperlinks, metadata, and more to ensure that the web page lands on search engines. If you do your best to hire people who understand SEO and keep learning about it on a continual basis you’ll have the chance to market your company successfully online.

Utilize Technical Writing Software

The use of technical writing software won’t just facilitate your SEO, it is a great resource for content web developers in general. Whether it’s technical code writing or video content, taking advantage of all the tools you have at your disposal will improve your online presence when it comes to digital marketing. From importing to authoring new content to publishing and analytics, tools like technical writing software will give you the power to effectively target ads and use digital marketing in a whole new way.

Stay Active on Social Media

Social media is not just necessary to promote your products or services to consumers, it is also integral for your online strategy. You’ll need to target ads while using analytics, hashtags, and other methods to market the business on social media. If you don’t already have social media employees, it’s a good idea to get started. When you don’t have a social media presence, it will be difficult for many people to find about your company.

Invest in Data

As a company involved in the digital space of technology, it has become imperative to gather data. Whether you’re getting data from your own site, online service, or buying it from another company, data is now extremely valuable. When you sign up for a social media platform, you agree to the terms and conditions to allow the company to sell your data.

These businesses deal primarily in data. This is because it has become as valuable of a resource as oil. While the moral issues surrounding the buying and selling of data are dubious, it is a main-stay of the digital economy that isn’t going anywhere any time soon. If you want to expand and make it big with your start-up, you’ll need to deal with data as well.

Use Analytics & Spreadsheets

When you are handling a lot of data, your company will need to store and manage it. You can either store it on a Cloud service yourself, pay someone else to do it, or have full control over the data by keeping it on your own private server. Each method has its own workload and benefits. Depending on the security of the data and how much you want to have access to it, you can choose the storage and management method that works best for you.

Then once you have your data properly stored and organized, you’ll be able to use analytics and spreadsheets to determine the best ways to use particular sets of data. Some of it can be used in tandem with other sets, but some will need to be scrutinized individually. However you look at it, your digital business can use data to market more effectively to the target demographics that can be discovered and analyzed to expose new opportunities and ad potential.

Marketing has become much more complex in the digital age. The internet is complex and it takes a lot to stand out from the saturated crowd. But if you put in the effort to learn SEO, social media, data management, and technical writing software, your company will be able to market your product or service.

Ryan Beitler is a writer, journalist, and blogger who has written for AI Time Journal, Paste Magazine, The Slovenia Times, Addiction Now, and more.

Digital Branding

Nine Online Marketing Mistakes Small Businesses Make

Steven on March 6, 2021

Good marketing is a crucial element for every business’s survival and success. A well-planned marketing strategy can do wonders for your small business. Not only will it attract a considerable number of potential customers, but it will also give your business an immense opportunity for growth.

Online marketing is rapidly taking the lead among all other forms of marketing. While traditional marketing channels like TV commercials and billboard advertisements are still widely employed, their effect is no longer dominant in the digital era. With social media and e-commerce websites taking over the world by storm, marketers are making a paradigm shift towards digital marketing.

However, digital marketing is still an evolving concept. Hence, many businesses face issues when trying to market their product through an online platform. These marketing mistakes can create plenty of problems, and might even cost you your business. Therefore, identifying and avoiding them is essential. Below, we have pointed out a few online marketing mistakes small businesses often tend to make.

1. Not having a pre-planned strategy

Like any other business strategy, online marketing also needs a tremendous amount of planning. Without a well-thought-out marketing strategy, your marketing goals will lack structure and direction. You will be unable to reach your established objective, and your competitors might put you at a disadvantage.

To develop a marketing strategy, start by identifying your audience, and set a long-term vision and goals for your business. Most importantly, decide the online platform(s) you want to use for marketing purposes. You can implore the different techniques used for market research to devise a conclusive strategy for your business.

On the other hand, hiring a digital marketing agency can make your job easier. You can get assistance from qualified professionals and build an efficient and effective strategy for your business.

2. No social media presence

In this day and age, where social media is the “king” of marketing channels, not having a social media presence can put your business at a considerable disadvantage.

A social media page can help popularize your business and attract more potential customers. Social media is also an excellent avenue for you to interact with your customers and build long-lasting relationships. You can improve your services and quality by getting their feedback. You can also get an insight into consumers’ consumption patterns and develop a marketing plan tailored to specific groups.

Social media handles like Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram also allow you to run advertisements for your business. While everything else is free-of-cost, these advertisements are not. However, these costs are scalable depending on your objectives. They are a great way to attract traffic to your page and increase your followers.

3. Entirely depending on paid advertisements

While paid advertisements can be immensely beneficial for your business, you should avoid solely relying on them. One reason for this is that these advertisements may not necessarily yield any long-term benefits. Also, back-to-back paid advertisements tend to have diminishing returns and can burn a hole in your business wallet.

Consider investing your time, money, and energy in other long-term and effective strategies like inbound marketing. Inbound marketing includes social media, SEO, and email. Inbound marketing promises long-term benefits and improves ROI.

4. Neglecting your social media account

It’s one thing not to have social media presence at all (we talked about that above), and entirely another to have one and neglect it. And believe it or not, small business owners are more likely to make the second mistake.

Some common mistakes marketing teams make are inconsistency with posting and replying late to queries. If you don’t post regularly, you might start losing followers, eventually dipping your engagement and traffic figures. Delayed responses to queries and an inactive social media account reflect poorly on the business’s ability to address customer concerns and create a bad reputation.

5. Not using videos

Studies report that 85% of the audience prefers watching videos over engaging with text and image-based content. Facebook and YouTube saw a massive increase in video content last year. Fun, humorous, and engaging videos attract a lot of customers. Video content is more memorable than text. It can drive immense traffic and is slowly becoming the preferred medium of many marketers.

6. Not marketing your website

If your business is new, then remember to market your website well. If you don’t invest in marketing your website, you will fail to attract even the smallest amount of traffic, leading to a tremendous loss in ROI. Think about it, many people don’t know about you, and you do not even market your website. Then, how do you expect visitors to your site? It’s a no-brainer!

It’s a very competitive digital world that we are talking about here. There are millions of websites up on the web. The chances of a person reaching your website are little to none if you don’t market it properly, which brings us to the next mistake.

7. Not investing in SEO

Search Engine Optimization is the process of improving your ratings on different search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. SEO makes it possible for customers to easily find your business and the products/services you offer while surfing the internet.

The problem here is that most business owners do not realize the full potential of SEO. They consider it to be useless and time-consuming. However, it is one of the most effective marketing tactics. If you can learn certain tricks of the trade like keyword research, keyword optimization, URL creation, you will realize the true potential that SEO carries. Yes, it is time-consuming, but the long-term results are worth the wait.

8. Spamming your customers

Being bombarded with an odd number of emails, texts, and messages is something none of us like. Customers hate spam! Spamming your customers can annoy them to the point that they might block you. The last thing you want is to lose your customers for good!

Try and make your emails and messages relevant. Irrelevant and unnecessary spam emails can worsen the case. The best way to go about it is to communicate with your customers and only send them as few emails as they wish to receive.

9. Marketing exclusively

Marketers often make the mistake of focusing on quantity over quality, i.e., they assume the higher the ad frequency, the higher the website’s traffic. However, it would be best to remember that your goal is to attract the right traffic and not all the traffic. Visitors who are genuinely interested in your business should be your primary focus. Others might waste your time and money, and will eventually leave. Define your target audience and focus on marketing to a niche rather than everyone.

Conclusion

Your marketing tactics will be of no use if you are not able to reach your goal. Small businesses often make the mistake of marketing their businesses without putting any thought into it first. Careful marketing is vital. It can make or break your business. Investing time, energy, and money in digital marketing is a valuable and valuable idea, but correctly investing those three resources is the key to success.

If you are a new business owner, make sure to surf through the above-given points to not make any marketing mistakes in the future.

Digital Branding

5 Marketing and Branding Tips for Industry Consultants

Steven on February 16, 2021

Branding and marketing need to become flexible practices because, in the business climate, change is inevitable. For companies that sell products, this isn’t definite because the product is tangible. With all the changes that come along, the product secures them, and they primarily focus on their branding and marketing. However, suppose you’re a consultant, or you deal with professional services organizations in general. In that case, you might be wondering how you can integrate an approach that’s flexible to your branding and marketing. You are thinking of how to incorporate change and still stand out.

Among many solutions, hire professionals from the Miami web design company to do the magic. Whether you’re a trial consultant working with lawyers or a business consultant meeting with executives, the following tips will help you build your brand and market your services as well.

Content Marketing

The first thing you should ensure is amazingly unique is the caliber of your website content. The content needs to be very precise, provocative, and it should stand out. It would help if you didn’t stop there, ensure that you match the same energy and quality while you do a formal assessment of your website analytics. The analytics will help you realize your content’s real market value to the people you target most. You should be flexible enough to regularly change your content to reach your audience better but still maintain your brand’s fundamentals. By doing that, you’ll create trust and build a following that will last long-term.

Optical Branding

If you’re a successful consultant or want to become one, you should be aware that success isn’t just based on psychological content and intelligent thinking. You should be mindful of the increasingly strong influence that visual design has. Websites are using more creative graphic design techniques such as copious subheadings, bold colors, infographics, and full-bleed photography. This is a creative way to have your audience engage more with the type of content you offer. It’s much more fun and easier.

Individual Branding

Individuals who are smart and care about their future success are creating online profiles. They build their profiles through speaking, SEO, blogging, social media, and content marketing while still pursuing their designated jobs. The same goes for professional services and consulting companies. They’re looking deeply into identifying who working in their organizations can efficiently use new tools to enhance their corporate brands. When looking from a brand management view, tension is created between promoting a corporate brand or the personal brands. It’s a problem most companies face, but they need to realize a consultant’s strength lies in how good their brand is.

Slogan

Slogans and taglines are very important to different brands because they can be inspirational, like Apple’s “Think Different.” A slogan can play a significant role in defining, inferring, and distilling your organization’s culture and purpose as well. A good one for your brand should be unique and still create change in your brand and marketing. A tagline is flexible; hence it can evolve easily with changes.

Social Media

It’s a popularity contest when you work as a consultant. The level to which you’re followed, cited, and invited determines how in-demand you are as a consultant. If you want to become popular, you have to combine all the tips mentioned above. You should, however, provide real value to people online and engage in current issues. If you don’t, people will eventually get tired of you, and all your efforts will be wasted.

Digital Branding

5 eCommerce Marketing Mistakes to Be Aware of in 2020-2021

Steven on November 13, 2020

With all the marketing efforts and spent resources on getting an eCommerce store to sell more, you surely wouldn’t want to repeat the calamitous errors of others. In this post, we’ll introduce you to the 5 things to be on the lookout for, bring up which mistakes not to repeat, give tips, and mention what you should get your hands on for your own online store if you haven’t up to this point.

1. Optimize your product images

If you know at least something about search engine optimization, you’ve most likely heard that page load times matter. A lot.

Not only is a slowly loading page terrible in terms of SEO (hint: Google won’t rank well a backpedaling page that takes forever to open), but it also causes terrible bounce rates. Users hate wasting their time waiting for the page to load. They get angry when this happens and leave the site.

Why am I bringing this up? Images are responsible for slowing down a page in way too many cases. Thus, being a marketing specialist, do what you can to optimize your eCommerce site’s speed. Consider implementing caching tools, perhaps, turn to your developers for this one as the best-fit tools to use will differ from one eCommerce platform to another.

If you fall short of techy background, try starting with manual image compression and opting for progressive image formats (these are, for instance, WebP or JPG).

Below is a screenshot from a product page on the official Philipp Plein eCommerce store. As you can see, the site uses pictures of “weight-friendly” JPG format in the gallery. Plus, I ran a page speed test with a free tool just for fun, and this product page (although it has 5 high-resolution images in the gallery) loads in as little as 5.2 seconds which isn’t that bad.

Product gallery image type on the Philipp Plein website Screenshot taken on the official Philipp Plein website

2. Add user-generated content widgets from socials

Using cross-posting as leverage is a wide-used marketing strategy. So why not solve several problems with one action?

How? By hooking up user-generated posts to your eCommerce website. You’ll enhance your social presence, grow your audience, enrich social media content, make existing clients who make the posts happier, and give other shoppers some inspiration to get your products.

A great example of such a UGC widget is the “Share How You Wear It” section available on the product pages on the official Reebok website. Clients are allured to make posts on personal social media pages, posts should feature the product that they’ve bought and tag the official @reebok account. If these simple terms are met, the person gets a chance to make it to the gallery.

User-generated content widget with client social media posts on the Reebok website Screenshot taken on the official Reebok website

3. Get the most of your customer reviews

No matter how hard you try to persuade your potential customers to buy something, the words of those who have already purchased the product are still going to be more convincing. This is why it’s vital to not overlook the reviews that your customers give. Even more so, being a marketer, you should put in some effort to encourage people to leave reviews and to react to them too.

A hint here is to enhance your order delivery confirmation emails or communication. Add a short link to the feedback form on your website’s product page and offer several percent off for the future purchase or some other sort of perk to reward the person if they take the time to write a comment on the product they’ve bought.

From a technical perspective, the feedback section itself can be as fancy as you want. A good idea is to place a review summary prior to the specific client comments, this can assist users who are browsing the item in making quicker conclusions.

To provide you with an example of proper implementation and use of client feedback, here’s how customer reviews look like on the official Maybelline New York website. We see a star rating at the top of the page, the number of reviews (43) takes the user straight to the reviews if clicked. The section has a neat summary, every reviewer’s short personal data, and comments are seen.

Product reviews as seen on the Maybelline New York website Screenshot taken on the official Maybelline New York website

4. Start using personal product picks

General “recommended products” sections are a deal of the past. Pitching items that the person may actually like and making such product choices based on the user’s earlier shopping carts, bought, and browsed items is a whole new thing. It’s a personal approach that everyone should strive for when communicating with clients, even if it’s done via a page on the web (marketers should be aware of that). And this can substantially grow your average check sizes.

This can be reached by getting a hold of modern personal product page functionality. It’s usually artificial intelligence-based, capable of tracking user behavior, and makes bulls-eye item choices that are displayed to the user.

To show you a neat use of this feature below is the “You may also like” product pick example on the official Fendi website.

“You may also like” personalization block on the Fendi website Screenshot taken on the official Fendi website

5. Create gift finder sections, seriously

As marketers, you must understand the importance of making it easy to sell things. Putting together various guides, collections, and finders that’ll help users make up their minds as they’re in search of what to present as a gift to someone is a fabulous move. You assist your buyers and sell more.

It is considered good practice to place such “Gift Ideas” in the top menu of the online store. Secondly, it makes sense to break down the suitable items by recipient, occasion, or budget. Thirdly, if gift ideas are gathered as category pages, having on-page filters to simplify the search is nice too.

For some inspiration of what this can be like if handled properly, take a look at how the “Gift Guide for Men” is presented on the official Adidas website. As you can see, the guide is assembled as a separate page, furthermore, users can filter the gifts by size, category, product type, color, etc.

Gift ideas section for men on the official Adidas website Screenshot taken on the official Adidas website

Final Thoughts

To conclude the above, marketers should be on the lookout for the following five mistakes:

Unoptimized images or other factors that negatively influence page load times.
Missing out on user-generated content via social media.
Not using customer feedback properly (which is a mighty and persuasive tool).
Not having your product picks personalized (and people like individualized shopping experiences).
Not having gift ideas or gift-hunting guides up on the store.

We hope that you’ve found this piece handy! If you have any more often-occurring marketing mistakes in eCommerce in mind, feel free to share them in the comments below.

About the Author

Alex Husar

Alex Husar, CTO at Onilab with 8+ years of experience in Magento migration and Salesforce development services. He graduated from the Czech Technical University and obtained a bachelor’s degree in Computer Software Engineering. Alex’s expertise includes both full-stack dev skills and a strong ability to provide project-critical guidance to the whole team.

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