Digital Branding

What You Learn by Studying Digital Marketing

on October 30, 2019

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.

customer-needs-img-1
Digital Branding

How to Quickly Convert Customers Need Into Sales

on October 29, 2019

In the competitive marketplace, instantly converting customers’ needs into sales is key to the success of any business. Clearly, customers are the crucial factor to determine your business’ longevity and progress. Hence it is undeniable that high product and service quality is always prioritized to win customers’ hearts and then capitalize on your sales. Yes, we may know that strategy like the back of your hand; however, it is not easy to quickly drive customers’ initial thought from “I need to get a gift” to the ultimate decision to purchase that gift. It is not only a matter of time but also competitiveness. 

In fact, customers demand varied differently, and the fiercest business rivals are trying to stay ahead of you by offering many attractive promotions, innovation, etc. to get as many customers as possible. Now, the game is at your hand! If you are finding a solution to Convert Customers Need to Your Sales or in other words increase conversion rate with ease, we are all about! Let’s see what we have for you.

I. Identifying Customer Needs

1. The importance of understanding customers needs

No matter how excellent your product is, the simple truth is that no one will purchase it if they do not believe they need it. You can not successfully persuade anyone that they want or need to buy unless you clearly know what it is your customers really want. Therefore, understanding customer needs is at the center of every successful business. Once you can acquire this knowledge, it is at your hand to persuade customers that buying from you is in their best interests.

When customers buy your product, not your competitors, they need a reason that we call Unique Sales Proposition (USP).  Your business or your market changes leads to the shift of USP, and you can use different USPs for different types of customers. For example, a flower shop could offer a free same-day delivery service for customers within a local area – a compelling USP for customers who need fast delivery.

The more you know about what your clients are looking for, the more effective your sales and marketing strategy will be. It’s worth making an effort to find out: who they are, what they buy, and why they buy it.

2. How to understand customers need

There are several ways to gain insight into what your customers need from you: focus group, social listening, keyword research.

Focus Group

A focus group is a market research technique in which you collectively interview a small group of people who represent your target audience.

With so much data available through the social network, we may forget that the best way to get to know your customers is to connect with them directly. That open and honest dialogue with your customers helps you develop a profound knowledge of the customer’s response to your business, your product that you provide. 

Social Listening

It is the process of tracking and analyzing what the public said about your business on social channels.

According to a recent, over 80% of people seek recommendations before purchasing by consulting on a social network. Therefore, keep up with customers on social listening will help you reveal your customers’ expectations as well as how good you are delivering on those expectations.

Keyword Research

This method can also give you valuable insight into what your customer needs from you, your business, and your product. If you know what your customers are searching for online and more importantly, what they are searching for your product, you can determine what they’re looking for. Once your research is completed, you can channel it into creating a product or service that better aligns with those needs. For an ecommerce business, SEO is one of the vital tools to advance in the marketplace.

customer-need-img-2

II. How to Quickly Convert Customers Need Into Sales

1. Use your understanding about customers to tailor your product

As a customer, there are categories that they can use to evaluate your product: functionality, price, experience, convenience, reliability, design, performance, efficiency, compatibility. Once you know exactly which criteria they are looking for, you can easily create a well-tailored product that customers will love. Follow four key points, and you will be on the way to delight the client in no time.

  •  Have recognition of product alignment
  •  Be flexible 
  •  Hone your product to particular niches
  •  Make sure your product relevant

2. Improve customers’ experience

Customer experience is one of the decisive factors for any Ecommerce retailer who seeks to win and retain customers online. You may know these facts (researched by Medallia.com), but they seem to be still unbelievable :

  • 89% of clients stop doing business with a brand after a bad experience
  • Only 1 in 26 people complain after a bad experience; the rest just leave
  • It takes 12 positive client experiences to make up for one negative experience
  • Clients are twice as likely to share bad experiences than talk about good ones
  • Customers are twice as likely to share bad experiences than talk about good ones
  • Increasing customer retention rates by 5% can increase profits from 25% to 95%

 

 

customer-need-img-3

To truly improve customer experiences, online retail stores need to consider two critical things.

First, you need to think about the long-term strategy you’ll adopt for researching and implementing improvements in the face of business and customer needs. Second, you need to think about the reactive strategy you’ll utilize for responding to customer experience issues in real-time.

So what are the ways to enhance the customer’s experience? The traditional way to improve experiences in online retail is conversion rate optimization. However, conversion optimization is persuasion-centric, not customer-centric.

The more advanced method is through digital experience optimization. When going shopping online, of course, a high-speed loading site is what customers expect. The store owners can take advantage of technological tools to improve their site. It is evident that no online store wants to challenge the customer’s patience when they have to add filters after filters to get the favorite item. To get rid of these problems, you may consider using  Layered Navigation Ultimate, which is considered as an adequate layered navigation system with multiple- filter navigation, price slider, AJAX loading technology and shop by brand function for Magento 2 stores.

3. Promote marketing strategy 

There are available guidelines online for marketing strategy improvement that we all love to follow, such as abandoned cart emails, upselling, product recommendations, etc. However, it is difficult to cover all these methods within this article, so what we highlight here is content writing, which is considered as the most important part of the marketing field in the world of ecommerce. 

Writing content for your e-commerce brand seems like a difficult task, as these types of websites are structured differently than traditional sites. It’s not as much a matter of writing blog posts and landing pages as much as it needs to be engaging and convincing and optimized for search engines. Here are must-have tips for excellent content writing:

  • Focus on your audience first, Google second
  • Include customer testimonials 
  • Pay attention to word count
  • Avoid duplicate content
  • Let your content sell

III. Final Words 

In a nutshell, driving customers to need to sales in a short time has never been easy when you do not develop a deep understanding of your customers and your business in the competitive online marketplace. Your practical application of this post is a great encouragement for us to write more quality content. Thank you for spending time reading. 

On the other hand, sometimes it can come to an increasing price, which is not very convenient. This sales training can help you handle that situation.

Author Bio

Daisy is a Mageplaza passionate expert writer about Ecommerce. For many years of working closely with clients seeking solutions on the Ecommerce platform, she tries her best to give readers the most useful advice on online business issues.

Legal Branding

6 Tips To Simplify And Streamline Employee Scheduling

on October 29, 2019

Creating employee schedules and ensuring that your workforce sticks to them is one of the critical business functions. However, this is easier said than done because a lot of effort is needed to allocate tasks to teams and manage shifts optimally. At the same time, it is something that you cannot survive without. Proper schedules determine the overall productivity of the employees, minimize the wastage of hours and optimize business operations.

But do you really know what goes into simplifying employee scheduling? Is it possible to prevent understaffing or overstaffing and ensure that there is no wastage of work hours? The answer lies in streamlining employee scheduling and software tools make the best bet for busy entrepreneurs. Also, here are some tips that can help you to create effective robust and time-saving schedules.

Tip #1: Know your business first

Even before you start creating an employee schedule for your business, you must understand its requirements. A good schedule goes much beyond putting the resources on the right tasks. Rather, it is making sure that the right resource is at the right place and at the right time. Investing in a software solution that provides a 360-degree view of your business is a great idea. Essentially, it should empower you to decide when you need to schedule more employees and when you can manage with less.

Tip #2: Review the existing resources

Once you are clear about your requirements and goals, you need to get a comprehensive review of the existing resources. Check the availability, suitability and exemption status of the staff members for each shift. Availability means whether an employee can be at a job location at a specific place and time. Suitability refers to the skills they must have to fit the role. Exemption status indicates if you need to pay the employee for overtime.

Tip #3: Enable seamless communication

Communication keeps an organization running like well-oiled machinery, which makes it mandatory for the success of the business. Having a smart scheduling software solution is a good idea because it can handle this requirement well enough and serve as a powerful communication tool. For example, Deputy offers powerful scheduling tools that can be used to publish and share workforce schedules easily. They also enable you to send across notifications related to shift changes to the employees and managers with the help of SMS, emails and push notifications.

Tip #4: Provide flexibility for the employees

Another useful tip to simplify and streamline employee scheduling is by providing your employees a good degree of flexibility. Look for a solution that gives them the freedom of choosing the shifts when possible. Though you cannot give them the choice every time having control over their schedules motivates the employees and enhances their performance to a considerable extent. A software solution, like a scheduling app, that enables them to switch shifts subject to availability makes a good choice for businesses in this context.

Tip #5: Consider employee preferences

Providing flexibility regarding shift changes is vital for keeping your employees happy and motivated. But that is not where you should stop when it comes to effective and employee-friendly scheduling. Rather, you should take a proactive approach and consider individual preferences while preparing the schedules. Keep track of the kind of tasks that individual employees want to do and the shifts that work for them. Unless there is shortage of resources, try to allocate them work and shifts on the basis of these preferences. This ensures a positive culture and high levels of motivation and productivity within your organization.

Tip #6: Reward good attendance

Make rewards a part and parcel of your employee scheduling process. The system can go a long way in encouraging the employees to be regular with their shifts and always show up on time. At the same time, the reward practice drives workforce satisfaction and discourages no-shows and indiscipline within the organization. You need not spend a fortune on rewarding your best employees, even small but meaningful perks can be enough to make the scheduling practice effective and successful in the long run.

These tips can go a long way in simplifying and streamlining the employee scheduling process for any business. In addition to enforcing them as a part of your business operations, you should invest in a software solution that has the right set of features to automate the entire workforce scheduling process. If you don’t already have one for your business, the best time to get it is right now. Just be sure about choosing the right one because it will be a long-term asset rather than a short-term expense.

Choose your vape juice
Local Branding

How To Choose The Best Vape Juice

on October 29, 2019

Right now, a massive number of people are shifting from smoking cigarettes to vaping, and it’s all quite justified because, first of all, vaping is a healthier option. Second of all, there are plenty of flavors of vape juice available in the market, so people get to enjoy a variety of flavors instead of sticking to the tobacco one.

It’s great to have so much variety of flavors, but at the same time, for the new vapers, it can be quite overwhelming to pick one. But don’t worry because if you are also new to vaping, then we are here to guide you. Today in this article, we are going to jot down some of the best tips that can help you choose the best vape juice that suits your taste buds.

Do take notes, especially if you want your first vaping experience to be extraordinary!

What flavor do you want?

1- Research Brands of Vape Juice

There are several brands out there with the best e-juice flavors, and this is the tricky part because you are supposed to do some extensive research on all these brands before making a final move. In this case, the internet can be your best friend because, with just a single click, you can have access to all the best vaping brands around you. So, do use Google, take your time, and pick out what others consider some of the best brands and then study them one by one.

2- Reviews

Online reviews have a lot to say about different products and brands. Again, you can use the internet in this regard and first search for the best brands with the best vape juices and then read what people have to say about these brands. The best part is that with the help of these reviews, you can even figure out the best flavor that’s offered by a brand.

3- Coupons

You’d love to save some money on your favorite e-juice, right? Well, if yes, then the wiser thing to do is to search for online coupon codes first. All you have to do is to type on Google “Ejuice vapor coupon code” and you’ll have all the results right on your screen. Yes, you read that right! These codes can really save you some money, so do try this technique.

4- Your Taste

The most important thing that matters is your taste, and what flavor would you like in an e-juice? Do you want to try the apple flavor? Are you a big fan of berries? Or do you want something similar to your cigarettes? You are supposed to identify your needs and your taste requirements first and then buy an e-juice. There are several flavors available in the market, and if you don’t know what you like, things can get really confusing for you, and if you don’t want that, then work on your taste first!

Many flavors an nicotine levels

5- Nicotine Levels

This is the most critical thing to consider while buying a vape juice. If you are trying to quit cigarettes, then make sure to opt for the e-juice that comes with lesser nicotine levels. But if you haven’t ever smoked a cigarette, then buy the juice that comes with no nicotine in it as it’s a safer option. This is something you should talk about with a vaping pro and then make a purchase decision.

Conclusion

These are the tips you need to consider before choosing the best vape juice. Use all the tips that we have mentioned, and we can bet on the fact that you will land on a quality e-juice that tastes really good. Now make a purchase and let us know what you think about vaping and the e-juice that you picked.

Legal BrandingLocal BrandingPersonal Branding

3 Most Important Tips for Positioning a New Brand in a Fast-changing Market

on October 29, 2019

Modern business world is full of buzzwords we’ve all heard, though we may not always know exactly what they mean. “Positioning” is definitely one of those that people often use, without actually knowing its right meaning or what it entails. Basically, it refers to trying to find a place for your brand in the minds of your customers, who would hopefully choose products offered by the same brand they’ve learned to love and trust. While positioning takes place, it’s one of those things you should start working on as soon as you set up a company. To help you understand what that means, we’ve prepared the following tips, which should help you do it properly.

Know the competition and market

Each company has its strengths and weaknesses and your task is to find those that belong to your competitors. Once you identify them, you can move to analyze their strategies, objectives and target groups and identifying the niche which you could dominate. Equally important is to know your target audience and market, so that you could create valuable content that would not be just advertising your brand, but also providing value and engagement. The more engaged people are, the more likely they are to opt for the brand whose messages they respond to. When addressing your audience, make sure you insist on your unique selling point(s), so that you can distinguish your company from the rest. Finally, don’t expect everyone to love your company, but focus on your target audience. They will be your most loyal and faithful customers and it’s vital you position your brand among them as the one that provides the most for the money they’re ready to spend.

Focus on USP

No-one will opt for a product that offers the same as a similar, already well-established competitor’s product. Customers have to believe they are buying not only the product but some other unique feature as well when choosing your product over a competitor’s. That’s why you need to focus on all useful attributes of your brand, especially if other companies lack them. It could be your more favorable price, outstanding client care or coverage. Companies operating in Australia, for example, understand that locals react to specific strategies, which is why they turn to experts in the field and hire a brand design agency from Sydney, which can help them position their brand in the best possible way locally. Remember that what works well in one market doesn’t have to be the best option elsewhere, which is why it’s important to pinpoint the particular demands of local markets.

Nothing is carved in stone

What you really need to understand is that no strategy is unchangeable. As a matter of fact, you have to constantly revise and adapt your strategy, since the conditions in which you operate are changing. That means that even if you’ve opted for the right approach from the beginning and you see that you’re getting the results you were hoping for, there is no time for rest. Your strategy needs to be tested constantly and continuously. This includes harvesting data from surveys, groups, and interviews and processing them in a way that you receive some valuable information, which will be the cornerstone of your adapted strategy. What this will help you achieve is position your brand as a forward-thinking one, which is always ready to meet the demands of the market, rather than one which takes its time to respond to the ever-changing shifts in consumers’ preferences and priorities.

If you position your brand correctly, i.e. apply the right positioning strategy in the right way, your brand recognition and awareness will be truly well established. Your particular strategy will depend on the circumstances in which you operate and your niche. However, it’s vital that you constantly monitor the situation and adapt your strategy to maximize the results. These three tips will surely help you with that.

Local Branding

Top 5 Healthy Snacks for Travel Junkies

on October 25, 2019

As exciting as travelling is, it can wreak havoc on your health and cause weight gain, unless you know how to eat properly while on the road. Whether you’re a digital nomad without fixed working hours, or your work requires you to move from city to city every once in a while, you should know how to eat well in order to always feel energized and keep your immunity strong. If you need a few tips from on-the-road eating experts, check out our healthy snacks suggestions.

Make your own granola bars

One of the best morning power boosters are granola bars. Not only will they keep you going until lunch, but they can also serve as a yummy dessert or a quick snack between lunch and dinner. For the ultimate healthy snack, make your own granola bars by mixing an assortment of oats, nuts, and dried fruits. With a brown rice syrup, all the ingredients will connect well without making bars fall apart. If you want to add a bit more sweetness to your snack, feel free to add in some chocolate chips instead of the nuts. A few spoonsful of peanut butter or a pinch of cocoa powder mixed with the rice syrup will create an even better “glue” to stick the oats and nuts together. 

Fruits and veggies for healthy snacking

Whether you need a snack on the go, or you’d like to have a yummy bite or two when you’re at home and relaxing, grapes are refreshing and hydrating but also great for transport. Furthermore, grapes are a great source of polyphenols and other antioxidants. You can eat them on the road instead of chugging a bottle of water to stay hydrated. Apples, bananas and baby carrots are easily transported into a travel bag, so make sure you pack fruits and veggies instead of chips or other unhealthy snacks. For sale at gas stations or airports, you can have sliced cucumber and red bell pepper, a little container of dip made from healthy fat, like guacamole or seasoned almond butter or tahini. If you happen to be in New Zealand, check their amazing offer of health food online NZ and make your trip- foods healthy and yummy. Don’t forget to pair travel snacks with a large bottle of water because airplanes, buses, cars and any other type of travel will dehydrate your body immensely.

Try out tasty vegetarian snacks

Even if you’re not a vegetarian, you can benefit from some of the vegetarian recipes that are chock-full of vitamins and minerals. Sesame-ginger soy curls with napa cabbage salad, for instance, will be a delightful treat in the middle of the day when you’re taking a break or getting ready to set off to another destination. The soy curl is a textured vegetable protein that makes for a hearty vegetarian meal once mixed in with cabbage and carrots. All you need to do is rehydrate and stir fry them for a few minutes. Use almonds and vinegar to garnish the salad after mixing the soy curls, cabbage and carrots together. Feel free to add any other vegetables to make an even more enticing mixture for your healthy dinner or lunch on the go.

You’ll love roasted sweet potato wraps

When you need lunch that you can use throughout the week without spending too much time on preparation every day, sweet potato wraps are your way to go. Roast all the vegetables beforehand when you’re doing the weekend meal prep. You can make the wraps even a week earlier and keep them ready in the fridge or freezer. Cut sweet potatoes in cubes and roast them. Caramelize onions for a rich and velvety addition that will go perfectly with a thick swipe of herby pesto. 

Golden quinoa salad with lemon, dill and avocado

If you’re a fan of lemon zesty crunchy meals, then a golden quinoa salad will be a true delight for your palate. Mix crunchy bits of cucumber, radish, and almonds with quinoa to get the best light meal for any time of the day. For an extra twist, you can throw in some dates, dill, and Parmesan and make your salad a symphony of tastes.

Final thoughts

If you’re a true travel junky, your body won’t be able to handle all the stress unless you eat well. So, check out our few suggestions and introduce a few healthy snacks to your everyday routine to stay healthy and energized.

Personal Branding

7 Reasons Why Every Artist Needs To Invest In Music Promotion

on October 24, 2019

The music industry is growing at a rapid pace and so is the competition in the landscape.

The number of artists out there is so large that you cannot expect to be noticed unless you are really good and have had some serious voice training from a reputable vocal coach. Additionally, the way you present your brand and music makes a world of difference. Do you think that you can survive and thrive without a proper promotional plan in place? Of course not, because like every other commodity, you need to sell your music as well. There are many more reasons why you need to invest in music promotion, whether you are a budding newcomer or an established artist. Let us list them for you.

Sells your music

When artists release their albums, the main motive is to make money by selling them. If you want to boost sales, you must absolutely have a music promotion plan in place. Unless people know about your album, they will not buy it. So it is mandatory to showcase it across diverse channels, which is exactly what a music promotion strategy aims to do. Once music lovers know about the latest release, they are bound to check it out and buy it if they like what you offer.

Gives you a cross-channel presence

A typical music promotion plan aims to promote your music across diverse channels. Whether it is press releases, radio announcements, online advertisements or promotion across live streaming channels, it has you covered everywhere. Having a cross-channel presence is a big plus for any artist because the audience is everywhere. Rather than being confined to one channel, they search their favorite songs and albums everywhere. Being available across channels connects you with them.

Unlocks new opportunities

Beyond selling your albums and establishing your presence in the industry, there is much more that music promotion can do for you. It can help you unlock new opportunities in terms of collaborations with other artists and bands. Further, you may even get more work and win sponsorships for your events. These opportunities will not come unless you get the exposure and other artists and sponsors know that you actually exist.

Extends your fanbase

Once again, you can leverage a multi-channel presence to extend your fanbase. According to this agency, your music promotion should not focus on just selling your album. Instead, it should aim to consolidate your fanbase so that they keep buying your music in the future as well. Further, a big fanbase serves the purpose of making you popular through word of mouth. A good music promotion strategy surely helps you in this context as well.

Strengthens your reputation

Another benefit of investing in music promotion comes in the form of a stronger reputation in the industry. Being visible and selling more gets you the recognition you want. More importantly, it strengthens your reputation as an artist. Investing in music promotion is, therefore, a small price to pay if you want to establish yourself in the industry, grow your reputation and sustain in the long run.

Gives you the branding edge

As an artist, your vision should extend beyond just selling. Establishing yourself as a brand is key to success. When it comes to branding, only an excellent promotional strategy can help. It is unlikely for even the most talented artists to succeed without promoting their music. Therefore, investing in music promotion does not remain a choice if you want to get the branding advantage for your musical offerings.

Brings a competitive advantage

As the industry grows, the competition increases too. New artists are emerging and new releases are coming up every single day. Not being visible can leave you behind in the race. What you really need to do is to stand apart from the competitors and churning out great music is not the only thing that will help. Besides producing good music, you also need to ensure that it reaches your audience. This is only possible if you have a result-focused promotional plan in place.

Now that you know the significance of music promotion, you will be more than keen to invest in it. What really matters at this stage is finding a promotion partner that can create a great strategy for you. Although you may try promoting yourself independently, an agency with the right skills, expertise, and experience knows what goes into making a plan that gets you tangible results. After all, you would want great results fast so that people know you, buy your music and propagate it as well.

Digital Branding

Looking for a Productivity Boost? Best Apps and Tools That Can Help

on October 23, 2019

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.

Digital BrandingPersonal Branding

9 Blog Promotion Tactics That Every Blogger Should Know

on October 22, 2019

As far as working from home jobs are concerned, blogging is one of the highest-rated activities or businesses that an individual can run. Blogging does not require a college degree nor does it require years and years of technical training. It does, however, require passion, great grammar command and the willingness and tenacity to work. Many people hear about blogging and think that it is a breeze, an easy way to make money. The truth is, it is very difficult to make money from a blog unless you have what it takes. This means you have to have great content, garner a sizeable and commendable audience, and most of all, have the necessary know-how in effective ways to monetize your blog. Monetizing your blog is the ultimate test when it comes to blogging success. This involves extensive marketing for no matter how monetized your blog is, if it does not get the necessary and right traffic, it will still be useless to you. Getting your blog noticed and standing out from the millions and millions of blogs online today is no easy task, it takes quite a bit of skill. Here are 9 blog promotion tactics by http://socialmarketway.com that every blogger should know.

Go social

Other than Google, social media sites command the highest amount of online user traffic today. Facebook is second only to Google. Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and the rest are not so far behind. This means that these social media sites are where your audience is to be found on a regular basis. If you want to effectively direct this substantial amount of traffic, then you need to engage with the community in general, the easiest way to do this is through these social media sites. The thing to remember is this, a social media campaign can look a lot like spam. This is mainly because people come here to interact with one another and share ideas. Unless you are actually contributing to the conversation in a meaningful way, simply posting a link to your blog will be considered spamming and this will result in you getting banned. You need to interact with the community. This involves taking an interest in what they are discussing and contributing relevant information which you can then link to or from your blog.

Target a ‘sharing’ audience

This should be part of your strategy. Try as much as you can to make your target audience the sharing type. There is certain demography of people that is more likely to share material online than others. Audiences that include people looking to lose weight, bodybuilders, technologically astute people, and serial shoppers are all examples of audiences that will willingly help spread the word about you and your blog. This is provided the content is relevant and useful.

Guest blog

Once you have found a niche, look for other authoritative sites and blogs within that niche and guest post on them. This involves writing articles, following forum threads and interacting with the site administrator and the audience. Once you have gained their trust and your opinion is valued, you can simply request the site administrator to let you link back to your blog. This way, you will gain their audience and hopefully the people they recommend.

Appeal to the vertical markets

You have to make your blog an authority with relevant content as well as offering solutions to the society at large. This means FAQ pages and several ‘How To’ articles. Feature different industry trends with credible and verifiable statistics. Once this is done, your blog will be regarded as a valuable resource and this will keep people coming back.

Participate in forums and discussions

These are platforms where likeminded people go to hold meaningful discussions. Once you have found your niche, find all the highly-trafficked and relevant forums and actively participate. Give relevant advice and links to actionable and useful information. As part of this advice, you can send them over to your blog. Remember, these are serious people and spamming will NOT be tolerated.

Include your blog in everything about you

This means that you should always mention your blog whenever and wherever your name appears. In your bio, your online resume, your other websites, your email signature, your internet profile, your social media accounts…anything that features you should also feature your blog.

Utilize bookmarking sites

Making use of social bookmarking sites can be a very resourceful way of gaining backlinks. These are ways through which you can widely advertise your blog without paying for it. You can always opt for paid advertising.

Make your content SEO friendly

When it comes to blogging, the number one rule is quality content. In your struggle to churn out high-quality content, make sure that it is SEO friendly. As mentioned earlier, only the various search engines like Google have more traffic than social media sites. This means that the majority of organic traffic can be found in search engine page results. Properly optimizing your blog content gives you an added advantage of getting this organic traffic.

Use web analytics

This is similar to carrying out a survey. Analytics gives you a break down on where most of your traffic comes from, which pages and content they spend more time and what they actually think of your blog. Paying attention to these statistics and tweaking your blog in accordance with the results will go a long way in improving your performance. It is a way of giving the client what he/she wants.

Call to action

Sometimes you just have to be blunt and tell your readers what you want them to do. In every article or comment you make, find a way to include actionable and relevant information that can link back to your site. This way you can simply tell them to click over to your blog for further information. They know what they are getting and you are not being vague about asking them to switch over.

These are 9 Blog Promotion Tactics That Every Blogger Should Know. However, what you need to remember is this, for your blog to succeed, you need to be passionate about what you are writing. Without this passion, you will not be motivated to churn out high-quality content consistently, which is the core of every blog.

Digital Branding

3 lessons learned responding to a PR Crisis

on October 21, 2019

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.

News Exposure provides a variety of media monitoring services, including TV broadcast monitoring.
1 … 56 57 58 59 60 … 95